Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising News

Hey there heroes!

The holiday season is quickly approaching, so hopefully that means good food, good family time, and good gaming! For those who haven’t checked out Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, now could be a great opportunity to do so!

Now, let’s discuss some quick logistics!

We’re going to be reaching out to premium backers throughout November with regards to their special rewards. It’s taken a while, but we've put the right processes in place and development has reached a point where we can start putting the wheels in motion. Thank you so much for your patience!

**PRODUCTION UPDATES**
Character Profile
Clarke



Home: The League of Nations
Gender: Male
Age: 55
Favorite Drink: Herbal tea
A middle-aged divorcé who manages the theater.

Not much fazes him anymore, but every now and then he'll discover some new play and gab about it with the passion of someone younger.

In the past, Clarke put so much energy into his theater troupe that his wife left him.
It was a difficult time.

At the theater, he always wears a suit and coat.

He's careful about how he presents himself, in keeping with the sense of wonder and imagination he wants to project on stage.

"The stage is my life, and I live for the stage. Ladies and gentlemen: tonight, for your enjoyment, I present this fleeting dream. Let the show begin!"

Character Common: Kawano
Clark is a man who loves the theater, but he is a presenter and an organizer, not the showman himself. I wanted to give the impression that he was always considering his next scene...so I gave him a slight look of consternation.
The theater in the game is going to have a huge number of variations when it comes to character interactions, so I'm excited to start experimenting with them!

Murayama's Monthly Development Report
The Theater System

The main town in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes will have a lot of mini-game facilities, one of which being The Theater.

This works by assigning characters roles in your play of choice, and then having them perform to their friends.

Depending on the character, you can enjoy watching them play their roles faithfully, over enthusiastically, fumble their lines, or shorten them on purpose! This variety should be a lot of fun to watch unfold.

Isn’t it exciting to imagine how Nowa, Seign, Marisa and the others will react in their roles?
We want to have a system in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes that lets as many characters as possible have their time in the spotlight. The theater is one such system.

We hope you look forward to seeing how your favorite character performs on stage.

Not only that, but we’re also recording voice lines for the theater and the experience has been filled with enthusiastic performances, laughter and praise.

This dialogue contains some 15,000 lines of text, which is roughly the amount you would expect to see in a regular game.

A Word from the Team
J-diary vol.7

Hello, Murakami J here.

Now the mayhem of TGS has passed, we are all hands on deck and busy every day.

Thanks to the hard work of our team, we finally have the basic materials for the main characters and backgrounds, so we are pushing ahead with making the remaining materials.

Since much of my day is filled with a lot of meetings and supervision work, I’ve been working on adding material little by little once my regular work is done. I’ve recently been making characters for the hot spring scenes and such.

Simply putting characters into hot springs is tough in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. One scene alone means X(100 + α) more cuts to make (lol).

To that end, and to avoid panicking down the road, I'm doing my own work whenever I get a chance.
But in doing that, I’m faced with a number of questions.

For example, “Isn’t it weird for this character to wear a hat in the hot spring?” or “They’ll have to tie their long hair up before getting in the water,” are just for starters. What about what they’re wearing under their outfits?

I approached one character after the other, putting together bath time versions for each, and after a while it’s now possible to tell who is who, even in their bare pixel form! How cool is that?

I was actually a little worried.

You see, usually changing the costume, accessories or other distinctive features like a character’s hairstyle on their pixel art is likely to make many of them look the same as one another, especially as there are so many. But that didn’t happen this time. The individuality of each character is pretty clear.
I think this comes down to everyone having unique physiques and physical expressions—something we talked about a few times at Tokyo Game Show.

I thought changing even the quirky hairstyles would be difficult, so I was very happy in a humble way (even though I made them myself...lol).

So, I hope you look forward to the hot springs bringing out a different side to the characters.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is filled with a lot of things to enjoy outside of the main storyline, so I’m sure things will only get busier for us going forward.

These elements aren’t just bonus content and each has a meaningful place within the game. We want to proceed without forgetting to focus on even the smallest of details.

Ahhh...

Talking about hot springs is making me want to go to one, myself.

It’s becoming the perfect time of year for them.

Come to think of it, how many countries in the world have a hot spring bathing culture?
I should find out.

MURAKAMI J

Hey there heroes!
The months are getting cooler and we’re less than a week away from the spoopiest day of the year, so we’d like to kick off our October update with a ghastly glimpse at one of the enemy characters players will face off against in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.

