A few years ago, Suikoden was the first RPG that taught me how do you actually play an RPG. After a couple failed attempts trying to beat the game and getting bored each time, I eventually figured a full playthrough must be done. After all, I gotta prepare for my inevitable Suikoden 2 playthrough, a game which I carry a lot of nostalgia for thanks to a decade-old let's play I watched way back when.
The only hurdle left was that whole "108 party members to choose from" thing. I'm already stressed out trying to manage SIX party members in Chrono Trigger, now I gotta manage 108?! Well, the real number is closer to 80, seeing as not every character you recruit is playable, but still, that's a lot! How the heck will I know which ones are actually good to use, and if I gotta experiment, how long will it take to find a good party to go with? And if the situation will require me to switch up my strategy, how long will it take to reorganize my party THEN?
"Calm your shit," proclameith Suikoden. "I'm not telling you to use every single one of them. Just pick what interests you." For you see, that sheer amount of party members is one of the game's more brilliant moves. Of course it doesn't want you to manage 80 party members at once, of course it recognizes how tedious would that actually be. That overwhelming quantity is the very thing that encouraged me into the playstyle of only choosing some of them, instead of all of them. As for whatever party members I never used, that's where Suikoden drives its replay value.
The point is, you won't be able to see every strategy and every combination of party member throughout your first run, but that leaves room for further experimentation on succeeding runs. Maybe in today's age, that does not seem like a very appealing idea, but back in 1995 when Suikoden was likely the one new game you would've had for months, that's when the different combinations of possibilities would've driven your desire to continue playing the game and trying new things out.
Does all of that sound painfully obvious? Congratulations, your brain is normal. Mine is riddled with a completionism complex, and the constant anxiety that anything I'm missing is setting up the potential for something to go wrong. But if anybody reading this feels similarly, I think you should make this game your first stepping stone into the genre if you wanna get into older RPG's. The way it naturally leads you into the lesson of "Play the way you want to play" has opened up the floodgates for all sorts of other RPG experiences since then. Not to mention, opened my eyes towards the fact that this genre is, frankly, mentally deranged in the most fascinating ways.
With that said! I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. As much as I recommend it for the lessons it teaches to an RPG newcomer, you'll have to brace yourself for Suikoden's slow, antiquated nature, which has been outshined by many RPG's since its inception. Its battles go on for longer than they should. The run button is locked behind an equippable item, which you have to waste 1 of 6 of your precious slots on. Characters don't have a whole lot of inventory, so you'll have to manage your resources carefully. The art style isn't doing anything particularly unique to stand out from the competition, and the hardware of the PS1 is barely being utilized.
The game also has a nasty tendency to force you into taking specific party members on-board, when they may be required to progress the story. In turn, it may also take away party members from you when you least expect it, along with everything they were carrying in their inventory. So, let's say, for example, I gave one of my party members an infinite-use item that enables fast travel across the map. Then they get kidnapped in a story cutscene. That item is now gone until I rescue them several hours later, so no more fast travel until then. Did I say this was an example? Sorry, no, that actually happened, and I still remember the face I made when I realized it. I've learned to carry crucial items in my main character's inventory after that.
And hey, something to consider. When you make your story kill off a party member in an emotional scene, believe you me, you do NOT want the player's reaction to be "Noooo, not my 40 fucking potions!"
The writing in itself is not too bad, but it's also not too great. A war is happening, and it's up to you to gather enough recruits to turn your small ragtag group of resistance members, into an army rivaling the corrupt empire. From there, you keep rising, and expanding your reach, until you start getting shit done. I think it shines when it gives the spotlight to intelligent, calculating strategists who head into each of the major battles with a plan. Odessa was cool, so is Matei, and seeing them make the decisions they made for the sake of minimizing casualties, while maximizing victory, were some of the game's bigger highlights.
