It was only near the end ofEiyuden Chronicle : Hundred Heroesthat I set out to grow customary to its retro designing . Throughout the RPG , I acquire that I should load down as many healing and revival items as I could before a boss scrap , but it still did n’t prepare me for what I was about to experience .
I sighed in relief as I in conclusion beat a belated - secret plan boss I was shinny with , only to see it pull out a 2nd phase . That wasnormal for an RPG , but I certainly was n’t expecting to be stuck in a pseudo time grummet . The boss fuel off a huge cinematic attack that my bruise and battered party had no luck of withstanding , which led me to a plot over screen with the option of a rematch . attempt to reverse my fate , I face off the boss again , only for it to start with the same annihilative blast once more . No matter how many times I repeated this cycle , the result was the same , until I just chip in up and decided to load my game from the previous save point .
That small moment exemplifies every piffling foiling that drags downEiyuden Chronicle : Hundred Heroes , a retro RPG that playact as a phantasmal heir to the Suikoden series . Despite an engaging account , colorful characters , and solid turn - based battles , its lack of tone - of - living thoughtfulness and poor performance on Nintendo Switch drag this prognosticate throwback down .
1 vs. 100
Eiyuden Chronicle : Hundred Heroesfollows Nowa , the underground loss leader of the Alliance , as he assemble heroes from around the continent of Allraan to push back against the tyrannical Dux Aldric and his imperium . What have that story so fascinating is its ceaseless shifts in allegiance between multiple party . Some see the light and defect to Nowa ’s side , while others fail the Alliance for their own selfish reasons . There ’s a constant tower - of - warfare between both side that kept me guessing until the death .
Cuban sandwich have colourful personalities that make them experience trenchant .
Dux Aldric makes for a compelling scoundrel . While he mostly fall off as a brute dictator , his motive seem conformable . He ’s in hunt of more Rune Lenses , which give people special abilities . However , many of them are in the hired man of the privileged few , and Dux Aldric wants to democratize them . It ’s stately , but tainted by furiousness ; to him , the ends justifies the means . It bring quite a bit of depth to Dux Aldric as a baddie , and withHundred Heroes ’ great pacing , it kept my attention through the entire secret plan .
Hundred Heroesis exchangeable to this year’sUnicorn Overlordin price of its story setup and character roster . Like the latter ’s protagonist , Alain , Nowa can inscribe novel characters throughout Allraan . They have colorful personality that make them feel distinct , even though there are so many of them . Some of my ducky include Francesca , a nurse with an ironically short and crimson temper , as well as Goldsmid , a goat - behemoth hybrid who is reminiscent of the infernal Baphomet ( but is really the gentlest guy ever who likes to pick stuff up for you ) .
Not everyone is fit for conflict , but they can be used as support characters with special ability . The maid Yulin double experience benefit when in the party while the butler Janquis duplicate money earned at the end of battle . Since players can only carry one support eccentric at a time , they ’re required to thoughtfully consider what they want to prioritise in their party setup .
Other non - battle characters can be recruited to help out with the Nowa ’s military headquarters , such as grow crops . The sheer assortment of theatrical role types is reflected as they all flow around HQ , slowly contributing to the resistance force out , and add a layer of camaraderie and immersion to the experience .
Hundred Heroeshas deal of minigames , including rebuilding the HQ itself . Using various resources like stone and wood and levy the correct characters , the area transforms into a straggle little town . There ’s also a war minigame standardized to that of Risk , where players can rally flock to fight off invaders . The more characters recruited , the stronger the force are . ( Faceless Nonproliferation Center that defend under commanders are really names of Kickstarter angel , which is a clever reference to the biz ’s development origins . )
Not all of those minigames are standouts . There ’s a sand gravy boat racing one with terrible controls , and with the Switch version ’s misleading functioning , it was gruelling to even complete . One recruitable character is only unbarred by getting a certain time placement . After many fail attempts , I just threw in the towel and moved on without her .
Teamwork makes the dreamwork
Nowa travels all throughout Allraan to recruit ally to his causa while contain Aldric ’s henchman from encroach on various towns and donjon . Sometimes , there ’s no urgency in the plot ; that ’s Nowa ’s cue to go out and recruit more multitude for move it frontwards . This gives plenty of ventilation room in the game ’s narrative between all of the political tension .
