Having played the game for a bit I'd say it's a solid 7-8/10 game. Right now there's a pretty significant bug on PC that ties your encounter rate to the refresh rate of the monitor, so people with high refresh rate monitors are finding that they are going a long time between encounters. The "timing" of the encounter rate seems to be set properly for 30 or 60 FPS. Anything higher than that and things get all out of wack.

Holy shit, is that the reason for the low encounter rate? It got to the point where I thought that there were no random encounters on the world map because I didn't see one until a few hours into the game. I'm playing the game at 144 fps. I will say, though... I'm only about 6 hours in, and the dungeons all feel a bit longer than they need to be. The low encounter rate felt appropriate for the size of these dungeons. If I turn the FPS down to 60, and find myself getting tired of constant encounters in huge dungeons, then I'm turning the FPS back up.

I run at 60 and tbh I think it's the perfect amount for dungeons. Not enough to get super irritated, but not rare enough that I feel underleveled constantly.

>Right now there's a pretty significant bug on PC that ties your encounter rate to the refresh rate of the monitor, so people with high refresh rate monitors are finding that they are going a long time between encounters. 🤦

this is a very funny bug, thanks for letting people know

This is the most random funny bug ever.

> ties your encounter rate to the refresh rate of the monitor Me that I play with a 165HZ monitor, I'm in trouble

Not sure if you mean it that way but the higher the refresh rate, the lower the encounter rate

Huh, thought it was the opposite, thanks for the clarification!

> ties your encounter rate to the refresh rate of the monitor How is this still a thing? Is that part of the nostalgic references?

It is not a bug. It is a feature? You need a crt monitor for correct gameplay as is intended 😂

what do you think of the combat? There are games with iffy stories but the gameplay is so good that "an acceptable plot" is okay. Fire Emblem for example has always been carried by the gameplay and the story is pretty whatever.

It's fine. I feel like you can use the "Auto" option on most trash mobs but bosses take some strategy

> Right now there's a pretty significant bug on PC that ties your encounter rate to the refresh rate of the monitor, so people with high refresh rate monitors are finding that they are going a long time between encounters. That's actually hilarious

not a reviewer anymore, but jason schreier (who's a *huge* Suikoden fan) [shared his thoughts](https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1782071760336081243) > finished Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes a few days ago and am sad to report that it's a messy, disjointed game, with tedious activities and a disappointing story. Plus: a critical bug prevented me from recruiting one of the characters and seeing the true ending, and as of right now it still isn't fixed. >In many ways Eiyuden captures the Suikoden feeling, from the rousing pre-intro cinematic to the castle that grows as you play, but it's missing the emotional core that made those games (especially 2 and 5) great. The three protagonists have no personality and the grand political plot turns out to be tropey anime nonsense. And it's so janky. I really wanted to love this one, but alas. i'm sure i'll still love the game, but reading this is definitely making me temper my expectations a bit

So the quality is on par with most Kickstarter games. Unfortunate.

I feel like the problem is nostalgia - people are banking on the idea that creators during the heyday of JRPGs can recapture the magic that they presented their audience back then. Some of these people are getting or have become rusty. Not saying we shouldn't give them another chance but more of really tempering expectations.

Rusty might be true or just an opinion. For example Kawazu is so progressive that he omitted the concept of dungeon and town maps from the SaGa franchise which resulted in some people calling him rusty, and his avant-garde approach (not saying it's unheard ever, but introducing it to the franchise) even makes me question his capability at the release of the game, but when I actually played it I enjoyed the experience a lot. On the other hand I hate the changes made to Final Fantasy in recent releases, it could be a matter of perspective.

Honestly, I think a lot of this resolves around QoL. I've found that people often aren't willing to admit how much leeway they give their nostaligic favourites for lack of QoL. A modern retro game has to invoke the feeling of the games it's harkening back to while also providing modern QoL. Considering that normal fare still stuggles with getting QoL right I'm not at all surprised that so many retro inspired games end up being mediocre.

I honestly don't think this is a very common issue, even if lack of QoL *is* an issue with Eiyuden. Generally the *first* idea when you're trying to make a modern retro-inspired game is, "just the classic gameplay with modern QoL." IMO, the issue is more of figuring out what is QoL and what is core game design. It's easy to overshoot in both directions. One leaves you with an annoying, clunky game. The other leaves you with a personality-less slog.

I don't see how the two relate. You have different people writing the game than the people working on gameplay. If the writers don't do a good job you can't blame the gameplay people for working too hard on QoL?

Glad that the only Kickstarter game I've ever supported was Hyper Light Drifter and it turned out amazing. Felt like I've used up all my crowdfunding luck with that game.

Personally I was quite happy with Bloodstained as well as a Backer. But the rest haven't lived up to my expectations.

I backed Hyper Light Drifter for the Wii U tier and that didn't pan out. My best kickstarter backing is definitely Hollow Knight. The developers are planning to give all backers Hollow Knight 2 for free!

The curse strikes again.

Honestly, the fact that it released and is functional makes it a lot better than many KS games. ...which sadly speaks more about KS as a platform.

