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2-d-rogue · 2 days

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My thoughts after completing my first playthrough of Eiyuden Chronicle

A few days ago, I finally finished my first playthrough of EC. Because I backed the project, I had an early start before release day. Nonetheless, I make it a habit to take my time with games and take in as much as possible, leading to me finishing them a bit slower than most.

This isn't really a review per se, but more a cliff notes of my current thoughts after my first completion. I feel I can't fully decide on my thoughts until I've replayed the game, and have seen the DLC (mostly because it seems a lot of story in this game is being saved for DLC. More on that later). Currently, I'm in the process of platinuming it, and I am planning a second playthrough in the near future. Maybe then, I'll have a more concrete opinion of this game.

One thing I am going to be upfront about right from the get-go is that I am disappointed with this game. That isn't to say it's a terrible game, or that I hated it. Far from it, in fact. I had loads of fun playing it, and enjoyed many things about it. But even so, there was more I expected from this title that it simply did not deliver on. And I don't know how much of that is because they're sitting on things that won't be revealed until the DLC is out, or the sequel. Regardless, the game on its own really needed more than what was given, and I fear that because so much was held back, it really hurt the potential.

I'll break things down into things I liked, and things I didn't like.

Things I like:

*The characters, especially the side characters. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed the side characters. Especially ones like Yusuke, Falward, Francesca, Momo, etc. There's too many to mention here because a lot of them are so fun. Not just to use in battle, but also possessing entertaining personalities.

My favorite has to be Yusuke, though. Not only is he a beast in battle, having ended many boss monsters' lives with his double charge, he also just has your back on anything (just see his comments if he's around for beigoma). I loved him so much, I even started calling him "kyoudai." He's a bro, and he's hilarious in theater roles, too! Seriously, Caleb Yen did such a fantastic job with this yankii character.

Really curious about his relationship with Falward, though. Going by Falward's comments when Yusuke's in the party, it implies he cares about him a great deal, but as far as I'm aware, there's no interactions between them, and Yusuke doesn't appear to pay him any mind. It's fascinating to think about what might be going on there, is all…

*Beautiful art and graphics This game is gorgeous. The detailed spritework, animations, the backgrounds and environments, the art… All of it is a smorgasbord of candy for the eyes. I thought Rising looked beautiful, but this was beyond what I was expecting after that. Everything is so painstakingly detailed.

*Most of the English voice acting As I mentioned above, I enjoyed Caleb Yen as Yusuke, but I also enjoyed a great many others, too. Most of the cast chosen suited their characters well, and delivered on them spectacularly. Some of the best were Seign's, Nowa's, Garr's, Francesca's, and many, many others. I was pleasantly surprised at how good most of the cast was, but also just how much everything is voice acted. This being on a budget, I was expecting the usual in JRPGs where only the more pivotal scenes are voice acted, but to see (hear?) that at least 90% of the script got voice acting was really nice, especially when the voices are actually good.

That being said, there were some scenes, particularly towards the end, that I felt were a bit more off, and there were some characters that were certainly miscasted. This being a game with as many characters as it has, I knew not all of them were going to land, but I can at least be grateful it's only a couple who feel off, while the majority were more than qualified enough for the job.

*The music Okay, so I'll admit that the OST isn't the most groundbreaking I've ever heard, but there are many tracks that I'm really fond of. "The Greatwood" is a mysterious track that reminds me of music from Donkey Kong Country and Oddworld, which I really like. The "Dappled Forest" theme sounds straight out of Tales of Symphonia, and some of the boss tracks are so metal it's awesome (especially the one where you're fighting a bunch of creatures Narungarde sends after you on the bridge in Seign's scenario).

I find the Treefolk Village theme and the Village themes soothing as well. Having Naruke and Sakuraba, as well as Yanagawa was definitely something nice to have for this game.

*Some of the mini games are really fun A bit divided since I did sour on beigoma a little once I realized strategy has very little in winning matches, and you're more pushed to grind for stronger ones to win. (Also have no clue why there's three games per match you have to get through, even if victory is guaranteed winning the first two.) But I do enjoy Glen's card game, and the Eggfoot races can get a little addicting.

*The theater

Nuff said.

Things I didn't like:

*The story It's not a terrible story, but it is lacking, taking until the end of the game to really start raising the stakes.

One thing I noticed really quick, and this is shown quite early, is that this game really seems to shy away from tragedy. When Nowa's village is burnt to the ground, it has to be one of the most impactless village burnings I've ever seen. No one is killed, and right after all is said and done, the villagers are just rolling with it and set to work on rebuilding immediately.

Then there's when Eltisweiss falls. The gate/wall gets destroyed, yet outside of the war battle, there is no evidence of destruction at all throughout the city, the townspeople are just going about their lives, and despite being occupied, you're still allowed to freely enter and exit without fear of consequence. And this remains true for any other place that gets taken over, thoroughly killing the immersion of anything truly getting bad.

The tension, the tragedy, the stakes, etc., are just not present, making you wonder what exactly are we doing any of this for. It isn't until the second-to-last arc of the game that they finally start having real things happen, but by then, it's too late to really appreciate most of it, making me almost want to call this game "Suikoden for babies".

This also effects Nowa. It's a shame because I actually do like his character. He's not like the typical overly energetic shounen hero I feared him to be, and he comes off a bit more grounded. It's established he's a "meddler", which basically means he's a natural do-gooder, but it's not the only thing about him, which makes him have a fairly interesting personality. The problem is that they do almost nothing with it. He never suffers any personal tragedy of his own, gets barely any character development, and the only reason he becomes the leader is because: countess Perielle is "a good judge of character" and thinks he's "handsome", which was a total cop-out and more or less the game admitting they have no legit reasons why he's such a big deal.