I have to thoughtfully plan out my approach as one improper move could throw off my rhythm .
Recruitable fibre are n’t marked in any manner on the map or field either . Players have to search through every corner and cranny throughout Allraan ; however , their faery are visibly distinct . See a guy wandering about with a crown and ruby robes among a crowd of generic looking townsfolk ? He ’s probably recruitable . When I ground a raw grapheme to recruit , it felt rewarding , like I just discovered a precious stone among a pile of rock .
For those who do n’t want to bend their brainiac that much , auto - battle is a utilitarian option . It lets characters play on their own to take out enemies . It ’s a great path to plow your brain off if you just want to bulldoze through battles . AI behavior can be tweak in auto - struggle mode too . I can tell my team to use certain muscular spells when there are more than four enemies on screen . This really assist so that your magic substance abuser does n’t adjudicate to just use their most - MP - exhaust spell if there ’s only one foeman left on the field .
Other battle twists make the core combat system even more piquant . There ’s a system called Hero Combos , where certain character pairs will kindle off cinematic teamwork attacks that deal tremendous damage to monster if they ’re both in the party . Hundred Heroes ’ excellent admixture of quality faerie art and 3D surroundings make mo like that a dazzling sight to behold .
Retro to a fault
While I have a wad to praise about the combat , feature like Hero Combos are where the retro nature ofHundred Heroesdrags it down . There is n’t anoption to skip through struggle animations , forcing instrumentalist to sit through the same 1 over and over again . Hundred Heroesalso features one-time - schooltime random meeting , and it ’s incredibly annoying to have to sit through its constant battles — particularly when fleeing is n’t always an pick .
caliber of life features are sorely lacking across the board . The most egregious deletion is that save item do n’t regenerate HP and MP upon interacting with them . This present a huge trouble when I make the end of a lengthy dungeon at the save head decent before a boss conflict , and my party is n’t in any form to take on it . In all of these situation , I had to backtrack all the way back to a township , log Z’s at the inn to restore my company , and then haul my laughingstock back to the save point all the while trying to minimize the turn of random encounters I trip . That ’s how a lot of oldRPGs work , so decisions like that may delight some . For me , it ’s just a dependable monitor of why development is a good matter .
Eiyuden Chronicle : Hundred Heroesis perhaps faithful to a fault .
In Suikoden games , there are usually recruitable party members that provide these form of feature . InHundred Heroes , you play someone who has teleportation might . That ’s how the political party unlocks fast travel . There ’s also a woman who join if you place her as your funding character , return the ability to rearrange your company at save points . If there ’s a support type that restores HP and MP at save points , I have yet to easily find such a needed power . While this form of worldbuilding and implementation is admirable , I just wish well some of these abilities were just standard features instead of being conditional .
That annoyance is compounded by several representative whereHundred Heroeswill throw in a gauntlet of battle , often cause me press up to four waves of enemies in a course without the chance of healing , saving , or using items in between . One meter , I did n’t have enough healing token for a boss fight so I had to reload a former save to buy them , and then repeat the full war minigame prior to that boss battle . Those frequent pain sensation points single - handedly drain my enthusiasm .
Hundred Heroesdoesn’t perform well on Switch either . gratefully , there were a few patches that were force out during the review period that ease some former issues . A five - second postponement from pressing the carte button to that menu popping up has been cut down to one - secondment . Some bitch still survive though , such as frame rate stuttering while roaming the open world and some egregious dada - in problems . Trees and bushes appear out of nowhere , and long loading times between run through different arena hang in .
As a Suikoden heir , Eiyuden Chronicle : Hundred Heroesis perhaps close to a geological fault . Its state of war story is full than those happen in most Fire Emblem game , and its vivacious form of characters are a high spot . The good turn - base battle system is one of the in force I ’ve experienced of its variety in late year , too . It ’s just a pity that frustratingly retro RPG intention and lack quality - of - animation feature put a damper on the whole journeying . With a few registration , Nowa ’s story could ’ve been a better fib to bring back home from the frontlines .
Eiyuden Chronicle : Hundred Heroeswas reviewed on Nintendo Switch .
