Info about Songs of Conquest - Rise Eternal:

Official game description:
A new Wielder. New research. New buildings. New artifacts and skills. All centered around the undead side of the Barony of Loth. You step into the rotten boot of Kastus Maal, a former researcher of the Unseen Society.
Rise Eternal starts with Kastus digging himself out of his own grave and returning home to find Faey forces under Stoutheart banners occupying what used to be his land. The village is burned. His family… you’ll find out soon enough!
Across four connected missions, you’ll see what became of the Barony of Loth after Cecilia’s victory. You’ll work alongside other Loth Wielders, push back against those who put your people in chains, and learn more about how the Unseen Society continues to fight for the return of the good old days.
Kastus also brings a new skill, Call the Faithful. It steadily adds more Risen to your ranks. If you put your back into it, you can end up fielding a frankly unreasonable number of undead. The Risen aren’t the strongest unit in the Loth roster, but they do get the job done.
We estimate that playing the 4 story missions will take you around 10 hours.

Release date: Mar 5, 2026

Categories: Turn-based Strategy, Tactical RPG, Story-driven Campaign, Necromancer Skeleton Army, New Skill Tree Progression System, Artifact System, Dark Fantasy


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price:
  - Community fair range: $20.00 - $35.00
  - Reasoning: Reviewers explicitly endorse buying the game at full price and describe the content as reasonably priced for what is included, while also wanting more story campaigns. This supports a fair base-game range in the mid-tier rather than a deep-discount or premium AAA price. Because the reviews provide qualitative price signals but no explicit dollar amount, the estimated range is moderate and confidence is limited.
- Playtime Metrics:
  - Game completion: N/A
  - Story completion: N/A
  - Session length: N/A
  - Endgame: N/A
  - Reasoning: The reviews confirm that the DLC has a complete campaign and four story missions, and one review describes it as quite long with hours of enjoyment. However, none of the evidence provides a numeric playtime in hours for campaign completion, story completion, typical session length, or endgame duration. Because the available statements are qualitative and non-quantified, all playtime metrics must remain null.
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes:
  - Story-Driven Campaign Player (buy)
    - Motivation: To experience richer campaign storylines and character-driven single-player content.
    - Playstyle: Plays through single-player campaigns, following the wielder and evaluating narrative quality.
    - Experience: familiar
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: N/A
    - Reference games: N/A
  - Value-Conscious Faction Fan (buy)
    - Motivation: To get worthwhile faction updates and a fair-priced campaign expansion.
    - Playstyle: Plays new campaign content with the Loth faction, weighing price against content.
    - Experience: familiar
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: N/A
    - Reference games: N/A
  - Achievement-Driven Completionist (no buy)
    - Motivation: To earn achievements and complete the campaign despite finding its design gimmicky.
    - Playstyle: Uses stalling and completion-focused strategies to meet achievement goals.
    - Experience: familiar
    - Purchase stance: no buy
    - Labels: N/A
    - Reference games: N/A


