Thanks to a fellow user @ahmadmanga 's documentation of gameplay in this game I decided one day to go ahead and pick the game up for $20 one night when I was just kind of tired of looking around for a game that I would find entertaining enough to stick with for a while.
It isn't a huge file, so the download was over very quickly and this is something that to me is just another thing that annoys me about modern gaming: The files are magnificently huge because it seems that all AAA studios are focused mostly on having as realistic of graphics as they possibly can.
Eiyudien Chronicle is definitely not a graphical marvel but it kind of proves that a game doesn't need to be:
src
My first 15 hours in the game just kind of flew by without me noticing because in many ways, this game reminded me of how basically all RPG's were back when I was in my gaming prime back in the early to mid 90's. We didn't have the capabilities to make graphics better that this way back then and therefore, the simplistic nature of combat doesn't get under my skin the way that it would a lot of other people. It is turn-based and I think the latest generation of gamers really don't like that... but for me, I don't mind it and in many ways prefer it.
src
As simplistic as combat can be, you can make it more complicated if you so choose by doing the fights manually and carefully selecting how you want to approach the battle against the foes that appear. At first I thought it was kind of annoying to have an "auto" feature where the battle is just handled by a set of conditions that you place on your warriors but after my 200th or so fight I was quite happy that this option existed.
I got humbled in one particular boss fight - one of the only difficult ones I have encountered in 15 hours - when after trying to do it manually myself twice in a row, and failing - I put the fight on "auto" and my team won. I guess I really am terrible at games!
src
There are a lot of reasons to enjoy this game and in some sort of way I was reminded of other games that I have played such as Ni No Kuni because there are multiple sections in the game that are played completely differently. It takes a while to get to the point where you have your own castle, but once you do the game takes on another sort of focus where your main objective becomes to recruit as many people as possible and to get your keep upgraded. It starts out in ruins but as time goes by you see it get better and better and at least for me, the gathering of resources and people to manage those areas became my primary focus.
src
Although it is in itself also turn-based, the few sections where I had to have a large-scale war were a nice break from the usual turn-based random battles that you will encounter very frequently as you trundle around the outdoors.
These wars are not difficult although I suppose they could become so later on... The ones that I have encountered in the first 15 hours seem to be heavily stacked in your favor so that you could only really lose if you intentionally sabotaged your own forces.
Kitting out the people you decide to bring along with you is absolutely essential for success, and so far if I was fighting regularly and not running away, having enough money to constantly be purchasing new equipment hasn't been an issue at all. I have always had more money than I needed. Perhaps that will change, perhaps it wont.
src
If you pay attention to what I write at all you might already know that I am generally not a fan of long and drawn out dialogue that interrupts the flow of gameplay constantly and I need to warn you, this is going to happen a LOT in ECHH. This annoyed me at times but I will say this: The dialogue is almost entirely voice acting and despite the fact that the budget of Rabbit and Bear studios was just a fraction of what most AAA studios would expect to spend the voice acting is really top-drawer. I can't identify a single bad actor in the extremely large cast of characters and I tip my hat to the devs for this because it is so rare these days that they are able to pull something like this off. The writing isn't excellent, but it is much better than most games and leagues ahead of Veilguard that is for sure.
There was a ton of interest in getting this game released because the original Kickstarter was set at $500k but they ended up raising more than $4 million.
There are also side games in the game that can give you a little break from the story if you need it and since this is a JRPG, of course fishing is one of them
src
I'm yet to figure out what part this actually plays in the overall progression of your characters but in the meantime it is a very relaxing side thing to do for a while.
Now, I am not going to completely kiss this game's ass because I do have a few gripes. It is extremely difficult to keep the MP (magic points) up on your characters and the potions that refill this seem to be a carefully guarded secret in this world because almost none of the vendors sell them. My solution to this problem was to not really use my casters and this is a shame because I have a bunch of them.
There is a wide variety of characters and one thing they did really well was to make it so that if you decide you want to try out a new guy or gal, it prioritizes the XP given at the end of a battle so that someone will gain several levels every single battle until they "catch up" with everyone else in your crew. In less than 10 battles the newbie will be able to showcase what it is that they can do in battle and you can make the decision about whether or not it is worth it to level up their gear as well.
I do have a "beef" with some of the story in that some of it is bunched together in such a grand way that there was one time where I spent a full 30 minutes of running around, triggering another part of the story's dialogue, listening to it, then having it be necessary for me to run around to another part of the same city to get to the next part of the story - which carried on in a similar fashion.
src
The characters are all good but there comes a point where I will say that I don't want to watch a movie, I want to play a game! Thankfully, the ability to skip scenes is always there and you can go back and read the backstory in your menu anytime you feel like it if you so choose.
Thus far I have played just over 15 hours and the game was $20 so even if you aren't very good at math this game has been a worthwhile investment as far as keeping me out of the pubs is concerned. In my life anyway, that is one of the major factors in whether or not a game is good or "worth it." So far I would say that this game would be amazing for anyone that grew up in the RPG early days, but I don't know if it is going to appeal to younger gamers who have different standards as far as games are concerned. For me, I don't like modern gaming's focus on hyper-realistic graphics and massive file sizes, so thus far anyway, this game has been great.