Chronicles of Everlasting Heroes: 100 Heroes is exactly what its crowdfunding campaign promises: in all but its name, it’s a successor to Water Margin, built by the same team of veterans who first made the classic in 1995 . As such, Heroes 100 is another huge twist on the party-centric RPG. It tells another war-torn story about resistance to empire, interspersed with silly moments where an Australian kangaroo wearing an eyepatch might shout made-up words.
And – because doing anything else would be considered blasphemy – there are over 100 more party members to find, get close to, and experiment with in your party of 6 characters. Reclusive hunters, kings, talking sharks (here’s Shia Arc), a travel bag with glowing Java eyes, your sweet aunt who does nothing but bake cherry pies – they’re all here, and The sheer size of the cast remains a defining factor in the plot. Eiyu-Suiko-den game group split.
Trying to capture them all is reminiscent of the fun of a collectathon as you quickly scan the screen for signs of unusually detailed NPCs to recruit. (No interview process required – everyone can enter, including alleged criminals.) They can be found almost anywhere. Just complete the main quest and you’ll get dozens of them. Dozens more sit on standby around town until you walk into their presence. Some only appear in the open world when you progress to a certain level or meet prerequisites.
Everything comes at a price, though, so most recruitable characters will ask you to scratch their back before paying them back. It’s a shame that Eiyuden Chronicle often leaves you in the bitter MMO-like territory of catching such an eccentric character. Seriously, a bag!
Side characters will often ask you to do mundane things, like kill five wild boars or collect a special type of egg that can only be found on the corpse of a certain enemy. That doesn’t sound exciting, especially when revisiting a dungeon or forest you explored hours before. It definitely removes the feeling that some of these characters aren’t just pawns – they’re more like dangling rewards at the end of the mission – which makes Unicorn Overlord and its endless cast sting all the more.
But Eiyuden Chronicle’s One Hundred Heroes still delivers its fair share of miss-able moments that are as gripping as anything in the main quest, from secret bosses to completely skippable mini-games (Card Game, Sand Ship Competitions, fantasy Bakugan clones) all have their own special features with vignettes.
I’m glad these big highlights sit alongside Yawn Factory, though, as all 100 heroes will have a cumulative impact on the game. Their presence forces you to take it all in, notice it all, truly discover the world and talk to everyone, including passing villagers or pet rats or bags you might have walked past in any other game. Of course, sometimes diligent exploration only yields cooking recipes, but I was more than happy to explore every nook and cranny for opportunities to discover new openings in the map.
I think that’s another piece of the puzzle: maps. Chronicles of Everyouth never lists every unfinished quest you may encounter. When a hulking mercenary demands 100,000 gold, or when a capybara dad asks you to come back after building a spa at headquarters, the game doesn’t record it for future reference. Again, listening to the world and learning its intangible ways of connecting always pays off here.
So while Eiyuden Chronicle highlights its three main faces in the box art, the titular army is what kept this train rattling through my 50 or so hours of play (though there’s plenty more things to do).
Speaking of the game, The 100 initially tells the story of Nova, a new recruit in the League of Nations, and Thane, a rising star in the Imperial Army, who first team up for a peacetime mission to commemorate their new alliance. Shadowy maneuvers and whispers of betrayal soon plunge the world into war again, placing our two main stars on opposite sides of the battlefield as Nova is forced to lead the resistance. Our lead trio was then joined by Forest Guardian Marissa.
All three characters have meaningful moments of introspection, and we certainly know more about their inner lives than some of the hundreds of heroes whose personalities boil down to lovable anime mages or… bags. (Optional friends often insert cutscenes with unique lines, a detail that always puts a smile on my face.)
Unfortunately, these three characters also often get relegated to the background, neglecting the really interesting stuff: the political drama. “Eternal Journey Chronicles” starts off as metaphorical as possible, but you soon start to see darker crevices and political webs abound. Even Nova’s rise to leadership was carefully planned. Layers of intrigue, hidden agendas, betrayals, moles, massive ambushes, and regicide plots make Chronicles of a Popcorn-worthy political soap opera, which I think makes up for the fact that our trio sometimes gets caught up in The facts of war table negotiations.
Eiyuden Chronicle spends almost as much time clicking through dialogue as it does typical monster attacks. Combat lets you command six characters at the start of combat, choosing between basic attacks, special abilities, magic, or defensive options (usually guard, dodge, or charged movement).
The turn order is displayed at the top of the screen so you can plan correctly to eliminate enemies before they move or protect friends from certain death. I wish Eiyuden Chronicle would go a step further, though, and borrow a page from the Grandia or Child of Light playbook in order to purposefully stall the enemy’s actions. Attacks will occasionally randomly stun enemies, causing them to skip a step, but there’s no creative plan if you let that happen.
My biggest pet peeve is that the combat in Everlasting Chronicles is almost mind-numbingly simple for the first dozen or so hours. To be fair, this is just the beginning of this type of game, but for those of you with adult responsibilities, I’d be evil if I didn’t mention it.
The first act is pretty much complete with basic attacks, partly because that’s all you can use. Heroes 100 features a simple substance system in which you equip your characters with “rune lenses” – for example, magic items that provide elemental abilities or stat boosts to party members. As you level up, additional rune slots are unlocked, which means the movement set is very limited early on, and enemy encounters don’t scale you properly.
Take Final Fantasy 4 as an example. The game never lets you build your own team, sometimes letting you deliberately use poor team combinations (a knight, a bard, and a summoner would probably be the stuff of bar jokes if it weren’t for an ineffective team background). But this allows the game to adjust difficulty and force you to adopt new, interesting strategies, because – let’s face it – most of us optimize for fun when given a choice.
This is where Eiyuden Chronicle falls slightly under the weight of over 100 playable characters. The game doesn’t know what your party is capable of before a fight, so most encounters are flattened to allow any team to survive. Presenting endurance tests and high health is the most common way Eiyuden Chronicle squeezes out difficulty, though at least the boss battles usually have a pretty fun gimmick.
Well, “Heroes of Everlasting Journey” is a grower. Combat gets wilder when you have more different moves at your disposal. As the list grows, hosting a party becomes more fun. Even your upgradable base—which starts out as a battered pile of empty bricks—hosts delightful character moments, skippable threads, and zany activities once you invest enough resources into it. .
Ultimately, Chronicles of Eternal Journey: 100 Heroes solves a very unique problem. Comfortable, nostalgic, and sometimes downright grandiose, it charts a twisting story of resistance that spans an entire continent and features dozens of key characters. While it doesn’t seriously retcon the formula established thirty years ago, those who stick around throughout its unwieldy length can look forward to a retro RPG with plenty of interesting secrets hidden away.
505 Games provided a copy of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes for review.
