Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes

This Hundred Heroes game has been absolutely ruined by a great multitude of purposeful mistranslations. The mistranslators have deliberately disregarded what the original Japanese script says, and they have decided amongst themselves totally to rewrite that script, in accordance with their own personal ideologies which are heavily steeped in identify politics. In one scene from this butchered version, one character accuses another of having "misgendered" a monster, whereas the original Japanese text in this scene does not bring up the subject of gender in any way whatsoever. A translator's job is simply to translate the text, not to rewrite the text, and also not to insert their own personal ideologies into it. Games are supposed to be entertainment, and not a soapbox for activist mistranslators to push their woke propaganda! Unfortunately, this Hundred Heroes game falls squarely into the latter category; therefore this English butchered version of it is never worth buying or playing. The original Japanese dev team is also equally as much to blame: for not vetting the people whom they were considering to hire to translate their game, long before actually hiring them to do so; and also for not enforcing any quality control standards before allowing a butchered version of their game actually to be published in English; and also for not (as of the time when I'm making this review) issuing a public apology for having hired incompetent, activist, mistranslators; and also for not promising to hire legitimate translators to re-translate the entire game - and *accurately, this time* - from scratch --- which is what the original Japanese devs *would* do *if* they were honorable. But until if & when they actually do all that, then Hundred Heroes is a hard pass! Please don't support activist woke mistranslations with your money; otherwise, many more games are also likewise going to be ruined in the future in the exact same way as Hundred Heroes already has been.

nice game. gives me some nostalgia.

This game has been review bombed by people who don't like it's localization team. I think some honest reviews for the actual game itself instead of its localization are needed, so here goes. Bad: This game is shades of Suikoden II, to a fault. It took the best and worst from Suikoden I and II, and put them into a world that is partially 3D and partially 2D. Runes are now Rune Lenses, Nanami is now Lian, Vikki is now Carrie, etc. The combat is very much like Suikoden, except the turn order is more reminicent of DnD, and the combat is much slower to execute. Most of the minigames are stripped down versions of their Suikoden II counterparts, devoid of their interesting mechanics. Finally, the story is very Suikoden II-like, but with an E(veryone) rating instead of T(een), which is a dubious choice as war story without the horrendous consequences a war inevitebly results in makes war seem fun and breezy. It feels like a Saturday morning cartoon story. All character deaths have happened off screen, and those characters weren't even given names. I haven't even seen a nameless NPC die yet, not even a grunt with a helmet on, a la Star Wars. Good: I'm thoroughly enjoying the game. It's not a perfect game, but it does scratch my old Suikoden itch. I'm finding the characters to be mostly entertaining and likable. I've seen reviews argue that the characters are forgettable, and lots of them are, but no more than were in Suikoden. How many people really remember Chuchura, for example? The leveling system is ripped straight out of Suikoden, and that's for the best, as its one of the few examples of a JRP respecting its player's time (which really makes the slower combat stick out like a sore thumb, sadly). This game is fun, not profound. Localization thing: There are some moments of oddly worded choices, but it's better than Suikoden I and II's. I have no political agenda, so I'm not up in arms about it. I think most of the game was kept faithful, though a bit cheesier.

Sotryline, gameplay, music, ambiance, just amazing!

...review the actual game. I'll keep it simple. It's a mixed bag. Eiyuden manages to capture the feeling of PSone JRPG in a way that's a bit harder to quantify than just visuals. It's clear the inspiration here was much more Suikoden 1 & 2 instead of say, Suikoden 3. The battle mechanics are simple, but enjoyable, the music is great and the voice acting ranges from really good, to...not so great. Some of the pixel art is fantastic, some of it (the running animations for instance) is comedically bad. Maybe on purpose, maybe not. Either way, the mix of "fantastic" to "kinda bad" reminds me a lot of that era. The nostalgic games of your youth weren't perfect either. I do think the delay during menuing is terrible and maybe one of the biggest regular annoyances in the game. I haven't encountered any major bugs, and the game looks fine with the refresh set to 30 fps, although I'm aware of the encounter bug, and it shouldn't be a thing, at least there's a very playable workaround. The translation is hit-or-miss. It's not as godawful as its made out to be, but it's also a good lesson in where localizers should exercise some restraint too. You're not as cute as you think you are. Still, there's more than enough here that should please fans of Suikoden wanting more, more than enough that the game gets right instead of wrong. It's flawed, but it's also cozy, inviting and a rare treat to play something like this as a new release instead of simply retreating back to the well of decades past. I'm no apologist for this game, but I personally found most of its issues apart from the menuing to be minor enough that it's easy to recommend.