Suikoden

"Amazingly Satisfying in a Minature Form."

Deciding on what will grab your attention can often change. Your tastes in things are going to change as you mature and they are going to change as your life changes, but some games just continue to pocket a safe place in your heart. Games that, even as you look at screen-shots of them, you wonder "why did I love that game?" But when you replay them, you remember why you loved them. You remember why they hold such a secure place in your memory.

This game isn't without its flaws and it's pretty small compared to other JRPGs and it's missing a lot of things that should be there. Never-the-less, it's an amazing game with an amazing storyline and a decent cast of characters. Combine all of these things together with the fact that it was Konami's first shot at such a game, and you have an above-average JRPG that deserves more attention than it gets.

I'll let you know right now, I do favor storyline, character development, and music over graphics, gameplay, and presentation. I do try to review my games with as much balance as I can, but sometimes I can't help but be a bit skewed. I'm reviewing this game from an opinion of finishing it 10 years after it was released. I did play the game when it was first released and I probably would have rated it higher then, but that was when I was younger and much more biased. I'll try to do the genre justice here.

Gameplay:

Suikoden is a game with a lot of gameplay. It has an interesting way of niching itself into the JRPG market. The whole game is based on a war so the fighting is actually geared more towards war type situations. You have three forms of battles in this game instead of the usual one. With three forms of battles, the game hardly ever gets boring and it should be noted that even though they are simplistic to other games, they still offer their own charm and overall satisfaction all together.

The first type of battle is your standard turn-based JRPG random encounter battles. You get to use 6 player parties and you basically take turns attacking the enemy. You enter all your commands first, and then the battle plays out according to level, speeds of each character and monster, etc.

Within these normal turn-based battles you have lots of options to your advantage. You can use combination attacks which allow you and another person to complete an attack together. These combo attacks are only for certain characters and each one has to be in your party. They take up both character's turns and I believe they combine speed attributes to determine when they actually attack. Some of the attacks are single-enemy targeting but more powerful, some are all-enemy targeting but slightly weak.

Also, the magic system in this game is done through things called Runes. Your characters can equip certain runes to help them in battle. You get your basic elements like lightning, fire, water, wind, earth and you also have other runes that help stats and such. The magic runes work kind of like MP. Each character will have levels of magic usage corresponding to their magic attributes and abilities. Every rune has 4 levels of spells at max.

For example: The Lightning rune has 4 levels of spells. The first spell will do small damage, the second spell will do more damage than the first, etc. etc. etc. When your character gets to a certain level they'll gain access to the next level of the rune. Their MP in each level is based often on their own abilities. If they are a mage user, they will get more MP for casting the spells, etc.

There is a problem here and I'm not sure if it's just the N.A. version of the game or all of them. This game has a horrible time explaining things. There is basically no explanation for what the rune spells do, you have to go figure that out for yourself. I dunno why Konami did this but it loses points for it.

The second type of battle is the one-on-one duel battles. These play out a lot like rock-paper-scissors. You have three options here... Attack, Defend, and Desperate Attack (Basically, a really powerful attack that leaves you defenseless) Attack beats Defend, Defend beats Desperate Attack, and Desperate Attack beats Attack. You must read your opponent and make a selection based on the text they use. For example: Enemy might say "Give it all you got!" This would usually mean they are going to Defend so you'd want to Attack.

Again, the game does a terrible job explaining this stuff. I don't have the manual anymore so I can't comment on if the manual actually talks about it, but there is no in-game description of anything.

The last type of battle is War. It's basically a big major scale rock-paper-scissors battle. It's a lot like the duels in that you enter a command and watch things play out, it isn't real time. You have four options here: "Charge", "Archer", "Magic", and "Others"... "Charge" beats "Archer", "Archer" beats "Magic", "Magic" beats "Charge." "Others" contains things you can use to your advantage such as Ninjas to scout out the enemy's tactics, rallier to turn some of the enemy soldiers to your side, and military strategists to boost your "Charge" damage.

Thankfully, the extras are explained in the game unlike other stuff. However, again, the other commands aren't really talked about. It would appear Konami expects you to automatically know all this stuff. Then again, IT MIGHT be in the manual. I can't remember what all is in the manual and I don't have it anymore so i really can't comment on that.

