'Suikoden' Successor 'Eiyuden Chronicle' Gets Kickstarter Funding In Two Hours

Proving that the classic series remains popular 25 years later, the long-awaited successor to “Suikoden” reached its funding goal on Kickstarter in just around two hours.

“Eiyuden Chronicle” managed to surpass the funding goal of $500,000 in mere hours after the campaign was launched on Kickstarter, The Verge reports. The game will be developed by the new studio Rabbit & Bear, which was founded by some of the key creative people behind the classic role-playing game on the PlayStation.

One of those minds is Yoshitaka Murayama, director and writer on the first two “Suikoden” games. “Suikoden” was developed and published by Konami for the original PlayStation and released in 1995. The creative team also includes Junko Kawano, the lead artist on “Suikoden” and “Suikoden V;” Junichi Murakami, art director on “Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow;” “Suikoden Tactics” director Osamu Komuta; and composers Motoi Sakuraba and Michiko Naruke.

The game is loosely based on the Chinese novel “Shui Hu Zhuan,” and features a vast array of characters both controllable and not, with over ninety characters usable in combat and many more able to help or hinder the hero in a variety of ways.

Rabbit & Bear describes “Eiyuden Chronicle” as a game that aims to celebrate classic JRPGS, with features like sprite-based characters, turn-based combat, and a large, fantastical world to explore.

“Over the past years the core creators have met up at different events, and of course you talk about the glory days as well as regrets,” Murayama recently told The Verge. “One common thing that always came up was ‘Isn’t it about time we make a game for ourselves? Something we really want to make? Something we can make for the fans?’ And that dream provided the spark for this current project.”

“Eiyuden Chronicle” is currently slated to launch on PC in 2022, though if funding hits $1 million, it could also come to platforms like the Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4, PS5, and “Nintendo’s next-generation console.”

“For this campaign, the launch timing will most likely put us right in the middle of a console transition period, meaning that some people will own next-gen consoles, and some will not. This is less than ideal when trying to run a Kickstarter campaign that you want to cater to the maximum number of people,” the game’s Kickstarter page said.

Aside from the PlayStation, “Suikoden” was also released on the Sega Saturn and PC. “Suikoden II” came out on both PlayStation and PC in 1998. “Suikoden III” (2002), “Suikoden IV” (2004), and “Suikoden V” (2006) were all exclusive to the PlayStation 2.