Octopath walked so Eiyuden Chronicle could run
[Update: The Kickstarter is live now! You can also check out the debut trailer below. As far as platforms go, PC is fully confirmed, but PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Series X and “Nintendo’s next generation console” are possibly in the cards.]
Record scratch noise: so you’re probably wondering how we got into this situation, aren’t you?
Well, for years (nay, decades) people have been asking for a Suikoden successor. Suikoden 2, specifically, is considered one of the best JRPGs ever made and fetches absurd prices on the secondary market. It’s one of the most “basic best JRPGs ever” alongside of Chrono Trigger. So when a spiritual successor gets announced long after Konami left the series to die: people notice.
Announced by way of an article on The Verge, Eiyuden Chronicle will follow in the footsteps of Suikoden, much like Mighty No. 9 tried to do juxtaposed to Mega Man and Bloodstained did going up against the legacy of Castlevania. What do all of these projects have in common? They’re all using Kickstarter.
The new team taking on this gargantuan task is Rabbit & Bear Studios, formed by several members who worked on the original Suikoden series, including the legendary Yoshitaka Murayama, who served as the heart and soul of the first two games. Junko Kawano, who was the lead artist on several games in the franchise and Junichi Murakami, art director for Suikoden Tactics, are also on board.
Eiyuden Chronicle is described as “an ode to the classic JRPG genre from the PlayStation era that will feature classic JRPG exploration and battles in high-resolution 2.5D graphics.” It’ll also sport “over 100 unique heroes,” which is the Suikoden way.
Yep, although the platform is becoming more rare these days and it contains a ton of baggage, the Eiyuden Chronicle team will launch their Kickstarter campaign on July 27. Good luck! I don’t want to jinx it, but there’s no guarantee it’ll be fully crowdfunded. Of course, there’s always the chance that if that does happen, a publisher will pick it up after-the-fact. Muramaya even joked that he hopes “some rich benefactor will take [him] in and let [him] live in their house.”
Right now Eiyuden Chronicle is slated for a 2022 release on PC, but more platforms could be viable through stretch goals.
Suikoden’s creators are crowdfunding a spiritual successor [The Verge]