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Story praised as strong (weight 0.89): Multiple clusters highlight the story as very good, solid, interesting, and well executed, with particular praise for its depth compared to the base game. The narrative is a central strength of the DLC.
- Campaign is fun and enjoyable (weight 0.58): Players consistently describe the new campaign as enjoyable, fun, and pretty good. It provides a satisfying experience for those returning to the game.
- DLC offers excellent value (weight 0.51): The DLC is considered great value, an excellent addition, and reasonably priced for the content it offers. It is solid for players wanting more story and gameplay.
- Map design is excellent (weight 0.5): The third map and the four campaign maps are praised for interesting design, secrets, and varied challenges. Improved map visualization and unique mechanics add to the enjoyment.
- Risen mechanics are fun and useful (weight 0.47): The new Risen feature is cool and fun, and the mechanic is finally made useful and playable. Summoning large squads of risen and buffing undead units creates a satisfying power fantasy.
- Necromancer power fantasy is satisfying (weight 0.45): Playing as a necromancer with overpowered units and artifacts feels great, especially with Kastus's set that makes you feel like a lord of the dead. The combination of new hero and equipment creates a satisfying numerical power.
- Story integrates lore and factions (weight 0.45): The campaign ties together characters and plot points from previous DLCs and the base game, integrating Roots and Vanir content into the narrative. It enriches the worldbuilding and gives new factions screen time.
- Missions are varied and well-designed (weight 0.45): Objectives are varied, missions are non-linear, and each level requires different strategies. The scenarios are very good, especially the last two, and the first three missions are lore-rich and fun.
- Kastus Maal is engaging protagonist (weight 0.4): Kastus is an enjoyable and well-written character, with a dramatic personal story that is incredibly well told. His characterization and lore development are excellent.
- DLC delivers substantial story content (weight 0.36): Unlike earlier DLC that focused on factions and buildings, this DLC provides a full story experience with more narrative content. The story is a major focus and is handled well.
- Quality on par with original campaigns (weight 0.34): The DLC is of the same quality as the solo campaign and on par with the originals, with better staging and storytelling. It is even considered better than some of the original campaigns.
- New mechanics are well integrated (weight 0.28): The new mechanics, such as the artifact-set-based mechanic and unique skills, are well integrated with the narrative and feel maturely handled. The Call the Faithful skill is an interesting mechanic.
- Story offers surprising depth and twists (weight 0.28): The story is surprisingly good, with a narrative twist that differs from expectations. It presents consequences of blind rage and loss, and the ending is surprising and perfect.
- Gameplay is tactically and strategically rich (weight 0.28): The game is tactically and strategically wonderful, with faction units joining the party and different strategies required for each level. The gameplay respects player choice and offers a decent challenge.
- Characterization and writing are excellent (weight 0.28): The writing is good, with excellent characterization and lore development. The campaign writing shows nice character depth, and the story revisits old characters effectively.
- Artifacts and items are enjoyable (weight 0.22): New artifacts and objects are always good, and the artifacts in stage 3 of the campaign are excellent. They are fun to use and add to the overall experience.
- Loth faction changes are pleasing (weight 0.22): The changes to the Loth faction, including the addition of the Unrisen as a useful part of the roster, are pleasing. The DLC for the Loth Baronies is great.
- Campaign offers full undead playthrough (weight 0.16): The DLC provides a full playthrough as the undead, letting you fight all factions in the game. This adds replayability and variety to the experience.
- Music and atmosphere are wonderful (weight 0.09): The game has wonderful music and atmosphere that enhance the overall experience. This contributes to the immersive quality of the campaign.
- Base game faction playstyle is fresh (weight 0.09): Playing as a base game faction offers a unique and fresh playstyle that adds variety. This provides a new perspective on familiar factions.

