Back in July 2020, a group consisting of veteran developers who created the classic JRPG franchise Suikoden, came together to announce a Kickstarter-backed spiritual successor called Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. This game sets out to pay tribute to Suikoden as well as other JRPGs from the PlayStation One-era with a traditional turn-based combat system, polished retro graphics, a deep story filled with adventure, war, and a cast of over a hundred memorable characters.
Fast forward four years and Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is now complete and ready to launch on April 23, 2024, for home consoles, Xbox Game Pass, and PCs. I personally haven’t played any of the Suikoden games growing up, nor have I played Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes’ prequel, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising which we reviewed in 2022.
With that in mind, I was going into this review for the PC version via Steam completely blind and I was glad I did because this game, while flawed, was an entertaining adventure, and a homage to the best JRPGs out there.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes – Art and performance
Price: $49.99 at GreenManGaming | $49.99 at Xbox | $35.29 at CDKeys
Developer: Rabbit & Bear Studios
Publisher: 505 Games
Genre: JRPG
Playtime: 60 hours
Release date: April 23, 2024
Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PC (Microsoft Store & Steam)
Reviewed on: PC (Steam)
Xbox Game Pass: Yes
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes’ presentation blends gorgeously detailed 2D sprite animations set against lush and vibrant 3D backgrounds to create a resplendent-looking game oozing with retro charm. The presentation is enhanced further during the turn-based battles and Dual mini-games, which feature dynamic camerawork whenever characters perform special moves to accentuate the cinematic action and excite you during combat.
The audio presentation is equally as top-notch as Eiyuden's visuals. The soundtrack features a wide range of calm melodies and sweeping orchestral scores to heighten the emotional impact of the story and in-game battles.
In addition, the sound effects add extra punch to the game's ambiance and action with crisp, immersion-boosting high-fidelity. The sound effects of steel clashing, punches thrown, and explosive magical powers are delivered with crystal-clear precision, making you feel like you're really there as the action unfolds, especially when wearing headphones.
Also, Eiyuden features well-done voiceover acting in both English and Japanese, with stellar performances breathing life into the characters and making them more endearing.
Performance-wise, the PC version of Eiyuden is solid as it can run consistently at a 60FPS frame rate and 1080p resolution with no framerate drops. There are a couple of cutscenes that run at 30fps but they are a rare occurrence and only do so for special cinematic moments in the story to emphasize their significance.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes – Story
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes takes place on Allraan, a continent filled with a diverse range of cultures, species, and nations. Within this land, there exist mysterious artifacts called rune-lenses which allow special individuals to wield powerful magic that could cause mass destruction if they fell into the wrong hands.
One such pair of hands is the Galdean Empire, which is aggressively expanding its borders across Allraan to seek out the rune-lenses and exploit their power for their own nefarious purposes. The only ones who can stop them is a band of resistance fighters called the Alliance, led by the brave warrior Nowa.
Nowa was once a humble adventurer but through tragic circumstances, has now been burdened with the task of gathering an army of heroes to stop the Galdean Empire’s hunt for the rune-lenses and free the conquered lands of Allraan from their tyranny.
The story is your classic tale of ‘young heroes rising up to defeat the evil empire’ that while mostly predictable is still a fun ride filled with charming characters, exciting action, and funny moments of levity. Unfortunately, without spoiling it, the third act of the story stumbles a bit for me as the pacing feels rushed. The events of the third act go by so fast that there’s hardly any time for the player to take in and appreciate the climactic triumphs and heart-breaking tragedies.
Also, don’t go into this game expecting ground-breaking, deep character development. The majority of the cast’s personalities beyond the main protagonist and his core cohort don’t change beyond their initial appearance, which is to be expected considering this game has over a hundred characters to keep track of. Thankfully, their endearing personalities, designs, and the aforementioned delightful vocal performances, more than make up for it.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes – Gameplay
The gameplay of Eiyuden follows the standard JRPG format of traveling the world, visiting towns to shop for gear and supplies, exploring dungeons for hidden loot, and defeating enemies in turn-based combat to progress the story. However, Eiyuden has some unique gameplay features that help it stand out from the crowd.
