KickStarter Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes - From Suikoden creators - coming April 23rd

[Abu Antar]

Hmm, a sneak peek at the companion game.

Absolutely no one is reporting on this. And people ask why Suikoden died.

 

[LESS T_T]

 

[Häyhä]

New character Cassandra the Innkeeper:

For an innkeep, you'd think Cassandra would at least try to feign industriousness, but she always comes across as a bit languid. Still, that doesn't stop her from tugging at the heartstrings of the boys, who are never quite sure what part of her they're allowed to look at.

Cassandra hails from an elven town, though it's not clear why she left.

"Oh... *yawn* Welcome. Aren't you a cutie. Staying the night? I have a fine wine that's just begging to be...mm hm hmm...uncorked.

Definitely not going to be too "woke" this one.

 

[AdamReith]

Like the ears.

Gives me something to hang onto.

 

[Abu Antar]

Character Profile
Squash

Profession: The League of Nations

Gender: Male

Age: 44

Favorite Food: Spinach quiche

An ornitha who peddles accessories. He claims to be a fine judge of his wares—capable of sorting the treasures from the trinkets—but at times one can't help but think that "shiny object" is his sole criterion.

"Hmm, well! See this cut here? Classic protomonarchist feature. And this lovely curvature here at the shoulder? Oh yes, worth a hefty sum, I'd say. And it's so SHINY!"

 

[Kem0sabe]

Character Profile
Squash

Profession: The League of Nations

Gender: Male

Age: 44

Favorite Food: Spinach quiche

An ornitha who peddles accessories. He claims to be a fine judge of his wares—capable of sorting the treasures from the trinkets—but at times one can't help but think that "shiny object" is his sole criterion.

"Hmm, well! See this cut here? Classic protomonarchist feature. And this lovely curvature here at the shoulder? Oh yes, worth a hefty sum, I'd say. And it's so SHINY!"

This is very anti-semitic

 

[Abu Antar]

UPDATE #35Backers only
October 2021 Update

Rabbit & Bear StudiosCreator
October 27, 2021


※日本語のアップデートは下の方にあります


Hey there Heroes!

Japan is finally experiencing the Fall chill this week as the weather dropped 10 degrees overnight (yikes)! So let’s heat things up with a new batch of October updates!


**Tokyo Game Show Round Up**
Tokyo Game Show was a busy time for us and we hope you all enjoyed what 505 Games had to show. And if time zone differences got in the way of keeping up with all those updates, worry not! You can find everything shown right here.


**Production Updates**
Background Concept Art
Desert Border Route

*Images are from a product still in development
Comment: Murakami

Today, I'd like to show you a beautiful, naturally occurring maze near the desert area.
The dry terrain will present an array of challenges to halt your progress (heheh).

Wait, I'm getting carried away...
I myself love RPGs, but I'm not too good with mazes. (I have no sense of direction.)

I'm sure to lose my way in the mazes of Eiyuden, so to prevent boredom,
I at least want to prepare some beautiful scenery (lol).

Murayama's Monthly Development Report
Personally, I feel that storytelling in games is quite different to that for TV series or novels. Of course, the way stories are created changes depending on the medium. For example, there is a huge difference between work that is entirely written versus video-based work. The latter uses techniques to convey meaning through moving images that cannot be conveyed through dialogue alone, while novels have their own techniques.

One unique technique that I'm always conscious of in game storytelling is synchronizing the feelings and sensations communicated through the story with those experienced during gameplay itself.

In a scene where the story is bitter and painful, you have to use production techniques to make the gameplay reflect those feelings as well.

For that reason, when I'm writing for a game, I'll also include specifications about the gameplay, like requesting for certain parts to have enemies that are stronger than usual.

I'll also ask for there to be a little more distance between certain locations, so that players have time to walk around and explore on their own before another big event in the game starts.

I think this is a production technique rarely seen in other media.

On the flip side, I sometimes work on synchronizing how the story develops with the gameplay aspects.In an RPG, players are guided along a single path in terms of both the story and gameplay during the beginning stages. This is so players don't get lost right at the start.

However, at some point, players start to be given more choices, and more freedom in where to go and how to enjoy the many different aspects of the game.

Stories for games are also written in a way that complements this format. That's another technique I find unique to game storytelling.

The skeleton has already been built, so now I need to add the meat. In other words, fleshing out the story, which is taking up most of my time these days.

A Word from the Team
Hello, everyone.

I am the game's director, Komuta.

It seems to be getting colder and colder recently.

