Like most JRPGs, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is a meaty game with many different mechanics – as a spiritual successor to the Suikoden series, if you’ve played of any of those games, a lot of the mechanics and strategies may be somewhat familiar. However, if you’re a newcomer, like me, then it may be a bit of a struggle adapting to how the game works and some of the early challenges you may come across. If you’re playing Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes for the first time, here are five tips I wish I knew when first starting out.
Your Characters Are Fragile
Despite having a party of six characters at a time in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, most of your characters will have very low health. It’s not uncommon for a party member to be defeated in two or three hits from an enemy and during boss fights, unless you strategize accordingly, you’ll spend more time healing and reviving party members than attacking the enemy. Don’t be afraid to use a turn to defend while a party member heals you, and make sure to put in an effort to get equipment and armor that will boost your defense. Even in the later hours, high-level enemies can wipe weaker party members, so always be aware that a party member can and will go down quickly here.
Try Not to Sell Your Items
A standard trope in JRPGs is that once you get new equipment either from a town or a dungeon, you sell your old stuff for some extra money. While you may be tempted to do that in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, in the long run, this isn’t necessarily a good idea. While you will start off with a relatively small party and most of your early equipment can be sold, you’ll reach a point eventually where you really shouldn’t sell your equipment since you’ll have a lot of new party members joining over time who will need good equipment. Without getting into spoilers, it is technically possible for you to soft-lock your game if your party is so weak from not having good equipment that they go down like flies.
On that same note, some enemies will drop unique items you’ll be tempted to sell for extra cash. Again, try not to do this since not only are these drops rare, but they’ll be needed for later quests if you want to recruit certain heroes. You do have a limited storage space in the game, but you can store items at your base so your inventory isn’t overwhelming with armor and equipment you don’t need. You may not be overflowing with money, but you’ll be grateful in the long run.
Have a Core Group of Heroes at a Decent Level
There are a lot of heroes in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. Please try not to be surprised by that statement. In all seriousness, while it may be tempting to swap out heroes and try to get every hero to a relatively similar level, practically, that just isn’t possible. Ideally, you’ll want a core group of heroes you keep in your party and a few in your reserve that you can swap out if necessary. Finding a nice balance between magic users, characters who specialize in long-range attacks, and armor-piercing allies is a must. This is a game that will limit your party members and restrict who you can and can’t have with you, so making sure you have a core and reliable group of heroes ready for any situation is a lifesaver. The alternative is spending an eternity grinding your weak heroes to an adequate level, which no one wants to do.
Conserve MP Over SP
In combat, your party members have both an MP and SP bar. MP functions like they would in any RPG – if you want to cast a spell, you’ll have to spend some MP to cast it. SP is different since you can only have up to five SP points at a time, and some physical attacks, like armor-breaking attacks, will require you to spend SP to cast. You’ll earn an SP point at the start of each turn, so it will continuously replenish as the fight goes on.
With that in mind, be sure you conserve MP as much as possible during the early game hours. The two party members who will use magic in the early hours of the game are your healers, and while Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is very generous in giving you healing items, MP does not recover per turn or after combat. If you want to heal MP, you’ll either have to use an item, which is expensive, or go to an inn, which is unfeasible once you decide to explore a dungeon. Also, magic spells require a fair amount of MP and your total MP points are pretty low, so you’ll only want to use it when absolutely necessary. But as for SP skills, use them at every opportunity to lay some damage to your opponents.
Understand Turn Order
A handful of JRPGs will show what the expected turn order is before you confirm what your actions for that round are. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is no different, as the game will tell you at the beginning of each round who is expected to attack when for both your party and the enemies. If you kill an enemy before it attacks, then your life will be made that much easier, especially if they have large AOE attacks that can hit multiple party members. Sometimes, that may not be feasible, especially if an enemy mage is hiding in the back row, but with some smart planning and strategizing, you can eliminate big threats before they even have a chance to attack.
This applies to bosses, too. An early boss will have an attack that will absolutely wreck your party if you don’t understand how turn order works. Be aware that an enemy can cast a spell, deal a lot of damage, or use the environment to attack you, so it may be beneficial if an enemy is charging an attack to have the person acting after them to heal the party or try something to stun or thwart their efforts at knocking you out.
And those are some tips to help you out in the early hours of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes! Click here to read more guides, tips, and tricks for the game.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes releases on April 23, 2024, on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
