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Suikoden

Abu Antar

Turn-based Poster
Patron
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
13,514
Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
PSP is fine if you want to play it on the go or in your bed. I've played the PS1 version on PS1 and on PSP via PlayStation Classics.
 

Rahdulan

Omnibus
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Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Messages
5,105
I've never played Suikoden and I want to give it a try, do I play the Saturn or the PS version (or PSP version) (on emulator)?

If you can understand Japanese I hear the actual PSP release which collects Suikoden 1 and 2 is alright. 8-directional movement alone sounds like a great new inclusion. If you can't, PS1 is the go-to version. I wonder if many even realize Saturn version exists in the first place.
 

Jinn

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
4,930
Thank you for those who answered, started playing the PS1 version (emulated), it's fun so far

Suikoden I is fun, but Suikoden II is magnificent. It's great playing II after I too, because a number of characters from the first one return. Then you've got III and V after that to look forward to. You've got a lot of quality JRPG ahead of you.
 

Terra

Cipher
Joined
Sep 4, 2016
Messages
896
It's a shame we never got a Suikoden 6. After S4, I seriously had my doubts the team would be able to put out another title of the quality of S2/S3. Then they released S5 and it was such a return to form I had no doubts we'd be in for a bunch of subsequent follow ups.

After the events of Suiko 2 + 3, especially given the multiple POV system, I always imagined how cool it would be if you ended going up against an old hero in a later game, like seeing the Soul Eater rune activate far off on the battlefield would have been such an oh shit moment. S3 in particular really whet my appetite for where the series could go in terms of rune bearers being on opposing sides. Alas, Konami decided to just do fuck all with the IP after V and we'll never know how things were supposed to end.
 

LJ40

Cipher
Joined
Jul 16, 2014
Messages
612
Location
Wizardry/Ultima/Goldbox
Doing fuck all with the IP after 5 would actually have been much preferable to what they actually did with it. Not sure about the Vita game but that one for the DS fucking sucked balls.
 

Rahdulan

Omnibus
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Oct 26, 2012
Messages
5,105
I swear to god I will find you if you keep tagging my posts from 2013, Fluent. That is only acceptable in the case of Suikoden 6 getting announced and you know this very well.

suikoden-54123337.jpg
 

Rahdulan

Omnibus
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Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Messages
5,105
Dude actually got in touch with Murayama for the review to clear up some misconceptions that have sprung up over the years.

 

abnaxus

Arcane
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Joined
Dec 31, 2010
Messages
10,849
Location
Fiernes
Suikoden V 14th anniversary pic from artist who worked on the game



for some reason I really liked Nelis when I played the game, don't remember why

vS72Cws.jpg

now I'd put Bernadette in final party due to her relation with the prince
 

jazzotron

Liturgist
Joined
Jul 14, 2009
Messages
248
Suikoden V 14th anniversary pic from artist who worked on the game



for some reason I really liked Nelis when I played the game, don't remember why

vS72Cws.jpg

now I'd put Bernadette in final party due to her relation with the prince


I've had nearly the exact party configuration. Belcoot and Zerase never leave my parties when I get them.

Are there extra scenes/dialogue if you have Bernadette in your final party?
 

abnaxus

Arcane
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Joined
Dec 31, 2010
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10,849
Location
Fiernes
I think only the number of stars affects the actual ending but there may be a unique interaction before then.

I like that in the later Suikoden games at least you can have three separate teams at times.

DMRiENa.jpg


rMRYhPd.jpg


BvaNKI9.jpg
 

InD_ImaginE

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 23, 2015
Messages
5,367
Pathfinder: Wrath
God would somebody just take the IP from Konami.

Or make a new one named Water Margin or something. I miss the series too much.

:negative:
 

eric__s

ass hater
Developer
Joined
Jun 13, 2011
Messages
2,301
I remember getting Zweig on my team and thinking, "oh man, this guy looks like a real badass, I bet he's super gonna be super strong."

No, he's pretty much the worst character in the game, and it forces you to use him constantly.
 

Jinn

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
4,930
God would somebody just take the IP from Konami.

Konami is not only terrible for abandoning their old IPs and video gaming in general, but for holding their old IPs hostage.

They're like cartoon villains, twisting their mustaches, bags with $ signs and pachinko machines littered around them. Suikoden is tied up on a railway with an oncoming train in the distance. Except no slapstick hero is coming to save Suikoden.
 

Ysaye

Arbiter
Joined
May 27, 2018
Messages
771
Location
Australia
Okay - I bought a PS2 in boredom (Mainly to play Busin Wizardry Alternative) - does this mean I have to buy Suikoden V as a follow-on corollary?
 

Jinn

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
4,930
Okay - I bought a PS2 in boredom (Mainly to play Busin Wizardry Alternative) - does this mean I have to buy Suikoden V as a follow-on corollary?

