They say you should never go back. Shouldn't return to things you once loved in another time and place as, chances are, the reality will not live up to the memory. Did I really love classic JRPGs in the 1990s? I remember that I did, with titles like Chrono Trigger, Suikoden, Secret of Mana and many taking up days of my life.
Well after playing the soon to be released Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes from Rabbit & Bear Studios, a game the developers dub a love letter to classic JRPGs, the short answer is yes, they were great games and this shows why. The long answer? Well, um… it's complicated.My first hour with Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes was tough. Having not properly played an old-fashioned JRPG for many years, the regression to its strict format was at first trying.
There was definitely a moment in that first hour when I was considering dropping Hundred Heroes because of these things.Sign up to get the best content of the week, and great gaming deals, as picked by the editors.However, at a point that I now can't remember, I suddenly found myself wanting to play Hundred Heroes before anything else on my huge play list right now.
I don't think that's entirely a great thing, and I'm sure that anyone new to this type of game will find it challenging to adapt. But it is worth persevering with this game if you initially bounce off it. Particularly if you have any fondness for the games and style it's riffing on, once you start to remember those older gaming rhythms then, before you know it, you may find yourself unable to put Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes down.
Rob is editor of PC Gamer magazine and has been PC gaming since the early 1990s, an experience that has left him with a life-long passion for first person shooters, isometric RPGs and point and click adventures. Professionally Rob has written about games, gaming hardware and consumer technology for almost twenty years, and before joining the PC Gamer team was deputy editor of T3.com, where he oversaw the website's gaming and tech content as well its news and ecommerce teams.