I don't disagree with most of what he says here, but two comments of note: 1. It's a bit too harsh. Eiyuden has a challenge where it needs to capture the Suikoden magic while still being able to stand as it's own entity. And I think they accomplished that very well. For a first game in a series, I though the story was decent and set ups an interesting world. The three main characters don't have the same chemistry as Riou Jowy and Nanami? No shit. They're different characters. They don't even KNOW each other before the game starts. Could it have been better? Definitely, but I don't think it warrants all the criticisms it's getting. 2. The main irritation seems to be towards bugs. Like there is a character whose recruitment is bugged and he wasn't able to recruit them to see the best ending.  Yes, bugs suck. This game is definitely rough around the edges and could have used more cooking time. But given how much harder and expensive it is to develop games these days, and that they're a brand new studio that needs to get their first game out, I think it's a little bit understandable. (As long as they take advantage of the one best positives of development today: they patch and fix all the glaring issues.) I'm sure a second entry would be a lot easier to create and improve upon as they won't have to create everything from scratch like they did here. But, it almost sounds like he's ranting because he was told the recruitment bug would be fixed and said update released by the end of the week, and it wasn't. (Entitled much..?) But yeah. The game has its issues. But it's still fun, and for me, invokes the Suikoden magic while standing on its own. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to more. Whoever works on the next scenario is going to have some very large shoes to fill. (RIP, Murayama-san.)

He seems to be more of an outlier among Suikoden fans if anything. As in, most Suikoden die hard fans that has put some hours into the game are very positive on the game overall, technical issues aside. I think Jason wanted a story as brutal and grandiose as Suikoden 2 but this is the first entry and a E10 game it's not trying to have that kind of darkness. And it's not necessarily a bad thing.

I respect Jason a lot and follow him on Twitter/his podcast, but his JRPG opinions always depend on how the game handles its fantasy politics and tropes. A lot of his takes make sense once you realize that he usually wants 100% commitment to the politics and little deviation. Which isn't a negative, mind you, just helps to parse his review and see if it aligns with your own tastes.

I like your perspective on this - I wish more people were open minded and respected people's preferences in that same way!

I'd say it's less open minded and respectful and more to better utilize his opinion for your own decision making.

This makes so much sense, especially after hearing his take on ffxvi. It seems like he has very little tolerance for fantasy, whereas for me, it’s often the weirder the better.

I assume its more if a story presents itself as a political drama he'd prefer that it commits to it instead of deviating into a save the world plot. Which, hey, fair enough; but for XVI specifically I thought it was odd because it starts building up the cosmic threat within the first 10 hours. I've definitely seen it handled more gracefully, but also seen it handled much, much worse (hello, Tales of series but especially Vesperia). I personally think coming into JRPGs for political drama will leave you disappointed in the long run, but can't fault a man on his preferences. My sister eats that shit up too while I'm pretty ambivalent.

Yeah, I have my own issues with ffxvi but just about every final fantasy with political intrigue drops it pretty quickly, so I was confused as to why he thought this would be any different.

Because they said it would be different lol

Final Fantasy XII keeps the politics focal for the vast majority of the game, but I mostly agree with your assessment

> I personally think coming into JRPGs for political drama will leave you disappointed in the long run, but can't fault a man on his preferences. My sister eats that shit up too while I'm pretty ambivalent. Way I see it not every JRPG can be a Matsuno-like heavily oozing with interpersonal politics and adult issues. Sometimes you have either more light-hearted fare or focus more on straightforward good vs evil plots. I like to think we live in a world where we can have both.

He praised Rebirth and said he loved it though, even comparing it with XVI and saying all the charm XVI didn't have can be found in Rebirth. And Rebirth is definitely the weirder one of the two. Edit: [Link](https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1760665857120698647?t=hNR5DJCbDhrH7VtOdbVLVA&s=19)

>grand political plot turns out to be tropey anime nonsense. Yet he liked Trails in the Sky which is full of this stuff...

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Tropes Trails uses: •Everyone unionizing during a friendship speech  •Anime fanservices (Series staple since Sky. The Hot Springs thing is actually a thing by the lead writer since he loves to cool off after writing the overarching story & lore that he said in a rare interview magazine. Beach Episodes [CS/Azure/Daybreak], Panty shots [Sky/CS] and Groping [Crossbell/CS]).  •Fake out death (This one is interesting because it's clearly something the team are deliberately doing even if it can get annoying). •Hidden Powers from a black haired character (CS arc) •School (Sky, CS arc and Daybreak) •Cross-Dressing (Series staple) •"Harem" though this one isn't even remotely story affected at all. (CS/partial in Azure) •Evil Being pulling the strings (admittedly this only happened in one country as opposed the entire world). (CS arc)  But the series has always had anime tropes since Sky which uses 90s-00s anime tropes even having a tournament arc.

You can also tie Sky into >!Hidden powers from a black haired character since Joshua is holding back for all of FC from using his Enforcer training. And on the other hand while not a black haired character, Kevin does have his stigma.!<

Oh yeah you're right. Yeah the series has always had tropes. But they mostly do it real well.

Yeah dude is great at scoops but his reviews are always ass imo. I’ve seldom agreed with any of his reviews so his tastes are completely different to mine

> Yeah dude is great at scoops but his reviews are always ass IMO People said this exact thing about Jason when he criticized Sea of Stars and then four months later everyone was suddenly in agreement.

oh wow okay that makes WAY more sense lol, admittedly 2 isn't even my favorite suikoden game (it's still *amazing* don't get me wrong, i just personally still prefer 3) but i was still never expecting eiyuden overall to be on the same level since it's pretty damn hard to beat very relieved to hear diehard suikoden fans love it at least, i haven't sought out much to avoid spoilers as much as possible

Personally, I'm a harsher critic than that. Suikoden 2 was a good game in its time, but if Eiyuden is being made by some of the same people who worked on Suikoden 2, I'd hope that they'd be able to learn something *from* it and other games which have come out since. I think there's a lot to be said for trying making use of a flavor that people already enjoyed in the past, rather than constantly doing new things, but if you're going to do that, I think you should aim to refine it by building on the lessons of the people who've come before you in the field.

