The previous Microsoft game subscription service Xbox Game Pass (referred to as XGP), a new Japanese RPG "Eiyuden Chronicle Hundred Heroes" (Eiyuden Chronicle Hundred Heroes), a masterpiece with a retail price of hundreds of yuan alone, now through the subscription without additional consumption to experience the full content, really exciting players, making the already very luxurious XGP with hundreds of lineups more attractive.
For a long time, XGP has a large number of European and American games represented by Microsoft's first party, and recently some Japanese-style works have been included in the collection, many new players may think that "The Legend of 100 Heroes" is a new original independent work, which is true from the name of the game, but for those old players who have experienced the golden age of JRPGs in the late nineties of the last century, it represents the return of the king of a legendary series. In this issue, we will take a look at the charm of "Legend of 100 Heroes", which can immerse new and old players in the game world and can't extricate themselves.
First of all, let's start with the legendary producer Yoshitaka Murayama.
Back in the mid-90s of the last century, Konami, which had been making a name for itself in the game market with arcade-style works such as action shooters, suddenly found that players' tastes had changed a lot, and RPG games such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest began to become the focus of players' attention. 32-bit consoles, represented by Sony's PS, have new 3D polygon processing capabilities and disc media that far exceed the capacity of the cartridge, allowing developers and players to begin to value the game's story and growth experience. Konami had little experience in RPG games before and was in dire need of his own masterpiece to gain a foothold in the market, and Yoshitaka Murayama, who was still a newcomer at the time, submitted an RPG project based on the classic Chinese masterpiece "Water Margin", which was appreciated by the company's top management and embarked on the path of producer.
When he was a student, Yoshitaka Murayama liked the work "Water Margin" very much, and in addition to the original version, he also studied many adapted novels and comics, which laid the foundation for the later game works. On December 15, 1995, "Fantasy Water Margin" was officially released on the PS console, although the name has "Water Margin", but in fact, there is no familiar Song Jiang, Wu Song, Lin Chong and other characters such as Song Jiang, Wu Song, Lin Chong, etc., but the spiritual core of the original work, transplanted to the Western medieval magic world, creating a new JRPG work with a unique style.
In just a few years, Yoshitaka Murayama led the development of the first few works of "Fantasy Water Margin", and its core story has similarities, through the description of the external environment such as the country and war, etc., showing that a single individual relies on the strength of himself and his companions, trying to survive and change the fate of the world, and the friendship, cooperation, and strategy between many characters have impressed players, although the graphics are still in the traditional 2D style, they still achieved good results, and soon became the new ace series of Konami. Unfortunately, the subsequent generations of works lost their way and gradually degenerated into mediocrity, becoming one of Konami's many hidden IPs.
AFTER A LAPSE OF MORE THAN 20 YEARS, YOSHITAKA MURAYAMA, KNOWN AS THE "FATHER OF FANTASY WATER MARGIN", DECIDED TO CONTINUE TO COMPLETE THE DREAM OF THE GAME IN HIS HEART, AND IN JULY 2020, HE LAUNCHED THE "LEGEND OF A HUNDRED HEROES" CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN ON KICKSTARTER, WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY PLANNED TO START DEVELOPMENT FOR $500,000, BUT IT WAS ACHIEVED IN JUST THREE HOURS, AND FINALLY RAISED MORE THAN $4.6 MILLION IN A MONTH, MORE THAN NINE TIMES THE BASIC GOAL. Although the name and related elements of "Fantasy Water Margin" cannot be used due to copyright reasons, users agree that "The Legend of 100 Heroes", led by the original producer, is the sequel to inherit the spirit of the soul, just like "Rite of the Night" crowdfunded by Koji Igarashi, another legendary producer of Konami, and is the modern inheritance of the "Castlevania" series.
On April 23, 2024, "The Legend of 100 Heroes" was officially released, Microsoft attaches great importance to this new work, and it will be added to the XGP service on the day of release.
The most intuitive impression of the game is that the picture performance has undergone earth-shaking changes compared to the PS era, the pixel hand-drawn style of the background has now been replaced by polygon modeling, with the technical support of modern game engines, forests, rivers, mountains and other scenes are full of three-dimensionality, with a variety of light and shadow details, so that players have enough motivation to explore every corner of the scene, even as a pure sightseeing is full of fun. At the same time, the character design still retains the 2D style, and this hybrid art style has been used in many new JRPGs and has been fully recognized.
The storyline of this work also inherits the traditional style of "Fantasy Water Margin", behind the seemingly unremarkable protagonist, there are contradictions and disputes between many countries, and the evil forces are trying to provoke world turmoil.
