Game Review: Suikoden I

Genre: RPG
Developer: Konami
Producer: Konami
Platform: Sega Saturn, Playstation, PSP (although thanks to emulators, I was able to play it again~ XP)

Suikoden is the first of the Suikoden series. Players take control of the son of one of Scarlet Moon Empire's Five Great Generals, who is destined to lead the 108 Stars of Destiny and bring peace and freedom to the war-torn land bound by corruption.

Just finished this game again~! XD

Yes, I spent my holiday playing this. The last time I played this was way back in high school, and playing it again feels so nostalgic~

Yeah, it's kinda veryyyyy late to put up a review on this game, but what the heck, for the sake of those people who missed the chance or would like to play this game.

Konami did a good start on the series with this. The story's simple yet different from the usual RPGs emerging at the time of its release (1995). It also has amazing backgrounds compared to RPGs at that time, and the music's beautiful as well. The game's main feature is its 108 recruitable characters, both playable and non-playable.

Gameplay

The gameplay's like the traditional RPG where the player controls the character on the field and does various missions to advance in the story. The player's party consists of six characters that are freely chosen by the player and controlled during combat. Of course, the main character being the leader, cannot be removed from the party, and in some parts of the story, there are some characters that cannot be removed in the party because their role is needed in that certain part.

There are three types of battle system in Suikoden. One is where the player engages a random encounter battle in the world map or in a dungeon. The combat system is turn-based where the player can choose to fight the enemies, escape or let go of them, bribe them, run away, or automatically attack them. The characters on the other hand, can perform attacks, magic, and unite or co-op attacks with other characters. Characters' battle formation can be classified by the types of weapon they are using: S for short-range (swords, knuckles, claws, rods), M for mid-range (staffs, spears, axes), and L for long-range (bows, throwing knives). Hence, a short-ranged character can't do an attack if he/she is put in the back. It's game over whenever all six characters run out of hit points (HP), however there are certain incidents where winning is optional or the player will really lose the battle.

Unite attack: Pretty Boy Attack

Runes are sources of magic in the world of Suikoden. To be able to use them, the player must have it attached in the character at a rune shop. Only one rune can be attached per character. A certain rune has four spell levels, and each level has a certain number of times that can be used per battle. There are some runes however, that put special add-on skills to the character, like dealing more critical blows or dealing double damage.

Hit points and magic are restored by taking a rest at inns or at certain places (like a coffin) or talking to certain people. Status ailments are recovered as well.

Yes, you can rest in the coffin, whether you like it or not.

Equipment can be bought at the shop. Weapons, however, aren't. Instead, they are sharpened by blacksmiths to strengthen them. Although, there are some characters which the player can't change or remove equipments.

The second battle system is the War battle. It is here where the hero's army clashes with the enemy's army. The victory condition is to eliminate the enemy's forces, which is shown instead of hit points. The player commands the army to either do a Charge attack, Bow attack, Magic attack, or other methods (like raising the charge attack, spying on the next enemy move, or make enemies turn traitors). It's like a rock-paper-scissor game, where Charge is weak against Magic, Magic is weak against Bow, and Bow is weak against Charge. It's game over when all the players forces are eliminated, though there are certain war battles that are impossible to win because it's part of the story.

The third battle system is the Duel battle. Here, the player engages in a one-on-one battle and it also has a rock-paper-scissor system. The player has the option to do a normal attack, defend, or desperate attack. Attack beats defend, defend beats desperate attack, and desperate attack beats attack.

When it's game over, the player must restart from a save point where he/she last saved the game.

Headquarters

Unlike other RPGs where the characters just travel around the world and spend the night on different places, in Suikoden, the hero's army has a headquarters that expands whenever the player has recruited a certain number of characters.

In the headquarters, the player can put up the following if the player recruits the characters needed for these:

- Item shop

- Armory

- Rune shop

- Smithy

- Inn

- Vault (for storing items)

- Library

- Bath house (where the player can put various antiques)

- Appraisal (for appraising unknown antiques)

- Mural

Taking a soak in the bath for too long makes your characters red~

The player can also play mini-games if he/she is able to recuit characters that provide these mini-games.

Characters

The numerous characters of Suikoden (playable, enemy, and side characters) is the game's main feature. Some of them would later appear in other Suikoden games. The hero is a silent character, having no dialog in the game except for the choices presented to the player on how the hero will act or respond to the situation. 

Players have the option to make fun of the hero.

If the player successfully recruits all 107 characters (the player's character, the hero being the 108th) before a certain point in the game, a good ending awaits the player rather than the normal one.