Before I start this review, I should bring this up as it is quite recent. On February 6th, 2024, creator and well-renowned developer Yoshitaka Murayama passed away from an undisclosed illness. His mark on the JRPG genre of the late 90s and early 2000s will be remembered for its in-depth storytelling and deep/compelling characters. Mr. Murayama, I hope more people discover your work after playing your recent game, and hope your legacy continues on in a new form. Now, with that said, let’s begin.
Eiyuden Chronicle was part of the trend that started back in the mid-2010s when many developers decided that their current employer didn’t have any interest in bringing back what made them the most money back in their heyday and decided to crowd-fund these “spiritual successors” to the nostalgia crowd. The most infamous example from this era was Mighty No. 9, which was Mega Man but really bad and unfinished; then, on the other side of the coin, you have success stories like Shovel Knight, a tribute to the 8-bit era, and Bloodstained, which was a return to form of what the Castlevania games used to do best. But you also had an underdog developer in the form of Yoshitaka Murayama, who created the Suikoden games, an RPG franchise that I have heard of in passing but have never played; I only know of them through their reputation of being the JRPG that people love from the PS1 era that wasn’t Final Fantasy, and that it had the same amount of party members as the cast list for Lord of the Rings. So, after being funded years ago, the game is finally out, and how does it hold up after all these years of advancement and QOL changes in RPG games? It does well on both sides of the same coin.
The first thing you notice when booting the game up is how gorgeous the game looks. From my recent memory, this is one of the best mixtures of classic 16-32bit sprite work mixed in with a modern 3D animated background I have seen in a long time. This also transitions into the combat, where each character has a unique fighting animation style that helps tell them apart on a visual language front. It also helps that during these traditional turn-based sections, the camera will go all over the place, and while in other games that would be viewed as annoying, here I viewed it more as an evolution of the turn-based combat style that the game is replicating. Then you have the typical, flashier types of attacks that you can perform, along with team attacks that vary for each two-party member’s combination, and given the cast list of this game, that is quite a feat that should be mentioned.
Then you have the story, which is more traditional in a sense, but when compared to a similar game that harkens back to the 90s JRPG, Octopath Traveler, I liked the story here more because at least once it establishes all the expected norms, it does something different instead of treading the same ground, that doesn’t mean it’s perfect but when comparing the two I like this one a bit more. The story starts in the land of Allraan, and you are in control of Nowa, a young recruit from the League of Nations. From there, your first mission is trying to make peace with some group, and then twists and betrayals happen, and you soon find yourself on a grand adventure. I’m keeping it vague here because the game is in tune with its older siblings, which is a slow burn that leads to an avalanche of payoffs to story beats. That being said, keep in mind that this is a long game, which can be viewed as a negative to some people, but if you pace yourself to how the game wants you to play and not mainline everything, then you will have a good time. That and if you do the mainline, the game will stop you and send you back to go grind because you will reach a point where you need to use your current party advantages to defeat the enemies to proceed instead of just headbutting them and hoping they fall before you do.
Some nitpicks I had with the game to make this seem balanced. The voice acting took a while to get used to, mainly because it’s the normal anime dub style of voice acting, where the voice actors/actress have to get across their character through voice and tone only and not through movements, but I was able to get adjusted to that. Something that might turn some people off is the lack of a menu save option, you have to save in either an inn or a glowing green circle, if you have been playing games for a long time this wouldn’t be anything new, but it is something to bring for newcomers.
So should you give this game a try if you have any interest, yes and no. Yes, because you will enjoy it, if you are into this type of game. I say no because this is a game not made for everyone, and some people might find the game to be boring and tedious. I didn’t find it either, mainly because I remember playing even longer SNES-era RPGs on my PSP back when I was growing up, and they didn’t bother me. So maybe it’s a hint of nostalgia that is dictating this review, but I still enjoyed my time with the game with what I have put in so far, and I will be going back to see it through to the end.
Score: 8 out of 10
Reviewed on Xbox Series X