DANGEN Entertainment has announced the release date of Rise of the Third Power, a 16-bit style love letter to the glory days of RPGs, which will be coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on February 10th, 2022. Rise of the Third Power is the long-awaited next project by Stegosoft Games, the two-person indie developer studio behind Ara Fell and Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition.
First revealed in 2017, Rise of the Third Power is a throwback to the SNES era of RPGs with modern conveniences and combines aspects of both Japanese and Western design. Players will gain a party of up to eight unique characters throughout the game, each with their own background story, ambitions, and personalities, as they embark upon a suicide mission to prevent a war and topple the Arkadyan emperor. A blend of humour, drama and tragedy await players in a 35+ hour story-focused quest as they navigate the treacherous world of Rin.
Similar to Ara Fell, Rise of the Third Power’s battle system features an emphasis on ability use, removing the need for a basic attack. Every skill is meant to be employed frequently and tactically. Players can swap out party members, see the order of actions at the top of the screen, and make use of team abilities, encouraging them to use clever character combinations to exploit enemies’ weaknesses and find efficient ways to tear through battles. Each piece of equipment found, purchased or stolen is a permanent, unique upgrade for each character. Instead of purchasing replacements, the player purchases or makes upgrades, avoiding the tedium of inventory management, while also giving the completionist something useful to hunt for.
“What matters more than anything is making our games with love. We didn’t think we could do that more than we did in Ara Fell, but we hope it shines through all the same in Rise of the Third Power.”
Stegosoft Games
Rise of the Third Power features an exciting linear story, however there is a vast world that players can explore and discover a great deal of optional story-related content and quests. Also, like Ara Fell, players can freely save any time throughout the game, however there are autosave points and prompts before important events. Returning as well are various difficulty options, including the “Story” setting, which allows players the use of an auto-kill function on all enemies in order to progress quickly through battles if they choose.
