Malo no es. Tiene muy buenas ideas que se le quedan muy grandes a un equipo tan pequeño de desarrolladores. Hay una falta monumental de equilibrio en todos sus campos, y los duelos, lo más espectacular que tienen para mostrar, son tediosos y agotadores y no en un buen plan. Para rematar la faena la historia es olvidable, y si quieres el final verdadero no avances demasiado hasta cierto punto de no retorno y quédate haciendo minijuegos. Muchos minijuegos. De verdad, no puedo remarcar cuántos minijuegos tiene esto, es que esto no para.
the idea of a spiritual successor is almost always doomed from the jump.
it's so hard to balance what avenues game devs want to explore and audiences want to recapture. And I haven't played every kickstarter attempt to course correct and harness the old magic, but obviously when those games do flop people talk and so with eiyuden chronicle releasing I felt very wary about what Rabbit and Bear intended to communicate.
To keep it simple it plays like Suikoden never left. It comes with a lot of baggage being a send up of both Suikoden I and II, and that includes a lot of the rough edges (affectionate) that were a part of those games.
Is the story somehow too simple and too convoluted at the same time? of course! Are you going to spend tens of hours of your total play time just menuing and upgrading your party members weapons? yeah! Are you going to forget to finish the Iron Chef Story line and accidentally lock yourself out of the good ending which means you have to replay 5+ hours of the game to fix that? Do I even gotta say it..
To Me That's Suikoden.
P.S. They bring back two of the best minigames in this one (Iron Chef and the Theater). And yeah all the minigames are bad, but I really loved messing around with both of them
P.P.S. Despite some Whedonisms in the localized script it's totally fine, I can't help but see any complaints about it as arguing in bad faith.
Yoshitaka Murayama Forever
it's so hard to balance what avenues game devs want to explore and audiences want to recapture. And I haven't played every kickstarter attempt to course correct and harness the old magic, but obviously when those games do flop people talk and so with eiyuden chronicle releasing I felt very wary about what Rabbit and Bear intended to communicate.
To keep it simple it plays like Suikoden never left. It comes with a lot of baggage being a send up of both Suikoden I and II, and that includes a lot of the rough edges (affectionate) that were a part of those games.
Is the story somehow too simple and too convoluted at the same time? of course! Are you going to spend tens of hours of your total play time just menuing and upgrading your party members weapons? yeah! Are you going to forget to finish the Iron Chef Story line and accidentally lock yourself out of the good ending which means you have to replay 5+ hours of the game to fix that? Do I even gotta say it..
To Me That's Suikoden.
P.S. They bring back two of the best minigames in this one (Iron Chef and the Theater). And yeah all the minigames are bad, but I really loved messing around with both of them
P.P.S. Despite some Whedonisms in the localized script it's totally fine, I can't help but see any complaints about it as arguing in bad faith.
Yoshitaka Murayama Forever
Is it perfect? Hell no. Is it the most plain FUN I've had with a video game in literal years? Yes!
First off, RIP Yoshitaka Murayama. A true legend of the genre and I would not be the RPG fan I am today without having enjoyed his works.
EC: Hundred Heroes is, for those that don't know, a spiritual successor to Murayama's Suikoden Series, funded via Kickstarter. Like Suikoden, it presents a geopolitical war story while the main character seeks to recruit a plethora of unique heroes to their cause, as they lead an army that eventually finds itself at the center of the war going on around them.
Despite any warranted apprehension over the crowdfunded model, Eiyuden absolutely delivers as a full game without any major corners cut; I logged about 200 hours (admittedly doing a lot of side stuff, but a standard playthrough on the true ending probably nets you 40-50h playtime. Overall it's an enjoyable game and at it's core it is a capital G "Game" in the truest sense. Eiyuden offers a host of mini-games and revives the classic "Explorable World Map" style of RPGs in contrast to the world of menu-based travel between maps that they have today. While Eiyuden absolutely modernizes a lot of relics from Suikoden, or other classic RPGs (you can now instruct your party on which specific actions to prioritize during Auto-Battle, for example), it is still very old-school at its core, for better or worse. It still very much holds onto the idea that you can spend countless hours in the game if you want to, an idea that many modern JRPGs have seemingly eschewed for linearity and having the player shown as much content as possible, rather than having to discover it.
The main cast is also likable on a fundamental level; they have good chemistry, varied backgrounds and their own, unique motivations that ultimately coincide with the goals of the Alliance, led by Nowa, the main character. The key turn of phrase here, however, is on a "fundamental" level. Eiyuden is a very easy game to enjoy and sink time into, and as an RPG it is "good enough", but it also tends to come across as very railroaded and barebones toward the latter part of the game. You get a basic gestalt of what drives most of the main characters, but you only ever get small tidbits of a backstory, often far too late in the story, and character development is really scant, or chained to the events of the plot itself rather than these characters' arcs playing out organically and in harmony with the plot of Eiyuden Chronicle.
It may seem like I am asking a lot of a game with over 100 heroes in it, but there is a clear "core cast" of them that's made obvious to the player fairly early on. Of course, the various novelty heroes that make up the 100+ in your roster don't need an elaborate backstory but the main crew could have absolutely used more love. This goes not only for the protagonist and his allies, but the antagonists as well; the main villain is yet another character who should tick a lot of boxes for me with regards to what I want out of an RPG villain, and yet fails to deliver even with the game hyping him up at every turn. This villain is often presented as a Machiavellian warlord who has the entire continent on the ropes; and yet you never really see it for yourself - most of his evil acts are done off-screen and his motivations are either vaguely alluded to or stated far too late in the game. It's disappointing because in a more developed version of Eiyuden Chronicle, I think I would have absolutely loved what the guy brings to the table.
Ultimately where Eiyuden succeeds as a game, I can't help but feel it falls short in terms of telling a story; not into the depths of outright 'bad' but to the still-dangerous 'mediocre'. Too many plot points seem to want to play out like set pieces rather than waypoints on a long journey and you very often feel like you're simply going to point A to point B, without the game ever really hammering in the feeling that this supposedly destructive war is going on around you. It could have used more cutscenes, more monologues, more campfire scenes, more political squabbling within the Empire - more of what makes an RPG, an RPG.
Eiyuden is absolutely enjoyable, worthwhile and at least serviceable with regard to its weaker points, but it's nonetheless a game that is merely a skeleton of a hypothetical greater one. The characters, world-building and scenario are there, but they haven't been properly fleshed out to the degree that would have made this game a truly memorable experience.
EC: Hundred Heroes is, for those that don't know, a spiritual successor to Murayama's Suikoden Series, funded via Kickstarter. Like Suikoden, it presents a geopolitical war story while the main character seeks to recruit a plethora of unique heroes to their cause, as they lead an army that eventually finds itself at the center of the war going on around them.
Despite any warranted apprehension over the crowdfunded model, Eiyuden absolutely delivers as a full game without any major corners cut; I logged about 200 hours (admittedly doing a lot of side stuff, but a standard playthrough on the true ending probably nets you 40-50h playtime. Overall it's an enjoyable game and at it's core it is a capital G "Game" in the truest sense. Eiyuden offers a host of mini-games and revives the classic "Explorable World Map" style of RPGs in contrast to the world of menu-based travel between maps that they have today. While Eiyuden absolutely modernizes a lot of relics from Suikoden, or other classic RPGs (you can now instruct your party on which specific actions to prioritize during Auto-Battle, for example), it is still very old-school at its core, for better or worse. It still very much holds onto the idea that you can spend countless hours in the game if you want to, an idea that many modern JRPGs have seemingly eschewed for linearity and having the player shown as much content as possible, rather than having to discover it.
