Eiyuden Chronicle Sequel Will Move Forward, Despite Death of Creator

Sadly, February marked the passing of Yoshitaka Murayama, the legendary creator of Suikoden and its spiritual successor, Eiyuden Chronicle, with Hundred Heroes releasing on PS5 and PS4 next week. Developer Rabbit & Bear Studios has announced its intention to proceed with the series, but what form that takes will depend on how its impending and eagerly anticipated JRPG is received.

In a recent AMA on Reddit (thanks, IGN), devs from the team answered various questions concerning the game, but the subject of what comes next was of particular note. The response was unequivocal when pressed on whether the studio would greenlight a sequel without Murayama: “We are moving forward with a sequel. It is very sad that Murayama is not with us anymore, but we have discussed many things with him. I hope we will be able to carry on Murayama’s legacy, and I always want to treasure his last work. I hope many people will support this game.”

Murayama’s vision is quite exacting, so exactly how the series will be received without him remains to be seen. For example, when a Reddit user provided feedback that the team should implement more options in Hundred Heroes for players to save their progress, this was seen as conflicting with the director’s vision. Eventually, a limited autosave function was added, with Rabbit & Bear allowing that this didn’t directly tweak Murayama’s “concept of play” (which dictates that dungeons should be gruelling resource management tests).