Posted December 15, 2023 You certainly have to just give yourself over to what Rising is going for. It makes no bones about what it is... a short game full of filler. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 17, 2023 I started playing Rising today. I bought it during TGS when it was on sale on PSN. I figured with the trailer dropping the other day, as well as drahkon giving it a go, I would finally try it out. I had planned to jump between Rising and Dragon Quest but surprisingly Rising got its hooks in me and wouldn't let go. It won't be for everyone though but it certainly appeals to the grinding/farming gamer in me. The core loop of helping people via sidequests and then upgrading the village is quite addictive. Like when darksnowman was playing it, I found a certain appeal in trying to level up all of the various shops. Doing so will give you the ability to buy better equipment, which in turn will allow you to get better materials. One thing that could have killed this loop would have been traversal and load times. Thankfully neither are an issue. The fast travel system is just that and is well thought out, with many places for you to teleport to. This is definitely needed as you will be revisiting areas quite a lot for quests or general material grinding. I quite like the battle system. Controlling 3 characters is very simple and the link chain combos that you can pull off are satisfying to watch. I've no idea how far I am into the game (just got the fire ruin and I'm on platinum rank on my sidequest card) but I've enjoyed my time on it so far. I'm actually kinda shocked by how much I'm enjoying it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 18, 2023 Another JRPG done and dusted. I didn't really have high expectations when going into this. I figured it would be fine and that's about it but that wasn't the case at all. I loved it and it's definitely another surprise hit of the year for me. I finished the story off this morning (started my 2 weeks Christmas holidays from work today, hence me gaming in the morning) and spent the rest of the day mopping things up. When you finish the story you unlock hard difficulty. This comes in real handy because the exp tapered off at the end of the game. Hard mode offers more exp for your efforts which made getting to level 50 a lot easier. The trophies required me to defeat each of bosses again on hard difficulty, reach max level with every character, max level with weapons and armour and finish every side quest. There was plenty to do and I enjoyed doing all tasks. It took short of 20 hours to do everything and I wish more JRPGs were of this length. Its nice to have a breezy adventure knowing that it won't take weeks to finish. Bring on the sequel. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 18, 2023 I don't know what to say...Congrats? What's wrong with you? Good job? How could you? Take your pick. This is madness. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 18, 2023 3 minutes ago, drahkon said: I don't know what to say...Congrats? What's wrong with you? Good job? How could you? Take your pick. This is madness. What can I say? I enjoyed the mindless grinding, farming materials and rebuilding the town. The gameplay loop was great. Obviously you didn't think so. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 26 Footage from the Taipei Game Show: Yup, still looks great! Backer platforms can now be confirmed for anyone who supported the Kickstarter, so now the long, 3 months wait begins for my copy to arrive, as well as for the additional support items to go up (like that OST!) 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 14 Yoshitaka Murayama, the creator of Suikoden and Eiyuden, sadly passed away last week This is the official statement from Rabbit & Bear Studios, who have been developing Eiyuden and preparing Hundred Heroes for its April release. I really hope that both Eiyuden and the Suikoden remasters release smoothly this year, as I don't think there'd be a better way to honour him. The first two Suikoden games are true gems and really deserve much more attention, and I know Murayama had shared in recent years that he wouldn't be against returning to the franchise at some point and continuing the story of that world. Rest in peace, Murayama-san. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 14 Very sad. Damn shame that he never got to live to see Hundred Heroes come to fruition Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 14 God, that sucks. Being so close to release date. That makes my decision to buy it day 1 even easier now. I hope it does well. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 14 Pre-launch trailer: Crazy to think this is just under 6 weeks away. Really hope it delivers the goods Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 15 A pity, but that's the best way to handle it, at least. @Julius says it's crazy to think this is only 6 weeks ago. Not for me, I've been going mad from the wait, I have nothing on my Switch backlog now, so this is the next big game for me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 12 Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is available on NSO Game Trials. Well... I've not played it, and seeing as I am getting Hundred Heroes, it'd be rude not to! 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 12 Heads up, physical copies are now out in the wild, and it sounds like the game's coming in hot with some pretty nasty game breaking bugs... ... supposedly there's a Day 1 Patch incoming that'll fix some of these bugs, but it may be worth holding off a playthrough for the first couple of weeks at least while people find the worst of these bugs and we either get some workarounds or some further bugfix patches... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 12 48 minutes ago, Dcubed said: Heads up, physical copies are now out in the wild, and it sounds like the game's coming in hot with some pretty nasty game breaking bugs... ... supposedly there's a Day 1 Patch incoming that'll fix some of these bugs, but it may be worth holding off a playthrough for the first couple of weeks at least while people find the worst of these bugs and we either get some workarounds or some further bugfix patches... That reads me to a bit like shipping got the game out to backers before it was intended in addition to it already going down to the wire – and as a result it now sounds like they're under even more pressure to rush out fixes now that the game is out in the wild. Which kind of sucks for the devs more than anyone else. My copy hasn't even shipped yet, and I know that's the case for a few others, too. If it does turn out that the problems persist up until and around launch, I don't mind waiting a bit until they're ironed out, more than anything I just want to see what Murayama has cooked up for his final story. I'm not too surprised to hear it's a bit rough currently though, I read impressions of the beta and that was a bit messy too. I just hope the quality is there once it's patched Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 13 I don't even remember heading about Hundred Heroes, but I did like the look of the Rising trailer, which appears more Metroidvania than Hundred Heroes which looks more RPG-y. I am intrigued about the stuff passing over to the other game, but then I'm worried about how much that'll cost, even with Rising being a bargain. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 15 On 13/04/2024 at 12:45 PM, EEVILMURRAY said: I don't even remember heading about Hundred Heroes, but I did like the look of the Rising trailer, which appears more Metroidvania than Hundred Heroes which looks more RPG-y. I am intrigued about the stuff passing over to the other game, but then I'm worried about how much that'll cost, even with Rising being a bargain. Did you give the game trial a go? It's light on the metroidvania and heavy on the fetch quests. Overall, it's decent enough if you know what you're getting into so the game trial is a great option. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 15 3 hours ago, darksnowman said: Did you give the game trial a go? It's light on the metroidvania and heavy on the fetch quests. Overall, it's decent enough if you know what you're getting into so the game trial is a great option. I did a couple of hours on it yesterday and fucks sake is it fetch questy. I'm not even sure I'd fork out the £4 for this on offer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 15 1 hour ago, EEVILMURRAY said: I did a couple of hours on it yesterday and fucks sake is it fetch questy. That's pretty much the whole game. I enjoyed it but its certainly not for everyone. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 16 (edited) What have we here? In what feels like a rare event these days, the reverse is suitably gorgeous too – look at all that character art! Very excited for this going to start the install now, and I'll be back with some impressions later/tomorrow! Edited April 16 by Julius 2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 16 (edited) Just got the first couple of hours tonight and am creeping up to the inciting incident – taking much, much longer than both Suikoden and Suikoden II to get there, but we're certainly getting there. So, anyways, to cover the obvious: the game looks gorgeous. New areas/dungeons also get a bit of a feature, reminding me a bit of some of the special art we'd get to see entering a new spot in some of the older Pokémon games: With that out of the way, I'm enjoying it so far. Having first played and written at length about Suikoden and Suikoden II on here back in 2021 for the Gaming Diary thread, and coming away from those games a very big fan of them, I'll admit, I'm going into this game with very high expectations, and so far I'd say - time taken to get to the *actual* inciting incident aside - it's meeting those expectations. My biggest hope is that once it's done and dusted, I'd like for it to fall somewhere between the two. So it looks gorgeous (it's worth repeating, I mean just look at it!), the addition of voice work is a welcome one in a game with this much dialogue, there are little tweaks which aren't at all going over my head like having access to the inventory as a whole during battle rather than needing to assign items to individual party members that only they can access during battle, your protag has an actual voice and isn't just a blank slate which I'm a big fan of, there's a lot of silliness to go around, I'm not the biggest fan of 2.5D and HD-2D games because they can feel a bit floaty but this feels great to move around in, and heck, there's even a wonderful world map to look at and a handy list of objectives with some super clean UI to boot: Also worth highlighting is the wonderful character art you get to see when a new character joins your party, such as with Mio here: Combat is just as snappy as it was during my time with Suikoden and Suikoden II, and works in a very similar way, but there are some very welcome additions which seems like they'll keep things fresh, namely in the form of special boss gimmicks, seeing the full order of a round of combat adding another layer to your strategy, and something I'm still figuring out where you can use one character to defend another who is nearly downed. The way SP charges work and function for Rune-Lens use by filling up with a charge as they go a round of battle unused should add a nice element of risk-reward. The Rune Attacks of Suikoden return rebranded as Rune-Lens attacks, while the Unite Attacks return rebranded as Hero Combos, and they both look suitably awesome: Sword Rain is 100% the coolest move available from the start of the game. But Friendship Combo looks great too! As for nitpicks at this early stage, I've seen the loading screen in brief flashes a lot more than I honestly expected to when joining and leaving battles (maybe it'll get patched, who knows?), but there is an upside - and that's a lovely Suikoden carryover in the form of the protag running while things load up! It's the simple things connecting the two which are really making me smile this goes the other way too, though, such as Dux Aldric looking like an older Luca Blight with a bit of facial hair... ...and of course there's Cassandra, the innkeeper with a portrait (almost certainly meaning she's recruitable and will be managing the inn when we get a base) being a huge step down from Leona from Suikoden II Anyways, final little nitpick: 'Enter' being the text that shows up to enter and exit a building, so I've just been viewing it as entering the outdoors but it feels WEIRD... The music so far is also just...kind of fine, so far? We'll see how it turns out but I won't lie, that's where my expectations were probably lowest going into this game, given the crazy quality of the first two Suikoden OSTs. Anyways, not wanting to go out on a low but instead on a high, one last thing I want to though: the geopolitics of a fictional JRPG world, as was front and centre in Suikoden and Suikoden II, just feels great. Even after Final Fantasy XVI built a great world and political intrigue, the first two Suikoden games are the absolute height of this for me in JRPGs, and I already feel the tension creeping up over the smallest of things, just with how certain characters say ambiguous things, carry themselves, or correct people in a petty way. It hasn't quite made up for the lack of an inciting incident in the first 30 minutes, but I'm sure it could do by the time credits roll around. Been in a proper gaming rut of late, so I can't help but feel this has arrived at the perfect time – super excited to get back to it already! Edited April 16 by Julius 3 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 17 Sword Rain...pfft. Dude has clearly ripped off Vyse. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 17 (edited) 4 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said: Sword Rain...pfft. Dude has clearly ripped off Vyse. Is it Vyse they're ripping off? On a more serious note, I'm loving these impressions, @Julius. The game looks gorgeous, too, in a way that's distinct from other 2D-HD games. Edited April 17 by Jonnas 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 17 With all that character art on the box, does it really give you access to 100 heroes, or is it just a flashy title. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 18 (edited) 13 hours ago, EEVILMURRAY said: With all that character art on the box, does it really give you access to 100 heroes, or is it just a flashy title. The Suikoden series did indeed give you 108 playable characters to collect and battle with in each game; so this game is actually a downgrade by comparison Edited April 18 by Dcubed Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
