There comes a time when the stars aligned; when a project that has been in the works for a good number of years since its Kickstarter debut has come close to the finish line. A franchise that has a handful of developers teaming up to do what its parent company should have done aeons ago, but because of legal and licensing issues, it had to be under another new title with an equally-fresh-if-familiar premise and setting.

That franchise? The Suikoden series. The parent company? Konami. The developers who decided to forge a new fate in gaming history? Rabbit & Bear Studios, with an upcoming game directed by the late Yoshitaka Murayama (the Suikoden creator) called Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.

We’ve played 5 hours of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, and so far it’s shaping up to be Suikoden 6. At the very least, it’s a spiritual follow-up without the brand and name; that’s a good thing. The 5-hour beta we’ve played goes beyond the ruins and golem battle from the Tokyo Game Show 2023 build we tried out a while back. This time, we get to explore old abandoned mines, the overworld, a few villages, and what could be the start of the game’s promise of its wartime scenario.

Just like the game it’s heavily inspired from, you explore the world as protagonist Nowa who has to work with imperial troops in one portion of the game, then go around recruiting new warriors and going through a series of quests for the group he’s under, called the Watchers. Of course, things escalate from there, and unfortunately, the 5-hour preview cuts us off just when things start getting hype. Still, it’s a good indicator that the game is leading up to something special with its plot, its worldbuilding, and the fact it’s taking its time fleshing out characters. I’ll say this: there is a LOT of voiceover work for this game, all of them pretty decent.

We also got around to recruiting heroes for the Watcher group you’re in. As Nowa, you’re told to recruit new members, so off you go to different villages and places to find new party members. We’ve found the ill-tempered healer Francesca, the brash gangster youth Yusuke, and magical girl Mellore. There are more heroes to find in this build, but so far, I’ve stuck with these characters since I needed a dedicated healer and a spellcaster.

Burn Baby Burn

Combat-wise, characters have Action Points (AP) and Magic Points (MP) as resources. AP can regenerate if you perform attacks, but MP cannot and requires items like mana potions to refill. The trade-off is that MP spells are usually powerful and have at least multiple effects, like healing and damage-dealing at the same time.

We also got to play around with the Rune system moreso than usual. Once a character reaches a certain threshold of levels, they can unlock Rune slots. This means they can equip new Runes that either give them new elemental spells, new attack skills, or passive buffs to strengthen their stats. They’re all very useful, from fire spells that hit a row of enemies, to special skills that let you use armour-breaking techniques that bypass defense. I find it very useful to at least level up and grind within certain areas, so that I can equip some of my more versatile heroes with spell abilities. The Earth Rune has both a healing spell and an AoE attack, while the Wind spell can deal damage and heal according to a certain percentage of the damage dealt.

The problem, at least for the demo, is that most of your characters won’t hit past the level requirement -between 11 to 15- just as the 5-hour story mark hits. Only two of my heroes -Nowa and Mellore- can unlock their additional Rune slots early compared to the rest. Still, this shows that there’s a ton of room for customization and OP builds with Runes in the final game, with most characters having a minimum of 4 Rune slots to tinker with. I look forward to having a battlemage-style Nowa who hits hard with spells and AP attacks lead the frontlines in the near future.

Just like successful retro RPGs, you have hero combos. When Nowa and Seign team up and have enough AP, they can do a powerful Friendship Combo. Having Nowa and Lian team means a hard-hitting Senior & Junior Combo. You’d best save up AP so that you can continuously unleash hero combos onto bigger and badder foes.

Speaking of which, the bosses we fought -apart from the Golem Pulverizer- were pretty fun to fight and featured their own gimmicks specific to the battle. Gimmicks are additional actions you can talk partways through the fight so that you can either deal more damage, or just avoid taking it. We fought a demon mole where we had two magical books on each side, so whenever it goes into hiding, we had to make a guess and hit either the left or right book. This summons a giant mallet that, well, whacks the mole and occasionally stuns it so you can take advantage of the situation. It hits hard, so I had to make sure my guess was correct.

I also fought a trio of of “bandits”, each of them serving a different role of attacker, defender, and healer. The defender will always cover either the attacker or healer, so I had to target either the healer or the defender himself so that one of them falls first. Once one of them fell, the battle introduced a new Gimmick involving a crane and a rock. I had to assign someone in my party to hit the lever controlling the crane so that the rock wouldn’t fall onto us.

However, these turn-based fights can get lengthy, so thank goodness there’s a save point before each epic battle. Which brings me to another point of concern: the game has a glitch or two. After that aforementioned battle with the trio, when I reached town, I decided to go Rune-shopping when my game ended up freezing. The game didn’t autosave at that point when I reached town, which meant I had to do the trio battle all over again. I do hope these issues aren’t prevalent, because you will piss off a lot of people if you had them restart a retro-like enduring four battle and not have the game autosave from that point you completed the trial.

Beyond technical issues that could break the game, Rabbit & Bear Studios’ upcoming title hits all the right notes so far when it comes to reliving the glory days of epic-sized late 90s-era PlayStation-tech JRPGs. From its lovely 2D-and-3D hybrid art style to its enchanting music (the overworld themes are fire), it’s also a sight for sore eyes and weary ears. Based on the 5 hours I played, it may end up being a 2024 surprise hit that balances the old and new styles of JRPGing. With such a cliffhanger conclusion to the demo, I am curious as to how Nowa and Seign’s adventures unfold and intertwine.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes will be out on 23 April for PC and consoles.