2020’s most highly funded Kickstarter excited me greatly. It was for a game called Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. It is inspired by games like Suikoden from the PS1 and PS2 eras and brings back mechanics close to my heart. While Hundred Heroes won’t release until 2023, the developers released a Metroidvania / Action-Platformer prequel of sorts to get people immersed in the world. Eiyuden Chronicle Rising makes me even more excited to see what Hundred Heroes has in store.

Now, if you haven’t played a Suikoden game, there is something important you should know about the series that has a large bearing on both Eiyuden Chronicle Rising and the upcoming Hundred Heroes. The core concept of the Suikoden series, and by extension Eiyuden Chronicle Rising (and presumably Hundred Heroes) is that connecting with other people makes you stronger.

In the original Suikoden games, you would do quests and sidequests, interacting with named characters. By doing so, they would either join your army or provide various benefits (such as a chef, mechanic, etc). Eiyuden Chronicle Rising takes that idea and puts it into a new context. Instead of building up an army and fortress, you build a struggling mining town back up from the brink.

You play as CJ, a scavenger who is searching for a giant Rune Lens as part of a rite of passage. Rune Lenses allow people to utilize magic, and an ancient civilization used it as part of unknown technology. She ventures to a struggling mining town that holds untold secrets in ancient ruins known as the Runebarrows. By joining together with the town mayor and other adventurers, CJ will uncover a mystery that may have consequences for Hundred Heroes: Eiyuden Chronicle as well.

The game ultimately takes place in two phases. There’s the town-building phase, where you talk to NPCs, experience bits of the story, and take sidequests. Then, there is the Metroidvania phase, where you explore environments. By killing enemies and using harvesting tools on things like wood, ore, and stone, as well as trapping and fishing, CJ can get ingredients to fulfill requests. These ingredients can also be traded for money or used to upgrade weapons, armor, and other essentials such as tools.

Combat is deceptively complex. As you get your 3 party members, you’ll be able to utilize them (each mapped to a button) to pull off link attacks. You can also use each one to fight off different types of enemies. CJ is great at the standard rank-and-file ones, Garoo is better for armored enemies, etc. As you progress, elemental affinities/weaknesses are thrown into the mix as well.

Each character also has a unique skill, which could help out in combat, but also usually has some sort of bearing on traversal. CJ can double jump and dash for example. However, these abilities are tied to armor, which means you’ll have to upgrade the armory to get new traversal abilities. This makes side questing and actively expanding the city important.

It may sound complex, but it feels really good to play. There is a nice balance between city management and story elements, alongside the Metroidvania gameplay. My only major complaint with Eiyuden Chronicle Rising is that the autosave function doesn’t trigger nearly enough. I lost power while playing at one point, and hadn’t saved in several hours. I lost that entire period of time because for whatever reason the autosave hadn’t saved since I last saved manually.

It doesn’t always cause that problem, but it is something to be aware of. Save early and save often. Regardless of that, Eiyuden Chronicle Rising is a fantastic experience. The character designs are great, the story is interesting, and I’m looking forward to seeing the end of it. It has made me even more excited for Hundred Heroes: Eiyuden Chronicle.

A PlayStation 5 review copy of Eiyuden Chronicle Rising was provided by 505 Games for this review.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Also, if you’d like to join the Phenixx Gaming team, check out our recruitment article for details on working with us.

Phenixx Gaming is proud to be a Humble Partner! Purchases made through our affiliate links support our writers and charity!

Eiyuden Chronicle Rising

$14.99

9.5

Score

9.5/10

Pros

• Great 2D/3D Hybrid Visuals
• Interesting Storyline
• Fun Action-Gameplay
• Super Fun Progression Systems
• Lots of Sidequest and Content

Cons

• Autosave Doesn't Save Often Enough