The main cast is also likable on a fundamental level; they have good chemistry, varied backgrounds and their own, unique motivations that ultimately coincide with the goals of the Alliance, led by Nowa, the main character. The key turn of phrase here, however, is on a "fundamental" level. Eiyuden is a very easy game to enjoy and sink time into, and as an RPG it is "good enough", but it also tends to come across as very railroaded and barebones toward the latter part of the game. You get a basic gestalt of what drives most of the main characters, but you only ever get small tidbits of a backstory, often far too late in the story, and character development is really scant, or chained to the events of the plot itself rather than these characters' arcs playing out organically and in harmony with the plot of Eiyuden Chronicle.
It may seem like I am asking a lot of a game with over 100 heroes in it, but there is a clear "core cast" of them that's made obvious to the player fairly early on. Of course, the various novelty heroes that make up the 100+ in your roster don't need an elaborate backstory but the main crew could have absolutely used more love. This goes not only for the protagonist and his allies, but the antagonists as well; the main villain is yet another character who should tick a lot of boxes for me with regards to what I want out of an RPG villain, and yet fails to deliver even with the game hyping him up at every turn. This villain is often presented as a Machiavellian warlord who has the entire continent on the ropes; and yet you never really see it for yourself - most of his evil acts are done off-screen and his motivations are either vaguely alluded to or stated far too late in the game. It's disappointing because in a more developed version of Eiyuden Chronicle, I think I would have absolutely loved what the guy brings to the table.
Ultimately where Eiyuden succeeds as a game, I can't help but feel it falls short in terms of telling a story; not into the depths of outright 'bad' but to the still-dangerous 'mediocre'. Too many plot points seem to want to play out like set pieces rather than waypoints on a long journey and you very often feel like you're simply going to point A to point B, without the game ever really hammering in the feeling that this supposedly destructive war is going on around you. It could have used more cutscenes, more monologues, more campfire scenes, more political squabbling within the Empire - more of what makes an RPG, an RPG.
Eiyuden is absolutely enjoyable, worthwhile and at least serviceable with regard to its weaker points, but it's nonetheless a game that is merely a skeleton of a hypothetical greater one. The characters, world-building and scenario are there, but they haven't been properly fleshed out to the degree that would have made this game a truly memorable experience.
I haven’t played Suikoden so perhaps my opinions are completely invalid and I am a casual. I just heard it felt like a classic so I wanted to play it. It does succeed with that feeling. I can’t say most of what it does is particularly standout, but it does most of it well at least. The card minigame is really fun, the others feel not so great. Beigoma in particular was the biggest roadblock when it came to recruiting everyone cause beating enough matches to have Reid join was really annoying. I do really appreciate the theatre, every character can play in every role, fully voiced. I do hope this gets a sequel that can improve on the systems.
Minor characters I like a lot shoutouts: Maureus, Paquia, Gigina, Foxiel, Ivy, Francesca, El Alicanto, Galladur, Carrie
Minor characters I like a lot shoutouts: Maureus, Paquia, Gigina, Foxiel, Ivy, Francesca, El Alicanto, Galladur, Carrie
It's exactly what was promised and kickstarted, a Suikoden successor. It is very much Suikoden with a lot of same great things and the same not so great things. I enjoyed it at the end of the day but hope a sequel can just improve on it.
+ Nice cast of characters
+ Sprite work is great
+ Camera work with the 2D/3D works really well in some areas.
+ Duels were great moments but wish there were more.
+ A lot more voice acting that I expected, almost everything is voiced.
+ Fun bosses
+ You can't really miss recruits due to timing like Suikoden just a point of no return near the end of the game to have collected everyone.
- Story is fine but I find myself saying Suikoden 2 did it better.
- Other than bosses combat is kind of w/e. There is combo attacks that are basically useless for their cost. Magic outside of party healing is not super useful, and single target healing is a static value which is weird.
- A couple of recruits are hard locked behind the Beyblade and cooking minigames. Both which are very long winded and not enjoyable due to poor balancing. Making getting these recruits pure chore.
- Technical problems, particular with shadow rendering leaving artifacts.
- The 3D colors/textures don't really mesh with the 2D sprites a lot of the time.
+ Nice cast of characters
+ Sprite work is great
+ Camera work with the 2D/3D works really well in some areas.
+ Duels were great moments but wish there were more.
+ A lot more voice acting that I expected, almost everything is voiced.
+ Fun bosses
+ You can't really miss recruits due to timing like Suikoden just a point of no return near the end of the game to have collected everyone.
- Story is fine but I find myself saying Suikoden 2 did it better.
- Other than bosses combat is kind of w/e. There is combo attacks that are basically useless for their cost. Magic outside of party healing is not super useful, and single target healing is a static value which is weird.
- A couple of recruits are hard locked behind the Beyblade and cooking minigames. Both which are very long winded and not enjoyable due to poor balancing. Making getting these recruits pure chore.
- Technical problems, particular with shadow rendering leaving artifacts.
- The 3D colors/textures don't really mesh with the 2D sprites a lot of the time.
I got stuck on the shifting room maze thing in the Proving Ground. I frequently found myself wondering "so what do I do, exactly?", and it was kinda just one too many times. I did like the game when I was able to follow along what I was expected to do to progress things.
I wanted to write something about this game without comparing it to Suikoden because I think it is a great game that can stand up on its own. However, it begs for the comparison at every turn. I don't think that's a bad thing for series fans who have favorite story ideas from Suikoden being given a second chance to have a complete narrative again. And series newcomers can share in that same joy fresh from the beginning. Because when it comes down to it, Suikoden was a series about the world being the main character and each character and each story was a smaller piece of the whole. My hope is to see Eiyuden be able to find the same momentum and become a new loved series.
The story in Eiyuden 1 (as I wishfully am going to think of it as) is basically Costco Luca Blight wants to weaponize Suikoden Materia so that anyone can use it as a means for greater conquest. Which it already seems like everyone has an innate ability to use rune-lens. If a kid who loves beyblades and a little girl who fights with herbs have been picked by runes, then it doesn't feel that unique and hard to find people who can use them already. It all feels like a clumsy way to re-use True Rune/Star of Destiny lore and explain why your companions are special enough to recruit. The story is definitely the weakest part of this game, but does manage some good beats. I think it shows Eiyuden is maybe similar to Suikoden 1, where it was a proof of concept game and a game used to build up the game systems/mechanics for the bigger vision. I will add, that while there are a lot of similarities of Suikoden and Eiyuden but I am bummed that the mysterious nature of the True Runes and making their holders immortal has seemingly not made the jump into Eiyuden. Tir's struggle with his neverending youth is a powerful gut-punch in Suikoden 2 and I don't think they ever got to explore it more in depth other than Ted's appearance in Suikoden 4. I think it's a good comparison to Suikoden 1 narratively because while there's serious things that happen, they ultimately don't have weight behind them or bear much reflection from the characters. Cities get attacked but you can still walk around them as if nothing happened. Nowa's hometown is burned down, but they rebuild it instantly. It's a war with no scars. I think it is designed this way so that nothing is really missable (a pain point in several Suikoden games), but the game design undercuts the narrative if there are no consequences.
On the other hand, I think this has one of the best art designed cast of characters. Though a lot of the main cast are a rehash of characters. The trio of main characters echo the 3 from Suikoden 3. Seign and Nowa have their own riff on Jowy and Riou. Lian is hyper Nanami. Carrie is a more perfectionist and clear-headed version of Viki (I think I enjoy Carrie more though!). Melridge is a Mathiu Silverberg without the prestigious family lineage. The list could really go on! But they went some fun places with the side characters' designs and I think some of the backstories hinted at in the game lore are hopefully exciting things to come. I would love to visit Grimforge or the Fox Village, the University of Carles or the Eastern Reach in a future game. I am excited to see who they would bring forward from this game. One of the best mini-stories of Suikoden 1 - 3 is watching Futch getting older and I think it is stories like that which is the true magic of the series. The characters feel like real people in these games.
