by David RodriguezPeople are understandably cautious about Early Access titles in nearly any circumstance. Not everyone’s got the goodwill and buy-in of Supergiant Games to do it right, delivering on a final product that’s one of the best the world has ever seen, let alone do it twice. Some fail to deliver at all, leading to indefinite development cessation. Sometimes the lead dev gets arrested in the middle of making the game (don’t worry, she’s out now and I’m personally wishing her the best)!
Fallen Tear: The Ascension is one of the best cases of Early Access I’ve come across in a while and, for me personally, means I can experience the game in a manner that’s beneficial to me, and it is, as far as this review is concerned. Early on, it was apparent that this was going to be a pretty big game. I love action-platformers where exploration is the point, but I struggle with long ones. Something like F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch was agreeable – though it was on the bigger side, it was also intriguing enough and had nice progression throughout to keep it fun. A game like Afterimage or Hollow Knight, on the other hand, I bounced off of after a few hours because it was daunting. Since Fallen Tear is in Early Access, I don’t have to worry about that.
It’s kind of like when games were released episodically. You get a few hours to play, wait for the next one, repeat until complete. I’m treating Fallen Tear in this manner, and it’s going to make for a better experience. I started with a solid 15 hours of the game’s driving opening act, and frankly, I’m pretty satisfied at this moment. Yet, there’s still so much to do, so much more for its main character, Hira, to unlock within himself, that I am interested in it when it finally comes.
I think Hira could use the break, too. He’s just a boy seated with the interlockings of fate and impending doom on his shoulders at a young age. The “chosen one” trope has next to no tread left on its tires, but it is nonetheless a motivational and effective vehicle to pilot your story. What Fallen Tear takes inspiration from, and how it executes its presentation, should ultimately matter more. Winter Crew Studios breathe life into the game’s fantasy, taking inspiration from the history and mythology rooted in their native Philippines. Couple that with a striking, vivid, cartoon-esque presentation not too far from the Avatar/Legend of Korra school of thought, and it makes for a game brimming with beauty and intrigue. All hand-drawn as well, no AI to speak of, thankfully.
Young Hira sets out to find his brother and mother after they inexplicably go missing. Meeting up with the goddess of time, Runa, as instructed if such a situation were to arise, you’re tasked with helping her and Hedwynn, a great forest spirit, gain a foothold during an impending calamity. The exact nature of it is unknown to Hira and therefore us in this Early Access version, but we know that four gods of the elements are corrupted beyond reason and must be purged of it in order to stand a chance at saving the land of Raoah.
Like the story, the core of the game is also pretty familiar. Start weak, grow strong. Hira is an aspiring hunter, so taking on big and menacing monsters (who are often also cute per the game’s design) means he’s theoretically cut out for the adventure and tumult that a game like this basks in. You start out with a basic attack combo with your vibrant bladed staff, a rather pitiful backdash for evading and baiting counterattacks, and a downward pogo move that Hollow Knight fans will enjoy, especially Silksong, because this one dives down at an angle as Hornet’s does. It’s definitely a starter kit, but as such, it’s enough to get started and enjoy getting your journeying legs underneath you.
Even in Early Access, Fallen Tear is deliberate with what you get access to in the game’s first ten-plus hours. There are big, game-altering improvements called Ascensions that you can work toward, like a double jump and dash. Others are teased, though seemingly inaccessible, like a charged jump and meteor attack that, presumably, makes short work of obviously breakable floors you find around the world of Raoah. The more you hunt, the higher your hunter rank gets, which gives you access to additional attacks. The variety of ways to improve Hira is nice – not everything is locked behind a single skill tree or requires concrete story progress to advance, necessarily. Put in the work, find what you like to do, and you’ll see great rewards, which is awesome.
One of the best parts about Fallen Tear, aside from the sturdy design, is the Fated Goals. As someone who likes to check off some tertiary lists in addition to story and side-quests, Fated Goals fill that role really well. Finding all of something like chests or landmarks in each of the game’s regions rewards you with Fated Points, which allow you to obtain new masteries for Hira. Masteries work like a skill tree in the sense that they give you stat boosts, passives, or alter your existing abilities somehow, so it’s quite important to redeem your Fated Goals every so often. You’re bound to get a good amount checked off from just playing the game normally, especially when it comes to defeating a certain number of an enemy type.