The game also implies he's got something special about him. In Chandra's recruitment scene and if you get her as your companion with the highest affection, there's a voice that speaks to him, calling him the "the third begotten", then makes vague statements like "now isn't the time for this talk", but then leaves Nowa with the words "saldio raum". This sounds like something is being set up for him, yet nothing about it is explored or ever brought up in the grand scheme of things. I have no idea if they have any intention of exploring this in any of the DLCs, or a future sequel, but it didn't sit well with me to just randomly mention these things, then leave it hanging.

*Seign and Nowa's relationship One of the main draws to this game was the conflict between Nowa and Seign; as two men who had become fond of each other, but are on two opposite sides of the fence, and have to face each other in war against their will. Many people compare them to the likes of Riou and Jowy, but for me, I think of them more like their predecessors Han and Genkaku. Riou and Jowy were childhood friends, whereas Han and Genkaku met during the war and happened to form a friendship inbetween battles, and also hated fighting each other, striving to end the conflict. That fits the story of Nowa and Seign more in my opinion.

I was looking forward to how their relationship unfolds, thinking it would be close to how Han and Genkaku would have been if they got something showing their story. In the beginning, it starts off very promising. They clearly like each other and get along well. Enough to start protecting one another and grow from being around each other. Nowa defrosts Seign's cold visage, and Seign helps Nowa mature and become more grounded. It sets up that the inevitable tear is going to be extremely painful when it happens, and it is…until they start rushing through it all.

Look, there was never any doubt that Seign was eventually going to come over to Nowa's side. Especially when several screenshots prior to the game's release spoiled Seign being around the castle and involved in things like the cooking mini-game. Still, I was waiting for all the drama and angst to happen between them before that pivotal moment. The buildup to Seign realizing this war was pointless/wrong, damn what is expected of him, then change sides.

Imagine how disappointed I was when their conflict is resolved very quickly, and without much strife at all. The scene on the bridge felt like that should have come much later, after all that's happened. In my opinion, that's when Seign should have switched sides. But the fated painful duel happens far too early, and then Seign joining not too long after made the whole arc feel underwhelming in the end.

What makes it worse is Seign and Nowa don't get to interact much after that until nearing the end of the game. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy what they did get well enough, but there really should have been more. One of the draws to this game was the agony of war tearing apart two friends. Doesn't mean much when that gets wrapped up all too quickly.

*Nowa and Perrielle I haven't the faintest idea what they were trying to do with this one. It's implied early on that Nowa is developing feelings for Perry, and she feels the same, but they kinda don't really do anything with it. At least, not unless you got her scene on the roof towards the end. Personally, I would have been on board with it. The times they do interact are cute, Nowa giving her a cute nickname was adorable, and they have good chemistry, but they kinda leave it underdeveloped and it's really unfortunate.

Like with Seign, there should have been much more if they did want to have a romance between them. I can only guess they purposely left it open in case people wanted to ship Nowa with others.

I will say I am of the opinion she's the closest thing to a canon love interest for Nowa, however.

*Lian A lesser Nanami essentially. Had no problem with her in the beginning, but she quickly becomes annoying when she keeps treating this war like it's a game and never develops her character beyond that. Also irritating how she clings to Nowa like he's her property sometimes. Literally Nanami without anything that made her interesting and likeable. Her catchphrases were annoying, too.

*The Watch group (Garr, Mio, and Lian) They do not get developed at all, leading to them becoming forgettable unless you staunchly use them throughout the game. Again, highly disappointing. (But less Lian is fine with me.)

*Marisa gets very little to work with I get the feeling Marisa's entire story is being saved for her DLC, but because of that, she comes off as having little to do with this story, making me question why she's considered a main. I don't dislike her, but given how little time we get with her (at least until the end), I found her the least interesting of the three.

*The cooking mini-game I was so happy to have this back. It was one of my favorite features in Suikoden II. Unfortunately, this time around it had almost none of the charm as it did before. All it ended up being was, essentially, a rehash of SuikoII's cook-off story. Only less well-written and lacking substance. Just ended up not really caring for it. Not helped that the mechanics are broken and most of the duels can be won cooking fried eggs over and over. (I was even joking to my bestie that this army is made up of anorexics by how much they seemed to just hate any food I gave them, including the stuff they supposedly liked!)

The story, music, presentation, the animations… None of them were as memorable as SuikoII's version, and that's a terrible shame.

That being said, I love Kurtz. The brooding cooking dweeb that he is.

*The duels I'm…really not a fan of how they handled these. It feels as though they wanted to make them more challenging, but instead, they made them irritating as hell to grasp. I got the gist of it, but I just don't know why they had to have it that you need to a fill a bar in order to use break (wild attack). I'm guessing it's to reward you with the epic animations of the fight (which are actually really well-done, I'll give it that), but when it feels tedious to get to it, it makes it feel very unsatisfying. I think it's possible to make something better of this, but until then, please don't do it this way again.

Well, those are some of my current thoughts as of finishing my first playthrough. There's more I can mention, but I feel this will do for now. My thoughts may change on a replay, and with some time when the DLCs are all out. Again, I will repeat, I did not hate this game at all, but I did want something more mature and grounded than what was provided. I do feel this was a decent step up, but I encourage Rabbit & Bear to take chances and actually remember we're dealing with war. There will be death and other horrible things that happen. Do not be afraid to embrace this.

And please, develop the main cast a little better next time.

#Eiyuden Chronicle #百英雄伝 #Hyaku Eiyuuden #Nowa #Seign Kesling #early thoughts #long post #spoilers

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