Necromancing Suikoden: an Eiyuden Chronicle Thread

[Peklo]

Rising is now out. Get it on Steam or wherever else that suits. I haven't really expended much eagle-eyed attention on Eiyuden during its development other than occasionally catching up on the new character profiles, nodding in contentment that Kawano has still got it, and moving along. I'm happy to play this morsel of a sidescroller (relatively, at least--it could be substantial in its own right for all I know) with a similar mindset, bereft of any particular expectations. It's fun to see the concepts coalesce into something realized at last.

 

[Falselogic]

Oh, so this isn't the actual RPG game? This is like a sidestory thing?

 

[YangusKhan]

Oh, so this isn't the actual RPG game? This is like a sidestory thing?

Yes

 

[Kirin]

Are backers of the main game supposed to get this as a bonus? It’s been so long I have no memory of what I backed for. Haven’t seen any email but wondering if I should dig around.

 

[JBear]

Are backers of the main game supposed to get this as a bonus? It’s been so long I have no memory of what I backed for. Haven’t seen any email but wondering if I should dig around.

I'm in the same boat. Took a look at the original KS page but none of the reward levels make any mention of it. I'm assuming that I don't get a free copy unless a code slides into my inbox.

 

[YangusKhan]

I feel like this prologue game didn't even come into existence until after the original Kickstarter ended, so maybe that's why?

 

[Falselogic]

They took all your money to make this game in the hopes that it will raise enough money and institutional investment from a publisher to make the game they promised you!

 

[MetManMas]

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon was quite successful so I certainly get why other Kickstarter'd games would follow suit with their own companion titles.

 

[chud_666]

Been playing
Pros: omg it's beautiful
Cons: game play is ok.

I'm still going to just adore how it looks until further news of the main course

 

[YangusKhan]

I played around 3 hours today, which opened up most of the town. Fighting gets more fun once you build the weapon shop.

This game is charming as heck, and I hope the writing in this game is an indicator of what the main RPG will be, because I am highly optimistic it could live up to the Suikoden pedigree.

 

[Peklo]

Juggling deceased enemies for additional exp is the funniest mechanic.

 

[SpoonyGundam]

Are backers of the main game supposed to get this as a bonus? It’s been so long I have no memory of what I backed for. Haven’t seen any email but wondering if I should dig around.

I'm in the same boat. Took a look at the original KS page but none of the reward levels make any mention of it. I'm assuming that I don't get a free copy unless a code slides into my inbox.

This was announced very late in the campaign, and you had to buy it as an add-on by pledging IIRC $7 more than whatever tier you backed at.

I did the extra pledge during the campaign and ended up having to contact support a few weeks ago because I never received any emails about it, so you might want to check if what you pledged matches your tier.

I also haven't received my key, so I might end up having to contact support again. They sent out an email explaining that there were issues getting enough keys to meet demand and offering a complementary Steam key to people to tide them over until things got sorted out for their platform of choice... but Steam is my platform of choice.

 

[Peklo]

If Rising feels like it mechanically has a slow start, give it a bit until it settles into its honestly pretty compelling search action RPG community-building groove. It's structurally not very diverse in what it does but contextually it's got its grips in me, and the characterization to go with it feels lightweight in ways that evoke the pedigree well. Mapping your folks to their respective face buttons and tag-teaming enemies with chained attacks is a wonderful integration of party-based RPG schema into a game of this type, conjuring up anything between Valkyrie Profile, Dracula's Curse or Final Fantasy XV. The main character dynamics and concepts are also strong enough that I'm wondering if the main event Eiyuden will feel lacking by comparison for its seeming adherence to blank slate series form in who's going to drive that story forward.

 

[Peklo]

Finished this with all quests done; all-in 100% completion would be doable but not of particular interest since it only involves completely contextless grinding at this stage, so I'm good. As a companion piece, the game generates enough proof of concept goodwill in seeing the aesthetics and general tone at work, so it isn't really even that relevant to critique as an individual work, where it's merely workmanlike and competent. The mass downpour of "sidequests" (but really, they are the game) in practice is more of a do-them-as-you-go undertaking that fulfills itself mostly through inertia, but there are points where it rings a little oddly with the general reputation of Suikoden as the anti-grinding RPG exemplar series. The straightforward simplicity of those games is still observed here, even in an adjacent genre, but some expressions of it speak to complicating excesses of "modern" game design in an effort to maximize player time investment with the material assets available. It could just be the peculiarities of this impromptu prologue work and have no bearing on Hundred Heroes, but who knows.

