Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Assessment – An Previous Star Rises

“Don’t decide a guide by its cowl.” A small little one dressed as legally distinct Sailor Moon chirped this trite little phrase at me about an hour into Rabbit and Bear’s Suikoden successor Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. I’m undecided after I realized the adage applies to Hundred Heroes itself as a lot because it did to regardless of the little one was speaking about. It’d’ve been after I met a cleric whose vices included violence and foul language; however at any time when it was, it inspired me to miss the misgivings Hundred Heroes’ poor first impressions raised in me, and there have been a lot. Hundred Heroes adheres a bit too intently to outdated design conventions, however the energy of its writing and characters makes up for its short-sightedness.

Rabbit and Bear have been critical once they promised a contemporary Suikoden-like. You play as Nowa, a member of the Eltisweiss Watch mercenary corps dedicated to retaining the peace. What begins as a piddling collection of errands for close by villages quickly turns into one thing extra critical as Nowa and the Watch get drawn into conflicts that threaten their beliefs and your complete world. Additionally, like Suikoden, Hundred Heroes divides its time between world exploration, the place you decide up quests and new characters, battles, and dungeon crawling, the latter of which is principally an excuse for extra battles.

Hundred Heroes additionally sticks fairly near Suikoden 2’s fight with a couple of refreshing expansions. Your crew consists of as much as six lively characters with expertise you’ll be able to increase with runes, which grant completely different talents and buffs, and every character will get a number of rune slots that permit for in depth customization. The system is satisfying in itself however comes into its personal when you begin linking character assaults and forming distinctive combos.

Because the identify suggests, recruiting the sport’s 100-plus heroes performs an enormous function. Some be part of mechanically, however the extra attention-grabbing ones have a quest related to them that offers a bit extra perception into their character and place on the planet. They usually play a minor function within the story after that, however their detailed sprite animations and voiced strains nonetheless make them really feel like a part of the story and never an afterthought.

The setup sounds too acquainted, however regardless of author Yoshitaka Murayama drawing clear inspiration from his earlier works, Hundred Heroes by no means feels spinoff and finally surpasses its supply materials. It owes a lot of its character to that robust forged of brilliantly written characters and a willingness to embrace humor and the ridiculous as a strategy to reduce deeper with its critical themes of autonomy and fairness.

In addition they save Hundred Heroes from itself. Sluggish traversal, an empty world map, and tedious dungeons make Hundred Heroes extra irritating than it ought to be, however the promise of a brand new character vignette or extra plot development was at all times sufficient to maintain me urgent ahead.

Hundred Heroes expands Suikoden’s base-building function with new guilds and teams to your social gathering members to type. At a look, that looks as if busywork, and it’s. However it additionally represents one thing deeper. Your citadel is a microcosm of Hundred Heroes’ themes, a small society of people that look, act, and assume nothing alike however who respect one another and battle for the fitting to stay freely, with out hate.

In battle, a strong AI system permits you to program instructions and let your social gathering take care of weaker enemies primarily based on the way you’ve personalized their runes. Boss fights are simply complicated sufficient that they demand your full consideration, although, thanks in some half to the gimmick function. These stay as much as their identify, for higher and worse, equivalent to making you guess the place an enemy will transfer or forcing you to assault a selected object. They’re a pleasant change of tempo at first however shortly outstay their welcome.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is an effective reminder of why the RPG style left some components of its Golden Age behind. It’s additionally a sworn statement to what makes the style particular and the ability of fine storytelling to maneuver and encourage. Admittedly, inflexible adherence to archaic constructions makes these first impressions robust to look previous, however a artistic battle system, in depth social gathering customization, and top-notch writing make up for the retro jank.