Hardly any game have I waited as long for as Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. Suikoden II is, in my opinion, the greatest game of all time, and when it was announced that a group of former developers of the series would be making a spiritual sequel, I was very excited. It was like Christmas, especially since Konami seems to have completely forgotten the series’ existence.
And there was no doubt where the inspiration came from when I first sat down to enjoy the ride. A journey that started off a bit slowly, which had more to do with me personally than with the quality of the game. The beginning is slow and it takes about eight hours before anything interesting happens. During this time I started to find little things that I didn’t like, especially because I always compared it to Suikoden II. When I put that thought aside and looked at the game for what it is, as its own game, it became a very enjoyable ride.
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Nowa, a young man from a small town (what else?), has just joined The Watch, a small militia-like group. He soon becomes a key figure in the attempt to save the world, typical of Japanese role-playing games. If you’ve played the spin-off game Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, whose characters also appear here, you’ll be familiar with the basis of the conflict in Hundred Heroes. These are rune lenses, things that give people magical properties. And when the League of Nations, a group of good nations, comes across a very powerful rune called the Polar Lens, the Empire (as all the bad guys are called) sees their chance to steal it. This naturally leads to war, even though both sides recently signed a peace treaty. The war begins with a foul play by the game’s antagonist, Dux Aldric, who is a copy of Luca Blight from Suikoden II. Unfortunately, one of the few problems I have with Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is that Aldric isn’t nearly as evil as I think the developers wanted him to be. While Luca Blight burns down cities, turns their inhabitants into living pigs and then dismembers them, Aldric does all his terrible things off-screen. He does very, very bad things, but we never get to see them, which takes away from the sense that he’s supposed to be a big, strong, dangerous madman.
The war is in full swing and Nowa has somehow become the leader of the entire alliance, whose base is now an abandoned fortress. To compare it to Suikoden II again, this is where you build up with improvements by recruiting people, from a miner to a cook or someone who sells weapons. These people are what the game title Hundred Heroes suggests. There are an insane amount of characters, all with different personalities and pre-recorded dialogue. Some are recruited and can be used in battles, while others are recruited to help the city grow. Aside from how well written the story is, finding all the characters in the world is almost addictive. Unlike the game I always use as a reference, there is no time pressure on when the different characters can meet each other. Some show up late at night but then stay there until you finish what they wanted before packing up for the fort. You may need everything from providing certain materials to defeating them in a fight to having a specific character in your party. Then there are others that are very difficult to understand and some of which I still struggle with today.
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Once you have chosen your six favorite characters as well as a support that will give you various bonuses, you will go into the battles, which are similar to a classic role-playing game. Of course the usual attacks and defenses are present, but there are also two different types of magic. One of these is the aforementioned runes, which characters are born with or which are hammered into their weapons or accessories. These are magical attacks that cost different SP values. If the character doesn’t use that particular type of attack, the gauge will fill up by one step to a maximum of five, allowing you to use better attacks. Then there are characters who also use normal magic, and therefore there are also MP, of which these attacks cost a certain amount.
The difference from regular turn-based games is that you must select all actions at once before the entire round of actions is played. This means that you have to be more tactical. The turn order is displayed at the top of the screen. So if you need to restore your health before the next enemy attack, you need to cast magic or healing on someone ahead of the enemy in turn order. Likewise, you can also just attack and then use a slow healer to make everyone feel better after an enemy attack if you are sure everyone will survive. I wouldn’t say the game is difficult on normal difficulty, at least I’ve never seen the endgame screen, but one or more of my characters have died several times in battles, mostly because they usually can’t survive multiple hits in the same round.
What strikes me most when playing Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is how much love and material developers Rabbit & Bear Studios put into this game. It all started as a Kickstarter campaign that defeated all goals. They chose to record 60,000 lines of dialogue, including all recruitable characters as well as non-playable characters in various scenes. There is a very powerful soundtrack and a look that suits this type of game perfectly, as well as several mini-games such as fishing, card games, Beyblade (under a different name) and cooking duels (a personal favorite). In addition, there are different types of battles, such as: B. large-scale wars, battlefield wars where units move on a grid, and even duels where there are two options, attack or counter an attack. During duels you have to pay attention to the dialogue, because if an opponent says: “Now you die!”, you have to defend yourself, otherwise your health will disappear faster than you can say the title of the game.
This is definitely a game for a niche gamer, but if you have Game Pass give it a chance because it’s included from day one. For all of us who love games like Suikoden, Breath of Fire, Chrono Trigger and similar ones from the mid-90s, I think you’ll really enjoy this game as it’s a throwback to a bygone era in RPG history. I doubt any game can compete with Suikoden II for me, but with Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, Rabbit & Bear Studios made a very good attempt, especially for the studio’s first game. The most tragic thing is that one of its founders, Yoshitaka Murayama, died just two months ago without his dream of bringing this game to market coming true. I’m sure he was very proud of that game and he had every right to be. Helped write and produce a fantastic title.
