Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes

I read the comments about localization and I just want to add the fact that french translators were very much respectful than English ones. The texts are great, and apart from the time to read the texts (a bit too long), this is a great jrpg.

Based purely on gameplay, overall narrative, and nostalgia I would love to give this game a 5 star review, but the english localization is so poorly done that I find myself not interacting with characters outside of recruiting them and the main plot. Pros: - Game *feels* like Suikoden. The first few hours of buildup were a little slow and felt somewhat generic, but as soon as you start recruiting in earnest and have your base it feels like the best parts of Suikoden I, II, and V. - Art style is beautiful, the sprites look amazing, and the animations really give each character personality - Game encourages me to actually use items through high damage battles and limited inventory space. I'd rather use the items instead of needing to drop them to pick up a piece of equipment or appraisal item - Battles are interesting and make me want to play them so as to minimize limited resource usage, and when I've outlevelled an area and am looking for drops, I can put it on auto-battle where mp isn't used for low stress farming - Quality of Life Mechanics are introduced early, but late enough that you appreciate them without feeling like they're late additions (teleporting to previous locations, resource generators, etc) Cons: - English Localization. I mentioned it above, but it's my biggest issue with the game at the moment. I was streaming it to a few friends and we all collectively groaned about the fisherman character at the beginning talking about how he loves his rod. There are a bunch more issues of bad characterizations, personality shifts, childish changes (fartface, buttface, etc as randomly added insults), and other cringeworthy localizations. Because I understand enough japanese to get by, I've been playing with JP VA and English Subs and it makes it really easy to tell when the translation adds or changes stuff and it's honestly disheartening with how great the storytelling is. - Encounter Rates are *LOW* until you get specific items in mid-game.

The game overall is a serious love letter to Suikoden fans. They made numerous nods to Suikoden, even bringing back the randomly teleporting mage. There's a good chunk of humor, some poking fun of genres, and overall, the story is good (so far, though it still has issues). In short, save for a few big issues, the game would be a 4 star game. I don't give 5 star ever, because I understand that my tastes may not be the same as others. Ok, all of that out of the way, my issues with the game. First issue. The locked camera in dungeons. Now that alone is not an issue. However, many games that use a locked camera for dungeons also provide some kind of transparency option. That way scenery in the front won't obstruct your ability to see WHERE your character is. The first dungeon has a spot where you can't see your character. The mines had an entire section where you couldn't see your character and had to rely on the minimap to track your character. Neither situation would challenge have been removed or the like. You're still only able to see a fuzzy area around YOU. Second issue, while I personally loathe most tutorials, there are a number of things not explained ever, even in the help section. First off, they never properly explained what Attendants are. I had to figure that out on my own. There is no help section clarifying what each stat does. I mean, grognards will be able to figure it out, but we're not all grognards. Also, there is some confusion (explained better in Help, but still a bit clunky) about the difference between Armor and PD/MD. Armor should have been called SHIELD, as that's what it is, a SHIELD. Next, its a personal loathing of mine to see vague descriptions. "Slightly increases defenses against fire" means absolutely nothing. "this item provides Fire Resist 1. That helps a lot more and is more useful overall. Also, the fact you can't SEE any of your resists, that's another knock on them. Evasion has the same issue as resists.

It really pains me to write a bad review for this game, as I was hoping that this would be a new start for the entire genre. But it is plagued by a number of poor design decisions, which makes the overall experience underwhelming and frustrating. Pros: - nice atmosphere, really like the suikoden-series - I like the chara design. - Some good ideas about castle improvements… Cons: - … but overall they boil down to the good old « progress in the story before you can improve the castle ». - the loading screens are CRAZY long. 12s to load a screen, enter a house, exit, enter a fight, exit a fight (on ps4). This really got in the way of the experience. In some dungeons with a lot of small screens it’s simply intolerable. - boring, oh so BORING FIGHTS. Why? 1. Normal enemies are HP-bags, no strategy involed. Bosses have specific mechanics which can be fun though. 2. In hard mode the game boasts « improved enemy AI », but it just means that enemies target mostly your second rank and your weakest characters. 3. Magic is useless before late game. Expensive, weak. Using healing items and having a team of 6 melee fighters is a better strategy, but fights become an utter bore. - menu navigation is long, clumsy. The menu has a 1-second reaction time after you press a button. The control-map is unclear as it changes depending on which menu you’re in (!) - you cannot skip cutscenes, even if you’ve already seen them - you cannot skip great battles animations. They are long and repetitive. - playable characters are unbalanced. Some are weak for no reason and in spite of charadesign and of what they do in the story. My healer (mage) did as much melee damage as my second-best melee attacker. That does not make sense. - duel mechanics make no sense. - lore is a copy-paste of that of Suikoden. - story not very interesting so far. Predictable, lacks depth and twists. All this could have been acceptable ten years ago, but today Eiyuden Chronicles is simply poorly designed.

I love Suikoden, and this game is very much a love letter to the franchise, but it feels like a game made by a bunch of amateurs rather than a highly experienced RPG veteran which is not the case given the game was directed by the series creator whom sadly passed away shortly before the game's release. Also, as noted by others, there are numerous examples throughout the game where the original script is completely changed to force a political statement which is completely contradictory to the original script. One example sees the characters comment on defeating a tough enemy, first victoriously exclaiming glee before remarking on the origin of the creature. In the original Japanese, it's just the characters wondering where the thing came from, but in the English script, someone calls the creature a "him" for some reason to which another character makes an out of the blue comment on gender profiling. It's an example of hijacking art to express a message that was never intended. If you're against the idea of changing art, then this game will infuriate you; however, if your only interest is a JRPG, specifically a new semi-entry into the Suikoden franchise, then you might find the game more palatable at a much lower price point. On gameplay alone, it's really not worth the full price.