Suikoden Topic

[Themadcow]

It's not a massive suprise considering Konami's casino/coin-op stuff has been using game series licences for a while. Saying that, I also saw this over on Suikosource and thought: this is the end of Suikoden.

At least this explains the trademark re-register thing.

In other news, just finished playing Suiko 1 again and I was surprised at how small the 'dungeons' were compared with how I remember them. The only one that didn't feel bite-sized was the cave at Qlon.

[Mickeymac92]

I've never had much interest in the series outside of Suikoden V and Tierkris. People keep telling me that they're some of the greatest games ever, but they look pretty generic to me. What's supposed to be so good about them?

[Gen Eric Gui]

It's the fact that they have good stories coupled with the fact that they're almost all super-streamlined games that have managed to shed all the boring and stupid crap from the RPG genre, coupled with the fact that there's stuff to collect that's actually worth collecting, ie: usable characters.  There's a lot more that's great about the games but those are some of the more visible reasons.

[xXMelancholiaXx]

I've never had much interest in the series outside of Suikoden V and Tierkris. People keep telling me that they're some of the greatest games ever, but they look pretty generic to me. What's supposed to be so good about them?

I don't have the faintest clue as to why people like Suikoden either. Of course to be fair I've only played Suikoden III. I might be willing to give the series another go in the future. But I'm definitely going to be more cautious than I was the first time around. I initially purchased Suikoden III since gamespot gave it such a great review. I regret not doing more research into it before buying it now.

[Dice]

It's the fact that they have good stories coupled with the fact that they're almost all super-streamlined games that have managed to shed all the boring and stupid crap from the RPG genre, coupled with the fact that there's stuff to collect that's actually worth collecting, ie: usable characters.  There's a lot more that's great about the games but those are some of the more visible reasons.

Political story (still mixed with some magic) and character tales can actually be pretty cool.

[badsanta]

Any and all disbelievers need to play Suikoden II. The problem with that, is that it's so darn expensive, so unless you're willing to pony up a lot of cash, you won't be able to play the dang thing unless you resort to ... other means. (If you know what I mean.) Either way, it's one of the best in the series, with only Suikoden V coming anywhere close, and while that one is good, Suikoden II is still the top entry.

III was alright, but I felt that were a number of problems. It actually started out pretty nice, but it eventually started going downhill; it doesn't help that the original head of the franchise left partway through development.

I...is a relic. It's still playable, and probably better then IV, but whereas certain other games such as FFVI and Chrono Trigger are timeless classics, the original Suikoden has been trumped since it's inception in every area, gameplay and story included, even by future installments of it's own series. Still, you have to give it credit for starting it all, and it introduced a number of handy new/different things for the RPG genre at the time.

And IV is apparently such a dis-justice to the series that I haven't bothered to play it, though I'm pretty sure just about everyone else agrees on it's level  of quality. (Or lack thereof...)

[xXMelancholiaXx]

Any and all disbelievers need to play Suikoden II.

I might be willing to get Suikoden II if it wasn't so expensive. I'm definitely not going to spend that much money on a game I don't think I'm going to like in the first place.

[xXMelancholiaXx]

I find it hard to believe that any RPG fan would dislike Suikoden I and II, though III I could see why that might be.  You could try Suikoden from the PlayStation Store and play it on a PS3 or PSP if you can?  An original copy goes for silly amounts.

Maybe. After watching some gameplay footage of it on youtube I get this feeling I won't like Suikoden II either...

[Starmongoose]

To each their own, however Suikoden 2 is far from generic, even though it may seem like it from the outside.

[Mickeymac92]

I've not seen anything regarding Suikoden II. I'll probably pick it up as my first in the series. If it can't impress me, I suppose nothing will.

Still, when I said it looked generic, I just meant from a gameplay and aesthetic perspective, especially the first game, which visually is about as generic as a game can get, and I imagine it did not even impress when it was new. The later games, particularly V and Teirkris, are at least visually impressive, even though the gameplay is nothing new. With that said, from what I understand, Suikoden III is actually pretty unique for the series and actually did something unique with the gameplay, correct? I might want to go check it out some time. I almost bought it a dozen times, but every time I figured I wouldn't like it because it's Suikoden.

As for the positives, the only good things about the series I've ever heard mentioned, including here, are the large cast and the story. To be quite honest, that just leaves me even more weary of them, since that reminds me of a bunch of games I hate: The large cast reminds me of Infinite Undiscovery and Final Fantasy VI, while the themes in the story (politics, war, etc.) remind me of Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem. Not that those series have anything to do with Suikoden, it's just, well, I'm not sure if it's just the excecution that made my dislike those elements in those other games, or if I just don't care for them in general.

[kyuusei]

The thing about Fire Emblems is you have your Jeigans (units that come to your party already promoted, but with shitty stats), which you don't normally want to use unless you're in a pinch. Everything else is just giving you a choice between a couple of mages, a couple of social knights (or whatever the hell they're called in North America) etc. for each class, depending on whose stat growth you like better. tl;dr: You don't actually use all of the giant cast, nor would you in any of the other games with that many characters.

Some games handle having a lot of characters well, others don't. They can't all be lumped into one category just because of the cast size alone. The only game with a huge cast that really bothered me story wise/character development is.... Chrono Cross.

That said I think Suikoden II is always worth a try as long as it's accessible. I liked it more than III.

[Gen Eric Gui]

Having a large cast is never, ever a bad thing.  It's more choices!  Choices are good, last time I checked.

And Suikoden 3 is quite different from the rest of the series in terms of the way the story is presented, as well as in the way the battle system works and in the way everything is structured.  It's absolutely FANTASTIC, though ,and anyone who hates it is a terrible person who should feel bad.  Lord Thomas FTMFW.

[kyuusei]

I never got far in III, but I for sure didn't hate it. I don't have my copy anymore, unfortunately.

I like choice. I just happen to dislike a bunch of the choices in Chrono Cross. :P

[Mickeymac92]

Choice is alright, I guess. I just don't like it when there's too many choices, and when there's no "right" choice that I have to figure out.

I'll see if I can pick up a cheap copy of Suikoden III someday, as well as Suikoden V and Tierkris.

[beach1]

Suikoden II is probably my 2nd favorite rpg ever behind Final Fantasy 4. The game was just so addicting on the first play through. The music, story, main characters, and graphics are fantastic (if you like 2-d, handdrawn sprite graphics.) The gameplay is great too. There are so many cool little minigames to do in it as well and so much charming, fun little things about the game. It's probably one of the few rpgs where on my first playthrough I didn't get sick of it at any point and had to play it everyday until I beat it. That's how fun and addicting it was to me. Suikoden I was great too. Not as good as 2, but still really good.

I was really disappointed with Suikoden 3. It felt so different from 1 and 2. I didn't like the 3-d graphics as much as the previous games' 2-d graphics. The battles were weird and kind of annoying. It wasn't horrible, but it didn't seem to click with me as much as the first 2 did. I may have to try 3 again. Maybe my opinion of it will change.