Another boon to this game that helps it stand out, and where options really start to open up, is the bonds you can forge. Many characters in the game can join you on your quest in the form of a bond. Assign them to one of your three sub-attack buttons, and you can call them forth like a summon. Some simply attack; they may deal status effects or debuffs to enemies, and others are used for more utility, like trapping monsters so you can whale on them or pushing them away for breathing room. They all come with handy passives and permanent boosts, too. You’ll need a specific one that I actually had to look up to make any progress underwater, since it lets you breathe indefinitely. Build up a meter with normal attacks, and you can summon all three of your equipped bonds in one epic move to cripple the hell out of an enemy.
All enemy designs are nice. As mentioned, they trail more on the cutesy side of things due to the art direction, but they are plentiful and diverse. Lots of aerial enemies, too. The “git gud” experience with this game is learning when to parry, which is done by attacking as soon as an attack from an enemy is about to collide with you. This is easier to practice on enemies like the bee and mosquito dudes in their respective biomes. More challenges await you in later areas, like the Water Pathway, where you have to fight merpeople ready to die to protect their kingdom, forcing you to dash through and quickly attack to wear down defenses. The difficulty of the game feels fine-tuned throughout, but there are a couple of aspects of Fallen Tear that fell short for me in this regard.
The first is a slight spoiler. Having two very hard boss fights back-to-back didn’t feel good at all. I understand the game had to end somewhere, and this is where it does, but what made for a rewarding and tough fight was immediately deflated by the moment of victory, with another fight that’s arguably even harder right in the next room. It was so hard that I actually lowered the difficulty to easy to beat it, which I very rarely ever do, even casually playing a game, because it just got to a point where I wasn’t having fun anymore. I’m not the kind of guy that wants to bash my head against the same boss fight for hours if I can help it, so let this be a little warning to those that want to avoid potential frustration. Don’t be too proud to lower the difficulty in key parts as I did.
I’m also not a big fan of the blood moon. Every 30-ish minutes, the atmosphere of the biome you’re at tints red in real time with more menacing music and an aura of danger to it. Every enemy also gets a red icon above them, signifying they’re about twice as tough as usual. If you’ve played either Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom in the Legend of Zelda series, you’re familiar with this concept. I don’t really like it, especially here in Fallen Tear. It turns explorative endeavors into fights for your life because enemies hit way harder. It got to a point where I was actively sighing deeply when these events rolled around. I’m all for challenging areas, but I don’t appreciate a normal area that you’re still getting the feel of turning into one at a very inconvenient moment. You can make it go away by resting at a shrine of Hedwynn’s roots or a camp, but if your resurrection checkpoint is away from either of those, it’s pretty frustrating to fight through.
My other complaints are minor and almost certainly thanks to the game’s solid, but still unfinished state. My interact button stopped working at a key moment in the game where I had to talk to a character and flip switches to progress. Some movement is finicky, like dropping from thin platforms (the animation often cancels in the middle for no discernible reason), or your pogo attack sometimes carries momentum along the floor you collide with. I mean, it was cool, but I’m sure that’s unintended. Sometimes, Hira would simply get stuck in one spot after climbing up ledges, and I had to jump to keep moving a handful of times. I only had one crash, which is great. It was during a boss fight, which I’m just going to consider a mercy because I wasn’t doing very well, but it bodes well and speaks to the game’s overall stability.
After what does indeed feel like the first sizable episodic chunk of Fallen Tear: The Ascension, I’m invested and intrigued. My issues with it are outweighed by how much fun I was having as time went on. I felt elation at opening up routes throughout Raoah, unlocking big, mechanically important abilities that felt appropriately cool and worth the effort, and the world is just a sweet place to be. The characters are all fully voiced, with big personalities, even offering little quips when your bonds are deployed. Hira isn’t nearly fleshed out as a character yet, but there are hints at his true nature that will certainly be revealed in due time. This Early Access form is anywhere from a third to about a half of the game’s total projected offering, depending on what metric you use, so there’s a lot more to come.
Fallen Tear at $20 is a solid investment at this time. Even if you don’t play it until it hits 1.0, it’ll pay to be an early adopter before the price goes up, because it’s definitely one of the better games of this style I’ve played in a while. It has the charm, looks, and challenge that the genre thrives on, but its presentation and systems set it apart in ways that fans of this type of game need to check out. The full game is chugging toward a late 2026 release, and I’m excited to see where this indie team takes it. After my time with it, it’s safe to say I’ll be returning once it has more for me. To quote Kero Kero Bonito, “And we will be well rested when the ascension comes.”
Fallen Tear: The Ascension