The other day I had some freshly picked ginkgo nuts and shochu.

It really feels like fall now! It's the season of delicious food.

As for the work on Eiyuden, we are currently in the process of making a prototype that connects up each element in the early stages of the game,

and responding to various issues that have come to light during testing,

like how to view the world map, the towns and dungeons, camera work for the demo,

managing the positioning of the characters and height differences during battle, and so on.

We're working on solving each of these issues one by one and finalizing the specifications so that we can move onto the next step,

while also keeping an image of the full, completed game in our minds.

Also, among the 120 characters joining,

the roles of the characters who will take part in battles are gradually being solidified.

Mr. Murayama first came up with the characters' features,

what role he'd like to see them play in battle,

their abilities, the number of attacks, their skills,

and then how we'd implement them and what the animation would look like.

We went over each section, but then we'd receive remarks from Mr. J like,

"Let's make Yuferius more shark-like"

and they'd created a stir.

"What does shark-like even mean?" "His weapon is an iron ball, right?"

"Are iron balls shark-like?" "When you think of a shark, you think of so-and-so, right?"

"We can't really do that visually, so how about this?"

Usually the content of the animation is decided by Mr. J's character team,

but if the problem is related to implementation specifications (how to create it in-game), the leaders of the different parts gather

and have a very serious Shark Summit about sharks (lol).

Now, as to what kind of visuals come out of all this... That's something to look forward to.

By the way, after the Shark Summit,

I found a cool t-shirt on the internet. (This is the important part of the story.)

Isn't it the best?　This right here.

A shark eating a little kid who's giving a thumbs up saying,

"Stay Positive!"

Once I saw the picture, I immediately bought the shirt.

I can't get enough of that kid's cheery smile despite him being eaten by a shark.

I want to follow this boy's example

and stay positive no matter the situation.

Thank you all for your continued support!



**Halloween**
Who doesn’t love Halloween, the season of scary movies, creepy games and spooky tidings? And while it’s still not time for many of us to hit the streets for trick-or-treating this year, that doesn’t mean the Halloween spirit is lost.

In the spirit of all things spooky, the Eiyuden team wishes everyone a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

 

[Abu Antar]

Character Profile

Hakugin

PROFESSION: The Far East

GENDER: Female

AGE: 27

FAVORITE FOOD: Baked custard

A master ninja and cool, composed warrior. However, she has a sentimental side. Hakugin is an old friend and rival of Mio, one of the few people Mio feels she can open up to.

While Mio is an idealist who pursues her aims unflinchingly, Hakugin is more of a realist. Each provides a healthy dose of perspective to the other. Hakugin's mind was blown the moment she tasted her very first baked custard.

"Walk the right path? Heh, please. First you have to win. Then you can be choosy about your paths."

Kawano's Comment:

The results for the best Kunoichi character Kickstarter poll are in.

D Hakugin came out on top!

"Is that all?" you say? Well, I thought I'd give her a proper introduction after her win.

This is Hakugin.

She won by a landslide, so I have no doubt that we'll see a lot of her in action in the game as well. I'm very excited for it.

As for Kunoichi A, B, and C...

 

[Rahdulan]

While B had some Kasumi vibes, it was pretty clear D was going to win. For selfsame reasons.

 

[Anonymous Wife Scholar]

GENDER: Female

AGE: 27

Give me cute mommy wife!

 

[baud]

January 2022 Update

Rabbit & Bear StudiosCreator
January 26, 2022


Hey there heroes!

It’s a new year and we’ve got tons of new information that we can’t wait to start sharing with you, so we’re kicking things off in style with a sneak peak of Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising – the companion game to Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes that is currently in development thanks to everyone's tremendous support during the campaign!

Before jumping into the juicy details, we’d like to take this opportunity to answer a couple of questions we’ve received regarding Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising.

First, we would like to assure those who have purchased the companion game, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, at the 7 USD backer exclusive price will not be expected to pay any additional cost (woohoo)!

Additionally, we understand there are backers who have asked how to change or finalize their platform of choice for Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising. In March of 2022, right after the March update goes live, we will be sending an email to the same email address backers provided in the official backer survey that we sent out a few months AFTER the campaign concluded. Backers will be asked in this email to select which platform they would like to receive their copy of Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising on, and that platform of choice will then be locked in. This cannot be changed later as we need a point in time to secure and confirm orders due to the large number of keys that need to be ordered from each platform. We appreciate your understanding.

