Suikoden IV features the return of the 108 Stars of Destiny, as well as an enhanced interface in a new oceanic environment. You'll follow a young knight while he struggles with Rune, which slowly steals the life of its bearer. The game's strategic battle systems let you attack or cast magic spells with help from other party members. Recruit members of the Stars of Destiny and create a base from the ground up. With a brand-new storyline, characters, and cutscenes, Suikoden IV takes the series to the next level.
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That's not as dreadful as people make it out to be. I think most people who play JRPGs either haven't played enough bad JRPGs or simply don't know how to use a gradient scale well and end up confusing "mediocre" with "horrible" more often than not.
That being said, Suikoden IV is a problematic game. Even though it has an interesting premise where this time your castle is a boat and you eventually have a fleet to sail the seas, the game itself is quite anemic, lacking denser content. Visually, it's also a worse game than its predecessor (although the character design still appeals to me), it has a worse story as well, and the decision to only use four characters in battle isn't a good one either. But the new army battles are pretty nice! The ship fights are cool although a tad simplistic.
The lore behind the cursed rune is pretty cool but it's not supported by an especially interesting plot, and the hero's rival is a rather uninteresting character.
The islands could also have more things to explore, the game could have more dungeons... Anyway, Suikoden IV unfortunately ends up going in the opposite direction of Suikoden III, which was bloated and ends up having too little content or developing things too little while the previous game did it in excess.
But the Suikoden loop is still here and it's still fun to explore places and recruit people for your army.
Yes, yes, the random battles have a completely INSANE frequency but avoiding battles is as easy as it gets. And yes, using the boat is not pleasant overall but at least this time you meet Viki within less than 10 hours of gameplay instead of 60 hours like in Suikoden III, cutting down a lot on the excessive backtracking from the previous game.
Anyway, Suikoden IV is a poor game, probably the weakest in the series but by no means one of the worst JRPGs of all time or anything like that. You can have fun with it, and if it happens to be your first Suikoden for some reason, you probably won't find it as bad as those who play it with the baggage of the previous ones (which was my case, but even then I don't think it's a bad game, just mediocre). And indeed, considering it's the first game in the chronology, maybe it would be interesting to start with it after all.
That being said, Suikoden IV is a problematic game. Even though it has an interesting premise where this time your castle is a boat and you eventually have a fleet to sail the seas, the game itself is quite anemic, lacking denser content. Visually, it's also a worse game than its predecessor (although the character design still appeals to me), it has a worse story as well, and the decision to only use four characters in battle isn't a good one either. But the new army battles are pretty nice! The ship fights are cool although a tad simplistic.
The lore behind the cursed rune is pretty cool but it's not supported by an especially interesting plot, and the hero's rival is a rather uninteresting character.
The islands could also have more things to explore, the game could have more dungeons... Anyway, Suikoden IV unfortunately ends up going in the opposite direction of Suikoden III, which was bloated and ends up having too little content or developing things too little while the previous game did it in excess.
But the Suikoden loop is still here and it's still fun to explore places and recruit people for your army.
Yes, yes, the random battles have a completely INSANE frequency but avoiding battles is as easy as it gets. And yes, using the boat is not pleasant overall but at least this time you meet Viki within less than 10 hours of gameplay instead of 60 hours like in Suikoden III, cutting down a lot on the excessive backtracking from the previous game.
Anyway, Suikoden IV is a poor game, probably the weakest in the series but by no means one of the worst JRPGs of all time or anything like that. You can have fun with it, and if it happens to be your first Suikoden for some reason, you probably won't find it as bad as those who play it with the baggage of the previous ones (which was my case, but even then I don't think it's a bad game, just mediocre). And indeed, considering it's the first game in the chronology, maybe it would be interesting to start with it after all.
I think if I played this today, after being One Piecepilled, I'd enjoy it much more. That said, I remember disliking it more than 3. If you ever get the urge to play s4, just play suikoden 1 or 2 again.
It's not bad like a lot of people seem to think but when your comparisons are suikoden 1, 2, 3 and 5 (even if I don't like 3) just being "not bad" isn't enough.
I tend to gravitate towards the games that are the black sheep in their franchises (like my favourite game Drakengard 2 for example). And yet my gateway game to the Suikoden games was Suikoden V, which led me to look into the other games in the series.
I have replayed this game many times, admittingly on my first playthrough 16 years ago, I may have dun goofed because I was angry at Snowe, yeah I started over after I realised maybe that wasn't my best choice...
Yeah, I did eventually get all 108 stars of destiny, unlike in Suikoden V where I didn't and I don't talk about that ending, but this game gets overlooked and the naval battles are fun, and when you get the chance go head to head with Elenor with more battles (though slightly harder if you're a masochist like me). And what I can say about the mini game Ritapon! which in my case really encourages my competitive streak (not for the better).
Now tangents aside, the story is about forgiveness and redemption. And yes we play as the nameless hero, who graduates and becomes a Knight of Gaien, and due to Snowe being jealous because of narrative reasons, we get exiled as a result, but later on we meet Lino en Kuldes and learn more about the unfortunate rune we possess (which I forgot to mention). Anyway my point is don't dun goof and kill Snowe and if you want the good ending, keep him alive and spare him.
I have replayed this game many times, admittingly on my first playthrough 16 years ago, I may have dun goofed because I was angry at Snowe, yeah I started over after I realised maybe that wasn't my best choice...
Yeah, I did eventually get all 108 stars of destiny, unlike in Suikoden V where I didn't and I don't talk about that ending, but this game gets overlooked and the naval battles are fun, and when you get the chance go head to head with Elenor with more battles (though slightly harder if you're a masochist like me). And what I can say about the mini game Ritapon! which in my case really encourages my competitive streak (not for the better).
Now tangents aside, the story is about forgiveness and redemption. And yes we play as the nameless hero, who graduates and becomes a Knight of Gaien, and due to Snowe being jealous because of narrative reasons, we get exiled as a result, but later on we meet Lino en Kuldes and learn more about the unfortunate rune we possess (which I forgot to mention). Anyway my point is don't dun goof and kill Snowe and if you want the good ending, keep him alive and spare him.
Eeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhh?
How do real ship captains deal with their boat swerving out of the way of the ports they're trying to dock on?