While this is just a game that sets up for the larger main dish coming in 2023, sometimes that first impression is important. Am I convinced that I should add Hundred Heroes to my radar after playing this?

And here's the written version! https://zyro-eg.com/2022/06/09/eiyuden-chronicle-rising-review/

Is this game an anwser to Zelda?

I think a 8 is way to generous. I did 100% this game but only because am such a fan of the creator for what he did with suikoden back in day. I would never go back and play Eiyuden Chronicle again.

On plus
Main story line is fine and character development is fine nothing special but perfectly acceptable for a side game like this. It is very short but was not expecting anything long.
Graphics perfectly acceptable and don't disagree with anything you said in your review

Mixed
Combat works fine and I don't disagree with anything you said in your review but what you did not mention is if you even slightly good at these type of games or seeing enemy patterns that it is super super easy. I not sure I felt challenge even a little at any time during the game including bosses. It makes the game get very boring very quickly since most the game is fetch quests so you just going through easy combat/platforming from place to place the majority of your time playing the game.

The bad
Side quests and this will be the vast majority of the game as you said. There are 3 types of side quests
1) gather x amount of resources from the map/ retrieve item
2) Kill something
3) talk to x number of people in town (this is walking/fast traveling around town talking to people and nothing else)

There also not 160 unique side quests in game because at a certain points the side quests you get or just repeating. Not that it matter since there nothing to do in game after completing 160 side quests but when you do it unlock unlimited combo which allow you to kill any boss in game (on hard mode) without them even getting an attack in.

At best this game deserve a 5 and even that is me wanting to be nice because I love suikoden so much and want to support the creator. If I being objective and this was some random indi game I tried on steam with a unknown creator I probably would not give it higher then 3 or 4.

You knowwwwwwwww, it COULD be considered an answer to Zelda II, which to this day had the best temple music I might add lmao

I did only 105, so I don't know how many side quests became repeats (it really is still just "too many" and too meaningless lol), apologies!

As for the difficulty, I did mention that if you've played 2D action side scrollers, you'll adapt quickly.  I guess I could have been more clear in stating that it may become "easy", though I think ease is relative.  You might notice I rarely specifically describe difficulty because that is highly dependent on a player's skill, instead I focus on how the challenge is designed (like Elden Ring where it's DESIGNED to kill you over and over again) as opposed to whether I define it as difficult or easy.  I DO make some games seem easier than people imagine, something I learned in season 1 and have since adapted my reviews to avoid saying something that is not necessarily quantifiable on a wider scale.  If I say this game is easy, and someone decides from my review that it's okay for their 5 year old to play, then it might actually be too hard.  For me, Elden Ring was still relatively "easy", but many would disagree and I'd just look like a pompous ass if I said that. Instead, I beat it in 72 hours while being a first wave player with relatively little "Google-able" information.  Someone can simply infer my skill level from that on their own lol

As for our score differences, it depends on what you define a 5 as.  Is a 5 "average" for you, or is that "bad"?  If you say it's "bad", then we'd inherently be in disagreement as my giving a game a 5 is on the bad side.  Of course, I once again remind readers: I'm fine with disagreement, and since you are being civil and laying out your thoughts on the matter as someone who also played, you'll notice I'm not arguing your score.  What IS important is knowing whether you define this game as "bad", because I really couldn't find anything to fault enough to say it was bad since most things were justifiable (short story, low real estate, low budget animation, etc. because this was more of a stretch goal game made clearly on the side).

Fair enough on difficulty,  maybe a better descriptive would of been that I found the combat very repetitive by the time you unlocked all your abilities.

A 5 for me is average but generally I would not recommend a average game to anyone since there so many options out there that above average and many of those options cost less then $15 (the cost if you did not back the game).  This is not a $15 game.  For me I backed the higher tier that came with this game because I wanted to support the creation of the main game so if the main game is good then it was worth every penny.  

If you someone that did not back the game but now want to support it creation then that a good reason to spend the $15 but in isolation I could not recommend it.

If you view this as a introduction to the Eiyuden Chronicle universe told with a short story then I would say play through the main quest lines and do just enough side quests that you can get through the game and it a decent experience.  I would not say it made me more excited for Eiyuden Chronicle but it also did not make me less excited.  I just hope the main game is not filled with many time killers and little main plot like rising.

If you have no interest in a suikoden style game and was looking for a platformer or a action RPG then I would tell them to skip this game as it not worth playing unless you interested in getting to know the universe for the main game before playing it. 

If you're considering it average, then perhaps we're not as far apart as we seem.  I continue to use the 7s range as "average" based on how test scores generally work (if you didn't ever watch my video on review scores, I outline the reasoning and why despite their being different scales, most places in the world still consider the average to be in the 70th percentile of "correct"), so the fact that I'm right at an 8 means something as simple as, say, mediocre graphics or an unstable framerate could have easily dropped it further (or even something as simple as combat turning out to be wonky or sometimes unresponsive).

Also, you touched a bit about the ease, though: that's because you and I are doing side quests lol... The average person playing it will probably not do as many as we did and find the challenge to be more, erhm, "normal"?  I always try my best to avoid assuming anything about a viewer/reader (at least not in a serious way) since human's are infinite.

It does seem we mostly agree on things, though, and you know I also stated that this game is just a primer for a main course, so I think anyone who gets through my whole review will likely mirror what you're saying in knowing that this is more of a "if I'm interested in the main game" kind of thing.