In addition, we will send out a reminder email to backers we do not receive responses from. In the event that a response to either email is not received, then we will send a key for the platform version they specified in the survey. Please note, we cannot guarantee copies of the game will be sent ahead of general release to backers who do not answer the survey. Again, we thank you for your understanding.

These aren’t the only questions we’ve received about Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, however, and so we are also preparing an FAQ for a future update which will address them. We hope you look forward to it.

And worry not Eiyuden Chronicle enthusiasts, we still have plenty of tantalizing core game goodies that we look forward to sharing in not-too-far-off future updates!


**EIYUDEN CHRONICLE: RISING**
The Story - Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising combines a thrilling adventure through ancient ruins with the tale of one town’s rise from the ashes.

Drawn by lenses and other treasure in the nearby Runebarrows, our heroes learn that the town is struggling to rebuild after an earthquake, and decide to help. Along the way, they’ll resolve disputes between eager adventurers and wary locals who don’t think the Barrows should be disturbed. And they’ll learn more about each other’s reasons for seeking treasure, deepening their bonds in the process.

As you will learn, these Runebarrows hide a great secret that has fateful implications for one of the characters. What begins as a simple treasure hunt turns into a dark conspiracy that will shake the world and plant seeds that carry over into the main story of Eiyuden Chronicle.


Character Profiles

Name: CJ

Gender: Female

Age: 16

Home: The League of Nations

Favorite Food: Mega katsu curry

The latest in a long line of Scavengers (tomb raiders by trade). CJ’s clan has sent her to New Nevaeh in order to complete their traditional “rite of passage.”

"What can I say? Your town’s growing on me. That’s reason enough for me to stick my neck out."

Name: Isha

Gender: Female

Age: 16

Home: New Nevaeh

Favorite Food: Red-hot tom yam kung

Isha has served as acting mayor of New Nevaeh ever since her father, the former mayor, went missing. She realised the town was sitting on a goldmine and invited adventurers from far and wide to come explore New Nevaeh’s Runebarrows…for the right price, of course.

“An explorer's licence costs 100,000 baqua. Not a penny less.”

Name: Garoo

Gender: Male

Age: 35

Race: Beastman (of the giant kangaroo persuasion)

Favorite Food: Pavlova

An adventurer who’s looking to get his mitts on the priceless treasures in New Nevaeh’s Barrows. Garoo is tough as nails—in his old life as a mercenary, he single-handedly hacked his way through some nasty battles—but it’s the jingle of coin he marches to.

“That’s the thing about fights, mate. They don’t happen unless both parties involved think they’re tougher than the other guy.”

Kawano's Comment:

CJ is energetic and Isha is strong willed. When creating these two, I imagined that their relationship would run parallel to that of Nowa and Seign from the main story of Eiyuden: Hundred Heroes, then added some extra oomph to it. (This is an Action RPG, after all, so their dialogue will be full of energy and passion).

As for Garoo, well, right after seeing a wallaby at a nearby zoo, I got to work 'hmm'ing and 'haa'ing and made him into a cool uncle-type character. But the most interesting part of his design has to be the mysterious pocket on his waist, right? lol

Spoiler

Murayama's Monthly Development Report
I was asked "What games have you played that have had an impact on you?"

Let me see if I can remember the things that have had an impact on me in one way or another. I can think of a few novels. One is a famous sci-fi/cyberpunk light novel called Neuromancer. I was at the bookstore and picked it up because the front cover and the title caught my attention. I was only going to flip through the first few pages, but I became so absorbed in the fascinating world and writing style that I read through the first third before I knew what hit me.

I've reread it numerous times since then.

But what about movies?

There's only one movie that I've seen at a movie theater more than 3 times. Shaolin Soccer. I was obsessed with its perfect blend of laughter and action.

In this same vein, aside from titles like Civilization, there's one game that I've completed 3 times from beginning to end: Deus Ex.

For those who don't know, Deus Ex is a stealth game set in a cyberpunk world. Of course, the atmosphere is excellent, and the game has multiple options for how players can solve a single problem: you can utilize the puzzle-like devices in the game, smash through all guns blazing, find a key somewhere else, hack things, or just grind until you're strong enough to brute force everything.

Of course, games can still work even if there's only one solution to each problem.

But with that game, I could imagine the developers smiling and challenging players to solve the problem however they like, using one of the many well-balanced solutions that had been prepared.

Those are the kinds of games I like.


A Word from the Team
Happy Mew Year and Good Eveming! Komuta here.

Let's make this another great year.

