Just Suikoden talk

[Dr.]

My first encounter with Suikoden was on the playstation back in the day. My brother had acquired a binder full of games somehow but In that binder was suikoden and I played it one day. I was pretty instantly hooked, I know by today's standards its pretty boring, but for whatever reason the story was hitting with me and I ended up playing it through over the next few weeks. It was the first game I ever looked up a guide for so I could get all the recruits. Its one of the most nostalgic games for me. I read in a magazines coming games section that suikoden 2 was being released, and I begged for it and its strategy guide for Christmas, I wasn't ♥♥♥♥♥♥ around anymore I wanted to know how to get those recruits. And 2 is my favorite rpg of all time. Whats all of you folks first suikoden experience.

[Chii[FIN]]

Nice story! I never experienced suikoden1 so I was not happy when I learned that I missed getting the orginal character on suikoden 2, but I did multiple plays, only later ones I found out the "you can push the gate and getting massive exp boost eaarly", never did get all characters, but will redeem myself when this releases!

[Furry Wrecking Crew]

My friend had a Playstation when it came out and I didn't yet, but I was huge into Sega Genesis and NES RPGs. I went over to his house and saw him playing Suikoden. I was impressed by the graphics and music. The shine on the castle floors looked so cool. Then he told me there was over 100 recruitable chars and I knew I needed to play it.

[AnxiousBlue]

Went to rent a game at the video store nearby and picked something random. Saw the cover of Suikoden II there and gave it a shot. Fell in love with it very fast and it became a regular rental until I finally bought copies of I and II on eBay for like a hundred something each. Was worth every dollar.

[Slayzer Hiryu]

A friend bought Suiko2 when it was released but he didn't liked it very much, so i bought it from him, and then played 1, 3, etc.

[Skull]

in 1998 i went to game shop and saw the cover of suikoden 2 full of charactors so i bought it, i didnt know that there is suikoden 1 and at that time i didnt know how to read english so suikoden 2 was my first suikoden game it was a year later i learned that this is suikoden 2 and there is suikoden 1

i liked the unit attack and rune magic spells but later i went full physical with double beat and double strike and if can equip a 3rd rune it will be killer rune

since at the beginning i didnt know english, i never read recruitment guide i never got the 108 and never saw the true ending it was only a year later after i learned english i get to follow the guide to recruit them all and saw the true ending

but FF7 was the reason i learned english
i took a translator device and i translated
every word i saw in FF7 and i become good in english so i went back to suikoden 2 and after understanding the story i liked the game more

later i got suikoden 1 and then suikoden 3 i didnt like 3 i prefer suikoden 2 graphic style i dont like 3d but i still beat the game

but even though i dont like 3d i liked suikoden 4 i like how you free sail in the sea all around the world and most part i liked in the game is when the mc and his allies got trapped in the deserted island the only thing i didnt like in 4 is you only have 4 party members

i was very happy with suikoden 5 coz the quality of 5 is almost like suikoden 2

for me suikoden 2 was the best in the series followed by 1,5,4 and lastly 3

[Neopatra]

i saw a couple of youtuber videos on Suikoden 1 and 2 and got me pump to play it. the only ones I play was 3 on ps2 and Suikoden Tierkreis. I know i can play the ps1 version but I wouldn't mind playing the remaster version instead

[Furry Wrecking Crew]

Originally posted by Neopatra:

i saw a couple of youtuber videos on Suikoden 1 and 2 and got me pump to play it. the only ones I play was 3 on ps2 and Suikoden Tierkreis. I know i can play the ps1 version but I wouldn't mind playing the remaster version instead

Oh you dear, poor soul. You played the two absolute worst Suikodens. If you could tolerate those borefests, you will LOVE Suikoden 1 and 2 (and 5!)

[SimranZenov]

Suikoden was the first game I bought and played on playstation. Played it non-stop for hours before I realized I needed a memory card to save my game...

