Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes [PC] | REVIEW

With a successful Kickstarter campaign, some RPG legends on board, and with the beloved Suikoden series acting as an obvious inspiration, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes had everything it needed to offer an entertaining RPG experience. And you know what? It delivers one, with it standing out as another must-play release in the genre.

Check out some screenshots down below:

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes takes place in the world of Allraan, where the discovery of powerful devices known as Rune Lenses has led the villainous Galdean Empire and its king Dux Alric on an ominous path of destruction. Players take control of Nowa, who initially found himself working alongside the Galdean Empire in a somewhat peaceful endeavour, but soon looks to recruit heroes to help bring them down when he discovers their nefarious plans.

That’s REALLY putting the tale into a nutshell, especially since the game explores multiple themes around political strife and war across its narrative, whilst the fact there are multiple main protagonists means you’ll see events unfold from varied perspectives as you progress. There’s plenty going on to keep players invested in the world too, with the main storyline not only proving engaging throughout your journey but also complemented by the variety of side-stories that come with the characters you encounter along the way. It’s light-hearted and serious in equal measures, with everything coming together to make for a charming RPG narrative that feels befitting of the classics that inspired it.

As noted, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is heavily inspired by Suikoden, with development led by Yoshitaka Marayama (rest in peace) and other staff who worked on the series at Konami – so of course, you can expect a LOT of similarities. This will become evident quite quickly with the game’s recruitment system, which sees you recruiting a variety of characters from across the world to your cause. Some of these will come naturally through the main story, others will require you to complete a side quest to unlock, whilst others simply have to be found through exploration, with over a hundred characters to recruit in total. It’s incredibly addictive seeking each one out, with some brilliant personalities to be found that’ll certainly make their presence felt during your adventure. They each have varied uses too, with the most prominent being in battle but others granting special abilities out in the field or allowing you to accrue more resources whilst gathering. And sure, there were a couple of duds here and there who I quickly forgot about after recruiting, but they’re few and far between in what is otherwise a stellar cast of characters.

“There’s just so much on offer here that it’s hard not to be left in awe of the scale of it all, and whilst I’ll happily acknowledge that the core gameplay loop doesn’t have a lot of original ideas, it’s all wonderfully executed to make for an engrossing RPG experience.”

The characters you recruit also tie into the fortress town that you develop in the game, with players developing facilities within it, accumulating resources, and building it into a homebase to be proud of. Certain functions won’t be available until you recruit the characters tied to them, which will just push your desire to ensure you recruit every character that you possibly can. Again, it’s an idea that has been lifted straight from the Suikoden series, but one that has been developed upon here with a bigger emphasis placed on resource management to ensure your economy is strong enough to maintain steady development.

I should probably get a lot of the other Suikoden-inspired aspects of the game out of the way whilst I’m at it: you can expect duels where you have to carefully observe your opponent’s actions to get the upper hand, strategic war sequences that’ll see you leading your army into battle, whilst the combat mechanics are very similar to those seen in Konami’s RPG series too… I haven’t played something that copies Suikoden so efficiently since Legion Saga in the RPG Maker days. I’m certainly not complaining about it though – as a long-time fan of the Suikoden series, it’s great to see a new RPG release embrace the aspects that made it so good and bring it to a modern audience, whilst having some of the original development team on board makes it feel like more of a meaningful homage to their previous work. The best part of all? It’s all wonderful executed, with the clever blend of ideas ensuring that Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes’ gameplay has plenty of cool things going on to keep players fully invested in the adventure.

If you’ve come over from the previous release Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, it is probably worth noting that Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes takes a different approach with its combat mechanics. It’s more traditional here with its turn-based battling, with players taking a party of six into showdowns that can each play different roles. As mentioned, there are a LOT of heroes to recruit that can be used in combat, with each having a few tricks up their sleeve to ensure they can be used to build varied strategies to deal with the differing enemies you face off against – especially since certain characters might work more efficiently based around the row you place them in on your party setup.

Check out some screenshots down below:

There’s also a neat system in place that allows you to setup automated actions for your characters to perform in battle, which doesn’t only help streamline some encounters but also adds an additional element of strategy to the experience. You’ve also got to manage your Skill Points and MP throughout each encounter, ensuring you’re kept on your toes and don’t get too comfortable. I wouldn’t call Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes a hard game at all, but it definitely has its moments where players will have to be switched on and prepared in order to survive. I have to give a shout out to the boss encounters too, which add a fun twist to each showdown that you don’t always see in turn-based combat, but hey, I’ll leave that for you to discover (and try to take advantage of) yourself when playing.

If it wasn’t clear already, I’m a big fan of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. There are plenty of cool things going in the game that I haven’t mentioned about in this review, whilst I even found tasks that would typically be monotonous easy to engage with (you’d think managing the loadouts of a big party of characters would be annoying, but nope, I enjoyed it). There’s just so much on offer here that it’s hard not to be left in awe of the scale of it all, and whilst I’ll happily acknowledge that the core gameplay loop doesn’t have a lot of original ideas, it’s all wonderfully executed to make for an engrossing RPG experience. Sure, it does have some flaws here and there (particularly with the limited inventory and the drawn-out nature of some dungeons), but they’re easy issues to forgive when the game is so enjoyable to play.

Of course, I can’t end this review without mentioning the visual and audio presentation, which is top notch throughout. I loved the blend of 2D sprites in the 3D environments, with the distinct character designs and fluid animations looking wonderful across the entirety of the adventure. There were a handful of environments that lacked the detail players would expect of a modern release, but some clever visual effects ensure they always have an impressive sense of presence that makes them a treat to explore. And the soundtrack? It’s superb, with it capturing the epic sense of the adventure perfectly.

Developer: Rabbit & Bear Studios
Publisher: 505 Games
Platform(s): PC (Reviewed), PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Website: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1658280/Eiyuden_Chronicle_Hundred_Heroes/