In case you’ve ever performed a Suikoden recreation, it’s onerous to not tear up on the opening sequence of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.
It’s significantly onerous watching this following the passing of sequence creator and the director of this religious successor Yoshitaka Murayama on the age of 55. Character montages, a swelling orchestra, sweeping pictures over huge plains, mountains, and deserts, and battles between buddies and foes – it is a snapshot of Murayama, and Suikoden’s, legacy.
It’s unimaginable to separate Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes from its inspirations; Murayama, who shaped Rabbit & Bear Studios to create this recreation, wrote and directed Suikoden and Suikoden II for the PlayStation (and partially labored on Suikoden III earlier than leaving the undertaking mid-way); Junko Kawano was the lead artist on the unique Suikoden and returned to provide IV, Ways, and V; and Osamu Komuta labored as a programmer on IV and directed Ways and Tierkreis. Junichi Murakami, the final founding father of Rabbit & Bear, is talked about within the credit of V, and is thought for guiding Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. All 4 are distinguished names from Konami’s — and Suikoden’s — previous.
Forward of the sport’s launch on twenty third April 2024, 505 Video games provided us the prospect to go hands-on with a Steam beta construct. And whereas the massively profitable Kickstarter, trailers, and promotional materials have made it clear, lastly getting an opportunity to play this turn-based RPG homage made it abundantly clear: Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is Suikoden in all however identify.
Eiyuden Chronicle, Rising
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes’ beta is basically the opening part of the sport. Consisting of in regards to the first 5 to eight hours of gameplay, it provides you a very good sense of what to anticipate. A number of characters, political tensions, friendships, silliness, and loads of stable turn-based fight.
That makes it fairly totally different to the tame, and transient, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, a prequel that was extra motion RPG and targeted rather more on a single group relatively than a whole continent. Hundred Heroes is far bigger in scope, as you’d count on. Within the beta, you’ve got entry to a number of cities, two full dungeons, a few linear branching paths, and a complete world map. A JRPG world map in 2024? Lovely.
Nowa is the main focus of the opening hours of the sport – a younger boy from a small border village, Nowa is selfless, form, and a self-proclaimed “meddler”. He differs from Suikoden sequence protagonists who’re nearly all the time silent, and his character is infectious. After becoming a member of the Watch, a bunch of mercenaries, Nowa finds himself cooperating with the empire to research some ruins. On the mission, he befriends Seign Kesling, a lieutenant within the military. And the discoveries they make are the main focus of the remainder of the sport.
A JRPG world map in 2024? Lovely.
We’re already in love with the handful of characters we’ve managed to spend a while with. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes hasn’t sacrificed any old-school JRPG silliness for a extra mature plot; we’re positive one is ready for us past the primary few hours, however we may watch martial arts specialist Lian tease Nowa for hours. Each single individual, from Seign’s perceived haughtiness to the wolfman Garr’s grumpy “father of the group” angle had us charmed from the get-go.
A Woven Net
The beta is break up into two halves – the primary few hours give attention to the story and act as a type of tutorial for the sport’s fight mechanics. The second half unleashes you as Noah and the Watch onto the world, to recruit allies to the trigger and get a way of simply what awaits in the principle recreation.
If we will gush for a second, it’s an absolute pleasure to have a fully-explorable world map in a turn-based JRPG for the primary time shortly. Wandering the plains of a shrunk-down world as a bit sprite by no means will get outdated. It’s one of many defining options of any JRPG from our childhoods, and right here, it’s yet one more method that Hundred Heroes wears its coronary heart, and inspirations, on its sleeve.
The fight might be the primary place you’ll spot these Suikoden threads probably the most. You may have as much as six characters in battle directly – three within the entrance, three within the again. Firstly of a combat, you’ll be able to instruct your characters to make use of regular assaults, use expertise by way of the Rune-Lens menu (equipable objects that grant expertise and magic to your characters), or use a singular protection command that may vary from dodging magical shields, and even charging up assaults, relying on the character.
Rune-Lens assaults price SP, which you recuperate by performing common assaults. Some magic-based expertise corresponding to therapeutic spells and elemental assaults eat MP and SP, making useful resource administration key to fights. This solely actually turns into a problem with high-cost therapeutic spells as MP-healing objects have been a bit scarce throughout our time with the sport, however there are greater than sufficient HP-healing objects to steadiness issues out.
You may see the flip order of each character and enemy on the prime of the display, so planning out your character’s assaults to stop your foe from making a transfer is essential. It provides a bit factor of technique to battle, and you’ll even have an effect on the flip order relying in your actions. It’s easy however extraordinarily efficient, and watching the flip order play out after you’ve made your decisions is satisfying – significantly with a number of the gorgeous spritework and animations on supply.
