The first Suikoden was actually the first RPG I'd ever played. While the gaming media was hyping up the impending release of Final Fantasy VII, I found myself wanting to try another RPG to get a feel for what they're like. I remember finding Suikoden at a local Electronics Boutique store and being drawn to the art style. It turned out to be one of my favorite RPG's of all-time, even from the lens of everything I've played since. I'm excited to try Eiyuden Chronicles, and hope that the developers do take the feedback to heart and make some QOL improvements. I think they could take the game from good to great.
Had some of the best memories in gaming playing Suikoden as a kid. As such, I am genuinely very excited to play this game and feel that nostalgia again as an adult.
The idea that, at it's core, they basically released a PSone RPG in 2024 makes me even more excited to play this. And a lot of the buggier/oversight type issues will more than likely be long gone soon. Eiyuden is pretty much exactly what I wanted it to be from everything I've seen do far xD
Thanks for the open and honest review for this entry! I do hope many of these bugs will have been fixed for its full release; your confidence in 505 Games helps to assuage potential fears. I haven't played any of the Suikoden titles myself, so this'll be a blast for me to get into!
You're welcome! To be fair, I only outlined three bugs that are probably going to get fixed! The rest is just a lack of quality of life issues that the developers may or may not address, given the old school nature of the game.
interesting review. Alot of your issues with the games like the combat and slow menu animation and lack of inventory all seems to stems from suikoden. Its all issues present in previous suikoden. Makes me wonder if the devs make it like this on purpose for nostalgia sake and for those purist suikoden fans.
Lol I sure hope not. I don't think anyone, even the most nostalgic of gamers, would mind having menus that are more reactive or other similar modern quality of life features lol
The inventory management is bad even when I played suikoden way back when I was in junior high school I thought it was not convenient. So I hope a patch for QoL will be released soon. I will still purchase and play by this weekend, cannot wait!
Thanks for the honest review. I'm not sold, maybe wait a while and grab it at a discount? At this point I'm waiting on the HD remaster of Suikoden I & II.
Great review. I do appreciate some "non convenient" design decisions like how Elden Ring doesn't give you quest markers or how Dragon's Dogma 2 doesn't have traditional fast travel, but there are some modern QOL elements that I still prefer like inventory management that isn't fighting me. EC:HH does look fantastic but I'm hoping they patch in some fixes to make some modern QOL items at last optional - saving on the world map for example, and some improvements on the battle screen.
There's DEFINITELY a movement of developers out there trying to go back to retro/classic designs to mine what made those games great. It's an interesting exercise and they're learning a lot from it. Vampire Survivors, for example, is a distillation of the schmup genre and adding it with roguelikes. What a time to be alive!
After Star Ocean second story R, I learned some of these classical, throwback style JRPGs tend to work better on stronger hardware. I love playing them on my switch, but for things like repetitious, fast loading, turn-based battle systems, better performance wins me over. Plus this is on gamepass, so there's a win. Tons of good RPGs have been coming out lately and it's just been awesome.
For those looking to get into Suikoden, I recommend any game but IV (it's bad for many reasons but the greatest insult to me was having only 4 party members). The most beloved games are II and V to my knowldege, though nothing tops the RPG Maker retro feel of the original Suikoden. III was a good time in my opinion with its narrative split between three main characters in the early game. Still holding my breath on the Suikoden I + II remaster.
In suikoden, 90% of the random encounters, if you had a good party composition, will end in the first turn in seconds plus it was cool to see the combat animations of every character, I don't see the issue here, there's modern jrpgs than do worse in that regard. Im happy there's still old-school developers making games with the only purpose of being played, not youtube reviewed, streamed, or speed rushed. 'Masterpiece" or not, we all must understand what a last gift this game is for all suikoden fans and the video game world.
Wonderful review! I’ll point people to this video if they are on the fence about the purchase. I haven’t played much of Suikoden and I wasn’t going to hold this game to the standard that series has. All I wanted was a memorably good time and that’s what this sounds like.
Playing on the PS4 and I've noticed some frame rate drops during wide panning views of towns. The game loads before and after each battle (and battle just START without any extra animations or lead up of any kind) but the load times are only a few seconds each way.
They really brought along the frustrations in the nostalgia than rpg epicness.. (low framerates, far savepoints, no fast forward battles, no skip animations, no optimise equipments, no full map views, no quest markers, loading screen for each every battle, and the occasional crashes} for switch*
I'll of course try the game myself at some point to form my own opinions, but my problem with most of these reviews is that it feels like reviewers are going out of their way to try and figure out how to praise the game. "This game is great at taking you back to a simpler time... makes you realize how far JRPGs have come since then." I get this was written as a positive statement, but I think it's kind of obvious that this is actually a criticism. And this statement, in my opinion, encapsulates the whole theme of the review. Imagine buying a new house, and as you sleep on the cold floor without any heating or running water, you go, "I recommend someone buying this house because it helps you realize how far houses have come." I very rarely come across a game where a large portion of the review is dedicated to speaking about all the flaws, and then turn around and speak about how great it is despite the flaws. It really makes it challenging to actually understand the quality of the game, or if we're supposed to read between the lines so long-time-fans don't get upset, while those of us who have not played the inspirations should understand that this game isn't really meant for them? This isn't a comment meant to criticize, especially since I haven't played the game. More so just confused (and this isn't just this video. So far every review I've seen talks about all these annoying flaws, and then somehow the game comes out with a positive conclusion).
That’s why I started talking about Skyrim. I’m one of those people who just can’t understand why people love that game as it’s still a buggy, glitchy mess. In the same vein, this game’s got a lot going for it that’s good IF you approach it with the right expectation. The review is meant to follow my own journey of discovering this, being outright miserable in the first several hours, only to love the experience by the end DESPITE the flaws. Games can be nuanced in that sometimes good games can be good for some but not all, which is why it’s all over the board.
@@BacklogBattle right, I do understand. I guess what I'm trying to say--and again, this isn't meant to be geared toward you, as so far every reviewer has done the same, just a passing observation--is that some are looking for a review of the game rather than someone's personal journey. It's not in any way to discredit the video. It's just as someone who has no experience with the original inspiration, it's hard for me to actually understand where this game lands. Which, in my experience, is an odd thing to see so widespread for a game. Like when cyberpunk came out, there were of course the, "Despite the flaws I love it" videos. But there were also the, "Listen, here is the true state of the game and how most are going to experience" reviews. It's just interesting that this game has circumvented that.
I understand exactly what you mean, especially since I’ve no familiarity with Suikoden! Honestly I’ve yet to read or watch other reviews, but I knew even before these released that everyone’s going to have divisive opinions depending on their expectations
Haha, I love this review. I was a child in the Atari 2600 to ColecoVision era, a teen through NES out of high school through Turbo Graffix 16 era, into SNES through my early 20s. When I played this game, my immediate reaction was, "FINALLY!! A game that gets it! That old school style of RPG!" All of the things that were struggles for you early on were instantly appreciatedy my my old school crusty ass. How did I get around the lack of save options? Same way I did as a kid: just leave the console on until I can return to it 😂 I fell in love with this game instantly. But I am also a modern gamer, so I completely understand how it was a slow roll for some others to fall in love.
Honestly the issues you said (encounter rate and inventory management) isn't really a dealbreaker as i am playing grandia 1 right now and still have the same problem you said(especially inventory management), and i am loving it. As for technical issues, i guess i can wait some time and buy this later. Thanks for the comprehensive review :)
I cant wait to get into this. its funny, as an old time gamer, while you were listing your negatives, my only thought was, yeah thats how it its supposed to be, get to the stuff that matters lol. I still remember with Suikoden 1, the build up and the moment you get your castle and form the resistance. I was floored by how awesome it was. I think this is going to be the game that I wanted from octopath traveler.
That's why I closed out the review the way I did! This is definitely a YMMV game since it's uncompromising in some areas. And old school gamers like yourself will find these lack of QoL a throwback to a bygone era.