[NeutronVortex]

Ok, so one Christmas, probably either '99 or 2000, my dad ordered a Playstation for me and my older brother from the Walmart magazine(yeah, they used to mail those out around Christmas.) But there was a problem; when he ordered it over the phone he mentioned his 'two sons' and they mistakenly thought he was ordering TWO playstations, one for each of us. So come Christmas my brother and I got our own Playstaions and our own copies of a few games(one of mine was Brave Fencer Musashi! One of my bro's was Final Fantasy 7! Woohoo!), plus spare memory cards and controllers too, hehe(those spare controllers came in handy over the years!)

So around this time I had a buddy that had tons of jrpg playstation games and he was the first one to introduce me to Suikoden(and FF8). He showed me 1 first, but he was playing it at the time so I borrowed 2 from him instead and I was hooked. Over the next couple of years I kept borrowing Suikoden 2 and FF8 from him. Then one day his Playstation broke. So I made him a deal; I would trade my Playstation with him in return for Suikoden 2 and both his copies of FF8(yeah, he had 2 copies of FF8 and all 8 discs where scratched to hell so cutscenes would constantly freeze so I'd have to switch discs back and forth to get through the game, lol. Good memories, tbh.)
(The Suikoden 2 disc was scratched too, but it still worked for years and years before it got too bad.)

Sounds nuts to trade a whole console for 2 games but because my bro had his own Playstation, we had a spare one in the house(and we got a PS2 eventually, which ofc could play PS1 games.)

[Furry Wrecking Crew]

Originally posted by NeutronVortex:

Ok, so one Christmas, probably either '99 or 2000, my dad ordered a Playstation for me and my older brother from the Walmart magazine(yeah, they used to mail those out around Christmas.) But there was a problem; when he ordered it over the phone he mentioned his 'two sons' and they mistakenly thought he was ordering TWO playstations, one for each of us. So come Christmas my brother and I got our own Playstaions and our own copies of a few games(one of mine was Brave Fencer Musashi! One of my bro's was Final Fantasy 7! Woohoo!), plus spare memory cards and controllers too, hehe(those spare controllers came in handy over the years!)

So around this time I had a buddy that had tons of jrpg playstation games and he was the first one to introduce me to Suikoden(and FF8). He showed me 1 first, but he was playing it at the time so I borrowed 2 from him instead and I was hooked. Over the next couple of years I kept borrowing Suikoden 2 and FF8 from him. Then one day his Playstation broke. So I made him a deal; I would trade my Playstation with him in return for Suikoden 2 and both his copies of FF8(yeah, he had 2 copies of FF8 and all 8 discs where scratched to hell so cutscenes would constantly freeze so I'd have to switch discs back and forth to get through the game, lol. Good memories, tbh.)
(The Suikoden 2 disc was scratched too, but it still worked for years and years before it got too bad.)

Sounds nuts to trade a whole console for 2 games but because my bro had his own Playstation, we had a spare one in the house(and we got a PS2 eventually, which ofc could play PS1 games.)

You had some good experiences in the Golden age of JRPGs, which I would consider about 1989-1999 (NES through PS1 era).

[NeutronVortex]

Originally posted by Furry Wrecking Crew:

You had some good experiences in the Golden age of JRPGs, which I would consider about 1989-1999 (NES through PS1 era).

Yeah, y'know it's funny because my bro and I got all of our consoles years after they where released. Like we got an NES for Christmas in probably in '96 or '97 and then the next year a SNES, then a N64 a year later and then a PS1 the year after that, etc. At the time I was kinda bummed because I'd be at school in come January like 'I got Super Mario Bros. 3 for Christmas!' and the other kids would be dissing me, like 'Man that's so old, I played it when I was a baby! We got GoldenEye now.' >.<
(edit: on the flip-side though, my dad used to 'fix' DirectTV/Dish Network satellite cards for people so they'd get free channels as a side hustle so my big bro and I had access to PCs and PC games at home long before most of the other kids at my school did.)

