Suikoden

"All 108 characters, under the whim of my command"

Over the years, many gaming companies are trying to find ways to keep the RPG genre fresh. Konami decided to release an RPG called Suikoden. Suikoden is loosely based on a Chinese novel called, "Shui Hu Zhuan," or Water Margin. However, the first Suikoden is overshadowed by the famous mainstream RPGs This game has set a solid foundation to the rest of the series. Despite of being one of the overshadowed RPG's in the PS1 era, Suikoden 1 had made it to cult status.

The hand-drawn graphics still looked just as nice as back when it was first released despite the graphics look all grainy and gritty. As you wander around the places, you can see jagged pixels everywhere. From castles to rural Chinese dwellings, the hand drawn buildings are painstakingly detailed. Despite the detailed looking graphics, the towns and the dungeons does not stand out very well. For example, one region is devoted to the Chinese country side. Virtually all the buildings in other villages in that region looked identical to another village. The only difference is that there is a large mansion or a small body of water. It just had this generic feeling when visiting to one town or another. It's like you have been to the same town except with a different name.

The character sprite had a fluid motion when exploring through towns or dungeons. Also as for the other character models, they have done their best to do individual sprites. However, Konami was a little lazy on the character modeling. As a result, the palette swap characters are quite noticeable. There are a handful of characters that is too identical to one another such as a group of blacksmiths. The only difference is that the weapons they are holding and a different color. There are several characters on the game just had the same exact stance except with a slight color modification. Despite a little laziness on the character designs, they've done their best. The magic animations are very flashy during its time. Even today, it still had this hard-impact on foes. Overall, the graphics is still detailed but very grainy to the eyes.

The music in Suikoden 1 is marvelous. The music has an Oriental style and fantasy medieval music was beautifully mixed altogether. Every soundtrack is well suited to the towns and dungeons. It captured the overall atmosphere of the game. For each place you go to, you'll definitely remember the tunes that were played in that area. The sound effects on the other hand are on the muffled side. The explosive sounds of magic attacks sound like an explosion from a far distance. Another example that some of the sound effects doesn't match well. For instance, the dragons sound too much like an elephant. Despite of all of this, it's not like hearing epic special effects shown later on the PS1 era. Overall, the soundtrack had created a huge foundation to the rest of the series.

Like the novel, the theme of the story is war, liberation and betrayal. The story focuses on the main protagonist, Tir Mcdohl. He is the son of a profound general of the Scarlet Moon Empire. Mcdohl is destined to be the next great general after his father. The Soul Eater Rune, which one of the 27 true runes, has influenced Mcdohl and many others. The Soul Eater Rune has an ability to govern Life and Death. This stirred a political chaos amongst the prominent nobles and the citizens. As the story unfolds, you get to see how the Soul Eater Rune has a drastic effect for those around him. At the same time, the Scarlet Moon Empire is on a verge of a political turmoil. It's up to Mcdohl to liberate the people from the oppression of the Empire. The story is quite refreshing. It's not your usual "saving the world" plot. Instead, it focuses on one particular region, trying to resolve the nation's conflict. Although, the story is a bit predictable, you can see the struggles what the main character goes through.

For a first attempt, Konami have done a decent job developing 100+ characters. The characters are very diverse. Many of the cast are loosely based on the “Shui Hu Zhuan" characters. They have a plethora of characters. It ranges from your typical knights and magicians to the most unusual such as Narcissists and anthropomorphic dogs. Konami have done a good job developing the major character in the plot. As the story unfolds, the influence of the Soul Eater Rune gradually shapes the fate of many people. You'll see many downfalls of other people. Despite having a strong major cast, the rest of the characters feel generic. Most of the characters reason is mainly the oppression that the Empire has given to them. Many of the minor characters have little focus on the main plot and virtually have little background information. Even though the plot is bit generic, they've done a decent job on the character development.

Suikoden I have done many innovations to their battle system. There are three styles of battle: Regular, Army and Duel. The regular battle is your typical turn-based battle with a little twist. Due to the enormous amount of characters to recruit, you can use up to 6 people in battle. There is some strategic placing in battle. Your characters must be placed carefully according to their weapon range; otherwise your characters may not attack. Despite having 100+ recruiting characters, only a handful can participate in combat. There are some characters that are there for ulitarian purposes. For example, there are characters that run stores such as, an Armor shop, an item shop and so on. There are also others that are useful in a wide scale army battles. My only gripe about it is that at some point of the game, there are times that the major characters have to be in battle. It feels very limited because it leaves out some of your favorite characters in battle. There is a lot of variety when it comes to customization. All of characters have different traits; each with their advantages and disadvantages. Since there are so many characters available, it doesn't hurt to try out other characters. Probably the biggest drawback is setting up the equipment and items. The items are much disorganized. All the items are stack up to the character's slot. It's hard what items to put on due to the fact you have to throw out some of the unnecessary items.

Another style is the army battle. The army battle had a rock, paper and scissors concept to it. Anticipate your opponent's move and counter it with your own attacks. To spice it up a bit, you can use your recruiters to enhance your attack or even convince the enemy solders to join your side. The drawback is that the army battle is too linear. Prediction and heavy reliance of recruiters can get you to victory without breaking a sweat. Last, but not least, the duel battles. Like the army battle, the duel battle uses the rock, paper and scissor concept. The only difference is that you must carefully read the opponent's move; otherwise, you'll be at a disadvantage and receive more damage. The battle system is very solid. It was a new take of an old formula. Although the style of gameplay was at its primitive form, there is a lot of room to improve.

Surprisingly, the dungeon design was interesting. Not every dungeon has long corridors and one huge labyrinth. There are some puzzles to figure out in order to progress through the dungeons. The random encounter rate is moderate. At times, where you are in a middle of figuring out a puzzle a random battle occurs. It is very tolerable since the chance of escaping from battle is fairly high. The overall difficulty of Suikoden is fairly easy to a moderate difficulty. One of the main issues is that, you obtain very powerful abilities very early. It is very easy to exploit its power. However, there were some moments that are very frustrating. At some point of the game, luck plays a big role to many dungeons and recruitments. Also, gathering all 108 characters is very difficult. There are little hints of what characters to recruit next. It is very easy to miss out several characters. Overall, the game mechanics are on the primitive side. But, the basic game mechanics sets a standard to the later installments.

The first Suikoden is definitely worth playing. Despite Suikoden 1 being a short RPG, the lasting appeal is fairly long. Without a dependence of a guide, it takes about 2 to 3 playthoughs to get all the characters. Other than that, you may play the game through by just the story alone. The availability of this game is very scarce. So, finding this RPG requires a lot of searching. Suikoden is one of the overlooked PS1 RPGS out there. They've done many twists to the game mechanics. Gathering over 100+ characters is very unlikely in RPGs back in the day. However, the basic principles of Suikoden I would later transcend to the later installments.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/09/07, Updated 02/22/07