Suikoden is my favorite RPG series and I'm glad that it's still getting some attention like a good series should. I'll be looking forward to more as it develops

Syd Lexia wrote:

I have no idea what Suikoden even is, other than people seem to love it.

Aside from it being the first and only RPG I ever beat with my brother, the original Suikoden had a certain charm that was very reminiscent to Final Fantasy IV and VI. The story for the first two games are really great, a perfect mix of romance, adventure and betrayal and all the things one could expect from an RPG. The amount of character and parties you could make gave it a customization that is hard to come by. Emphasizing the characters, there are several perks to the battle system that really allow you to swap characters in and out. Unity attacks (while not really new nowadays) were always surprising to find and use, and the master magic combinations both were awesome to figure out and made the end game surprisingly easy.The various types of battles, such as an entire war, duels and regular fights are rewarding even if you don't want to fight them. I guess to shorten it, if you try the first one (which is on the PSN for about $10) you won't be disappointed. The second is even better...[/SPOILER]

Greg the White wrote:

Douche McCallister wrote: It's seriously one of favorite games. If you like RPG's you would be doing yourself a disservice by not playing it. I've kind of fallen out with JRPG's ever since cutscenes took over the genre, I just dislike the idea of the game being taken out of my hands for ten minutes, or not having an actual gameplay segment for up to an hour at a time. If Suikoden is different, I'll give it a try (I've heard it has a very deep combat system, which has kept it tucked away in my brain at least).

The first one starts off with a couple talky scenes but nothing to the point of wanting to jab your eyes out with a pen. The game maybe starts fully in five minutes tops, but the five minutes establishes your main character and their direct relationship with key characters, what some JRPG's don't do much of anymore.

Douche McCallister wrote:

Your team will make or break you, especially when you have a forced fight and they make you swap someone out, and the new member is a short range fighter who is forcibly put in the back row, so essentially he is useless (looking at you Lepant). RPG's are seldomly "difficult" but the bosses in this one can be tricky.

That always ticked me off, especially when you are at a point where you haven't saved because you think it will be smooth sailing, they take out a key character that you were a wrecking machine with and you end up with a Kobold who can't do jack, has no rune and is pretty much a sack of meat in the back.

[SPOILER:2f25ff914e]If there is any specific character you want to level up, it's Pahn. Trust me on this.[/SPOILER:2f25ff914e]

I always typically had the same party when I played and re-played it, only leveling characters up for recruits and certain events. For everything else, I would just have my strongest fighters and one or two weaker ones in the back for exp.