In hindsight though it was great because we where getting these huge leaps in gfx every year with new consoles and new games but the 'old' games would still be fresh and exciting to us. I remember going to Kmart with my friends and they where buying PS2/Xbox games and I'm over in the SNES section looking for Earthworm Jim, lol.
(still remember being super bummed when walmart/kmart both stopped selling NES/SNES/Genesis games. I live in a rural area without any retro gaming shops so I basically lost access to that era of games for years until I discovered emulation.)

Anyway, I don't wanna derail this topic with my rambling so imma stop.

[KingUrameshi]

The choice was between N64 or the PS1 (King of Consoles). I was leaning so heavy towards the N64 for months leading up to the release and at the last moment I switched for PS1 and thank god I did as I thought the PS1 library was so much better. I remember there were three RPGs sitting on the Blockbuster shelves at the time. Vandal Hearts, Azure Dreams and Suikoden. The box art was goofy af but the back talked about rebellion and war and that reminded me of Vandal Hearts somewhat and since I adored that game, and thanks to GamePro coverage I gave Suikoden a go.

The opening in the palace felt pretty weird how it jumps right into it and I didn't know I could move at first so I sat there for a minute waiting for something to happen. Once I spoke to Teo and met the Emperor I was off to the races. Once I got Tir (Kain) home and met the family I never looked back. I played all weekend and went home after school to finish it. I made my Dad wait for me to finish as he had to return it to the video store and then had to get to work, he was getting pissed because he was going to be late but tough tiddies you're gonna wait. Didn't get everyone but got most and stabbed Milich in his bastard heart.

Suikoden 2 was something I couldn't wait for and was a Xmas gift I was asking after. So much so that once I knew which present it probably was; I sneaked it out of my parents room a week or two before, broke into it and started a new game. I didn't want to spoil too much and I didn't want to torture myself too much starting something I couldn't continue but I wanted to see if it was good. I played through the camp and jumped into the river and awoke to Flik and Viktor and knew I had to put it down before I ruined Christmas. Suikoden 2 was the first RPG that i finished and then immediately started a new game and went through it all over again start to finish only to start a third playthrough right after that. On it's own Suikoden 2 is a masterpiece but with the first game and it's returning cast and especially the nostalgia that came with that put the series on a whole other level all its own.

[war_lion108]

My friend had the first game and I thought it was pretty good. It had a lot of unique qualities for the genre, like the number of characters and the HQ upgrades. When I got the second game was when I was blown away. It was so thrilling to see returning characters and get this sense of a large world being expanded. Most other RPGs have a different world and continuity in each entry, so this was so exciting. The Legend of Heroes gave me a similar feeling, where the first game wasn't incredible, but as I played more games I was drawn to the worldbuilding.

[Furry Wrecking Crew]

Originally posted by war_lion108:

My friend had the first game and I thought it was pretty good. It had a lot of unique qualities for the genre, like the number of characters and the HQ upgrades. When I got the second game was when I was blown away. It was so thrilling to see returning characters and get this sense of a large world being expanded. Most other RPGs have a different world and continuity in each entry, so this was so exciting. The Legend of Heroes gave me a similar feeling, where the first game wasn't incredible, but as I played more games I was drawn to the worldbuilding.

That was a cool thing. I remember telling my friend that they talk about the Jowstone City States all the time, but you never go there. And he he says, you do, in Suikoden 2,

[Vex]

When I was a kid, I watched my best friend's father play Vandal Hearts. Thought it was a great game. At the time, I only had a SNES.

When I did get a PlayStation, Vandal Hearts was the first game I asked for. I played it over and over, getting secrets and trying the different class advancement paths. Eventually my parents hinted strongly that only having one game for a system didn't exactly justify the price of it. So, when I saw Suikoden advertised on the inside of the case, and read about it, I thought it sounded like a great choice.

I was wrong, of course. It wasn't a great choice. It was the BEST choice.

Happened to see Suikoden II in a toy store a few years later. Begged for that game. Fortunately I rarely asked for anything, so my parents bought it for me. I've worn that poor disk down with repeated plays...