The level of work with the localization has been wild. Every line is fully voice acted and it's mostly very good! And that includes the theater mini game for every single character and even side characters that in Suikoden games would just stand there awkwardly in important scenes now have dialog that will pop in randomly. This caught me off guard every single time and is nothing short of magic. It is one of those special touches that will make using other characters on replays feel unique. Having Gigina (someone recruited in the beginning) jump in to say that Foxiel (someone recruited towards the end) is weird during that recruitment event is something they didn't have to do, but makes all of the characters feel more active in the story and world events than just background furniture after their own story has concluded.
The combat feels good! I think there's some balancing needed maybe going forward. Physical attack feels too powerful, Combo Attacks feel too weak for their requirements, Magic feels too limited in the early game. I think people new to the series are a little thrown by how easy the combat is; another carryover from Suikoden. The complexity of combat comes from boss battles and maybe there could be tweaks in there, but it's also nice to have an easier RPG that's a fun world to exist in. Not everything has to be a challenge. It's a difficult balance but probably one that would be less noticeable with a more engaging story. I absolutely love the new SP system for skill runes. Takes a little bit of Bravely Default and applies it to things like Suikoden's Falcon Rune. I wish the mechanics of it were better explained in the beginning but it soon made sense. The addition to including the action command order is such a great improvement and helps the strategy element of harder boss battles. Another great improvement I loved experimenting with was that "defense" was often a different move for various units. If the character was a mage, they might have Dodge or Return Magic. If they have a shield, they might have Cover Row & Counter. This is something I would love to see other RPGs pick up on!
The castle upgrading becoming a more active mechanic is great, but does need to be tweaked going forward. Would have been better to just have it be a list of upgrades like Hades' construction spirit than a zoomed in jumbled tree. And I was a bit frustrated at times when progress was locked behind a recruitment requirement that was a bit confusing. My issues with it aside, it really felt more like I as the player was more involved in creating the castle rather than just returning once a recruitment milestone was hit and seeing that there were some changes.
The mini games in this game are neat but they definitely overstay their welcome at times. It would be nice if they had less or no "mash A" to win games. My poor thumb hurts so much after grinding out two last recruits. The cooking mini game from Suikoden 2 is back and is like three times longer than it needs to be for getting a recruit. I think part of this length is due to being a Kickstarter reward. The Beyblade game feels like it could be better explained of what makes a good top and how to win. I just waited until I had end-game tops and then just trial and errored my way through Reid's recruitment quest. Eggfoot Racing is neat in theory but I frankly find them awful to look at. Fishing is very bare bones and I don't really get the inclusion here. Would be fun to see if it was more fleshed out. The card game seems good, at least on par with other Suikoden mini games, but is a Marvel Snap or card games like that. Also new in this game is the Proving Ground, a boss rush semi-roguelike (that also introduces a very fascinating and mysterious character). My favorite is the theater, which makes its return from Suikoden 3. It's great to play around with and make intentionally bad plays. It's also really good because it is fully voice acted, so it adds in a great depth and warmth.
Eiyuden Chronicle is not a perfect game, I think there is a lot of valid criticisms of the game. But when I first booted up the game, it was a rush of emotions that after 16 years, there was a new "Suikoden" game. This series means a lot to me and I think the series does tons of great work with world building and making memorable games and characters. Eiyuden feels in a lot of ways like a classic PS1 RPG with quality of life improvements. I hope this team is able to further tweak the improvements in any future games, but for right now, they made a really special game.
The story in Eiyuden 1 (as I wishfully am going to think of it as) is basically Costco Luca Blight wants to weaponize Suikoden Materia so that anyone can use it as a means for greater conquest. Which it already seems like everyone has an innate ability to use rune-lens. If a kid who loves beyblades and a little girl who fights with herbs have been picked by runes, then it doesn't feel that unique and hard to find people who can use them already. It all feels like a clumsy way to re-use True Rune/Star of Destiny lore and explain why your companions are special enough to recruit. The story is definitely the weakest part of this game, but does manage some good beats. I think it shows Eiyuden is maybe similar to Suikoden 1, where it was a proof of concept game and a game used to build up the game systems/mechanics for the bigger vision. I will add, that while there are a lot of similarities of Suikoden and Eiyuden but I am bummed that the mysterious nature of the True Runes and making their holders immortal has seemingly not made the jump into Eiyuden. Tir's struggle with his neverending youth is a powerful gut-punch in Suikoden 2 and I don't think they ever got to explore it more in depth other than Ted's appearance in Suikoden 4. I think it's a good comparison to Suikoden 1 narratively because while there's serious things that happen, they ultimately don't have weight behind them or bear much reflection from the characters. Cities get attacked but you can still walk around them as if nothing happened. Nowa's hometown is burned down, but they rebuild it instantly. It's a war with no scars. I think it is designed this way so that nothing is really missable (a pain point in several Suikoden games), but the game design undercuts the narrative if there are no consequences.
On the other hand, I think this has one of the best art designed cast of characters. Though a lot of the main cast are a rehash of characters. The trio of main characters echo the 3 from Suikoden 3. Seign and Nowa have their own riff on Jowy and Riou. Lian is hyper Nanami. Carrie is a more perfectionist and clear-headed version of Viki (I think I enjoy Carrie more though!). Melridge is a Mathiu Silverberg without the prestigious family lineage. The list could really go on! But they went some fun places with the side characters' designs and I think some of the backstories hinted at in the game lore are hopefully exciting things to come. I would love to visit Grimforge or the Fox Village, the University of Carles or the Eastern Reach in a future game. I am excited to see who they would bring forward from this game. One of the best mini-stories of Suikoden 1 - 3 is watching Futch getting older and I think it is stories like that which is the true magic of the series. The characters feel like real people in these games.
The level of work with the localization has been wild. Every line is fully voice acted and it's mostly very good! And that includes the theater mini game for every single character and even side characters that in Suikoden games would just stand there awkwardly in important scenes now have dialog that will pop in randomly. This caught me off guard every single time and is nothing short of magic. It is one of those special touches that will make using other characters on replays feel unique. Having Gigina (someone recruited in the beginning) jump in to say that Foxiel (someone recruited towards the end) is weird during that recruitment event is something they didn't have to do, but makes all of the characters feel more active in the story and world events than just background furniture after their own story has concluded.
The combat feels good! I think there's some balancing needed maybe going forward. Physical attack feels too powerful, Combo Attacks feel too weak for their requirements, Magic feels too limited in the early game. I think people new to the series are a little thrown by how easy the combat is; another carryover from Suikoden. The complexity of combat comes from boss battles and maybe there could be tweaks in there, but it's also nice to have an easier RPG that's a fun world to exist in. Not everything has to be a challenge. It's a difficult balance but probably one that would be less noticeable with a more engaging story. I absolutely love the new SP system for skill runes. Takes a little bit of Bravely Default and applies it to things like Suikoden's Falcon Rune. I wish the mechanics of it were better explained in the beginning but it soon made sense. The addition to including the action command order is such a great improvement and helps the strategy element of harder boss battles. Another great improvement I loved experimenting with was that "defense" was often a different move for various units. If the character was a mage, they might have Dodge or Return Magic. If they have a shield, they might have Cover Row & Counter. This is something I would love to see other RPGs pick up on!
The castle upgrading becoming a more active mechanic is great, but does need to be tweaked going forward. Would have been better to just have it be a list of upgrades like Hades' construction spirit than a zoomed in jumbled tree. And I was a bit frustrated at times when progress was locked behind a recruitment requirement that was a bit confusing. My issues with it aside, it really felt more like I as the player was more involved in creating the castle rather than just returning once a recruitment milestone was hit and seeing that there were some changes.
