Poll of the Day > Is Suikoden any good?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I apparently bought the 1st one PS3 and forgot that I did that. I have no experience with the series except for a few hours on Suikoden 4(which I barely remember).
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Yes, especially Suikoden II, and especially if you play the first one. The two story lines tie in together so perfectly.
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I love the second one

first one is a lot shorter and kind of rough, but charming on it's own

second one has an excellent bad guy(s) and a good story

Yes, it's very good. My favorite video game series, in fact.

Since you have Suikoden I already anyway, definitely play through it, it's only 15-25 hours to complete, depending on how quick you are and how much you care about getting all 108 stars of destiny.
Then buy Suikoden II, which is pretty much a straight sequel and is even better than Suikoden I. You get some nice bonuses for loading an end game Suikoden I save file when you start Suikoden II (though the biggest/best benefit comes like 2/3 of the way into the game)

I really like them all but haven't played the DS one yet. I have the DS one but will get to it one day.

My favourite to least is ,

Suikoden 2 > 3 > 5 > 1 > 4 > tactics.

Everyone always talks so highly about them but I just could never really jive with either game. Couldnt be bothered to do any of the side shit either.
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The first one is great, the second one is better, and the fifth one is almost as good as the second. The third is a bit hit or miss, and the fourth is terrible.

The real problem is, when you're talking about 20+ yeard old JRPGs, they can be a bit rough for newer players to get into, because both the more primitive graphics and the more archaic game mechanics can feel clunky as fuck to people who are more used to playing modern games. Especially since they won't have the nostalgia buffer that people who loved the games from back in the day still have.

So I can understand why younger gamers might not be wowed by them if they play them for the first time now, but at the time they came out (and for a while after) they were phenomenal. Easily better than the Final Fantasy games that were coming out contemporaneously.


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HelIWithoutSin posted...

Yes, especially Suikoden II, and especially if you play the first one. The two story lines tie in together so perfectly.

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Suikoden II is in the highest tier of JRPGs, especially if you play S1 and S2 together. S3 is ... different, but still playable. S4 is shite, and Tactics is a direct sequel to that, so make of it what you will. S5 is almost as good as S2. ... No one talks about Suikoden Tierkreis.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

The first one is great, the second one is better, and the fifth one is almost as good as the second. The third is a bit hit or miss, and the fourth is terrible.

The real problem is, when you're talking about 20+ yeard old JRPGs, they can be a bit rough for newer players to get into, because both the more primitive graphics and the more archaic game mechanics can feel clunky as fuck to people who are more used to playing modern games. Especially since they won't have the nostalgia buffer that people who loved the games from back in the day still have.

So I can understand why younger gamers might not be wowed by them if they play them for the first time now, but at the time they came out (and for a while after) they were phenomenal. Easily better than the Final Fantasy games that were coming out contemporaneously.

The 4th is a bad Suikoden game, but still an average RPG. Worst of the 5 easily, though.

As far as old RPGs being "rough," I think Suikoden ages quite well in that regard. One thing I love about the game is how anti-grind oriented it is. Characters level up every 1000 xp, and get more/less xp if the enemy is higher/lower level than them, so plop a level 1 character in the back row of your level 40 party and go to the newest area, the level 1 guy will be level 30+ within like 3 random encounters.
And while combat is turn-based, there's always been an Auto option, and once the party is significantly higher level than the monsters (probably 5 or so levels above, based on my experiences), "Run" turns into "Let Go" where you have automatic success of escaping the combat (more accurately, letting the monsters flee). Not to mention combats load almost instantly (I despised FF7's long battle loading waits), and you input everything at once, so if an enemy will drop from the first guy's attack, 2nd guy will automatically target someone else instead and both attacks will occur simultaneously.

I seriously can't stand when games don't value my time and waste it. Suikoden always felt like it was doing its best to streamline stuff, and I love it for that.

streamofthesky posted...

One thing I love about the game is how anti-grind oriented it is.

Unless you're doing the lvl 99 trick in Suikoden II.





On an unrelated note (though technically semi-related because it's a Suikoden thing), I just want to mention how much I used to love the opening song of III:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fejbSLYacaU" data-time="

A shame that they basically filled the opening cinematic of the game with literally every spoiler in the entire rest of the game, though.


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