Exploring Suikoden’s heart and the excitement for Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes

How Rabbit & Bear Studio’s new Kickstarter is channeling the soul of the beloved Suikoden franchise

“Suikoden” and “Eiyuden Chronicle” don’t exactly roll off the tongue the same way “Final Fantasy” and “Dragon Quest” do, but these Japanese RPGs from Yoshitaka Murayama represent an important place in both the history and future of the genre.

In the days before Final Fantasy VII, the Sony PlayStation was full of Japanese RPGs modelled off the 16-bit formula popularized by games like Final Fantasy VI, Phantasy Star IV, and Chrono Trigger. Before Cloud and Sephiroth revolutionized the genre and brought cinematic storytelling to gaming’s forefront, Japanese RPGs like the original Suikoden — and its contemporaries like Wild Arms and Beyond the Beyond — focused on substance over style. They relied on traditional 2D sprite-based graphics with flat backgrounds, and battle systems that toyed with faux- or rudimentary 3D, but had none of the sizzle seen in Final Fantasy VII and its follow-ups. This trend continued even after Square Enix’s behemoth release, with games like Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, Grandia, and Breath of Fire IV, but the tone and tenor of the genre had change, and the scope and cinematic ambitions of…