Half way through and boy this review certainly started rocky. I'm thinking to myself.... It's Suikoden 1 & 2 -esque," so you know, we're cool. But I'm seeing you turn this around, brother! Review Swerve! 😎 Also, even though I just saw a notification for David Vinc's review of this game, I'll finish your review first ✌️ but dude, the temptation to watch my boy David
Sadly, I have many mixed feelings so far. TLDR: First impressions are a bit weak but, I'm enjoying the story, characters, and surprising amount of voice acting at least. Combat is just OK and I hope it gets deeper. The music is good but I had to adjust the volume levels to even appreciate it. I love the art and character designs. The combat animations look good, while the hero running about the town felt uncanny early on, as if the two didn't belong together somehow. The menus are frustratingly slow to cycle through and too many places in the game load a menu with a flash of light. I'm a bit sensitive to flashes and sceeen shake - no accessibility options here. The combat is decent so far but, I do find myself using the auto more than I would like. I don't understand why modern games won't allow the player to hold X anymore to activate all character's attack actions. One plus is for those who enjoyed Rising. Seeing characters from that game and knowing a bit about Rune Lens feels pretty cool.
Another great review, thank you Alex! I was hoping to play this on switch since the artstyle kind of lends itself to a more portable play style, but I may have to pick it up on PS5 instead. Looking forward to playing soon regardless!
Hi Alex, great video as always, can i ask you for a video? I love when you add a portrait to the "Hall of fame", can you make a video with a short explanation why they where added? I need the name of some of them
Great question! There is a playlist called The Ribbon Rank that contains all of the games featured in that Hall of Fame! I also have an explanation of how this works here! ruclips.net/video/TtpMu9vTP1A/видео.html
This first game lay out it's Identity, all the challenges and problem that was visible, gives the devs to become more experience,and the fan feedback also help them to guage what work and what not. Giving the sequel room to expand and improve. I hope all gamers support this game. We need more games like this. Simple, fun and scalable to make.
The only inconvenience mentioned that keeps me from buying it, is the save system. If there were at least some save spots while traversing the world map, or if you could use an item, like a tent, to make your own temporary save spot, I would have been willing to get it.
I would've absolutely be ok if you were able to use tents in the world map, which would then let you save on there. Or even just having a world map saving feature.
my only gripe so far was that i wish the cooking contest have some background audience cheering! ang the tops mini game has some technical skill involved.
I had mix feelings about this if I include my experiences to this genre and Suikoden series but with this game alone and forget that nostalgia, this is really rough on it's own. I'll be back with Unicorn Overlord instead.
I appreciate your input here, man. I backed the game when first hearing about it, and while it does sound like there’s some struggles to it, it’s great to hear that it’s good overall. I initially baked it on Steam, but now am curious to see if it’d be better to experience on PlayStation.
Some people I've heard have both enjoyed and not enjoyed the PC version. The latter, because of technical issues and the former, because you're able to turn off depth of field!
@@BacklogBattle I appreciate the insights, friend. I may see if there’s still a possibility to switch, but otherwise I’ll be sure to enjoy the game however I can.
The true essence of Suikoden and Eiyuden is found in embarking on the first playthrough without checking any guides, and then fully completing the game to 100%, just like in the old days.
I love Skyrim because of the mods. You can essentially turn it into any game you want. I had 20 followers, owned gigantic castles, and was a Romeo, to all the NPCs who now looked like supermodels 😂😂😂
I believe you! The thing is, I've been mostly a console gamer for the past several years, so I never got to use any mods. I know that part of the popularity of Skyrim is mostly the mods on PC, but many of us won't have that opportunity to play it that way. That said, mods really made Skyrim an incredible title! I've heard so many wonderful QoL and full conversions being made for it that I'm jealous you all get to play them!
I’m new to suikoden as well. I was gonna get them on ps3 but I’ve been waiting for the remasters so I can play them in order. I enjoy the honesty of the review. Well done
Suikoden 1 and especially 2 are fantastic games. After you finish those, I would try to get your hands on Suikoden 5. It's only for the PS2 but it's a damn amazing game!
Now I'm interested to see if the Suikoden remasters will include the "save anywhere" and "unlimited inventory" conveniences. Or will they keep it old-school too? Definitely not a huge fan of those but it sounds like Hundred Heroes's story is worth it. Wonder how long the full game will be.
@kickerbs I was talking about the suikoden remasters. I'm quarter into eiyuden now, and it is making me want to replay suikoden. I just don't want to take out the ps3 to play the game or any emulator.
Thanks for the Review, I've been waiting for it and going to play it on XBOX, I think it will be available on GamePass, and from there I will try it and decide if I will be buying it and really playing it
As I said, YMMV with this game and what you need from it. It's a very old school game with very old school leanings. I'm hoping trying it on Game Pass gives you a lot of clarity!
Great reviews! Just discovered this channel. Can anyone recomend me octopath 2 or this one? Wich combat is better and harder? Also, do I really need to use all 70 characters?
The game looks amazing, i love how old school it looks! With the messy launch, this seems like a better buy once it is on sale and they have patched things out.
Oh the one hand I was pissed when I found out that the sowtch physical wasn't coming out until next month since that got delayed, but on the other hand jeez this game has a bunch of problems. At least the devs are willing to take the issues and fix them for the offical release which is good news since most devs would release the game as is if it was anything else. Still mad that switch physical won't be out on the same day offically because that is my brithday and it would make for a soild brithday gift but I can wait one more month so good job with the review as usual Alex!
@@BacklogBattle I just hope that after a while, the fixes will at least transfer over to the switch version as well because this feels like the perfect game to play portable and I would love to get a physical version , but if the issues still exist on switch and I can't find the physical in my area other then buying it online, then forgot it, digitally it is lol.
man i'm so torn! do i play it now . experience a ton of frustration and see if it turns into something great like Alex said? or do i wait a few months for patches to see if that will make the game more enjoyable down the line?😣😣😅😅thankfully its on gamepass which will give me plenty of time to think on it🤣🤣thanks for the review Alex.
Was the day 1 mega patch available for the 48H pre launch ? or its coming with the games official launch the 23rd ? it should fix a lot of problems....hopefully
It sounds a little rough around the edges but im excited to play this regardless most the stuff wrong with it is a easy fix with a patch or two i caint wait till the 23rd
I disagree with you on alot of the minor errors you are speaking on, coming from a person whom didnt even finish the suikoden series, im not going to lie the world map save is classic but who cares really just save at a inn theres a inn in every village.😂
As I said in the review, there are situations where you can't get to an inn or save point. The situation mentioned in the review details a point where I thought I could save at a town, only to have a story beat start in the town and have a whole playable section unfold! Another section later on actually has you going through the story and unable to save for two hours. I understand where you're coming from, I truly do. But as I mentioned in another reply, some of us have extraneous circumstances that have less to do with the game's difficulty and more to ensure that we don't lose hours of progress because of outside factors.
@@BacklogBattle ooo that's from the clasic feature from suikonden. yeah no tx, i prefer all the convenience i could get hahaha. can't wait to try this later , tx for reply and for videos man
I did find that the critiques at the beginning of your video were mostly about bugs. Early Access are like to have these bugs, right? But did like the review overall, since you covered both the good and bad. I'm a Suikoden mega fan myself. Good work on the content
@@BacklogBattle Yeah. the OG suikoden games also have their verson of zoom, you know, called Blink. There's a recurring character called Viki who gives us that ability in all the games. Don't know if a similar thing exists in Eiyuden.
the game was fun but for being a spiritual successor of a game that is decades old there fore the fans are now adults, the story felt like it was written for weenie hut jr. the "bad" ending is the only time the game felt like it had some stakes.
