I may have underestimated just how much JRPG fans still care about the Suikoden series. I wasn’t kidding last month when I called Suikoden 3 my all-time favorite JRPG and begged Konami to announce a remaster, even though I acknowledge that it’s not the most popular game in that particular series. But I was overwhelmed with the response I got to that article. Not only is it the most-read thing I’ve ever written (here or elsewhere), but it’s a topic I genuinely care about, and I was expecting it to be met with a bit of a ‘meh’ response. Thanks for proving me wrong, fellow Suikoden fans!
I’ve known about Eiyuden Chronicle for a while now, even if it flew under my radar when its first game, Rising, was released in 2022. The KickStarter-funded RPG series—currently the third-highest on the platform’s all time money making list for video games per GamesIndustry.biz—is considered by many as a spiritual successor to Suikoden for a lot of reasons, chief among them being that the team behind it is headed up by a group of top developers from the Suikoden series, including Yoshitaka Murayama, its creator.
Stuck In The Past
And still, I’ve been avoiding it, because I’m too stubborn to let go of the past so easily. I’ve still got my original (and still working!) PlayStation 2, and my copy of Suikoden 3 has occupied its disc tray more than any other game. No matter how many times I foil the masked priest’s plans to make the world tranquil, no matter how many times I see the look on young Hugo’s face as Captain Chris Lightfellow cuts down his best friend in the middle of his burning village, or how many times noble bastard Thomas stakes his claim to defend Budehuc Castle, I never get tired of it. It’s got a unique look that takes 108 blocky, SD-style anime characters and somehow makes them feel real, all with a compelling plot that approches a war from six different viewpoints and could potentially kill of almost any of your favorite characters at certain key points.
But I think it’s time for me to give Eiyuden Chronicle a chance, because after I stopped sulking about it not being exactly the same as my old favorite JRPG series, I realized that Hundred Heroes doesn’t just look like a spiritual successor to Suikoden, it looks like a Spiritual Successor to Suikoden 3.
That thought may be a hard sell at first glance, since graphics are the first thing we tend to realize about a game (eyes don’t lie), and in that respect, the Eiyuden games are clearly following the style of Suikoden 1 and 2 from the series’ run on the original PlayStation (or more accurately, their upcoming remasters). But once I finally started looking closer, it clicked with me that, in an RPG with 110 recruitable characters, the story centers around three heroes: Nowa, “A Brash guard who throws himself into war”; Seign, “An Imperial Officer in Pursuit of his vision”, and Marisa, “A Guardian Fated to Protect the Runebarrows”. And you know, that sounds a lot like Suikoden 3’s Geddoe, Chris, and Hugo, respectively.
Three Heroes Of Destiny Reborn?
Suikoden 3 ran on The Trinity Sight System, which let you play through three chapters each as its three main characters before choosing one of them to lead the rebel army and having the other two fall to supporting roles. Let’s look at each of those three characters individually.
First, and most obviously, there’s Chris, the silver-haired captain of the Knights of Zexen. She’s proper, polite, and well-respected, but underneath the gleaming armor, she yearns for a more just world than what she’s likely to find by acting as muscle for the bloatedly bureaucratic and self-important nobles of The Zexen Federation. Still she finds her resolve through cold steel, even if it means going AWOL and seeing with her own eyes how well everyone on the continent gets by outside of Zexen’s rule. I could absolutely see a similar path forming for the upstanding Officer Seign, especially if he’s to join with Eiyuden’s other heroes.
I realized that Hundred Heroes doesn’t just look like a spiritual successor to Suikoden, it looks like a Spiritual Successor to Suikoden 3.
Next up is Geddoe, a mercenary captain working the borderlands on a contact for the ever-expansive Holy Harmonian Empire. His motivations are secretive, but his loyalties to both his crew and the good of the land far outweigh any sense of allegiance he feels for his source of income, and he brazenly acts against the empire’s interests in the name of what’s right. Hearing Nowa say “You’ve seen what I’ve seen, and you know this war is unjust” in one of Hundred Heroes’ trailers reminds me of Geddoe’s steadfast resolve to do the right thing.
Lastly, there’s Hugo, son of the Lucia, the chief of Karaya Clan, one of the Six Clans of Grassland. To be fair, this is my weakest argument, because Marisa doesn’t seem like she’d fit into Karayan society, but she sure would in its allied Grassland tribe of Alma Kinan, a group of all-female druidic warriors who seclude themselves behind a mystical barrier hidden deep in the forests to protect its natural magic. Protecting the Runebarrows, a secret magical reliquary that many of Eiyuden’s denizens believe should not be disturbed seems right up Alma Kinan’s alley, and that’s Marisa’s role to play.
I don’t know for certain what Hundred Heroes will have in store for me, but I’m definitely coming around on it. Adding in elements from the trailers like growing crops and opening shops in your base of operations just adds to the parity between it and some of my favorite old Suikoden memories, and—assuming it doesn’t get delayed again—I’ll be eager to jump in when it launches in April 2024.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
- Developer
- Rabbit and Bear Studios
- Platforms
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PC
- Publishers
- 505 Games