No Coins, All Yokai: A Rising Dusk Review

By Al

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, XBox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

Rising Dusk is a platformer game that comes to us by way of Ratalaika Games and Shinyuden. It's available on all major consoles, and it sets out to do the unthinkable. That's right, it takes the platforming genre and attempts to shake it by adding some unique elements. This tall order is done by way of its core system that relies heavily on not picking up the many collectables scattered throughout the level. Literally the opposite of what platformers have taught us all over the years. The question is if this take on the genre actually makes for a fun game, or if we're going to want to just jump back to Donkey Kong 64 after this. Let's dive into the game and find out!

Don't wander off Tamako!

This is it, this is the game.

Rising Dusk doesn't have a lot of story, but let's get into what is here. One day a young girl named Tamako finds herself visiting a grave with her family, when she spots a monster off in the woods near the grave. This isn't just any monster though, it's a yokai, a monster from Japanese folklore. Said monster leads her away from her family and Tamako soon finds herself in a world filled with yokai, both good and bad. Near here is a shrine, a town, and a mountain off in the distance. Will that mountain lead her back to her own world? Tamako can only go forward now, so I guess she's going to find out. The world of Rising Dusk is somewhat lacking in terms of dialogue, which I guess makes sense since it's filled with yokai, so don't expect a whole lot of elaboration on the simple set-up. The limited bits of dialogue are mainly for tutorial sections, but there is enough environmental storytelling where you can probably piece together your own story about what's going on. Rising Dusk's world is perpetually in twilight, so our journey feels like it's a never-ending fever dream. What will Tamako experience in this world? Will she be able to leave it? Well, all that is up to how well you play the game of course. So let's dive head on into an aspect of the game that is somehow just as simple as its story, but also somehow far more robust and complicated: the gameplay.

The gameplay of Rising Dusk is a bit hard to describe if you're just looking at it. There's a lot of strange things in the visuals that need a lot of explanation, and probably are still only truly understandable after first-hand experience. Controls are simple, you run, jump, and pick up items. That's it. You have no way to attack enemies directly, but some of them can be jumped on to stun then, and you can also sometimes alter their paths/block them by pushing blocks or boxes near them. Most enemies can't actually kill you though, with most of them seeming to content in simply knocking you back, pushing you off a ledge, or stealing your coins. What are coins? Well, coins make up the backbone of the game as, depending on what you're trying to accomplish, you're either going to want to play the game without picking up a single one, or make sure you have a specific amount to unlock secrets with a level. I'll explain the whole coin mechanic in a bit, but going back to gameplay, your goal is simply to get the end of a level, which is indicated by a big ceremonial bell. Along the way you can also snag cool items like gold maneki neko statues, or tapes that unlock music in a special sound check area. Some levels are longer than others, but most contain checkpoints that allow you to continue from them when you die. Since most enemies can't kill you, you deaths will most likely be caused by falling into pits. Some enemies can harm you, and there are even stage hazards here and there, but the good ol' bottomless pit will be your biggest enemy in Rising Dusk. There's an entire map to explore with about thirty levels to complete (That number really depends on what you consider a "level".), and there are also various bosses scattered about that are denoted by skulls in the sky. Pretty simple really, right? Now about those coins...

There's a cool overworld.

Those tanuki are thieves!

Throughout each stage there are various coins scattered about, and even more blocks, boxes, or oddly colored squares that have numbers on them. If your current coin count is below the number on any of these, then they do what you'd expect. This means you can jump on any solid block that has a number higher than your coins, and you can also pass through any odd-looking squares that meet that same criteria. That all changes if your current coin count meets or exceeds that number though. Once you hit a certain amount of coins, any block you jump on that has a number lower than your current count will disappear/break once you land on it. This means you have to be very careful about grabbing coins. On the flip side though, some new blocks may form out of thin air if you hit a number higher than is displayed on their square, and some of the other boxes or blocks might be blocking a section of the level you couldn't get to otherwise. Throw in the fact that these blocks often make up long platforming stretches, and you'll realize that there's far more to this game than meets the eye. Coins are also placed in areas where they are very hard to avoid, so you might end up picking up more than you meant to just by random bad luck. Your coin count is locked whenever you hit a checkpoint, so you may find yourself restarting if you realize you picked up more coins that you intended. I don't want to make it sound like you can soft lock yourself in some places, since that's rarely the case, but you don't always know if the level requires to you have a certain number of coins or not, and most levels don't exactly allow you to backtrack. Once again though, your only real goal is to get to the ceremonial bell at the end of each stage. This means that you may miss out on gold cat statues or tapes by not getting any coins, but those aren't necessary for completing the game. It's safe to say that your best strategy is to always go for a no-coin run your first time through a level, and maybe come back to it if you're insistent on grabbing those extra items.

