Suikoden and Eiyuden Chronicle - We got 108 problems but a sequel ain't one

[JimiHendrix]

I love Suikoden V so goddamn much that I make considerate, missionary Christian love to it every night. I will one day find the person holding it back from a rerelease and visit such pain upon six generations of their lineage.

honestly never cared for V. I never even beat it. probably because it was missing any and all connections to anything I actually enjoyed, no returning characters, no returning plot. only "returning" character was Greg.

dolph was cool though.

 

[DuranceVile]

well to be fair, it presumably came from Leon who learned it in/inbetween 1 and 2 and 4/5 take place before 1. so it's not a huge problem they dropped it.

i would recommend you edit your post to delete that link tho, i didn't read it carefully and it kinda spoils 3 and several people in this thread have stated "haven't played the games but want to"

so my bad on that.

i only played through 3 once as well and while it's not as good as 1/2, I did like it. Since the creator left it is kinda the grand finale and it does work for that in a way.

Done!

I'm really excited for where Eiyuden can go, hopefully Murayama can explore the longer plot he was wanting to do with Suikoden. It seems like the plot, from what little has been revealed, is taking a lot of cues from 2.

I love Suikoden V so goddamn much that I make considerate, missionary Christian love to it every night. I will one day find the person holding it back from a rerelease and visit such pain upon six generations of their lineage.

I enjoy V too. If I had to rank the games best to least liked, it would be:
2
1
5
3
4

I actually don't mind the gigantic prologue. I thought it was a cool way to make us care about the characters before things go south.

honestly never cared for V. I never even beat it. probably because it was missing any and all connections to anything I actually enjoyed, no returning characters, no returning plot. only "returning" character was Greg.

dolph was cool though.

Killey and Lorelai "returned" as well.

As much as I didn't like IV overall, I did enjoy a certain cameo from an important character. He was broke as a joke too.

 

[Pargon]

honestly never cared for V. I never even beat it. probably because it was missing any and all connections to anything I actually enjoyed, no returning characters, no returning plot. only "returning" character was Greg.

dolph was cool though.

Georg Prime was a straight G. No party member needs much characterization when they can just kill enemies outright.

I’ll never deny my undying love for Lyon, whose design is top-notch art-wise and who was somehow miraculously written to be a bodyguard to the protagonist of a JRPG and avoided acting like an oneesan entirely.

 

[JimiHendrix]

I’ll never deny my undying love for Lyon

the fact i've had a friend for near a decade who goes by the name lyon and is constantly spouting his love of hitler and hatred of black people may've affected my enjoyment of that character a lil.

 

[DuranceVile]

The main ladies in Suikoden V were pretty great. Lyon and top tier AILF Sialeeds are a lot of fun. Lym was okay too I guess. Lucretia wasn't a bad tactician.

Spoiler: S5 plot thing

It just sucks Sialeeds betrays you near the end. I never quite got why she did except to justify Lyon getting the Twilight Rune.

 

[Dom Cruise]

I love Suikoden V so goddamn much that I make considerate, missionary Christian love to it every night. I will one day find the person holding it back from a rerelease and visit such pain upon six generations of their lineage.

Konami gives no fucks, the MGS HD collection desperately needs a re-release but it will probably never happen because Konami gives no fucks.

It's absurd that the MGS HD collection has been trapped on fucking PS3 and 360 for over a decade, but again, Konami gives no fucks and probably actively avoids doing it to spite Kojima.

Not to derail the thread, but has anyone ever investigated what the deal with Konami is?

 

[Pimpleking55]

Done!

I'm really excited for where Eiyuden can go, hopefully Murayama can explore the longer plot he was wanting to do with Suikoden. It seems like the plot, from what little has been revealed, is taking a lot of cues from 2.


I enjoy V too. If I had to rank the games best to least liked, it would be:
2
1
5
3
4

I actually don't mind the gigantic prologue. I thought it was a cool way to make us care about the characters before things go south.

Killey and Lorelai "returned" as well.

As much as I didn't like IV overall, I did enjoy a certain cameo from an important character. He was broke as a joke too.

Don't forget Viki our scatter brained teleporting waifu.

 

[DuranceVile]

Not to derail the thread, but has anyone ever investigated what the deal with Konami is?

I've read theories ranging from them deciding that pachinko is just more lucrative than games to full on Yakuza ties forcing them out of game development. It's all kinds of crazy.

Don't forget Viki our scatter brained teleporting waifu.

Viki teleporting linearly from the victory dinner of the previous game always cracked me up. She's great. Plus getting her always meant unlocking fast travel.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I started with 5 that blew my mind when I got it with how it balanced a lot of gameplay features really well and felt like a truly epic experience. Years later played 1 and 2, and 2 really is the kino moment of the series in every aspect (but or course Luca Blight is badass). I played the DS game while in the army and it was serviceable but not memorable.
Played 3 few years ago and it was the worse of the games I played. It was just too slow and jumping between the different viewpoints didn't add anything to the experience, which is a huge waste.

 

[augment]

I don't hate this cover as much anymore. Sure it's terrible in the context of what the series' art was able to conjure, but crpgs of the time were all derivative of Sword & Fantasy style, because it was on the D&D books and because well, nobody stateside knew any better. You got scantly clad buff dude, a sorceress, some eerie skulls. Contrast that to today's state of affairs where every jrpg is a high school anime.

 

[Professor G. Raff]

I really enjoyed Suikoden II when I played it like 8 years ago, so far it's the only one I've played even though I own a copy of every one but V. I played through it blind, so I was a little upset that I missed several of the 108 characters who only had a small window with opaque methods to obtain. If I play it again it will for sure be with a guide so I don't miss a bunch of stuff. On a different note Neclord has my favorite vampire battle theme in gaming.