The many characters of "The Legend of 100 Heroes" give players a rich story experience, each character has their own background, and you can feel the depths of their hearts through simple events, plus NPCs all over the world, and the rich dialogue content gradually builds a perfect world view in the user's mind. The game is designed with a variety of classes for the characters, such as tanks, outputs, mages, nurses, etc., which are common in modern works, and there are also style differences in the same class, so you have plenty of options to find the most suitable team members, even newcomers who have not played JRPGs before, can quickly get started.
Different from the modern popular open-world adventure gameplay, the game's world map still retains the style of the traditional JRPG relatively fixed route, the seemingly huge scene is actually arranged with multiple obstacle nodes, requiring players to complete a specific plot to pass, in addition to some treasure chests and materials, this work is not full of dense collection elements, the big world and dungeon maze are still the core experience, through the detailed and exquisite scene picture, greatly reducing the boredom of the user repeatedly running the map.
For newcomers who are new to this kind of gameplay,This work has a design that may be very unfriendly,That is, the "stepping on mines" rule that has been widely criticized in many similar works before,There are no enemies in sight on the map.,Walking and walking, the inexplicable picture flashed into the combat state.,Old players are used to this.,Estimates who haven't experienced it are confused.。 Even though I'm a JRPG veteran myself, I don't think this kind of gameplay is really suitable for the modern environment, and the experience of depriving players of their own choice and forcing them is extremely unpleasant, and when you're focused on adventure, sudden interruptions can be very coherent and won't solve the problem even if you control the odds of encountering enemies. What's even more headache is that the game also arranges some side quests, including the elimination of such and such enemies, etc., at this time it is difficult to achieve the goal through random enemies, to sum it up, it is not when you want, and when you don't want it, you come to a lot, although this is a "traditional legacy", but the persuasion effect on newcomers cannot be ignored.
In the previous "Fantasy Water Margin" game, the turn-based combat with simple rules but rich strategy left a deep impression, and this time "The Legend of a Hundred Heroes" is also the same, players can reasonably arrange a variety of positions such as vanguard, guard, support, and companions according to the characteristics of team members. In most normal combat scenarios, you can make the character complete automatically through preset commands, so as to reduce the operation and speed up the pace, and in the boss battle, you need to carefully plan each step of the command, and some bosses will also use environmental elements such as falling rocks, so that the battle has a puzzle-like challenge. It is worth mentioning that the HP of the boss is not directly displayed, but is expressed by the name color, with white being higher and red being lower, adding a lot of uncertainty to the battle.
If I want to say that my favorite gameplay in "Legend of 100 Heroes" is town development, where players will be given a castle ruins as their main base, and gradually build and upgrade various facilities by recruiting members, collecting specific resources, etc., you can see the design of a tech tree in the interface. As the castle continues to improve, players can get equipment, resources, tactics and other support during the adventure, such as allowing merchants to provide more advanced weapon armor, being able to quickly teleport to the world, etc., I am generally used to completing all the upgrades before advancing the main story, so that there is a strong motivation to complete various branches.
To sum up, "The Legend of a Hundred Heroes" is the ultimate form of "Fantasy Water Margin", the advantages and disadvantages of the series of traditions have been inherited, and old players naturally don't need to say much about the liver, and although there are many attractive elements for new players, many inconvenient "retro" experiences still need to take time to get used to.
On February 6, 2024, just as "The Legend of 100 Heroes" was about to be launched, the unfortunate news suddenly came that producer Yoshitaka Murayama passed away due to illness at the age of 55. The team issued a statement saying that Murayama's work on the project has been completed, but it is a pity that he has not been able to see the enthusiastic response from the fans, and we need to accept the reality that he is no longer with us and continue to advance his dream by releasing the game to the world, and the rich world he created in the game will continue to exist.
"The Legend of 100 Heroes" can be said to be another successful inheritance of classic JRPGs in the modern environment, and both new and old players can appreciate its charm, although the core producer has left us forever, making the subsequent development of the series full of unknowns, but we firmly believe that there will be more excellent works. If you want to experience more rich gameplay, then you must try Microsoft's XGP subscription service, the ultra-low price with a large number of titles, just experience every game in the library, it is enough to meet the needs of most people, and make you shout really fragrant.
Game Name: "The Legend of 100 Heroes"
Release date: April 23, 2024
登陆平台：PC、XBOX X|S、Switch、PS5
Overall rating: 8/10
Recommended for: Players who like retro-style JRPGs
-END-
Pay attention to the "Broken Thoughts Workshop", share good games every day, and say goodbye to the game shortage!