Common complaints:
- Final chapter overwhelmed by enemy stacks (weight 0.35): The final chapter throws excessive tier 3 stacks such as 70 faey queens and mother trees at the player, making it nearly unbeatable and abandoning the risen-conversion mechanic for those units. Conquered towns are also overrun by these strong stacks.
- Root Master battles are unfair and tedious (weight 0.34): Fighting Root Masters is miserable and feels unfair, dragging on for 30 rounds or 20 minutes with little agency. Massed archers and acid clouds wipe out armies, and there is no option to avoid the encounter.
- Mission 4 punishes unprepared players (weight 0.22): Mission 4 is very difficult because the Root Master crushes unprepared players, forcing a restart after the first failed attempt. Players who did not focus on the right school must endure humiliation.
- Final mission side objective is unhinged (weight 0.21): Finding 10 random unmarked graveyard-like spots is bad design that requires stalling the main objective and slowly moving heroes across the map. The bonuses are pointless.
- Recent DLCs feel stale and underwhelming (weight 0.21): Recent DLCs have been underwhelming and the game is beginning to feel stale, with each new update feeling like more of the same. The team is not considering adding new spells.
- Small bugs and polish issues (weight 0.19): Small script bugs and a crookedly displayed new ability text detract from polish. Two or three bugs crashed the game, requiring loading a save.
- Achievements and artifacts are problematic (weight 0.19): Finding ten graveyards and five shrines for achievements is difficult, and only a couple of new artifacts appear in normal generation. Kastus's set is missing from the codex.
- Localization has untranslated lines (weight 0.14): Localization has untranslated lines in places, especially in the last mission and the fourth mission, which harms the experience for non-English players.
- Story DLC format is controversial (weight 0.13): Story DLCs for strategy games are a controversial addition compared to map sets, artifacts, music, and new races. The base game's single-player story was too simple with one-liner dialogue.
- Missing crabs and minor omissions (weight 0.11): Crabs are missing from the game, and the campaign falls short of the original Loth missions with Hillar's charisma.
- Final battle has frustrating outcome (weight 0.08): Losing the final battle against Faye's wielder does not lead to a good ending, which is frustrating for players who invested in the campaign.
- Fleeing enemy heroes are annoying (weight 0.08): Enemy heroes who flee after a defeat and return later with a new army are very annoying, adding unnecessary friction to battles.

Gameplay feedback:
- Adds four-mission story campaign (weight 0.97): The DLC introduces a self-contained story campaign consisting of four connected missions with narrative content that expands the game's lore. The campaign features non-linear objectives and conveys each faction's motivations.
- Adds Risen mechanic (weight 0.53): Defeated human enemies become Risen, which can be summoned as a free passive stream onto the main character. This mechanic makes the Risen playable and enables a full undead army.
- Focuses on Loth faction (weight 0.47): The campaign is centered on the Loth faction and changes or improves its playstyle. It builds on the previous Roots and Vanir DLC and brings other DLC factions into the story.
- Enables powerful necromancer power fantasy (weight 0.47): The campaign lets players drown enemies in bodies of their own men, with Kastus becoming overpowered in missions 2 and 4. The unique skill Call the Faithful gives him a strong start and enhances Risen further.
- Adds new artifacts and artifact sets (weight 0.47): New artifacts and objects are added, including an artifact set focused on the Barony of Loth. Kastus's artifact set is narrowly focused but powerful and fun, and set-based gameplay is central to missions 3 and 4.
- Introduces new wielder Kastus Maal (weight 0.37): A new Loth wielder named Kastus Maal is added. He is a necromancer resurrected after dying in battle, and the player controls him as the protagonist.
- Introduces new mechanics and skills (weight 0.36): The DLC adds new mechanics such as passive dead body generation per turn and new skills. It also introduces new research, buildings, artifacts with set bonuses, and world buildings.
- Features zombie horde gameplay (weight 0.36): Players can mass little zombies into a swarm that snowballs from hundreds to thousands, flattening the map. In the late game, one can bring no other troops besides zombies, and a unique map commands only zombie hordes.
- Adds story and lore content (weight 0.35): The DLC contains substantial narrative content, interactions, and text that expand the game's lore. It follows a dramatic story of reclaiming lands and learning the fate of Kastus's family.
- Includes challenging difficulty options (weight 0.34): The campaign offers Worthy and Overwhelming difficulty settings, as well as a Heavy difficulty setting. It is fairly long and demanding.
- Offers varied objectives and branching (weight 0.29): The campaign features varied objectives, non-linear missions, and branching solutions for story progression. The final mission includes a side objective to find 10 unmarked spots on the map.
- Enables Risen-based build for Loth (weight 0.24): The DLC makes the Risen mechanic playable and enables a Risen-based build for Loth gameplay that can clear the entire campaign. Kastus Maal also enables an unrisen build for Barony.
- Combat features magic and abilities (weight 0.22): Combat uses magic schools including Arcane, essence theft, magic protection, and physical buffs. Enemies use archer stacks and acid cloud abilities, and combat includes slow and root status effects.
- Zombies can be teleported and push enemies (weight 0.16): Zombies can be teleported and enemies pushed back. Movement-range artifacts for troops enable an opening rush with the little-zombie swarm.
- Adds a new hero and equipment (weight 0.16): The DLC adds a new hero and new orange equipment. It also adds a new skill that passively generates several dead bodies per turn.
- Party composition can mix factions (weight 0.16): Party composition can include units from other factions. The campaign brings factions added by other DLCs into the story.
- Other wielders struggle against enemies (weight 0.15): Other wielders have weaker armies and struggle against enemies. Kastus with the set is a balance concern when there are humans to rise.
- No new spells added (weight 0.14): The game has spells, but no new spells are being added. Battle magic is weak except for destroying ballistae.