The mini games in this game are neat but they definitely overstay their welcome at times. It would be nice if they had less or no "mash A" to win games. My poor thumb hurts so much after grinding out two last recruits. The cooking mini game from Suikoden 2 is back and is like three times longer than it needs to be for getting a recruit. I think part of this length is due to being a Kickstarter reward. The Beyblade game feels like it could be better explained of what makes a good top and how to win. I just waited until I had end-game tops and then just trial and errored my way through Reid's recruitment quest. Eggfoot Racing is neat in theory but I frankly find them awful to look at. Fishing is very bare bones and I don't really get the inclusion here. Would be fun to see if it was more fleshed out. The card game seems good, at least on par with other Suikoden mini games, but is a Marvel Snap or card games like that. Also new in this game is the Proving Ground, a boss rush semi-roguelike (that also introduces a very fascinating and mysterious character). My favorite is the theater, which makes its return from Suikoden 3. It's great to play around with and make intentionally bad plays. It's also really good because it is fully voice acted, so it adds in a great depth and warmth.
Eiyuden Chronicle is not a perfect game, I think there is a lot of valid criticisms of the game. But when I first booted up the game, it was a rush of emotions that after 16 years, there was a new "Suikoden" game. This series means a lot to me and I think the series does tons of great work with world building and making memorable games and characters. Eiyuden feels in a lot of ways like a classic PS1 RPG with quality of life improvements. I hope this team is able to further tweak the improvements in any future games, but for right now, they made a really special game.
Not Suikoden but I'm glad this is a game that exists.
Overall I had a pleasant experience with the game but there are some points that really brought the game down.
-Battles are too slow and character balance is all over the place. I wish there's a 2x option in the future. Magic is really useless early to mid game and suddenly becomes super good because of the bump of stats mages get past a certain level.
-I know this was trying to mimic Suikoden and old JRPGs but the inventory limit and being able to switch runes at your castle or towns limited how much I wanted to experiment with setups and runes.
-Speaking of (magic) runes, it's a good concept but lacks a lot of variety and you almost never use the good stuff because of how expensive they are.
-I value the soundtrack a lot in my reviews and sadly EC:HH really lacked here, there are some good 4-5 songs that I enjoyed but other than that it felt uninspired and really basic.
- The cooking and Beigoma sidequests are the most unfun things I've ever done in a game in a long time.
The good:
-Momo
-The english voice acting was superb and it really caught me off-guard because I was expecting an average VAing with how many characters there were but I was thoroughly surprised. Sure, there were some bad ones but the vast majority were great.
-The racing and card games were fun unlike the other two, the egg one reminded me of FF7 chocobo breeding so that's was nice. Had a lot of fun in those.
-The story was just alright. The premise is interesting enough but it never delivered that climax that I was expecting coming from Suikoden I-II. The (over) world feels a bit empty at times but there's a lot of biodiversity and races that make up for that.
Overall it was a good experience and I'm glad that I backed this game many years ago. There's definitely a lot of room for improvement and I'm sure their next game will be better.
Rest easy Mr.Yoshitaka Murayama and thank you for everything.
Overall I had a pleasant experience with the game but there are some points that really brought the game down.
-Battles are too slow and character balance is all over the place. I wish there's a 2x option in the future. Magic is really useless early to mid game and suddenly becomes super good because of the bump of stats mages get past a certain level.
-I know this was trying to mimic Suikoden and old JRPGs but the inventory limit and being able to switch runes at your castle or towns limited how much I wanted to experiment with setups and runes.
-Speaking of (magic) runes, it's a good concept but lacks a lot of variety and you almost never use the good stuff because of how expensive they are.
-I value the soundtrack a lot in my reviews and sadly EC:HH really lacked here, there are some good 4-5 songs that I enjoyed but other than that it felt uninspired and really basic.
- The cooking and Beigoma sidequests are the most unfun things I've ever done in a game in a long time.
The good:
-Momo
-The english voice acting was superb and it really caught me off-guard because I was expecting an average VAing with how many characters there were but I was thoroughly surprised. Sure, there were some bad ones but the vast majority were great.
-The racing and card games were fun unlike the other two, the egg one reminded me of FF7 chocobo breeding so that's was nice. Had a lot of fun in those.
-The story was just alright. The premise is interesting enough but it never delivered that climax that I was expecting coming from Suikoden I-II. The (over) world feels a bit empty at times but there's a lot of biodiversity and races that make up for that.
Overall it was a good experience and I'm glad that I backed this game many years ago. There's definitely a lot of room for improvement and I'm sure their next game will be better.
Rest easy Mr.Yoshitaka Murayama and thank you for everything.
O sucessor espiritual do Suikoden, um JRPG primoroso, com personagens excelentes, um protagonista chato como todos os de JRPG a nível Cloud Strife e Rean Schwarzer.
O plot demora um pouco pra engrenar, mas quando engrena você não quer largar até meter um socão na cara do vilão. Nesse meio tempo de plot, você irá perder (ou investir, depende de como considera) tempo evoluindo seu Quartel General e procurando personagens novos para se unirem à equipe.
Um ponto muito ruim para mim é, sem dúvidas, o excesso de minigames (todos ligados a personagens novos e troféus).
Caso queira todos os troféus desse jogo, vai precisar investir umas 10hrs em minigame de card, beyblade, pesca e culinária.
O plot demora um pouco pra engrenar, mas quando engrena você não quer largar até meter um socão na cara do vilão. Nesse meio tempo de plot, você irá perder (ou investir, depende de como considera) tempo evoluindo seu Quartel General e procurando personagens novos para se unirem à equipe.
Um ponto muito ruim para mim é, sem dúvidas, o excesso de minigames (todos ligados a personagens novos e troféus).
Caso queira todos os troféus desse jogo, vai precisar investir umas 10hrs em minigame de card, beyblade, pesca e culinária.
Played about 6hrs combat and visuals are great but characters are boring/annoying and story isn’t interesting
Would have been 4/5 but my hate for Euma burns too bright to allow it
That's it for Eiyuden Chronicles.
After 52 hours, the credits rolled on a mostly great JRPG. Unfortunately, a lot of bugs really spoiled the game for me and I now had to complete it without recruiting all 120 characters.
I don't know whether I should blame it on "the small studio", but something like that shouldn't happen, especially in a game in which the main part is collecting the figures.
What I now remember positively is the bombastic soundtrack (especially the sung ending song), the fantastic voice actors, the nostalgic feel of the game (turn-based battles finally back) and the graphics that are bursting with love.
I hope the game is successful and we see a highly polished successor in a few years.
----------------------
Das war es mit Eiyuden Chronicles.
Nach 52 Stunden lief der Abspann zu einem größtenteils großartigen JRPG.
Leider haben mir viele Bugs das Spiel ordentlich vermiest und ich musste nun, ohne alle 120 Charaktere zu rekrutieren, abschließen.
Ich weiß nicht, ob ich es "dem kleinen Studio" in die Schuhe schieben soll, aber gerade bei einem Spiel, in dem der Hauptpart das Sammeln der Figuren ist, darf sowas nicht passieren.
Was mir jetzt positiv in Erinnerung bleibt, ist der bombastische Soundtrack (besonders der gesungene End Song), die fantastischen Synchronsprecher, das nostalgische Spielgefühl (endlich wieder rundenbasierte Kämpfe) und die vor Liebe strotzende Grafik.
Ich hoffe, das Spiel wird erfolgreich und wir sehen in einigen Jahren einen top polierten Nachfolger.
After 52 hours, the credits rolled on a mostly great JRPG. Unfortunately, a lot of bugs really spoiled the game for me and I now had to complete it without recruiting all 120 characters.
I don't know whether I should blame it on "the small studio", but something like that shouldn't happen, especially in a game in which the main part is collecting the figures.
