I had the opportunity to speak with Stephen Manalastas, the Creative Director behind Fallen Tear: The Ascension.
What if a Metroidvania combined forces with a classic JRPG? Imagine a challenging, hand-drawn Metroidvania like Hollow Knight: Silksong, but intertwined with your favorite JRPGs like Suikoden. You spend hours exploring and fighting a 2D world, but also encounter a cast of eclectic characters that you can befriend, build relationships with, and add to your party. That’s the basics of a beautiful game I had the chance to play at PAX West called Fallen Tear: The Ascension.
Just before my thirty-minute hands-on preview of the gameplay, I had the opportunity to speak with Stephen Manalastas, the Creative Director behind this exciting concept. Manalastas is part of Winter Crew, a small indie studio, and has been working on this debut title since its founding in 2020.
Gameplay consists of all hallmarks of a classic Metroidvania. Platforming, action, unlocking traversal and combat abilities, but where it stands out is in the NPCs, or Fated Bonds, you can add to your party. At any moment, you can call on these NPCs to execute certain attacks using the “face buttons,” and once enough charge has built up, unleash a devastating combo attack with everyone in your party.
I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect when I showed up for my demo appointment, but I had booked it because this game’s incredible art style had caught my eye. What ended up keeping me around was the challenging boss fights, which I had to attempt multiple times in my short demo. Speaking of demos, Fallen Tear: The Ascension has a free demo available now on Steam. There is no release date yet, other than sometime in early 2026, but you can add the game to your wishlist to show your support for this inspired project and the hard-working developers.
Here is my conversation with the creative director of Fallen Tear: The Ascension:
Matt Buckley: Is this all hand-drawn?
Stephen Manalastas, Creative Director: Yes, it is.
MB: That’s really impressive. What’s the size of the studio that’s working on Fallen Tear?
SM: There are 30 people working full-time on this project.
MB: How has your PAX been so far?
SM: So, this is our first time here at PAX. It’s a great experience. It’s been very busy, so yeah, it’s been good. We’ve been having a blast. Everyone’s actually destroying our demo. They’ve been liking the boss fights.
MB: It seems like there are a lot of challenging fights in Fallen Tear: The Ascension. I don’t want to throw around the term “souls-like,” but that is a popular action genre right now. Is that kind of high level of difficulty something you’re aiming for?
SM: Yeah, but for this game, we have two modes. We have a story mode for the player who just wants to enjoy the story, and we have the Fallen Tear mode, which is for the hardcore players. For the people who want the challenge.
MB: So, is it kind of a Metroidvania game?
SM: Yes. So, it is a Metroidvania, but we have a twist on it because we wanted to make something really fresh for the community. So, we don’t want to be like Hollow Knight or any other Metroidvania.
MB: Yeah, there’s a lot of Metroidvanias going around right now.
SM: That’s right. The twist here is that we’ve fused JRPG elements into the Metroidvania. So, in order for you to progress in the game, you need to recruit characters. We have 22 characters, we call them Fated Bonds, and they each have their own story in the game. So, you can actually recruit them or not.
MB: It’s optional to recruit characters?
SM: Yeah, you have the option to recruit them or not. Also, the game looks colorful and cute, but that’s deceiving. It gets pretty dark. Sort of like Game of Thrones, so you have an idea of what you’re dealing with.
MB: So, what is the length you’re aiming for with the full game? How long will it take to complete?
SM: If you’re going to play this game as a casual player, just to enjoy the story, it will probably take between 25 to 30 hours. But if you’re a completionist who is trying to get all characters, then it’s probably more like 80 to 100+.
MB: Wow, ok, that completionist side is definitely on par with classic JRPGs. Are there any games that inspired the team in making Fallen Tear: The Ascension?
SM: So, we have many inspirations. For JRPG, have you played a lot of RPGs before?
MB: I’ve played a few.
SM: Ok, so Valkyrie Profile is one.
MB: Ok, I don’t actually know that one.
SM: Oh, you don’t know that one? Ok, so I’ll say Breath of Fire and Suikoden. That’s where the JRPG inspirations came from. But for the Metroidvania, obviously Hollow Knight, Ori, Super Metroid, and also Mega Man. I love Mega Man.
MB: Great, so what about the action or the boss fights? Is there any kind of specific idea or philosophy that went into making those challenging fights, or does it vary throughout the game?
SM: It depends on how you play the game. If you collect the Fated Bonds, it will make your life easier. But if you are really hardcore and you don’t want to recruit them, then it would be super hard, because the difficulty of the game revolves around the Fated Bonds.
MB: Okay. It sounds really cool. I’m looking forward to giving it a try. What kind of abilities and powers do you get? Do you get powers from making friends with certain people?
SM: We have three ways for you to upgrade. One is mastery. That’s where you upgrade the stats of your character, like adding to damage and defense. Second, you have the Ascension, which are the gatekeeping skills like double jump, high jump, and heavy strike. And third is the Hunter skill, which you need to hunt specific monsters in order to rank up as a Hunter.
MB: Ok, yeah, so there’s a lot going on.
SM: Yes, and for the Fated Bonds, you build a relationship with them. So, you can also level them up and make them stronger.
MB: This sounds great. I can’t wait to get my hands on the demo. Thank you so much, Stephen.
SM: Thank you.
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