But first, a special halloween message from the developers:



Illustration Comment
Self-proclaimed magical girl, Mellor, seems to be adored by the staff.
The effects added to the battle scenes in the previous trailer were created with a ton of energy, with some staff even proposing a detailed backstory for her. She really has become a beloved member of the roster. (Maruyama)

**PRODUCTION UPDATES**
Enemy Profile
Maiden-Revenant　



Once, this undead maiden was a renowned dancer. Like other mages of her clan, she can command her hair at will, and has the unique ability to cast multiple spells at once.

In service to the woman who would become the Dead Countess, the maiden fought on countless battlefields, but it was a contagion that ultimately claimed her life.

Murayama's Monthly Development Report
Voice Recording
The main story for Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes will be fully voiced. And not only the main story--there will also be character voices for things like battle scenes and town facilities too.
The voice actors for the three main characters, Nowa, Seign, and Marisa were also announced at the recent Tokyo Game Show.
And now we're preparing for those voice recordings. It isn't as simple as turning a scenario script into a proper script for voice recording. We also have to organize and script stuff like the lines and cries in battle scenes too.
The problem here is that there are more than 100 characters in the game. Of course, this is one of the game's charms so there's no way to skirt around it, but to give an example, there are more than 80 different lines per character just for the battles.
And that's just for the characters who can fight, which on its own amounts to a thousand lines.
The whole game is going to require more than 60,000 lines, which is surely a headache for those in charge of handling the voice recordings.
Of course, voice actors will not only voice the friendly characters, but the antagonist, neutral and mob characters for their respective scenes which will require a fair number of actors.
A new battle begins with a single army of voice actors.

A Word from the Team
Kono here.
It's slowly getting colder, but I hope everyone is doing okay.
I spent some time out and about thanks to Tokyo Game Show and other events last month, but now I'm back at my desk every day.
Now that most of the character designs are out of the way, I've been checking the hero and non-hero visuals for Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes before anyone else. (lol)
Of course, each character has their own story to tell, and will be voiced this time around, so they'll feel a lot more fleshed out. But from the illustration side of things, I hope that each character will be loved by everyone…
That being said, we still have a lot of finishing touches and adjustments left to do. I'll keep working hard on what's left so we can reveal them soon!
I hope I get to visit a bunch of game events outside of Japan and meet fans from all over the world next year.
Until then~

Hey there heroes!

We’ve been hard at work promoting Eiyuden Chronicle at Gamescom and most recently Tokyo Game Show, so this month’s update will be about how those shows went. We hope you all liked the new trailer!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

―Murayama
We at Rabbit & Bear Studios participated in this year’s Tokyo Game Show. We also released a new trailer at Gamescom.

We still haven’t revealed everything about Eiyuden Chronicle yet. But you can get a glimpse of Noah running through a town, and see lots of party members fighting in battle.

The trailer shows the themes we’re going for in Eiyuden Chronicle. The battle scenes are rather striking, and the pixel art for the characters can look somewhat like a comic, sometimes humorous or sometimes serious. We believe that will make players feel affection towards the characters.

Another thing we showed off was the pixel art characters being drawn deep in backgrounds. In older 2D games the graphics were pan-focused, making the characters, the depth of the backgrounds and the foregrounds all the focal point.

But in Eiyuden Chronicle we make our backgrounds with depth-of-field, and it allows for the camera movement in battles, or things like the changes in depth in the scene with Noah running in town. We can also make use of changing different light sources.

Everyone’s favorite pixel art style, enhanced and made more lively by modern graphical expression. That’s the world we’re aiming for in Eiyuden Chronicle.

Now, as for TGS itself, I wasn’t able to get around the venue much myself. I was so busy that I used what little spare time I had using a massage chair at an internet cafe to get back as much energy as I could.

It helped cancel out the lack of sleep I was going through.

―Kawano
Hi, everyone! It’s Kawano.

I’m glad we were able to show off Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising and a new video of Eiyuden Chronicle.

In the future, I’d like to reveal some additional information (while not spoiling anything, of course). Please keep your eyes peeled for that.

And it seems like the JRPG space is starting to get pretty lively! That makes me very happy. It also means that we have to work hard to make Eiyuden Chronicle a game that you’ll all love. It’s got me all psyched up again.

Later!

―Murakami

Thanks for TSG 2022!
In TGS 2022, we were able to release a new trailer and announce the voice actors. I wish to express my thanks to everyone from the official broadcast, people who watched the interviews, and everyone who came to the venue. Thank you all so very much! It made me very happy to see opinions and support from everyone around the world.

This was the first time all of the staff were able to get together to participate in TGS. The first time in a long time we were able to do an announcement face-to-face. I was worried that I’d get really nervous, but seeing members and fans gathered together made me feel very reassured. When the time came, I was able to help put on a fun announcement with my friends keeping me from getting nervous.

