I have found a copy of Suikoden.

Sheep

Tucked beneath a smattering of carpet in my ex room mates new place, concealed with Spyro, Diablo, and Syphon Filter 2, was Suikoden. Nearly perfect in condition, ready for playability.

I've heard oh so much about the Suikoden series. I neglected picking up the second one when I saw in Wally World years back, and decided not to get III or IV based on bad press/forum noise.

But now I have the chance to see what all of the fuss is about. While I can't start it just yet (found my PS2 and wanna go through FFXII again), I am anxious to know what the game is about, and how you feel about it, and what I can expect.

Is it old school? What makes it worthy of the praise? Specifically, will it hold up to newer RPGs?

I'd rather not play a game that was brilliant when it came out, but rather tired now, in order to preserve the good memory of the game. I don't wanna wander into a forum and blaspheme the game with ,"Suikoden? Oh, yeah, I beat that last week. Kinda sucked..."

But if it's worth the hype, then so be it!

Axen

Wait, you found all those games under the carpet? What, was the place owned by Black Beard or something?

Vincent Grayson

Suikoden I is not bad, although I can't say it aged nearly as well as Suikoden II, which is still awesome as fuck.

Suikoden III and V are good though, and you should play them if you can.

RainbowDespair

The Suikoden series is not worth the hype. Suikoden 1&2 are not anywhere near worth the insane amounts of money they go for on ebay.

With that said, Suikoden 1 is still a fun little game. It's short and easy (I beat it in under 20 hours my first time through), but it's a lot of fun. An interesting war story combined with accessible gameplay and a great sense of scale (gigantic wars and thrilling duels, woohoo!) should make for an enjoyable few days of gaming.

Eteric

While I'm sure III is good, I can't play it. It bothers me to much.

Why?

Two reasons.

1. That duck. I hate that damned duck.

2. No camera control. It just seems so one sided because of that. It's weird.

I might try playing it again someday, but my first impressions aren't that great.

Sheep

Axen wrote:

Wait, you found all those games under the carpet? What, was the place owned by Black Beard or something?

There was a bunch of junk piled into the corner of one of the rooms. I discovered the games (and a few music CDs) as we renovated.

Gyral

I'm sure if you look hard enough, you may discover a genie as well.

RainbowDespair

I really enjoyed the story to Suikoden 3, but I thought the gameplay was awful. More specifically, I hated how how much backtracking was involved. I mean, it's a whole order of magnitude greater than GC Paper Mario when it comes to backtracking and that's saying a lot.

Haven't played IV or Tactics. Hear that they're the weakest games in the series although given that you can find them for around $15 a piece these days, I'm tempted to give them a try anyways.

Suikoden 5 is a great game. Almost as good as Suikoden 2. And when Suikoden 2 sells for around $150 and Suikoden 5 sells for around $30-$35, I'm going to have to give the nod to Suikoden 5.

robosagogo

If you're like me, you'll be immediately irritated by the fact that you don't seem to be able to run, thereby making the navigation of towns and dungeons feel extraordinarily sluggish. Soon after reaching the world map for the first time, however, you'll be able to get something called the Holy Rune which unlocks the Run function and makes the game playable.

Beyond that, the game's got a wide range of likable characters and varied, interesting environments.

cj iwakura

I'm working on playing through this here and there, but I'm mostly playing this JUST so I can finally play II(and III).

I'm getting stumped here and there, so I'm playing it in moderation.

I like the system and some of the characters, but the high frequency of battles gets on my nerves.

I'm sure II improves on this a ton, so I'll finish it nonetheless.

I have like... 30 of the 108, and I just met Apple.

[spoiler:549ff76d23]Stupid blocked river.[/spoiler:549ff76d23]

GrimReaper

Wait, I read the bit about Suikoden going for money and a lot of it.

How much?

I think i've got Suikoden 1 & 2 somewhere.

EDIT: Aha, cool.. on ebay uk the going price seems to be £50 each.

Quintile

So what's the deal with IV? Why is it considered so bad compared to the other games of the series?

rayofash

GrimReaper wrote:

Wait, I read the bit about Suikoden going for money and a lot of it.

How much?

I think i've got Suikoden 1 & 2 somewhere.

EDIT: Aha, cool.. on ebay uk the going price seems to be £50 each.

Suikoden 2 can go for $50-$100, maybe a little more. If it's still in it's wrap it can go for double that. It's strategy guide I think can go for about $20-$50 as well.

Atlus Parker

Suikoden I & II are best played together. I lost interest in the series after that.

BigDes

I lost interest in Suikoden after we never got III and IV turned out ot be a quarter of a game. Which is a shame as I hear Suikoden V is actually quite good.

cj iwakura

I don't get why Suikoden III gets less respect... what I've read of the story seems really good.

