Welcome to an unprecedented episode of Indie Game of the Week. The unprecedented part isn't the genre—it's another 2D explormer RPG, sure, but I'll say the tone is very different to last week's Salt and Sacrifice—but rather that I managed to actually get the stars to align for once: I'd been putting off Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising for a while due to my usual procrastinating over RPGs but then I somehow remembered that the big anticipated game this was meant to be promoting as a sort of short-form prologue hype-builder (think Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon to Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night) is actually due out in a matter of days. In other words, this is my most SEO-tastic IGotW in a long while. Hell, I might even get comments on this one, that's how present and zeitgeist-y it feels. Of course, the subject of this entry itself came out two years back, but no-one's ever accused me of punctuality.

So, what is Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, and what specifically is Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising in relation to it? The former was pitched (via its Kickstarter) as a Suikoden-like, or perhaps a "Pseudkoden" if you're an incorrigible punhound with nothing of the filter that allows most wordplay fans to seamlessly integrate into society. It's not just an Indie homage either (like, say, Citizens of Earth) but rather a spiritual successor by Suikoden's own original creator Yoshitaka Murayama. A curious coincidence is that Murayama left Konami before Suikoden III was completed, and if the trailers for Hundred Heroes suggest anything it's that it takes after 3 specifically with its triple protagonist format, one of which speaks for a nature-loving tribe in a shamanistic role and another as an ennobled knight with conflicting goals borne from loyalty, duty, and doing the right thing. Maybe he didn't like the direction Konami was taking his version of 3? I mean, they did add an angry duck-person called Sgt. Joe, and who'd want to see that happen to their baby? Anyway, we'll find out if Hundred Heroes is going to be a contender in an already busy year for RPGs once it arrives on the 24th.

Its "prologue" Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, conversely, doesn't feel like a Suikoden at all. It has just the three playable characters and is a 2D action-RPG with a slight explormer edge, blocking off areas in dungeons until you have the right gear or abilities to break through their barriers. If anything, it immediately recalls the likes of Valkyrie Profile (another underappreciated PS1 franchise) and more recent Indie homages like Indivisible, but I'd put it closer to that Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin game that came out a few years back or the 2D Vanillaware RPG-brawlers like Muramasa or Odin Sphere. There's an emphasis on combination attacks to soften up foes or apply a lot of heat very quickly once a boss is in a temporarily vulnerable state, and these combos tend to include your whole roster (hence the Valkyrie Profile comparison) each of whom get a dedicated face button for their attacks. A typical example might involve you air juggling a foe with your heavyset character Garoo, followed by a multi-hit mid-air blade combo with your flighty rogue type CJ, and then finishing it off with ranged attacks as the enemy flies backwards with the magic-user third character (who is, I guess, a mild spoiler). The combat isn't particularly elaborate though it has an alacrity to it which is greatly appreciated if you're just mowing down small fry because you're out there farming drops or chasing down an alternative path in an early dungeon that you've only now acquired the means to access. Tougher enemies and bosses can be juggled as easily as anything else but tend to hit a lot harder to compensate; they require a mote more caution before you go whizzing through knives akimbo. I will say though that the combat can be oddly stiff sometimes. Often I might hit another (that is, not the currently active) character's attack button only for them to show up and just stand there; it's like the game sometimes chooses to have that button be only "bring the dude out" rather than "and then have the dude attack", and it's easy to mess up combos and get smacked in the face when it's being all mercurial like that.

The dungeoneering in Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising's case is mostly in service to its town-building aspect and vice versa. You spend a significant (I'm talking 70-80%) of the playtime doing sidequests for the townsfolk of the frontier settlement of New Neveah. Each rewards a stamp on protagonist CJ's card like she was saving up for a free cup of coffee: the game makes it clear early on that the card/stamp system was a test designed to screen new wandering adventurers to see if they had the town's best interests in mind before they were allowed to run roughshod on the local dungeon, the Runebarrows, but CJ grows to like it so much that she gets increasingly unhinged about collecting stamps from everyone she meets no matter how big the task they have. It largely serves as a means to reward you for excessive sidequesting, most of which involves walking two screens and talking to the right guy and then walking back to the sponsor. Others want easily found resources from the nearby dungeons, from basic construction materials like lumber and stone to precious ores, meal ingredients, monster drops, or items dropped only from specific boss fights (almost all of which are repeatable). The SQs worth doing are those that improve the local vendors, increasing their stock of items or upgrading their services. There's plenty of them: weapons, armor, accessories, meals, potions, item storage, tools for resource collecting, bartering your resources for better ones, and an inn that provides baths that can provide you with a day-long buff to stats, experience gain, or your item encounter rate (it goes away whenever you rest to restore the party's HP to full).