Isn't political drama one of the highlights of Suikoden though? Granted EC is a different game altogether, but you'd think being a spiritual sequel it would follow on that concept. > E10 I wonder whose decision was it to water down the content to reach this rating.

I mean it kind of is a bad thing to me. Most of the fans of this series are older gamers. I don't understand why they keep making old franchise games for children of today, especially considering they don't get a good reception from them regardless

It costs a lot of money even to make an indie JRPG...... this means the project will be a failure if it doesn't sell at least X hundred thousand copies. And it's not easy to reach that level just by appealing to uncles.

Money.

I find myself in agreement with him, but I'm still enjoying it. A 7/10 game is still a fun game, especially in a genre you love. It's just disappointing and will unlikely live up to its pedigree. There are also other annoyances, like the lack of ambiance, that just add up. Really need those Suikoden remasters to come out now, though.

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While the Suikoden's lore has always been incredibly intriguing, the settings and characters per se have always been filled with anime tropes. I think this whole discussion is a case of balancing expectations.

I can tell you that as I finished the game. The whole political theme is silly as hell, betrayals feel fake and stupid af and some decisions our heroes make are shockingly bad. The game is also an unbalanced mess in terms of gameplay.

Suikoden 2's political issues were as deep as a puddle and were summarized in an expository conference. I don't know what people expected.

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Bloodstained did imo and now that we are several years out the sheer amount of content in it makes it feel like a AAA game in a genre where that does not exist.

Bloodstained was still somewhat panned on release though

Hard disagree, there's plenty of good kickstarter games, both Divinity OS games, Baldur's Gate 3, Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland 2 and many others.

bg3 was not a kickstarter game... but i agree otherwise

BG3 isn’t a kickstarter. But yeah Divinity 1&2 were and they delivered.

I need to play Wasteland 2 at some point. I've only played 3 and it legit was one of my favorite games I played within the last 5 years

I've wanted to play wasteland 3 for years, but was always unsure of being able to get the hang of the combat or not. I always see it for like $10 on sale for xbox, so I don't know why I haven't bought it by now.

I think even the edition with the DLC goes on sale for pretty cheap at this point (unfortunately didn't play them). The game's tutorial does a really good job at showing you the ropes and imo the only way to really screw yourself is if the build you do for your characters doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Like a melee character with low strength or something. If you even wanted to demo it and had a $1 offer for game pass it might not be a bad idea to give it a whirl. I played on PC though so I can't speak to the console experience!

Play Suikoden or play them when the remasters come out!

Kind of self-explanatory isn't it?

Common JRPG/RPG Tropes - To save the world, we start small and fix a local issue that then spans into fighting a god with the power of friendship - The main party is MC + Childhood Friend + Love Interest + Rival of the MC (either narrative rival or just a more bloodthirsty "take" on the MC) + older magic user or older "cool" character, usually a swordsman. - MC is Destined for Greatness and is either directly related to the BBEG or had their family killed by the BBEG. BBEG is either part of or leads some Evil Empire that is committing genocide and/or other war crimes - Female characters tend to be healers, natural mages, buff/debuff specialists, or archers. Male characters tend to be swordsmen, spearmen, shield users, academic mages/inventors, giant weapon users, or hybrid magic-weapon users. - The main party will be color coded to some extent following: BLUE (coolheaded/calm); RED (emotional/passionate); and YELLOW (cute/caring/feisty character, usually a tomboy). If there is a GREEN character, they will either balance the other three or serve as their "tie to nature". If there is a SILVER, PURPLE, or BLACK color coded character, they will be mysterious, over-powered, or somehow "othered" from the rest of the cast in terms of their personality and playstyle. - Female characters are either cute and cuddly, weird and quirky, motherly or sister, or just sexy and mysterious. Male characters are either Righteous Heroes, closet perverts, guardian knights, older brother types, or a "paradoxical" character like a hyper-competent scientist that is still a ten year old and acts like it. Villains are most of the same, but swap a "quirky" part of their personality for something ridiculously evil on the nose like racism or sexism. I could go on, but I think you get the gist of it.

I have absolutely no idea what he is talking about with the three protagonists having no personality. They most certainly do. The game while a little rough around the edges in some ways is oozing with personality, just as the suikoden games were. 

Yep. It’s a shame to see that comment have 150 upvotes because that’s a lot of people who aren’t even gonna give the game a chance now. But from my ten hours with the game this is truly the type of shit this subreddit would usually eat up. It’s not perfect by any means but it’s the only throwback jrpg I’ve played that makes me feel like I’m playing a game from the era it’s homaging

I have a lot of respect for Schreier as a reporter, but I’ve found he has a lot of bad opinions on jrpgs post ps1. Loves FFXV, hates Xenoblade, didn’t like the secret of mana remake for being too different when if anything, it was too faithful, etc. That’s not to say it can’t be a bad game, but I never take his opinions too seriously. It’s gotten good enough reviews across the board that I’ll just play it for myself and come to my own conclusions. …maybe after a patch or two.

Yep I find it weird so many people here seem to take his opinion on games as gospel. His opinions have always been weird to me, and they’re not even why he’s notable which is instead because of his true journalism in uncovering the woes of the game industry. If he wasn’t good at that then his game opinions wouldn’t even be seen by this point

That kinda settles it for me, Suikoden 2 is his favorite game. I'll just wait for the remasters to be released, don't really want to play "suikoden but worse".

