Anyone playing Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes? I just finished it on PC with an SSD and the option to turn the aggressive depth of field off. I hear the Switch and PS4 versions are kinda rough.

It captures a lot of the Suiko formula. I really enjoyed this once it got rolling; it’s quite the nostalgia bomb. The battles were delightful, a big part of why this felt like a 2D JRPG from 2000 I never played. Having different defense commands for party members is something I’ve never seen in a turn-based game and is the kind of innovation I’d like to see as turn-based games pass to smaller studios. Less thrilled about the literal gimmick system.

Visually, this is some of the best sprite art I’ve seen. Too bad the 3D environs they are placed on were kinda generic. The soundtrack was good too, better than expected since I’m generally not a Sakuraba fan. It was a big part of why a certain scene on a bridge was the highlight of the game for me.

My biggest concern going forward for the property is feature creep. As a whole, this game is a bit underbaked (especially on Switch), while there’s still a ton of minigames and maybe even a dungeon or two they didn’t need. The minigames are wildly uneven, too (cooking contests are fun but still bugged, beigoma is tedious, fishing gameplay is at a barest minimum).

I wish this was more polished. Respecting the player’s time moment-to-moment was what put Murayama on the map for me with the first two Suiko. So, seeing issues with that here between loading times and padded recruitment quests makes me think he left a lot of the details to the game’s director. I suppose that offers some hope that Rabbit & Bear will be able to carry the torch with a sequel (should they go forward with it).