http://www.pspfanboy.com/2008/12/23/ps1 … psn-store/

...for only $5.99!  I'm buying this as soon as I get home.

Haha, I remember the day I bought the first one...$20 at a Circuit City (back at a time where it was rare to see $20 games, much less an RPG) and I saw it had 108 characters. I had just finished FFVII and was like, "Wow, 108 characters...FFVII only had 7!". For a game that throws a lot at you in a span of 20 hours, it's a real emotion jerker. Too bad the gameplay didn't really get buffed until Suikoden II (and I REALLY get tired of having Victor in my party half the game, against my will), but six character parties really adds to the enjoyment, IMO.

Um, yeah...$5.99 is a steal.

Castlevania Chronicles *and* Suikoden within the span of a week?  Konami's been treating us nice lately.

I implore everyone to buy up Suikoden.  It could put us one step closer to a widespread Suikoden 2 release.

is this like the PS3 equivilent of the Wii virtual console?

That's a great deal. I own the original or I'd totally buy this but it's great to see that it's available.

I don't own Suikoden II and that's the one I really want.

yes.

The PlayStation Network selection of games is, thus far, quite limited compared to Virtual Console. But each console has their own "port old games to our system through downloads" going (Microsoft has Xbox Live Arcade, or XBLA).

Right now PSN has three RPGs available for download:

- Suikoden (the new release)
- Wild Arms
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

I'm downloading Suikoden tonight. Totally hot. Suikoden II release better follow in short order, yo!

Also, for what it's worth, when I say the game selection is limited, I mean the NORTH AMERICAN selection. PSN classic titles are being released like CRAZY in Japan. And really obscure stuff appears out of nowhere. They already have Xenogears released in Japan on PSN...dag!

Ramza

I'm curious how many people here are actually going to download the game and then actually beat it? And how many people here have actually played/purchased the game before? I'm guessing the answers are: very little, and nearly everyone. I could be mistaken, but I doubt this will appeal to people who haven't played the series before. As for myself, I have too many games and too little time as is. However, I would love for Konami to release a Suikoden compilation on disk. I'm just not a fan of downloads. (As for the Virtual Console, the downloads make more sense to me since those games are tiny compared to a the size of a CD). Happy Holidays everyone! Hope everyone is having fun

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cheers,

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Suikoden 1 is one of those games...Once you get past the first hour or so, you're almost dying to see what happens next after each event. It's slightly unpolished in the pacing (as in, a bunch of stuff happens in clumps), but that's always been the charm for me. As much as I loved Suikoden V, it felt like there was too much build-up to all the good parts...Suikoden 1 just hits you with them out of nowhere.

It's actually pretty hard to find a hard copy of. It's still kind of a niche series, but the original was out before FFVII blew the door open on RPG's (and Suikoden II had the misfortune of coming out right alongside the FFVIII juggernaut).

Damn, I remember that being an incredible couple of weeks for RPG gaming.  Suikoden 2 came out a week prior to FFVIII, IIRC, but I picked both of them up at the same time - in addition to the Japanese version of Wild Arms 2nd Ignition which also came out around that same week.

But I still remember Suikoden 2 being in my Playstation for most of those weeks.  And I also remember me thinking rhetorically, "How can they pack this much RPG goodness on a single disc, when FFVIII has to take up four?"

I guess I'm the spoiler here? I spent nearly a year looking for the first Suikoden back when I got my PS1, but the letdown once I got the game was incredible. I could not get involved no matter how hard I tried. I even tried again earlier this year, because an $8 copy of Suikoden V dropped on my lap around Halloween. I can't even explain it, but the game leaves me cold.

It probably didn't help that the game wiped my sister's BoF3 file with a thriving Fairy Village, breaking her heart and forcing me to restore her place in the story from several dungeons back. But grudges aside it still doesn't do a helluva lot  for me.

More Suikoden love from me.  This was the last old-school RPG I played before FF7 came along and altered the landscape, and what a great way to close that generation out.   The army vs. army and one-on-one battles were cool ideas, and to have 108 (!) playable characters with many of them being fairly interesting was a feat in and of itself.

But best of all was the awesome, awesome music   Best array of town and environment themes in an RPG... ever?  "Theme of the Advancing Army" still gets me psyched and "Distant Mountain" probably makes my all-time top 10 OST tracks list.

Ah, Suikoden.  I think I've already been over this before on this forum (though I don't recall being torn to bits, so maybe not!), but I'll go over my thoughts briefly in this thread.  Let's see how to word this... I think the series is easily the most overrated RPG franchise by a small (but vocal) group of game players who do actually have good taste in games overall.  Does that make sense?  I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the games never really hit mainstream and there's a lot of resentment from people who are bitter that *their* series doesn't have the same rabid following as something like, say, Final Fantasy.

