Suikoden

"An innovative RPG that started a legacy"

I remember playing Suikoden 1 the day it came out and being infatuated with its story, characters and overall gameplay. I decided to give it another spin not too long ago when I decided to go through a Suikoden 1, 2 and 3 marathon in prevision of being able to play Suikoden 4 later this year. I loved this trip back in time so much that I decided to give all three games my own personal review, and hopefully help shed some light on one of the most misunderstood and underrated RPG series of all time.

Oviously I'll begin with the game that started it all: Suikoden 1. This game was released in the USA in late '96 so it was considered a first-generation game. It was enthusiastically received by RPG gamers but was eclipsed under the massive publicity that Final Fantasy 7 was getting at that time, even though FF7 was only due to be released in August 1997. Nevertheless, FF7 helped raise the RPG profile in North America and most people believe that Suikoden benefited from the craze.

In itself, Suikoden 1 is a game that closely resembles the efforts of Square and Enix such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. It is a traditional console RPG but with a lot of perks. Some of these include variations to the battle system, an incredibly large cast of playable characters and the opportunity to actually see your efforts come to fruition as the characters that you sign up for your army help you build an enormous castle of your own. All of these features became recurring themes in the following Suikoden games and, as far as we know, will be included in Suikoden 4 as well.

Story 9/10 The most important part of an RPG game is also the one that makes the game worth playing it. Suikoden converted first-time players into long-time supporters with a vast story mainly based on war, liberation from slavery, human greed and some doses of science-fiction (. In this game you actually get to build your own country, recruiting characters from town to town either by fulfilling certain deeds for them or just convincing them with your best intents. Even though there still is a central hero to this story, there is a theme of togetherness and teamwork as many characters bring their own strengths to the victory of your new kingdom. In order to not spoil the story, I will not get into details. But I can say that even 6 years later, I could remember the events as if I had just played the game. The story will grow on you to the point where you won't be able to put the controller down. Luckily, once it's over, you can turn to Suikoden 2 for a continuation of events (although the two are not as closely related as say, the Arc The Lad series)

Gameplay 9/10 Gameplay is vast in Suikoden 1. Everything was delightfully crafted. The regular battles are always fun. They're either quickly finished or extremely involving. Equipping characters is standard fare, but magic is a bit different. You equip Runes which contain special powers. This may turn off a lot of people, but in the end it allows for more customization. Only being able to equip one rune isn't too great though, but that was fixed in subsequent games. Also inventory space is rather limited, especially when your party is small. There are two other kinds of battles: Duels and Strategy. Strategy battles are a bit of a misnomer really, since they involve as much strategy as Rock Paper Scissors. But they are fun to play, because they involve your whole army. Finally duels also play out as Rock Paper Scissors, but look absolutely great and dramatic (1 on 1). Unfortunately, since Suikoden 1 was released so long ago, it doesn't support the Dual shock controller, so you're stuck playing this game with the D-Pad which gets rough on the thumb after a while. But that's a small price to pay for such a wonderful gaming experience. On the other hand, you can completely play this game with ONE hand. Also when you're strong than the enemies, you can just "let go" of them instead of trying to run and failing. Also collision detection doesn't stop you dead in your tracks when you hit a wall. It's small touches such as these which set Suikoden apart from the slew of me-too RPGs that came out after FF7 was crowned king of the 32-bit era.

Graphics 7/10 Suikoden 1's graphics were modest, even for the time this game was released. However, the graphics have a personality of their own, this isn't just your run-of-the-mill RPG with sprites and tiles carried over from the previous title. The characters are large and anime-looking, with a style that immediately reminded me of Cosmic Fantasy for the PC-Engine. As far as I can remember, there were no anime or CGI cutscenes in Suiko 1, except for the intro movie which isn't all that good-looking. But you gotta love the setting: towns have a old China flavor like in those old Bruce Lee movies and the castles are huge and very medieval-esque. I didn't really like the underground levels such as caves and dungeons, those quickly got repetitive. The map on the other hand is fabulous, with our hero in full SD glory. Kinda really reminds me of Chrono Trigger.

Sound 9/10 Along with the unique graphic style, legion building abilities and more, one of the unique characteristics is the fantastic soundtrack. From the bustling town of Gregminster to the creepy forests and eerie caves of the world of Suikoden, the masters at Konami have played all the right cards when it came to providing proper music. I especially liked the gothic themes in Neclord's castle, this was probably a wink to Castlevania, another of Konami's respected series which also features an amazing soundtrack. Later on in the game, you get to customize the sound effects.

With all that good stuff out of the way, what were some of Suikoden's problems? I found the Rune system, while ingenious, was limited in the end (you can only equip one rune at a time). The English translation was certainly not the best Konami ever came up with, but it's still better than Suikoden 2. Sometimes the conversation just seems to lead to nowhere. Finally, while I have no problem recruiting 108 different characters, the fact remains that a majority of them are utterly useless. Finally, the packaging for the US version is absolutely ridiculous.

Konami has always been a leader in the gaming industry and games like Suikoden clearly show why. This game has all the makings of a perfect RPG. Almost 9 years after its original Japanese release date, Suikoden 1 is still a relevant game in this day and age.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/28/04