Topic: Suikoden I & II HD Remaster

@Tasuki Thanks for that. I've never played the game before, and it's a lot of fun. It doesn't seem like the items in the shop are any cheaper in the castle, though. But it's still nice to have everything there in one place, especially now that I've recruited the appraiser and the orb lady. Are there recruits that it becomes impossible to get them anymore after a certain time? Because that would stink. It sounds like you are saying that is the case with the pirates, although I did just figure out how to get them and I am just a little farther along than you are according to your last post and I still was able to recruit them.

@Xyphon22 Without going into spoilers yes there are some that either, by choosing the wrong choice you will not be able to recruit and if you get to a certain point in a game you wont be able to get some at all.

@Tasuki Gotcha. Fortunately I'm not too fussed about getting them all. I obviously want to, but I'm not going to kill myself or scour the internet trying to do it. I think the only ones I've seen and not gotten so far are a couple who want me to have more people first and the girl who wants her cat. If I miss some, I'll probably just Youtube the good ending for getting them all.

@Xyphon22 Yeah the only one I had so far of those is Quincy, the hunter on the bridge. Those ones ones you have to come back later luckily if you have the mirror you can teleport to your castle then speaking to Vicki to teleport you to any city you've been making it a bit easier to go back and get people. As for the cat once you talk to the girl about her missing cat to back to Kaku I think it is and you will see a cat there. Just trap it press the confirm button (not sure which one that is on Switch) to grab the cat and then take it to her.

Just finished the first Suikoden. This had been one of the main series that I have always wanted to play because I had heard such good things about it, and it didn't disappoint. I really enjoyed it. The main thing I was worried about was having so many characters to recruit and have in your party thinking it would be too much and overwhelming (it's the main thing I didn't like about those PS1-era RPGs like Chrono Cross, there were far too many characters to keep track of), and I'm also generally not a big fan of city building. But neither of those things were bad, the castle pretty much just built itself as you recruited more people, and most of the recruits were just there to do things in your castle and weren't really realistic choices to be party members, so I didn't find it overwhelming at all. I ended up getting 101 of the 108 Stars, which I thought was pretty good without ever looking up how to get them. Then I just watched the good ending online. The thing that was most weird was how many fights you do not actually do. Of the five main generals, you only actually fight three of them, and only one of those in a typical turn-based type battle. And then you don't even actually fight the main bad guy of the game. Strange, but I thought the story was really good. Definitely looking forward to playing the second game since I've heard it's even better, but I will probably take a break to play a different game first.

@Xyphon22 Do you happen to know which ones you missed? I am impressed you got so many of them without a guide. I think the first time I played it I only had 80 or so.

@Tasuki The only two that I found but couldn't figure out how to recruit were Window and Leon Silverberg. Window I tried multiple things and just had no clue. Leon originally wanted me to have more people, and I think by the time I went back and tried again I was past the point of no return for him. The other five I never even saw so I'm not sure, but I remember seeing them in the ending when I watched the good one online. One was named Clive, one appeared to be a tiger, one I think it said went back to either the dwarves or elves village so one of those probably. The other two I can't remember anything. Before the end I just spent time warping back to every place I could and searching for people, so that's when I got a lot of them, but I'm guessing I was probably too late for most of them (like Leon).

Another weird thing I forgot about in my previous post is that multiple times they talk about the 27 True Runes like they are a very big deal, but only like 4 or 5 or them are a part of the story. Also, I find it hard to believe that Windy, who just warps around as she pleases all game, would just fall to her death at the end and not warp away to safety. So there are a few things that I think could come up in the second game. I shall find out eventually.

@Xyphon22 Funny enough I just got Window on my play through, you have to have a particular item in your inventory to get him, and Leon is kinda tricky to get. When you do have enough people you have to speak to Mathiu not Leon, get a letter from Mathiu and then talk to Leon with Mathiu's letter and then he will join. There's no way of actually knowing that unless you read a guide. The tiger guy is in the Kobold village and you have to talk to him after the Elf Village is destroyed and pay off his bar tab to get him the join. The other one is Gremio which in order to get him back you have to have everyone else. Clive is another tricky one which you can only get at a certain point.

Anyway glad you enjoyed it and yeah alot of people say the second one is better. I myself have yet to play it all I really know is it takes place in the country just north west of the Toran Empire and there are a few connections to the first game. So for me I am going in completely blind.

I am in the final part of Suikoden, according to the tablet I have one person left to recruit which I cant miss because its story based. So I guess it means I found all the tricky characters to be fair though I did use a guide. Over all still one of my favorite RPGs and I cant wait to finish it here in a few days and begin 2.

I never played the Suikoden games before, but I've been playing my PS3 recently, and once I realized the PSN store was still up, I bought digital versions of Suikoden I-IV (among lots of other classic PS1 JRPGs). I was going to start Suikoden on there, then I realized this remake released fairly recently, so I went to GameStop and grabbed a copy for switch. I'm pretty impressed with how this game looks - possibly the best looking visual style for a modern rerelease of a 32bit RPG to me. Haven't gotten too far yet, but I'm glad games like this are being released for the switch and I can't wait to fully experience these gems.

@charliecarrot Even the original PS one graphics were great. I remember seeing the reflections on the floors in some places and was impressed. Even the size of the sprites were amazing back then. IMO Suikoden was a far better RPG then FFVII back during the PS 1 days, they just didnt have as good as marketing that FF VII so not alot of people knew about it.

@Tasuki I believe it! Granted I'm sure FFVII's graphics were mind-blowing at the time, but they barely held up through the PS1's lifespan (FFIX's graphics are almost a generational leap from FFVII). It's a shame that so many companies went all in on 3D in that era because the capabilities of these more powerful systems allowed way more complex and visually interesting 2D games like Symphony of the Night and the Suikoden titles (compared to a lot of those early 3D games which look extremely dated now).

