My assessment of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is sort of late, however that’s partially by design. Preliminary evaluations of the Change model complained of efficiency points that 505 Video games promised to repair with a forthcoming replace, and we gave them a while to take action. That patch is now out. Did it do the trick?
Brief reply? I don’t suppose so. Final consequence? I nonetheless like the sport.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is a Kickstarter-funded JRPG that particularly targets those that fondly recall the Suikoden video games. I’m not in that group, I assume, having solely performed Suikoden Tierkreis on the Nintendo DS. I recall simply sufficient about that sport to have been shortly comfy with the method Rabbit & Bear took with the techniques and story of Eiyuden Chronicle.
Our story follows…effectively, it follows fairly just a few individuals, really. Hundred heroes, don’t you recognize. However the principle story is centered round Nowa, a younger soldier with a knack for fight and management. He meets and befriends an equally gifted soldier, Seign, however the two shortly discover themselves on reverse ends of a battle that might tear aside not solely their friendship, however the entirety of Allraan.
Nowa is tasked with main a small group of like-minded troopers in an effort to recruit extra to their resistance effort. Allegiances will come and go as he progresses, and there’s simply sufficient thriller/suspense to maintain the participant guessing all through. There are a lot of characters to find and recruit. Some are picked up through the story, some be part of after finishing varied sidequests or mini-games.
Others are simply missable. When you gotta catch ’em all, seize a walkthrough.
The turn-based fight system does an excellent job of letting you check out a whole lot of these characters without delay. Your get together comprises six lively fighters—three within the entrance, three within the again. Clearly, the frontline is for these with strong protection and quick vary assaults, whereas the backline is reserved for healers and people who can assault from a distance. You’ll assign actions for all six characters at first of every flip, then watch them execute these actions so as of particular person pace. The pace of the enemy can disrupt these assaults, however I discovered it wasn’t too laborious to get out of most battles with minimal injury to my workforce.
Eiyuden Chronicle isn’t terribly troublesome…till it needs to be. Some boss battles will discover you significantly under-leveled, and you recognize what which means.
There are many intricacies to the fight, such because the timing of combo assaults and the utilization of “gimmicks” that seem in sure battles. Character talents may be enhanced with the correct weapons and equipment. This all provides some life to an in any other case pretty fundamental battle system that may begin to really feel fairly repetitious. Extra on that in a bit.
Along with the six lively combatants, you’ll be able to assign assist characters that gives a buff to the workforce. Extra importantly, you’ll be able to place “attendant” characters. This lets you maintain story-required characters within the get together with out really utilizing them, a beautiful choice if you wish to stage up different workforce members or are simply uninterested in the principle group.
This being an old-school JRPG, Eiyuden Chronicle is crammed with random battles. Whether or not you’re exploring a dungeon or traversing the world map, battles occur with out warning. When you’re not OK with that, flip away now. You’ll be able to auto-battle for those who like, for which you’ll be able to customise how every get together member approaches fight to verify they don’t waste abilities that aren’t wanted in opposition to lesser enemies. You’ll undoubtedly wish to do all of this, as manually controlling every battle shortly will get tedious.
Really, tedium is among the sport’s greatest faults. This manifests through repetitious battles, uninspired dungeons, and an excessive amount of backtracking. You’ll continuously revisit the identical areas, particularly for those who’re involved in finishing aspect quests or unlocking extra heroes. The power to warp to particular dungeon locales would assist, proper? Nicely, you’ll want to recruit the character that gives that means. Wish to rearrange your get together with out having to backtrack to a pleasant village? Once more, discover and recruit the correct individual. It’s a joyous event when these talents are offered, however they arrive effectively after the expertise has already been soured.
I’ll additionally by no means perceive the purpose of giving us a map with out labeling the objects on that map. Did I not meet/recruit a personality who would offer that fundamental operate? Or give me a quest marker? Something to forestall me from meandering internationally map when a straight line already supplies extra random battles than I need? Not even the JRPG-mandated fishing part can save the day right here, as fishing is actually only a matter of tapping the A button.
The occasional minigame pops up, maybe to spare gamers from this repetition and occasional aimlessness. Some are enjoyable, some much less so, however all of them do an excellent job of reclaiming your consideration.
They don’t, nevertheless, compensate for the efficiency issues on the Change. The promised patch didn’t do a lot to assist, both. The most important remaining wrongdoer is that all the pieces appears to have a load time. These aren’t terribly lengthy, however the sport pauses for just a few seconds earlier than and after each battle. If you’re coming into and leaving villages. If you’re coming into and leaving homes. If you’re coming into and leaving store menus. The interruptions are fixed, and so they haven’t been addressed on the time of this writing.
As I mentioned at the start of the assessment, nevertheless, I nonetheless favored Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. That is principally due to the script. The overwhelming majority of the characters are enjoyable, offering snappy and genuinely humorous dialogue. That’s fairly an achievement, contemplating what number of characters there are. It’s not shocking, although, because the characters and writing have been additionally the highlights of the sport’s predecessor: Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising. The plot will maintain you guessing, and it’s attention-grabbing sufficient to push you ahead all through…and maybe past; Season Move consumers will get extra chapters centered round totally different characters.
Additionally, discovering/recruiting new heroes is compelling, as is tinkering together with your get together lineup. Those that love the trivia of get together administration will take pleasure in working via the numerous optimization choices accessible.
That leaves us with a sport that journeys alongside the best way to its vacation spot, however it will get there with nothing greater than few bruises and skinned knees. It additionally takes a path that hasn’t been open to JRPG followers in fairly a while, and that alone might make it definitely worth the hike.