I have never played an Suikoden game before while i have heard of the name i honestly didn't have any interest in it so Eiyuden Chronicle Hundreds Heroes is gonna be the first time i play this Suikoden like game an shot.
i find some of these issues so odd since they had ppl testing the game i never played any suikoden game but i look forward to playing this it looks fun but if feel like they tried too hard to give us the old suikoden games feeling the game wouldve still been great if they gave us some modern quality of life stuff ive watched a bunch of reviews now and most seem to point out the same issues wich is a bummer but the game is prolly still gonna be great heres hoping they will patch some stuff
There's definitely a "your mileage may vary" type situation happening here. If you're the only person playing this on the platform of your choice, then you won't have to worry about the Save limitations as you can generally - depending on the platform - just put it on suspend. But that's not the same for everyone.
I'm so glad you didn't cave to the sponsorship and still gave an honest review. Some other RUclipsrs don't hold this same integrity, and that's what makes you unique.
not being able to save anywhere is not an issue to me.. same with the limited item space cause suikoden series doesnt really have collectibles or weapons, armor that take space on it.. i dont see any problem really maybe because im old school. people are soo spoiled now and they want everything as easy access
Scenario 1: you share the console with your family/roommates, who are playing other games. Not being able to save means the console is locked to that game until you find a save point. Scenario 2: power goes out and you have your system on suspend because you haven’t found a save point. You lose all of your progress Scenario 3: Someone restarts your PS5 because of system updates. And because the PS5 doesn’t tell you if there are any games suspended (unlike the ps4), you lose your progress. Scenario 4: Your roommate/child starts your PS5 and starts a new game. Because the PS5 doesn’t tell you that a game is currently running, your roommate/child thinks it’s ok. All your progress is lost until the last save point if you didn’t save yet and left it on suspend. There are PLENTY of reasons why people want to be able to save more often in modern games, and a lot of it has less to do with the mechanics of the game itself and more to do with things outside of that. That said, I would agree with you that sometimes making Saves available any time makes the game easy. But that would only matter if the game is tuned to be difficult. At Normal, the game is pretty easy for veteran JRPG fans. Anyway, I just want to point out the examples I mentioned as many of the veterans who played Suikoden back in the day either have families of their own or share a console with others - very real problems because everyone plays games these days.
I have very strong nostalgia for Suikoden, so I will still probably get this for PS5, but I'll wait a while to see how the reviews pan out after the game's been released. I'm still not a fan of limited inventory. There's really no reason for this, even if they're trying to make the game like it would have been in the past. There are plenty of games in the past that had robust inventories. The battle menus sound annoying, but not being able to save anywhere is a big issue. Again, I get the design choice to make it like it would have been in the past, but I'm sorry, we do live in modern times and there are ways to capture the fun and excitement of older games without the negative trappings of the limited hardware back then. So when I do get this, it sadly will probably not get played much because it's hard to find long periods of time to dedicate to a video game.
I only ever played part of Suikoden 1 and wasn't very impressed with it. Due to that I have avoided pretty much all hype for Eiyuuden. Still plan to try it, but I'm not super excited. Gotta say though - I know that limited inventory is gonna drive me up the wall. I used to be a major packrat in RPGs, and today I just don't want to go sell stuff at the shop every 10 minutes. At least since the game is on the backburner for me, that gives the devs the chance to get these issues fixed.
I love suikoden 1 and 2, I didn't support the kickstarter because I'm a switch player and when they did the kickstarter the switch version was nowhere to be found. I've played rising and like it even if the fetch quest where bad, I did everything in the game. The problem I have now is I really wanted to play the game but clearly they didn't optimise the switch version and I think they didn't know how to, just looking at the size of the game it's the same size of the steam version ??? 30GB ??? as a comparison STAR OCEAN 2 R is 20GB on steam and 12 GB on switch. I was waiting for the physical version but I just cancelled my preorder the size means it will surely will be a cart with a download needed, may be I'll buy it latter on sale but I have 2 kids and playing on the go is my only option for rpg.
Your situation with your kids is exactly something I noted as a reply to someone else saying to just be ok with the Save limitations. My wife plays video games on my PS5 as well, and during review, I had to tell her to be careful with starting her game because I might not have saved! It's quite a juggling act, to say the least!
Just how bad is the Switch version's performance by the way? I am worried cus Physical Editions are already locked in for Kickstarter & I really want to switch my choice to PS5...
@@BacklogBattle Figures... Really wish I could change my Platform for my Kickstarter investment, but I can't. They say it got locked in on January 29th. Really sucks! The ONLY plus is that they gave a free Digital download for Switch backers since the Switch Physical version was delayed. That's quite the generous freebie due to the delay, but I'm honestly considering maybe trying to sell both the free Digital code and the Physical copy when it comes and just picking up the PS5 version to play.
was really excited to buy this but that "no save anywhere" system turn me off massively. guess if they decided to implement it in the future then i'll play. as a working adult, save anywhere is a must tho. so weird that they decided to ignore modern QoL features literally every recent jrpg implement it and no one misses those "old" jrpg systems.
@@gleipnirrr still not a save anywhere program. And the autosave still unclear. Even elden ring has save anywhere. They even just straight up ignore those Dragons Dogma2 controversy with saving 😂
The quickest way for a game to lose me is to make it a giant hassle to save my game. Making me go huge stretches between being able to save is infuriating and makes no sense
Wished you mentioned how ridiculously long the loading times are before and after battle as well as in screen transitions in the Nintendo Switch and PS4 pro compared to PS5 and PC.
well , if they gonna modernize a lot , it will miss a lot of their charms , for me as suikoden 2 veteran , this game is on point , 1 minor complain, way to recruit heroes is a bit a mess , the rest is exactly like suikoden 2 . Suikoden 2 is still my top turn base rpg in PS1 , notes here: this game is more convenience and easy to play compare to suikoden 2 , you should play suikoden 2
And I just got my interest demolished by the flaws. Unless they address the saves, inventory, slowness, and overall sluggish feeling of the game. I ain't touching it. And it was on my list. Life is busy enough to not have modern features in this type of RPG. This ain't Soulsborne or Dragon's Dogma. But your review, as always, enjoyed it. ✨️
Thank you so much! I really tried my best to convey my personal journey through the game. And even though it's disappointing for you, I hope you felt that in the video!
I dont care what people say but the characters in Eiyuden >> Suikoden especially those 108 stars of destiny. People are so intoxicated in nostalgia that they forget most of the Suikoden cast were useless in or outside of wars/battles. In Eiyuden most characters feel like they have agency in the war between League vs Empire! People say the Empire does not feel 'evil' enough but I think enslaving an entire town and forcing them to be rune experiment subjects is 'evil'. Perhaps they needed to have a scene of Lux cutting up failed rune guinea pigs like Luca Blight slaughters the innocent according to these nostalgia marks? Lux is a different type of villain though so it would not have fit his persona. Then there is the pedantic criticism of 'localization'. F*** outta here. It helped add humor and its a fantasy take of the classical Chinese novel Water Margin not a historical enactment FFS. Why does the language need to be antiquated? Base building in this game is better than any Suikos do not argue. As mentioned above, many Suiko 1-2 characters felt like fillers cos there were not as many elements in your castle for them to partake in. Guilds alone add depth and kill grinding. Full scale wars need to be improved and Suiko 1's rock scissor paper mechanic of Calvary>Archers>Mage>Infantry reintroduced for tactial sophistication. Dont get me wrong I only rate this game 7/10 despite having played 4/5 Suikodens (4 looks trash so I didnt bother). The racing mini game should be scrapped so effort can go into better spell effects which are worse than Suiko 2,3,5.I terms of protagonists I feel they missed out a great opportunity to include adult leads like Suiko 3 did extremely well; Geddoe was my pick amongst the 3. With 3 main characters they dont all need to be teens! The main plot feels short probably because there are 2 DLCs coming up so lets see what they have in stall for us.
