Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is an upcoming Japanese role-playing game directed by noted Japanese game director Yoshitaka Murayama.
Other lead staff members include Junko Kawano (as lead character designer), Osamu Komuta (as system designer and director) and Junichi Murakami (as art director and producer). Murayama served as lead writer and overall project head.
Gameplay
Battles
Battles will be turn-based with parties of up to six characters. Players are able to select and modify each character's battle AI, attack priority, usage of skills, etc., if they should choose to "auto battle".
Characters will automatically be placed in formations that match each battlefield's elevation differences, obstacles, and other unique features. Some terrain will appear to be more complicated than others. Beyond the cosmetic features, these terrain differences also have added benefits, such as ranged characters being able to attack from vantage points, characters being able to use cover, and the ability to affect the topography of the battlefield with their abilities, such as burning away grass or using earth magic to uproot the ground.
Massive battles and one-on-one duels will also be a part of the game with their own mechanics. Duels are said to have multiple choices and dramatic cutscenes, as well as the opportunity to negotiate with your opponent depending on the situation.
Fortress Town
During the game, the player will gain access to the fortress town, which will act as their base of operations. By recruiting more characters and helping to expand it, the small base is able to grow over the course of the game.
Stated improvements include the ability to build castle walls to protect from enemy invasions, developing weapons and recruiting troops, and creating items for trade in order to develop businesses such as blacksmiths, restaurants, commerce, builders, and so on.
Once the town gets large enough players can create guilds. There are a number of different guilds available, including knight guilds, blacksmith guilds, cooking guilds, merchant guilds, thieves' guilds, and the hot spring guild. Guilds are said to be pivotal to managing the fortress town as it grows beyond the capabilities of a single person to handle.
Each guild will have requests that can be completed by assigning a character to the task. Each task you complete will earn you rewards, and guilds themselves will allow your characters to learn skills that will help both in battle and in further growing your fortress.
Players will be able to create a farm for their fortress town at some point. There, crops and livestock can be grown as ingredients for cooking, as well as food for the people who live in the town. Expanding and upgrading farm will help to upgrade and develop your fortress town.
Magic and Skills
Magic and other abilities are accessed through objects called rune-lenses. Physical skills are cast from the user's SP pool, whereas magic spells are cast from their MP pool. Unite Hero Attacks, where two or more characters perform a special attack together, uses SP from both characters.
By affixing runes to character's lenses, you can give them new magics and skills, or improve their physical abilities. Each character's lens is unique and supports runes of different type, rarity, and quantity. Some lenses may already contain a specialized rune that cannot be removed. Others may require runes of a certain type be affixed in specific positions. When characters level up, the number of runes their lenses hold can potentially increase.
Minigames
- Main article: Category:Minigames in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
Eiyuden Chronicle has numerous minigames and other additional modes. Cooking and fishing minigames were among the earliest revealed and will tie into the ingredients and restaurant mechanics.
Beigoma top battling has also been revealed, where the player can challenge different beigoma battlers throughout Allraan. Trading, where buying goods at low prices and selling them for a profit will benefit the player in both money and unlocking new items, is another mechanic the player can engage in. Players can capture eggfoot creatures, raise and breed them, and race them on special racing circuits.
An in-game collectible card game has also been revealed. The game’s cards will feature characters and monsters from the world of Eiyuden Chronicle and players are able to collect cards, build decks, and challenge rivals as you progress through the game.
Difficulty and New Game Plus Modes
The game has a Hard Mode difficulty players who want a greater challenge. On Hard Mode, enemy states are increased, and enemies will also employ different, more aggressive, attack patterns. There are also various optional toggles to make the game even more challenging, such as turning off money drops from enemies, restricting healing item use in battle, and increasing shop prices.
New Game Plus will also let you carry over your characters from your previous game, but there are as yet no details on what this entails.
