Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Review – Nostalgic Brilliance

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Review: Reviving Suikoden’s Legacy

Since its reveal, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes has been on my most anticipated list. Like many, the Suikoden series provided many hours of unique JRPG adventures growing up. Given that publisher Konami has locked away the IP since 2012, developer Rabbit & Bear Studios was established to create a spiritual successor to Suikoden with the help of the series’ original development team. Sadly, creator Yoshitaka Murayama passed away before the full release, but his spirit and energy can be felt during every second of this game. So, let’s unpack this nostalgic adventure and see if it has what it takes to carry the Suikoden torch for modern gamers.

Setting the Scene: The Opening Acts of Eiyuden Chronicle

The opening of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is very traditional, and once the action picks up, you’ll appreciate the time invested into setting up these characters and their world. We meet Nowa, a young fighter who has just enlisted in The Watch, a work-for-hire group that takes on various tasks, but not many people want to do it. On his first day, Nowa and his group are hired by Seign Kesling, a member of the Galdean Empire, to look for a powerful Rune Lens that could help bring peace to the world. This is where things get complicated. Following the mission, we fast forward six months. Nowa has done an okay job of staying busy, but the Watch isn’t in the best shape, so the leader, Garr, makes him the leader in training and entrusts him to find more volunteers.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes artfully bridges the gap between nostalgia and modern innovation, crafting a JRPG experience that’s both familiar and fresh.

What’s great about this opening is that it teaches everything we need to know about the state of the world before we meet Nowa. It establishes these core characters and their personalities, allowing you to understand what motivates them and what issues the nation currently faces. This is when we witness a peace agreement between the nations, but something doesn’t sit right with Perrielle Grum, and it’s established that not everything is going as smoothly as it seems. The opening is lengthy, lasting around 6 hours for the game to subject a war of the nations onto the player, but by the time it does, you’re already mentally prepared for it and have very few questions about your goal.

Aside from this war, there’s a separate story between Nowa and Seign. When they began their relationship as allies, that changed when the war started. The way that each character doesn’t hold back when they face off underscores their allegiance, but it’s easy to see that their respect for each other makes their actions difficult. It’s this story that resonated with me the most. It was a narrative of respect, honor, and friendship, and these characters challenge each other with every move, heightening the thought of what will happen next. Several other narratives also occur, and many revolve around Nowa, who has a sister who gets her own side story and a few different relationships he makes.

The war narrative stays consistently epic, but I find it plays it safe for the most part. I had various other subplots to follow, making the war and political campaigns sit in the background for me since they weren’t all that complicated. I did find a few missed opportunities to explore other plot threads, but that would only broaden the scope of this game, so I felt like this surface-level approach was enough to at least keep players invested until the credits. This game has a large cast, which grows as you enlist more to your cause. Statistically, there has to be at least one character you resonate with.

Despite its stunning narrative and world-building, the game often leaves players feeling like spectators rather than active participants.

However, here comes my overall issue with this game. I never once felt like I was playing something. I had the controller in hand, but I was merely a spectator. The more I sit with it, the more I wonder if the choice to make Nowa a voiced protagonist was made because Murayama-san wanted Nowa to represent him. I don’t know what the experience as a whole is about. Still, it feels like you are experiencing someone else’s story or watching an interactive movie until you have to solve an environmental puzzle or choose dialogue that doesn’t affect the story outside of enlisting more characters.

This extends into exploration, where there’s this gorgeous open world and massive dungeons with branching paths but absolutely nothing to do. This really instills a sense of adventure into Nowa, who can be seen marching into the unknown confidently, but as the player, fatigue sets in rather quickly. The dungeons are vast, and the encounter rate is very low. There were some dungeons where I would only fight 2 – 4 times before the boss, but it still took me 15 – 20 minutes to get through. And this leads me to the other issue, the auto-battle system.

Navigating Combat and Customization Options

After a few encounters, it’s easy to see why the developer included an auto-battle option. With six characters in a party and only a few skills and action options at your disposal, the team has mitigated mashing Attack and streamlined the experience. This isn’t bad, but it does mean there is little strategy to regular grunt enemies. So, feed into your urges and use the auto option; it’ll save you time. That said, boss encounters require you to rip off your auto chains and respond to gimmicks that can cause high damage to your party if they aren’t addressed. I don’t know if I particularly like this because how can you allow your players to rely on auto-battle systems for the entirety of the fights but then require them to understand strategy and party usage for bosses at the flip of a coin?

The game’s detailed character interactions and expansive world evoke the classic Suikoden spirit, much to the delight of series fans and new players alike.

Still, combat is fun, and the joint attacks from Suikoden V have made an appearance, which can’t be executed using auto-battle. Items are interesting because they are overpowered, given that you have six members in your party; deligating healing and items to one character is easy without losing damage output. However, you can only carry a specific number of items, so you have to make some choices about what you bring into dungeons. Equipment is also something I leaned heavily on the auto-equip option, but there isn’t an option to remove all equipment from a character on the party management screen. Runes can also individualize characters to fine-tune their skills and strengths, so customization is pretty fun.

Exploration and Engagement: The Player’s Role in Eiyuden Chronicle

Ultimately, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes becomes more of a puzzle game as you meet new characters and figure out what they want from you to enlist them. These elements have always been a staple of the series, and how this game plays out feels like an extension of Suikoden V with elements of Suikoden II from a design standpoint. As you enlist characters, your base grows, and you gain access to various enhancements that even improve the quality of the game. This becomes the gameloop in the middle as you prepare for future invasions. Customization is impressive, with upgrades allowing you to refine almost any part of your nameable fortress. As you enlist and purchase upgrades, you’ll grow your population. In the beginning, some item farming might be needed, but for the most part, you unlock material-yielding shops pretty early on.

While Eiyuden Chronicle offers a beautifully passive RPG experience, its over-reliance on auto-battle systems might not satisfy all players looking for deeper engagement.

Other combat systems pop up, like the SRPG war scenarios, which are interesting, if not a little random, but I had fun navigating troops around. I also found that the 1:1 battles, which mirror a sort of paper-rock-scissors rule strategy, created moments of tension and narrative building that were needed in this package. Still, from a gaming standpoint, all of this plays out so naturally that you will rarely feel challenged or overwhelmed, even when building an army. As I previously said, it feels like you’re watching someone else play until you’re asked to participate, whether by solving a puzzle or fighting a boss gimmick. However, outside of that, you’re a spectator. While some might enjoy this approach, others might get exhausted running through the dungeons with nothing to do until they get to the bosses. Further, the streamlined approach gives off a sense of beginner-friendly vibes that can be customized using the Hard Mode options, but I’d still play through on Normal first to get an idea of this gameplay.

Final Thoughts: Balancing Spectacle with Interaction in Eiyuden Chronicle

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is a beautiful JRPG from beginning to end. It captures the wonder of discovery and adventure in every scene, with an added dose of tension as you navigate the complexities of a nation at war. Still, much of the weight has been removed from the player to the point where it feels like the entire experience is on autopilot and you’re simply participating when it wants you to, like in a boss battle or environmental puzzle. That said, if I look at this game through the lens of it being Murayama-san’s adventure and not mine, I’m just happy that he allowed me to accompany him on this path. While it’s a brilliant showcasing of retro meets modern, there are areas to improve, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.