Performance notes:
- Game crash bugs (weight 0.09): Players report two or three bugs that cause the game to crash. These crashes disrupt play sessions and negatively affect stability.

Recommendations:
- Appeals to base-game fans (weight 0.3): Several comments recommend the content specifically to players who enjoyed the original campaign or base game.
- Strongly recommended by reviewers (weight 0.25): Multiple reviewers give a clear thumbs-up and label the content as highly recommended, including a general recommendation to everyone.
- Worth the asking price (weight 0.24): Reviewers consider the content worth buying at full price and say the DLC justifies its cost.
- Must-have for single-player fans (weight 0.17): Reviewers describe it as essential for anyone hungry for single-player content and as a must-buy alongside the faction DLCs.
- Deepens lore and characters (weight 0.17): The DLC is praised for letting players explore the world's history and characters more deeply, and the story alone is considered worth the purchase.
- Adds content for SoC players (weight 0.16): Reviewers recommend it to players who want more content while playing SoC, and some support the developer through the purchase.

Other player notes:
- Story-focused DLC expansion (weight 0.37): The DLC is a story-driven expansion for Songs of Conquest that continues from the base game's narrative rather than adding a new faction or campaign system. It expands the lore through narrative content.
- Short but enjoyable campaign (weight 0.36): The campaign offers roughly six hours of content, described as relatively short but comparable to a standard campaign length. Despite the length, it provides hours of enjoyment.
- Positive campaign storytelling quality (weight 0.31): Reviewers praise the campaign's staging, storytelling, and writing, comparing it favorably to the original faction campaigns, especially the Barony of Loth. The base game story is considered much better told here than in the original.
- Developer support appreciated (weight 0.29): Reviewers appreciate that the studio continues to support the game with narrative content and hope to see more content of this kind. Some bought the DLC primarily to support the developers.
- Compared to Heroes III (weight 0.28): The gameplay and artifacts are reminiscent of Heroes of Might and Magic III, and the expansion reminds the reviewer of Sandro's campaign. The DLC adds content that makes the future of Songs of Conquest look bright.
- Loth faction content extended (weight 0.27): The Barony of Loth now has 10 wielders while other factions have 9, and its story compares well to the strongest original faction campaigns. The game previously received many faction DLCs, and Vanir and Roots factions will not be getting a campaign.
- Reasonable pricing praised (weight 0.24): The DLC is sold at a human-friendly price point and offers a small amount of content for a small price. The developers took the DLC price survey into account.
- Depressing and mature story (weight 0.23): The story deals with serious themes such as abuse of power and hatred, and the ending of Rise Eternal is quite depressing, calling into question the fate of some factions. The protagonist makes a big mistake and is swallowed by hatred.
- Final chapter balance issue (weight 0.18): The only significant criticism is the final chapter's balance, which prevented a positive review despite otherwise strong content. The final mission side objective only rewards an achievement.
- Future Yulan content anticipated (weight 0.15): The reviewer looks forward to future content involving Yulan. The DLC adds story content that makes the future of Songs of Conquest look bright.
- Long development time (weight 0.14): The campaign took two years to release, but the wait resulted in a longer Tale compared with the original campaigns.
- Developer skill growth noted (weight 0.09): The developers have grown in skill since the game's release, as reflected in the improved storytelling and staging of this DLC compared to the original campaigns.
