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Suikoden

Hobo Elf

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Been looking for some PS2 jRPGs to play and was wondering how the Suikoden's are. I've got 1 & 2 which are pretty good, but what about 3, 4 and 5?
 
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3 is good I hear and I've been meaning to play it myself. The rest don't hold a candle to Suikoden 2 and the series get worse as the numbers go up.
 

Crooked Bee

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I didn't play 1 or 2 (or maybe I did but don't remember it), but I found 3 and 5 rather enjoyable. I also remember them being pretty easy though, but they certainly had their charm.
 

Jaesun

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The ONLY reason I played 4 was because if you import a save game from 4 into Suikoden Tactics (which is FUCKING AWESOME just FYI) you can later get the character from Suikoden 4 in your party (and he is pretty good).

I don't remember if 5 had an import your save from 4 (or if it did, what it adds).
 
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Looked it up, 5 is just as bad as 4, mostly because it's a boring piece of shit that doesn't give you an incentive to keep going. And it's not my anti weaboo going off here, I enjoyed Suikoden 1 and 2 a lot, even with the cheesy knights and the obvious plot twists.
 

Indranys

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Suikoden 3 is bad, 4 is shit, 5 is decent in my book.
Suikoden 5 story is better than S3 and S4 IMO.
Still the first and second game are the best.
 

Jaesun

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Yeah I liked the story better in 5, as well as the characters. I wonder if they ever put 2 and 3 on the PSN store?
 

Hobo Elf

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The ONLY reason I played 4 was because if you import a save game from 4 into Suikoden Tactics (which is FUCKING AWESOME just FYI) you can later get the character from Suikoden 4 in your party (and he is pretty good).

I don't remember if 5 had an import your save from 4 (or if it did, what it adds).

Alright. So I'll give 3 and 5 a look. Do you think it's worth getting 4 if I plan on playing Tactics as well?
 

yes plz

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I really liked Suikoden III, though it does seem to be the most polarizing of entries in the series. The reason for that is mostly the Trinity system -- the game has three main characters whose plots run concurrently and constantly cross over with each other. The problem with that (for some, anyway, I personally liked it) was that you'll sometimes see the same scene more than once, though from a different perspective; apparently a lot of dumbfucks cannot into non-linear, layered story telling. The other problem with it is that due to the Trinity system, the game re-uses a lot of its dungeons, which can be boring at times. The battle system is also a lot different from the other games. Instead of the enemies being on one side of the screen and your party being on the other, which you have full control over, you instead have to pair up characters, effectively giving you control over three 'units' rather than six unique characters, and everyone in the battle moves around the map as they fight, with friendly fire being a real possibility.

Its story, particularly the way it ties strongly into the first two games, has always been my favourite. Its cast is also pretty good (I fucking love Nash -- which reminds me, the translation for the first Suikogaiden was just released), with each point-of-view from the Trinity system having its own main cast, fleshing them out somewhat decently.

Suikoden IV had the potential to be pretty good. The pirate theme I thought was interesting and a refreshing departure from the previous titles, and it had a few decent characters and plot lines. Sadly, though, it never really goes anywhere; it's like the developers got to the half way point, got bored, and just said "Fuck it, lets end it here." There's also a lot of problems with the game play mechanics. The first and worst being how ridiculously high the encounter rate is, especially when sailing around on the sea. Other problems are with the battle system - instead of controlling six characters they cut it down to four, cutting down on a lot of interesting combinations and tactics that the other games let you get away with.

Suikoden V was okay. It hits all the right notes but at the same time I thought they played it way too safe with this one, basically making it a retread of previous titles, especially Suikoden II, complete with some of same twists. It also spreads the spot light out pretty thin, so all 108 Stars of Destiny get decent personalities and many get their share of play in the actual story. At the same time, though, due to how thin the spot light gets spread, none of the characters really stuck out to me the same way Viktor and Flik did in Suikoden 1 and 2 (outside of maybe Zerease and returning characters, like Lorelai). Its battle system is pretty much a return to Suikoden II's, though with a bit more depth. Sadly, any and all depth to it is pretty meaningless because the game is so incredibly easy. There are a lot of game breaking characters you can use that make each and every fight a complete joke, but even if you don't use them, the game is still really easy.
 

Rahdulan

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The ONLY reason I played 4 was because if you import a save game from 4 into Suikoden Tactics (which is FUCKING AWESOME just FYI) you can later get the character from Suikoden 4 in your party (and he is pretty good).

I don't remember if 5 had an import your save from 4 (or if it did, what it adds).

I've heard S4+Tactics actually somewhat redeem S4 as a whole, but never got around to playing Tactics. Any truth to that?
 