You have full right to expect a good jrpg with modern quality of life features. It's 2024 and I don't see your expectations to be unreasonable. Not after very successful crowdfunding campain. The game didn't delivered on release. Hopefully, it will get better over time. BUT! I do not understand your mental gymnastics by saying "something that it excells at extremaly well, is its ability to take you back to much simpler times" (aka frustraiting design) and "makes you realise how far jrpgs have come snice then" (aka game is outdated by today standards...). Comparing this game to Skyrim isn't a good analogy. Skyrim is a game from different times, different caliber and different heritage. The game had no competiton at that time. It's more suitable to compare Eiyuden Chronicle with Starfield from last year. That game received mixed reviews and gamers are calling out it's outdated design, which might be said about Eiyuden Chronicle too. To conclude my thought: In 2024 we are spoiled with fantastic jrpgs and many of us have a backlog of exciting tiltles to complete. Eiyuden Chronicle may appear in that list, but I wonder how many would reach to that level. At least for now.
Hi there! I was looking for this comment this morning because I came across it over the weekend and felt that when I got back to work that it needed a proper response, so here we go. I don't think the things I said in the video are some form of uncomprehensible mental jiujitsu that you mention. It is a simple matter of being able to take something for what it is, being initially overly critical about it, only to find the good in it the more you play it. I think the reason why it's such a difficult concept to comprehend is because much of game coverage has conditioned us to treat games as either polarizingly "good" or "bad". There's value to this, of course - it allows us to weed out a ton of games and ensure that our backlogs don't get too crazy. But the reality of the situation is that many games live in that gray area - the neither bad nor good. And as someone who has been making videos on this channel for 7 years and playing video games for more than 40, I've always been fascinated about why people like games that others don't and find that so many of the games I've enjoyed over the decades lived in that gray for a long while. This game is a huge YMMV situation. If you're expecting this game to play like Octopath Traveler 2, just like myself, you're going to be sorely disappointed. And I'm not saying that anyone is wrong in expecting that. But given the Kickstarter and the way they've framed what people are funding in the numerous updates and descriptions on that page, I felt that they were crystal clear with what they were going with. That said, this is also why I've focused some time on expectations in the video, as this will determine whether you like the game or not and partly explains why this game is so divisive to reviewers. This type of focus on capturing old school design is also becoming common. In other genres, there are games that choose an older style of rendering AND try to taper down quality of life features in order to find a new kind of gameplay experience that attempts to bring back some of the difficulty and challenge of older titles. And while I can't say that they're succeeded in ECHH (It's a pretty easy game imo), it speaks to the kind of style that the devs wanted to convey. To your point about the Skyrim comparison being bad, many people forget just how bad Skyrim was at launch. The PS3 version of the game (Here's an article from that time period: www.ign.com/articles/2012/03/04/skyrims-playstation-3-fix-does-it-actually-work) - which is the one that I bought - was very unstable and had major bugs that would render that game unfinishable and, for the longest time, Bethesda would say that they wouldn't update that version. And given how it's also had a lot of that Bethesda jank, I don't think it's unreasonable to say that others - many of which I've talked to over the past several years - view the game in that way. And to address a point you made, you also talk about Skyrim having no competition because of how unique it is. But I'm telling you that that didn't matter because of the issues it had. And trying to go down the rabbit hole of "well, this isn't like X" leads to a ton of disappointment. Hence the approach I went with the video trying to prove that point by comparing it to OT2. Once you've gotten a ton of, "Tales of Arise doesn't play like Dark Souls so it's bad" comments, you know that comparisons have many, many limitations. Point being is this: People will approach ECHH with the expectation that it will have modern conveniences. I've demonstrated that. But there are also old school players out there (like myself) who can see that the entire game - not just the lack of quality of life - was designed to be old school, from the way its narrative is told (it's very 90s), how it depicts its characters, to even its music, which all screams of that era. In a weird way, they were going for a period piece that's reflected in all of its design, something that a few developers have actually started thinking of doing as of late. In that respect, they nailed it. But I don't want the point to be lost that at the end of the day, you gotta make the decision for yourself if it's worth getting. This is a situation where not one review is going to definitively say that it's for you, and that's fine. Because the best thing that we, the reviewers, can do is to convey as much of our experience as we can. Additionally, for me, without spoiling the game's twisty plot.
Thing is, whether we want to put on our Nostalgia glasses or not, this game WAS created a a time when these "modern conveniences" were thought of! It is not an old game! Nobody makes games with Inventory limits anymore, nor do they limit ppl's ability to Save so stringently. I can only hope that the Devs somehow decide to change these things at the 11th hour & remove the Inventory limits & allow us to at LEAST save on the Overworld Map! Not being able to save on the Overworld Map is just a ridiculously bad design choice imo & is just completely unnecessary! It does not add anything positive to the experience.
@@BacklogBattle Agreed, I was thinking the same. The inventory I can deal with, but the save limitation is going to really be a bother for me personally.
Sounds like a clunky, not-so-good game. I appreciate the information. I haven't played Suikoden and I'm just going to do that at some point when I feel like a retro experience.
On YT scrolling past reviews for this game. I will play it , don’t feel like watching a review. Then, of course, I see Alex’s review and here I am.
Always appreciate your support!
Big same.
The first Suikoden was actually the first RPG I'd ever played. While the gaming media was hyping up the impending release of Final Fantasy VII, I found myself wanting to try another RPG to get a feel for what they're like. I remember finding Suikoden at a local Electronics Boutique store and being drawn to the art style. It turned out to be one of my favorite RPG's of all-time, even from the lens of everything I've played since. I'm excited to try Eiyuden Chronicles, and hope that the developers do take the feedback to heart and make some QOL improvements. I think they could take the game from good to great.
Had some of the best memories in gaming playing Suikoden as a kid. As such, I am genuinely very excited to play this game and feel that nostalgia again as an adult.
Your channel is called backlog battle?! I’m gonna sub based on that alone.
The idea that, at it's core, they basically released a PSone RPG in 2024 makes me even more excited to play this.
And a lot of the buggier/oversight type issues will more than likely be long gone soon.
Eiyuden is pretty much exactly what I wanted it to be from everything I've seen do far xD
Thanks for the open and honest review for this entry! I do hope many of these bugs will have been fixed for its full release; your confidence in 505 Games helps to assuage potential fears. I haven't played any of the Suikoden titles myself, so this'll be a blast for me to get into!
You're welcome! To be fair, I only outlined three bugs that are probably going to get fixed! The rest is just a lack of quality of life issues that the developers may or may not address, given the old school nature of the game.
Everytime that Alex enter a new entry in the Ribbon Rank List, it's like a must by game for me... Thank you Alex!! My wallet salute you! :P
interesting review. Alot of your issues with the games like the combat and slow menu animation and lack of inventory all seems to stems from suikoden. Its all issues present in previous suikoden. Makes me wonder if the devs make it like this on purpose for nostalgia sake and for those purist suikoden fans.
Lol I sure hope not. I don't think anyone, even the most nostalgic of gamers, would mind having menus that are more reactive or other similar modern quality of life features lol
I gotta say, the slow menu animation is well beyond anything present in any Suikoden game. It's really bad, on the switch.
@@Provokedcarp Likely the poor performance on switch compounds the issue. Hopefully they are able to further optimize the game for the consoles.
The inventory management is bad even when I played suikoden way back when I was in junior high school I thought it was not convenient. So I hope a patch for QoL will be released soon. I will still purchase and play by this weekend, cannot wait!
Really enjoying your reviews lately. Will definitely be keeping an eye out for this game.
Glad to hear this! And thank you very much!
This review makes me hopeful that, despite a rocky beginning, this game will be worth the wait. 😊
Thanks for the honest review. I'm not sold, maybe wait a while and grab it at a discount? At this point I'm waiting on the HD remaster of Suikoden I & II.
