Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Shows Its Suikoden Spirit

This year’s slate of Gamescom reveals provided the most substantial look yet at Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. It’s being developed by Rabbit & Bear Studios, an outfit founded by key creators behind Konami’s dormant Suikoden series. The game made its first splash in 2020 as a heavily backed crowdfunding campaign, raising almost $4.6 million USD against an initial target of $500,000 USD. The figure made it the #3 most-backed Kickstarter project in history. Now it’s on its way towards a 2023 release date.

The Gamescom teaser is the first full trailer for Eiyuden Chronicle in nearly a year, and features more gameplay footage than previously revealed.

The graphical style of Eiyuden Chronicle is deliberately evocative of the PS1-era Suikoden games. As in those games, the game’s visual flair comes from its 2D character sprites. That said, Eiyuden uses the fusion of 2D characters and a 3D isometric environment across the entire game, and not just in combat, like Suikoden was limited to. Like its spiritual forebear, Eiyuden a large list of playable and recruitable characters. The teaser trailer shows off combat gameplay too, which takes place in the same format as Suikoden. The end of the trailer even teases the presence of duels – a staple of Suikoden‘s dramatic showdowns. The characters Seign and Nowa stand atop a bridge and then duke it out to close out the video.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. It doesn’t have a firm release window yet besides “2023”, but Rabbit & Bear Studios promised more to be revealed at the Tokyo Game Show in mid-September 2022. A prequel/spin-off title, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, is available on Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Check out Siliconera’s review at this link.