Review: Suikoden. The first one.

While the game itself requires no introduction, I would like to begin with an aside.

See this cover? This is why the whole "make a different cover for America" crap has to stop. Example:

Just sayin'.

Story:
Suikoden begins with you and Teo, your father, visiting the palace of the Empire in order to enlist you into the armed forces, just like him. Stuff gets crazy fast and you end up on the wrong side of the Empire's to-do list in a hurry, so in true "pffff why not" fashion, you raise up an army of 108 members, build a fortress, and tear the Empire apart with your bare hands and a little help from your friends.

Gameplay:
This section will not be nearly as short as the one above it.

Combat consists of you and up to five other members fighting random battles, boss battles, event battles, general RPG fare. You have physical attacks based on whatever your character's default weapon is, magic used from runes that you attach to yourself or become attached to you via plot, and combination attacks that can only be used between specific characters. If your team is built right many random encounters become cakewalks quickly, and experience is scalar so new recruits or old members you've neglected in favor of some new hotness can catch up pretty quickly as well. This also minimizes on "stupid grind," since after a while you peak out and can't progress much further without getting on with the plot.

Weapons come attached permanently to every character, but you can visit a blacksmith to improve everyone's weapons, or a rune mage to attach rune shards, which give an elemental attribute to a weapon and affect the "type" of damage you do, or can lend other effects (for example, water shards give you a little bit of HP back every round, depending on how many shards you attach). Armor and accessories are found in town item shops, in chests throughout the world, or dropped in combat. Furthermore any armor you view in an armor shop will become available later in your fortress, which is excellent when you find yourself short on scratch for something super-fancy but super-expensive.

Your fortress acts as a full-scale super-town, housing the Rebellion Army as well as an:

- Inn
- Armory
- Item Shop
- Blacksmith
- Rune Mage
- Gambling Parlor
- Teleportation Center
- Marina
- and more!

Recruiting members happens either through the story or by finding them strewn about the game world, many of which will only join you based on certain conditions, certain dialogue paths, or unlocking side quests. They all make their way to the fortress and many of them unlock the above features.

Graphics/Sound:

While Suikoden looks and sounds its age, this is not always a bad thing. With a remake or port coming to the PSP every other month, indie darlings like Cave Story or literalism in the way of 3D Dot Game Heroes, a high standard on sprite work and chip tune prowess has been established, and Konami was a bigger studio even prior to its Metal Gear Solid days. This adds up to Suikoden aging more like wine than like a t-shirt that you should really, really be washing inside out.

The character sprites themselves are my biggest complaint. While you can clearly tell who's who for the most part, by the time your party size gets to the upper 50s everyone starts to blur together, having no faces and all. The character portraits make up for it, being somewhat low-res and yet accomplishing everything a portrait should: if you ever had a doubt as to a character's personality or motivations, take a look at their portrait, check for facial hair or scars etc, you know the drill. The world itself is also done well, as are the enemy sprites, weapons, and attacks.

Okay I lied, I have a bigger gripe. The menu system in Suikoden is kind of a train wreck to get used to at first because it's just plain clunky and unintuitive to look at. Spare wire frames, butt ugly font, it's a somewhat small thing to gripe about but when I'm spending 95%+ of my time either fighting things, reading things, or buying things, the easier on the eyes the better.

All the sound is awesome. It's probably a good thing that this came out a little too early for the FMV/voice acting thing really caught on, because it would be jarring next to the sprite work of the rest of the game. Well, voice acting could have been cool, or it could have been a nightmare depending on how much of the game's budget would've gone to it (which, by early PSX standards, isn't much).

Overall:

Worth it. It's an example of a classic where the guys and gals behind it put everything they had into it (except the menus guy), and holy crap it's good even by today's standards. For the RPG fan who can appreciate a fine vintage, bite and all. My point docks are for minor issues that really could've handled differently, and any competent remake would address handily, so that said.

8.5/10
Compelling story and gameplay with some flaws and issues that do not make the game unplayable but just make it not perfect.

- E