I think the most enjoyable aspect of Rising turned out to be its visuals, which evoke a kind of past technological footprint in how certain games used to look--I drew positive mental parallels to Falcom's 2000s PC work, with stylized sprites skittering on top of 3D environmental work, which is particularly attractive here with significant depth and complexity in the vistas depicted, and no shortage of vibrant palettes. The conceptual themes of the world are a little stock when you divide them up, but in the moment they're always interesting to behold and exist in, and the growing township conveys a buzzling micropolis well with its streams of incidental pedestrians wandering to and fro as you make the rounds. It's supposed to whet the appetite for the game to come, and in those moments of expanding the home base with its locations, services and the people present, it probably got the closest to that "ah... but I want more" sensation it's aiming to evoke by resurrecting past concepts.

 

[YangusKhan]

I drew positive mental parallels to Falcom's 2000s PC work, with stylized sprites skittering on top of 3D environmental work

I'm glad you brought this up, because I have been feeling pretty heavily reminded of Ys: Oath in Felghana. Granted it's been over a decade since I played that game, but I'm finding a lot of similarities in the world design too; the light touch of expanding traversal options, the elemental Metroidvania gating, and definitely the aesthetic too. The combat isn't really trying to be Ys, of course, so I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression there, but otherwise I think there's enough notable parallels.

I also can't help but think of Square Enix's 2DHD style; I don't necessarily want to pit them against each other, but I think I'm finding a preference for what this game is doing over that other particular "house style." Oh and I'll also give a nod to the sound design. The noises everything makes when out and fighting have a lot of impact to them, and it does make me excited to see how they translate this to a JRPG battle, especially the Link Attacks.

 

[Peklo]

I also can't help but think of Square Enix's 2DHD style; I don't necessarily want to pit them against each other, but I think I'm finding a preference for what this game is doing over that other particular "house style."

I agree. With those games, the degree of bloom lighting, saturation and other various post-processing effects dominate the visual presentation to the detriment of the sprite and polygonal work on display, leaving it hazy and indistinct. With Rising, it doesn't necessarily have equally as captivating raw assets and artistry as the best of its peers, but it has restraint and doesn't overindulge on obscuring filters. There's also great use of foreground objects and contrasting far-off scenery to really sell the locations' evocative panoramic scale. The overall impression gets to exist somewhere between that aforementioned Falcom standard of old and more high-end artisanal sidescrolling ventures such as a Vanillaware game might depict, which feels about right for the series this is in the process of resuscitating.

As far as creator details, the main scenario for Rising is credited to Tadashi Satomi, he of the erstwhile Persona writing and more recently, the spiritual continuation of the same in the Caligula games. As there, who knows how much of this game's voice is due to his particular input and how much it's Murayama and other staff, but he's yet another genre veteran onboard this project, and this time from outside the nominal series's prior context.

 

[chud_666]

I'm quite enjoy this game, but I do have some BEEF. Which is as follows

It's weird stuff about quests.
-I've run across the screen, talked to Sarita, then basically ran back to Bertrand or whoever.
-So you get a lot of interfering text you don't need.
1. So finish quest
2. Level UP
3. Screen transition into exact same screen to have new dialogue
4. Quest Line Finished
5. rewards
6. NEW QUEST LINE started
7. maybe yet another pointless screen transition to same screen to have dialogue. I just want to move CJ and do this next quest already
- Some of the quest are like, come on. I already mentioned walking across a screen. But sometimes a character is not in their regular place, just so you are wandering around to whereever. It's not like game area is huge, but it's alright already
- So last Suik i played to completion was 3. I loved it to death, but it had a lot of issues. One of which was the slowness of the game in 3d engine, versus 1-2 lightning fast gameplay. But the other big one is lots of finnicky details to move along quests. Like Talk to dickhead, go sleep at inn, talk to him again. Lot's of extraneous steps. I love Geddoe, but i don't want to run around in circles.

All this is to say -
The charm of this game is that it is out of time, miraculously. That said some elements can be left back in time? Still playing and loving it, and am pumped for the RPG!

 

[Peklo]

The quest log shows where the questgiver is located, as well as where you can turn the quest in if the location or person differs between them. You can also tag quests as active so an exclamation point on the map directly denotes where in the dungeons you need to go for the objective. I think they did all they could have to make the game loop as rigorously unchanging as possible in structural terms. I also think the only compelling reason to do the quests is for the incidental dialogue and protagonist interjections, because the material rewards and the act of actually doing the quests aren't really very interesting of a carrot. Like everything else about the game, it's really just the succession of smaller character-focused moments that make it resonate.

