On Nintendo DS that is. I wonder when in the timeline this one happens. From the few screens it looks beautiful. Here's the linky http://www.rpgamer.com/games/suiko/suik … 008-1.html

Based on the descriptions, I'm going to remain optimistic. I LOVED Suikoden V (in fact, I'm playing through it again right now). Not surprised it's staying away from the next-gen consoles but it never was a graphic-heavy series anyway.

Awesome.  There was some talk about this a couple weeks ago on Dtoid because Konami had just copyrighted Suikoden Tierkreis.  Sounded like a spin-off of some sort, but those photos look quite nice!

EDIT:  Been reading the info here: http://www.duefiumi.com/news/news/more-tierkreis.html

Very interesting story, although it sounds like they're taking the gameplay back to the failure that was Suikoden IV.

Conn will be so happy.

I will be definitely picking this up.

Been so long since my DS's been loved.

Well, shit.  Now I have to buy a DS.

.

^ What Conn said

You know, I find it nuts... I was with my friend when he bought Suikoden 1 and 2 respectively (went they came out). Never in a million years did I think they resell at what they currently do. Then again, when you buy as many games as they did/do some of them are likely to end up valuable I guess

Strange thing about III.  I started it with Gedoe and hated the game.  I didn't play it for a year, then a friend talked me into playing again with another character, and I loved the game the rest of the way through.  I thought III was great.  IV was some horrible stuff.  If the battle system wasn't broken before, why fix it?

Cuz it was horribly broken in III.

Anyways I hope this will be released and translated soon, no year-long wait I hope, we've already been waiting 2½ years after Suikoden V.

Hmm... I thought Suikoden III was an amazing experience and consider II to be one of the most overrated games ever.  I should get around to trying IV and V.

You ready to be hung high, son?  'Cuz I've got a rope with your name on it.

I still need to try Suikoden V myself.  Seems to be one of the few entries in the series that's universally praised.  Or the least despised, at least.

I felt they got progressively worse until V came along. 

The main thing I dug about Suikoden II was that it took place directly after the original Suikoden and featured a lot of the same characters, and the original is my favorite game of all time, so greatness by association.

*GASP*

I recently replayed both I and II. I came across as underdeveloped and trite. II on the other hand has a great deal of emotional power. It would be an updated retreat of I if it weren't for the relationship between the hero and Jowy. One of the few games I've played where a silent hero came to life.

III was hit and miss with me. The core story was often interesting (especially after the first chapters) but I never especially cared for any of the main characters. IV was simply trash.

I never played any of the Suikoden games, but I must say that there seems to be a lot of hype for the series, even though apparently most of the games are either mediocre or bad (at least that's what I'm getting from reading these posts)! I'm amused I have to say, it sorta reminds me of Final Fantasy, although not to the same huge extent.

cheers,

-avatar!

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Since we're all posting series impressions I'll mention that 1 is the only Suikoden I've played, and despite claims about the story being trite or cliched I thought the story was better than most RPGs for the time.  But what I really loved it for was the music (best overall RPG soundtrack for PSX?), the towns (the music here added a lot of the charm) and the vast cast of characters.

Given the lack of ambition graphically and the decrease in sound quality I never gave Suikoden 2 a shot.

suikoden is my fav. RPG series both in gameplay and music.

so whoever ignored it until now, sure missed something

The graphics actually saw a nominal boost up from the first game.  The character animation, in particular, was pretty incredible - still one of the best pixel-based works I've ever seen.

As far as any of the Suikoden games go, [insert typical RPG-related, "It wasn't a bad game, I just couldn't get into it" Zane comment].

In may case, Conn wouldn't shut up about it when talking online, and eventually, my interest was piqued. Not a loss, there; I loved the first game to death (when I eventually tracked it down). Have to agree that the music really added a lot to the proceedings, and the narrative was really mature, I felt. Instead of being a cliched, tired JRPG standard, we were given a political story with war as a backdrop. I think that intrigued me the most.

Loved it so much, I even tracked down the second game. Payed an arm and a leg (and a whole bunch of money, oh, hohohohoho), but it's been worth it.

Wary of Suiko III and IV, since I hear awful things about III, and mixed things about IV.

And Suiko V is a gem.

Suikoden V was good, but somehow it wasn't quite as good as IV. It was trying to be II a little too much, and its own self too little. It's a good result but not perfect, and ends up evenly matched against IV, where IV wins my preference with all the neat little rethinkings of the series.