Great review. I do appreciate some "non convenient" design decisions like how Elden Ring doesn't give you quest markers or how Dragon's Dogma 2 doesn't have traditional fast travel, but there are some modern QOL elements that I still prefer like inventory management that isn't fighting me. EC:HH does look fantastic but I'm hoping they patch in some fixes to make some modern QOL items at last optional - saving on the world map for example, and some improvements on the battle screen.
There's DEFINITELY a movement of developers out there trying to go back to retro/classic designs to mine what made those games great. It's an interesting exercise and they're learning a lot from it. Vampire Survivors, for example, is a distillation of the schmup genre and adding it with roguelikes. What a time to be alive!
After Star Ocean second story R, I learned some of these classical, throwback style JRPGs tend to work better on stronger hardware. I love playing them on my switch, but for things like repetitious, fast loading, turn-based battle systems, better performance wins me over. Plus this is on gamepass, so there's a win. Tons of good RPGs have been coming out lately and it's just been awesome.
I honestly thought that the loading times would bug me, but they actually did a pretty ok job with that. Star Ocean's loading felt longer for me.
For those looking to get into Suikoden, I recommend any game but IV (it's bad for many reasons but the greatest insult to me was having only 4 party members).
The most beloved games are II and V to my knowldege, though nothing tops the RPG Maker retro feel of the original Suikoden. III was a good time in my opinion with its narrative split between three main characters in the early game.
Still holding my breath on the Suikoden I + II remaster.
In suikoden, 90% of the random encounters, if you had a good party composition, will end in the first turn in seconds plus it was cool to see the combat animations of every character, I don't see the issue here, there's modern jrpgs than do worse in that regard. Im happy there's still old-school developers making games with the only purpose of being played, not youtube reviewed, streamed, or speed rushed. 'Masterpiece" or not, we all must understand what a last gift this game is for all suikoden fans and the video game world.
Wonderful-- thank you, Alex! So looking forward to this game!
You're welcome!
Wonderful review! I’ll point people to this video if they are on the fence about the purchase.
I haven’t played much of Suikoden and I wasn’t going to hold this game to the standard that series has. All I wanted was a memorably good time and that’s what this sounds like.
Playing on the PS4 and I've noticed some frame rate drops during wide panning views of towns.
The game loads before and after each battle (and battle just START without any extra animations or lead up of any kind) but the load times are only a few seconds each way.
They really brought along the frustrations in the nostalgia than rpg epicness.. (low framerates, far savepoints, no fast forward battles, no skip animations, no optimise equipments, no full map views, no quest markers, loading screen for each every battle, and the occasional crashes} for switch*
I would love a depth of field slider!
Nice thumbnail!
The inn keeper also caught me off guard with her beauty and her personality is funny.
There's actually two that rotate! 👀
I'll of course try the game myself at some point to form my own opinions, but my problem with most of these reviews is that it feels like reviewers are going out of their way to try and figure out how to praise the game.
"This game is great at taking you back to a simpler time... makes you realize how far JRPGs have come since then." I get this was written as a positive statement, but I think it's kind of obvious that this is actually a criticism. And this statement, in my opinion, encapsulates the whole theme of the review. Imagine buying a new house, and as you sleep on the cold floor without any heating or running water, you go, "I recommend someone buying this house because it helps you realize how far houses have come."
I very rarely come across a game where a large portion of the review is dedicated to speaking about all the flaws, and then turn around and speak about how great it is despite the flaws. It really makes it challenging to actually understand the quality of the game, or if we're supposed to read between the lines so long-time-fans don't get upset, while those of us who have not played the inspirations should understand that this game isn't really meant for them?
This isn't a comment meant to criticize, especially since I haven't played the game. More so just confused (and this isn't just this video. So far every review I've seen talks about all these annoying flaws, and then somehow the game comes out with a positive conclusion).
That’s why I started talking about Skyrim. I’m one of those people who just can’t understand why people love that game as it’s still a buggy, glitchy mess. In the same vein, this game’s got a lot going for it that’s good IF you approach it with the right expectation. The review is meant to follow my own journey of discovering this, being outright miserable in the first several hours, only to love the experience by the end DESPITE the flaws. Games can be nuanced in that sometimes good games can be good for some but not all, which is why it’s all over the board.
@@BacklogBattle right, I do understand. I guess what I'm trying to say--and again, this isn't meant to be geared toward you, as so far every reviewer has done the same, just a passing observation--is that some are looking for a review of the game rather than someone's personal journey.
It's not in any way to discredit the video. It's just as someone who has no experience with the original inspiration, it's hard for me to actually understand where this game lands. Which, in my experience, is an odd thing to see so widespread for a game. Like when cyberpunk came out, there were of course the, "Despite the flaws I love it" videos. But there were also the, "Listen, here is the true state of the game and how most are going to experience" reviews.
It's just interesting that this game has circumvented that.
I understand exactly what you mean, especially since I’ve no familiarity with Suikoden! Honestly I’ve yet to read or watch other reviews, but I knew even before these released that everyone’s going to have divisive opinions depending on their expectations
Haha, I love this review. I was a child in the Atari 2600 to ColecoVision era, a teen through NES out of high school through Turbo Graffix 16 era, into SNES through my early 20s.
When I played this game, my immediate reaction was, "FINALLY!! A game that gets it! That old school style of RPG!" All of the things that were struggles for you early on were instantly appreciatedy my my old school crusty ass. How did I get around the lack of save options? Same way I did as a kid: just leave the console on until I can return to it 😂
I fell in love with this game instantly. But I am also a modern gamer, so I completely understand how it was a slow roll for some others to fall in love.
Honestly the issues you said (encounter rate and inventory management) isn't really a dealbreaker as i am playing grandia 1 right now and still have the same problem you said(especially inventory management), and i am loving it.
As for technical issues, i guess i can wait some time and buy this later. Thanks for the comprehensive review :)
I cant wait to get into this. its funny, as an old time gamer, while you were listing your negatives, my only thought was, yeah thats how it its supposed to be, get to the stuff that matters lol. I still remember with Suikoden 1, the build up and the moment you get your castle and form the resistance. I was floored by how awesome it was. I think this is going to be the game that I wanted from octopath traveler.
That's why I closed out the review the way I did! This is definitely a YMMV game since it's uncompromising in some areas. And old school gamers like yourself will find these lack of QoL a throwback to a bygone era.
Half way through and boy this review certainly started rocky. I'm thinking to myself.... It's Suikoden 1 & 2 -esque," so you know, we're cool.
But I'm seeing you turn this around, brother! Review Swerve! 😎
Also, even though I just saw a notification for David Vinc's review of this game, I'll finish your review first ✌️ but dude, the temptation to watch my boy David
Looking forward to this one, good review.
Kickstarter backers have been enjoying the digital version since Saturday, though I've sadly only had 5 hours with it!
That's still more than most people who are waiting until tomorrow to play it! What do you think of it?
Sadly, I have many mixed feelings so far.
TLDR: First impressions are a bit weak but, I'm enjoying the story, characters, and surprising amount of voice acting at least. Combat is just OK and I hope it gets deeper.
The music is good but I had to adjust the volume levels to even appreciate it.
I love the art and character designs. The combat animations look good, while the hero running about the town felt uncanny early on, as if the two didn't belong together somehow.
The menus are frustratingly slow to cycle through and too many places in the game load a menu with a flash of light. I'm a bit sensitive to flashes and sceeen shake - no accessibility options here.
The combat is decent so far but, I do find myself using the auto more than I would like. I don't understand why modern games won't allow the player to hold X anymore to activate all character's attack actions.
One plus is for those who enjoyed Rising. Seeing characters from that game and knowing a bit about Rune Lens feels pretty cool.
Another great review, thank you Alex! I was hoping to play this on switch since the artstyle kind of lends itself to a more portable play style, but I may have to pick it up on PS5 instead. Looking forward to playing soon regardless!
steamdeck would be great to play this game if you need mobility.