One level has a cool shadow mechanic.

Those are "Are You Afraid of The Dark" zombies.

Believe it or not, there's still more to talk about regarding coins. Coins aren't just for dealing with boxes and blocks, you actually get to keep them after you complete a level and you can then use them to buy items from a shop found in a corner of the map. Some items are just more collectables, but others have actual in-game functions. Notably there's a dark coin that actually takes your current coin count down by one. There are some levels towards the end of the game where you'll all but need this item, as well as the enemies that steal your coins, in order to keep that ever-important coin counter in check. It's a shame that all these consumable items are only single use, and you have to rebuy them if you want to use them again in other levels. I already mentioned the tapes unlocking music in a sound test option, and that's pretty self-explanatory, but talking about what the gold cat statues do is a bit more complicated. When I first got into the game I thought that these statues were needed to complete the game; sort of like stars in Super Mario 64. It turned out that I was wrong, and that they only exist to unlock a series of challenge levels that take the difficulty to near impossible levels. These special challenge stages definitely look like fun, but the amount of coin count manipulation makes it so that I'll probably never be able to clear them all. On account of them all going over my head a bit of course. Lastly, there's the boss battles. Since you can't attack anything directly, these all get pretty creative on what you have to do to beat them. "Attacking" pretty much comes from things like misdirection, or grabbing coins at the right time to trap a boss behind suddenly appearing blocks. These encounters are all a lot of fun, and I was surprised by how unique they all were. I actually don't want to go too in-depth with them, since half the fun was figuring out how to defeat each one. Have fun with those.

Giving me that side eye.

Look how cool this sound test is.

Gameplay does have some odd quirks that I have to discuss before we move on. First off is the obvious: the jumping is very floaty and imprecise. Rising Dusk is by no means unplayable, but I'd be lying if I didn't blame the game's wonky mechanics for most of my deaths. There were so many times when I thought I'd landed safely on a platform, only to somehow slip off of it and die. And I DO mean slip off. There seems to be a slipping mechanic if you land too close to an edge on some platforms, and I've literally seen my character just slowly creep to their death if I was on a platform that wasn't completely flat. I'd definitely be praising this game more if the controls were tighter, but they somehow made a one-button game feel imprecise. Actually, since we're on that topic, can I say that if your game only has one function, why not just place it on every button? That might sound like a weird thing to complain about, but literally every other button besides the A Button and the + Button (I played this on the Switch) go unused. Enemy placement also feels crazy unfair at times, and brought about even more cheap deaths. Putting an enemy that knocks you across the screen on a tiny platform you need to land carefully on just feels outright evil. Some jumping just feels like it has to be far too precise for the controls the game has. Did I mention that some of the levels autoscroll? Well, they do and there were many times where the scrolling just stops. This might make you think that you're supposed to walk forward, or maybe take a leap of faith, but it turns out that the game just wanted to pause there for some unknown reason. What makes that more confusing is sometimes it will stop when it expects you to move forward or take a leap of faith. Much of the game feels unfair, but thankfully you have infinite lives and a lot of checkpoints. You'll get to the end eventually, but the amount of frustration you experience on your way there is enough that some might give up partway through.

A boss encounter.

More than enough coins!

That pretty much covers all the gameplay, so let's talk a bit about graphics a bit. I have to admit that Rising Dusk doesn't look like much if you're only taking it in via screenshots. I hate to say it, but when I first saw it I assumed that it was going to be a terrible shovelware platformer. I hope I've made it clear that this isn't the case, but the game has to really be seen in action to be appreciate. The yokai look great, the levels are all colorful, the overworld map has a lot of distinct locations, with many of the level setpieces looking nothing short of breathtaking. Tamako's design does feel a tad uninspired, but everything else is great and I couldn't help but wonder what oddities the next level would hold. There's a certain Ghibli vibe to every, a Spirited Away feel if you will. Everything looks monstrous and otherworldly, but with a childlike charm and wonder too. This game could've easily used repeating enemies, but I was impressed by sheer variety of enemies here, some actually only appearing within a single level. I can go on raving about the graphics, but I think you get the point. My one gripe with the graphics is that they do seem to somehow push the Switch to its limits at certain points. I'm not sure how this can be, since it never looks too graphically intense, but there were a handful of times where slowdown occurred, and at least two times when the game just straight up crashed. I usually play games in Handheld Mode exclusively, but I tackled this one docked and with a pro controller, so I'm not sure what was causing these issues. Anyhow, outside of those crashes, they weren't too bothersome. Rising Dusk is a beautiful game, I just wish that it looked better in screens.

