Occasionally I find myself running into games that look like they’re a generic copy and paste of an idea, only to discover that there are some cool ideas inside. It’s like a surprise box that looks like a trash can on the outside but has lots of cool tech (or candy if you’re into that) in it instead of whatever you’d find in the usual trash. That is not to say that Rise of the Third Power looks like trash, it just doesn’t seem all that impressive at first glance.

Loosely based on Europe circa the 1930s (the developer’s words, not mine), Rise of the Third Power puts you in the shoes of eight characters, all on a suicide mission to prevent a second great war from occurring. The countries of Rin are recovering from a great war, but one of the countries seeks to take back territory they have lost, all while the other nations are licking their wounds. A resistance forms, and thus your journey begins.

Now, this may sound like a very serious situation, but it actually…well it is, but it is told in a very tongue-in-cheek fashion. There is a lot of humor thrown in for good measure, to keep the looming wars and dark political intrigue elements from being too overwhelming. Think Game of Thrones if it was run by the guys from Futurama. Okay, so maybe not that exaggerated, but the humor is there, and some of it is stupid (intentionally) so the comparison works.

Rise of the Third Power takes inspiration from both JRPGs from the early days of the genre and modern games as a whole. For example, it uses a turn-based battle system, often relying on things like debuffs, status ailments, damage types, etc. However, you can also do things such as autosave, craft upgrades, and even save anywhere.

There are also multiple difficulty levels, including “Story Mode” which gives you the option to auto-win a battle. Personally, I found this option to be great for multiple reasons. To start with the game’s difficulty is high, even on the normal setting. Enemies are damage sponges, and they deal solid damage too. The early game is especially frustrating, because you have very little in the way of healing items, and the first store is about two hours into the game (if you’re taking your time.)

Another strange and mildly frustrating feature is that your characters do not level individually. They level together and share talent points. This means that you have to prioritize which characters to devote your talent points to. Equipment is also a weird situation because you can craft upgrades to boost their stats, supposedly to eliminate messy inventory management.

On top of that, battles take a long time. Even if you level your characters above the enemy level, you still don’t get to a point where you are killing things faster. It all still feels slow, and while I normally don’t mind repetitive battles, the lack of a feeling of progress makes things feel stale quickly. I’m specifically speaking from a combat standpoint though.

However, each character has a weapon slot and an accessory slot. The accessories must be equipped to get their benefit, and like in Final Fantasy IX, the longer you have an accessory equipped, the more you learn its ability. However, instead of learning it and then being able to equip something else, it simply levels up the accessory and gives it a new ability. The frustrating part of this is that there are lots of great accessories, but (at least 10 hours-ish in) you only have one accessory slot per character.

The steam page mentions each character having 3 equipment slots, but I haven’t found anything to go in that third slot yet. I’ve found relics, which give passive bonuses to the entire party, but nothing in the way of armor or something to put in that third slot. There are a lot of ways to upgrade your characters though, even if they aren’t super deep in terms of mechanics.

Rise of the Third Power feels like a lot of half-baked ideas thrown together in terms of its progression systems. However, I think it has a lot of charm all the same. The story is interesting, the characters are silly, and if you don’t mind how long the battles take, the strategy required for some of them is really fun.

Would I say that this is the best Indie RPG I’ve ever played? No, not by a long shot, I think that would go to Ikenfell or one of the many others that I have played, like Crosscode, Earthlock, or Cosmic Star Heroine. However, if you’re looking for something fun that scratches that itch and does things a little differently (for better or worse), then I think you can find some joy in Rise of the Third Power.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of Rise of the Third Power was provided by Dangen Entertainment for this review.

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Rise of the Third Power

$19.99 USD

5.5

Score

5.5/10

Pros

• Fun Characters
• Great Art Style
• Strategic combat
• Modern Conveniences Like Autosave

Cons

• Combat Feels Slow and Without a Sense of Progress
• Progression Systems are Shallow and Confusing
• Enemies are Damage Sponges
• Game Contradicts Itself Mechanically