Other gameplay futures include 108 recruitable allies. This really adds to the feeling of the game in the sense that it really feels like you're building an army. This is the first JRPG (Note: Didn't say SRPG), to my knowledge, that has this type of feeling. You also get a castle to hold all these people in. It grows as your army grows and it actually feels like you're making a home for yourself. You'll even fight a battle on the land right outside it.

There aren't sidequests to really speak of except for recruiting all 108 people. You can play minigames to make more money and stuff. The minigames are ranged from card games, to gambling and rolling dice. Some are fun but most are just there to make money off of.

Cosmetics:

Let's get this out of the way first... The game is in 2D. Honestly, it hasn't aged well throughout these years and it looks rather messy when you pay enough attention. The character portraits are also rather ugly. When it first came out it was an awesome advancement in 2D gaming because the characters are actually big in size and they aren't midgets.

However, the game still looks dirty. The backgrounds aren't crisp and they look pretty ugly. There are a few facial expressions done by the characters but most of the time they just stand in their normal way and don't move a whole lot.

The battle animations are pretty cool. Everyone really looks unique and they have their own attacking styles and what not. The camera pans around as your fighter attacks. If they are going to get a critical hit it'll zoom in to watch the blow. Yeah, the characters actually attack enemies unlike some other 2D games where they just swing their weapon and it makes a slash mark on the enemy.

Like all other 2D JRPG games, the camera is overhead looking down. It works well for this game and I really don't have any complaints about it. Some of the dungeons have secret pathways to find other treasure and you really can't tell where the path is besides noting the entrance to the secret path is usually flat while the rest of the wall is jagged.

Speaking of the dungeons, they are all pretty well laid out. They aren't too short or too long and they serve their purposes. The towns are all fun and they all have their own theme determined by their location on the map. One section of towns will have an old samurai type feeling to them, another section of towns will have a Victorian type feel. The village of Elves actually looks like a village for elves. The Dwarf village actually looks like a village with dwarfs as well. All of this is very well done.

The music in this game is absolutely awesome. I never felt like it was repeating itself or that it was used in the wrong way. It all felt very original and suitable to its area. I especially loved the track in the Dwarf village and the track of sadness.

Storyline:

You are Tir(although you get to pick his name) McDohl. Your dad is Teo McDohl and you are currently living in the village of Gregminster under the Scarlet Moon Empire, led by Emperor Barbarossa. You and your friend Ted, servant Gremio, and protectors Cleo and Phan are set out on a few errand runs and eventually wind up in a huge problem.

You are separated from your home and loved ones and cast away from the emperor. You end up leading an army and have to eventually fight back. The story itself seems rather simplistic, but it grows as you advance through the game. It also contains some of the most heart-wrenching scenes I've ever known in video game history.

You, as leader of this army, are given the Soul Eater rune. It's one of the 27 True Runes. It consumes the souls of close friends and family as it grows in strength. As you venture out, you'll learn all about its power and the ways of the True Runes and their holders. A woman comes along to help explain all this and eventually it all ties together at the end of the game.

It also involves a lot of politics and war type dialog. That's all I can really say about the game as I've given away too much already. I will say that I loved the story, but it hasn't aged as well as I thought it had. The characters are nicely developed and defiantly above average for most JRPGs but they haven't aged well either. The new standard in JRPGs today has really put a blunder on the story and characters in this game.

A problem here would be length... Even when getting all 108 characters, the game will only last you about 15 hours if you know what you're doing. Expect a first playthrough to last 35-40 hours if you don't use a guide. But any use of a guide will drop that significantly to around 15-20 hours. It's way too short for a JRPG.

Overall/Explanation/Recommendation:

Do I recommend this game? I sure do. I really wish all the people who haven't had a chance at this series would go out and pick up the games and give them a try. If you're worried about the 2D of the game, then fine. However, I must say, if you can't handle a 2D game then my respect for you is pretty low. I know graphics are important to a video game, but they aren't so important that you should cast aside a wonderful game because of it.

I've rated this game a 7 because it has faults and it hasn't aged well. If I had to rate it based on my first opinions back in 96, I'd rate it a 9/10 at least. But, nostalgia aside, it does have faults and I can't do that. The story in this game is really good and I have yet to see a JRPG that I've enjoyed more apart from other Suikoden titles.

I'd say buy the game, but you won't find it probably. It's kind of rare here and you might have to buy it online from Ebay or something. If you can find a copy of the game, get it. Do whatever you have to do to play this game though, I really recommend it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/26/06