Regrettably, much of the writing is sabogated by the blatantly fucked up localization, seemingly rushed and untested for proper consistency. In one of the mandatory cutscenes, there's just straight up a developer note left in the script, with the character speaking outloud what was only meant to be context for the localizer. I've also noted numerous instances of characters inappropriately referring to themselves in third person, and typos galore. Similarly to FF4, it does admittingly make things more entertaining, but it also makes it difficult to treat the story seriously.
This is all topped off with a shockingly disappointing ending. A lot of RPG's in this age utilized the trope of the bigger, badder villain revealed to have been pulling the strings behind everything. Similarly, Suikoden does this too, but presumably due to the game being rushed, you don't ever get to fight the bigger villain. Instead, the game's final boss consists of the villain's servant randomly transforming into a giant fuck-you dragon, with only 1-2 attacks to their name and the regular boss fight theme accompanying it. The final boss doesn't even get their own theme! And it ultimately ends with the big, bad villain themselves dying in a cutscene. Considering how despicable the villain is made throughout the story, the fact you don't even get to so much as nudge them, was a terrible anticlimax to this long journey.
However, that WAS only the regular ending... if you were to recruit all 108 companions across the game, there's an alternate true ending you may access instead. But I'll just let you know right now, don't bother. It does not change anything about the final boss. What it DOES do, is allow you to revive your protagonist's most trusted companion from the brink of death. But despite their death having a significant amount of emotional weight put behind it, their revival is given a laughably minimal amount of fanfare by comparison. A couple lines are said, and then the game unceremoniously moves on, with no further relevance or modification to the story.
Despite all this, something about Suikoden's story... still managed to captivate me. The ending itself is hot trash, but it's the epilogue after the fact that unlocked some feelings in me. Many RPG's have the "Where are they now" ending scene, but Suikoden's really instilled the feeling that the long and arduous war has finally come to an end, and people can now live peacefully, free to decide their own life as they wish. And these efforts aren't owed to just a single hero, or two, or four. It was thanks to everyone, the entire world united together to fight against one powerful dictatorship, thus paving the way for peace.
When I think about it like that, Suikoden has a political and inspirational relevance in today's age, when we ourselves are becoming increasingly more aware of our corrupt governments, and the fascists who will use any means necessary to control us, or slaughter us otherwise. Suikoden presents a similarly bleak world, where you quickly learn that under the banner you were born, your only choice is to serve egotistical power-hungry scumbags, and to accept the greed-motivated genocide they invoke on others, lest you get branded a traitor and meet the same fate. But Suikoden says to not give up. Suikoden asks you to refuse such a world, it asks you to organize, to reach out, to unite everyone under the goal of peace. Suikoden tackles some aspects of xenophobia/racism, and further asks you to mend the differences between races and countries alike.
There are a couple characters that are resigned to their fates, convinced that they'd rather live out the rest of their life as it currently is. Only then, they witness the horrors of the empire themselves, realizing that they cannot sit back and watch the world go to hell. And with every person recruited, your ability to oppose the empire grows larger. Your hideout goes from a dinky little cave, to a formidable fortress. As it becomes filled with people, the mood of the music changes, becomes more hopeful, more lively.
This, for me, is the biggest reason to play Suikoden 1. It may not be well written/localized, but its message, its overall execution, had a great impact on me. Even a single person can make a tremendous difference. Add thousands of others who are aspiring to do the same, that difference will spread across the world. It makes me feel warm. It makes me feel that perhaps one day, we can achieve this same kind of peace in real life. If this is the message Suikoden's creator wanted to share to the world, then I thank him for it. He made me feel less alone.
Anyway, here's a summary! Good message. Good music. Some fun and interesting characters here and there. Poor, but funny localization. Slow combat system. Inventory managment is abundant. Graphics are kinda whatever. Anticlimatic ending. Recommended for people who wanna combat their completionism OCD. Don't try to 100%, just go with the flow. Suikoden's definitely not one of the best RPG's you could play out there, but I think it certainly has its pluses if you're of the mood to dissect its themes a little further, are a fan of PS1 games, or are just looking for a simple RPG to get into, even if it may look deceptively complex at first. It is intensely flawed, but also surprisingly heartfelt. A very bizarre case, indeed. Nonetheless, one that I hold dearly. Here's hoping that the upcoming remaster of the first two Suikodens will give people the best way to experience these games.