Just looking at a side by side comparison of the Suikoden PS1 originals against the remaster though, wow - I'm so impressed with how they handled the graphics in this remaster. Looks incredibly true to the original while also feeling super fresh and stylish with new lighting, shadows, and effects (without going overboard like I think the HD-2D games do).

@charliecarrot Honestly IMO FFVII is overrated but that's another story. The Suikoden remaster was done very well. You can tell its was made with care instead of a cash grab. I have heard though that the HD remaster is annupgraded port of the PSP collection that came out in Japan years ago but if it is they sure did upgrade it.

So I am about to storm Gregminster for the final battle and I was just.curious as to what was the final group others use. I am using the following

Hero McDohl and Kai for their unite attack
Valeria and Viktor as mainline tanks
Cleo with the Water Rune for healing
And Crowely for Magic and back up healer.

That seems like an all around group.

Would people rate this above the Lunar games? I like the cutscenes in Lunar, feels more modern. But I also own this for Switch 2.

@Tasuki I honestly don't think I cared much about who I had other than Valeria because she could do that triple attack Rune attack every turn. It was more about the Runes. I had her, the hero just because he was the main character so I had to have him (are you even able to take him out? I don't think I ever tried), and Viktor because he was pretty strong. Then I had Water Runes for healing on both Flik and Cleo, but they could have been on anybody (although Flik was pretty good when he attacked, too), and my last was Kwanda with whatever the Rune was that let you heal just by walking around, so that was nice, but again could have been on anyone.

@JaxonH I haven't played the new Lunar Collection yet, but I really want to. I'm pretty sure I played one of the games back in the day and thought it was fun, but I really liked the first Suikoden (I had never played it before). Just started Suikoden II so can't say much about it yet, but it's also good so far.

@JaxonH I dont know about the Lunar games since I never played them but Suikoden is one of the best JRPGs that was on the PS One, for me its a toss up which is better this or The Legend of Dragoon. Suikoden easily blows FF7 away as the premier RPG for the PS One. Its just a shame that people are blinded by Square's marketing for FF7.

And so Suikoden has come to an end for me. It was great playing this game again and remembering why it was one of my favorite RPGs on the PS One and probably of all time. The pace wasn't bad and I never felt bored with a particular arc. Recruiting all the characters was a blast and some of the QoL improvements they made in this version were nice however there sone minor annoyances I had.

The first was as with all old school RPGs there was a bit grinding I had to do and it wasn't so many grinding for levels as it was grinding for gold. Yeah they had the gambling games that you could make alot of money on and very fast but again it was grinding and depending on if the RNG gods were with you it could take time to get enough gold for stuff. The problem wasnt so much was that you had to grind but the fact that the max gold you could ever carry was 999,999 and the fact that getting people's weapons up to level 16, which was the max level took so much money that you had to grind for gold alot. I understand that the max gold being 999,999 was carried over from the original PS version so more then likely was due to memory space on the original PS version but this is a remaster version for modern consoles. One of the QoL feature they could have added was a unlimited gold counter like current games.

The other thing that annoyed me but I had to get use too was the limited inventory space. I have gotten use to modern RPGs where you have alot more inventory space or stuff would stack to bigger numbers for example being able to carry 99 Health Potions. With Suikoden it also didnt help that your armor that you had to equip took up space in your inventory so automatically your were down 4 inventory spaces, 5 if that character used a shield to begin with. So inventory space is quite limited.

And now the positives. The graphics and music was terrific in this game. Each bit of music fit the part and in many ways it felt like the score to a great movie. I particularly loved the haunting remix of the Gregminster theme that plays while you storm the capital at the end. The big sprites where great and the touch ups they made to the original PS One graphics where nice and were not that much different. Granted a few of the characters portraits I preferred the originals over the new ones but still they weren't that much different where it was like my god what did they do.

Story wise great as always and its a nice change of pace from other RPGs. Your not take on a some sort of God, or Demon or trying to stop some meglomaniac from taking over the world or evil alien from exterminating all life, you are just trying to defeat a tyrannical Empore to form a new republic and bring just to it.

Overall this remaster is great and any JRPG fan should play it. Even if you played it on PS One its a nice trip on memory lane. Definitely in my top 5 for GotY this year.

@Tasuki
Really? That good, huh?

BTW I don't think people are blinded by marketing- FF7 is genuinely a great game and deserves all the love it gets. It just sounds like this game is underappreciated.

I admit its harder for me to get into older games nowadays. I wish Suikoden 1 and 2 would get a remake like FFVII Remake. But not enough sales to justify it Im guessing. Still, you've piqued my interest enough to reinstall this game on Switch 2.

What are your thoughts on Shantae? I know its not a JRPG and maybe you've never even played the series but Ive recently come to start appreciating just how good it is. I love Seven Sirens and Pirate's Curse. Kickstarted Half Genie Hero but never played it much. It was really difficult and I got frustrated with a boss I couldn't beat.

@JaxonH I haven't played Shantae really. I played one of the games, I dont even remember which one on the 3DS for a bit before it was stolen so I really dont have an opinion. Honestly though platformers are really my thing anymore I quest dont have the reflexes anymore for them. I mostly stick to FPS, RPGs and some sport games.

As for the Suikoden games as I said above yeah there are definitely some old school RPG troves that will remind you that you are playing an RPG from the late 90s early 2000s. Stuff like random battles, limited inventory space and grinding. Still the story is worth a playthrough. Story wise its one of the most unique in an RPG and the world building is something else. If you have it I suggest giving it a playthrough.