Stars of Future
We received to mess around with ten characters, and all of them felt a bit bit totally different. Nowa is a quick attacker who balances offence and defence completely. Garr, a wolfman, is a principally pure bodily attacker and far slower than Nowa, however his Rune-Lens ability permits him to spice up his assault for 3 turns. Then there’s Mellore who specialises in light-based long-range assaults and might hit the entrance or again row of enemies no matter the place she is.
Some characters will ultimately get entry to Hero Combos, lethal assaults that mix two or extra characters’ expertise at the price of each their SP bars. Nowa and Seign group up for a robust group-wide assault, whereas Nowa and the marital artist Lian pair up for a combo with a possible crucial hit. These are enjoyable additions and are a nod to Suikoden’s Unite Assaults, however as with its religious predecessor, many of those are extra for his or her fashionable animations and added results than their harm.
Hundred Heroes wears its coronary heart, and inspirations, on its sleeve.
Having performed a couple of Suikoden video games earlier than, we all know how essential group composition will be – significantly as your celebration grows. We didn’t get to mess around a lot right here due to the best way the beta splits the characters – we had seven within the second half after recruiting some additional characters, so selecting between having two mages or having a mage and a ranger was the one actual alternative we needed to make right here.
The methods you recruit these extra characters will be fairly assorted. The short-tempered cleric Francesca may be our favorite simply due to how her character can do a fast 180 on the click on of a finger, however her recruitment quest merely requires you to set off a cutscene. In distinction, for Mellore, you must observe her and undergo a dungeon to defeat a boss to get her to affix the Watch. It’s precisely the type of facet questing and exploration that we like right here.
Memory
The cities and dungeons of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes additionally borrow from the classics in the very best methods. The bottom city, the place you spend nearly all of time within the second half of the beta, is large however it’s additionally stuffed with folks to speak to, outlets to go to, and many stunning visuals. Actually, the mix of pixel artwork and 3D backgrounds works extremely effectively and creates a comfy, nostalgic, and trendy look that we love.
Suikoden staple shops corresponding to Rune-Lens outlets, Appraisers, buying and selling posts, and blacksmiths are current – we received relatively excited once we noticed the appraisers store for the primary time, however we have been rapidly upset once we discovered we had nothing to appraise! And the cities fluctuate from small farming hamlets to bustling cobbled streets.
The dungeons are equally easy and evocative of the golden period of JRPGs – branching paths with easy puzzles, hidden treasure chests, and random encounters (with an affordable random encounter price, as well). One dungeon sees you pushing minecarts round, whereas one other had us memorising brief passwords. None of those might be designed to interrupt your mind; they’re enjoyable and breezy.
Days Previous
There’s loads we love about Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes to date, however a couple of issues are lacking for us. Whereas the fight right here is partaking, Suikoden video games are identified for his or her snappy menu-based fight, and whereas Eiyuden Chronicle definitely makes an attempt to observe that custom, at the very least within the beta, issues are a bit slower than we’d like. Going by way of six characters’ assault choices feels a bit sluggish. Auto-battle is at the very least an possibility – and it’s extremely customisable, which means you’ll be able to set character priorities and actions – however going by way of one spherical takes an extended than anticipated.
From what we’ve seen to date, nonetheless, it is a legacy Murayama-san, and the group at Rabbit & Bear will be pleased with.
That is maybe most noticeable with bosses, which add gimmicks to fluctuate up the fights a bit extra. For the primary boss, you must take note of which column the boss goes to assault and conceal behind rocks. For an non-obligatory boss, you will need to select whether or not to summon a magical hammer from a left or proper ebook to hit the boss because it emerges from the bottom. The latter of those gimmicks got here solely all the way down to luck, and there have been no indicators as to the place the boss would pop up. So whereas we applaud the range, it didn’t all the time work.
There are additionally a couple of different parts that, whereas not commonplace in RPGs again within the ‘90s, definitely really feel a bit missed right here. So far as we will inform, you’ll be able to solely save your recreation at save factors or in Inns, which means there’s no saving on the world map. Rune-Lenses can solely be outfitted in Rune-Lens shops. And you’ve got restricted, if shared, stock area. It’s extra beneficiant than it was within the unique Suikoden, and we think about you’ll be capable of develop it in a while in Hundred Heroes, however we ran out of area a few times throughout our seven hours with the sport.
Nonetheless, these seven hours we spent with Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes’ beta solely provided us a slice of what the complete recreation has to supply us. We’re promised base constructing, minigames, and over 100 characters to recruit, starting from celebration members to shopkeepers and extra. And with the carrot dangling some extra critical plot moments from the tip of the beta, we’re wanting to see what the remainder of the sport has in retailer for us — and the way it performs on Change.
From what we’ve seen to date, nonetheless, it is a legacy Murayama-san, and the group at Rabbit & Bear will be pleased with.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes launches on the Change eShop on twenty third April 2024. Will you be recruiting these 100 subsequent month? Tell us within the feedback.