 

[chud_666]

The quest log shows where the questgiver is located, as well as where you can turn the quest in if the location or person differs between them. You can also tag quests as active so an exclamation point on the map directly denotes where in the dungeons you need to go for the objective. I think they did all they could have to make the game loop as rigorously unchanging as possible in structural terms. I also think the only compelling reason to do the quests is for the incidental dialogue and protagonist interjections, because the material rewards and the act of actually doing the quests aren't really very interesting of a carrot. Like everything else about the game, it's really just the succession of smaller character-focused moments that make it resonate.

I actually just found out i can fast travel within the town. Lol
But yeah!

 

[YangusKhan]

Put a wrap on this last night. I think I'll continue with the "post-game" because it doesn't seem any more onerous than what the rest of the game has been up to this point, and I've done every quest up to this point so far anyway.

It was a lovely little game! I really appreciated how the background story stuff finally came up towards the end of the game, otherwise this whole thing would have been entirely a character-gaiden kind of thing, and while that wouldn't be terrible, it also wouldn't be that enticing as a spinoff for a game that doesn't exist yet. But, the character writing is excellent! I am so very very looking forward to the Main Event, and not just for the writing, but also I want to see if the same gameplay philosophy plays out in the JRPG as well; the gameplay loop here was extremely brisk and tight, and even when they threw a dozen or so sidequests at you at once, it never felt like a huge burden.

 

[YangusKhan]

Well I guess I liked this game enough to get the Platinum trophy. That's cool!

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Beat the game! What a delightful little experience. I'd love for more big-ish games to do something like this. I can probably crank out a platinum trophy pretty easy, just have to exp grind and do the hard mode bosses which doesn't seem daunting. Pretty charming scenario and rock solid writing (as expected of Suikoden). I had almost no expectations for this, or Eiyuden proper. Now I'm actually kinda excited! I look forward to the main game in 2023. I hope there will be a save file load so that we can transfer over some stuff from this prologue game like character stats or something. I assume most of the portrait-characters will end up in the main game as stars of destiny or whatever this new game will call 'em.

 

[Kirin]

So I just got an email saying as a backer it's time for me to pick my physical platform for the main Eiyuden game.

Which is neat, except the survey link just wants you to log in to Yetee Productions, and it's been so long I don't remember whether I made an account there already, and if you need to sign up for a backer account, you need your backer number which is... uh...

... and this is where I realize I can't even quickly search for this stuff easily because my Gmail usage only goes back to Dec 2021, which is too recent. So I guess I need to dig up my old mail archives? They maybe oughtta have a better system for this when it's been literally several years since people did the whole backing thing.

 

[Falselogic]

Excited this game is finally coming out

 

[q 3]

Huh, I remember the Kickstarter said it would be on whatever comes after the Switch. Kind of impressive both that the Switch has stuck around so long and that this is managing to release sooner than the Switch 2.

 

[Kirin]

So I managed to get in to the platform selection (hilariously, it gives you a nice reminder of how to find your backer number on the survey page, but to see the page you need a Yetee account, and to make your account you need the backer number).

And now I need to actually decide my platform. I mean, I guess I'm going Switch because portability will be super nice for a Suiko. Just hope it runs okay on it. The only other platform I have right now is PS4, and it's quite possible I'll move to PS5 before this ships, so I don't really want to commit to either.

If anyone else kickstarted a physical copy, don't forget to jump on this, it says they want choices in by the 20th of this month.

 

[Sarcasmorator]

I would do Switch if I'd pledged. I chose PS5 for Sea of Stars since I was getting the Switch physical, and then SoS ended up as a PS+ freebie so I ended up asking to change to Steam. Could happen with this too!

 

[WildcatJF]

I went with PS5 since I now have one. I got Rising on PS4 and need to give that a run before April I guess, haha.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

I'm not a Patreon backer, but I'll get the game on PS5. I don't really play my Switch outside of the house/undocked, so I might as well play it on a system that will look better, run at a smoother framerate, and most importantly load way faster. I've played all the way through Suikoden V, I'm not playing another game like this that is going to have even a hint of load times.

If playing undocked was a primary consideration, playing on PS5 also wouldn't be a problem - streaming to a tablet, or my computer, or my phone all works pretty well over my local network.

Also, considering all of the FX I've seen in battle, and the Switch's general struggle to keep a steady, decent framerate on games - especially those made by indie outfits/smaller new studios - I'm more than a little worried about how the Switch version of this game will even run to begin with.

 

[Issun]

If an RPG is on Switch that's always my first choice.