Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes has a lot weighing on its shoulders. The new turn-based RPG has to deliver to crowdfunding backers, fulfill its promise of being an ode to ’90s great Suikoden, and prove that its all-star creative team still have the stuff. That’s enough pressure for anyone, but recently it’s been further burdened by the death of its director Yoshitaka Murayama. It’s amazing, then, that I couldn’t feel an ounce of all that weight during my time playing, because Eiyuden Chronicle is as sturdy and vivacious an adventure as anyone could ever hope.
Mainly following Nowa, a young man thrust into leadership of a rag-tag alliance fighting against the empire, the setup reads almost like parody. How clichéd can you get? It also probably gives anyone familiar with Murayama’s series a serious case of déjà vu. The setup was tropey even then, but what’s important isn’t radical originality or constant subversion. It’s the way this familiar structure and story is told, and tells it with