Plot Overview
The game is set on the Allraan continent, a land where many diverse nations, filled with equally diverse inhabitants exist. The history of Allraan is that of these people, humans, beastyn, elves, sometimes warring, sometimes allied, wielding both sword and powerful magical rune-lenses.
Among these nations, the Galdean Empire, who invested much research in these magical lenses, began to spread its search over Allraan, hungry for more and more lenses. The game's story focuses on Seign Kesling, a young officer of the Empire who heads this search, and Nowa, a remote village boy who joins the search team and becomes fast friends with Seign.
Where fate will lead them may contain war, but also justice and the truth.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
- Main article: Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
On August 29, 2020, Rabbit & Bear Studios announced their intention to partner with Natsume-Atari to create a Town Creation RPG. This companion title will release before Eiyuden Chronicle itself.
Originally planned to feature a variety of different “lifestyle” mini-games that will give you materials to improve your town. The scope of the companion game grew thanks to the partnership with Natsume-Atari. It is planned for the two games to share assets with Natsume-Atari focusing on the Town Creation RPG so as not to sap resources from the development of Eiyuden Chronicle itself. Several Eiyuden Chronicle characters will also appear during this side-game.
The Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase at E3 2021, on June 13, 2021, confirmed the name of the game as Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, and that it would be a day one Game Pass game, released in 2022.
Development
Kickstarter
Eiyuden Chronicle was announced on July 24, 2020 on social media. The game launched on Kickstarter on July 27, 2020 surpassing its goal of 53,808,516 Japanese yen (roughly 500,000 USD) within two hours and becoming the 3rd highest funded video game on the platform by the end of its campaign on August 29, 2020. Additional stretch goals ensured console launches for all major platforms and online storefronts as well as expanded language support.
Publishers and Promotion
On February 11, 2021, it was announced that 505 Games would be the global publisher for Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. An unspecified delay was announced on May 26, 2021, with producer Yoshitaka Murayama citing positive (increased investment allowing for improved gameplay development) and negative reasons (COVID-19) behind the announcement.
The Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase at E3 2021, on June 13, 2021, confirmed that Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes was now scheduled for 2023, and would be a day one Xbox Game Pass game in a deal with Microsoft. As part of the deal, Yoshitaka Murayama announced a third piece of DLC content would be created and released freely to backers.
On May 25, 2022, it was announced that the game would indeed be released for Nintendo Switch. On August 24, 2022, a new trailer was released for Gamescom, comprised entirely of new footage overlayed with music by game composer Motoi Sakuraba, reiterating a 2023 release for the game.
On August 7, 2023 an additional production delay was announced, pushed the release of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes to Q2 2024, with an exact date of April 23, 2024 announced during a Nintendo Direct broadcast on September 14, 2023. Deluxe pre-orders were confirmed to receive access 48 hours early with backers receiving access 72 hours early. Extended trailers were released in September (as part of the Tokyo Game Show) and December of 2023.
Additional gameplay footage was shown at the Taipei Game Show 2024 on January 26, with members of Rabbit & Bear Studios in attendance. A limited-time backer beta was made available on Steam on March 14, 2024, covering the first six to ten hours of gameplay. This beta was removed with the game's actual launch ahead of the backer digital launch on April 20.
The backer digital launch was followed by the Digital Deluxe Preorder launch the following day before the general worldwide release took place on April 23, 2024.
System Requirements
| Spec | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 7, 8.1, 10 x64 | Windows 7, 8.1, 10 x64 |
| Processor | AMD FX-4350 / Intel® Core™ i3-3210 | AMD Ryzen™ 5 1700 / Intel® Core™ i7-4770S |
| Memory | 4 GB RAM | 6 GB RAM |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon™ R7 260X (2GB VRAM) / NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 750(2GB VRAM) | Radeon™ RX 470(4GB VRAM) / NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 6 GB VRAM |
| Storage | 22 GB available space | 22 GB available space |
| Notes | 30+ FPS @ 1280x720 and graphics pre-set "LOW (minimum quality)" | Expected Framerate: 60 FPS @ 1920x1080 |