
Rise of the Third Power is a retro-themed, console-style roleplaying game, loosely based on the political climate of Europe in the late 1930's. The story takes place in the land of Rin during the height of the Age of Sail, following the events that would lead to the greatest war in human history.
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Engagement
Hours played at review time, across 43 reviews with recorded playtime.
Reviews
Themes across 43 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
Reviews
This one's been on my backlog for a while as I got it as a present from a friend a while back. Every year since 2024 I'd pick a game to start playing on New Year's Day, and this was my choice for 2026. I thoroughly enjoyed this game and it's one of my favorite indie JRPGs, maybe not Top 5 but certainly within the Top 10. It's not often you find a JRPG set in the Age of Sail with a complex geopolitical situation that broadly resembles Interwar Europe in the 1930s. (It's not often you have a republican form of government present in a game of this genre!) The plot was good, quite a few intricate twists and plenty of elements not seen in other JRPGs. Some parts felt a bit sped up especially towards the end but otherwise overall the pacing was solid. Overall I enjoyed the story and it was a nice change of pace having the game's major theme being "war is hell, and a catastrophe like that should be avoided". In the interest of keeping this review spoiler-free I'm not going to disclose how that turns out, but it's definitely a really cool subversion of any expectations one might have going into the game. Dialogue was fun, didn't feel like it took up too much time and space. I think something the dev team accomplished perfectly is the worldbuilding, everything from the predominant religion to its disputes in the form of a sectarian emphasis on certain aspects of the religion between the three major powers of Rin to the basic recent history of the world in the years following the Great War. The puns used for location names (Port Folio, Port Manteau, etc.) and a particular set of late-game quest items (Keygems) are noted and greatly appreciated. The battle system was very balanced, some party members specialized in hitting bosses hard whereas others tanked damage and the abilities of at least half could be used for "crowd control", if not softening enemy formations. Some characters shined at certain parts of the game more than others, but it really depends on one's playstyle how a party ends up being used. Switching out party members in combat is always nice. My favorite mechanic was the leveling system, more specifically how it was for the entire party and not just for individual members. I'm the kind of person who will reset an old Famicom RPG if a party member drop just because I'm a persnickety fiend that does not like having my character levels unbalanced if I can control that sort of thing, so this is an extremely nice feature. I could gush about this game for quite a while and there's undoubtedly facets of this game I failed to discuss at all or in detail (including heavily implied gender equality and full acceptance of non-hetero relationships, which IMHO is very based) and it's an experience that's going to stick with me for a while. It's also the first game in a long time that I've played that made me contemplate writing fanfiction for it or even post-epilogue wild mass guessing, but I don't think I'll ever get around to anything more than incoherent notes that I'll never post anywhere online. If I read the credits correctly I STILL can't believe they used RPG Maker 2003 to make such an absolute masterpiece, and am deeply impressed by that. If you are an enjoyer of indie JRPGs I highly recommend this one. P.S. Rowan x Brooke is my OTP mainly for extremely tragic, doomed, and otherwise very spoiler-filled reasons
Great JRPG, great game! Fighting is fun, but u should play on a higher difficulty if u got experience with those kinda games... Presentation is wunderfully oldschool pixel art. Soundtrack is amazing and never gets old or annoying! But the best quality of this game are the story and the characters! Did u ever realize how in those japanese JRPGs the story is often that far fetched, that u hardly understand what the hell is going on, but since u don't get it, it must be brilliant therefore the game must be brilliant? ROTTP is different! Its an intriguingly written political conspiracy that would make for an amazing miniseries! And this game manages to include gay characters without beating u over the head with it! Not like in the trash Ubisoft, Hollywood or other AAA institutions put out! I don't get why this game isn't widely recognized, but if u come across it as a fan of JRPGs u HAVE to buy it! And by the way.... Knicks in 5...
Simple but great RPG. Nothing really new or outstanding but the story is fun and easy to follow. Loved it from beginning to end. Took me 46 hrs to beat but it can be done sooner. The game play isn't rocket science and it shows that they wanted to tell the story more then the mechanics. The game can be a bit linear at times. Especially the first 2/3 of the game. Towards the end it opens up to some backtracking to get all the top gear and talents. Note: If you have played previous RPGs, set difficultly to at least Hard. Its really not that bad. If it becomes too tough, just lower the difficult which you can do at any time. I recommend it but the ending was somewhat open ended and hope they make a sequel. A side note, this game was made by the same studio and people who did Ara Fell but this games has nothing to do with it other then some NPC rambling about some references of the Ara Fell.
Eh, it's the epitome of an OK game. For a retro-inspired RPG title, it does a lot of things decently, but that's usually the extent of it. Lots of things are more than serviceable, but nothing is particularly excellent.
A delight from start to finish. Kind of reminds me of golden sun or similar era JRPGs. Enjoyed it, well worth the time and price!
This game has one plain and simply problem. It tries to be dark but does so by having everyone either be A, unlikeable or B, miserable. Which I mean, some people enjoy that... I don't get why though.
Amazing sequel, based over 1,000 years after ara fell. Although, I feel left without closure at the end, I loved how the characters grew and overcame. Would love to see continuation of this game, either sequel or prequel would be fantastic. Would love to have more closure for the ending, to know what happened.
I really enjoyed the game. It's the perfect 40 hour JRPG that I have been looking for, for a long long time. The music is really nice too because I actually had to pick up my guitar and play along (as best I could) to some of the tracks.
Very average jrpg, large maps are annoying and missable stuff. Exhausted mechanic doesnt add to the game. I stopped playing after sewers and the intro was too long.
Honestly, fantastic RPG. Suffers from a lot of the same bugs that plagued games during this generation, e.g. Rashim's wife's sprite has a beard. An NPC references their wife, despite having a female sprite. One of your companions is missing his gender. "Rashim" is a companion. (Ara Fell had no such bugs) Apart from that, my only nitpick was I wish there was more hidden rooms. Fantastic RPG otherwise, and I hope not the last in the Ara Fell universe.
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Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
Languages: English, Japanese
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