Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Preview

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is an upcoming role-playing game that had its beginnings as a Kickstarter project. Developed by Rabbit & Bear Studios and published by 505 Games, this game was produced and directed by the creator of Konami’s Suikoden series, Yoshitaka Murayama. This game is not a direct sequel to those titles, as they still belong to Konami, but it is instead being called a spiritual successor. At the end of its funding campaign, the game had 46,307 backers, making it the third-highest-funded game in Kickstarter history. As a child, I never had a PlayStation, so I missed out on the Suikoden series, but I have friends who love it, so I am excited to try out Eiyuden Chronicle and see what I missed out on!

When you begin the game, you take control of Nowa, a new recruit to The Watch. This team of fighters are basically mercs with public backing and get assigned every kind of random job that you can think of. The leader of the group is Garr, a beastman character who looks like a wolf. He is a veteran of the watch and has been there longer than any of the other members. Next, we have Mio, the East Reach Swordswoman, who is easy to identify as she has long, dark hair. The last member is Lian, a young, outspoken girl with short pink hair who has been on the team for two days longer than you, but she acts like she has a lot more experience than Nowa. To this core team, two additional fighters will be added. They aren’t from the League, but they are fighters from the Empire that you are forced to team up with. Seign, who is the leader of that group, is very strong and can use the rune-lens to perform powerful attacks. He gets along great with your character, so much so that they will learn a combo ability that they can use together. Hildi is the last member whose lens abilities are centred around healing individual members of the team or the whole unit. I have never played an RPG that had me controlling six different characters at the same time. This will be interesting!

Control-wise, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes will feel very similar to other RPGs that you have played in the past. I am playing on a PC with an Xbox controller, but it will be similar no matter what console you play on. A is used to interact with people, open a door, or search an area. X will open the map for the area that is filled in as you visit and explore new areas. Y is used to access the main menu, where you can use magic and items, along with doing other things like changing your equipment and the placement of your team members. If they are weaker or have fewer hit points, it may be worth putting them in the back row to try and lessen the amount of damage they take. I saved the front row for the stronger characters who could take some hits with no problem.

Your first mission as a member of The Watch, had you trying to find the Runebarrow that was recently discovered in the forest by a civilian who can’t remember the exact location. Before heading out into the forest, you will stop at the local shop to buy items and equipment for your journey. Your team starts off with baqua — the in-game currency — to spend on the supplies that you need. As you buy weapons and armour for your team, you can equip them right away and sell your old gear. I love it when games have this option, so you don’t have to remember to go in and get rid of all the stuff you will never use again! Plus, it lets you purchase more stuff right on the spot.

Now that shopping is done, we head out into the field to enter the forest where the Runebarrow is said to be located. While walking in the field, you can control the camera with the right thumbstick to get a better view of the land. Your map will be incredibly helpful here, as some of the paths that you can take are quite hidden and not the easiest to find. There are random enemy encounters here, which some people may find annoying, but it worked out well to learn how to control all the members of the team and what their special lens abilities are, as each has their own unique talent.

There are three different commands that you can select to do in a battle: Fight — where you select which attack you will use; Auto — the game automatically fights for you until the end of that battle; and Flee — try to escape the fight. Jumping into the battle, the first thing I noticed, besides the awesome battle music, was how the camera moves around the battlefield, making it feel more dynamic and exciting as you attack, making the fights a lot more interesting than in other turn-based RPGs that you have previously played.

At the top of the screen, there is a bar that shows the turn order of the enemies and the members of your team. This allows you to attack the enemy who will come after you first and hopefully take them out before you take any damage. When you are selecting your target, they are highlighted on the attack order bar, which is very helpful to see exactly who you should go after first. Eiyuden Chronicle makes it easy to be strategic when you are in battle.

Some battles have a gimmick that you can take advantage of, like hiding behind rubble to avoid attacks from a boss. They will show up on the upper left hand of your screen, observe your enemy, and see what they do to time your attacks right. It was fun to be strategic, alternating your normal attacks with the different gimmicks that are available. I never thought I would be trying to hit a boss with a mallet, like in a game of whack-a-mole! It adds a whole new challenge instead of just spamming the attack button!

Once the fight is over, you are taken to a result screen that shows you how much baqua you obtained, any items that you received, and the amount of experience points everyone earned. All the members of the team earn XP, even if they happen to fall in battle. If one of your teammates is low on health and is under attack, you can get another character to jump in and take the damage; the covering ally can’t be killed when doing this. When someone is killed during the fight, they will have 1 HP, so you won’t have to waste revive items to bring them back.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes has a great art style. The environment is realistic, with gorgeous lighting effects on the walls and water and the characters being pixelated, which provides a nice contrast. There is also a depth of field that makes objects in the distance more blurred and the characters in the foreground crisp and clear. There are a tonne of different people that you will be interacting with in this game, and they all have a unique look and personality to them. My favourite is Magical Girl Mellore; she looks like Sailor Moon with her blonde pigtails and how she is fighting for love and justice!

I could go on for hours talking about all the cool stuff in this title, but instead, I will just tell you that if you are a fan of turn-based RPGs or any of the Suidoken titles, you must play this. I know I certainly will be when it releases this year on the 23rd of April on all consoles, and on Xbox Game Pass.