The only hurdle left was that whole "108 party members to choose from" thing. I'm already stressed out trying to manage SIX party members in Chrono Trigger, now I gotta manage 108?! Well, the real number is closer to 80, seeing as not every character you recruit is playable, but still, that's a lot! How the heck will I know which ones are actually good to use, and if I gotta experiment, how long will it take to find a good party to go with? And if the situation will require me to switch up my strategy, how long will it take to reorganize my party THEN?
"Calm your shit," proclameith Suikoden. "I'm not telling you to use every single one of them. Just pick what interests you." For you see, that sheer amount of party members is one of the game's more brilliant moves. Of course it doesn't want you to manage 80 party members at once, of course it recognizes how tedious would that actually be. That overwhelming quantity is the very thing that encouraged me into the playstyle of only choosing some of them, instead of all of them. As for whatever party members I never used, that's where Suikoden drives its replay value.
The point is, you won't be able to see every strategy and every combination of party member throughout your first run, but that leaves room for further experimentation on succeeding runs. Maybe in today's age, that does not seem like a very appealing idea, but back in 1995 when Suikoden was likely the one new game you would've had for months, that's when the different combinations of possibilities would've driven your desire to continue playing the game and trying new things out.
Does all of that sound painfully obvious? Congratulations, your brain is normal. Mine is riddled with a completionism complex, and the constant anxiety that anything I'm missing is setting up the potential for something to go wrong. But if anybody reading this feels similarly, I think you should make this game your first stepping stone into the genre if you wanna get into older RPG's. The way it naturally leads you into the lesson of "Play the way you want to play" has opened up the floodgates for all sorts of other RPG experiences since then. Not to mention, opened my eyes towards the fact that this genre is, frankly, mentally deranged in the most fascinating ways.
With that said! I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. As much as I recommend it for the lessons it teaches to an RPG newcomer, you'll have to brace yourself for Suikoden's slow, antiquated nature, which has been outshined by many RPG's since its inception. Its battles go on for longer than they should. The run button is locked behind an equippable item, which you have to waste 1 of 6 of your precious slots on. Characters don't have a whole lot of inventory, so you'll have to manage your resources carefully. The art style isn't doing anything particularly unique to stand out from the competition, and the hardware of the PS1 is barely being utilized.
The game also has a nasty tendency to force you into taking specific party members on-board, when they may be required to progress the story. In turn, it may also take away party members from you when you least expect it, along with everything they were carrying in their inventory. So, let's say, for example, I gave one of my party members an infinite-use item that enables fast travel across the map. Then they get kidnapped in a story cutscene. That item is now gone until I rescue them several hours later, so no more fast travel until then. Did I say this was an example? Sorry, no, that actually happened, and I still remember the face I made when I realized it. I've learned to carry crucial items in my main character's inventory after that.
And hey, something to consider. When you make your story kill off a party member in an emotional scene, believe you me, you do NOT want the player's reaction to be "Noooo, not my 40 fucking potions!"
The writing in itself is not too bad, but it's also not too great. A war is happening, and it's up to you to gather enough recruits to turn your small ragtag group of resistance members, into an army rivaling the corrupt empire. From there, you keep rising, and expanding your reach, until you start getting shit done. I think it shines when it gives the spotlight to intelligent, calculating strategists who head into each of the major battles with a plan. Odessa was cool, so is Matei, and seeing them make the decisions they made for the sake of minimizing casualties, while maximizing victory, were some of the game's bigger highlights.
Regrettably, much of the writing is sabogated by the blatantly fucked up localization, seemingly rushed and untested for proper consistency. In one of the mandatory cutscenes, there's just straight up a developer note left in the script, with the character speaking outloud what was only meant to be context for the localizer. I've also noted numerous instances of characters inappropriately referring to themselves in third person, and typos galore. Similarly to FF4, it does admittingly make things more entertaining, but it also makes it difficult to treat the story seriously.
