Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes

It's a worse version of Suikoden 2. I mean that in the kindest way possible. 2 was their best game and no other Suikoden game ever came close to 2, because it was lightning in a bottle for whatever reason. Eiyuden Chronicles is one of those games you enjoy in very short sessions. Its nowhere near as bad as people make it out, but it certainly isn't anything ground breaking either. I will say, you need to get this at a discount though, because I can't imagine ever paying full price for it. It is enjoyable to collect all the characters and create your favorite teams. The pixel art is beautiful, and the visuals aren't bad at all, it all fits nicely. Its a strangely enduring game, I hope the sequel can fix all the minor issues and a much tighter narrative. It's a game you can see with a lot of potential if they just tighten everything, all the pieces are certainly there. But yeah, wait for a good sale.

The devs didn't give me the rewards for supporting the Kickstarter.

I want to give this game a 'thumbs up' but for some reason I just can't. I bought this game for around a €1,- and I am NOT saying it's trash, by all means. The dialogues between characters can be fun, the story is passable and the music in this game is rather good! I have played top down, pixel RPG's when I was younger and the way games like that evolved into bigger and stronger titles because we (read: "I") craved better graphics back in the day, we craved for better save mechanics, we craved for fast-travel, we craved for better UI's... And with due time we got those functions. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, however, feels like it is a bit stuck in the year 1994, because of the lack of basic functions I just mentioned, we got through the decades. Having 90+ characters to choose from to go to battle with is an inspiring feature to pull off but the fighting system just doesn't make it worth to have all these characters. I am almost 10 hours into the game, and even though there is a character that makes it available for you to fast travel, do I really need to spend 13 hours of excruciating nineteen-nineties travel and save systems? I've already been through that, I don't want to anymore. That's the main reason I just can't get to giving this game a 'thumbs up', even though I wanted too.

GER/ENG Das Game hat mich mit seiner super niedlichen Pixel-Welt und dem riesigen Cast aus vielen Helden echt abgeholt. Die eigene Festung aufzubauen war richtig cool, die Geschichten waren gut und das ganze Feeling hat bei mir voll gezündet. Leider versaut das Spiel vieles mit extrem nervigen Softlocks und Missables. Verpasst man nur eine einzige Figur oder Szene, ist man oft softlocked und muss weit zurückgehen. Ich hab’s wegen einem einzigen verpassten Charakter nur auf 119 Helden geschafft und konnte somit auch einige andere Achievements vergessen. Das ist in einem 100+ Stunden-Spiel einfach nur mies, besonders weil man es meist erst gegen Ende merkt. Dazu kommt noch das katastrophale Inventar, das einen schon ab den ersten Stunden an stresst. Trotzdem ein starkes JRPG für Genre-Fans, mit teils heftigen Abstrichen. ..................................................... This game really got me with its super cute pixel world and the huge cast of tons of heroes. Building up your own castle was really cool, the stories were solid, and the whole feeling just hit the spot for me. Unfortunately, the game ruins a lot with extremely annoying softlocks and missables. Miss just one character or scene and you’re often softlocked and have to go back hours. I only managed to get 119 heroes because of one single missed character and ended up losing several other achievements too. That sucks in a 100+ hour game, especially because you usually only notice it near the end. On top of that, the inventory system is straight up terrible and stresses you out from the very first hours. Still, it’s a strong JRPG for genre fans, with some pretty heavy drawbacks.

古き良き遊び心と古き悪きシステムの両方がいる 笑 しかし、全体的にはやりたい事が詰まっておりとても良かった！ ギャグが感も心地よい。 自力で全キャラ仲間にする程にはハマったが、古の忍耐ゲー好きじゃないと耐えられないヒントの少なさだったようにも感じる 笑 しかし、紛れもなく推したい一品！

I had to finish this game twice because on my first playthrough, I failed to recruit the very last character and I was so annoyed ! Story-wise, this game clearly stands no chance against Suikoden 2. However, when it comes to the music, graphics, and castle/town management, it is definitely a step up—though I know that is highly subjective for everyone. If you are a Suikoden player, you won't have any trouble learning the ropes of this game. I only have one piece of advice: don’t set your expectations for the story too high like Suikoden 2, because I already know you will end up disappointed.

My biggest gripe is the auto battle system, you can give priority to certain abilities to customize how each hero acts in combat but it's such a lightweight system it doesn't leave room to really do what you'd like. You can't seem to set conditions for actions and you can't choose which specific ability is used on that "a physical ability" will be used.