As far as production goes, like I said, we’re really into the production phase and very busy. But we wanted to make sure we could get some new info out to you guys, and worked hard on the new trailer. I really wanted to show off the dueling scene, so I might’ve put too much in for the Gamescom version. But what did you think? Did you enjoy it?

I’ve got so many other scenes I want to show you all. We’re going to slowly start showing more and more as we go, so we hope you’re looking forward to it.

And man, face-to-face events are great. It’s taking the efforts and expectations of many to keep this project going. And we will succeed, no matter what. We want to make you all happy. Those four days increased my motivation to its limits.

This time, it was an event in our home country. But there are plenty of game events overseas. This event made me think that if we have the chance, I’d love to go to venues around the world and meet you all. I pray that that day comes soon…

Now I’m super psyched for production, and will work hard to make you all proud. I thank you all, and ask for your continued support.

J Murakami

―Komuta

So, TGS 2022 is over. Komunichiwa, komubanwa. This is Komuta, the guy who even turned into a rabbit at the TGS venue.

This is what it was like backstage at the official broadcast.



Even with TGS over, we had so many warm comments from people who saw the official broadcasts, stage events, and interviews. Thank you all so very much!

And finally… finally, we were able to show you guys footage of Eiyuden Chronicle actually running at Gamescom and TGS 2022! We’re sorry that it took us over a year since the last video at E3.

We’ve had a lot of responses to the trailer, and it has my happiness gauge and pressure gauge filled past the max levels! (lol)

For the TGS trailer, we added even more new footage and even voices this time! I feel like a lot of people were surprised at the voices.

That’s right, we’ve already begun recording the voiceovers. I can’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it. Someone stop time!

We’re being pushed ahead with a lot of busy things, but even so I’d still like to give you guys some progress reports on how development is going every now and again. We’re giving our all so that this game will be something you all will truly enjoy! Thank you all for your continued support!

P.S. There were a lot of extra things I wanted to show you guys, but we ran out of room footage-wise. There’s so many scenes I wanted to show you all! (Crying)

So instead I’ll sneak in a screenshot of Hugo slicing an enemy in two in a single stroke.

We are thrilled to reveal the Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes gameplay trailer at Tokyo Game Show.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Please let us know what you think and Wishlist Hundred Heroes today!

If you haven’t played Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising yet, check out our 6 things you need to know about the game here and grab yourself a copy now in the 505 Games Publisher sale!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising will be launching a physical version for PlayStation 4|5 and Nintendo Switch on January 26, 2023.



Thank you for being a member of the Eiyuden Chronicle family and supporting our exciting new adventure.

We would also appreciate it if you can please wishlist Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes on Steam. We are trying to get all of the support we can so we can make this a very successful franchise for the community.

https://505.games/ECHH

Visit the official Eiyuden Chronicle website: https://EiyudenChronicleGame.com

Visit the official Eiyuden Chronicle social channels below:
https://discord.com/invite/eiyuden">Eiyuden Chronicle Discord
https://www.facebook.com/eiyudenchronicle
https://twitter.com/eiyuden
https://www.instagram.com/eiyudenchronicle

Hey there heroes,

First let’s get to a very important topic - Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising.

We have finished our Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising post-mortem and wanted to be transparent about how we plan to address the many issues that occurred during the Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising code distribution process.

It’s clear we need to lock down backer platform selection sooner. The goal is to send out final backer platform selections within the next few months. This will allow us to send an extra month or two to fill in any gaps for backers who haven’t responded/have used different Emails/haven’t filled out their surveys.

There was some confusion where Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising was believed to be free or that it was actually the main game Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. But now that Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising has been released, we won’t have that confusion moving forward.

The customer service team has been increased to handle the larger than expected number of customer service tickets.

We plan to order more codes as a buffer. This should guarantee we do not run out of codes which would cause a delay in fulfillment timing.

These resource changes should help us navigate the massive undertaking of fulfilling Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. We plan to move faster to have enough buffer to avoid these issues in the future and hopefully earn back your trust.

If you have any ongoing issues with Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising feel free to contact us at [email protected]

Premium Backer Rewards

We are very close to finalizing the specific criteria of each premium backer reward and process for confirming identities for each backer. All premium backers will be contacted over the next 2-3 months. We will mention that contact Emails have been sent out via updates so that you’ll know they have and can ping us if you haven’t received an Email.

Thank you very much for your understanding and patience.

