While we do our best around here to play nothing but cooperative games, from time to time, a non-co-op title slips in. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes from developer Rabbit & Bear Studios and publisher 505 Games is a JRPG that's too exciting to overlook. It was directed and produced by Yoshitaka Murayama, the creator of Suikoden series, who sadly died in February. The game promises to be a spiritual successor to Murayama's beloved series.
Hundred Heroes is the product of a successful Kickstarter campaign. While this larger-scale game was in development, a prequel called Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising was released. That one was a 2.5D action RPG, but Hundred Heroes is a fully-fledged traditional JRPG with 3D environments and 2D sprites. The preview build we played is truly gorgeous, reminiscent of Square Enix's Octopath Traveler but with more detailed environments and larger sprites. The style should appeal to fans of classic role-playing games and modern RPG enthusiasts alike.
The game starts with the protagonist, a young man named Nowa, arriving in a town where he will serve as a member of the Watch of the League of Nations. Nowa quickly meets the established members who will join his party: Garr, a lycan and veteran of the watch; Mio, a female samurai; and Lian, a spunky newcomer and martial artist. The party soon joins up with a pair of imperial soldiers, Seign and Hildi, who have asked for their help investigating a report of a mysterious "runebarrow." Thus, the player's party swells to six members, and they set off on an adventure.
From the town, the party will head out onto the world map. The camera can be rotated when out in the world but is fixed during towns, dungeons, and battles. The team will be attacked by monsters at random intervals, leading to traditional turn-based battles. Characters can perform their regular attacks or special moves that utilize their Rune Lenses, magical technology. A meter at the top shows the turn order. Players can also choose to auto-battle at the start of a fight, an option that I greatly appreciate. During dungeons, you can't save anywhere, but there are glowing blue save points, just like in many classic RPGs.
Single-player RPGs aren't grown-up me's genre of choice due to my busy lifestyle. Still, I jumped at the chance to play the preview build of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, and I'm glad I did. It's such a beautiful game, making towns fun to explore and cinematics engaging to watch. High-quality voice acting and distinctive, likeable characters certainly help keep the story rolling. Hopefully, the rest of the game will be as polished and enticing as the early portion that 505 Games shared with us.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is coming to Xbox, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, and Steam on April 23. Digital versions will cost $49.99. The digital deluxe version will sell for $79.99 and include 48-Hour Early Access, the Easy Journey Pack DLC, the Season Pass, a Digital Mini Artbook, and the Digital Soundtrack. The Steam version is Steam Deck compatible - a huge plus for RPGs like this.
Physical versions of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes for PlayStation 5 and Switch will cost $49.99 and $59.99, respectively.