What I now remember positively is the bombastic soundtrack (especially the sung ending song), the fantastic voice actors, the nostalgic feel of the game (turn-based battles finally back) and the graphics that are bursting with love.
I hope the game is successful and we see a highly polished successor in a few years.
----------------------
Das war es mit Eiyuden Chronicles.
Nach 52 Stunden lief der Abspann zu einem größtenteils großartigen JRPG.
Leider haben mir viele Bugs das Spiel ordentlich vermiest und ich musste nun, ohne alle 120 Charaktere zu rekrutieren, abschließen.
Ich weiß nicht, ob ich es "dem kleinen Studio" in die Schuhe schieben soll, aber gerade bei einem Spiel, in dem der Hauptpart das Sammeln der Figuren ist, darf sowas nicht passieren.
Was mir jetzt positiv in Erinnerung bleibt, ist der bombastische Soundtrack (besonders der gesungene End Song), die fantastischen Synchronsprecher, das nostalgische Spielgefühl (endlich wieder rundenbasierte Kämpfe) und die vor Liebe strotzende Grafik.
Ich hoffe, das Spiel wird erfolgreich und wir sehen in einigen Jahren einen top polierten Nachfolger.
- dam this game it's too slow -
intente jugarlo pero me parece insufrible que sea demasiado lento aun que sea un juego rpg.
me parece que es muy lindo y se nota que esta hecho con bastantes ganas pero simplemente no puedo con él.
intente jugarlo pero me parece insufrible que sea demasiado lento aun que sea un juego rpg.
me parece que es muy lindo y se nota que esta hecho con bastantes ganas pero simplemente no puedo con él.
O jogo é legal, tem uma certa personalidade apesar de ser claramente inspirado em Suikoden, entretanto eu esperava um pouco mais. Em muitos momentos eu fiquei desinteressado na história e também o fato de ter tantos personagens, dificulta a identificação com a maioria deles. Um bom jogo, mas nada marcante.
While Eiyuden Chronicle can be counted as a succesor to the Suikoden series it does not come without issues. It captures a lot of why Suikoden was so amazing but unfortunately has some rather big misses.
First of all, the game looks absolutely stunning. The art style is gorgeous, characters look amazing, animations are super clean. Everything looks beautiful.
The same can be said for the soundtrack. The main theme is one of the best tracks this year and the game itself has a great mix of fast paced battle tracks and beautiful village/travel pieces.
The shining star is definitely the Suikoden system of 100+ heroes. Finding new allies, adding them to your army, trying out which combination is the best feels absolutely phenomenal. Some characters have combo attacks with each other that you can experiment with, some characters are straight up better in a few stats. Finding out the strengths of each one is a lot of fun. You also have a great rune and armor system that lets you tune your characters even further.
A few hours into the game you also get your castle, where you can perform upgrades and all the heroes you found before will take certain roles in the town and make it a super lively experience.
Combat is classic turn based where you pick all your actions first, then they play out in order. You can pick between normal attacks, rune attacks, magic and passives (counter, magic counter/defend). Random encounters are fast and easy, while bosses will challenge you a lot from time to time, while never being unfair.
The game also has some 1 vs 1 duels where you pick between attacking and countering. Unfortunately this feature feels pretty boring as you only pick between two options without any further player input. The same goes for the big army fights, where you move around your legions on a battle field. After 2 of those they are always the same however - they get tedious
You will come across some dungeons, which are mostly good. The design can be repetitive sometimes and some hallways might be too long - but overall all of them are fine, but nothing special in terms of level design.
The biggest weaknesses of the game are the main story and the character development, especially of the main cast. Both feel very shallow. The main story has some good moments, but it always feels like it is just scratching the surface of something better. It either feels rushed or not fully explored, it never gets really deep and the main topics of the game do not get enough attention. Same goes for the main cast. While the 3 main characters are all likeable they barely get any special moments - or they simply do not hit hard enough.
Overall it is a good RPG with great mechanics and combat options. Playing around with all characters trying to find that "perfect party" was the most fun for me personally and the gameplay itself kept me engaged enough to finish and appreciate the game itself.
First of all, the game looks absolutely stunning. The art style is gorgeous, characters look amazing, animations are super clean. Everything looks beautiful.
The same can be said for the soundtrack. The main theme is one of the best tracks this year and the game itself has a great mix of fast paced battle tracks and beautiful village/travel pieces.
The shining star is definitely the Suikoden system of 100+ heroes. Finding new allies, adding them to your army, trying out which combination is the best feels absolutely phenomenal. Some characters have combo attacks with each other that you can experiment with, some characters are straight up better in a few stats. Finding out the strengths of each one is a lot of fun. You also have a great rune and armor system that lets you tune your characters even further.
A few hours into the game you also get your castle, where you can perform upgrades and all the heroes you found before will take certain roles in the town and make it a super lively experience.
Combat is classic turn based where you pick all your actions first, then they play out in order. You can pick between normal attacks, rune attacks, magic and passives (counter, magic counter/defend). Random encounters are fast and easy, while bosses will challenge you a lot from time to time, while never being unfair.
The game also has some 1 vs 1 duels where you pick between attacking and countering. Unfortunately this feature feels pretty boring as you only pick between two options without any further player input. The same goes for the big army fights, where you move around your legions on a battle field. After 2 of those they are always the same however - they get tedious
You will come across some dungeons, which are mostly good. The design can be repetitive sometimes and some hallways might be too long - but overall all of them are fine, but nothing special in terms of level design.
The biggest weaknesses of the game are the main story and the character development, especially of the main cast. Both feel very shallow. The main story has some good moments, but it always feels like it is just scratching the surface of something better. It either feels rushed or not fully explored, it never gets really deep and the main topics of the game do not get enough attention. Same goes for the main cast. While the 3 main characters are all likeable they barely get any special moments - or they simply do not hit hard enough.
Overall it is a good RPG with great mechanics and combat options. Playing around with all characters trying to find that "perfect party" was the most fun for me personally and the gameplay itself kept me engaged enough to finish and appreciate the game itself.
Très sympa malgré les nombreux défauts qu'il a.
joguei por umas 6 horas e infelizmente não é pra mim. O jogo é lindo, tem uma ambientação que até te cativa, mas falta algo nos personagens e mapas. Nada muito interessante, eu gosto de JRPG no geral, mas me dói não ter gostado desse, quem sabe outra hora, no momento não clicou
This game has a lot the charms of suikoden, as it was promised to have, but something about it is still not exactly there for me. And I say this even considering it as it's own thing as well. I love the battle set up, I think the additions to the six space team format is very well done, as well as giving each character some sort of unique action like dodge, defense, and other more personalized ones. I don't think the wide array of characters has major depths, but they are very charming in their own way and well designed enough that when I do come around to finishing I will be thinking of playing again to use a whole team through it. The side content is funny and neat, nothing life chaning or stunning. But good fun when you want to stary from story for a moment. It's a solid game and worthwhile fun, maybe less as a revival of suikoden and more as a continuation of Eiyuden Chronicle.
