Plot
The game follows the events of its predecessor, The Case of the Golden Idol, which concerned the supernatural powers of the Golden Idol, a relic of the Lemurian empire, and its use and misuse by figures in the eighteenth century. The Rise of the Golden Idol is set in the 1970s, long after the historical use of the Golden Idol has fallen into myth. During this time, the Idol had been sold as a trinket and left on a shelf for centuries.
Around 1977, spiritualist Tesa Nevari has learned of the Golden Idol and has collected its parts. Claiming she can use the power of the Idol, she establishes the Harmony Foundation with funding from the OPIG Corporation to try to purify her followers, but fails to assemble the Idol properly due to her lack of Lemurian culture. OPIG seizes the Harmony Foundation, including parts of the idol. An advisor to OPIG, professor Oriel Toussaint, recognizes the Idol and helps to instruct a new team at OPIG how to properly assemble and use it. The team includes project leader Marie Westlake, supervisor Tim Spender, engineer Jack Nowak and recently demoted janitor Eugene Marmot, the latter who accidentally discovers the correct way to engage the Idol, nearly setting the lab on fire. Eugene's superiors are impressed with Eugene risk-taking, and he is soon made project lead to the dismay of the others.
The team eventually understands the ability for the Idol to move memories between people as well as to Lemurian disc artifacts, though this causes Oriel's memories to be replaced by that of Echo Secunda, an ancient Lemurian, during testing, and he disappears. OPIG also discover that the Idol's powers can function over audio signals such as through television. The parts of the Idol are assembled into the 'Information-Dispatching Optical Lens' (I.D.O.L.), and OPIG plans to use it during a large sporting event to send a subliminal message to all viewers to draw them to one of their beverage products. However, Marie and Tim plan to sabotage the I.D.O.L. by using a different, repuslive memory of the drink to discredit Eugene. Separate from all this, Jack has been secretly testing the I.D.O.L. on homeless vagrants, leavign them dead and void of memories in his tests, and believes that he can use the I.D.O.L. for a greater purpose by sending the memories of his intelligent uncle Isaac to all viewers and creating an intelligent society. On the day of the game, Eugene discovers the potential sabotage, disconnecting the signal such that only Jack is impacted by its effects and gains Isaac's memories. Tesa and a group of her followers barge into the station and destroy the I.D.O.L.
The Sins of New Wells
Echo, still in Oriel's body, had been placed in an insane asylum but escaped; on the run, he steals parts from the destroyed I.D.O.L. to create a weapon called the Disarranger that can rearranges both objects and memories. He is caught by a local gang overseen by businesswoman Hildegard Bauer, and offers to help improve the power of the Disarranger for her purposes. Bauer is attempting to gain the trust of mayor Moira Meredith by using her gang to weaken a rival one, secretly acquiring properties to start a large illegal drug empire. The rival gang learns of Hildegard's plans and send evidence to Moira, who announces a press conference. Hildegard intends to have Echo use the Disarranger on Moira just before the conference to scramble her memories, but detective Roy Samson, who has been following Echo since his escape, comes upon and disrupts the plan. Roy gives chase to Echo, who uses the Disarranger but it affects both of them. Echo and Oriel's memories become mixed up as he flees, while Roy still functions as a detective, albeit with translation help from his partner.
The Lemurian Phoenix
In the 1940s, with the Lumerian empire, Its king, Lutri Manzek, sought to bring the leader of the regional faith, first sentinel Pravi Nagasai, as his main advisor to make up for Lutri's father trying to drive the country into more modern times. Pravi was revered as he had apparently been saved from being burned alive by a fire in his temple by a sudden rush of water from a nearby waterfall, an event that had become the foundation of their religion. Pravi fathered twins Ori and Koi. Koi, seeking power for himself, secretly poisons Pravi, which makes both Koi and Ori the first sentinals. While Pravi's followers stay with Ori, Koi gains new followers primarily from non-Lumerians, and he uses trickery to demonstrate false magical abilities to sway them.
Ori learns of Koi's patricide, and challenges Koi to a traditional challenge at Koi's temple, where both will be burned alive, like Pravi, but only the true First Sentinal will survive. Koi agrees, with plans that his trusted aide Jamati Pirria pass him a key that will let him escape to a secret bunker in the temple. However, it is revealed Jamati is the son of a famous magician couple which had been executed by Lutri for doubting Pravi's story, and he himself hides in the bunker, waits for the fire to be put out, and then emerges, claiming to be the First Sentinal. Accepted into that position by Lutri, Jamati is later able to kill Lutri and escape. Meanwhile, Tesa, one of Koi's followers, discovers the Golden Idol among Koi's temple ruins, and returns to meet Oriel about it, who discovers the Idol is just a fake.
The Age of Restraint
Far in the past, ancient Lumeria was a technologically-advanced society, though many feared the advance of technology may make them too powerful. Society is overseen by Senitals that follow a strict code and confiscate any artifacts that they do not know the purpose of, and assure that Lumeria follows its restraint policy that prevents interference with the rest of the world.
One of the Sentinals, Heco Sift, personally disagrees with the restraint policy, and makes plans to steal all the confiscated artifacts with help from the outside as to start a movement to conquer the world. He sets up another Sentinal, Gimgim Kerra, with possession of an unknown artifact, giving him the ability to execute his plan. Though Heco manages to gather all the artifacts including the Golden Idol, the plan goes awry, and during Heco's escape, the craft he and his accompliaces are in is damaged. The other Sentinals program a gem-gathering robot to seek out Heco and kill him. Heco's accompliaces turn on him, using the Golden Idol to transfer his memories to a Lemurian data disc, since he is the only person that knows the purpose of the artifacts. However, the accompliaces are killed when they use a faulty teleportation device used for harvesting that fuses their bodies together. The data disc used to store Heco's memories is revealed to be the one that supposedly held Echo's memories that was transferred into Oriel in the future.
Release
The Rise of the Golden Idol was first announced in development during The Game Awards in December 2023. [2] The full game was released on 12 November 2024, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, as well as for mobile platforms Android and iOS through Netflix. [3]
Four downloadable content packs are planned for release across 2025. [4] The first, The Sins of New Wells, was released on March 4, 2025. [5] The second, The Lemurian Phoenix, was released on May 13, 2025. The third, The Age of Restraint, was released on July 15, 2025.
