Suikoden spiritual successor Eiyuden Chronicle was freshly announced for a Fall 2022 release by Rabbit & Bear Studios, made by ex Suikoden and Konami developers. Most notably, some of the JRPG's main characters, and a few locations, were detailed in the Japanese press released of the game's reveal. We've translated all the profiles below, but we highly recommend you to first read the first details on Eiyuden Chronicle and comments from the ex Suikoden developers in our previous article.
Note that the profiles will probably be officially translated via the game's Kickstarter page, going live on July 27. Some names and terms might be officially spelt differently.
Name: Nowa
Gender: male
Age: 17 years old
Origin: From a remote village of the Alliance
Favorite food: Anything with meat
Dialogue line: "Leen would always tell me to stop meddling in others' business, but seems that's an incurable illness. I'm going to help whether you like it or not. I don't know if I can help, but I can't stand there doing nothing."
Nowa is a warrior from a remote village, he was hired by the Alliance for a joint mission with the Empire. During the mission, he ends up finding a mysterious artifact called a rune-lens.
Little did he know this event would ed up triggering the war between the Empire and the Alliance.
Later on, Nowa joins the guards of the Alliance.
Nowa is described as a reckless type of person, acting before thinking of the risks and consequences. He often meddles in other people's business, but is still appreciated by his comrades, who know they could count on him when it matters the most.
(We don't know who this "Leen" is yet).
Nowa is the player's avatar, and can be renamed.
Name: Seign Kesling
Gender: male
Age: 18 years old
Origin: An aristocratic family of the Galdean Empire
Favorite food: Poached egg
Dialogue line: "This world is cruel and cannot be changed with willpower alone. That's why I swore I would never hesitate to throw away my ideals for a moment, if this would ultimately bring me closer to realizing them."
Seign is the second son of the Kesling family. A talented young man who displayed exceptional results at the military academy. He was given command over a mission with a squadron made of mainly students, to look for rune-lenses. This is how he met the protagonist, Nowa. They became friends and told each other their hopes for the future.
His older brother was killed in battle during a rebellion in a remote region of the Empire. This event changed Seign's life, making him learn the consequences of war.
Seign is a strategist who always sees the big picture, and as such is often misunderstood as a cold person. He keeps his emotions and passion in his heart.
Name: Melisa
Gender: female
Age: 16 years old
Origin: The forest's Guardians
Favorite food: Herb Chicken
Dialogue line: "Hahaha, I know everything about the forest. The water sources, where rabbits nest, and where the enemies would hide to ambush us"
Melisa's family acts as the Guardians of the forest, and thus she was taught about her own mission as a Guardian very early in her childhood. She heartily smiles to her friends but turns into a true warrior when in battle. The Guardians live together with the forest, but do not reject culture and technologies from the outside world, developing independently while incorporating the good parts of said external influence. Even among the Guardians, Melisa has a very open-minded personality. She likes discovering new things, and loves anything cute.
The Guardians have been transmitting from generation to generation special technology when it comes to manipulating rune-lenses. As such, both the Alliance, whom the protagonist Nowa belongs to, and the Galdean Empire, are seeking to ally with the Guardians. Whomever the Guardians decide to stick with, this will be a major turning point in history.
Name: Marlridge
Gender: male
Age: 27 years old
Origin: A naturalist
Favorite food: Duck soup
Dialogue line: " "Let's see, how about we just surrender? That's the best thing we could do. ...That's not an option? Fine then, let me explain our second best option, how to win this battle."
A young scholar specialized in natural history. He's incredibly curious and wishes to know the reason behind Every Little Thing's existence in the world.
He's also a genius strategist, and will often save the protagonist and his friends thanks to his skills. However, Marlridge considers war as the most meaningless action done by mankind, and thus finds no value in his own talent as a strategist.
Name: Gaou
Gender: male
Age: 32 years old
Origin: A warrior from a tribe of mercenaries
Favorite food: Pancakes with tons of cream on top
Dialogue line: "Being the leader and yet standing at the vanguard, rushing in by yourself. Anyone can tell how stupid this is. But that's fine by me. Life is too short to always be boringly worrying about danger."
A battlefield veteran, earning his life by participating in many battles. He was born on the battlefield, plans to fight all his life, and die on the battlefield.
The Beast tribe are considered the most ferocious warriors, as such mercenaries like him never run out of work. Mercenary contracts are made on an individual basis, so warriors from the same tribe can often end up fighting each other.
(I'm not paid enough for this, but I could still bet you my next paycheck that this guy is gonna be voiced by Tetsu Inada.)
Name: Liang
Gender: female
Age: 16 years old
Origin: The daughter of a family of martial artists
Favorite food: Ultra spicy ramen
Dialogue line: " Uuuh, I don't really get this difficult stuff, but these random guys suddenly invaded us. So yeah! They're bad guys!"
She left her home, angry at the Empire invading the Alliance, but didn't think through about what she should do. She figured she'll figure things out by reaching a big city, rushed to one, and thankfully ended up meeting the protagonist and friends.
Her family owns a dojo and puts martial arts above everything else, so she was taught how to fight by her father since her childhood. It is said she was able to jump and kick before being able to walk on her two legs.
Name: Mio
Gender: female
Age: 27 years old
Origin: Somewhere from the far east
Favorite food: Sasa dango
Dialogue line: "Even if you follow a single path, you're the one deciding where that path will lead"
A female warrior following the way of the sword. She has a stoic personality and often stays silent, only talking to challenge fellow warriors to test her skills.
Because Mio carefully picks her words, and only speaks when truly necessary, with sharp and pertinent remarks, she's highly respected by her comrades. Sometimes she can be a bit of an airhead though.
There you have it. These are the seven characters revealed so far. Seeeing Eiyuden Chronicle is a successor to Suikoden, it's highly likely there will be over a hundred playable characters in total. The subtitle Hundred Heroes hints at that too, as well as the screenshots revealed, included further below.
Yoshitaka Murayama is incredibly eager that he and all the others could finally announce the game, and spent some time on Twitter answering fans from all horizons. He most notably jokingly said he'll "fight" with the rest of the team to include character portraits during dialogues.
Last but not least, some artwork for some of the locations in the game were shared.
This here is the river town of Kinsha, and the second artwork depicts a seaside cave. Again, Eiyuden Chronicle flaunts its Suikoden vibes here. Screenshots of both locations can be found further below.
Eiyuden Chronicle is scheduled to launch on PC, and home consoles if Kickstarter stretch goals are met, in Fall 2022. Meaning it'll be launching on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch.
If you're a seiyuu nerd and an anime otaku share your predictions as to who could voice who in the comments.