Developer: Winter Crew Studios
Publisher: CMD Studios
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC,
Fallen Tear: The Ascension – Preview
Six years and a successful Kickstarter campaign later, Philippines-based indie studio Winter Crew Studios’ debut game Fallen Tear: The Ascension is nearing its full release. With the game available in Early Access, it’s gradually popping up on many a gamer’s radar, but is it worth playing already, or are you better off waiting for the full release to take the plunge, if at all?
A classic metroidvania at its core, Fallen Tear tries to set itself apart from others in the genre through JRPG-style systems. Players take on the role of Hira, a young hunter, as they navigate an interconnected map filled with different biomes and secrets. Progression is gated behind abilities like double jumps and dashes. Combat is fast and responsive, mixing light and heavy attacks with dodging, parrying, and pattern-based boss fights. What’s supposed to distinguish Fallen Tear from other metroidvanias is its companion-driven Bond system, which sees recruited allies contribute unique abilities to both combat and exploration. This adds a party-like layer to Fallen Tear while eschewing traditional management, and also ties into the way the game emphasises character relationships and storytelling.
As you explore, you befriend more companions and add them to your roster. These aren’t passive, but actively add new attacks, buffs, and traversal tools to Hira’s arsenal, effectively letting you customize the hero to fit your playstyle. You can bring multiple companions into battle, summon them for abilities, and strengthen them through side quests and relationship-building. By himself, Hira has a standard but polished moveset, with light and heavy attacks, dodging, parrying, aerial moves, and counters. Fights are built around reading enemy patterns rather than button-mashing, adding a Souls-lite quality to the game. Some of the boss battles currently in the game do feel a tad unbalanced, and we’ll have to wait and see how upcoming rebalancing makes them fit in with the overall flow of the full game.
Right now, Fallen Tear’s biggest strength is in its overall presentation, both audiovisual and in terms of storytelling. The overarching plot leans on classic JRPG tropes: Hira is found as a baby and raised in a village alongside his adoptive family. Disaster strikes, with his family disappearing and our hero becoming drawn into a much larger conflict involving corrupted elemental gods, and the journey to defeat them also holds answers to Hira’s mysterious past. Where the story sets itself apart is in how it is driven by relationships rather than exposition, with a strong focus on the allies Hira meets and bonds with throughout his journey. These companions aren’t just gameplay elements: they have their own arcs, side quests, and evolving relationships with Hira, which tie directly into the story’s emotional core.
As for the audiovisual presentation, Fallen Tear’s world of Raoah is brought to life via striking hand-drawn visuals. Character animations are fluid, and even the environment itself feels alive, thanks to subtle but strong use of color, lighting, and layered backgrounds to create depth and atmosphere. That said, there are still some rough edges: occasional visual glitches, some less refined enemy animations and minor issues like foreground/background readability in platforming or small technical hiccups, but nothing consistently game-breaking. Audio is another strong component of Fallen Tear, with most major characters fully voiced, and a soundtrack that complements the world and the overall atmosphere.
At this point in its life cycle, Fallen Tear clearly shows its Early Access status in a few key areas, with rough edges that make the game feel unfinished. The game’s progression structure uses multiple currencies and skill trees that aren’t exactly well-explained, resulting in coming across as overly complex. Backtracking and traversal are also pain points right now, with slow early movement and limited fast travel options. This makes navigating the game’s large map feel tedious at times. Another feature that still shows room for improvement is the game’s quest tracking, occasionally making it unclear what to do or where to go next. Finally, some balancing issues are present, with bosses seemingly tuned for later-game stats and shard loss on death feeling overly punishing. With the full release still quite some time away though, we can expect that most, if not all of those issues are resolved over the coming months. Fallen Tear does get the foundation right, but we’re hoping that the game focuses on fixing things before moving on to more content.
Speaking of more content, the developers do plan to expand significantly toward that full release. More regions, story content, and companions are planned to be added, alongside continued balancing and system refinements. The main reason to return to Fallen Tear isn’t the gameplay though, but seeing Hira’s story unfold. Currently, only the first act of the narrative is available. That still translates to a significant amount of content, mind you. You’re looking at around 10 hours worth of content, and this is supposedly roughly a third of what the game has to offer. If you can overlook the game’s rougher edges, it’s well worth giving Fallen Tear a spin already, if only because you can help shape it by providing feedback to the developers.
Conclusion
As it stands, Fallen Tear is going to be a game where the sum is greater than the individual parts. As solid as its foundation is, this isn’t a title that is going to reinvent the metroidvania genre. Its unique mechanic, the Bond system, simply doesn’t have enough weight for that. However, this system does tie into the way the game approaches storytelling, by focusing on character relationships rather than a narrative filled with twists and turns. Add the game’s standout audiovisual presentation to the equation, and you’ve got a game that has everything needed to become a winner.
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