Positives
- colorful sprites, that boast detailed expressions and animations
- towns are pleasing design-wise and feel populated
- good soundtrack; with Before the Decisive Battle being a personal favorite
- solid voice acting from the entire Japanese cast
- sizeable amount of likeable and charming characters
- the headquarters is well designed, as it includes easily accessible services and entertaining distractions with meaningful rewards
- attendant slots prevent forced story characters from interfering with the player's preferred main party
- defensive commands are an interesting addition, that significantly increases the functionality of some playable characters
- experience system ensures that low-level characters can quickly catch up within a couple of battles
Negatives
- occasional bugs and UI glitches
- mostly uninteresting and predictable main story
- duels involve trial and error, while simultaneously requiring near-perfect performance to succeed
- gimmicks normally have very little impact on boss battles and are seemingly abandoned during the later stages of the game
- prohibiting characters from equipping specific types and rarities of rune lenses, prevents a large number of them from becoming strong or even viable
- numerous offensive magic spells and hero combos are too expensive and lacking in damage output compared to regular physical attacks
- late bloomer stat growth ensures certain playable characters are incredibly weak for a substantial portion of the game
- random battles during movement-based puzzle segments are frustrating
- default movement speed is slow and cannot be improved without sacrificing an accessory or support slot
- inventory management is too restrictive, compounded by restorative items with extremely low stack size limits
- important information, such as elemental affinities and shield damage reduction, is completely hidden
- some mini-games are more frustrating than fun, either due to confusing mechanics or a broken control scheme
- colorful sprites, that boast detailed expressions and animations
- towns are pleasing design-wise and feel populated
- good soundtrack; with Before the Decisive Battle being a personal favorite
- solid voice acting from the entire Japanese cast
- sizeable amount of likeable and charming characters
- the headquarters is well designed, as it includes easily accessible services and entertaining distractions with meaningful rewards
- attendant slots prevent forced story characters from interfering with the player's preferred main party
- defensive commands are an interesting addition, that significantly increases the functionality of some playable characters
- experience system ensures that low-level characters can quickly catch up within a couple of battles
Negatives
- occasional bugs and UI glitches
- mostly uninteresting and predictable main story
- duels involve trial and error, while simultaneously requiring near-perfect performance to succeed
- gimmicks normally have very little impact on boss battles and are seemingly abandoned during the later stages of the game
- prohibiting characters from equipping specific types and rarities of rune lenses, prevents a large number of them from becoming strong or even viable
- numerous offensive magic spells and hero combos are too expensive and lacking in damage output compared to regular physical attacks
- late bloomer stat growth ensures certain playable characters are incredibly weak for a substantial portion of the game
- random battles during movement-based puzzle segments are frustrating
- default movement speed is slow and cannot be improved without sacrificing an accessory or support slot
- inventory management is too restrictive, compounded by restorative items with extremely low stack size limits
- important information, such as elemental affinities and shield damage reduction, is completely hidden
- some mini-games are more frustrating than fun, either due to confusing mechanics or a broken control scheme
Clearly, people have had wildly different experiences with this game. Obviously having played Suikoden to understand what this game is trying to do helps, but even if you're intimately familiar with the Suikoden series, you may come away from this game disappointed. It suffers from an extremely noticeable lack of polish. Bugs aplenty, many cases of written dialogue not matching up with the voice acting, and many elements of the game seem suspiciously unfinished as if they ran up against time or budget constraints. There are a lot to very reasonable critiques to be made of this game.
But fuck everything I just said because this game is a masterpiece. The amount of heart you can feel in every aspect of the design makes this a very successful attempt at a love letter to the Suikoden series. The game is mostly very polished in the areas that really matter. The combat is flashy and fun with excellent art and animations. Recruiting characters is almost always a joy as each newcomer adds something new to the experience. Town development drags towards the end of the game but it's very easy to unlock the important quality of life features and important side content, with the rest being mostly for fun.
Overall, if you like the Suikoden series, you owe it to yourself to play this game. Full stop. You may not love it, but the amount of passion on display here should be enough to convince anyone that this is a genuine effort to revive one of the most beloved (and almost entirely forgotten) RPG series of all time.
But fuck everything I just said because this game is a masterpiece. The amount of heart you can feel in every aspect of the design makes this a very successful attempt at a love letter to the Suikoden series. The game is mostly very polished in the areas that really matter. The combat is flashy and fun with excellent art and animations. Recruiting characters is almost always a joy as each newcomer adds something new to the experience. Town development drags towards the end of the game but it's very easy to unlock the important quality of life features and important side content, with the rest being mostly for fun.
Overall, if you like the Suikoden series, you owe it to yourself to play this game. Full stop. You may not love it, but the amount of passion on display here should be enough to convince anyone that this is a genuine effort to revive one of the most beloved (and almost entirely forgotten) RPG series of all time.
Pretty fun, but kind of half baked.
Entirely too many different mini games, most of which are kind of boring.
Fun combat system! Figuring out how to time attacks and combos to prevent enemy attacks is just complex enough to be engaging, but breezy and quick.
The writing is just a notch above bad. The voice cast is fine. The overall plot is kind of dull, but there are some fun moments.
Oh and the 100 heroes are mostly one note and not terribly interesting. Every now and then there's someone that shines through.
Entirely too many different mini games, most of which are kind of boring.
Fun combat system! Figuring out how to time attacks and combos to prevent enemy attacks is just complex enough to be engaging, but breezy and quick.
The writing is just a notch above bad. The voice cast is fine. The overall plot is kind of dull, but there are some fun moments.
Oh and the 100 heroes are mostly one note and not terribly interesting. Every now and then there's someone that shines through.
I wanted to like this game, but I hit so many roadblocks. Making an overworld movement speed increase tied to an accessory slot is entirely needless. Just let me move that fast in the first place. The combat is not fun, nor is it particularly strategic. This led me to primarily hit the "auto-battle" button in-game - however, auto-battle prioritizes max damage so I'd frequently run out of mana because the game decided to just use the AOE bomb spells every encounter. Mechanically, this game is needlessly complicated and it's QAL improvements actually are a detriment to the experience.
A few other aspects of this game that really bothered me: It may just be the localization, but characters in this game range from less than one note to Tumblr post circa 2013. The magic system is poorly explained, the "RTS" battles are in real-time for some inexplicable reason, and the first 15 hours are filled with back-to-back cutscenes (that give you control for ~5 steps before thrusting you back into the scene). Occasionally there were stealth sections that I broke by getting to the location in question, but not doing so the intended way so the cutscene flag didn't trigger.
I hope that people who loved Suikoden love this game, but that is not me. I love JRPGs, but this is unfortunately a strong contender for the worst game I've played this year.
A few other aspects of this game that really bothered me: It may just be the localization, but characters in this game range from less than one note to Tumblr post circa 2013. The magic system is poorly explained, the "RTS" battles are in real-time for some inexplicable reason, and the first 15 hours are filled with back-to-back cutscenes (that give you control for ~5 steps before thrusting you back into the scene). Occasionally there were stealth sections that I broke by getting to the location in question, but not doing so the intended way so the cutscene flag didn't trigger.
I hope that people who loved Suikoden love this game, but that is not me. I love JRPGs, but this is unfortunately a strong contender for the worst game I've played this year.
Eiyuden Hundred Heroes is a game crafted with love and passion by early genre pioneers, reflecting their expertise in storytelling and character development. While it isn't perfect, it offers a mostly enjoyable experience and worth playing for fans of the genre.
Nostalgia plays a significant role in the game, balancing old-school elements with modern expectations. While some 90s and 2000s mechanics may feel outdated, the developers' commitment to their vision deserves credit.
The game's strengths lie in its world-building and graphics. The HD-2D visuals are stunning, with detailed backgrounds and impressive effects. The storyline, focused on empires, rebellions, and political intrigue, unfolds believably and avoids gratuitous twists.
Characters are another highlight, with strong voice acting and engaging personalities. However, the large cast can lead to some characters fading into the background post-recruitment. I always want more of certain characters and less of others, but that's the way the wheel spins when you have over 100 characters in your troop.
A major issue for me is the game's unbalanced experience. Combat difficulty spikes early but becomes routine later. The turn-based system, while nostalgic, can feel tedious, although the auto-battle feature helps. The inability to grind beyond a point and random battles offering little reward are also drawbacks.
Pacing problems emerge about a quarter in, making the game feel slow and aimless. However, I found for myself that playing on handheld devices can alleviate some of this frustration with multitasking. The music, mini-games, and base-building mechanics are adequate but not exceptional.