I spent the new year’s holiday playing with the cats and suddenly got into making braised pork on New Year’s Day. We entered January 2022 rejuvenated and ready to go, and now it's already coming to an end.

(All I’ve talked about since the end of last year is how pressed for time I am...lol)

People say that time flies when you're having fun. But it also flies for me when I decide the next steps I need to take, find issues in the process of actually creating each part, then realize it didn't turn out the way I want to, forcing me to go back to the drawing board.

Since the beginning of this year, I've been running at top speed trying to tighten up how everything works, and all that extremely dense time has flown by so fast that I didn't even notice it until now.

Recently, we cemented the setting for Eiyuden: Hundred Heroes - its terrain, climate, and natural features. Our once-symbolic world map made up of nothing but sketches and photographic references has finally become properly visualized, which gave everyone an immediate boost of excitement.

We're also working on the dungeons that lead to the deep forest region and the desert, as well as locations that Nowa and his companions will visit on their adventure, such as the desert village.

I know everyone's anxious for more info, but unfortunately we can't show you any mid-production screenshots, so please hold on a little longer.

When I was able to find a small moment for myself, I went to see Spiderman: No Way Home! I won't go into any spoilers, but it was tons of fun.

If they can cram so much story into two and a half hours, I should be able to do more with my time too! Well, now that I've fallen into some weird logic loop and started screaming 'Nope, no way, nuh-uh!' to my own brain, like I'm one person playing both parts of a comedy duo on stage, I think I'll call it here.

Oh, but before I go—please enjoy this picture of the braised pork I made on New Year’s Day!

I hope you will continue to support us!

 

[Jermu]

I really dont like that we get action rpg first before traditional turn based one. Why not 2x turn based rpgs

 

[Siveon]

I really dont like that we get action rpg first before traditional turn based one. Why not 2x turn based rpgs

Different team, smaller scope. The smaller scope game comes out first, not a shocker.

Could they have done two games with the same combat system? Probably, but that might also mess with development time since the spinoff team would need to be in contact.

 

[Jermu]

Released yesterday



Some reviews:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/umijpw/eiyuden_chronicle_rising_review_thread/

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

Any cute loli party members? Haven't followed much of the development.

Will probably play the companion game this weekend if i finish Dragon Quest.

 

[Abu Antar]

EIYUDEN CHRONICLE: HUNDRED HEROES IS COMING TO NINTENDO SWITCH
That's right! Given recent speculation over the Nintendo Switch and potential next generation Nintendo iterations, we wanted to play it safe and investigate what options we had before fully committing to a Nintendo Switch version.

But now the wait is over and we're delighted to confirm that Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes will also be landing on Nintendo Switch!


**Production Updates**
Character Profile
Yaelu

Home: A small settlement in the League of Nations

Gender: Female

Age: 15

Favorite Food: Blueberry pie

Yaelu hails from a reclusive settlement. Inquisitive by nature, she is struggling to overcome her shyness and find the courage to make contact with the outside world.

Her settlement uses a rune-lens to cloak itself from prying eyes.

The settlement worships the lens, and it is their custom to hide their eyes behind their bangs as a sign of reverence.

"Um, excuse me, I...um... I mean...do you think... Could you... Could you take me with you? I want to see what the rest of the world is like..."

Kawano’s Comment:

Yaelu is someone who never, ever reveals her eyes.

(Apparently it has to do with a tradition within her clan)

And when I say never, EVER, I mean it! We have a lot planned for Yaelu...!

Regardless of what situations she finds herself in, however, she never loses her enthusiasm, and I tried to express that in this art.


Pixel Art

Murayama's Monthly Development Report
A lot of different characters appear in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes–not only those with big parts to play in the main story, but also those with a variety of other roles to fulfil.

Party members who are capable of fighting have different characteristics, while other characters have unique abilities that will allow you to employ a variety of different strategies in the battle system. There are also 'general' type characters who will really shine on the field of battle.

We also have characters whose roles are to manage facilities. Some may be store owners, while others will supply the player with convenient services. On top of that, we've also prepared a slew of characters whose jobs are just to provide fun for the player, such as through a simple combat-oriented RPG-style mini-game and more.

This motley crew of characters will all be living in the same town, which acts as your home base. We'll also be preparing simple events and dialog that allows you to catch a glimpse into their daily lives.

Therefore, in order to make all that happen, we're currently exchanging ideas and figuring out how the different characters' relationships will work.

Do these two go out fishing together? Do these two have fun talking about love? Are these two rivals? And so on, and so forth.

