If you’ve ever performed a Suikoden recreation, it’s exhausting to not tear up on the opening sequence of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.
It’s notably exhausting watching this following the passing of collection creator and the director of this non secular successor Yoshitaka Murayama on the age of 55. Character montages, a swelling orchestra, sweeping photographs over huge plains, mountains, and deserts, and battles between associates and foes – this is a snapshot of Murayama, and Suikoden’s, legacy.
It’s unimaginable to separate Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes from its inspirations; Murayama, who fashioned 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 venture mid-way); Junko Kawano was the lead artist on the unique Suikoden and returned to supply IV, Tactics, and V; and Osamu Komuta labored as a programmer on IV and directed Tactics and Tierkreis. Junichi Murakami, the final founding father of Rabbit & Bear, is talked about within the credit of V, and is thought for steering Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. All 4 are outstanding names from Konami’s — and Suikoden’s — previous.
Ahead of the sport’s launch on twenty third April 2024, 505 Games provided us the possibility 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 title.
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 offers you a extremely good sense of what to anticipate. Lots of characters, political tensions, friendships, silliness, and loads of stable turn-based fight.
That makes it fairly totally different to the tame, and temporary, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, a prequel that was extra motion RPG and centered rather more on a single group quite than a whole continent. Hundred Heroes is a lot bigger in scope, as you’d count on. In the beta, you may have entry to a number of cities, two full dungeons, a few linear branching paths, and a whole world map. A JRPG world map in 2024? Beautiful.
Nowa is the main target of the opening hours of the sport – a younger boy from a small border village, Nowa is selfless, type, and a self-proclaimed “meddler”. He differs from Suikoden collection protagonists who’re virtually at all times silent, and his persona is infectious. After becoming a member of the Watch, a gaggle 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 target of the remainder of the sport.
A JRPG world map in 2024? Beautiful.
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 certain one is ready for us past the primary few hours, however we may watch martial arts specialist Lian tease Nowa for hours. Every 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 Web
The beta is cut up into two halves – the primary few hours deal with 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 primary 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 little 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 means 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 essentially the most. You can have as much as six characters in battle directly – three within the entrance, three within the again. At the beginning of a battle, you possibly can instruct your characters to make use of regular assaults, use abilities by way of the Rune-Lens menu (equipable objects that grant abilities 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 get better by performing common assaults. Some magic-based abilities equivalent to therapeutic spells and elemental assaults devour 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 can see the flip order of each character and enemy on the high of the display, so planning out your character’s assaults to stop your foe from making a transfer is essential. It provides a little bit aspect 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 – notably with a number of the gorgeous spritework and animations on provide.
Stars of Destiny
We obtained to mess around with ten characters, and all of them felt a little bit bit totally different. Nowa is a quick attacker who balances offence and defence completely. Garr, a wolfman, is a largely 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 may hit the entrance or again row of enemies no matter the place she is.
Some characters will finally get entry to Hero Combos, lethal assaults that mix two or extra characters’ abilities at the price of each their SP bars. Nowa and Seign staff 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 Attacks, however as with its non secular predecessor, many of those are extra for his or her fashionable animations and added results than their injury.
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 staff composition may be – notably as your occasion grows. We didn’t get to mess around a lot right here due to the way in which the beta splits the characters – we had seven within the second half after recruiting some further characters, so choosing between having two mages or having a mage and a ranger was the one actual selection we needed to make right here.
The methods you recruit these extra characters may be fairly diverse. The short-tempered cleric Francesca may be our favorite simply due to how her persona 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, it’s essential comply with her and undergo a dungeon to defeat a boss to get her to affix the Watch. It’s precisely the type of aspect questing and exploration that we love right here.
Reminiscence
The cities and dungeons of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes additionally borrow from the classics in the very best methods. The base city, the place you spend the vast majority of time within the second half of the beta, is big nevertheless it’s additionally stuffed with individuals to speak to, outlets to go to, and plenty of lovely visuals. Honestly, the mix of pixel artwork and 3D backgrounds works extremely properly and creates a comfortable, nostalgic, and fashionable look that we love.
Suikoden staple shops equivalent to Rune-Lens outlets, Appraisers, buying and selling posts, and blacksmiths are current – we obtained quite excited after we noticed the appraisers store for the primary time, however we have been rapidly dissatisfied after we discovered we had nothing to appraise! And the cities range 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 can be designed to interrupt your mind; they’re enjoyable and breezy.
Days Past
There’s loads we love about Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes to date, however a couple of issues are lacking for us. While the fight right here is partaking, Suikoden video games are identified for his or her snappy menu-based fight, and whereas Eiyuden Chronicle actually makes an attempt to comply with that custom, at the least within the beta, issues are a bit slower than we’d like. Going by way of six characters’ assault choices feels a little bit sluggish. Auto-battle is at the least an possibility – and it’s extremely customisable, that means you possibly can set character priorities and actions – however going by way of one spherical takes an extended than anticipated.
From what we’ve seen to date, nevertheless, this can be a legacy Murayama-san, and the staff at Rabbit & Bear may be pleased with.
This is probably most noticeable with bosses, which add gimmicks to range up the fights a bit extra. For the primary boss, it’s essential 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 guide 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 variability, it didn’t at all times work.
There are additionally a couple of different parts that, whereas not commonplace in RPGs again within the ‘90s, certainly feel a bit missed here. As far as we can tell, you can only save your game at save points or in Inns, meaning there’s no saving on the world map. Rune-Lenses can solely be outfitted in Rune-Lens shops. And you may have restricted, if shared, stock house. It’s extra beneficiant than it was within the authentic Suikoden, and we think about you’ll be capable of broaden it in a while in Hundred Heroes, however we ran out of house a few times throughout our seven hours with the sport.
Still, these seven hours we spent with Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes’ beta solely provided us a slice of what the total recreation has to supply us. We’re promised base constructing, minigames, and over 100 characters to recruit, starting from occasion members to shopkeepers and extra. And with the carrot dangling some extra severe plot moments from the top 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 Switch.
From what we’ve seen to date, nevertheless, this can be a legacy Murayama-san, and the staff at Rabbit & Bear may be pleased with.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes launches on the Switch eShop on twenty third April 2024. Will you be recruiting these 100 subsequent month? Let us know within the feedback.
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