Gotta Recruit’em all.
Despite my history with Suikoden only being that of the DS entry in Suikoden Tierkreis, one of my favorite games for the platform, I knew of the franchise’s appeal during its heyday. It was a beloved JRPG that didn’t really have much comparison to what it was offering gamers at the time. With the last main entry being nearly two decades ago, fans have been dreaming of its return. Enter Rabbit and Bear Studios, a team founded by Yoshitaka Murayama, the creator of Suikoden, who would then announce a Kickstarter campaign to create a spiritual successor to his beloved creation. It then became the third highest-grossing video game Kickstarter of all time, amassing over 4 million dollars during its campaign.
When you intend to create a game in the style and approach of something so beloved, it can often not pay off. This is usually due to the studio having their own idea of what made something so special and then producing something memorable to a select group of fans but then alienating others. However, with Murayama leading development, many fans were truly excited to take this journey and frankly, it certainly paid off.
Before Hundred Heroes was released, fans were treated to Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, a side story that took place before the events of Hundred Heroes. It is centered around a few characters you’ll meet later in the main game as it sets up the rich world on display. I played a good portion of the game when it hit Game Pass and enjoyed what it offered, but ultimately got too busy with various games, work, and life, and dropped off it about halfway through. However, when Hundred Heroes was released, I wanted to dive in and see what was so exciting about a former creator returning to a game in the style that he is so remembered for.
Hundred Heroes is a turn-based affair where you’ll create a party of six characters, out of over a hundred, as you navigate a tension-filled warzone between nations and recruit nearly every sellsword, warrior, healer, or traveler you encounter. While there are aspects of the game that don’t feel as modern or as polished as they could be, the game is nonetheless full of character and charm, ensuring that even though the roster is bloated to hell and back, nearly every one of those characters is full of personality, giving them each, at least, a moment to shine. From a healer with a foul mouth and temper to a legally distinct Sailor Moon, to a little girl who rides atop her monster friend, there is a wealth of personalities here to outfit your party with.
Set in the land of Allraan, nations are looking to procure Rune Lenses to harness their power. Well, one such individual is Dux Alric, a man who is literally evil incarnate. As you progress throughout the story, you’ll learn more about him and what these lenses represent, often seeing this war from multiple perspectives. While not every character you recruit will be crucial to understanding how this war affects those in lands far beyond its reach, these character moments are nonetheless enjoyable, especially when the story ultimately begins to pick up.
You largely play as Nowa, a new recruit to the Eltisweiss Watch mercenary group, and after a collaborative “make good” mission with the Empire is successful, you return to your new home to undertake a series of tasks throughout the next few months and find yourself then promoted and begin to lead your squad. Eventually, Nowa and his allies get drawn into events that start to show that war with the Galdean Empire is inevitable, especially as Dux Alric is advancing on neighboring territories, taking them out one by one.
Your first real glimpse of what the Dux is capable of is when you are meant to defend a kingdom from his invading forces. While the focus of the game is through small-scale turn-based battles, this structure wouldn’t work when taking on vast forces across a massive battlefield. This then introduces an RTS-like event where you command units and then move them around the battlefield. I’ll be honest, I was never a fan of these moments and while they don’t happen that often, I felt like these could have simply been cutscenes to move the events forward. I just feel they don’t offer up any meaningful gameplay benefits.
This battle then causes you to retreat to some old ruins you visited earlier, a forgotten and broken kingdom that saw a small group of refugees call home. This becomes your base of operations as you tend to rebuild it. During the story, Nowa is trusted to take on this objective, recruiting numerous folk who can tend fields, operate a smithy, and deal in commerce. Eventually, this decrepit old kingdom becomes a force to be reckoned with, a lively settlement that becomes a real threat to the Dux and his allies.
The base building is also rather simple. You track down materials needed to get the job done and then recruit someone who can manage that component of your growing kingdom. Find a lumberjack in your travels? Well, complete a short quest for them and then send them back to your base to deal with procuring lumber. It’s really that simple. While some recruits can offer a pretty lengthy quest to see their recruitment become a reality, these are mostly bite-size missions that can either result in someone joining your party or staying at the castle and tending to what they excel at.
The bulk of what Hundred Heroes offers is Nowa and his group traveling around Allraan and discovering new recruits as you tend to that region’s problems. While there are a few moments where you’ll undertake a new perspective on things, the majority of the time is spent with the central cast. From forests to deserts to many environments that have become staples for the genre, there is a lot to take in as you either move around lovingly detailed environments or as you move around a large open map. I will say that it is several hours in before you gain the ability to fast-travel, but by that time, you’ll really need the grind to keep up with some of the more intense encounters. And to be honest, if I had to traverse through that mines one more time, I was going to snap.
Battles are your standard random encounters as the screen will transition to a basic layout for what type of environment you are in. While some battles will have secondary objectives, like opening a chest, you’ll generally have four to five enemies on screen to combat your team of up to six characters. How you arrange your party can determine how effective they are or if they can even attack. I hadn’t realized that characters had a range dependency on where they are placed, so having a close-range fighter in the back row meant they could not attack. Generally, you have those that are good on the front lines, those that are more capable in the back row, or those that are good with either, such as those with ranged capabilities. This also plays into the fact that you don’t want to have a squishy healer in the front row and instead keep them in the back and protect them at all costs with someone a bit beefier.
