Historical Revisionism in Video Game and it's consequences have been a disaster for the human race.

[SilentMRG]

Suikoden 2 was a commercial success in Japan and a failure (commercial) in Europe and North America. It was such a huge failure that Konami simply abandoned the idea of reprinting new copies to try to boost sales (the initial print run outside Japan was limited), which would have been a risky move at the time. Suikoden 2 was forgotten for almost two decades (or more than that); and it was through Youtubers that Suikoden 2 saw the light at the end of tunnel. After that, the rest is history...

The guys at Konami were excited about the success that came from the internet and re-released the first two games on Steam and in other platforms. If it weren't for the internet and Youtubers of different nationalities, Suikoden 2 would be just another hidden gem and, it would never have been remastered, much less released for other platforms.

You know, for a few years now it has been considered Konami's best game and one of the best RPGs of all time. And indeed he is! The story is great, combined with fun gameplay and a ton of characters that differ greatly from each other.

Edit: It's important to remember that, outside of Japan, in 1999/2000 people were still very busy on the PS1 playing FF VII/VIII. There were no eyes for a second entry in a previously unknown series. Taking into account that the first entry was not very good overall.

Ahh, yes, this art has nothing to do with Suikoden II or the topic, I just thought it was cool, that's why I'm sharing it. =)

 

[Viata]

I just thought it was cool

Of course it's cool, that is from Gradius Gaiden, god tier shmup, best Gradius game and one of the best PS1 shmups.

 

[Nutmeg]

Gradius 2 and V are really good too.

I am also fond of Gradius sister games Xexex, Salamander PCE, Salamander 2, Axelay and Thundercross 2.

Konami horis were really magical.

 

[SilentMRG]

I just thought it was cool

Of course it's cool, that is from Gradius Gaiden, god tier shmup, best Gradius game and one of the best PS1 shmups.

I knew it was from one of the Gradius, but I didn't know which one. I've had this art saved for years... I think I also have a ROM somewhere on my PC, hehe.

 

[Hellraiser]

Consoles didn't really take off compared to PCs until somewhere later in the 2000's.

Around 1998-ish in Poland there was a 50-50 split between people getting new PCs or Playstations in my experience. Both platforms were ridiculously easy to pirate and disks cost like 20 zloty at the local bazaar for either, PS1+mod chip wasn't that cheap but still cheaper than a contemporary PC and finding someone to mod your console wasn't that difficult. The bootleg Pegasus rental/swap places in my neighborhood switched over to PS1 games, for many people essentially skipping the 16-bit generation. I only heard in the last few years from some people that the Megadrive had some following and even bootlegs floating around in the 90s in Poland, which for me personally was a bit of a big surprise. Hell, during one retro gaming flea market event I met one seller who really pitched to people this "OG 90s megadrive bootleg with a case he got in Częstochowa some 30 years ago" like it was a priceless piece of craftsmanship from that ancient period, unlike the modern chink bootlegs shipped directly from China that float on allegro nowadays, r00fles.

You are right however that the mainstream legal console game market here didn't pick-up until the 2000s, which is roughly in line with the economic situation finally starting to look decent and salaries rising (2004-2007 until the whole subprime financial crisis thing). One watershed moment here was Sony actually localizing games into Polish on the PS2 (forgot which game it was, and google is too shit to find it, but I remember it was some Sony 1st/2nd party title) - curiously enough there's even a potaland version of 80s Signstar on the PS2, released in 2005. Sony only did 8 regional track list versions of that game, so it's quite surprising Poland was considered a market vital/big enough by Sony to bother. But if you look at that time period you could also consider that as part of a greater trend/second wave of expansion of global brands into the post-commie markets (as in those that didn't risk going in or failed right after gommunism ended), after the economy was both stabilized and actually started to improve noticeably. By the PS3/X360 era the market was "westernized" fully moving out of the bazaar so to say, that is consoles and console games were far more common, more affordable to the general population and people mostly played legit copies.

 

[Nutmeg]

which is roughly in line with the economic situation finally starting to look decent and salaries rising (2004-2007 until the whole subprime financial crisis thing)

Look ma! I can give a larger part of my salary to our foreign corporate overlords for the proleslop I used to get pennies on the dollar! I am a real Westerner now!

Polish people make me sick. Nation of retarded fucking sycophant degenerates.