That said, the games certainly are on the "good" end of the RPG spectrum.  The first is nothing that special, but it's definitely worth the price they're asking for it.  It's also very short, which I see as a blessing these days since I have so little free time and so many games I haven't played.  It does introduce the idiocy that remains present in most of the series of walking up to people whom you've never met and having them join your army for no good reason whatsoever, AND if I remember correctly it's the one with the ridiculous paper-rock-scissors formula for army battles.  That the game is still enjoyable is a testament to how well the rest of it is put together.  As others have stated, it also has an amazing soundtrack.

The second one is better than the first, though I'll never understand the love everyone has for the game's extraordinarily generic, over-the-top, evil-for-the-sake-of-it evil villain.  The actual story is rather touching, though I really wish the writers had had the proverbial balls to actually make it into a love story between the two main characters (as it is, you could SAY that it is and it's better written than any male/female love story in a Square game).  Granted, as homophobic as a lot of gamers are, they would've run the risk of making it even MORE of a niche series.  Gameplay in the second one is an improvement over the first, though the music is not.  Still good, though!  If the game ever goes up as a downloadable title, it's probably a must for all RPG fans - just be prepared for it to be a really good RPG and not the finest shining golden example of the genre on some pedestal that many make it out to be.

The third game is my favorite.  I love the concept of the three different perspectives on the story eventually merging into one.  The game also has plot elements that only really work if you've played the first two games.  There's a LOT less emotional punch by what happens if you start with the third game.  The biggest problems with the game are that it plays slowly (ughghghgh combat) and that it has the single worst RPG soundtrack I've ever heard.  Higashino, why did you abandon us?    Don't be fooled by the great track in the opening cutscene - it's the only good piece of music I remember from the whole thing.

That pretty much sums up my Suikoden experience.  I never got around to IV because so many people warned me away.  V sounds like I'd enjoy it, but I've heard that it's a LOOOOOONG time investment, which is something that I just can't afford very much these days.  I'd be more interested in Tierkris (is that how you spell that?  The DS one...), but having all the games in the same universe with a shared mythology is one of the things I really liked.  Take that away and I have no great desire to even look at the game.

Okay, that was tangent-y.  Sorry!  The short version: if you like RPGs and have a PS3 (and if that's all you have, you have my condolences) AND you've never played the original Suikoden, six bucks would totally be worth it.  The end.

The original Suikoden is simply my favorite game of all time.  One of the few RPGs I've ever been able to play through more than once.  Great characters, artwork, and amazing music.

I know that everyone likes Suikoden II the best, but I guess I enjoyed the simplistic, light-hearted story of the original.  Suikoden V was an excellent game as well.  Just waiting for the announcement of Suikoden VI.  It's the only game that will ever get me to buy a PS3 (if that's what they go with).

Sure as hell beats Suikoden 2 with it's "tactical" battles which are actually painfully slow scripted cutscenes. There are some instances where you can take the command, but even then nothing makes sense. Formidable knights get killed by mere peasants, stats have no impact on the battle at all etc.

Suikoden is my second favourite JRPG series actually. I've only played I and II though.

I'm with you on this one. Suikoden II starts to drag in mid-game because of some filler material. Suikoden I on the other hand is blazing fast, and before you know it you're on final boss' doorstep. Oh, and rock-scissors-paper > poor man's Shining Force.

Suikoden has better pacing than II... but the writing is also less fleshed out. The relationship between father and son doesn't have the oomph that it should given the material. It's a sad state of the genre that the game (which is over a decade old) is better written than pretty much all JRPGs made in the last few years.

II has Jowy. Given that the character isn't actually in the game *that* much, it's surprising how much power the central relationship has (and I agree that it could have been even more interesting if they were lovers).

Anyone who looks at Suikoden II's graphics vs Final Fantasy VIII's graphics (or even looking at how their predecessors fared) and thinks they'll attract the same audience knows nothing about RPG's and what attracts a rabid, mainstream audience. It's rather silly to try to come up with this kind of generalization. And to be blunt, quality of individual games aside, the Final Fantasy series has a lot of mindless drones following it because of its' franchise tag and reputation (and I personally know a lot of people like this IRL, so this isn't a silly generalization...most of the people buy the games and barely play them). I think most Suikoden fans are perfectly fine accepting it as a niche series and can care less about attracting a horde of drones (well, as long as the games continue to be released in the US anyway).

I'm perfectly fine accepting the (good) Suikoden games as conflict-driven traditional RPG's that are based around gathering people (mostly characters you recruit and build relationships with) to your cause and no doubt, the people that were excited for V were probably the same ones that saw this in Suikoden 1 and 2. No other RPG attempts this in the way Suikoden does and it's a very unique experience. From a gameplay perspective, I find the ability to have six characters in your party to be an excellent gameplay decision and I find it a lot more fun than being limited to three (like some OTHER series' out there).

