Fallen Tear: The Ascension

Fallen Tear: The Ascension, A Beautiful Metroidvania That Sometimes Leaves You Lost.

Fallen Tear: The Ascension is a hand-drawn Metroidvania that offers a beautiful world, enjoyable combat and an interesting cast of characters. There is clearly a lot of work behind its presentation, and from my time playing, I found plenty to appreciate.

However, while the game gets many things right, one area held back my enjoyment: knowing where I was supposed to go next.

A Beautifully Hand-Drawn World

One of the first things that stood out to me was the artwork.

The hand-drawn environments look fantastic, with an impressive amount of detail throughout the world. You can see how much care and effort has gone into creating the different locations, characters and animations.

It’s easily one of the game’s strongest features and gives Fallen Tear: The Ascension its own identity.

The soundtrack is another good highlight. I really enjoyed the music, which works well alongside the artwork and helps bring the world to life.

Enjoyable Combat With Some Unnecessary Difficulty

I found the combat to be one of the more enjoyable parts of the experience.

Movement and attacks felt fluid, and I generally had a good time fighting the different enemies I encountered.

However, I did notice some difficulty.

Certain enemies were relatively straightforward to defeat, while others that appeared as though they should be easier proved surprisingly challenging.

This occasionally made the difficulty feel a little unpredictable, although it wasn’t enough to spoil my enjoyment of the combat overall.

Characters and Story 

Another feature I particularly enjoyed was the introduction of additional characters who can help you throughout your adventure.

Rather than simply fighting alongside you, these characters can also help you with environmental obstacles.

For example, I encountered barriers that could be destroyed by calling upon a particular character. With a press of a button on the D-pad, that character would appear, perform their action and disappear again.

It’s a clever little mechanic that adds something different to the usual exploration and combat formula.

I also enjoyed the characters and the story itself. Both helped make the adventure interesting and gave me reasons to continue exploring.

Exploration Can Become Frustrating

Unfortunately, this is where I had my biggest issue with Fallen Tear: The Ascension.

I often found myself unsure of where I was supposed to go next.

While there is some guidance, I didn’t always feel that the game gave me enough direction to understand how to progress.

This led to quite a bit of trial and error, with me regularly returning to areas I had already visited, only to discover that I wasn’t supposed to be there.

I understand that exploration and backtracking are important parts of the Metroidvania way. Discovering new paths and returning to previous locations with additional abilities can be rewarding.

However, there is a difference between enjoyable exploration and feeling genuinely lost.

For me, there were moments when I spent more time trying to work out where to go than actually enjoying the adventure.

This could partly come down to my own approach to these games, and other players may enjoy the freedom to explore without much direction.

Personally, though, I would have appreciated a little more guidance to help keep the adventure moving forward.

Final Verdict

Fallen Tear: The Ascension is a genuinely enjoyable game with plenty of positives.

Its hand-drawn artwork is excellent, with a good soundtrack , and the characters and story provide an interesting adventure. The combat also feels fluid and enjoyable, while the companion abilities introduce some clever mechanics into exploration.

My main criticism comes down to navigation and progression.

I found myself backtracking unnecessarily and sometimes struggling to understand where the game wanted me to go next. This made parts of the experience more frustrating than they needed to be.

Despite that, I still enjoyed my time with the game and can appreciate the amount of work that has gone into creating it.

For players who enjoy exploring every corner of a Metroidvania without too much direction, this may not be an issue at all.

For me, a little more guidance would have made a good game even better.