Then again, I know zilch about II, so maybe that's why.

I promise, you really don't want to know how much my copy of II cost me.

Pheezer

The main appeal to Suikoden is that you can load the save into Suikoden II. Suikoden II is one of the best RPGs anyone has ever made, hands down. It is EASILY on par with FFVI and Skies of Arcadia.

The rest of the series is extremely forgettable, especially by comparison.

Zephyr_Fate

I find Suikoden I to be the greatest of them all, with II being a close second.

Houk

when i was a wee lad, i dismissed suikoden 1 at the local rental place strictly because of the box art. i mean, have you seen that shit? So bad. By the time i saw, rented, and fell in love with suikoden 2, the first had completely disappeared from my town. i didnt get to play the first one until a couple years later.

2 is definitely superior, but they are both oh so good.

yakul

Both Suikoden 1 and 2 have aged better than most of the other RPGs on the PS1, so you are ok in that department.

That said the games are awesome because there are tons of memorable characters, a rather unique storyline (compared to most rpgs), and Konami has spent a decent amount of time over the series really developing the world that the games and its characters live in.

MA17

Quintile wrote:

So what's the deal with IV? Why is it considered so bad compared to the other games of the series?

My opinon probably shouldn't count since I never actually finished 4, but it had scary kitty men, a lame main character with a douche bomb best friend (conjuring up images of Bosch from Breath of Fire V, that dickweed), some fucking torch-lighting minigame at the beginning, and, for me, the realization that if I never ever meet the other 107 stars of goddamned destiny while tooling around on my HMS Chumchucker, that'd be just fine.

Plus, it's no Sudokuden

Cyclone

I suppose if I were ever to get a chance to brag about how I found Suikoden brand new at Toys-R-Us for $5, this would be it. Worth every penny. I also bought SII for $29 when it first came out. I suppose I could brag about that, too.

Romantic Undead

I guess what makes the Suikoden series memorable to me is that the main character isn't just some douche with a "great destiny" (though he is), he's also the leader of an entire mothafuckin' ARMY who goes around and changes the political face of their world.

You get suprise alliances and betrayals, important characters can die all the time (if you thought Aeris was bad... man...) and the sheer amount of playable characters that you can use means you're never stuck with a party full of annoying characters simply because the game forces you to. If you want the bishie samurai guy to kick ass, level him up! If you prefer the beefy barbarian, go nuts! Prefer to have an all-girl party? Go ahead! And as a bonus, they'll probably have a neat team-attack that you can use too!

Oh yeah! team attacks! Those are awesome too!

Sharp10r

I loved Suikoden 1 and 2, good luck on the battles, and- save often. A part of me regrets selling my copy of Suikoden 2, but I'm not going to touch it for another couple years, (have to wait until I forget everything.)

theparttime

I still gotta play 1 and 2 but 3 really really bored me, I didn't even finish it. this might be because i didn't play it when it came out, I played it sometime last year. I liked the story, but the game just seemed really slow.

Stolls

cj iwakura wrote:

I don't get why Suikoden III gets less respect... what I've read of the story seems really good.

Then again, I know zilch about II, so maybe that's why.

I promise, you really don't want to know how much my copy of II cost me.

Main thing about 3 is, in terms of raw gameplay, it's a pretty clear step backward across-the-board. Compared to the first two, the battle system of 3 is slow, counter-intuitive and clumsy; the addition of movement and friendly fire by way of magic is fine, except you can't control where your characters go. The pairing system is a fair idea done poorly, and it means you really only control three characters at any given time. Lastly, army battles are watered down versions of regular battles, and overall a lot less interesting. Throw in some needless backtracking and a severe lack of base-building mechanics (a prominent feature of the first two games), and basically the feel is just not the same.

That's not to say 3 is a bad game; honestly, I liked it enough to give it a second go. It's just that the first two games felt so right in how they played. 2 was a step up from 1 in most important respects, and 1 was already a solid game, so why they went for something substantially different is beyond me. There are some things 3 did better - they improved the duel system, and skills are a welcome addition - but they are most definitely few in number.

And speaking only for myself, I was a little let down at the three heroes. I thought Thomas' chapters were more compelling than that of the main characters.

Einhander

I bought a disc only copy for $3 from a guy who was desperate for money at the first Game Crazy I worked at. I didn't really like it.

What is a disc-only copy in decent shape going for? I never play it, so I'd rather it be in the hands of someone who would.

Blackjack

Suikoden III is awesome and all of you need to stop suggesting otherwise.

Also, V is crap. That's right. I said it.