Welcome to this review of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. There are two reasons you are here. Option 1: You know the name Suikoden, the old masters behind the development of Hundred Heroes, whose unfortunately somewhat tragic development history, have already bought the game and are perhaps even a Kickstarter backer for the project.
Now you're visiting this site and would like PC Games' opinion on a game that has meant a lot to you for years – I'd be interested to know if the menu slowdowns bother you as much as I do, more on that later.
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Or, option 2: You are role-playing fans, especially with a JRPG influence, and stumbled across this unusual title on the platform of your choice at the end of April 2024. Now you would like to know more about it. In both cases our answer is: you can have it!
Base game
The core of the new Eiyuden Chronicle – the playfully different predecessor, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, was released in 2022 – is in its nickname: Hundred Heroes. This is actually serious: In the game you will meet countless characters that you can recruit not only for your party, but also for your army.
By the way, this also includes expanding your base of operations with various specialists – Hundred Heroes is a third role-playing game with a classic, but strongly told and presented story, a third basic development game and a third turn-based combat simulation in the flavors of individual duels, group battles and war campaigns.
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On top of that, over the course of the adventure there are a few minigames and excursions into genres outside of the classic JRPG – small stealth stages, for example. The developers gradually present all of these aspects to you in nicely divided bites, usually right when you actually feel like trying something new.
Source: PC Games
Call me Ribbon
To be fair, this approach is a double-edged sword. Yes, Hundred Heroes has a gigantic range of sometimes wonderfully exotic characters up its sleeve and still manages not to lose its focus on a few protagonists.
Because each character only has a short time to attract your attention, the characters are often exaggerated, reduced to one or two stereotypical behaviors that are easy to remember – and can have a huge impact on you due to this seemingly artificial behavior ghost go.
But there is something for every kind of gamer – always framed in a positive mood, even if Hundred Heroes does touch on serious topics.
And it has to be said that many of the characters are just a gimmick. The best example is the characters in your help slot. Some of them give you special options for group sorting outside of battles, others increase the yield at gathering points where you can collect resources for your base building.
In comparable RPGs, these characters would simply be passive perks in a talent tree or options for your ring/amulet slots. A significant portion of the Hundred Heroes are simply pieces of equipment that have become figures.
Soap operas with 100 episodes
Hundred Heroes also has its own style in the way it tells its story. For comparison, some great current role-playing games of a similar design: Octopath Traveler 2 presents his adventure about two handfuls of equal protagonists loosely, chapter by chapter, while putting the characters at the center. The individual sections then result in a well-tangible overall story.
Sea of Stars tells a very compact plot for its genre in such a captivating way that the two main characters become the least interesting part of the entire game. But it doesn't matter, because what happens to the hero duo is the real highlight in Sea of Stars. Great script, strongly told!
The new Eiyuden Chronicle also has a compelling storyline. It's not particularly original, but it is supported by the passionate voice acting (respect, even for many NPCs!), the fantastically emotive music and believable characters.
Source: PC Games
Nevertheless, it remains the framework – at the center of the storyline, Hundred Heroes works with a lot of very short episodes that revolve around its almost hundred allies.
Whenever you meet a new potential member for your team, you get a little storyline about him or her. Sometimes these are somewhat more in-depth stories, but sometimes they are just pure fetch quests. Overall, it's a great fit and as a whole package it's sure to keep you interested.
Horses are 3D
Speaking of Octopath Traveler 2: Hundred Heroes, with its mix of 2D character sprites and 3D backgrounds, is clearly based on the Square Enix model, with two clear differences. Firstly, there is the engine: Octopath Traveler 2 is based on Unreal Engine 4, Hundred Heroes is based on Unity.
And on the other hand, despite the similar approach, the two games differ significantly in the art direction: Octopath Traveler 2 has a diorama style in which the 3D environment closely follows the 2D sprites of the characters. Hundred Heroes, on the other hand, relies on a much wider gap between polygons and sprites (worth reading on the topic: our 2D HD special).