Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is coming Day One on Game Pass on April 23, 2024.
Klobrille shared this information straight out of the Xbox Tokyo Game Show presentation.
We knew that Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes would be coming to Game Pass as early as the start of this year, but it’s clear now that the game has needed some delay.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is the spiritual successor of the Suikoden series, successfully funded in Kickstarter. The project is a collaboration of former Suikoden devs, including the franchise’s creator Yoshitaka Murayama, and Junko Kawano, who took leadership duties over the game after he had left Konami.
This time, the team of Suikoden veterans have formed a new studio, called Rabbit and Bear Studio. They have also acquired the services of 505 Games to publish the project. While based in Italy, 505 has already demonstrated a capability to take crowdfunded projects like Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes worldwide, with their publishing of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.
In fact, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is a particularly successful Kickstarter project. Having raised $4,541,481 from 46,307 backers, it is the third most successful video game project backed on the platform. The two top games, of course, are Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and Shenmue III.
Now, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes had the misfortune to have started development at the dawn of the pandemic as well. It’s somewhat understandable that this newly formed studio faced numerous delays in producing this game, but it does have to be acknowledged that the staggered development period ultimately costs the developers more than initially expected, and is generally harmful to the project.
Rabbit and Bear Studio were compelled to expand the project as well thanks to its overwhelming success in crowdfunding. That includes things like three extra game modes and a full orchestra soundtrack. So it can’t be said that the successful crowdfunding ensures that the project will be a success. Thankfully, it looks like they will be able to get things together to publish next year.
Rabbit and Bear promises Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes will be a “traditional 6- character battle system utilizing painstakingly created 2D sprites and gorgeous 3D backgrounds”, as well as “ a deep story with 100 characters intricately intertwined.”
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is also planned for release for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. The Kickstarter also indicates plans to release it on Nintendo’s next console, which could be the rumored Switch 2.