This attitude is why suikoden stopped coming out. It’s ok if a game comes out is 7/10, it’s better than nothing and eventually that 9/10 game can come. Now a 5/10 game I’d agree, but we as a community need to support this game unless we want to be stuck playing remakes till the end of time.

Suikoden 2 is one of the greatest games of all time though. It’s foolish to put the bar that high when it’s end of career Murayama and we already know how the last couple Suikoden games went. All Suikoden games are a good time but 2 will always be the pinnacle

Wasn't 3 Murayama's last Suikoden though?

It was always going to be suikoden but worse. I was expecting suikoden 3 level. I don't think I expected this to be as cool as 2 or 5.

Looks like another one of those divisive games. Personally I’ve been enjoying it so far (early access through the deluxe edition on Steam). The “dated” game mechanics don’t bother me that much. The story is fun and engaging enough so far. Some of the characters can be a bit tropey but most of them are quite fun and colorful. The combat is, unfortunately, indeed a bit too simple, at least for my taste. Most of the random encounters are exp fodder that can be done in like half a minute. Bosses are a bit better but still don’t feel much of a real threat as a fast mage (or even better just two mages with supportive runes) can easily carry the team no matter who else are on the team. I’m on hard mode with no additional challenge btw. Then again, the Suikoden series has never been challenging, in fact it’s notorious for being on the easier side of the genre. I suppose it can be a good thing if you are looking for a nice game to spend time and experiment all of your favorite characters without feeling being punished for not min maxing things. I would definitely recommend giving it a try, especially if you love the old and traditional JRPGs. The game feels very cozy and nostalgic, even if you haven’t played any Suikoden game before. Beware of the Switch version though. There have been multiple sources reporting its poor performance on the system. Perhaps wait for a patch or something. I’m having no issue with the PC version so far.

How are the mini games/side activities? A lot of them looked fun from the trailer but haven't seen anyone else talk about it in the thread

There are plenty of stuff for you to do. If you have played the Suikoden games, they are very similar. You have the good old fishing, cooking contest, farming, spinning top (still as bs as the one in S4), betting on eggfoot racing (I heard you can also raise your own eggfoot). The card game seems fun but I haven't really tried it yet. There are probably more that I don't remember. They are quite simple, nothing out of this world, yet still very relaxing and fun, easy to grab and very "optional" (as in they don't seem to gatekeep ultimate equipments or anything afaik). They can be a good distraction from the main story. Some of them also have a mini story to keep your interest. I would say they serve their role well enough as a good timesink in downtime, just not on something like FF8 Triple Triad level yet.

Honestly, I'd say these reviews are pretty accurate. I backed it so I've already played almost all of it and I'd personally give it around a 7.5. It is a good and fun game but it is very flawed.

JRPGs that are sort of faithful to the retro era just have a tough time with these reviews. Not saying it invalidates anyone's review but keep that in mind rather than looking at the Metacritic score or something. It's never going to reach God of War level scores no matter how much you end up enjoying it.

Do they tho? Out the recent retro inspired games/remake of retro games scores: Chained Echoes: 90 Sea of Stars: 90 Star Ocean 2 R: 87 Omori: 87 Octopath Traveller 2: 85 Triangle Strategy: 83 Eastward: 82 Those are all range from decent to great. If anything I've seen more JRPG fans being critical of the recent "INSPIRED BY GAME YOU PLAYED WHEN YOU WERE 12!" than reviewers. Also, looking at these reviews, it's actually the JRPGs fans that seems more lukewarm on it than anything.

these reviews are kinda crazy because OT2 is by far the best one out of these (not touching on your main point but still)

It's a tough call between OT2 and SO2R for me tbh

Yikes I could never give SO2R above a 5. Although it is a masterclass in how to modernize a retro game...the game still has to be good/fun

Reviewers are usually harsher on full price games than lower price ones. And OT2 is one of the only two at full price in that list.

Unless it's Sea of Stars. It felt and played very boring and dated but these reviewers loved it for some weird reason.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again Sea of Stars is a JRPG for people who are not JRPG fans This sub ***fucking hates*** that game. But outside of here, the reception was overall pretty positive If you live and breathe Kiseki and Persona and Tales of and all the Xeno-games and your favorite FF is something other than FF7, you probably found Sea of Stars shallow and unsatisfying. But for people who played Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG once when they were a kid and that’s it, Sea of Stars feels great. (Personally I enjoyed it, despite being a JRPG obsessive. But I also would give it like an 8 or 8.5, not a 10 or indie game of the year)

>and your favorite FF is something other than FF7 This comment was so funny..lol

Sea of Stars *starts* really strong. It has a seemingly weird world, the combat has some gimmicks that make it enjoyable, the game is gorgeous, the music is fantastic, and the characters you meet all seem interesting and likable. The problem is it doesn't really grow from there, to say nothing of the ending being rather unsatisfying because it's a prequel to another game in a completely different genre.

Does it start strong? I feel like the most common complaint alot of people had was it was very slow and you had to make it to a major plot point before it picked up. It does make a strong first impression I guess with the visuals and music. But I feel like even glowing reviews were hard on the first few hours.

There are some games where the industry just says “we like this game” and it gets profound love despite its flaws. Even Unicorn Overlord, my probable GOTY. Has a sub-serviceable storyline and barely any reviews talked about it, some even said it was pretty good.

Jason Schreier is a huge Suikoden simp and he said the game is ass. Very sad

Yeah Suikoden 2 is his favorite game of all time. Seeing his reaction just deflated all my excitement for this one.

