Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Review

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to try out an early build for Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. I loved my time with it, so I can't wait to see how the full game expands on the magic I had felt from my earlier experience.

First things first, a quick recap of the history of the game. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes started as a Kickstarter project that was developed by Rabbit & Bear Studios and published by 505 Games. Yoshitaka Murayama, the creator of the Suikoden series, takes on the role of producer and director of this title. Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes is not an entry in the Suikoden series, as Konami still holds the rights, but fans are instead calling it a spiritual successor. When the Kickstarter campaign ended, the game had 46,307 backers, making history as the third-highest-funded videogame on the site. 

When Eiyuden Chronicle starts, you are Nowa; he is a new recruit to a team of fighters called The Watch. This team acts as mercs that have a public backing and get assigned to a variety of random jobs. Garr, a beastman character who resembles a wolf, acts as the leader of the group. He has been with The Watch longer than any of the other team members and is considered a veteran, it is only fitting that he lead the group. The next character we are introduced to is Mio, she is an East Reach Swordswoman, with long, dark hair making her easy to recognise. Finally, the last member we meet is Lian. She is a young girl with bright pink hair and a big attitude. She has only been with the team two days longer than you, but she likes to act like she has way more experience. The members make up the core team, who will team up with a variety of other fighters during your journey. 

First off, they are assigned to work with fighters who aren’t from the League like they are but instead from the Empire. Seign is the leader of that group, and is very strong with the ability to use a rune-lens to perform powerful attacks. He seems like a nice guy and gets along great with Nowa, so much so that they learn a combo ability that they will perform together against the enemies they encounter. Hildi fights along with Seign and, like him, has lens abilities she can use. Her’s are centred around healing the members of the team individually or as a whole unit. So now that you have six characters to control, you set off on your mission. I personally have never played an RPG where I control a party of six different characters at the same time, four is what I am used to. This seems like it could be confusing, but it works amazingly well.

While you are in a battle, you have three different commands that you can select from: Fight — where you select the type of attack you will use for that turn; Auto — where the game will fight for you until the end of that battle; or Flee — where you try to escape the fight. This doesn’t always work, so be prepared to battle just in case. When the bout begins, you will notice that the camera is not stationary; it will move around the battlefield and follow the character who is attacking. This makes the fight feel more exciting and dynamic, making the attacks you use look really cool. It made the fight feel a lot more interesting than a lot of other turn-based RPGs that I had played in the past, where you were just mashing buttons to skip through the fight.

There is a bar with little icons of each character at the top of the screen to show what order everyone attacks in. The enemies that you are fighting are also included here. This system allows you to be strategic with your battle plans. Ideally, you will want to attack the enemy who goes first and take them out before they have a chance to inflict damage on your team. This is also incredibly useful because, when a teammate has fallen in battle, you can figure out when the best time to revive them is so they aren’t instantly killed when they are brought back, which will save you a lot of items. 

Some of the battles you fight have an additional gimmick mechanic that you can use, like hiding behind rubble to avoid incoming attacks from the enemy. When you select the move each character makes, the gimmick will appear on the upper left of your screen. It works best if you know the pattern of the enemy so that you can time your attacks right to do the highest amount of damage possible. This is another way Eiyuden Chronicle lets you be strategic, alternating your normal attacks with the gimmicks that are available, adding more variety to fights that can feel a bit repetitive after a while, and creating a new level of challenge.

You are presented with a result screen once the fight is over, which shows how much baqua (money) you obtained, any items you got from the battle, and the amount of experience points everyone earned. Keep in mind that only the characters who survived the fight will get XP. After viewing these stats, you will go back into the game; any characters that died during the fight have been brought back to life with 1 HP. This is handy so you don’t need to waste revival items to bring them back to life, but keep in mind that if you don’t bring them back before the fight is over, they won’t earn the points to level up. 

If your whole team is wiped out in battle, you have the option to fight a rematch, resume from the last save point, or give up and go back to the title screen. Sometimes, if you run out of supplies or get stuck, it's worth going back to the last shop to top up your supplies. This also lets you form your party once again. Sometimes swapping the characters and changing the members in the support roles may give you the advantage you need. To get back, you will have to do a lot of walking unless you have purchased a Runeshard of Return. This warps you to the entrance of the dungeon, so you can instantly leave.

Besides your normal turn-based battles, Eiyuden Chronicle has a few different types of gameplay that you will encounter, depending on what is happening in the story. When fighting in a war, the battles feel more like you are playing a real-time strategy game like the board game Risk. You send your troops in as a legion, with one of your team members as the leader, and they will battle against the enemy forces. The more allies you can recruit, the stronger your legion will grow. You will select a spot on the battlefield where you want your legion to move. Once selected, you will begin the battle. This is all you control; now you sit back and watch your forces fight with text scrolling on the right-hand side of the screen to let you know which enemies you have defeated and which of your troops have been killed. The messages are pretty entertaining, with updates like "heroically killed in glorious battle!" or “they are retreating!”. Once a legion has taken too much damage, it will retreat and leave the battlefield. It was different playing an RPG where I wasn’t selecting each individual attack.

One of my favourite parts is getting to recruit new characters to join your team. You will find new heroes all over, sometimes in town or other times on a mountain. Some will join just if you ask, while others will require you to complete a task like hunting three wild boars to impress Kuroto the Archer or helping them find a missing family member. All these recruits have unique personalities and attack styles, so it was fun to try them out in battle and see which I found the most useful. 

Eiyuden Chronicle isn't a sad or depressing game like you may expect. It's actually surprisingly light-hearted! Sure, you fight enemies, but the hero, Nowa, is optimistic about all the events going on, making this experience feel refreshing and not draining like other stories full of doom and gloom! There is even city-building gameplay included here, where you get to collect resources and build the town to customise it however you want! 

I love the art style of Eiyuden Chronicle; it has realistic environments and uses depth of field that makes objects close to you clear and crisp while things in the distance are blurred. This is a nice contrast to the pixelated characters that you are controlling. There are a huge number of heroes that you will be playing as, and each has a great look. From guys who look like punk rockers with pink mohawks to a cute tree fighter and Sailor Moon-like magical girls, there is a fun hero for everyone! Paired with great music that changes and adapts to what is going on in the story, like the dour and sad music that plays when you learn that war has broken out to the epic battle music you hear in boss battles, this is a great-looking and sounding experience!

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes can be incredibly challenging at times. There is one instance where you are in a long boss fight and will probably be burning through your items at a rapid pace. Once it’s finally done, you will be tossed into another boss fight before you get a chance to save or replenish your revive and health-replenishing items. This made for an incredibly stressful fight, and I was sure I was going to lose and have to start back at the last save point, having to redo both battles. Fortunately, I got lucky, and with only Nowa surviving, I was successful, but damn, it was close!

There is so much here that I could go on for hours about. I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but I will tell you that this is a game that you need to check out, especially if you enjoy retro-style RPGs with turn-based fights. If you aren’t a fan of random enemy encounters that frequently occur, you may find that Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes feels like a grind. If you enjoy games with a ton of fighting while you explore, you will be happy.