Suikoden V is legitimately good, except its difficulty could be a higher, as is the case with the entire series. Pretty much goes SII>SI>SV>SIII>SIV imo. Definitely get Suikoden III too. Suikoden IV can safely be skipped and forgotten forever, unless you want to complete the entire series, in which case it's one of the shorter entries next to Suikoden I.
 

Hyperion

Arcane
Joined
Jul 2, 2016
Messages
2,120
Suikoden III is my personal favorite. Seeing the story through the eyes of 3 different characters all with vastly different takes was great. You're also allowed to play the first 2/3 of the game in whichever order you please. Seeing events unfold in a different order totally changes the perspective of some calamities and it's 'grey morality' done wonderfully, even back in 2002, including the burning of a village out of sheer desperation for survival, but going too far and slaughtering innocents from nothing but battle fervor. A character later is ashamed to admit and come to terms with this. It is, however, not a corny and dramatic scene, so if you're not paying attention to the dialogue you may miss it. Nice little subtleties. Really well localized game for the most part too.

After that it's a bit of a coin toss imo, but I would say III is followed by I, then II, then V. IV is definitely skippable, like Jinn said. 4-man party, stupid boat with horrible sailing controls, and a bad tactical battle system. Gearing characters was more boring, earning cash for weapon upgrades was boring and was generally more deoendent on trading rather than other means.

Duel against Troy on the sinking ship at the end was cool though.

V had the best introduction with the assassinatiin attempt on the royal family, but lost steam pretty quickly. Also, the effeminate protag left a bad taste in my mouth.
 
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Terra

Cipher
Joined
Sep 4, 2016
Messages
896
It's between S2 & S3 for my personal favourite. S2 is an all time classic, but as mentioned above, the multi-POV approach of S3, who the antagonist is and the game being the furthest in the Suikoden timeline make it really appealing for the top spot. S3 is also the only entry with any semblance of difficulty in combat due to the paired nature of battles, which I liked. The fact S3 never came to Europe and I had to do the route of modding my console and importing the game probably added to the allure of the title looking back, the epic intro didn't fail to impress me when I finally got to put the disc in my PS2.

S5 is also excellent, particularly the camera and overall sorta-isometric perspective hearkens back to the original two games. It is a slow starter, I remember a lot of negative commentary around that fact as it set everything up at the start of the game for a good few hours, but I really liked it. I will say the antagonists in S5 weren't on the same level as previous entries but they were at least serviceable. I remember thinking they'd finally got the series back on track when I originally played back in the day (after the lacklustre S4) and was sure that given the high quality of S5, we'd be assured similarly high quality sequels for years to come. Yet here we are 15~ years later unlikely to ever see a new entry.

Suiko Tactics deserves some praise for salvaging something from the mess that was S4 too.

This thread makes me sad, how did all the great JRPG series from the golden years falter and die off after the PS2 gen. I remember playing Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii and pretty much concluding that Japan are incapable of going beyond PS2 era graphics & budgets without tanking their own franchises, because while that game looked like a PS2 title, it felt like I was playing one of the greats once more.
 
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Deflowerer

Arcane
Joined
May 22, 2013
Messages
2,052
God would somebody just take the IP from Konami.

Or make a new one named Water Margin or something. I miss the series too much.

:negative:

Dunno, I've sort of made peace with this as well as Silent Hill that there is no point in wishing those franchises back, really. The original devs have scattered a long time ago. Just like I actually thought Kojima's Silent Hills would turn out nothing like Silent Hill and was actually glad it got canceled, I doubt anyone would pick up the mantle proper for the Suiko series either.

But yeah, I think something that takes another spin on the whole Water Margin concept would be cool.
 

Häyhä

Arbiter
Joined
Apr 9, 2020
Messages
1,416
Location
Hyperborea
Well, I decided to continue my old save of Suikoden III which was probably at least a few years old. Surprisingly easy to get back into the game, although probably mostly because it is soooooooooo goddamn slow to start! I'd put in over 20 hours and barely anything has happened in the story, I've run to the fucking Brass Castle and someplace else and back for probably a dozen times. Build up is okay, but the beginning just has too much filler, I finished the first Suikoden in the same amount of time and I usually like to take my sweet time.

Anyway, I've now done the first two chapters of Hugo and Chris (and the first chapter of the Castle Lord Kid) and just started Geddoe Chapter 2 and things feel like they're finally starting to move forward which is good. I quite like the three main protagonists approach and it's interesting to see how everything will work out for all the parties to join together against a common foe. The game definitely has that special "Suikoden-feeling" with all the characters, politics, betrayals etc. so all and all I'm quite enjoying it and waiting to start to really build up the castle and character roster.
 

Smoker

Scholar
Joined
Feb 10, 2017
Messages
120
Gotta try replaying 4 on a ssd maybe less rage with no loading times.
 

Smoker

Scholar
Joined
Feb 10, 2017
Messages
120
After reading this thread the other night I was looking at Murayamas wikipedia thinking this dude is done. Glad to be wrong.
 

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