- Quest issues fixed (weight 0.08): Issues with the restoration quest were fixed by the developer, showing ongoing support and responsiveness.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.13): Players are satisfied by returning to a gripping story with varied, non-linear missions and a reasonable price for the content. The DLC's extra campaign, unique zombie-only map and artifact mechanic, and Kastus's meaningful story arc provide the additional lore they wanted.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.12): Players enjoy the necromancer power fantasy, especially summoning massive zombie swarms and using Kastus's Risen-enhancing abilities. The new campaign's solid self-contained story, tactical combat, and faction changes add fun and fresh perspective.
- Frustration (weight 0.09): Frustration stems from the final chapter's unbalanced enemy stacks and overwhelming welders, while the Risen mechanic makes the campaign too easy and removes tactical depth. Battles drag on with slowing effects and long waits, and mission 4 punishes players who did not specialize correctly.
- Disappointment (weight 0.08): Disappointment arises because the Risen mechanic is abandoned in the last chapter, and the story and protagonist feel weak and unengaging compared with the main campaign. The DLC is short and launched in a rough state, adding to the letdown.
- Hope (weight 0.07): Players hope to see more longer Tales of this quality and more content built on the characters' lore. They want future campaigns and DLCs to follow the same trend, making the future of Songs of Conquest feel bright.
- Enthusiasm (weight 0.04): Enthusiasm comes from an excellent story paired with interesting new mechanics and well-designed maps. The Loth Baronies DLC is seen as a great addition with fun scenarios and rich campaign lore.
- Excitement (weight 0.04): Excitement is driven by the fresh playstyle of the base game faction and the new Risen feature with overpowered Kastus gameplay. The campaign's lore ties together characters and story threads from previous DLC and original campaigns, and new factions are intriguing.
- Mild disappointment (weight 0.04): Mild disappointment comes from the DLC adding few new features and only an okay new hero, with a predictable and cliche story. Localization issues such as untranslated lines and text display problems also detract.
- Fun (weight 0.04): Players have fun with the great necromancer power fantasy, using new items and powers to snowball overpowered zombie armies. Summoning massive squads of risen and returning to Songs of Conquest is a lot of fun.
- Appreciation (weight 0.03): Appreciation goes to the studio for supporting the game with story-driven content. Despite the small amount of added content, strong character and lore development and integration of mechanics with narrative are valued.
- Amusement (weight 0.03): Amusement comes from the plot where the protagonist is blinded by hatred and power, and the humorous tone of the pros and cons, including the missing crabs joke. The irony that a small DLC took longer to make than a new faction yet remains unpolished also amuses.
- Surprise (weight 0.03): Surprise is caused by the story being better than expected and its ending catching the reviewer off guard. The team not considering adding new spells also surprised players.
- Admiration (weight 0.02): Admiration is earned by storytelling, dialogue, and map design that surpass some original campaigns. Kastus Maal's story is told with exceptional depth.
- Joy (weight 0.02): Joy comes from improved map visualization and the fun of playing as the undead with Kastus's set while fighting all factions.
- Fascination (weight 0.01): Fascination is driven by the expanded game lore.
- Irritation (weight 0.01): Irritation is caused by enemy heroes fleeing after defeat and returning later with a new army.
- Boredom (weight 0.01): Boredom sets in because the default strategy of massing Risen solves the campaign and grows old quickly.
- Disgust (weight 0.01): Disgust is directed at the miserable Root Master fights.
- Anger (weight 0.01): Anger is caused by the developer including an encounter the reviewer finds unbearable.
- Approval (weight 0.01): Approval is given for high-quality mission design and story.}