**Two Year Kickstarter Anniversary**



Murayama: It’s already been two years since the madness of the Kickstarter campaign. We’re still moving forward now, thanks to the power and courage that everyone’s support gives us.
Kawano: We’re in our second summer of this project now thanks to everyone. We just released Eiyuden Rising, so I tried drawing the characters of Rising this time around.
Komuda: Over these two years, we’ve been using your support as our fuel as we work together and move full steam ahead. I hope we’ll be able to show you what we’re working on little by little as time goes on.
Murakami: We're in our second summer of working on Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, but it's still at the front of our minds and we're working hard to deliver a game that everyone will love.
We might even be able to show you some of it soon!

Murayama's Monthly Development Report
This season, every new day in Japan is a hot one, but we’re still working and managing all the twists and turns that come our way.

One of my hobbies is playing board games – games that use wooden pieces and paper boards, versus the ones you can play on a computer. My personal favorite game is Carcassonne, a game where you build towns and roads.

My policy toward game systems is that they should be as simple as possible while also allowing for as many variables as possible. This may be due to the experiences I’ve had playing board games.

When you add complicated elements and systems to computer games, the computer can easily do the calculations and operations needed to support them. With board games, however, humans are the ones who need to do the calculations and manage the rules, so the more complicated the calculations needed to prep a strategy, the greater the stress it puts on the players. Therefore, board games require the creator to cut away needless elements and refine the system as much as possible.

In the end, you’re left with an extremely refined board game with what I would call a beautiful game system. This is very obvious in the games designed by Alex Randolph, a very famous board game designer, which include games such as Ghosts!, DOMEMO, and especially Venice Connection.

I wanted to make sure the mini-games in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes inherit that flavor, so I’ve been discussing this sort of thing with the team daily. As we continue talking to each other and doing trial and error with various things, the final version of Eiyuden is slowly coming together. We can’t show you all of it just yet, but we’ll be sure to show you what we can first as thanks for all your support.

＜動画＞

A Word from the Team
J-Diary Vol. 6

Unrelated to anything, but recently I finished watching Season 4 of Stranger Things on Netflix.

Hi, I'm Murakami J. It's been a while. That scene with Eddie was so crazy, I've been listening to Metallica every day as I work.

Sorry for starting off with a very niche topic. Has anyone else watched that show? It's a story about kids that takes place in a rural American town, and was very appealing to me as someone who loves Goonies and Stand By Me. It's also set in the 80s, which was perfect for me, so it pulls at my heartstrings every time I watch it. The level of detail they put into the fashion, music, and culture from the time period is really amazing.

Recently, a lot of monumental works across various genres of the 80s have been getting revivals, such as the movies Top Gun: Maverick and Ghostbusters, the Cobra Kai TV, etc. Work has been so busy that there's a lot I haven't been able to see yet.

But it's really fun to watch these things, as you can tell that the creators have deep passion for the works that influenced them. And love creates new masterpieces.

I believe that masterpieces can be enjoyed forever. We learn from them and yearn to revive the happy parts of our memories in fun new forms.

It's been a while since I reported on what's going on in the studio, so here goes. Currently we've reached the peak of our mass graphic production phase, so every day we're super busy and always wishing we had more people on our team.

The field is almost completely full of areas. We aren't reusing a lot of assets for Eiyuden, so every time we finish creating something, we find ourselves with yet another challenge to overcome.

As for the pixel art, our main members just keep getting older and older. (LOL) It was really hard for us to find people who were young, good at drawing pixel art, and who actually WANTED to draw pixel art, so this is just what we ended up with when we searched for the best of the best.

Veterans are truly reliable, though. We just need to make sure our pixel art staffers take proper care of their health. (LOL) As of now, people who can draw pixel art are valuable treasures of the game industry. Let's take good care of them!! Thanks to all their passion, the game is slowly coming together.

I think we'll be able to show you some progress or an event scene or two in a little bit, so I hope you're excited.

Oh, there's one thing I wanted to mention. We've also reached the point where we need to start working on the in-game backer assets for those backers who helped us achieve victory in our Kickstarter campaign. We deeply value all the support you gave us, so we're going to work hard on this. Soon, we'll need to get some info from you all in order to start working on this (we're preparing for it now), so please help us out when the time arrives.

That's it, really. As usual, I have a ton of things to do, and I'm just trying my best to scratch them off one as one while putting up with the heat. That reminds me... It seems like this year's summer is going to be filled with extreme heat and irregular temperatures all around the world. (And we still have covid to worry about... But I'm more worried about that for the time being)

Please make sure to stay safe and healthy, everyone!

Sorry the message isn't longer this time around, but I've got a lot of work to get back to. See you next time!