It's too much of a job for me to handle all by myself, so I'm collecting ideas from my staff members as well. They're coming up with a lot of fun ideas and combinations that I would never have been able to come up with on my own.

The surprises are a lot of fun to discover, and I truly feel like this is an important step that will allow us to pour even more depth into the world and its characters.

I hope you're all also having fun imagining things on your own!

Spoiler

A Word from the Team
Hello everyone! Komu-nichiwa and komu-banwa!

This month's word is brought to you by Komuta!

Last month, you got a glimpse into the team’s daily life, so I should probably give you a glimpse into what’s happening on the development side of things, huh…

Walking around the map that connects the world together, checking out towns and dungeons, fighting enemies, buying things in shops, dueling and sparring, fishing and playing with tops, etc. There's a lot to do in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, and through working on the prototype, we've been able to pinpoint the issues and things we need to work on, as well as define what the player 'can' and 'can't' do in the game.

What must we keep, and what must we drop in the limited time we've got left?

Is it really okay to just drop and cut the things we can’t make?

Every day, we're faced with hard decisions about a variety of things. Sometimes we're not sure what decision to make... And in times like that, we try to focus back on what the core concept of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is.

I personally believe the concept of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is giving form to the unique aspects of each character. This doesn't mean the player can customize each character any way they want, but rather we need to set limitations for the role of each character. We need to purposefully give characters weaknesses and limitations in order to give a unique identity to each and every one of the 100+ characters in the game.

Naturally, with the battles we've planned and worked on, we have strived to give individuality to the animations and abilities for each battle-ready character. I've spent a lot of time planning out each character so that they function and fight the way we envision them to.

Murayama-san thinks up the characters, Kawano-san gives them form with her illustrations, J-san and the character team allows them to move using pixel art, the planner team gives them roles within the game...and then, finally, at least one character is born. (And we have to do this over 100 times! LOL)

Due to that, we're so busy every day that it makes me dizzy sometimes... And when work gets really busy, it really makes me want to cook.

I found some guanciale, which I love, at a store I stopped by the other day. When I picked it up, the guy working there immediately figured out what I was doing and said: "Making carbonara? I recommend adding a dash of kelp tea!" So, I bought some at the supermarket, mixed it in with some eggs and cheese, and made myself some carbonara!

Thanks to the kelp tea that I (very apprehensively) added, it ended up becoming the best carbonara I've ever made! Thanks, guy at the store! I'll be back to buy it again!

See you later, everyone! Please keep cheering us on!

 

[Rephyrnomicon]

Oh cool, I hadn't heard about this one yet. Y'all know if there's any good way to play the Suikoden games right now? Emulation, probably? I'd prefer to find a way to play them handheld, but if I have to sit at a PC, I can.

 

[Robber Baron]

Oh cool, I hadn't heard about this one yet. Y'all know if there's any good way to play the Suikoden games right now? Emulation, probably? I'd prefer to find a way to play them handheld, but if I have to sit at a PC, I can.

Any tablet/phone or PSP can emulate first two PS1 games. 3,4,5 are PS2 and PS2 emulation is best on PC but you can always stream form PC via moonlight app if you have nvidia.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Oh cool, I hadn't heard about this one yet. Y'all know if there's any good way to play the Suikoden games right now? Emulation, probably? I'd prefer to find a way to play them handheld, but if I have to sit at a PC, I can.

Use Retroarch. Yes there is controversy behind the dev team, but it is the most user friendly emulator out there. Hardly any setup or fiddling required. Just download RetroArch, and download the PS1 and PS2 bios files and drop them into Retroarch's systems folder. Then use RetroArch's built-in online updater to download the Beetle HW Core to play PS1 games, and the PCSX2 core to play PS2 games. Note that the PCSX2 core doesn't support save states yet but that's not a problem since you can just turbo mode to the nearest save point in 60 seconds. Use RetroArch's built in downloader to get shaders.