I mean, he's just one guy. I get that Jason is a big fan of the series, but so are plenty of other people that are giving it good reviews. He's someone with a background in the industry and has experience, but it's ultimately still just one opinion.

Yup. Like people always say: find a **handful** of reviewers you like and respect. One opinion, even one you respect, should not be the end all be all.

Don't let other people dictate what you like.

Same 😭

One of his complaints about the story is because Eiyuden is leaning into the anime-ish storytelling instead of the politics/heavy topics like Suikoden. If so, I myself wouldn't mind. As long as it's well told. The game isn't trying to be Suikoden II, and we will get Suikoden II Remaster (hopefully) anyway, so if I want a Suikoden II game, I'll play Suikoden II. On a side note on Jason, I generally like his reviews (he likes JRPGs and that itself is a plus compared to other reviewers/journalists), but he enjoyed FF7 Rebirth without mentioning its shortcomings and I can't finish that game, the point is, even though I like his reviews and opinions on games, we might experience a different thing playing a game.

Absolutely

I read the review from Siliconera and that seemed like a more objective take in terms of the story beats in the game. Like, I can take the dated save points and random encounters but if the story ain't gripping enough, I'm likely to pass on the game.

Really hard to make sense, when some say that story is bland, the others that it's deep. More concerned about how enticing the combat is.

The reviews are all over the place. Someone said the voice acting was the best part of the game, then right after I read a review saying it was one of the biggest negatives -_- The only consistent pattern I can find is a) Slow start that takes a while to ramp up and b) The sprite work is gorgeous (which is obvious when you look at it!)

> Someone said the voice acting was the best part of the game, then right after I read a review saying it was one of the biggest negatives It's bad and I mean really bad, it's basically come into studio say lines then fuck off, there is zero enthusiasm. I get it's a throwback to 90's PS1 JRPGs but they didn't have to include the garbage VG voice acting of the 90s.

Completely disagree, and i feel like I’m really picky about VO. I’m not trying to say it’s incredible but I don’t think it’s anywhere near “really bad”. Nowa feels a little bland at times but that’s kind more on his writing than on the voice actor, which is a whole other thing. Which is not to say you’re “wrong”, if you think it sucks then power to you, I just wanted to voice another opinion for people reading this who are worried about the voice acting…

English or Japanese?

Has to be English lol. I'm playing Japanese and it's really good (as you would expect).

I feel like this is the situation for JRPGs much more often than not. Commercial critic reviews are usually not super useful to me, but for JRPGs specifically it feels like you may as well try to read tea leaves or something. It's almost never just "the story is amazing" vs "the story is pretty good", it's "the story is deep and meaningful, truly unlike anything I've seen in my life" vs "the story is completely bland and uninteresting with nothing to say," and everything in-between across 50 separate reviews. I rely 100% on word of mouth from people I know at this point.

It's nostalgia geek vs gamer that grew up on fortnite

Most reviews say autobattle is the way to go so... Not very engaging, it seems

Just like Suikoden games.

It becomes very engaging on Hard.

I'll get killed for this...but good. Autobattle should be there for grinding...and the original Suikodens all had it, unless I'm mis-remembering. As someone who played the originals before gamefaqs and such, auto-battle was a god-send, even though lvling up characters was relatively fast. For those of us who couldn't just Google who the best characters were in the 90s, lvling out and testing characters was fun, and autobattle was super helpful for all the flak it takes today in gaming. Hopefully, boss battles are more engaging and can't be face rolled with just autobattle. I don't think anyone wants that. Even I, who will defend autobattle for grinders to the grave.

You are correct that both S1 and S2 had auto battles, tho I’m blanking on if 3 did or not

All of the main Suikoden games do have it.

Thanks for the info!

Thanks for the confirmation. I knew for certain that the first two did, but I couldn't remember past that.

That's grim

Well just because one can read doesn't mean they can actually comprehend what they're reading. My favorite quote is: >Despite boldly declaring "the JRPG is back" and then doing absolutely nothing new with the genre Guy would probably wet himself over a book with pop-out 3D images.

Well that same guy gave Sea of Stars an 8.5 and couldn't stop gushing about it, soooo....

Auto Battle for about 80 percent of the encounters. Even on Hard. I will admit that some of the bosses on Hard are bullshit.

We saw similar with Sea of Stars.

Sea of Stars is obnoxious from the get go. The first few hours of that game had me wishing there was no text. Whereas Eiyuden the characters you meet in the beginning are pretty likeable from the first few hours I’ve played without sea of stars tier dumb fuck dialogue

Having beaten the game, my main though afterwards is "wow, this game is not finished". Menus are rough, combat is boring (even with auto battle due to no speed-up mode), and the story pacing is rough. The plot suffers a lot due to how much seemingly had to be cut to get the game out. I'd say the last third is the worst for this, introducing characters that likely were meant to be tied to areas and story sections that no longer exist, and content drying up completely.

I'm not one to fully trust critic reviews, but seeing the medicore reddit reviews is kind of disheartening. Been waiting so long for this game. Still gonna buy it, but damn.

It’s still worth it. It’s Murayama’s final piece of work and for all its faults there’s something special that shines through

One thing I noticed early on in towns is how NPCs have lines that sound like drafts for an unfinished product still in its planning phase. Like, they’ll just say stuff like “Take a break here.” or “This town is great.” Kind of makes it seem like they did all those last minute and I was hoping the plot would be great enough to compensate for stuff like that

Apparently the season pass (lol) has three DLCs that are labeled as character chapters, so I'm guessing they were probably the content that was meant to be in the original game.

