Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is the final game from Suikoden series creator Yoshitaka Murayama who sadly passed early in 2024. It has the classic JRPG look and feel you’d expect, but can it live up to the hype of being 2020’s highest-funded Kickstarter video game?
Gameplay
Anyone familiar with classic JRPG gameplay will feel immediately at home with Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. There’s a lovely pacing to the game, starting with classic JPRG turn-based combat and team building but soon opening up to more freeform exploration and later city building and light resource management. Mini-games see you having to solve puzzles, battle in chess-like sieges, and plenty more I won’t spoil. The city grows as you find characters to open stores and facilities. Inventory space is limited but gear and rune changing is slick and cleverly designed, and generally, the flow of the game is very satisfying.
What I found incredibly frustrating was a complete lack of mouse support and keyboard remapping options. Nothing breaks immersion quite like hitting familiar buttons to no effect, and while it certainly isn’t a game-breaker and only a PC problem, this lack of choice feels completely out of place in a modern game. Similarly, you’re restricted to set save points. They’re usually well-placed, but not always, and again, it feels unnecessarily old school.
Score: 4/5 Stars
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Graphics
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes’ graphics are stunning throughout. The backdrops are beautiful and varied, the character animations fun and diverse, and the battle moves are explosive without being overly long and intrusive. While it can be a little frustrating not to be able to move the camera angle on many of the screens (usually only on the world map), this has given the graphics team more scope to make the exploration look cinematic, which, for me, is a fair trade-off. I’d rather be immersed than be able to see every angle.
The 2.5D graphic style works especially well here, giving everything more detail and polish while keeping the 2D vibe, and the characters never feel separate from the gorgeous backdrops. Visiting towns and villages feels like you’re in a working (if a little underpopulated) environment, with a clever blend of NPCs (some you can interact with) all going about their business. There’s just the right amount of JRPG flavor too, with plenty of odd and cute little details to notice if you look hard enough (there's a cat cutely hanging in the rafters in the Elder's building in Arenside, for example).
Score: 4.5/5 Stars
Narrative
There’s little point in having cinematic graphics and gameplay in an RPG if the narrative doesn’t deliver and thankfully, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes gets pretty much everything right. You have every JRPG trope here in spades, from the unassuming do-gooder who'll become our hero with his overenthusiastic sidekick to a civilized society on the brink of destruction you're destined to save and a sci-fi-esque 'ancient race' whose technology is a mystery just waiting to be solved.
While some of the characters are a little on the nose in terms of cliches, the overall blend is completely charming, from the nefarious and mysterious to the silly, loyal, and downright unusual. Game-wise, some characters come and go, too, depending on what’s happening in the world, adding to the feeling of narrative depth.
The overall story is as epic as you’d expect, with our heroes experiencing the highs and lows all good stories entail. What makes it sing is the effortless way new ideas are introduced, with important plot points often highlighted by unique game mechanics as well as the usual cut scenes. Certain characters must always be in your party for the plot to work, but you can assign them to non-combat spots, allowing you to keep your chosen battle squad without compromising on the narrative arc.
Score: 4.5/5 Stars
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Combat
Turn-based combat is where I’m most at home and while it feels fluid in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, I don’t find it completely satisfying.
Nice touches include in-game besties getting Friendship Combo attacks (such as the Kogen's Boys Combo that damages a whole line, reduces DEF, and boosts ally DEF), imaginative boss battles with unique mechanics (such as Hide in Debris, pictured above), plus spells and abilities that alter turn order. The placement of your chosen six heroes is also important, with attack and ability reach being key to team setup. Equipable runes either buff stats and resistances or open up elemental spells, adding another layer of customization.
While this all works well, battles often feel inconsequential. Enemy models are fun and varied but their attacks rarely are. As enemies fall, those in the back row take their place, meaning placement is less important than it first appears. The toughness of a zone, more often than not, flip-flops from a little tricky to ‘click auto’ too fast, seeing battles become something to click through rather than enjoy (especially as you can’t skip animations). At least there are both ‘auto’ and ‘let them flee’ options, with lots of custom modes allowing you to set characters to act in specific ways (defend, save MP, etc).
Score: 3/5 Stars
Exploration
We’re once again in familiar JRPG territory when it comes to exploration in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. While I found things a little telegraphed (doors are all marked on the map, resource nodes glow, etc), there's a lot to enjoy in chatting with locals, exploring dead ends to find goodies, and generally getting into mischief. The game’s few puzzles tend to be part of the exploration process, getting you to pull levers and find codes while exploring is often satisfyingly rewarded with access to new heroes to recruit.
But it's not all good news. There is no sprint option, making many early trips through familiar areas a little weak. This is made worse by regular interruptions from invisible random encounters that, once you’re leveled above an area, are to be endured not enjoyed. Sadly, this makes some of the more interesting puzzle areas a lesson in tedium, as trying to work out where to stand and move is continuously interrupted by repetitive battles.
Worse still, this can see you having to run back to a town to heal up, just so you can go and try it all again. Removing or drastically reducing random encounters from these puzzle and maze areas would go a long way to increasing my enjoyment.
Score: 3/5 Stars
Verdict - All that’s JRPGood, plus a bit of the bad
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes feels like a fitting farewell from Yoshitaka Murayama, building nicely on the deserved success of the Suikoden series. It looks, sounds (the voice artists are high quality), and feels terrific while giving JRPG fans all the gaming elements that keep us coming back for more. But while many fans will overlook the frustrations of repetitive random combats, others will see this as an opportunity narrowly missed.
A free copy of the game was provided to PGG by the publisher for review purposes.
Looking for more game reviews? Check out Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Review: The golden standard for a modern-day remake here at Pro Game Guides.
Published: Apr 22, 2024 09:07 am