Suikoden

"Classic feel and massive detail make Suikoden unique."

Suikoden is a classically-influenced RPG from Konami, who aren't generally known for RPG games, but rather games like Castlevania and Contra. Even if this is so, you can really tell it's a Konami game. It looks like Symphony of the Night in the fact that it's 2D, and Suikoden is also very detailed. Over 100 characters can join the Liberation Army, in which you play the leader of. You get your own castle where your entourage resides, and here you can organize, distribute and even buy items as well as gamble, rest, and plan the Liberation Army's next attacks. There are several styles of combat that you will use throughout Suikoden, so turn-based party battles aren't what you're going to be doing the entire time. Choices can sometimes effect the way things unfold in the story, and even which characters will die and live. Reminds you a bit of Chrono Trigger or Chrono Cross... your main character even looks like Serge from Chrono Cross. All this makes up Suikoden, a successfully enjoyable RPG.

Suikoden's graphics consist of medium to large 2D characters, and classic 2D environments. This is what brings the classic feel of the game. The special effects are still 2D as well as any cinematic sequences. If you're particularly fond of the big-budget 3D graphics of Square RPG's or any other 3D RPG's, the looks of Suikoden may turn you off. If you've played any classic SNES RPG's then you should have no problem digging the classic looks. I believe that it doesn't even matter. There's no open problems with the graphics and they don't hinder the entire gameplay at all.

There's a lot of character design in the game because there are in fact over 100 of them and they can all be in your party. Some characters are missable, and most of them make you sidetrack from the story in order to get them. All of your characters will appear on a stone wall in your castle where you can view their stats and look at your "collection". Each of them are born under a star, and it's listed so on the stone wall. You can try to finish the game with every character. Of course this can bring replay value to the game if by the end you want to see the ones you missed.

Suikoden has a unique battle system, which is an integral part of RPG's. You can have up to six characters in your party at one time. Some characters must be in your party and the open slots are open up to any characters that have joined your army, all of them have their own unique stats. Some characters are extremely speedy while some can be extremely good at magic. Each character can equip one rune. The runes are the magic source of the game in battles. Runes can either contain spells you can cast or can the equipped character a unique ability. Examples would be the Wind Rune, which can cast wind spells, and the Killer Rune which increases the chance of critical hit on that character. Runes like the Wind Rune contain four spells, and as your character levels and gets better at magic, you can gain new spells and cast more of them. In battle you can choose to Fight, Run, Bribe or set Free Will. Fight will let you select the action of each 6 characters, which can be a standard attack, defend, use your Rune, use an Item, or even Unite. Unite is available when 2 characters in your party are related somehow and can perform a combination attack. An example would be your hero and the character Kai, who your hero studied stick-fighting under. You can perform the Master Pupil Attack which can hit every enemy on screen. Running is self-explanatory and Bribe is really never used. You can strike a deal with an enemy. You can get through the game without using it once. If you select Free Will, all of your characters will automatically do a standard attack; it's useful in leveling up or collecting Bits (money). Speed stats determine who attacks first and enemies usually attack last. Characters in the first row are most likely to get hit. Some characters can't be in the back row or they can't attack because every character has a Short, Medium or Long-ranged attack. Enemy parties have two rows as well and only long-range attacks can hit them.

Turn-based battles are not the only kind of battle in Suikoden. There are also army clashes and one-on-ones. Army clashes happen in integral parts of the story when the Liberation Army has to attack a section of the Empire. Each side has a certain amount of units. Your actual party members make up the main units. There is Charge, Bow, Magic and Others. Charge, Bow and Magic act like Rock, Paper Scissors. Charge beats Bow, Bow Beats Magic and Magic beats Charge. If two of the same are used, attack power determines the winner. "Others" can use parties that boost charge power, or even infiltrate the enemy army and learn their next attack. Characters in the game can die if their unit is beaten as well, so be careful! There are also one-on-one fights. Attack, Defend and Desperate Attack are the choices in these fights and what the enemy says gives hints at what you should use.

The soundtrack is great. Melodies are memorable and scores are appropriate to the atmosphere. You can't go wrong there. The story is not a love story, nor is it an extremely urgent apocalyptic situation like a lot of other RPG's. It's in fact a simple army vs. army, good vs. evil story in which you try to liberate the land to put it under good rule. Best friends die and mysteries are solved, making some parts pretty exciting. It's not an extremely captivating story. This is one of the only faults of the game. Other faults would be that the game can get very repetitive. Since characters are constantly switching in your party without consent and you have to take low-level characters into your party sometimes, there's a lot of unequipping, re-equipping, buying, detaching, rune setting, etc. etc. that can get a bit frustrating. The castle helps in making this a bit better however, and you can return to it practically whenever you want. Another fault is that this game is barely a challenge. A few parts can be tough, but they're very rare and if you stay decently levelled and equipped, you'll probably never lose to a boss more than one time.

All in all, Suikoden is not for everybody. The RPG fan will get a kick out of this game, lots of characters, your own castle, tons of treasure, etc. On the PlayStation it's not one of the most standout RPG's on the system, each Final Fantasy and Chrono Cross are of course better plays. Suikoden however as a lot of charm and appeal to it in what it is and it's very enjoyable overall. It's not an RPG to start out with and I recommend it only to casual to extreme RPG fans, because it demands a lot of attention and thinking. And to those I recommend it to, I implore you to try it out.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/02/06