Overall, I'm glad I backed this project despite some mixed feelings. As a fan of JRPGs, supporting pioneers in the genre is important. I look forward to their next title, hoping they learn from Hundred Heroes and Rising to create something truly special.
[Footnote: I did not address the English localization controversy, as it seemed rooted in bigotry and did not impact my experience during 70+ hours of gameplay.]
Nostalgia plays a significant role in the game, balancing old-school elements with modern expectations. While some 90s and 2000s mechanics may feel outdated, the developers' commitment to their vision deserves credit.
The game's strengths lie in its world-building and graphics. The HD-2D visuals are stunning, with detailed backgrounds and impressive effects. The storyline, focused on empires, rebellions, and political intrigue, unfolds believably and avoids gratuitous twists.
Characters are another highlight, with strong voice acting and engaging personalities. However, the large cast can lead to some characters fading into the background post-recruitment. I always want more of certain characters and less of others, but that's the way the wheel spins when you have over 100 characters in your troop.
A major issue for me is the game's unbalanced experience. Combat difficulty spikes early but becomes routine later. The turn-based system, while nostalgic, can feel tedious, although the auto-battle feature helps. The inability to grind beyond a point and random battles offering little reward are also drawbacks.
Pacing problems emerge about a quarter in, making the game feel slow and aimless. However, I found for myself that playing on handheld devices can alleviate some of this frustration with multitasking. The music, mini-games, and base-building mechanics are adequate but not exceptional.
Overall, I'm glad I backed this project despite some mixed feelings. As a fan of JRPGs, supporting pioneers in the genre is important. I look forward to their next title, hoping they learn from Hundred Heroes and Rising to create something truly special.
[Footnote: I did not address the English localization controversy, as it seemed rooted in bigotry and did not impact my experience during 70+ hours of gameplay.]
I thought the game was a great Suikoden-game, it met my expectations but didn't exceed them. I do feel like I should dock more points for the English translation. if I didn't use Japanese audio I wouldn't even be aware of just how bad the English translation is. Meaning, theme, mood, and entire characters are completely altered in the English translation, and that's generously ignoring all the out-of-place modern internet slang.
RIP to one of my childhood greats, Yoshitaka Murayama.
Even though you're gone and you never got to witness the full release. I'm glad at the very least you manage to finish creating your magnum opus as your legacy. So much love and passion put into what's essentially a spiritual successor to Suikoden (let's not beat around, THIS is Suikoden 6). A series that I still hold close to my heart as the JRPG series that influence a large part of my life growing up.
With many legends along the way to help bring this passion project alive, such as legend music composer Hiroyuki Iwatsuki and Koji Igarashi (director of Castlevania and creator of the Bloodstrained series). Who helped his former Konami colleagues on the Suikoden side of things (to pattern the framework/strategy they've used when they kickstarted Bloodstained by the way). It's no surprise that said mentioned former colleagues would be on this project as well thanks to Iga, like Junichi Murakami (art/director of Castlevania and writer for Maken X). Not just him, but the other original creators of Suikoden, Junko Kawano and Osamu Komuta in order to help give us a classic JRPG (Suikoden) experience.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is a testament to what made the Suikoden series great, politics, drama, war, love and hope, themes that were certainly not unheard of nor where they revolutionary during the late 90's/early 20's in the JRPG scene, but what was revolutionary was how a series like Suikoden presented these themes and the frantic battle system of having six star of destiny strategically placed on the grid-field, it still remains one of my favorite battle systems in the genre and I'm so glad to see it's still present all thorough Eiyuden Chronicle. Same goes for the series trademark 1 on 1 duels, dramatic showdowns that made the player felt like an important part within a much larger conflict and those massive tactical warfare scenarios that had you command an entire army on the field. It can't go without saying but even though there's some quality of life changes in place that not only help new players who are not familiar with JRPG's but also make the combat/U.I navigation run as smooth as possible when your grinding. This game was by created by developers with a very old-school philosophy in mind, back when JRPG designs didn't have these QOL improvements that you see in modern JRPGs. For most modern gamers, this will definitely feel out of place of familiarity Since there's no hand holding, no direction, no guide on how you should play. You'll often be left blindly experimenting and hoping for the best through trial and error along the way.
To me, this is right up my alley.
Party experimentation is also part of the fun, with over 100+ characters to recruit (all with their own goals, motives and choices for joining your cause) certain party members can also team together that (if they have emotional attachment to one another) can do some really neat looking tag-finishers, and sometime, will defend other party members if their HP is low enough and will continue to defend them till the party member heals themself. Much like Suikoden, if it's you're first time to this type of game where you have hundreds of members to pick from. The game may start to feel a bit overwhelming for you when you're deciding rune/team setups and it'll require you to really think outside the box on how you should abuse the game's system to your advantage.
With that said, there's also the elephant in the room that must be addressed.
The translation team bastardize of a localization that betrays and disrespects all the hard work Murayama's team have created. The translators had no respect for the original writer who made major changes to the text that deviates way too far from the original script. Sadly, this might be the nail in the coffin for many people who wanted to try this game. If you don't mind it a few American slang here and there, then I still recommend on trying the game as the story/game-play is very enthralling despite it's shortcomings with some odd character identity choices due to poor localization. If the English dialogue is that insufferable, best option I could recommend is to switch to Japanese, since the voice work, although is not the best it's still pretty good. There's also another thing that's been bugging me. The complete lack of ambient sound. No audio identify that move through the world, the same applies for character making inaudible footsteps, no weapon/armor clinks and changes either? Overtime it starts to become off-putting once you begin to focus on it. Also, the maps themselves, as you explore a town, dungeon, zones etc, there's no real ambiance either. It's just a music track that plays, that's it. Also, 1v1 battles leave a lot to be desired, rather than having Suikoden signature rock-paper-scissor mechanic, they thought it was best to settle with just rock-paper. There's also this weird audio artifacts. Like the music not fading out/transitioning correctly when you're moving between different areas. Character voices will be far louder than another, some will suddenly have way more bass to their line compared to their previous comment.
After 100% the game, there's also another glaring issue about this game.
Because of power scaling and inaccurate damage calculations, this game is in dire of a balance fixes. Many skills (like magic) are either downright terrible mid/early game or not worth using at all, like using hero combo. So much so that it's flat out better to do a normal attack than wasting SP trying to do a combo that does 2-digit damage. This applies all throughout the game. As for magic users, using water/wind runes are the only thing worth using early/mid game. Just for the heal/speed buffs. Honestly though, healing spells have set numbers that heal for and won't increase through stats so healers are pointless when you can just bring items that do the same job. MP consumption cost is so instantly high, does so little damage and MP replenish items are so rear to come by that there's very little reason to use magic till late game. Because magic gets a astronomical damage boost once you hit level 60+ and a lot of this reason is because of the broken damage formula and nearly all late game enemy encounter are weak to magic, funny enough. Again, all these issues can be rectify with a simple balance patch so I hope that the devs haven't given up on improving the game because there's still a lot of things that keeps combat engaging.
Although voice acting can be iffy at best and camera work can be awkward in moments where you NEED to see things in the background, with an amazing soundtrack, beautiful 2.5D visuals, compelling narrative with constant drama and an engaging combat system that brings out the best elements of Suikoden to this game. The Murayama team really brought the magic back and fulfilled what was promised to long time fans of the series and genre. There's so many things I've yet to fully explain or mentioned, but honestly, if you're already interested in the game. Do yourself a favor and get the game so you can discover the magic yourself.
Being a day one backer who was one of the handful of people that got a copy free, I hold no regret. It was such a wild ride watching this game's development over the course of a few years and being able to participate on this monumental passion project is something I will never forget. I'm happy I was able to be part of the journey. Hopefully the studio will continue to improve/fix some of these glaring aspects overtime. It does sadden me greatly knowing the translation team have spit in the face of Murayama's legacy-title, I just hope the journey to bring this game to life, and the knowledge that it "made it through" brought him some measure of contentment and pride. Reviving a classic with any degree of respect these days is damn near necromancy. For that, I owe him much respect and the game he created.