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is the type of game that is somewhat svelte in both its runtime and the amount it actually has to offer in terms of a loop and a progression. You're mostly going back and forth from the town and dungeons to complete SQs and purchase upgrades until you feel secure enough to follow the main story progression and the tougher fights in store. The chill village-development vibe sometimes puts the game closer to an Atelier or Rune Factory in terms of tone and pace, which was probably a smart choice if this was meant to be a brief aperitif; one that wasn't ever going to offer a lengthy RPG experience to sink your teeth into, unlike the full game for which it's ostensibly out there driving up hype. Visually it's an attractive enough game though I've never really taken to that paper doll animation approach, and the UI is clean and easy to navigate with plenty of fast travel options and other conveniences. The auto-save isn't exactly generous—it seems to occur only after completing major story quests, not sidequests, so you might want to manually save often if you're just out there farming for a new weapon upgrade or some such optional side-trek—but it's not a particularly challenging game given how there's little chance of wandering into a high-level area you weren't prepared for what with all the explormer-style giant rocks, long gaps, and color-coded barricades keeping you out of those danger zones like nature's bouncers. One could argue that it's hopelessly repetitive even with the constant influx of new upgrades (which are quickly cycled out due to the game's relatively compact form), but to that effect it's also a game that's always giving you plenty to be getting on with. "It's got a lot of busywork" might not work as a positive for most yet all the same I'm kinda enthralled by its modest charms with its speedy, Ys-like combat being enough of a hook to keep everything afloat. No idea what, if anything, from this game will be relevant to the final product—unless there's some centuries-long timeskip involved, I could certainly see one or all three of your playable characters showing up in Hundred Heroes as well, especially since they've a hundred slots to fill—but a relaxing if farm-heavy RPG does hit the spot occasionally, especially if that spot happens to drop a lot of ores and gemstones whenever it's hit.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Playthrough Edit: Well, the game is definitely better towards the end than it was at the start, mostly due to all the new abilities you pick up throughout the game. Protagonist CJ becomes a whirling tempest of slice-y death towards the end, and there's a real fun post-game accessory you can get that makes every hit a critical, with the concomitant dramatic "blaow!" sound effect and screen shake. So that's fun. Reminded of me of stomping around Bloodstained as a ludicrously overpowered Miriam. The whole game's loop of farming in dungeons for resources doesn't ever really abate, but with the fast travel options almost every one of the game's ~130 sidequests takes seconds to complete. Clearly padded to all heck, but what choice did the game have when its world is that comparatively small? Hopefully Hundred Heroes has had more time in the oven to find a better content/time-consumption ratio.

I think it's a little odd to discuss Yoshitaka Murayama and his connection to the upcoming Eiyuden Chronicles main game without noting that he recently tragically passed away, never having seen the release of his big spiritual sequel. This makes Eiyuden Chronicles Rising the last game released in his lifetime, and considering that the Suikoden games are so important it makes it a weirdly important game for what it is.

RIP Murayama.

As for the game itself, I actually got every achievement in it when it released into Game Pass. However because the main game was delayed so much it actually ended up being a pretty bad intro game because of that gap. I remember the very basics but it was 2 years ago. That used to be the gap between true sequels not an appetizer game and its associated entre.

My memory is that this game is okay for an indie 2D RPG with platformer elements but felt pretty insubstantial. Not just because of how much of it is about side quests and the limited plot but because of the shallow mechanics and characterization. It definitely feels like a teaser game rather than a stand alone. Not necessarily in how much content it has (quite a bit) but in that it doesn't really feel satisfying to play on its own and doesn't answer any of the questions it poses from a narrative or character perspective. It makes sense given what they were doing, but considering that it's 12 hours to beat it and more like 20 if you want everything, well, that's a big commitment for a game that's all set up.

It's not bad as a breezy, easy, action RPG game, but if you're going to ask 10+ hours to play through a game you should deliver a bit more of a complete narrative arc, even if that feeds into the main game.

There are plenty of full games that are shorter than this "teaser."

I will preface by saying I participated in the kickstarter for the main game.

I liked this game alright. I played it last year and put it in my GOTY list(6th out of 7). I platinumed it in about 20 hours and while I did enjoy my time with it as a whole, the first couple hours were a slog since you only had the one character who could only do a 2-hit combo and not much else. Also, in terms of mobility, you could only really just jump and walk. Once you get some upgrades and the other teammates then the game plays at an enjoyably brisk pace. You're able to do more combos, double jump, dash and so forth.

But man the pacing of those firrst couple hours! Trying to go into that first cave only to be told I have to get a permit first. Then going to town and doing a bunch of side quests to get the permit. Then after getting the permit, right when I'm one screen into the cave a magical girl comes in a smashes the entrance so I can't go in. Rinse and repeat quests. Yeah, that stuck with me. Hopefully the main game won't have many moments like that.

There were a lot of SQ's, too much if you ask me. But I guess they needed to pad the game somehow. It helped make the game a 'podcast game' for me since paying attention to what people were saying wasn't really important outside of the main quest stuff.

As for the weapon names, my hope is that when the main game comes out, the trio will be brandishing those very weapons and that'd keep with the old school Suikoden-like feature of bringing something into the next game. I named my weapons 'Flying Fairy' for CJ, 'Heavy Hayashi' for Garoo and 'Magical Bastard' for Isha.

As I said, the beginning was rough but I enjoyed it well enough after a couple hours. I would say it's more worth it if you purchased it on sale though.