This is all topped off with a shockingly disappointing ending. A lot of RPG's in this age utilized the trope of the bigger, badder villain revealed to have been pulling the strings behind everything. Similarly, Suikoden does this too, but presumably due to the game being rushed, you don't ever get to fight the bigger villain. Instead, the game's final boss consists of the villain's servant randomly transforming into a giant fuck-you dragon, with only 1-2 attacks to their name and the regular boss fight theme accompanying it. The final boss doesn't even get their own theme! And it ultimately ends with the big, bad villain themselves dying in a cutscene. Considering how despicable the villain is made throughout the story, the fact you don't even get to so much as nudge them, was a terrible anticlimax to this long journey.
However, that WAS only the regular ending... if you were to recruit all 108 companions across the game, there's an alternate true ending you may access instead. But I'll just let you know right now, don't bother. It does not change anything about the final boss. What it DOES do, is allow you to revive your protagonist's most trusted companion from the brink of death. But despite their death having a significant amount of emotional weight put behind it, their revival is given a laughably minimal amount of fanfare by comparison. A couple lines are said, and then the game unceremoniously moves on, with no further relevance or modification to the story.
Despite all this, something about Suikoden's story... still managed to captivate me. The ending itself is hot trash, but it's the epilogue after the fact that unlocked some feelings in me. Many RPG's have the "Where are they now" ending scene, but Suikoden's really instilled the feeling that the long and arduous war has finally come to an end, and people can now live peacefully, free to decide their own life as they wish. And these efforts aren't owed to just a single hero, or two, or four. It was thanks to everyone, the entire world united together to fight against one powerful dictatorship, thus paving the way for peace.
When I think about it like that, Suikoden has a political and inspirational relevance in today's age, when we ourselves are becoming increasingly more aware of our corrupt governments, and the fascists who will use any means necessary to control us, or slaughter us otherwise. Suikoden presents a similarly bleak world, where you quickly learn that under the banner you were born, your only choice is to serve egotistical power-hungry scumbags, and to accept the greed-motivated genocide they invoke on others, lest you get branded a traitor and meet the same fate. But Suikoden says to not give up. Suikoden asks you to refuse such a world, it asks you to organize, to reach out, to unite everyone under the goal of peace. Suikoden tackles some aspects of xenophobia/racism, and further asks you to mend the differences between races and countries alike.
There are a couple characters that are resigned to their fates, convinced that they'd rather live out the rest of their life as it currently is. Only then, they witness the horrors of the empire themselves, realizing that they cannot sit back and watch the world go to hell. And with every person recruited, your ability to oppose the empire grows larger. Your hideout goes from a dinky little cave, to a formidable fortress. As it becomes filled with people, the mood of the music changes, becomes more hopeful, more lively.
This, for me, is the biggest reason to play Suikoden 1. It may not be well written/localized, but its message, its overall execution, had a great impact on me. Even a single person can make a tremendous difference. Add thousands of others who are aspiring to do the same, that difference will spread across the world. It makes me feel warm. It makes me feel that perhaps one day, we can achieve this same kind of peace in real life. If this is the message Suikoden's creator wanted to share to the world, then I thank him for it. He made me feel less alone.
Anyway, here's a summary! Good message. Good music. Some fun and interesting characters here and there. Poor, but funny localization. Slow combat system. Inventory managment is abundant. Graphics are kinda whatever. Anticlimatic ending. Recommended for people who wanna combat their completionism OCD. Don't try to 100%, just go with the flow. Suikoden's definitely not one of the best RPG's you could play out there, but I think it certainly has its pluses if you're of the mood to dissect its themes a little further, are a fan of PS1 games, or are just looking for a simple RPG to get into, even if it may look deceptively complex at first. It is intensely flawed, but also surprisingly heartfelt. A very bizarre case, indeed. Nonetheless, one that I hold dearly. Here's hoping that the upcoming remaster of the first two Suikodens will give people the best way to experience these games.