At the start of each battle, you’ll have a timeline bar that shows the order of who will attack. You’ll then choose your varied tactics from the team you have selected and then that order will play out as you begin your battle. This isn’t a typical turned-based game where you take each turn individually and instead, you make the choices for the entire party and press a button to then let them all attack. If you grow tired of the combat and want to essentially grind mindlessly through these battles, you can allow the game to auto-attack and even program how you want your party to react in combat. While bosses will often require your attention, since some fights require a bit of strategy that auto-attacking won’t implement, it’s good to strike a bit of both methods when pushing through this fairly sizable adventure.
Combat works off a series of standard attacks as well as SP-powered skills that are based upon those Rune Lenses I mentioned before. As you attack, you’ll gain SP, and this allows characters to pull off stronger skills and attacks, even a few flashy team-up skills should the characters be compatible with one another. You’ll also have MP that can aid in healing, but that only gets replenished with items or by resting at an Inn. The same is sort of said for your health as well as it won’t reset after a match and the amount of HP you had at the end of the last encounter will be what you have at the start of the next. While I am not opposed to this concept, I find it solely exists to keep you using healing items as a crutch for resource management. Honestly, if your health resets after each battle, the game would flowed far better than it currently does.
There are a few parts of combat that also didn’t sit well with me. First, you don’t really know who the enemy is going to target when you see the turn order. This causes you to play largely paranoid in some way, often having your healer pull out all the stops because of who you see in front of you, often expecting they will pull off a screen-clearing attack when they may just attack one guy and miss. This results in your healer spending MP when they don’t need to. Combat largely comes down to everyone spamming the same enemy to widdle down their forces as opposed to any sort of true strategy. There also is not a good way to get ahead of the turn order apart from either killing your enemy quickly or stunning them, or any of the other status effects. Games like Persona 5 hit the sweet spot with a system like that as it allowed you to really take advantage of the game’s core systems.
Boss battles; however, have a bit more flavor to them. Gimmicks are introduced occasionally to keep things fresh. From using a spell book to make mallets appear out of thin air, should you guess where the boss will be anyway, to moving a lever to cause a boulder to crash down on where it is currently aimed at. While not every encounter has this sort of gimmick, it does keep you on your toes and gives you something to think about, which I appreciate. There is a boss fight that I really enjoyed about midway through the game where you are taking on two bosses at once. While you may want to take out the heavy hitter to get them out right away, disposing of the smaller foe will actually vanquish both at once, making it a very interesting and almost weird battle that I did enjoy.
With such a variety of heroes at your disposal, it can be easy to get a certain group locked and stick with them, especially as your benched characters do not gain EXP when not in battle. Thankfully, they gain a severely boosted EXP gain when in combat, making leveling them a very fast-paced affair. And while you can only swap out your party members at an Inn, the former Innkeeper you meet early on can join your group as a 7th support member, among several other characters with their own perks, to then allow you to swap out your team at any save point. This comes in handy when you want to adjust for a newcomer who may be a good addition without wanting to fast travel back to an Inn just to make this adjustment. Thankfully, the character who allows for fast travel doesn’t have to be in your party, but they are a good addition to have there regardless.
Part of picking your team is also ensuring they are equipped for the battles ahead. You’ll equip items such as hats and helmets to armor and shields, but the latter is only if they are able to wield one. You’ll also have a ring slot that can take various charms which can either boost their HP or MP considerably or allow for a better drop rate of cash or items. If you find a blacksmith before you set one up in your castle, you can level up your weapons as well, which comes in handy to keep your team in fighting shape. Lastly, you’ll also have runes that can be equipped to each character’s Rune Lens, which can boost various stats and resistances. At first, you’ll only be able to equip one Rune, but eventually, as you level them up, more slots and options start to increase.
Hundred Heroes also has a wealth of mini-games from its own card game, cooking, sand-racing, and even its own take on Beyblades. There is a lot of fun variety to take on that is welcomed after several hours of grinding away at random battles to level up a new recruit. While none of these mini-games I feel are too memorable, they are just fun enough to be entertaining in their own right, especially with how dumb and stupid the Beyblade story truly is.
My time with Hundred Heroes was mostly on Xbox Series X through Game Pass, but I was also granted review code afterward to check out the game on the Nintendo Switch. While load times are considerably longer on Nintendo’s handheld hybrid, the game itself felt largely uncompromised and ran fairly well. I noticed a few hiccups during some battles, but nothing that was detrimental to the experience. The game’s wonderful 3D backgrounds and 2D sprites give this a wonderful look and it can be rather stunning at times. It’s a perfect marriage of the best aspects of each working in unison.
Part of what I love so much about Hundred Heroes is the story and its cast of characters. Combat excels well enough in its simplicity, even if I wish it had a bit more going on to take advantage of that turn order. While Suikoden was never a series that I gave notice to or engaged with, apart from Tierkreis, I can see why so many people adore it and why having its creator back and producing such an experience can mean so much to so many people. As Hundred Heroes is available on Game Pass, as well as pretty much every platform, it’s certainly worth trying out and getting lost in its rich and rewarding world.
Developer - Rabbit and Bear Studios.
Publisher - 505 Games.
Released - April 21st, 2024.
Available On - Xbox One/Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, PC.
Rated - (E 10) - Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Fantasy Violence.
Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X / Nintendo Switch.
Review Access - Review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review as well as accessed through Xbox Game Pass.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.