Suikoden
I hope this is the proper place to post this...
Just a quick question for all of the Suikoden experts out there, that have played the games. I'm about to finish Suikoden II (pretty soon), and I'm wondering which game I should play next, I or III??? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. For the record, I already own I, but would have to purchase III.
Thanks!
A little late, but you should've finished I, then II.
Did you know you can transfer files that way?
"If each mistake being made is a new one, then progress is being made."
Definitely I. That + Vandal Hearts got me hooked on RPGs in the first place.
If you still got the Suiko bug (99% chance you will after beating the first), I recommend V or maybe Tierkreis (haven't played it yet so can't say with certainty). III is horrible! Avoid at all costs.
But Haoie is right. The finished game save data allows you unlock the main character of I in II.
Last edited by Press_Start; 07-17-2009 at 11:02 PM.
Originally Posted by kupomogli
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I'd say go for the original next, storyline is much better than the second game.
However. Alternate of what Press Start said, I'd instead avoid Suikoden 5. The game starts off as 10 hours of the most boring storyline you may ever see in a video game. The game picks up after the first 10 hours, but you'll have to suffer through that first.
Suikoden 3 on the other hand is a great game. You'll find that it's a game you'll either love or hate. The storyline is by far the best in the series and your characters can be customized to your liking as how you want to use them making the gameplay both the same yet a little different than the original Suikoden.
People here like to quote Metacritic scores like they mean it's going to change opinion so why not just throw them out there. The average scores are 86(Suikoden 3) and 76(Suikoden 5.) Gamerankings scores are 85.9(S3) and 79.3(S5.)
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
I think you made a mistake to go out of order, personally. Suikoden II is more rewarding once you understand the pasts of Flik and Viktor and the other characters that return from the first game.
Just do the rest of them in order. 1, 3, 4, 5. Although you should know that 4 is kind of the black sheep of the series, so you might not like that one.
The story up to that point was decent to say the least, it sorta sets everything up for the rest of game. Overall, okay and better than III and IV.
Strongly disagree. IMO, Suikoden 3 is the worst game in the series. Here are my gripes:Suikoden 3 on the other hand is a great game. You'll find that it's a game you'll either love or hate. The storyline is by far the best in the series and your characters can be customized to your liking as how you want to use them making the gameplay both the same yet a little different than the original Suikoden.
The Broken Buddy System: Where to start? Attacking with melee meant physically going up and striking them. This method proven effective in Lunar games but lacks the ability to actually move your characters. In other words, your guys are stuck there and most likely get caught up in your own rune attacks. Speaking of runes, a golden rule of the buddy system is your party consists of three teams with two characters each. The catch is only one rune spell per team, meaning the max of 6 spells is halved to 3. What genius barfed up such a broken concept? Merging two runes to perform a super spell is great but one per team?!
World Map: A screen of big points representing large/important areas that you must go through to access the next area. In some instances getting to from A to B meant going through C. Unfortunately, other times its through C, D, E, F, G and H and some missions repeating this process multiple times. Making the whole thing unnecessarily monotonous. To add insult to injury, you can't get Vivi until Chapter 4, that's late in the game.
You can customize your characters for all Suikoden games. I think III introduce Skills but a broken battle system makes it a moot point.
Story: I heard the manga for this was good. Haven't read it yet myself, so my comments will only pertain to the game's. First, you as the main character is dead. So, when ask for your name, they basically want to know what to put on your tombstone. (Pepperoni and Cheese for me.) The backstory explaining all was poorly done, leaving more questions than answers. Actually the whole story suffers from poor execution. In a nutshell, it's meh. But it was a real kick in the pants when everyone in the end decided to go back to the way they were before ignoring the theme of change constantly recurring in the series.
Just to give a better idea, here's a sum up of each ending in the series:
Suiko I: Liberating faction topples corrupt empire.
Suiko II: United City-States fights back and conquers invading evil army.
Suiko III: Stop the apocalypse and regress to ways were before. (Country-folk vs City folk)
Suiko IV: Unite individual islands forming a nation and defend against a powerful fleet.
Suiko V: Fight back against political takeover and abolishing two-house ruling system.
In Suiko II, we get the McDohl's son and Gremio and the return of the Soul Eater was freakin' cool! In Suiko III, all you get a footnote in a book.
Brutal treatment of returning characters. Oh, Star Dragon Sword, you deserve better...
And at this point, I'm nitpicking.
Kupo, this is nothing against you. I'm just blowing off years of repressed "steam" caused by this little sucker.
As a gamer who loves alot of games, Suikoden 3 is one of the few games I passionately dislike, being the biggest disappointment to the series as many of its fundamental to be broken/horribly done. It's a rare occasion for a game to make me wish I've never played it in the first place.
Don't believe in the numbers' game myself. Firm believer in we are our own reviewer being our tastes and style will differ one another, even if we have opposite views on some matters. Despite that, I've played and beaten all five games and sticking by to what I said.People here like to quote Metacritic scores like they mean it's going to change opinion so why not just throw them out there. The average scores are 86(Suikoden 3) and 76(Suikoden 5.) Gamerankings scores are 85.9(S3) and 79.3(S5.)
