Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes review

pcgamer.com:

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes has a lot weighing on its shoulders. The new turn-based RPG has to deliver to crowdfunding backers, fulfill its promise of being an ode to '90s great Suikoden, and prove that its all-star creative team still have the stuff. That's enough pressure for anyone, but recently it's been further burdened by the death of its director Yoshitaka Murayama. It's amazing, then, that I couldn't feel an ounce of all that weight during my time playing, because Eiyuden Chronicle is as sturdy and vivacious an adventure as anyone could ever hope.

What is it? A throwback RPG with over 100 recruitable weirdos
Expected to pay: $50
Developer: Rabbit and Bear Studios
Publisher: 505 Games
Reviewed on: Windows 10, AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650G, 16G RAM
Multiplayer? No
Steam Deck: Not Verified
Link: Steam

Mainly following Nowa, a young man thrust into leadership of a rag-tag alliance fighting against the empire, the set-up reads almost like parody. How cliché can you get? It also probably gives anyone familiar with Murayama's Suikoden series a serious case of déjà vu. The setup was tropey even then, but what's important isn't radical originality or constant subversion. It's the way this familiar structure and story is told, and Eiyuden Chronicle tells it with supreme confidence.

Nowa might be the protagonist, but Eiyuden is a true-blue ensemble story, a war epic filled with political treachery and a massive cast of well over 30 plot-significant characters. The narrative has no problem drifting away from the main team to peek in on the villains or switch playable characters for a while, constantly making it known that Nowa isn't the center of the story. Take the Guardians, a group living deep in the forest whose own lives intersect with Nowa's several times. Their culture and characters are enough to fill an entire game by themselves, dealing with clan politics, attempts at colonization, and their deep relationship with the game's magic system. Stacked on top of the