And sorry, I don't see the homosexual relationship thing with the two main Suikoden II characters as I do the whole ironic-rivals thing that is commonplace in a lot of anime/gaming relationships. By this logic...should Cloud and Sephiroth be written as a gay couple? Ky and Sol? Ken and Ryu (or Ryu and Akuma)? Claude and Dias? Squall and Seifer? Hiro and Zechs (Gundam Wing)? Goku and Vegata? I would think not. I wasn't blown away with how the rivalry was done in Suikoden II, but I thought it was a great ironic premise to base the meat of the game around (and both the hero and Jowy were trying to end the war in their own way, once you stop and think about how wrong Jowy was to do what he did). In any case, I'm on the Nanami x Jowy side of things...

Now Gremio and McDohl from Suikoden 1...THAT was probably much closer to what you're thinking of.

By that logic, fans of any JRPG except for FF and DQ (and Pokemon?) should be as described by you. I can hardly believe Suikoden was the series that the developer and users hoped to be a huge franchise as FF.

I played the first installment. It was fun, but the graphic was pretty bad even by the standard of 1995 (later SNES games looked better), and the animation of the wyvern in the opening sequence was lame. Outside of that, everything else was more than okay.

$6 for the original is a great investment, if you don't own the game already.
The music alone is well worth the price of admission.

I only played the sequel once, and finished it, but it was such a long time ago that I hardly remember anything of it. The soundtrack was slightly disappointing, but still good, but I seem to recall the game itself was more solid and more fun.

And then I bought 3, was absolutely horrified, and never returned to the series again.
I am kinda tempted to try 5 though, I've been hearing some good stuff about it....

got every suikoden game on release, beginning with the first one.

its still one of my favorites to this day, including the music.

I don't know most of the examples you're talking about, but I don't see how the ones I do know are in any way like Jowy and Riou.  It has nothing whatsoever to do with their rivalry... it has to do with how their relationship is written and developed from much earlier than that.  As I recall, they're very close for a very long time before their different ideas on how to end the war breaks them apart.  Even then, it's still made fairly obvious that they feel for each other (as friends, presumably... as I said, the writers never really go beyond this).

Please play V.  Please.

Regarding III, I didn't like it at first either.  I started with Gedoe, and it was so ridiculously hard to start out with him (some impossible treasure box bosses, etc.) that I stopped playing the game after a few hours and didn't come back to it until a year or so later when a friend of mine insisted it was good if I gave it a chance.  I don't know how far you got, but if you start out with Chris or Hugo in the beginning (I did Hugo), it plays much better.

I know I'm high jacking this thread somewhat but it anyone has a PS3 and hasn't played the original Wild Arms I'd highly suggest giving it a try given the slim RPG offerings on the US PSN store. Yes, the battle system is ancient but the rest of the game is certainly worth the price of admission.

Never really played the original, but I played the remake, which was good fun.
Damn frustrating at times though...

Ha, I note that the PSN store features the original Japanese cover/instruction manual design in the shop selection, and not the horrendous cover of the original North America version.  Good call, Sony, Konami. :p

Just noticing, but doesn't the guy in the middle on the left resemble Samwise from the LotR flicks?

Suikoden is one of my all time favorite RPGs. I can still play it over and over again. I probably won't buy it for PS3, though, since I still have the original disc and can play that instead.

For whatever reason, I could never really get on board with Suiko2, though. I'm not really sure why. (This is after I finally decided to spend the $80 or whatever to get it off eBay, heh.)

Suikoden II starts slowly. The whole fortress part right at the start is pretty boring and the errands are hardly exciting. About 5-7 hours in (after the main Jowy event) is where my hour count started going crazy, but before that it was pretty slow going (confession: I actually let it sit for a month, as I was right in the middle of the dungeon before the Jowy event). Suikoden is always at its' best once you get to the point where you have the fortress and start watching the different scenarios unfold and the recuiting fun starts. Suikoden 1's build-up to that point is much better, IMO.

I think you're right though part of the problem for me was that I had played the first one and so was anticipating the castle building right from the start of 2. Because I didn't have a frame of reference with the first, I just took whatever it threw at me without wishing ahead to another point.

Though even on replay, the early sections of 1 still stand up. I love them both though.

I just got a PS3 not too long ago and downloaded Suikoden on the PSN store and love it. I've almost beaten it and then got to thinking: "Since I love this so much... why don't I go ahead and get Suikoden 2 and so on?" So I looked on Ebay and was shot down out of the sky seeing that it costs roughly more than $100.

So, my question is, do you guys think that Suikoden 2 will become available on the PSN store in the future?

As I've said, seeing the sequel would likely all come down to the sales success of the first game.  Hell, I handed over my six bucks just for the very possibility for Suikoden 2 to see a widespread release.

Ahh, I see. Sorry I didn't notice you said that earlier.

So, I guess I'll just hope that lots of other people purchase Suikoden. Fortunately, a lot of people seemed pretty happy with it, so maybe lots of people did buy it?