Eiyuden Chronicle is one of the biggest Kickstarter campaigns this year, partly because of its quick success. As the legendary Suikoden series’ spiritual successor, the game has a lot to live up to.
One of the key features that defined every Suikoden mainline entry is that there are always 108 characters. Rabbit and Bear Studios have recently revealed that for Eiyuden Chronicle, the number will be different. Here’s why the developers are taking a different route.
109, not 108
As part of its stretch goals, the developer of the upcoming JRPG has added the 109th character to the game. The character’s model is yet to be revealed. In fact, it will be revealed through the game’s social media platforms, and a voting poll will be opened on August 21 to see which of the character models the players prefer.
Aside from adding another stretch goal to the already successful Kickstarter campaign, the 109 characters also mean other things. Rabbit and Bear Studios’ Yoshitaka Murayama says that they understand the symbolic importance of 108 characters for the Suikoden series. As such, it wants to respect the series and its legacy by going in a different direction.
While the extra character may not seem much, for Suikoden fans, 109 characters are more than enough to pay respect to their favorite franchise.
Kickstarter campaign so far
Since launching earlier this month, the Kickstarter campaign for Eiyuden Chronicle has become very successful. It was able to reach its stretch goals within a few hours after launching.
Currently, the Kickstarter campaign has raised over $3 million, and its initial goal was only $1 million. As the campaign became bigger and raised more money, the developers added more stretch goals to ensure that the supportive community will get something in return.
Backers of the campaign are rewarded with great goodies depending on the amount they pledge. Rewards range from special editions of the game to having an NPC designed after them. Some of the rewards even let players access a special statue of the two lead characters in the upcoming title.
Eiyuden Chronicle is being developed for current gen and future consoles. No exact release date has been given yet, but the developer has said that they are planning to release the game in 2020. The game could be getting more stretch goals as the campaign will last up until the end of the month. There’s still room for a lot of other goodies.
Image used courtesy of eiyudenchronicle/YouTube