It seems like I made the right choice as the poll shows it being overwhelmingly the most popular installment, but I might have to try V since it seems to have some hype among people in this thread. Too bad I didn't get it in the past and now it's second in price only to II...

 

[DuranceVile]

I really enjoyed Suikoden II when I played it like 8 years ago, so far it's the only one I've played even though I own a copy of every one but V. I played through it blind, so I was a little upset that I missed several of the 108 characters who only had a small window with opaque methods to obtain. If I play it again it will for sure be with a guide so I don't miss a bunch of stuff. On a different note Neclord has my favorite vampire battle theme in gaming.

It seems like I made the right choice as the poll shows it being overwhelmingly the most popular installment, but I might have to try V since it seems to have some hype among people in this thread. Too bad I didn't get it in the past and now it's second in price only to II...

V is worth playing for sure, but probably worth tracking down on an emulator since Konami hasn't rereleased it in any form as far as I know. It's also good you've played II because that's the game V callbacks to the most.

Funnily enough, my friend owned a physical copy of Suikoden II and lost it when we were teenagers. I told him about how much it goes for on eBay a few years ago and he was mortified.

 

[Professor G. Raff]

Funnily enough, my friend owned a physical copy of Suikoden II and lost it when we were teenagers. I told him about how much it goes for on eBay a few years ago and he was mortified.

Yeah, I bought my copy when it was already getting up there... something like $100 nearly a decade ago. Luckily it happened to show up at a store called Movie Trading Company (or Vintage Stock) I used to visit a lot. It was a great place because buying certain items just came with 4 coupons for 25% off any individual game so having several saved up I was able to pick it up for $75.

They also had Suikoden V pretty much all the time, but it was something like $40-50 which at the time I was unwilling to pay... and while I can easily emulate it, it bothers me my set is incomplete as I am not willing to pay $120+ it goes for these days.

 

[Lurker]

i've only ever played suikoden 1, which was of course amazing. as for the others, i used to watch my brother play them when i was little. from what i remember...
1 - only one i played, i was dead set on bringing gremio back to life, and fucked up on my first file because i didn't recruit that one dude from that abandoned town before mathiu dies, since mathiu is actually important for that quest. i was so fucking pissed because he was THE LAST STAR and he just so happened to be the ONE GUY who you wouldn't be able to recruit during the endgame because mathiu dying is unavoidable and part of the plot
2 - my brother tried in vain to save jowy, but he didn't realize he never could because he didn't save nanami, and when i saw that you needed to have all 108 stars before nanami gets shot, i was like "wow, well that sucks"
3 - watched brother play this, vaguely remember plot, thought hugo was kawaii
4 - the default/canonical name for the main character is lazlo. that is all.
5 - yo there were some tracks on the ost that slapped. actually this applies to every suikoden. otherwise i only vaguely remember the plot of this one

as for eiyuden chronicle, my brother asked if i heard of it, and i hadn't, but i guess i'll check it out maybe, since it's like a spiritual successor to suikoden or something?

 

[DuranceVile]

as for eiyuden chronicle, my brother asked if i heard of it, and i hadn't, but i guess i'll check it out maybe, since it's like a spiritual successor to suikoden or something?

Yes! It's being made by Murayama, the lead guy from 1, 2 and at least half of 3, as well as lots of other people from the original games.

We don't know a whole lot except it'll be a 2.5D, HD pixel art kind of game. The battle system looks very similar to Suikoden. The plot seems to be focusing on two good friends trapped in a conflict kind of like 2. I'm optimistic we'll get something good out of it.

 

[Captain Syrup]

3 - watched brother play this, vaguely remember plot, thought hugo was kawaii

So much of 3 would've been improved by making Thomas the main character.

Someone make a patch which makes Thomas the Firebringer.

 

[DuranceVile]

So much of 3 would've been improved by making Thomas the main character.

Someone make a patch which makes Thomas the Firebringer.

Thiiiiiiiiis. I legitimately enjoyed Thomas's chapters and his plotline way more than anybody else's, including Geddoe's.

Apparently Murayama has gone on to say there wasn't any meddling on S3, in fact he had a lot of freedom on the series. He just promised himself he wouldn't work at Konami longer than 10 years and he really stuck to that. Him not being in the credits was a company policy thing that he says he isn't upset about.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

The original Suikoden soundtracks were possibly some of the best music that JRPGs had to offer. I always thought the series was too overshadowed by the likes of Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy, since it wasn’t marketed towards the West properly.

Personally, 3,4,5 and the first one are the best to me; though, in no order of course.

Spoiler

Maybe I can find an emulator that properly run Suikoden V smoothly and have fun with the game for old times sake. The original copies are going for expensive prices on eBay at the moment. It’s up there with Xenogears.

 

[Drag-on Knight 91873]

V has the most involved politics out of all of them. The Queendom is paralyzed by partisan politics at the start, the Neo-con Godwins cause a bunch of gay-ops starting by meddling in the Olympics that kills off a bipolar Queen to gain power and the Barrows try Armes collusion to also gain power.

 

[DuranceVile]

V has the most involved politics out of all of them. The Queendom is paralyzed by partisan politics at the start, the Neo-con Godwins cause a bunch of gay-ops starting by meddling in the Olympics that kills off a bipolar Queen to gain power and the Barrows try Armes collusion to also gain power.

I thought it was really interesting that the villains of V aren't larger than life figures like Luca or Barbarossa. They're just weaselly politicians pulling weaselly stunts. Even the so called House Barrows allies you pick up are doing the same thing to you.

Also digging into Falena's nasty past with the assassins and how Oboro and crew are victims of that. Genuinely good stuff.