Firstly, as the title suggests, this game has over a hundred characters to recruit into your army by exploring the world, advancing the story, and completing dozens of hours’ worth of sidequests.
The vast majority of these characters can be outfitted with rune-lenses to gain new magical spells and special moves or enhance their stats. In addition, certain characters when paired together can unleash powerful combo attacks that will decimate opponents while also being cool to observe.
As you can imagine, this allows players to experiment with dozens of playstyle options and discover which party composition suits their tastes for the best outcome in battle. Speaking of battle, turn-based combat is one of the core components of Eiyuden and it is my favorite part of the game.
The combat system is intuitive and features a lot of strategic depths to master. These include positioning your frontline fighters to protect your weaker ranged fighters and planning your actions around the enemy’s turns so that you can mitigate incoming damage while maintaining your offensive momentum.
Assembling a team whose abilities complement each member’s strengths and pulling off strategic moves to overwhelm the enemy forces is fun and satisfying.
The combat system is intuitive and features a lot of strategic depths to master.
This is especially true during the wonderfully animated boss battles which can be difficult if you’re unprepared. These fights will test your understanding of the combat system to its limits and require you to invent creative ways to counteract them.
In addition, certain boss battles have special gimmick actions where you can use the surrounding environment to gain the upper hand when timed correctly, adding a little bit more strategic spice to the mix.
The third major component of Eiyuden’s gameplay is establishing a base of operations for your army, which is unlocked later in the game. This hub area is where your reserve party members will hang out and where your non-combatant allies will construct and manage various facilities if you help gather the materials they need. These facilities include shops, armories, hot spring spas, farms, training grounds, and more.
The more you upgrade your town, the more resources you will have at your disposal to help future battles become easier and unlock secret allies you won’t find in the main story. Not to mention it is so rewarding to see your base grow from an abandoned ruin to a sprawling medieval town fortress that can contend with the mightiest of enemy armies.
The icing on this game’s gameplay cake is that Eiyuden has a plethora of mini-games to partake in. These range from optional mini-games like card games, racing games, cooking competitions, and Beigoma etc, to mandatory mini-games that are part of the story like Duels and the War battles.
Unfortunately, these mini-games are fairly simplistic and don’t require much strategy beyond making sure you have higher stats than the enemy does or guessing the correct answer to a question. Nevertheless, they serve as decent breaks to the main campaign and add a little variety to the gameplay loop. Plus some of these mini-games will reward you with extra allies if you invest time in them.
However, Eiyuden is not all sunshine and rainbows as it's time I brought up the elephant in the room: micro-management. Without revealing spoilers, this game will require you, at certain points in the story, to switch perspectives between Nowa and some of his closest allies leading different teams to take on multiple missions at once. So, if you haven’t been training and outfitting the majority of your army with the latest gear, it will make future battles needlessly more difficult.
This means that you will be spending a lot of time switching allies, level grinding, and micro-managing their gear so you don’t hit a wall in the story, which can be a laborious and tedious task, even with special items provided by the game to make it go faster.
I personally didn’t mind this because since this game is all about gathering a hundred party members, I fully expected to constantly switch out party members and micro-manage their gear. However, if you’re not a fan of intense micro-management, this aspect of Eiyuden may be a deal breaker.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes – Final thoughts
You should buy it if...
You shouldn't buy it if...
Overall, I found Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes to be a pleasant surprise and a great addition to the Xbox Game Pass library despite its flaws. The combat system was engaging, the characters were simple yet likable, the retro graphics were pleasing to look at and the story was a fun ride while it lasted. While the game does have a “Quantity over Quality” approach, the quality of Eiyuden’s gameplay lives up to the quantity of content put into it for the most part.
It may not be one of the best Xbox JRPGs but it’s still a solid title that I feel fans of old-school JRPGs from the PlayStation One or even early PlayStation 2-era will enjoy greatly, provided they don’t mind too much micro-management.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes will be released on April 23, 2024, for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC via the Microsoft Store & Steam.
While it may have micro-management and pacing issues, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is a charming throwback to retro JRPGs packed with a massive cast of likable characters, an entertaining story, tons of fun sidequests, and an in-depth combat system.
Buy at: $49.99 GreenManGaming (PC) | $49.99 Xbox | $35.29 CDKeys (PC)