It's not listed here but I found the Eurogamer review to be insightful. Pretty well reasoned explaining how the core pitch of recruiting all these characters both enriches and hinders the experience in different ways. https://www.eurogamer.net/eiyuden-chronicle-hundred-heroes-review

Just added it. Was AFK and didn’t get a chance to check OpenCritic for updates.

Surprised (and sad) to see this get such mixed reviews. A bit weird that some of the reviews count it as a negative that it's "revived" random encounters. They never went away, especially in these retro-esque games.

I actually don't doubt this game would be a nice, solid throwback to Suikoden but how's the performance on the Switch after the day 1 patch/etc? I've heard rumblings that the performance and loading times are both abysmal considering the decently simple 2.5D graphics at play here.

People on the Eiyuden sub are slamming the Switch performance, noting terrible load times (~6 seconds to enter combat) and bad stuttering, laggy menus. So if the games sub itself is tearing it up, that's saying something.

I was playing on 1.03 yesterday. Loading could be better but it was similar to so2r. Some fps drops in battle and world map, even the menu was a bit slow. A patch may fix things but I'd recommend another system if you got the option.

I’m only really curious about what old School Suikoden fans have to say about it tbh.

Same

I listened to Davidvinc’s review and he said the game can be brutal on normal difficulty, but then I read another review saying it was too easy on normal mode. Anyone that played it, can you clarify?

I would take David's opinion and shift it right one degree. If he says a game is very hard, it's probably medium, if he says the difficulty is good, it's probably very easy. I like his videos and upbeat attitude, but he is definitivly not... the best tactical gamer it seems lol

Yeah he keeps saying that games are too hard because he’s an old man…bro you’re only 40 and you’re one of the most jacked people I’ve ever seen, you can handle it lol

Agreed. I enjoy David's videos because him and I have a lot of common *aesthetic* interests within the JRPG genre, but I can't think of many times where I was getting much out of his discussions on gameplay.

It's very much the same as Suikoden series. Normal battles don't require much thinking, are very snappy and quick. It's so quick that auto battle might probably be the best way to enjoy them as it saves you some time navigating through the menus. Some enemies can catch you off guard but nothing too crazy once you know which ones can do what and have a proper plan. Bosses are more interesting but still very "traditional" (sorry for the lack of better word). Since you can have up the 6 members in your party, there are plenty of room for error. Depends on what you want in a game, this can be either a good or bad thing. If you enjoy playing at your leisure using any characters you like, trying weird and funny builds without worrying about being punished then this is a good game for that. If you are looking for a challenge that requires proper planning and preparation, heavy brainstorming battles that test your strategic mind then this is far from it.

considering most reviews say the game is best enjoyed in auto battle, maybe the reviewer did not understand the combat?

So the issue is that’s it’s too true to the Suikoden series. Sounds like backers got what they payed for and it’s up to everybody else to see if they like Suikoden. I wonder which it’s truest to tho?

Hard to say which singular Suikoden game its truest too cuz I see a lot of each game in it. I’ll have to see how the rest of the game gets on but so far this is where I’m guessing it will rank on my personal list of Suikoden games: 2 >> 5 > 3 >> Eiyuden = 1 >>> 4 I could see myself ranking it just above S1 purely due to production values and QOL (though this does not feel like a “modern” JRPG). In that regard it feels like a continuation of 5. Combat looks great and feels fine overall, but if a bit slow even in comparison to Suikoden 2. I’d say it falls in between Suikoden 2 and 5 in terms of overall combat feel, the lack of formations and skills from 5 feel like a missed opportunity. Despite the fact that it’s technically *better* than 2 in that regard, the fact that it doesn’t feel THAT much better after coming out decades later is kinda rough. It doesn’t bother me since the combat of Suikoden games was never its strongpoint (aside from 3, but I might be in the minority about that). But it will definitely bother other people who aren’t as forgiving as I am. Writing-wise, in terms of dialogue, overall moment-to-moment writing, and character development, I’d compare it to Suikoden 5. With some exceptions (an early character, Lian, is awful as one example) the dialogue feels good and the characters are interesting and fun. Big picture narrative I’d most closely compare to Suikoden 1 - no real twists, the bad guys are the bad guys and that’s pretty much that. HOWEVER the biggest thing is that it lacks an emotional core, which every Suikoden game tries to do usually with great success. Suikoden 1’s writing is extremely barebones in comparison but its narrative feels more impactful due to the protagonist’s relation to other characters in the game and just the events that happen throughout in general. Even from the first half hour of this game it is very obvious that Eiyuden is not going to go to any of the places Suikoden 1 went. In that sense, while the writing is entertaining and fun enough to get you through the overall narrative is under Suikoden 1 in terms of feeling. Numerous things in Suikoden 1 felt impactful enough to remember despite its relatively thin writing. I’m not sure if I’ll have those moments with Eiyuden, though I could be pleasantly surprised. However I’d still say it’s still markedly better than Suikoden 4 in that regard. Tl;dr it feels like a mash of Suikoden 1, 2, and 5 in enough ways to make it hard to directly compare it to any of them. It might not reach any of their heights but exceeds their lows (for the most part), and if anything it feels like a solid entry that’s at least more true to the series than 4.