I've been following boards here for years and used to post once in awhile, but haven't in a long time.  However a good Suikoden thread is just too tempting, so I had to actually login (trying to remember what password I used was fun) just to throw more support for the series.

I rank it as one of my favorite RPG series (along with Shadow Hearts).  Suik1 was great, Suik2 was in many ways greater... and I have to give Suikoden 3 a lot of support.  Weakest soundtrack of the whole series (other than the beautiful opening), technically unpolished in a few areas of gameplay... but I was impressed with the story and storytelling techniques, I think the actual character design is some of the nicest design in the series, and I think a large chunk of the main cast is more developed than that of Suik1, 2, and 4.  It gave more focus to a larger number of the 108 as well.   I really don't know how people can complain about the characters in this game.  Also, to be honest, I had such a blast putting on plays in the castle town that Suik3 wins my prize for best little minigame/side thing in any RPG.
That being said, Suikoden 4 doesn't exist.  It was....so... bad...  OK, I lie.  It wasn't awful, but this is the one that I found to be the most broken.  Mostly uninteresting characters, uninteresting villians (I really liked the antagonists in 2 and 3), annoying ship travel, a dull story, inferior battles (I liked the team system in 3, though it's execution needed some improvement-  so I'd prefer if they had improved on the teams or if not at least left the battles with parties of 6), the music while better than 3's still wasn't great... The game had a few moments, but overall I was so letdown.  Perhaps I'd have enjoyed it more if I didn't love 1-3 as much as I do.
As for Suikoden 5, I view it as Konami's apology for Suik4.  And I forgive them!  Well, I forgive them based on the 12-15 hours of Suik5 I have actually played.  I am ashamed to be a Suikoden fan and yet I have not finished 5.  I got distracted with other stuff and never got back to it.  Considering I think it's really good, I have no worthy excuse.  Perhaps after Infinite Undiscovery I will go back and give Suikoden 5 the time it deserves!!

In conclusion, YAY Suikoden (except 4 )

Ah. There's something in Suikoden V you've yet to see.

Which version of Suikoden II did you play?  I ask because the vapid and lazily translated dialogue in the English version extinguishes whatever emotional impact the Japanese version may have had.  It was impossible for me to care about the characters when they all spoke in a childlike manner bordering on "I can has cheezburger?"-speak.

While Suikoden II doesn't have the best translation in the world, I still found it moving. And I've played games with much worse translations (FFVII, FFT and so on).

Breath of Fire II on your list?

Some more good news is that Norikazu Miura (Suikoden V, Suikoden Tactics) has been confirmed as the composer. The soundtrack should be great, although I'm personally hoping for a shorter but more focused effort than Suikoden V.

Ouch. That's probably the worst one of all!

Yeah, Miura's work on Suikoden V was very respectable. Certainly much better than the sonic wallpaper that was III's score.

I disagree strongly with your comparison between Suikoden II and FFVII.  I've never understood all of the hate that the English FFVII translation gets.  To be sure, there are some hiccups in the script, but I feel that the translators did a good job of making the dialogue sound natural and giving it a simple, earthy quality that fits the industro-grunge setting well.

Might I ask what your objections to the FFVII translation are?

Agreed on this point to a degree. It had several bewildering translation errors. Like Barrets' Ungarmax limit break. Pretty sure it was supposed to be Angermax.

This classic is a good example of the two sides of the coin.  The bouncer's line is nicely colorful, but then the scene falls apart.  But given the choice between a colorful script that could have used a few more proofreading stages and a workmanlike but flavorless translation, I'd choose the former any day.

I'd forgotten how slick these PSOne CG-generated Final Fantasies looked.  They even made a whorehouse look great. :)

I personally fail to see why people love that game. I played it at the time it came out, and figured it would be a great game (along the lines of previous Final Fantasy games). It started off great, but then became rather boring (enemies were no challenge), silly (Aeirth dies with a sword, but if you get attacked by giant dragons, bombs, missles, guns, it's OK????), and a plot that was trite and didn't make much sense. I'll take FF IV over VII any day! and if I want a really good story I'll play Odin Sphere, or Baldur's Gate or Fire Emblem, or Morrowind, etc etc

cheers,

-avatar!

Aside from the obvious grammatical and spelling errors, I never entirely bought some of the characters' motivations. Granted, this could be a problem with the source material more than the translation (and FFVII certainly isn't as flawless as some like to claim). Barret in particular was pretty goofy. But keep in mind that I haven't played the game in years and my memory could be playing tricks on me.

(I'd take FFVII over FFVIII any day. But that's a different debate. )