Is this a horror game?

This feels like riding a cryptid.

Music fares just as well as the art style, and I found myself actually excited to grab those tape collectables so I could hear the tracks in all their glory. Part of the reason why I wanted those tapes too is because the in-game mix just seems a bit off in general. The music is amazing, but it feels lost in the mix sometimes when you're actually playing the game. Thankfully there is the sound test house, and it's pretty cool to boot. The music has a Japanese folk sound to it, but done in a 16-bit chiptune remix sort of way. It's hard to explain, but this feels like they took an already existing game's music, and like demade it so that it sounds like it feels at home in a retro soundtrack compilation. Basically, this gives off vibes of hearing modern music made using a 16-bit soundfont, but in a good way. There aren't a lot of songs that I'd be listening to outside of playing the game, but I was nevertheless impressed by how hard the music went at times. Not all is perfect in the sound department though, as I found the sound effects a bit disappointing when comparing to the music. There are many actions in game that feel like they should have a sound effect and just don't. I honestly couldn't always tell if some sounds were just muddled in the mix, but there were a lot of times when I did something and thought: "Where was the sound?" It's weird, and makes for an oddly silent playthrough. It's nothing that affects the gameplay, but it was very noticeable to me.

Rising Dusk is a fairly short game if you're just trying to rush towards the end. You can probably beat everything in a mere handful of hours, and that includes allowing for time where you'll be stuck on a randomly hard level or two. As long as you're willing to get through any section by sheer attrition, you will eventually beat the game since it is very forgiving when it comes to retrying harder bits. That's just for rushing through the game though, there's so much to do here that I couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed when I decided that I wanted to attempt to collect all the tapes. Since the coins are saved at checkpoints, you're often required to make perfect runs of levels if you're trying to hit a certain secret path. This might sound like simple repetition, and I guess it is, but there's enough here that you can easily toss a dozen hours or more into this one. That's a lot of content for the game's low price of $9.90. For a game that builds itself on not collecting things, it sure has a lot of collectables you're going to want for a perfect game. There's even an achievement system of sorts that unlocks other costumes for Tamako, there's hours and hours of content here if you want it. Your time with Rising Sun is pretty much only limited by your patience and imagination.

Run from the old lady!

Come on!

While Rising Dusk does have its share of problems, mainly a weak story and some gameplay elements that simply don't work very well, I have to say that out of every game I played this year, this one shocked me the most. I went in expecting it to not be very good, and then had to admit that it's one of the better games I've played this year. It's by no means a perfect, high end, AAA release, but surely no one is expecting that. It's a unique platforming experience that actually offers something different from other games in the genre. All my issues aside, this is a must buy for platforming fans, and is probably still worth picking up if you're just a casual. The coin/block system is just so unique that I can't help but hope that we get some sort of follow-up to this game down the road. Anyway, the yokai await, and you know what that means! Avoid the coins!

For More Information on Rising Dusk:
https://www.shinyuden.com/risingdusk/

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Story: C
Gameplay: B-
Graphics: B+
Music/Sound: B-
Value: A

Overall: B+

Pros:
+ A unique take on the platforming genre.
+ The coin/block mechanic is surprisingly deep and almost makes this feel like a puzzle platformer.
+ While it doesn't really translate well in screens, the graphics and art design are near perfect.
+ The music doesn't disappoint, and there's even a cool sound test to check it out on its own.
+ Lots of content, bonuses, and easter eggs make this one very replayable, even if you manage to clear the game relatively quickly.

Cons:
- The controls are very floaty and lead to some unfair deaths.
- While the music is great, the sound effects feel almost non-existent at times.
- Difficulty can be all over the place level to level.
- Finding out that you have to completely redo a level because you have the wrong coin count by the end can be very frustrating.
- The Nintendo Switch seems to have some trouble running the game, despite it not looking like a visually taxing game.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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