Whisky

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1 is good.

2 is fantastic. Best in the series.

3 is really good, but polarizing.

4 is bottom of the barrel shit.

5 is great, but has the pacing of a sloth.

Tierkreiss feels wrong.
 

Jaesun

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The ONLY reason I played 4 was because if you import a save game from 4 into Suikoden Tactics (which is FUCKING AWESOME just FYI) you can later get the character from Suikoden 4 in your party (and he is pretty good).

I don't remember if 5 had an import your save from 4 (or if it did, what it adds).

I've heard S4+Tactics actually somewhat redeem S4 as a whole, but never got around to playing Tactics. Any truth to that?

I'm not quire sure what you are asking?
 

Rahdulan

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The ONLY reason I played 4 was because if you import a save game from 4 into Suikoden Tactics (which is FUCKING AWESOME just FYI) you can later get the character from Suikoden 4 in your party (and he is pretty good).

I don't remember if 5 had an import your save from 4 (or if it did, what it adds).

I've heard S4+Tactics actually somewhat redeem S4 as a whole, but never got around to playing Tactics. Any truth to that?

I'm not quire sure what you are asking?

Yeah, that was piss poor wording on my part. What I meant to ask was whatever playing through Tactics as well as S4 somehow make the later better because S4 kinda ends abruptly on its own.
 

Murk

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There's the Tactical game, Rhapsodia (Suikoden Tactics) on ps2 as well. May be worth checking out.
 

Balaam

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I could never get into Suikodnen, maybe I should give it another chance. My taste tends towards the FF Tactics and the old shining force games
 

Murk

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My biggest complaint -- aside from being too childish at times (Nanami, dear god... why) is the experience scaling (at least in the first two games, haven't played 3, 4, or 5). It makes it so fighting 2-3 battles of 4-6 enemies just dings you up a few levels and every other encounter becomes meaningless unless its a boss or mini-boss.

I wish they did more with the duels and large scale battles too -- those were really cool, there should have been some kind of Strategic Maneuvers and Practice Duel mini game or something.
 

Damned Registrations

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If the experience scaling weren't there then using a new party member would require grinding for hours to bring them up to par. Besides, nobody is forcing you to fight all the battles- once you're strong enough the enemies flee from you and you can simply let them go.
 

Murk

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Yeah, that's what I basically do -- but it means that most combat encounters are just... irrelevant? It'd be one thing if there was any gameplay involved with not fighting enemies (diplomacy, sneak, blah blah blah) but really it's just "select let go, continue on way" -- or use a Champion crystal, which is cool but... it basically means a large part of gameplay now is a chore.
 

Rahdulan

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Yeah, that's what I basically do -- but it means that most combat encounters are just... irrelevant? It'd be one thing if there was any gameplay involved with not fighting enemies (diplomacy, sneak, blah blah blah) but really it's just "select let go, continue on way" -- or use a Champion crystal, which is cool but... it basically means a large part of gameplay now is a chore.

I'd say it's the other way around and Suikoden games chose NOT to make a large part of their gameplay a chore considering how grating random encounters get in JRPGs, especially in Suikoden with its relatively high encounter rate. "Let go" is a handy alternative when you can't be arsed to deal with enemies who are essentially a waste of time for you. Not to say that S1 and S2 didn't have fast combat system in the first place though, considering you could just select auto and combat would be done in about 10 seconds against trash enemies. It's certainly not FF9. That was S5.
 

Murk

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I'm not saying having "let go" is a bad decision, I'm saying the fact that 90% of regular combat ends up in "let go" is a bad result.
 

Grimlorn

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So without spoiling the game, what's so great about Suikoden? And if I try it out, should I just skip to Suikoden 2?
 

eric__s

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So without spoiling the game, what's so great about Suikoden? And if I try it out, should I just skip to Suikoden 2?
The appeal of Suikoden is two things - recruiting characters and the continuity between games. Each of the games has 108 characters to recruit and the process of recruiting them, which often requires quests or satisfying some condition, is a lot of fun. The characters often have their own little stories that take place outside of the context of the game's main scenario. Their stories are often unresolved and continue in other games. What's going on with Clive? Who is Yuber and why is Pesmerga looking for him? Who are Viki and Jeane? What's going to happen with Lorelai? How did Edge get the Star Dragon Sword from Viktor? What happened in Georg Prime's past? The continuity between games, the individual characters' stories (and the mysteries behind them), is what makes the series a lot of fun.

Don't skip 1. It is a very charming game, maybe my favorite in the series, and establishes the tone, concepts and setting for the rest of the games. It's very short and has great music, so check it out.




 

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