Eiyuden Chronicles, the RPG collection that’s successfully a sequel-slash-spiritual successor to nineties and early noughties JRPG basic Suikoden, will proceed with a sequel regardless of the loss of life of its creator earlier this yr.
Yoshitaka Murayama created Suikoden within the mid-Nineteen Nineties over at Konami earlier than departing after 2002’s PlayStation 2-only Suikoden III. He later went on to discovered builders Rabbit & Bear Studios, working alongside fellow Suikoden veterans – together with character designer and artist Junko Kawano – to create Eiyuden Chronicles, crowdfunded by way of one of many greatest online game Kickstarters so far, elevating over £3.4m, in 2020.
Murayama handed away as the results of problems associated to an ongoing sickness in early February, having launched action-RPG prologue Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising in 2022 however sadly not residing to see the discharge of this yr’s full-blooded RPG instalment Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.
“We need to keep his legacy and imaginative and prescient with this recreation and know that he would have needed the wealthy world he has created with Eiyuden Chronicle to reside on,” Rabbit & Bear wrote on the time.
Regardless of the loss of life of the studio’s head and the collection’ author, Rabbit & Bear have confirmed that they plan to “mov[e] ahead with a sequel” to Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, which is because of launch subsequent week, reiterating that they “hope we can keep it up Murayama’s legacy” by persevering with the collection.
“It is vitally unhappy that Murayama shouldn’t be with us anymore, however we’ve mentioned many issues with him,” the studio’s workforce wrote in a current Reddit AMA in response as to whether the collection may go on.
That would additionally embrace potential spin-offs, which the workforce mentioned they’d “quite a lot of concepts” for, however would solely come as soon as “Hundred Heroes has bought many copies”.
“I might be delighted if we may develop the collection sufficient to have the ability to increase the scope of the collection,” mentioned artwork director and producer Junichi Murakami. “If many individuals help this recreation, I want to attempt many challenges.”
Whereas Eiyuden Chronicles clearly harkens again to Murayama’s work on Suikoden, the sport’s builders mirrored that he “was very reluctant to have his previous work or the phrase “nostalgic” used for this undertaking. He at all times needed to create one thing new.”
If you happen to’re but to find Murayama’s work, previous or new, now’s nearly as good a time as any. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes releases on April twenty third, and there are HD remasters of the primary two Suikoden video games additionally on the best way.
