On the surface, Fallen Tear: The Ascension presents itself as a story-driven Metroidvania that invites audiences in with its colorful world and ‘hero’s journey’ story, but spend a little time in the world, and you will realize how massive the overworld map could potentially be. This project is so ambitious that, when complete, it has the potential to overshadow most other games in the genre in terms of content offering. At least that’s being promised as the game continues development in Early Access.
In Fallen Tear: The Ascension, players take control of Hira, an aspiring hunter with a mysterious background. He must journey through the high-fantasy world of Raoah on a quest to “kill” the gods to prevent a malicious evil from taking hold. Accompanying Hira on this Herculean task are a troupe of extraordinary individuals who are drawn together as if fate itself were compelling them to our hero. Together, they will uncover lost civilizations, save communities, and forge bonds of friendship through fire and shared goals.
Fallen Tear’s combat gameplay isn’t groundbreaking by any measure; it’s all the typical moves that are expected of a fast-paced 2D action platformer. The combat, however, is crisp and thrilling to the point that boss fights are always on a razor’s edge, with every sloppy move easily costing you everything in an instant. At the end of the current build, we get access to two charge attacks that may seem unnecessary at first. But both moves fundamentally changed how I approach boss fights in the late game, where parries and counters are the norm. This especially applies to the final boss, Y’Mara. Spoiler alert: she does not mess around, even with the latest patch that’s supposed to rein her ridiculous stats in.
Recruiting followers earns you Trust Points, which allows to you spend on techniques that are essential to both combat and opening up parts of the map. Right now, players can choose between unlocking the Dash or Double Jump ability first before getting access to the Heavy Strike ability. Whichever ability the player chooses to prioritize first will dictate how engagements are fought until they recruit enough allies to unlock the other ability. Rest assured that unlocking both pretty much guarantees full access, save for a few places that require abilities not yet implemented in the game.
Your allies also contribute to the fight in their own way as part of the Fated Bonds system. You can have up to three companions join you out in the field. By holding the L1 button and the corresponding face button, you can summon allies to bump up your damage numbers or get you out of sticky situations. Forging stronger bonds increases the effectiveness of the assist. This side activity very much complements players who already like exploring and collecting power-ups.
Having three allies also gives you the ability to unleash a Fated Rush all-out attack. I usually keep this option in the back pocket if ever I’m on the ropes against normal enemies. And despite what you may think, the combined attack does little to help you during major boss fights. It may bump up your damage potential slightly against them, but don’t expect it to be all that impactful. Maybe that’s something the devs can balance in the future.
The massive overworld map is easily a major selling point that will appeal to a certain subsection of Metroidvania fans. I’m talking about dungeons upon dungeons of twists and turns that will require multiple returns to completely open up. I’m one of these completionists who love this kind of stuff, and even I am taken aback by how ambitious this overworld project is going to be. To put that into perspective, the game’s launch content runs anywhere between 15-20 hours, roughly 35% of the full game, according to the developers. By full release, the developers have ensured there are more or less 80 hours of gameplay for completionists. That’s on the level of Elden Ring and, more recently, Crimson Desert.
Now, if there’s one thing I want added in the game sooner than later is the ability to open the map in the field and add pins and comments wherever I want. It’s a small thing, but remember that Fallen Tear’s map is expected to grow 2x to 3x in size between now and its 1.0 release. I already have a hard time remembering where that crooked merchant is, and you expect me to remember which blockers require which ability to open. Oh, come on! Even I get tired of revisiting every location in vain the moment I get stuck. Having the ability to scribble notes wherever you want is going to be very handy and much appreciated.
Of course, it hasn’t been all sunshine and flowers with this Early Access build. The game is plagued with performance issues near the end of the opening act. The whole volcano region is prone to stuttering and delayed feedback. Background characters aren’t particularly noteworthy as well. You’d expect that they would be reading from the same NPC script, but many NPCs don’t even have lines to speak of. In contrast, important NPCs and allies are fully voice-acted, and the VAs have contributed much to the atmosphere and overall story.
Another concern I have is that money doesn’t hold value outside of a couple of instances. The first one pertains to the scummy merchant who asks for 10,000 credits. That is something I’d actually farm for just to see a reaction, but getting even close to 2,000 credits outside the most difficult of zones is equivalent to pulling teeth. It’s a good thing there are also a couple of places where you can find 10,000 credits lying around. Unfortunately, with the way the game functions right now, you are more than likely going to lose all that money over a period of time.
The second instance where money matters is with the act of dying itself. In this game, when Hira does, you lose a percentage of credits. That doesn’t mean much usually, but when you’ve fought the mysterious assailant and Y’Mara over and over again, you will feel the pain of losing thousands of credits due to cumulative deaths. I don’t really mind dying all that much, being a fan of Soulslikes in general. I just feel less motivated to square off again while being made painfully aware that I’m losing so many credits.
By far, the most annoying thing about this Early Access build is the fact that there is a serious need to balance sound effects. If you’ve explored the water temple, you’d know that the water jet lasers are annoyingly loud. Hopefully, we can get some distance adjustment. Even better, rebalance all sound effects in general.
It bears repeating that Fallen Tear: The Ascension has the potential to compete with the heavyweights of the genre. If everything goes according to plan and the updates live up to expectations, we may be seeing the start of something truly special. The only thing that can derail this endeavor is if the next set of dungeons and abilities utterly fail to impress. That’s unlikely to happen, but I’ve seen Early Access games crash and burn before. Hopefully, this one actually gets the job done.
I have more than 24 hours on record currently, and I’m most likely going to go back again to get my butt whopped by Y’Mara very soon. I will finish this opening act before the next update, somehow, someway. I am so glad that I decided to pick this title up. I don’t know how else to say it, I am hooked. I can’t wait to see what comes next in development. Check back with us again when the game exits Early Access sometime in Q4 2026 or beyond.