Check my video reviews on YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/user/optitube
My Pixel Paradise Blog: http://blockmangamer.blogspot.com/
I absolutely loved suikoden 4 (at least once I gained the ability to teleport to places I had been) I even went so far as to do EVERYTHIHG and collect all the stars, i'm not quite sure where all the hate comes from, but it was a wonderfully unique game. and its semi sequal/spinoff suikoden tactics is my absolute most favorate game on the ps2.
I am a HUGE fan of Suikoden - one of the best RPG series IMHO. I agree with others - best to start out with SI since you an import your character into SII which will open up new options\adventures.
SIII is a great game, but I found it to be the least consistent of the games in this series. The main thing is that you travel along 'paths' rather than having the 'open world' gameplay\feel of all of the other releases.
SIV does take a while to get into. The story unfolds at a snail's pace but once you get there (10 hours or so) your adventure will really start to get moving.
SV is probably has the most involved storyline, but once again you will have to invest some time prior to really getting into the action.
I'd go with the first Suikoden next. It's the second-best game in the series, it's short, and it'll let you appreciate Suikoden II even more. After that, you could take the rest of the games in order, though I'd almost recommend skipping to V. Suikoden III and IV are real letdowns.
A lot of the hate for Suikoden IV comes from the boring ship-sailing that eats up so much of the game's first five or six hours. While it gets better once you can teleport, the subsequent story doesn't hit many high points. Suikoden IV with Viki's warp ability is perhaps better than Suikoden III, but it never has the well-paced flow of the first two games. Suikoden IV is also a prequel, so it doesn't carry over many familiar characters.
I don't think I've played Suikoden III recently enough to argue it point by point, but I disagree with Press Start and Kid Fenris. I thought it was a great game. I liked the skill-building system a lot, and I thought the story was pretty good. I had fun with the battle system as well. So maybe gjackx will like it too. I liked it better than S1 in fact.
And! And! I still love the opening cinematic to S3. One of the best openings to a video game probably ever. With that music... so good.
That being said, I still think he should play S1 first.
I picked up 3 and 5 randomly for cheap but never got around to play them, i'm convinced to whip 3 out and give it a shot (don't really want to open up my copy of 5..might look for an opened copy to try out after 3) the ps2 has pretty much completely failed me on rpgs other then part 4 and tactics.
Definitely play 1 then 3. And I'll also say I loved 3, particularly for the Roshomon-like storyline. It feels the least like a Suikoden game, but it's still great. I think certain things pissed off certain fans which caused them to find things with the game that they'd have normally ignored (for instance, you get Donald Duck as a party member... ok not ACTUAL Donald Duck but might as well be). There's just certain things with the game that you'll either be able to overlook or that'll cause you to bug out and look deeper to find more flaws w/ the game. I think EVER Suikoden has its fair share of flaws. There isn't a single one that is "perfect." It's just that many of the games are so awesome that you don't end up noticing the flaws or you're able to just ignore them.
The other thing is that it probably really depends on which storyline you play first as to whether you're going to love the game or hate it. I think Geddoe's storyline kinda ruins the other two, so it's best not to play his first (I think that's his name). He's the coolest character, but his storyline ties up the confusion caused by the other two.
Definitively play 1 first. It is really good, I have played through it 4 or 5 times. I don't know what the hype of 2 was all about because I remember playing it through once and selling it back to gamestop at the time. Meanwhile, like I said, I never gave 1 back...
After a play through, you can like others said load your save game and play 2 again...then 3
God damn, I think that was the longest written out list of everything one could dislike about a game without sounding like a complete moron. You sir, have a knack for criticizing.
I like the first one better than the second as well. The seconds storyline is kindof long and drawn out and I don't think it's as good as the first one. It's just that even though the first game is so short, all the story characters in the game are much more likable, especially the main group. Flik and Viktor are much more likable than their Suikoden 2 counterparts. The second one has slightly better gameplay though with additional runes and three rune slots.
As for Suikoden 3. If you play each character part by part on the introduction story, it's alot better and really doesn't ruin anything.
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
One of the best features of this series is your HQ and how it improves\grows. I would rank each game in the series on this facet as so:
5. IV - that boat was confusing, difficult to navigate and one would never really see it 'grow' - just more elevator levels were added for the most part.
4. III - Though it did expand, there was something about the town that didn't have the appeal of the best. I did like dressing it up a bit with pictures\plants and the like.
3. V - Sprawling and vast, this multi-layered\building outpost was a welcomed homage to the first two games of the series.
2. I - The classic - the forgotten castle reclaimed by the rebels. The rush when you returned to your hospice after recruiting a Star of Destiny that would trigger an upgrade was the best.
1. II - Same as above, I just like the layout a bit better to be honest.
Your thoughts on this?
Hey, thanks for all of the feedback guys. I'm definitely going to play part one next. And, from what I'm reading, I might start a new game of II from my part one save (that sounds like something that I really missed out on). I could see myself playing II again, so everybody wins...haha!
Last edited by gjackx; 07-20-2009 at 12:23 PM.
The unlockable hero thing isn't that cool. He can join your party but if he ever leaves, or you switch him out he goes right back to his original location and you have to travel back there to re-recruit him.
Given how often the game switches your party around, it really is an ass pain.
The best part of Suikoden 5. Mmmmmm, Sialeeds.
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
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