Suikoden Appreciation Thread

[King Hippo]

I love the Suikoden series. I recently started playing the PS2 games again after many years, and I want to talk a little bit about them.

Suikoden III: This was my first entry into the series. It still holds up pretty well to this day. Hugo and Geddoe's stories are both great, full of lots of battles and nonstop action. Chris' story drags on a bit, and there are some really slow parts, but overall it's good as well. Thomas' story is an amusing side quest purely because of all the crazy characters you recruit.

It has it's flaws, though. The graphics didn't look too hot in 2002, and look positively dated now. The game has no voice overs and so much text you'll probably get very bored reading it all. And perhaps it's worst sin of all, the awesome story sets itself up for a sequel that we will never see.

Suikoden IV: Bullshit. This game just sucks. Whoever though that ship-based travel was a good idea needs to jump out a window. It manages to recreate the boredom of steering an actual wind sailboat. Yay.

The characters are boring, the story is boring, everything is boring. The only plus is that the graphics are significantly better than III, and the game has voice acting, but who cares?

Suikoden V: Awesome. No other word to describe it. This is one of the best games on the PS2, by far. From almost the exact moment you start playing the story grabs you and never lets go. Besides your primary characters other Stars of Destiny play either direct or indirect roles in the plot, and it's fascinating to see. The war battles are also great, and very challenging especially if you don't recruit the right characters.

The only downside is the graphics are somewhat lacking, but the game is so great you soon forget about that.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I started with the first two games which are two of my favorite RPGs, but never had a chance to get the PS2 games (mainly because they got expensive here fast) but would buy them quick if they ever had a re-release.

What makes Suikoden so great is that it does everything the genre has wanted to do since its inception without any of the pretension or lack of fun atmosphere that all the self-important RPGs have these days. The gameplay is based on group dynamics, from turn-based RPG battles to one on one duels to tactical strategy battles, it's always fun and since you have so many party members to choose from it never gets dull.

The stories are old school-style adventure stories driven by characters that you like playing with and seeing through the story. The amount of extra and miss-able stuff is pretty crazy (I'm not too big on miss-able characters for the complete ending, though) and it's wrapped up in a package of great art design, music, and a pick up and play style.

It's such a shame that Konami abandoned this series. There are no RPG series out there that come close, in my opinion, western or eastern.

[King Hippo]

What I liked about III is, with the exception of a couple of obvious exceptions you'd have to be a complete moron not to see your first time playing, you can't truly miss characters in the game. Granted, the game has a certain way it wants you to recruit these guys, but you don't have to follow it.

[Spark Of Spirit]

That was about my only issue with the first two games. You could miss many characters because there was no real hint at finding where they all were. I got them all in 1, but I had to cut a play-through of 2 short because I later learned I missed a character I could never get again because there was no hint that it was my only opportunity of getting him. Otherwise they did everything right.

How many RPG sequels let you recruit the hero from the previous game into your party and let it be canon? Suikoden just pays attention to all the little things like that. They really should release 2 on PSN, that game deserves more exposure.

[King Hippo]

V is absolutely brutal in that department. Unless you have the strategy guide you WILL miss many characters because the game is so very picky about when and how you can recruit them. For example, you can only recruit the game's appraiser if you activate a cutscene with him close to the beginning of the game. Too bad you probably didn't do that.

Also, way too many of the characters in that game are just followers who don't fight, including several warriors. Come on you lazy assholes, contribute!

[Spark Of Spirit]

Oh yeah, base-building was also one of my favorite aspects of the series. It really made wanting to find those extra characters worth it when you made it bigger and bigger. Just another aspect as to what makes the series great.

I'm not sure if anyone here has played any of the games other than us, but if you have a chance to play any of these games (other than IV) then you should really do it. Especially if you enjoy the genre.

[King Hippo]

I was so burned out by IV that I almost didn't touch V. It was only because of my local Blockbuster Video randomly having a copy for rent that I tried it out. I am so glad I did.

It would have been super-easy for Konami to release a PS3 compilation with all five games on it. But no. Someday I'll play II, but I'm not happy that Konami seems to want to force me to spend $50 on a scratched-up former rental disc.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I don't really know why they don't just put them all on PSN. Not putting II on is especially strange.

But then, Konami is really weird with game re-releases. They skipped Contra NES on the virtual console not to mention arcade games and console ports of said games, have ignored their Genesis games for re-releases, and have all but ignored the Hudson catalog they own since they bought them out. But anyway, you could make a whole thread on wondering what's wrong with Konami. It's just a shame that they leave their back catalog untouched and sit on the easy money they could be making.

Bah, I don't want to ruin the thread. Suikoden is great- play the games, folks!

[Daikun]

I don't know a damned thing about the Suikoden series. The only thing I know about it is the game's hilariously awful cover.

[Nel_Annette]

The only thing I've ever heard about Suikoden is that Luca Blight is "a fucking asshole." Dude comes up in best video game villain discussions quite a bit.

[Foggle]

Suikoden 2 is one of my favorite JRPGs of all time. I really like the first one as well. Never played the others, though. I've been really meaning to pick up 3 and 5, at least.

[Grave]

I've always wanted to play the Suikoden games, but by the time I got interested in the series all the prices skyrocketed up. I think Suikoden 1 and 2 are on PSN (there's quite a few games I have to get off of there), but I mainly want to play 3 and 5. I wish a collection would be in the works or something.

[King Hippo]

II is not on PSN. If it were I would have gotten it yesterday.

[Grave]

Gotcha.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, only the first game is on PSN. Konami is being real lazy there.

The only thing I've ever heard about Suikoden is that Luca Blight is "a fucking asshole." Dude comes up in best video game villain discussions quite a bit.

It's warranted.