Appreciate the honesty. Bought this physical and will wait until the summer time an hope for some good updates
Hi Alex, great video as always, can i ask you for a video? I love when you add a portrait to the "Hall of fame", can you make a video with a short explanation why they where added? I need the name of some of them
Great question! There is a playlist called The Ribbon Rank that contains all of the games featured in that Hall of Fame! I also have an explanation of how this works here! ruclips.net/video/TtpMu9vTP1A/видео.html
@@BacklogBattle Thank you for answering!
This first game lay out it's Identity, all the challenges and problem that was visible, gives the devs to become more experience,and the fan feedback also help them to guage what work and what not. Giving the sequel room to expand and improve. I hope all gamers support this game. We need more games like this. Simple, fun and scalable to make.
The only inconvenience mentioned that keeps me from buying it, is the save system. If there were at least some save spots while traversing the world map, or if you could use an item, like a tent, to make your own temporary save spot, I would have been willing to get it.
I would've absolutely be ok if you were able to use tents in the world map, which would then let you save on there. Or even just having a world map saving feature.
my only gripe so far was that i wish the cooking contest have some background audience cheering! ang the tops mini game has some technical skill involved.
I think it's odd how level ups don't show you what stats improve in a clear way (other than watching a few numbers jump up.
I had mix feelings about this if I include my experiences to this genre and Suikoden series but with this game alone and forget that nostalgia, this is really rough on it's own.
I'll be back with Unicorn Overlord instead.
Thank you for the honest review ❤
*sponsored honest review!
Wonderful review! I am excited for this one but still a bit hesitant actually...it's not one I am racing out to get I guess...
Thanks for the save game info, that is a pet peeve of mine for any game.
I'm interested in this game but I think I'm gonna wait for a sale and possibly some future updates. Thanks for keeping it real!
You're welcome! I'm also surprised no one mentioned how honest this review is, given how it's SPONSORED!
Appreciate the honest review. I looked forward to this one but the honest reviews all point towards the same problems so I'll wait for some patches.
I appreciate your input here, man. I backed the game when first hearing about it, and while it does sound like there’s some struggles to it, it’s great to hear that it’s good overall. I initially baked it on Steam, but now am curious to see if it’d be better to experience on PlayStation.
Some people I've heard have both enjoyed and not enjoyed the PC version. The latter, because of technical issues and the former, because you're able to turn off depth of field!
@@BacklogBattle I appreciate the insights, friend. I may see if there’s still a possibility to switch, but otherwise I’ll be sure to enjoy the game however I can.
The true essence of Suikoden and Eiyuden is found in embarking on the first playthrough without checking any guides, and then fully completing the game to 100%, just like in the old days.
I love Skyrim because of the mods. You can essentially turn it into any game you want. I had 20 followers, owned gigantic castles, and was a Romeo, to all the NPCs who now looked like supermodels 😂😂😂
I believe you! The thing is, I've been mostly a console gamer for the past several years, so I never got to use any mods. I know that part of the popularity of Skyrim is mostly the mods on PC, but many of us won't have that opportunity to play it that way.
That said, mods really made Skyrim an incredible title! I've heard so many wonderful QoL and full conversions being made for it that I'm jealous you all get to play them!
Thank you for doing a comparison
Thanks Alex. For your thoughts of this game. Keep up your good work. Greetings from Germany. Andreas
Thank for the honest review on the game flaw. with these much problems, now i can decide to wait for discount.
You're welcome!
Did you talk about your feelings for the duels a nd army battles?
No, because I was indifferent to them
I’m new to suikoden as well. I was gonna get them on ps3 but I’ve been waiting for the remasters so I can play them in order. I enjoy the honesty of the review. Well done
Suikoden 1 and especially 2 are fantastic games. After you finish those, I would try to get your hands on Suikoden 5. It's only for the PS2 but it's a damn amazing game!
You're welcome! Thank you for taking the time to watch it!
Now I'm interested to see if the Suikoden remasters will include the "save anywhere" and "unlimited inventory" conveniences. Or will they keep it old-school too?
Definitely not a huge fan of those but it sounds like Hundred Heroes's story is worth it. Wonder how long the full game will be.
We will be lucky if the game even gets released
@markmonaco70 the game's coming out tomorrow dude
Everything in the game screams PS1 era! It's a bold, risky move but I loved it in the end!
@@BacklogBattle i think he is talking about the 1-2 remasters
@kickerbs I was talking about the suikoden remasters. I'm quarter into eiyuden now, and it is making me want to replay suikoden. I just don't want to take out the ps3 to play the game or any emulator.
Thanks for the Review, I've been waiting for it and going to play it on XBOX, I think it will be available on GamePass, and from there I will try it and decide if I will be buying it and really playing it
As I said, YMMV with this game and what you need from it. It's a very old school game with very old school leanings. I'm hoping trying it on Game Pass gives you a lot of clarity!
Thank you for the vid.
Great reviews! Just discovered this channel. Can anyone recomend me octopath 2 or this one? Wich combat is better and harder? Also, do I really need to use all 70 characters?
Octopath 2 was my game of the year last year! That says alot about that game
sounds good, I'll definitely give this one a go
All the “grim things” are essential to invoke the feel of suikoden 1 & 2 (the good ones)
no QOL is a bumer. OT2 did a lot to make it feel old and modern at the same time!
The game looks amazing, i love how old school it looks! With the messy launch, this seems like a better buy once it is on sale and they have patched things out.
Thank you for this review ! 👍🏾👍🏾💯💯💯💯
Oh the one hand I was pissed when I found out that the sowtch physical wasn't coming out until next month since that got delayed, but on the other hand jeez this game has a bunch of problems. At least the devs are willing to take the issues and fix them for the offical release which is good news since most devs would release the game as is if it was anything else. Still mad that switch physical won't be out on the same day offically because that is my brithday and it would make for a soild brithday gift but I can wait one more month so good job with the review as usual Alex!
That’s probably because Switch carts won’t be able to have the entire 28GB file on there!
@@BacklogBattle I just hope that after a while, the fixes will at least transfer over to the switch version as well because this feels like the perfect game to play portable and I would love to get a physical version , but if the issues still exist on switch and I can't find the physical in my area other then buying it online, then forgot it, digitally it is lol.
man i'm so torn! do i play it now . experience a ton of frustration and see if it turns into something great like Alex said? or do i wait a few months for patches to see if that will make the game more enjoyable down the line?😣😣😅😅thankfully its on gamepass which will give me plenty of time to think on it🤣🤣thanks for the review Alex.
Definitely, it's good that it's on Game Pass!
Was the day 1 mega patch available for the 48H pre launch ? or its coming with the games official launch the 23rd ? it should fix a lot of problems....hopefully
I heard that there was allegedly a patch that came out yesterday but I can’t confirm it due to the PS4/5 not dating their patches
Thanks for the review. Hope to get a follow up after it's been patched.
It sounds a little rough around the edges but im excited to play this regardless most the stuff wrong with it is a easy fix with a patch or two i caint wait till the 23rd
Any word on what the normal vs easy difficulty differences are?
No idea to be honest.
I disagree with you on alot of the minor errors you are speaking on, coming from a person whom didnt even finish the suikoden series, im not going to lie the world map save is classic but who cares really just save at a inn theres a inn in every village.😂
As I said in the review, there are situations where you can't get to an inn or save point. The situation mentioned in the review details a point where I thought I could save at a town, only to have a story beat start in the town and have a whole playable section unfold! Another section later on actually has you going through the story and unable to save for two hours.
I understand where you're coming from, I truly do. But as I mentioned in another reply, some of us have extraneous circumstances that have less to do with the game's difficulty and more to ensure that we don't lose hours of progress because of outside factors.
why the inventory management ????? not everyone like that. and i hope patch come to fix battle interface problem
It's a way to call back to Suikoden, based on the comments I've gotten. But I have no nostalgia for that game...