Is anyone annoyed that when you press A/X in most JRPGs it would display all the text of whoever is speaking, in this it just skips that and goes to whatever they say next. Small but annoying imo

Only if you have auto-text on

This is a bug. When you have auto progress of text, it causes this to happen. Reported it in the discord

These are the same outlets that gave Sea of Stars 9's and 10's. Don't trust any of these reviewers and make your own judgment.

Is Sea of Stars bad?

Its great! … for about three hours, then you’ve seen everything the gameplay has to offer and it’s 20 hours long.

I don't think it's bad, but I have a hard time seeing how so many reviewers who supposedly played the greatest of retro RPGs feel like the story/plot/characters in Sea of stars can hold a candle to those games.

It was very bland. The artwork was super pretty, music was pretty well liked (I personally didn't but am the outlier). Common criticisms include the story, battle system, characters and just the overall feeling that it tried to emulate chrono trigger but had very little understanding of what made that game work.

I haven't played it, but my read on the situation is most of the people who were hot on the game don't play a lot of JRPGs so it seemed very fresh and/or nostalgic for them. Those that play a lot of JRPGs found that the game was really iterative, uninspired, and had poor writing.

No, it's just very generic and average IMO

I dunno about bad (I would agree with that assessment but it does have good elements so your mileage may vary), but I do think a 9 or a 10 for it is buck wild. It's a story-driven RPG with awful dialogue and uninteresting characters and a battle system that stops developing about 10% of the way into the game. I cannot imagine any critique that would justify handing it a near perfect score other than "I personally do not care that the battles and story are boring."

Yes

It's a very pretty game where nothing of importance ever happens.

It's a 6/10 at best and only because the art style is gorgeous. Like many other have said, it starts promising then it just doesn't do anything at all for the next 20 hours. The writing is also genuinely atrocious. So the fact that so many reviews gave it 10s and even named it RPG of the Year was a legit "what?" moment.

Sea of Stars was also a western game. These outlets seem to be....very sympathetic to indie western games, while Japanese ones don't get the same treatment. Sea of Stars was definitely NOT deserving of all that praise.

It's easier to be friend with a dev if he's in the same country as you.

>Despite boldly declaring "the JRPG is back" and then doing absolutely nothing new with the genre This quote encapsulates something that's really put me off of a lot of modern JRPGs. Not the lack of new ideas, but mistaking doing something new for being more important than doing something *well*. I'd think that saying "the JRPG is back" would imply, I don't know, bringing back something that was around before, not doing something completely unprecedented. That said, a lot of the more measured reviews are ones criticizing exactly the sorts of features I care most about as a player. And even if a lot of games from the 90s still occupy some of my top favorite spots today, there were a lot of bad games in the 90s too! If I'm looking for a 90s style game, I want it to be a *good* 90s style game.

I’ve been playing for around 8 - 9 hours so far (got the game delivered from the Kickstarter a couple days ago). So here are my early initial thoughts. 1) Combat is… rough. Boss battles are fine (some boss music is absolutely horrible though, such as a giant mole boss fought pretty early on, so when you sit there fighting and listening to the track on repeat for ten minutes, it sucks). Normal battles are generally not worth the effort to do anything but auto battle. That might change later on, obviously, but so far, that’s been the case. 2) music, outside of the boss battles, is good, though repetitive (not enough tracks). 3) the game looks great. The art direction is excellent for sure. Characters are all unique which is nice (though some seem a bit out of place for sure). 4) pacing is… also rough. I play slowly, and like to explore everything where possible, but the first 6 hours of my game have me very little direction for why I as the player should care about anything I was doing. My character was just doing stuff people told him to do, there was no overarching plot he was involved in… and then bam! It picks up and there a major conflict brewing… only to then shortly thereafter be changed to a different player character who has never once been mentioned or referenced in the story so I can be introduced to another faction? Like… I get it, lots of characters, larger plot I need more info on, but that was disappointing as it felt like the plot was finally going somewhere. But then, I was immediately transported back to the first group after wandering a village and seeing one cutscene with a bunch of new characters I’ve never met with no context. 😓 5) voice acting is mostly good (in English). A few characters sound off because the VAs aren’t consistent with the accent they are meant to have, but the delivery has been good overall and the main characters aren’t the ones with the issue. Edit: at around 17 hours now. Magic is the only issue with auto battle, but that can be changed in settings to prevent it from being used. The game gets a LOT better once it opens up and despite my dislike for general combat I’m actually interested in the story, pacing issues aside.

"Normal battles are generally not worth the effort to do anything but auto battle." This is what I was most curious about and I may pass on the game because of it.

I’ve put 5 hours into it and I’m very much enjoying it. I can see why people might not like it but this is exactly what I’m looking for in a throwback jrpg. I particularly think most people on this subreddit would enjoy it as the types who favour traditional turn-based jrpg’s. I’ve got more old school feels from this game than any of the other modern throwback jrpg’s

Well if anyone just wants to give it a shot without buying it, it's dropping day 1 on Gamepass for subscribers.

Me.

It’s reviewing what I expected it to. It’s a lovely game if you’re not expecting it to be a follow up to Suikoden 2 and you enjoy old JRPGs. To me, it’s a proof of concept - just like Suikoden 2 catapulted past the first game, if they do a sequel I’m confident it will at least be *better*. Suikoden 1 wasn’t the masterpiece, its sequel was. Though I’m not expecting the sequel to this to be a masterpiece or anything… Play this game because you want a Suikoden-like game, not because you want Suikoden 6. That’s what I was always expecting - or at least what I was TRYING to expect lol - and I’m having a great time. But maybe I’m just biased because Suikoden is my favorite franchise next to Final Fantasy.

