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The first game was terrific, one of the best RPG experiences of its time. That having been said, Suikoden II improved upon the original in every single way. The characters were more fleshed out/had more personality, the story was less cliche/tropey (the odd but seemingly mandatory-for-RPGs-at-the-time time traveling that was completely unnecessary, for example), the game was longer, the antagonists felt far more threatening, and that's not even touching on gameplay improvements.
Dash without wasting a rune slot, expanded rune slots, new combat items such as scrolls, an improved inventory where you never ran the risk of leaving your blinking mirror on Gremio before he takes a LONG vacation...
Suikoden II took everything Suikoden did, and made it better. That's not to say the first game is bad, it's simply the foundation upon which the second game was created.
Suikoden II is objectively superior to the first game.
If Suikoden 1 had all the game play improvements I believe a majority would believe it was better.
I did in my post. Did you read it?
- Characters better fleshed out.
- Story less bound to at-the-time-RPG trends like time travel that had no bearing on the plot.
- Increased gameplay time.
- Superior Antagonists.
- Dash without a Holy Rune.
- Up to three rune slots for characters.
- Improved (superior) inventory system; no risk of losing your Blinking Mirror.
The original game's story is it's strong point, but narratively speaking, the second game was better. There was a greater diversity of character sprites, making new areas of the world feel unique from others. People in Muse dressed differently from people in Two River, or Tinto, for example. By contrast, the same sprites were re-used constantly in the first game. Only the Dragon Knight's Den really had NPCs that were unique compared to other locations in the setting. I mean, people from the Warrior's Village dressed the same as people in Gregminster.
None of that is even mentioning how the second game created immersive events. Compare, say, the imperial forces capturing Valeria before your battle at Pannu Yakuta Castle, vs. Highland's assault on Two-River city. While the Imperial forces are static, the Highland and City-State, Kobold, and Winger Volunteers are all animated and battling while dialogue is happening, and that's a pretty standard improvement you get throughout the second game.
Most of the recruitable characters in the first game were one-and-done types of recruitments where they never had any real engagement with the story afterwards. They were tablet fillers. By comparison, during different storylines in the second game, different characters can have different lines of dialogue, giving them much more personality and engagement.
I might also add in terms of the narrative, the first game was more on the, 'tell not show,' side, compared to the second game. You're TOLD the Liberation Army is gaining popularity and increasing it's numbers, but its never really shown. By contrast in Suikoden II, you go out and recruit allies by directly aiding them in their struggles against Highland. Each new alliance feels thoroughly earned, it's characters explored. You're also TOLD the Empire is evil and doing bad things, like making the Kobolds sick, but you're never shown that. I'm not saying the first game never showed the Empire being evil, of course, but its hard to compare the likes of Grady stringing up Varkas and Sydonia to die, compared to Luca Blight himself saying he'll spare someone if they act like a pig, and then telling them, "Die Pig!"
None of this is to say that the first game isn't a good game. It's a great game, in fact. At the end of the day, however, Suikoden II is objectively a better game. It took everything the first game did, improved on it, added more to it, and made it all work spectacularly.
Suikoden 1 is a good JRPG but its way too short and feels too limited in many ways.
Its a good first try for the formula that got perfected in Suikoden 2.
Missing the QTE last arrow in the Tower absolutely gutted me in Suikoden 2
I only found out years later that you could actually change the event into a positive by doing a 3rd press.. but i still remember how it felt to play the game after that point, even all these years later (to which you could argue, it made the story better by failing it at that point, at least the first time around)
I really enjoyed how you could save people who were destined to die like Pahn in the first game (get him leveled up to survive General Teo), the Kobold General in the 2nd one by charging the enemy (trying to retreat gets him surrounded and dead) and its a nice touch that you can make a difference in the storyline like that through effort
I think i spent more time gambling/save scumming to max weapons in Suikoden 1 then anything that came later in the series
I didn't care about no 108 stars of destiny and let pahn hack that Mfers head off, felt so good
2 was amazing but 1 just hit different when I was a kid
I feel that comparing Eiyuden and Suikoden doesn't quite work as well as it could. While they share many similarities, Eiyuden was attempting to be a spiritual successor to Suikoden, and in many regards, didn't meet player expectation.
I agree that many of Eiyuden's gameplay mechanics are superior, but it has, what? Two and a half decades on Suikoden I & II, and modern technology to achieve that?
As for, 'better stars of destiny,' I'll disagree. There was a decent chunk of the Eiyuden cast that existed for pop cultural references rather than establishing/developing the game world. You had a muscle wizard, the love child of Kaiba and Yugi playing beyblade, not just one but three, 'magical girls,' in anime uniforms, crocodile dundee as a lizard merchant, an actual luchador, etc...
Eiyuden's cast existed as fan service as opposed to world building, unlike Suikoden I & II. Even characters that never got used beyond their recruitment ultimately established the setting in one way or another. Lorelai appeared in the first game and then did nothing. She appeared in the second game and did nothing. During the 5th game, she finally had her time to shine, and by then the cast of similar characters to her had been established and grown.
Between voice acting, modern technology, and experience, Eiyuden's roster of actual characters and not meme-characters certainly was lively and impressive. Yet, I don't think anyone is going to say Nowa is a better protagonist than Riou or Tir, and both of them were silent! Likewise, Duk Aldrix will NEVER measure up to ANY Suikoden antagonist. He's about as bland as bland gets.
That's not even touching on Eiyuden's heavy-handed story-telling. At some point in the game (mid to late), we're told the empire is ALSO racist against the furry races. Why? Because apparently we needed more reasons to consider them an enemy, but whoops, wait a minute, the Empire isn't the actual enemy, its the Dux. So... what about this uncomfortable truth here? Does it ever get brought up and addressed? Nope. Why was it even added in then? Heck, the Empire was making USE of, "tailed races," in the prequel game as spies!
Eiyuden is a good game, but its a mess of a story, and given the age gap between it and Suikoden I & II, story feels like the only fair metric to judge them both by. I don't think it even measures up to the first game, which was very bare bones and by the book trope-ish for its time. Eiyuden's narrative is a mess. It's as if the writers were too scared to commit to anything.
Eiyuden 100 heroes?
The kickstarter that scammed people out of their physical goods? (still not sent to date?)
The 505 published game that had english localisation that called another character a 'chud' in a japanese fantasy world??
The game that was released with endless drag on xbox controller sticks meaning your character forced walk the direction you last pressed because there was no dead zone?
I don't believe you, and i unfortunately bought that game thinking it was a real suikoden successor, but its my biggest regret purchase of 2024.
That's a bit like saying, "I didn't get the sense Windy was the only bad guy," or, "I didn't get the sense Luca Blight was the only bad guy."
Yes, the antagonist faction will be a roster, and not an individual, but every game has it's main antagonist, the one driving the plot. For Eiyuden, that was the Dux, and the Dux was as boring and bland as it gets.