@@BacklogBattle ooo that's from the clasic feature from suikonden. yeah no tx, i prefer all the convenience i could get hahaha. can't wait to try this later , tx for reply and for videos man
I did find that the critiques at the beginning of your video were mostly about bugs. Early Access are like to have these bugs, right?
But did like the review overall, since you covered both the good and bad. I'm a Suikoden mega fan myself. Good work on the content
I’d say that save points/inn, animation speeds, and inventory management aren’t bugs.
None of the Dragon Quest games let you save on the world map.. just reminding some people that some games can have differing design choices
Right. But they also have Zoom and Chimera Wings, which take you to places that have places that let you Save
@@BacklogBattle Yeah. the OG suikoden games also have their verson of zoom, you know, called Blink. There's a recurring character called Viki who gives us that ability in all the games. Don't know if a similar thing exists in Eiyuden.
the game was fun but for being a spiritual successor of a game that is decades old there fore the fans are now adults, the story felt like it was written for weenie hut jr. the "bad" ending is the only time the game felt like it had some stakes.
I have never played an Suikoden game before while i have heard of the name i honestly didn't have any interest in it so Eiyuden Chronicle Hundreds Heroes is gonna be the first time i play this Suikoden like game an shot.
That's fair!
I'll be playing this on my Series X with gamepass.Cant wait to play this but need to finish P3 Reload first.
i find some of these issues so odd since they had ppl testing the game i never played any suikoden game but i look forward to playing this it looks fun but if feel like they tried too hard to give us the old suikoden games feeling the game wouldve still been great if they gave us some modern quality of life stuff ive watched a bunch of reviews now and most seem to point out the same issues wich is a bummer but the game is prolly still gonna be great heres hoping they will patch some stuff
There's definitely a "your mileage may vary" type situation happening here. If you're the only person playing this on the platform of your choice, then you won't have to worry about the Save limitations as you can generally - depending on the platform - just put it on suspend. But that's not the same for everyone.
Hate when hp/mp doesn't restore on a level up
I'm so glad you didn't cave to the sponsorship and still gave an honest review. Some other RUclipsrs don't hold this same integrity, and that's what makes you unique.
not being able to save anywhere is not an issue to me.. same with the limited item space cause suikoden series doesnt really have collectibles or weapons, armor that take space on it.. i dont see any problem really maybe because im old school. people are soo spoiled now and they want everything as easy access
Scenario 1: you share the console with your family/roommates, who are playing other games. Not being able to save means the console is locked to that game until you find a save point.
Scenario 2: power goes out and you have your system on suspend because you haven’t found a save point. You lose all of your progress
Scenario 3: Someone restarts your PS5 because of system updates. And because the PS5 doesn’t tell you if there are any games suspended (unlike the ps4), you lose your progress.
Scenario 4: Your roommate/child starts your PS5 and starts a new game. Because the PS5 doesn’t tell you that a game is currently running, your roommate/child thinks it’s ok. All your progress is lost until the last save point if you didn’t save yet and left it on suspend.
There are PLENTY of reasons why people want to be able to save more often in modern games, and a lot of it has less to do with the mechanics of the game itself and more to do with things outside of that.
That said, I would agree with you that sometimes making Saves available any time makes the game easy. But that would only matter if the game is tuned to be difficult. At Normal, the game is pretty easy for veteran JRPG fans.
Anyway, I just want to point out the examples I mentioned as many of the veterans who played Suikoden back in the day either have families of their own or share a console with others - very real problems because everyone plays games these days.
I have very strong nostalgia for Suikoden, so I will still probably get this for PS5, but I'll wait a while to see how the reviews pan out after the game's been released. I'm still not a fan of limited inventory. There's really no reason for this, even if they're trying to make the game like it would have been in the past. There are plenty of games in the past that had robust inventories. The battle menus sound annoying, but not being able to save anywhere is a big issue. Again, I get the design choice to make it like it would have been in the past, but I'm sorry, we do live in modern times and there are ways to capture the fun and excitement of older games without the negative trappings of the limited hardware back then. So when I do get this, it sadly will probably not get played much because it's hard to find long periods of time to dedicate to a video game.
I only ever played part of Suikoden 1 and wasn't very impressed with it. Due to that I have avoided pretty much all hype for Eiyuuden. Still plan to try it, but I'm not super excited.
Gotta say though - I know that limited inventory is gonna drive me up the wall. I used to be a major packrat in RPGs, and today I just don't want to go sell stuff at the shop every 10 minutes.
At least since the game is on the backburner for me, that gives the devs the chance to get these issues fixed.
I love exploring dungeons and picking up everything. The video shows my disappointment in not being able to pick up more loot lol
I love suikoden 1 and 2, I didn't support the kickstarter because I'm a switch player and when they did the kickstarter the switch version was nowhere to be found. I've played rising and like it even if the fetch quest where bad, I did everything in the game. The problem I have now is I really wanted to play the game but clearly they didn't optimise the switch version and I think they didn't know how to, just looking at the size of the game it's the same size of the steam version ??? 30GB ??? as a comparison STAR OCEAN 2 R is 20GB on steam and 12 GB on switch. I was waiting for the physical version but I just cancelled my preorder the size means it will surely will be a cart with a download needed, may be I'll buy it latter on sale but I have 2 kids and playing on the go is my only option for rpg.
Your situation with your kids is exactly something I noted as a reply to someone else saying to just be ok with the Save limitations. My wife plays video games on my PS5 as well, and during review, I had to tell her to be careful with starting her game because I might not have saved! It's quite a juggling act, to say the least!
Just how bad is the Switch version's performance by the way? I am worried cus Physical Editions are already locked in for Kickstarter & I really want to switch my choice to PS5...
So far, other reviews say avoid the Switch version
@@BacklogBattle Figures... Really wish I could change my Platform for my Kickstarter investment, but I can't. They say it got locked in on January 29th. Really sucks!
The ONLY plus is that they gave a free Digital download for Switch backers since the Switch Physical version was delayed.
That's quite the generous freebie due to the delay, but I'm honestly considering maybe trying to sell both the free Digital code and the Physical copy when it comes and just picking up the PS5 version to play.
I've heard the Japanese VA is absolutely incredible, def gonna opt for that over the English personally.
was really excited to buy this but that "no save anywhere" system turn me off massively. guess if they decided to implement it in the future then i'll play.
as a working adult, save anywhere is a must tho.
so weird that they decided to ignore modern QoL features literally every recent jrpg implement it and no one misses those "old" jrpg systems.
there is an autosave system that feels moderately forgiving
@@gleipnirrr still not a save anywhere program. And the autosave still unclear.
Even elden ring has save anywhere. They even just straight up ignore those Dragons Dogma2 controversy with saving 😂
The lack of modern conviences has me tapping out on this one
The speed of the animations remind of normal speed on honkai star rail after you get a taste of fast forward 😅 Still gonna give this one a shot.
Hope I helped you make that decision with my review!
I’m trying to decide between this and shin megami tensei 5 vengeance. Any recommendations?
Shin Megami 100%. This game is a huge letdown. Check metacritic user reviews
The quickest way for a game to lose me is to make it a giant hassle to save my game. Making me go huge stretches between being able to save is infuriating and makes no sense
Wished you mentioned how ridiculously long the loading times are before and after battle as well as in screen transitions in the Nintendo Switch and PS4 pro compared to PS5 and PC.
Sorry! I was focused more on trying to finish the game than do a full technical breakdown of it!
well , if they gonna modernize a lot , it will miss a lot of their charms , for me as suikoden 2 veteran , this game is on point , 1 minor complain, way to recruit heroes is a bit a mess , the rest is exactly like suikoden 2 . Suikoden 2 is still my top turn base rpg in PS1 , notes here: this game is more convenience and easy to play compare to suikoden 2 , you should play suikoden 2
And I just got my interest demolished by the flaws. Unless they address the saves, inventory, slowness, and overall sluggish feeling of the game. I ain't touching it. And it was on my list. Life is busy enough to not have modern features in this type of RPG. This ain't Soulsborne or Dragon's Dogma.
