My evaluation of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is kind of late, however that’s partially by design. Preliminary opinions 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?
Quick reply? I don’t suppose so. Final outcome? 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 programs and story of Eiyuden Chronicle.
Our story follows…properly, it follows fairly just a few individuals, really. Hundred heroes, don’t you realize. 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 a part of after finishing numerous sidequests or mini-games.
Others are simply missable. If you happen to gotta catch ’em all, seize a walkthrough.
The turn-based fight system does a superb job of letting you check out a whole lot of these characters directly. Your social gathering accommodates six energetic fighters—three within the entrance, three within the again. Clearly, the frontline is for these with stable protection and brief 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 firstly of every flip, then watch them execute these actions so as of particular person velocity. The velocity of the enemy can disrupt these assaults, however I discovered it wasn’t too exhausting to get out of most battles with minimal injury to my crew.
Eiyuden Chronicle isn’t terribly tough…till it needs to be. Some boss battles will discover you significantly under-leveled, and you realize what meaning.
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 skills will be enhanced with the proper weapons and equipment. This all provides some life to an in any other case pretty primary battle system that may begin to really feel fairly repetitious. Extra on that in a bit.
Along with the six energetic combatants, you possibly can assign assist characters that gives a buff to the crew. Extra importantly, you possibly can place “attendant” characters. This lets you preserve story-required characters within the social gathering with out really utilizing them, an exquisite choice if you wish to stage up different crew 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. If you happen to’re not OK with that, flip away now. You’ll be able to auto-battle when you like, for which you’ll be able to customise how every social gathering member approaches fight to verify they don’t waste abilities that aren’t wanted in opposition to lesser enemies. You’ll positively 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 ceaselessly revisit the identical areas, particularly when you’re eager about finishing facet quests or unlocking extra heroes. The flexibility to warp to particular dungeon locales would assist, proper? Properly, you could recruit the character that gives that potential. Need to rearrange your social gathering with out having to backtrack to a pleasant village? Once more, discover and recruit the proper individual. It’s a joyous event when these skills are offered, however they arrive properly 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 supply that primary 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 want? 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 a superb job of reclaiming your consideration.
They don’t, nonetheless, compensate for the efficiency issues on the Change. The promised patch didn’t do a lot to assist, both. The largest remaining wrongdoer is that the whole lot 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 stated in the beginning of the evaluation, nonetheless, 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 preserve you guessing, and it’s fascinating sufficient to push you ahead all through…and maybe past; Season Cross patrons will get extra chapters centered round completely different characters.
Additionally, discovering/recruiting new heroes is compelling, as is tinkering together with your social gathering lineup. Those that love the trivialities of social gathering administration will get pleasure from working by means of the numerous optimization choices obtainable.
That leaves us with a sport that journeys alongside the best way to its vacation spot, but it surely 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 well worth the hike.