Sleep well Murayama, you deserve the long rest.
Even though you're gone and you never got to witness the full release. I'm glad at the very least you manage to finish creating your magnum opus as your legacy. So much love and passion put into what's essentially a spiritual successor to Suikoden (let's not beat around, THIS is Suikoden 6). A series that I still hold close to my heart as the JRPG series that influence a large part of my life growing up.
With many legends along the way to help bring this passion project alive, such as legend music composer Hiroyuki Iwatsuki and Koji Igarashi (director of Castlevania and creator of the Bloodstrained series). Who helped his former Konami colleagues on the Suikoden side of things (to pattern the framework/strategy they've used when they kickstarted Bloodstained by the way). It's no surprise that said mentioned former colleagues would be on this project as well thanks to Iga, like Junichi Murakami (art/director of Castlevania and writer for Maken X). Not just him, but the other original creators of Suikoden, Junko Kawano and Osamu Komuta in order to help give us a classic JRPG (Suikoden) experience.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is a testament to what made the Suikoden series great, politics, drama, war, love and hope, themes that were certainly not unheard of nor where they revolutionary during the late 90's/early 20's in the JRPG scene, but what was revolutionary was how a series like Suikoden presented these themes and the frantic battle system of having six star of destiny strategically placed on the grid-field, it still remains one of my favorite battle systems in the genre and I'm so glad to see it's still present all thorough Eiyuden Chronicle. Same goes for the series trademark 1 on 1 duels, dramatic showdowns that made the player felt like an important part within a much larger conflict and those massive tactical warfare scenarios that had you command an entire army on the field. It can't go without saying but even though there's some quality of life changes in place that not only help new players who are not familiar with JRPG's but also make the combat/U.I navigation run as smooth as possible when your grinding. This game was by created by developers with a very old-school philosophy in mind, back when JRPG designs didn't have these QOL improvements that you see in modern JRPGs. For most modern gamers, this will definitely feel out of place of familiarity Since there's no hand holding, no direction, no guide on how you should play. You'll often be left blindly experimenting and hoping for the best through trial and error along the way.
To me, this is right up my alley.
Party experimentation is also part of the fun, with over 100+ characters to recruit (all with their own goals, motives and choices for joining your cause) certain party members can also team together that (if they have emotional attachment to one another) can do some really neat looking tag-finishers, and sometime, will defend other party members if their HP is low enough and will continue to defend them till the party member heals themself. Much like Suikoden, if it's you're first time to this type of game where you have hundreds of members to pick from. The game may start to feel a bit overwhelming for you when you're deciding rune/team setups and it'll require you to really think outside the box on how you should abuse the game's system to your advantage.
With that said, there's also the elephant in the room that must be addressed.
The translation team bastardize of a localization that betrays and disrespects all the hard work Murayama's team have created. The translators had no respect for the original writer who made major changes to the text that deviates way too far from the original script. Sadly, this might be the nail in the coffin for many people who wanted to try this game. If you don't mind it a few American slang here and there, then I still recommend on trying the game as the story/game-play is very enthralling despite it's shortcomings with some odd character identity choices due to poor localization. If the English dialogue is that insufferable, best option I could recommend is to switch to Japanese, since the voice work, although is not the best it's still pretty good. There's also another thing that's been bugging me. The complete lack of ambient sound. No audio identify that move through the world, the same applies for character making inaudible footsteps, no weapon/armor clinks and changes either? Overtime it starts to become off-putting once you begin to focus on it. Also, the maps themselves, as you explore a town, dungeon, zones etc, there's no real ambiance either. It's just a music track that plays, that's it. Also, 1v1 battles leave a lot to be desired, rather than having Suikoden signature rock-paper-scissor mechanic, they thought it was best to settle with just rock-paper. There's also this weird audio artifacts. Like the music not fading out/transitioning correctly when you're moving between different areas. Character voices will be far louder than another, some will suddenly have way more bass to their line compared to their previous comment.
After 100% the game, there's also another glaring issue about this game.
Because of power scaling and inaccurate damage calculations, this game is in dire of a balance fixes. Many skills (like magic) are either downright terrible mid/early game or not worth using at all, like using hero combo. So much so that it's flat out better to do a normal attack than wasting SP trying to do a combo that does 2-digit damage. This applies all throughout the game. As for magic users, using water/wind runes are the only thing worth using early/mid game. Just for the heal/speed buffs. Honestly though, healing spells have set numbers that heal for and won't increase through stats so healers are pointless when you can just bring items that do the same job. MP consumption cost is so instantly high, does so little damage and MP replenish items are so rear to come by that there's very little reason to use magic till late game. Because magic gets a astronomical damage boost once you hit level 60+ and a lot of this reason is because of the broken damage formula and nearly all late game enemy encounter are weak to magic, funny enough. Again, all these issues can be rectify with a simple balance patch so I hope that the devs haven't given up on improving the game because there's still a lot of things that keeps combat engaging.
Although voice acting can be iffy at best and camera work can be awkward in moments where you NEED to see things in the background, with an amazing soundtrack, beautiful 2.5D visuals, compelling narrative with constant drama and an engaging combat system that brings out the best elements of Suikoden to this game. The Murayama team really brought the magic back and fulfilled what was promised to long time fans of the series and genre. There's so many things I've yet to fully explain or mentioned, but honestly, if you're already interested in the game. Do yourself a favor and get the game so you can discover the magic yourself.
Being a day one backer who was one of the handful of people that got a copy free, I hold no regret. It was such a wild ride watching this game's development over the course of a few years and being able to participate on this monumental passion project is something I will never forget. I'm happy I was able to be part of the journey. Hopefully the studio will continue to improve/fix some of these glaring aspects overtime. It does sadden me greatly knowing the translation team have spit in the face of Murayama's legacy-title, I just hope the journey to bring this game to life, and the knowledge that it "made it through" brought him some measure of contentment and pride. Reviving a classic with any degree of respect these days is damn near necromancy. For that, I owe him much respect and the game he created.
Sleep well Murayama, you deserve the long rest.
I did enjoy this game. I don’t want to imply I didn’t. Collecting heroes and town building was very fun. The story seemed kind of….low stakes? Not sure a better way to describe it. The 3 main heroes were very bland. I did enjoy the combat and way sp/mp was handled. Magic is an expensive resource and it should be because of how strong it is. I got locked out of ONE character, which I think is a great accomplishment without using a guide. The music was very boring, can’t recall one song that stuck in my head.
It's a worse Suidoken, with a bad English translation, a moron Main "Character," and snail-like gameplay (this is a turn-based JRPG btw). Wait for a hard sale if you're even interested at all (under $20)
Outro jogo que me surpreendeu demais.
Não conhecia a franquia mais adorei o jogo.
Parece que o jogo é enorme e o melhor. Tudo em portugues.
História envolvendo e luta empolgante.
Adorei.
Não conhecia a franquia mais adorei o jogo.
Parece que o jogo é enorme e o melhor. Tudo em portugues.
História envolvendo e luta empolgante.
Adorei.
As an avid JRPG enthusiast, this game scratched all the itches I could have ever asked for from the spiritual successor to Suikoden. It's a bit rough around the edges at times, but it's more than charming enough, and the pacing is more than acceptable. I've heard a lot of complaints about it being too similar to Suikoden, but at the end of the day if the spiritual successor to Suikoden WASNT like Suikoden it would have been dead in the water.
It's a great experience, enjoyable story, and nostalgic throwback. All with maybe TOO much side content.
It's a great experience, enjoyable story, and nostalgic throwback. All with maybe TOO much side content.