But your review, as always, enjoyed it. ✨️
Thank you so much! I really tried my best to convey my personal journey through the game. And even though it's disappointing for you, I hope you felt that in the video!
I dont care what people say but the characters in Eiyuden >> Suikoden especially those 108 stars of destiny. People are so intoxicated in nostalgia that they forget most of the Suikoden cast were useless in or outside of wars/battles. In Eiyuden most characters feel like they have agency in the war between League vs Empire! People say the Empire does not feel 'evil' enough but I think enslaving an entire town and forcing them to be rune experiment subjects is 'evil'. Perhaps they needed to have a scene of Lux cutting up failed rune guinea pigs like Luca Blight slaughters the innocent according to these nostalgia marks? Lux is a different type of villain though so it would not have fit his persona.
Then there is the pedantic criticism of 'localization'. F*** outta here. It helped add humor and its a fantasy take of the classical Chinese novel Water Margin not a historical enactment FFS. Why does the language need to be antiquated? Base building in this game is better than any Suikos do not argue. As mentioned above, many Suiko 1-2 characters felt like fillers cos there were not as many elements in your castle for them to partake in. Guilds alone add depth and kill grinding. Full scale wars need to be improved and Suiko 1's rock scissor paper mechanic of Calvary>Archers>Mage>Infantry reintroduced for tactial sophistication.
Dont get me wrong I only rate this game 7/10 despite having played 4/5 Suikodens (4 looks trash so I didnt bother). The racing mini game should be scrapped so effort can go into better spell effects which are worse than Suiko 2,3,5.I terms of protagonists I feel they missed out a great opportunity to include adult leads like Suiko 3 did extremely well; Geddoe was my pick amongst the 3. With 3 main characters they dont all need to be teens! The main plot feels short probably because there are 2 DLCs coming up so lets see what they have in stall for us.
Can someone please explain how the "SP" system works? So far it's one of the worst mechanics I've seen in an RPG and severely hurts the combat.
Every single characters gets 1 SP every turn, which is spent when using specific skills that require it. That's all there is to it!
It's too bad one of the main characters falls into the annoying voice acting category.
You have full right to expect a good jrpg with modern quality of life features. It's 2024 and I don't see your expectations to be unreasonable. Not after very successful crowdfunding campain. The game didn't delivered on release. Hopefully, it will get better over time. BUT! I do not understand your mental gymnastics by saying "something that it excells at extremaly well, is its ability to take you back to much simpler times" (aka frustraiting design) and "makes you realise how far jrpgs have come snice then" (aka game is outdated by today standards...). Comparing this game to Skyrim isn't a good analogy. Skyrim is a game from different times, different caliber and different heritage. The game had no competiton at that time. It's more suitable to compare Eiyuden Chronicle with Starfield from last year. That game received mixed reviews and gamers are calling out it's outdated design, which might be said about Eiyuden Chronicle too. To conclude my thought: In 2024 we are spoiled with fantastic jrpgs and many of us have a backlog of exciting tiltles to complete. Eiyuden Chronicle may appear in that list, but I wonder how many would reach to that level. At least for now.
Hi there! I was looking for this comment this morning because I came across it over the weekend and felt that when I got back to work that it needed a proper response, so here we go.
I don't think the things I said in the video are some form of uncomprehensible mental jiujitsu that you mention. It is a simple matter of being able to take something for what it is, being initially overly critical about it, only to find the good in it the more you play it.
I think the reason why it's such a difficult concept to comprehend is because much of game coverage has conditioned us to treat games as either polarizingly "good" or "bad". There's value to this, of course - it allows us to weed out a ton of games and ensure that our backlogs don't get too crazy. But the reality of the situation is that many games live in that gray area - the neither bad nor good. And as someone who has been making videos on this channel for 7 years and playing video games for more than 40, I've always been fascinated about why people like games that others don't and find that so many of the games I've enjoyed over the decades lived in that gray for a long while.
This game is a huge YMMV situation. If you're expecting this game to play like Octopath Traveler 2, just like myself, you're going to be sorely disappointed. And I'm not saying that anyone is wrong in expecting that. But given the Kickstarter and the way they've framed what people are funding in the numerous updates and descriptions on that page, I felt that they were crystal clear with what they were going with. That said, this is also why I've focused some time on expectations in the video, as this will determine whether you like the game or not and partly explains why this game is so divisive to reviewers.
This type of focus on capturing old school design is also becoming common. In other genres, there are games that choose an older style of rendering AND try to taper down quality of life features in order to find a new kind of gameplay experience that attempts to bring back some of the difficulty and challenge of older titles. And while I can't say that they're succeeded in ECHH (It's a pretty easy game imo), it speaks to the kind of style that the devs wanted to convey.
To your point about the Skyrim comparison being bad, many people forget just how bad Skyrim was at launch. The PS3 version of the game (Here's an article from that time period: www.ign.com/articles/2012/03/04/skyrims-playstation-3-fix-does-it-actually-work) - which is the one that I bought - was very unstable and had major bugs that would render that game unfinishable and, for the longest time, Bethesda would say that they wouldn't update that version. And given how it's also had a lot of that Bethesda jank, I don't think it's unreasonable to say that others - many of which I've talked to over the past several years - view the game in that way. And to address a point you made, you also talk about Skyrim having no competition because of how unique it is. But I'm telling you that that didn't matter because of the issues it had. And trying to go down the rabbit hole of "well, this isn't like X" leads to a ton of disappointment. Hence the approach I went with the video trying to prove that point by comparing it to OT2. Once you've gotten a ton of, "Tales of Arise doesn't play like Dark Souls so it's bad" comments, you know that comparisons have many, many limitations.
Point being is this: People will approach ECHH with the expectation that it will have modern conveniences. I've demonstrated that. But there are also old school players out there (like myself) who can see that the entire game - not just the lack of quality of life - was designed to be old school, from the way its narrative is told (it's very 90s), how it depicts its characters, to even its music, which all screams of that era. In a weird way, they were going for a period piece that's reflected in all of its design, something that a few developers have actually started thinking of doing as of late. In that respect, they nailed it.
But I don't want the point to be lost that at the end of the day, you gotta make the decision for yourself if it's worth getting. This is a situation where not one review is going to definitively say that it's for you, and that's fine. Because the best thing that we, the reviewers, can do is to convey as much of our experience as we can. Additionally, for me, without spoiling the game's twisty plot.
just cancelled my switch order. so i may not bother with the game now. just the set everyones attack at once before you know the battle
If you have a PC or Xbox, it *is* on Game Pass at least!
@@BacklogBattle test on pc and 1st battle put me off. choose all moves 1st.. weird
Thing is, whether we want to put on our Nostalgia glasses or not, this game WAS created a a time when these "modern conveniences" were thought of! It is not an old game! Nobody makes games with Inventory limits anymore, nor do they limit ppl's ability to Save so stringently.
I can only hope that the Devs somehow decide to change these things at the 11th hour & remove the Inventory limits & allow us to at LEAST save on the Overworld Map! Not being able to save on the Overworld Map is just a ridiculously bad design choice imo & is just completely unnecessary! It does not add anything positive to the experience.
I do feel that if they allowed saving on the world map, that’d at least alleviate the frustrations in the game.
@@BacklogBattle Agreed, I was thinking the same. The inventory I can deal with, but the save limitation is going to really be a bother for me personally.
That’s a huge drawback for me I hate jrpgs that don’t let manual save 😬
The throwback is a drawback! It's such a polarizing game!
Sounds like a clunky, not-so-good game. I appreciate the information. I haven't played Suikoden and I'm just going to do that at some point when I feel like a retro experience.
I think approaching this as a sort of period piece that's trying to capture the feeling of playing PS1 games back in the day is the *right* approach.
Good thing it's on Gamepass. I am not buying this.