Game: Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
Genre: RPG
System: Steam (Windows) (Also available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox)
Developers | Publishers: Rabbit & Bear Studios | 505 Games
Controller Support: Full
Price: US $49.99 | UK £44.99 | EU € 49,99
Release Date: April 23rd, 2024
A review code was used, with many thanks to XOGO Consulting.
It is impossible to discuss or fairly review Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes without first talking about a classic video game series called Suikoden. It’s one of the most underrated JRPG franchises in history.
From its origins on the PS1, it’s a beautifully designed, politically intricate series that sees you collecting over a hundred heroes to overthrow corrupt, authoritarian governments. This premise is borrowed from a classic Chinese novel called Water Margin, a novel so important to that country’s history that it’s actually on par with the original story of Dragon Ball’s hero, Son Goku.
Eiyuden Chronicle is a game that exists because the creators of this long-dormant series went to Kickstarter to tell JRPG fans, in careful terms that wouldn’t infringe on Konami’s ownership of the Suikoden rights, that they were going to make a game as close to that classic as possible.
That led to one of the biggest video game Kickstarter successes to date, and now, this homage to an era that ended several consoles ago is in our sweaty, old-school hands. Does it stick to the landing? Do I give it two thumbs up? My friends, not to spoil our finale, but I am here to gush delightedly at you.
Return To The ‘90s With Eiyuden Chronicle
My fervour for this game needs to be tempered up front by the reminder that, from the first screens you’ll see, this is a classic JRPG, with all that it implies. That means, in general, that the game is based on the strategic, turn-based combat familiar to players who’ve been deep in the genre since games like Dragon Quest.
Suikoden fans will suspect, correctly, that this means all the other series-specific foibles are in place. That means everything from special battle combos between characters who have a history with each other to one-on-one duels to rebuilding a hidden fortress and brief segments of grand strategy warfare, where you’re commanding legions against the enemy forces. It sounds like a lot to take in, but it’s doled out at a smooth pace, and tutorials lead you through these subsections far more clearly than what we had back in the day.
It also means that the general gameplay is sturdy stuff. Playing on normal is a time portal to 1998, requiring minor grinding and solving puzzles to progress, paying close attention to enemy tactics, and prepping for boss areas that are clearly telegraphed in classic ways. Find a save spot deep in the dungeon? Did you just get some healing herbs from a chest? Heal up before you go forward because I guarantee a boss is coming up. Afterwards, save, heal up again, and consider what’s going on before you move forward to finish the dungeon. Yes, sometimes you will get two bosses in a row, and you had darn well better take advantage of the chance to leave and rest.
That scenario is how I got my first game over, which offers you a chance to rematch, reload from your last save (mine was before the first boss of the pair! I failed my own teachings!!), or just kick to the title screen for a breather. But these old-school crunches are also fairly paced, well-telegraphed, and all part of that classic JRPG experience.
Eiyuden Chronicle Has A Large Cast of Characters
Part of the charm of Eiyuden Chronicle, especially for fans prepared to treat it like it’s secretly Suikoden VI, is that you will collect dozens of unique, sometimes bizarre characters for your rebel cause. The game’s title boasts at least a hundred; Suikoden always had a firm 108 because of the Water Margin connection – and they’re peppered everywhere for you to find.
It’s also cause for a lot of backtracking because sometimes characters may be seen early but aren’t recruitable until after certain events. Hint: Go back through the early game mines once those terrible things happen. You’ll know when because a kid will keep talking about looking for stragglers that might be stuck there.
To help players, one easily found recruit is an Oracle who will guide you to characters you haven’t come across yet. A Q&A session with Eiyuden’s developers also clarifies that, for nervous old-school fans, one gimmick didn’t come back: the time-gated recruit. Suikoden always had at least one person that you needed to reach within a certain amount of time when starting the game, or else they would be lost, and with that, your chance at getting the best ending. I won’t miss that stress.
Without spoilers, I am aware of one individual that can potentially be missed in Eiyuden Chronicle, but they’re found close to the end game. Spoiler-free recruitment guides are already out there, and for completionists, that’s the only thing I recommend keeping an eye on.
Eiyuden Chronicle Performs Well Despite Its Throwback Style
Remembering that this is an old-school game makes the save system a perfect segue into a quick technical overview. Though there’s an autosave system present, I have yet to figure out what it does besides adding a safety net in case of some emergency I can’t even fathom. Otherwise, your save system involves hard saving your game at inns and glowing checkpoint orbs. There’s no formal suspend and no quicksave, so each journey out from your home base should come with the classical reminders to save early and save often.
Despite its decades-old tone, Eiyuden Chronicle is designed for modern hardware and gleams with that achievement. Pixel characters and monsters are so finely detailed that they look cel-shaded, and 3D environments are colorful, and, in battle, unusually camera-dynamic. The overworld map is oddly sparse but bright and fun to navigate. It runs at 60fps on a Steam Deck, with only an occasional judder that may be attributed to the reviewer’s beta build I was playing. Load times are frequent but short, taking just long enough for me to remember the crunchy disk whirs of a PlayStation 2.
It’s also natively designed around controller play, like its forebears. That bodes well for most of its console versions, but the game’s sheer size and graphical fidelity make me cautious about the Nintendo Switch iteration. That’s outside my purview, however, and I can’t offer any opinion or comment on that, except that the developers have said that the Switch version will be locked to 30fps. As a turn-based game that doesn’t need quick reflexes and high latency, hopefully, that’ll help make Eiyuden Chronicle accessible to everyone.
Conclusion
It won’t take long to fall in love with Nowa and his initial teammates on the Watch, and the bittersweet story beats come achingly fast in the first act of the game. Those who played the prologue game, Eiyuden Chronicles Rising, won’t have to wait long to meet some familiar faces and learn the answers to some of the questions left hanging there. From there, the journey is a comfortably familiar but emotional one, where power-hungry villains separate friends and family under the banner of a war that threatens to grow out of control.
It’s a beefy game, too, with backers who already got their copy claiming that they’re clocking 60 hours on a fast-paced playthrough, and I’m suggesting that around 80 is going to be a fair hour count for most players. Chock full of stuff to do, things to explore, and characters to meet and collect; for some of us, this is the game we wanted when we were teens and still enjoying our last free summers. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is a fantastic JRPG, wearing its old-school quirks like a badge of pride, with even its deliberate annoyances feeling like a wool flannel shirt. I can safely say it’s a terrific game and one its backers will welcome home with delight.
Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up
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Thanks for the great review, Margaret!