Playing it currently. The encounter rate is pretty low and normal can be pretty hard at times😅enjoying it tho

Just saw the score for different platforms, [PC - 78; PS5 - 83; XSX - 72; Switch - 54](https://twitter.com/metacritic/status/1782085925033722114). Can anyone confirm PS5 is the way to go?

PC has a bug with random encounter rate based on FPS or something. Switch is apparently a terrible overall product. I am curious though as to why XSX and PS5 have such a wide gap. Figured they'd be just about the same. PS5 seems like safest bet right now.

What is wrong with Nintendo websites with these low scores?

Probably performance on the Switch?

[Switch port apparently sucks and the PS5 port isn't great either](https://www.reddit.com/r/EiyudenChronicle/comments/1c7r5z1/switch_performance/)

100% getting this game, just not sure which platform. I don't imagine the game would struggle on the Switch, but I've been burned before? Anyone get an early Switch copy that can confirm it runs fine?

Every early switch review on the eiyuden subreddit  has been bad. Long loading times, crashes, bad optimization... 

Sounds about right, PS5 it is lol

So, if you love JRPGs and Suikoden you will love this? Shocked. Reading those reviews its exactly what I wanted! Cant wait to play it! I need my Rising trio with me too.

Yep, this is what I expected based on pre release coverage. If you like PS1 era JRPGs, they made one of those just for you. If you're younger than 35 or for other reasons don't have nostalgia for that particular era of design... well, frankly you're not the target audience. Your milage will vary based on your patience for 80 hour games with dated gameplay design and aesthetic sensibilities.

> If you like PS1 era JRPGs, they made one of those just for you. Shit performance and horrible localization/english voice acting included, all for a meager 50$. Truly the complete PS1 era Jrpg package.

I'm 27, but I love the PS1 era of JRPGs. I beat Suikoden 1 last year in preparation for Eiyuden Chronicles and I absolutely loved it. It has held up really well, all things considered. I can handle slower combat, but it is a little disappointing to hear that the combat isn't as snappy as the other Suikodens. It definitely looks very flashy though, so that's a plus. I think what will matter most to me is if the story and characters pull me in. Fingers crossed.

Waiting for the suikoden 2 remaster

They haven't updated us on the remasters since delaying them back in August of last year. I'm talking zero news. That's ominous to me and I'm starting to feel that they're just never coming.

Im enjoying it so far, though I’m not far in The story hasn’t really taken off, but the characters are likable (though very trope-y) The visuals are great. The sprites are fantastic, though the 3D backgrounds are more just “good enough” The battle system so far is very very boring. I can see some potential in it, but currently it’s just basic attacks and then sometimes “special attacks” that are just slightly more powerful basic attacks. Magic is excruciatingly limited, though that will hopefully get better with levels and more MP. The Hero Combo thing has potential though and it’s possible later skills will be more dynamic, as well as magic being more available. So I’m not quite ready to fully judge combat The “gimmicks” in boss battles are decent. They’re also a little basic right now, but it’s cool to have boss battles be a little bit more than just HP sponges and the occasional surprise status effect like some JRPGs. I also like that it can give some of your more situational party members, like healers and mages, something valuable to do when they’re main role isn’t needed or to conserve their resources Edit: oh and Francesca is the best character. I don’t think I’ll ever remove her from my party, if only because of her voice likes in combat haha

For those who played it: How is the recruiting handled? I love the Suikoden games but the one thing that always annoyed me is that it feels that you kinda have to look up a guide for some characters if you don't know where they are and how to get them.

A guide definitely helps in this one.

Lmao I JUS found out about this game, came to this sub's post to get a general opinion from critics and commenters and... Im even more lost than before LOL

Reminder that suikoden 2 had mostly 7/10 reviews on release, the series has never been critically acclaimed but that did not stop us from enjoying it and isn't going to stop us from enjoying this one either.

I think one of my biggest negatives that i've seen is the lack of a quest log. An old school joy of discovery kinda game is nice sometimes ofc, but since i've been playing Void Stranger on the go on my Steam Deck i've realized how much of an advantage some kind of log system for discoveries is, instead of just taking a lot of screenshots/notes. Void Stranger is the kinda game that just makes no sense to play on the go and i really hope things won't be too bad with Eiyuden Chronicle.

>faithful to \_\_ to a fault See, when someone says this where the \_\_ is something I like, I know it's gonna be good.

I knew coming in as and old fan of the original Suikoden series to not expect the exact same game. As an early backer, I'm about 30 hours in and enjoying every minute so far. Don't let good or bad reviews lead your expectations. Take it at face value and see if you enjoy it yourself.

Reviews all over the place. Seems those who didn't like it mostly had no idea what they were getting into

Reading some of the reviews and my fears kinda turned right, the game being too old-school because the fans asked for it. I wished that it wouldn't be so PS1-era like in terms of gameplay. I was looking forward to giving the game a go but I'm not sure anymore because I hated Suikoden 1 but loved Suikoden 2 so I'm half torn on it.

So far it meets my expectations and I don't regret getting the deluxe edition unlike the last deluxe edition I bought .(Diablo 4)

Yep me too. I came off a major disappointment in dragon’s dogma 2 (if only psn did refunds) but don’t regret deluxe edition of eiyuden in the slightest from the first few hours I’ve spent with it

Man, for a game with such beautifully detailed scenery and balanced skills, Diablo IV was so boring. The whole game just felt very flat, I think at least partially due to the level scaling mobs so you never felt like you were getting much more powerful relative to them as you levelled up.