Tips:

• Play order is: Suikoden 1 > Suikoden 2 > Suikogaiden Vol 1 > Suikogaiden Vol 2 > Suikoden 3. 3 was the last game that had the involvement of the series' original creator, Yoshitaka Murayama, and is the last game in the timeline. Everything after that is either prequels or alternate universes created without him.
• You can import your save from game to game, but trying to import a S2 save to S3 was too difficult. Spent hours crawling through old forum posts just to find dead download links and instructions that didn't work, and you had to fiddle around with half a dozen different save editors. You really don't miss anything if you don't import your save.
• Don't bother trying to 100% S1 and S2, as the requirements can be very aggravating. S2 also has a timed sidequest which you can't beat on your first playthrough without a walkthrough. I would advise against using a walkthrough and just enjoy the game. You're not really missing anything. In S3 you can 100% the game without a walkthrough and there are no timed missable characters. They give you an NPC who tells you where to go to find all of the characters. Get everyone before you head out to the final battle so you can unlock a 6th PoV.
• For S3, you hop back and forth between multiple PoVs. Do them in this order:

Hugo 1
Chris 1
Geddoe 1
Thomas 1
Chris 2
Hugo 2
Geddoe 2
Hugo 3
Thomas 2
Geddoe 3
Chris 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
6th PoV (unlocked by getting all characters before the last strategy meeting in chapter 5).

I would strongly advise against reading walkthroughs as they have spoilers.


For shaders, I've been running with CRT-Royale Pal-r57 shell, which isn't historically accurate but it has nice color contrast and smooths out the pixels and looks great at 4k:

Suikoden 1

Suikoden 1

Suikoden 2

Suikoden 2

Suikogaiden Vol. 1

Suikogaiden Vol 2.

Suikoden 3

Suikoden 3

 

[Hyperion]

Unfortunately S3 has missable characters. Guillaume comes to mind, because he can only be gotten in Hugo's Chapter 3. The 5 Dogs can be missed, and none of them count as Stars until you get the last, so missing 1 of them equals missing 5. Landis the Winged Guy is also missable if I recall, despite the game not really telling you.

It's not nearly as bad as S2 when it comes to obscure recruitment procedures, but there are some like the wandering dickhead, Hortez IV or whatever his name is. Only Suikoden 1 has no missable characters as long as you don't count losing *the* duel.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

And Suikoden 3 has this some sort of time progression in game I remember?

At one point the time just stops so you can't trigger anything new in the chapter or something

 

[Darth Canoli]

Play order is: Suikoden 1 > Suikoden 2 > Suikogaiden Vol 1 > Suikogaiden Vol 2 > Suikoden 3. 3 was the last game that had the involvement of the series' original creator, Yoshitaka Murayama, and is the last game in the timeline. Everything after that is either prequels or alternate universes created without him.

I just checked because I never heard of Suiko gaiden.
Turns out it's a visual novel with minimal gameplay...



Thanks for your great advice but no thanks!

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I just checked because I never heard of Suiko gaiden.
Turns out it's a visual novel with minimal gameplay...



Thanks for your great advice but no thanks!

They're pretty short and fun. You can complete both in about 10 hours. Each game has 4 chapters each. Some of the chapters are pretty insightful. The Sierra chapter does a better job of demonstrating the weariness of the rune bearers and their curse than the games did. One chapter fleshes out Luca Blight a bit, since you get to see him when he is calm and a little more friendly (whereas in S2 you only ever see him when he his killing people or mad at his lieutenants). Futch and Humphrey get the best chapter with a fun adventure, advances Futch's subplot if you've been following that, and gives you interesting lore on the dragons. The second Suikogaiden is set in Harmonia and gives you better insight into what is going on there.

They're not super important games. You're not missing a massive revelation if you skip them, but they were short and fun. They also had some good remixes of S1 and S2 tracks.

 

[Shinji]

I just checked because I never heard of Suiko gaiden.
Turns out it's a visual novel with minimal gameplay...



Thanks for your great advice but no thanks!

They're pretty short and fun. You can complete both in about 10 hours. Each game has 4 chapters each. Some of the chapters are pretty insightful. The Sierra chapter does a better job of demonstrating the weariness of the rune bearers and their curse than the games did. One chapter fleshes out Luca Blight a bit, since you get to see him when he is calm and a little more friendly (whereas in S2 you only ever see him when he his killing people or mad at his lieutenants). Futch and Humphrey get the best chapter with a fun adventure, advances Futch's subplot if you've been following that, and gives you interesting lore on the dragons. The second Suikogaiden is set in Harmonia and gives you better insight into what is going on there.

They're not super important games. You're not missing a massive revelation if you skip them, but they were short and fun. They also had some good remixes of S1 and S2 tracks.

I played only the first one, and as someone that is not a fan of visual novels I actually had fun with it.
The first chapter is the best one, and when Sierra leaves it kinda goes downhill from there.

Still, pretty good for any Suikoden fan.

 

[Palomides]

I'm dreading the translation Eiyuden will have in English.