Suikoden (PSone - 2nd completion)
Saturday at my folks I beat the original Suikoden for PSone, an RPG I haven't played since 1998. I borrowed the game from a friend of mine and remembering talking about it with him as we were together in 10th Grade math class, near the end of the school year. I don't remember when but probably a few years later, I saw the game on sale somewhere and bought it for my collection. Similar to my recent playing of Parasite Eve and its sequel, my downloading of Suikoden II for PS3 earlier this year prompted me to revisit the original and reminisce on a classic game I had a good memory of. I remembered some of the story but forgot a lot of details, which I expected. A cool feature in Suikoden II is that it will use your original Suikoden game save for the attributes of certain characters that return. The problem of course is that I don't have a memory card transfer peripheral for my PS3 and even then, I didn't bother working on those characters to save time. When I play the sequel (maybe later this year), I'll use a game save from GameFAQs as a continuation save. I beat this game in just over 44 hours with my main character at Level 62 and recruited all "108 Stars of Destiny". I don't remember my last save from 17 years ago that well but I do remember that I failed in getting all 108 recruits (one of my characters permanently died in a one-on-one story battle which was a major no-no). The game's story is loosely based on the 14th century Chinese novel called Shui Hu Zhuan (trans. Water Margin). I also bought the game's soundtrack from an online store in Japan almost 10 years ago given the game's very good music during the PSone-era.
Tir McDohl (you can rename him if you want) is the son of a Great General of the Scarlet Moon Empire, Teo McDohl. Teo is called away to fight a battle in the northlands, leaving his son alone under the guardianship of several family friends to begin his career in the Imperial Army. Tir soon comes to realize through his missions and association with his leaders that the corruption within the Empire's top tier has led to a country whose populace is enslaved and unhappy. Through his friend Ted, he comes into possession of the Rune of Life and Death (also known as the Soul Eater), one of 27 True Runes that govern various aspects of the world. The Rune, ruthlessly hunted for by corrupt officials within the Empire and their manipulators, force Tir and his companions to flee the capital city of Gregminster. This early chain of events forces Tir to cross paths with a rebel organization called the Liberation Army, where he is sheltered. He meets their leader, Odessa Silverberg although he is only convinced of the need to struggle against the Empire when the hideout is attacked and sacked by Imperial forces, with Odessa killed. Her final request is for Tir to lead the Liberation Army in her stead and recruit the help of Mathiu Silverberg, a former Imperial strategist (he reveals he is Odessa's brother). Tir's Liberation Army starts off as a small force working to unite rebel factions throughout Scarlet Moon, and eventually becomes a force large enough and powerful enough to bring down the Empire itself.
To see the first three hours of the game, go here or below:
Click to view
Graphics/Art-7
+ The graphics are colourful and the animation not too bad considering it is an early PSone-era game. It almost looks and feels like a Super NES game.
+ The battles are on a 3/4 view with some 3D camera effects. Some enemies and bosses are not bad looking.
+ Cool looking character portraits. Some of the bearish characters are woofy!
- The graphics are pretty dated and pixelated.
- The world map lacks personality.
Sound/Music-9
+ Excellent soundtrack! This game was a great early indication of what PSone RPG music was capable of.
+ Good, varied sound effects.
Music Samples:
An Old Irish Song
Collision!
Blue Oceans, Blue Skies
Gorgeous Scarleticia
Glorious Island Fortress
Gathering of Warriors
Forgotten Days
Eternal Empire
Distant Mountain
Dancing Girl
Confrontation with Monsters
Beautiful Golden City
Black Forest
Beginning Theme
Theme of a Moonlit Night
Royal Palace Consultation
Requiem
Peaceful People
Passacaria
Narcy's Theme
Mysterious Forest
Main Theme (Guitar) / (Ensamble)
Joy Joy Time
Into a world of Illusion (Opening Movie)
Victory Theme
Victory March
Ultimate Enemy
Touching Theme
Tiny Characters in a Huge World
This Sweetie is the Town Treasure
Theme of the Advancing Army
Theme of Sadness / (Guitar)
Control-8
+ Very easy controls, typical of 90's RPGs.
- Movement is kind of stiff and you can only walk in 4 directions.
Gameplay-9
+ Suikoden plays like a traditional RPG, with your moving characters across a landscape, advancing the plot by completing tasks and talking with other characters. A staple of RPGs of that era.
+ Tir may recruit up to a grand total of 108 new characters to his cause, although not all recruited characters are playable characters, and the battle system in Suikoden features six person parties in combat, with each character being individually controllable. Combat triggers through random encounters and is largely turn-based in that both the player-controlled party members and the computer-controlled enemy combatants select their actions before the turn commences and, once the turn begins, carry out their actions in the order of their speed.
+ A variety of statistics determine in-game combat ability, including optimum weapon range. Weapon range requires you to think about character placement in the standard battle formation. There are three ranges from which a character can have the ability to attack: Short, Medium and Long. Short range characters are typically swordsmen who have to be placed at the front row of the six party formation, while Medium range attacks can fight from either the front or the back row, meanwhile Long range attackers can attack from both ranges but benefit more so from fighting in the back row, usually due to either their low hit point total, their low physical defence, or both. They also benefit from being able to attack either the enemy's front row or back row in combat.
+ Weapons are unique to each character and require sharpening in towns that have blacksmiths. There are no weapon shops in Suikoden and equipment shopping is limited to armour and items. However, because of the need to sharpen a minimum of 6 characters' weapons at any one time, this can be a more expensive process than in a typical RPG.
+ Information gathering and character recruiting is also a common place occurrence within towns. Wilderness areas such as the world map or dungeons generally feature random encounters with monsters that do not increase in difficulty as the player's party advances in level.
+ Runes are the source of all magic in the world of Suikoden. Characters have a certain number of spell usages per "spell level;" governed generally by their magic statistic. For instance, a character with 4 level 1 spell slots and a Water Rune could cast "Kindness Drops" (the level 1 Water Rune spell) 4 times. Other runes offer different benefits such as allowing a character to deal double damage at the cost of a 50% reduction in defence. Most runes can only be used in a limited capacity. Tir carries the "Soul Eater" Rune for the entire game and it cannot be unequipped.
+ Two other types of battle system exist: duel battles and war battles. Both duel battles and strategic war battles are analogous to Rock, Paper, Scissors. In one-on-one duels, there are three commands: attack, defend and special. Attack beats defend, defend beats special and special beats attack (if you pay attention to what your opponent says, you can determine how to counter - I recommend having a guide handy for that!). In strategic war battles, the four major groups are charge attacks, bow attacks, magic attacks and others. Charge attacks beat bow attacks, bow attacks beat magic attacks and magic attacks beat charge attacks. The 'other' command acts as a free special command enabling you to for example, learn what the enemy's next attack will be by utilizing the ninjas and thieves that you have recruited.
- Level grinding or trying to get enemies to drop rare items can be boring at times.
- Having to navigate through the rooms and hallways of your castle a lot tends to get repetitive.
Fun/Story/Misc-9
+ Being an old-school RPG without much of a learning curve, the game is fun and to the point.
+ While not a long game, the story is actually pretty suspenseful and original for its time.
+ Recruiting various individuals around the world to your cause and slowing building your castle was a great premise.
- Outside of recruiting the 108 Stars of Destiny, there aren't any real side quests. There are a few mini-games you can play to win money though.
Total: 42/50 (Grade Level: B)
With the exception of the Japanese website, no other Suikoden site exists anymore. The Wikipedia article is here though.
Next Game: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords (Xbox)
Currently playing: Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) & Kirby Mass Attack (DS)
