Role-playing offerings from KEMCO not only release consistently on the Nintendo Switch, but they also tend to offer consistent quality. You’ll rarely find a great game, but thankfully, the same can be said for subpar ones. Is there room on the eShop for these adequate, less expensive, shorter JRPGs? Pure Nintendo thinks so, and time backs up our take. Enter the recent Tears Revolude, developed by WorldWideSoftware (Legend of Ixtona).

What drew me into this particular title? It certainly wasn’t finding a character who lost their memory. Seriously, why do these RPGs continue to fall on this particular crutch over and over and over again? Who knows. But it’s become so common at this point, I’ll now poke fun at the cliche. Believe it or not, though, the story does offer a genuine surprise unrelated to amnesiac Liara. 

The quest involves looking for the final works of a famous artist, Orwiel Litte. The lead character, Sion, is rather hooked on the painter-sculptor. It’s a nice change of pace from the world being threatened by a global war, a magical McGuffin, or the like. Of course, the plot soon develops into discussions about guilds, technology for building crystal-covered monsters, and wiping out humanity, among other similar themes. And you can expect a couple of melodramatic surprise twists. Still, I appreciate attempts at something different, even if the individual characters prove inconsistent at leaving impressions. 

Yes, with a maximum of four active characters in the party at any given time, some will surely slip your mind. Thankfully, if you swap between them in battle, it doesn’t count as a turn. Tears Revolude allows you to mix and match to find your ideal combination.

Your journey takes you through isometric dungeons. The camera is adjustable, which is thoughtful, but the default view works best. Once you enter combat, the view changes to first-person. A cool touch is a small window that lets you see upcoming enemies and chests you might otherwise be unable to see due to the camera angle. Does it impact the gameplay significantly? Not really, but I still think it’s cool, and something different yet again.

Tears Revolude does a few other things differently from the norm. Some work better than others. Instead of a traditional world map where you travel from town to town, you only need to click from a list of locales on the right side of the screen. Do I miss the overworld grinding? Generally, I could take or leave it, but here, I miss it slightly insofar as additional variety is missed. Even more so since the side quests are bland, with NPCs accessed from a similar list, labeled indistinctly as man, woman, boy, girl, etc. (sounds like a presidential cognitive assessment test). Aside from different-colored hair, eyes, and clothing, most of the limited models are identical.

Favorable changes include a handful of puzzles scattered throughout the dungeons. While none will wow you, these puzzles inject the affairs with some welcome variety. There was even one I needed to look up a solution for, the first time I’ve ever done so in a KEMCO published RPG. I should mention here that the combat is easy on the default normal difficulty, especially with ally attacks that can do damage well above 100 percent. With four options, you can adjust the challenge to your preferences.

One other gameplay exception worthy of a positive remark is the way weapons are handled. In Tears Revolude, you don’t replace weapons by purchasing new ones. Rather, you upgrade your existing weapons to more powerful versions. So, not only will you get comfortable with your gear, you won’t waste time in subscreens trying to juggle and replace things. It’s not a common approach, but it works well in this case.

Tears Revolude covers the RPG essentials, checking all the boxes and even throwing in a few unique wrinkles, but without elevating itself next to its eShop peers. The ease of the proceedings, combined with the brisker pace, makes the characters and, by extension, the entire game a bit forgettable. But even if it won’t stay with you, you certainly won’t regret grabbing Tears Revolude at a discount. It’s still a solidly enjoyable game that’ll hold your interest.