Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes | A PS5 Review

Massive in scale, ambitious, and finally realized "Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes" comes to the player as both an homage to classic JRPGs, and unique addition to the genre. With Suikoden, and Final Fantasy being the notable inspirations this mixed 2D and 3D roleplaying experience harbors multiple facets of gameplay including character recruitment, town/resource management, combat, and side activities such as mini-games.

As Nowa, a new recruit of a certain militia mercenary league you are recruited to find powerful primal rune-lenses that could help the empire better use the lens's capabilities. Though the research aspect of this rune-barrow seeking endeavor seems innocent at first the Imperial faction behind the recruitment has other nefarious intentions with which to put the primal rune-lenses to use. The usual nation conquering trope ensues. 

Through Nowa, and accompanying recruits though you will be able to turn the tides of this seemingly one-sided battle. Recruiting up to 120 individuals with active and passive roles in the plot. Some will serve as combat partners or support, while others will increase the town productivity, and offer up additional services and resources through their assigned jobs. Recruiting is, but one of many driving factors behind gameplay.

Starting things off requires a difficulty selection, and the toggling on or off of several difficulty altering options. You can choose to play on hard difficulty, or normal depending on your previous knowledge of JRPGs. You can also toggle things like inflation, no escape, and even limit resources making things harder than they would otherwise be. Once set you'll take control of Nowa as he lives out his role in this epic fantasy adventure.

Gameplay, as previously mentioned is a multi-faceted ordeal taking in account story progression, character recruitment, town/resource management, exploration, combat, and all the side activities that will become available through said town management. In the way of character recruitment you'll find a hefty roster totaling in 120 characters. Only 71 one of these are combat oriented while the 49 others offer passive support both in battle or in the town. Characters that can be recruited are done in a familiar fashion. Sometimes you'll simply need to converse with them, and other times there will be quest line requirements to add them to your growing party.

With characters in tow you will be assigning them to front, rear, support, and attend spots for combat sake. Front is for melee characters, rear is for magic users, and support is for passive buffs from non-combatants. The attendees are simply tag along recruits there for XP leveling which will help in the fight against increasingly formidable foes. Additionally you can sign battle plan roles that act as a sort of battle approach mechanic. Things like free battle, and other aptly named options geared towards defense, offense or resource management can be selected to effectively change how each character controls in battle.

Characters themselves have several equipment spots for added stat buffs as well as a base weapon that can be leveled up using the blacksmith back in town. That and the rune-lens will help deck out your characters with useful skills and passive abilities that will improve upon combat options. The lens being the skill source for 'Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes".

Speaking of combat it is a turn based event with preemptive action selections. Actions include attacks, gimmicks, dodge, and rune-lens skills. That and character synergy based skills. The synergy attacks come in the form of hero combos that deal bonus damage. Outside of standard battles, combat duels switch things up to a 1v1 fight scenario against key characters where tension building results in a clash. When enough damage is dealt the victor is decided. 

Similarly, albeit differently, there are full blown war skirmishes on tile based fronts involving your town, and your assigned multiple parties which act as the the defense or offense against invading forces. The outcome is heavily dependent upon assigned party leaders, and will involve a little strategy to overcome. 

Outside of battle, and character management/recruitment there are side activities that will become available as you build up your town. Things like a beyblade-like mini-game, a chocobo-like race, a competitive card game, a boss battle, and an endless battle mode will give you something extra to do outside of progressing the plot, and leveling characters up. 

The Verdict ...

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, is a proper nod to the classic JRPGs of yesteryear. Though I heard it initially launched with bugs the developers have been hard at work at patching them out. The result is a familiar yet different experience that feels welcome among it's predecessors. It is ambitious, filled to the brim with content, and characters. The characters being this game's biggest selling point. And while the characters are interesting to look at not all have a deep history that fleshes them out fully. 

It is this sad lacking of character background that does the game a disservice. At the same time though fully realizing 120 characters is hard to do in any JRPG. Even in one as grand in scale as this one is. All that being said I felt the game was good for what it was. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it does achieve it's own identity among familiar entries in the genre. If you are interested this game is already out on multiple platforms!