So, being unable to play much Suikoden today due to a recent surgery, I mostly just browsed the internet looking for various things to keep me amused, when I happened across this particular piece of awesomeness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12ZF-1MzVkw
Back in the mid-90's, if you were an RPG, and your names wasn't 'Arc the Lad II',, you didn't get no fancy anime adaption. However, there was still a chance of getting a manga adaption or, if you were lucky, a drama CD or two. Suikoden must have hit the jackpot, as it received a full-blown radio drama which retells the story of the first game, with some liberties taken of course.. Of course, most drama CD's aren't all that accessible due to usually staying in Japan, and being in Japanese. Not so with this one. What we have today is not only the Suikoden radio drama translated, but applied to sprites and maps from the actual first Suikoden game, edited to accord to the radio drama. The result is the closet thing you'll get to a Suikoden anime, and for people who've played the game, it's a must-see.
But wait, there's more! Turns out that the same guy responsible for this also gave the Suikoden II Drama CD the same treatment. Neither of these are real substitutes for the games themselves, but again, for those who've played these, these vidoes are just so enjoyable. :D
In addition to the Drama CDs, there's also two Suikogaiden games (which are VNs featuring the many adventures of Suki 3's Nash) the first takes place around the time of Suki 2 and the second directly in between Sukis 2 and 3, as well as a Manga adaptation of Suki 3.
As an aside, AtL2 wasn't the only JRPG to get an animated adaption. Fire Emblem got one (that lasted all of three episodes), Pokemon got one (that's still going on today; and then another about a year ago on top of that), Tales of gets at least one for each mainline (I think only Phantasia really applies at this point), Star Ocean 2 got one (eventually, assuming you want to go into the early 00s), Final Fantasy had one (Legend of the Crystals, i.e. the lousy FFV sequel one; not Unlimited, the really lousy one that had nothing to do with anything beyond getting slapped with certain branding elements like Chocobos, Cactuar and the name Final Fantasy among other things; though if you count SO2 then this one counts as well since it came out around the same time), The Legend of Zelda got one (sorta, kinda, maybe, back in the late 80s; and this assumes you count it as a JRPG), Record of Lodoss War got at least one (although this is more of a case of the anime coming first, although technically the game did come first if you go by the D&D play-by-plays) and a bunch of other stuff that started as a manga/anime and got a video game adaptation (DBZ, Sailor Moon, Saint Seiya, Tenchi Muyo, Magic Knight Rayearth etc.).
...You just had to get technical, didn't you? :P (I actually knew a lot of this; it's just that, A.Arc the Lad was a fairly traditional RPG, and was the first to spring to mind, and B. I was trying to make a funny. And then you just had to really get into it. :P (JK. Partly.))
Also, I've gotten up to Chapter 5 of the Suikoden CD Drama, and while it's still enjoyable for the fan-service alone, (not
that kind of fan-service :P ...) they cut a
LOT of stuff out. Either that, or they do it like a straight-up play, and exposit various events that, in this version of the story, happened off-screen. The biggest offender so far has to be Episode 5. Episode 4 ended with Victor bringing Tir and the others to Odessa's
filthy, rat-infested sewers pleasant hideaway. And what does Episode 5 begin with? Why, none other than the heroes returning back to the castle after defeating Kwanda, of course.
If you haven't played the games, you'll really be lost, but that's not who this was made for. This was made for the fans, and if you're a fan, you should still get a kick out of it.
