Are certain item drops in Suikoden 1 broken?

[Miketopus]

So, I'm trying to get the Opal from Nightmares in the prison, and Nameless Urn from the Holly Masters outside of Rikon. I have been trying for a solid hour on the former and half an hour on the latter, and nothing.

I have played through this game 4 or 5 times in the Playstation, and I don't recall ever having to grind this long for these items. Are their drop rates lowered/broken entirely? Has someone been able to pick up these items and I'm just having a run of bad luck?

[Vex]

Did you talk to the proper NPCs first?

For the Nameless Urn, there's a faceless, nameless NPC that mentions Jabba once couldn't appraise an urn. That seemed to be the trigger for it to be added to the loot pool.

For the Opal, you had to talk to Esmeralda first.

At least, that was my experience with those particular items back in the originals. I once spent like, 10 hours trying to get the nameless urn before I remembered an NPC that mentioned it. Spoke to that NPC, got the urn like 3 battles later. Same for Esmeralda. Tried to get it before talking to her and spent ages. Spoke to her, and then I got it within six battles.

[IAmVianca]

Originally posted by Vex:

Did you talk to the proper NPCs first?

For the Nameless Urn, there's a faceless, nameless NPC that mentions Jabba once couldn't appraise an urn. That seemed to be the trigger for it to be added to the loot pool.

For the Opal, you had to talk to Esmeralda first.

At least, that was my experience with those particular items back in the originals. I once spent like, 10 hours trying to get the nameless urn before I remembered an NPC that mentioned it. Spoke to that NPC, got the urn like 3 battles later. Same for Esmeralda. Tried to get it before talking to her and spent ages. Spoke to her, and then I got it within six battles.

I'm having the same problem. Talked to the guy outside of Jabba's hut (lol) walked around Rikon and Teien, fought a lot of Holly Masters and nada. The drop for this wasn't this bad when I played this game before but this is driving me crazy.

EDIT: Found one after posting this. I found it on the dark green patch just south to Rikon. Just walked around there after talking to Jabba then the NPC again. Took 2 battles.

[ihatehavingtousethis]

I got both of them a lot faster than in the original, so I suppose it's really just down to luck.

[Miketopus]

Thank you for the replies.

I talked to Esmerelda, and the NPC who mentions Jabba couldn't identify the pot. I think it may just be hard luck, because I did find the Opal after another ~30 minutes. I'll maybe go back for the Nameless Urn when I have a higher luck party, since Jabba isn't exactly a high priority recruit.

Thanks again, all.

[MaloJewell]

Put characters in your party that have a high Luck stat like Gon and Meg to boost your drop rates. I did that and was able to grab both items with relative ease.

[StagedSlinky]

Suikoden 1 has an issue when it comes to Item drops. Item drops are based on a 3-tier system, percentage of the drop, and what monster you killed first. You best bet is like what Malo said, put in characters with higher luck in and focus on monster groups that only have Nightmares.

[CLG]

I talked to all the npcs and farmed for around 15-30 mins and it dropped but it's just a lot of really bad rng on top of more bad rng.

[Walker]

i play on hard first fight vs nightmare i get the opal ;) so its all fine

[Tyrant]

Originally posted by Vex:

Did you talk to the proper NPCs first?

For the Nameless Urn, there's a faceless, nameless NPC that mentions Jabba once couldn't appraise an urn. That seemed to be the trigger for it to be added to the loot pool.

For the Opal, you had to talk to Esmeralda first.

At least, that was my experience with those particular items back in the originals. I once spent like, 10 hours trying to get the nameless urn before I remembered an NPC that mentioned it. Spoke to that NPC, got the urn like 3 battles later. Same for Esmeralda. Tried to get it before talking to her and spent ages. Spoke to her, and then I got it within six battles.

I found several Opals before I ever talked to Esmeralda. It took me over a dozen battles to get the Nameless Urn and I talked to the guy who talked about it immediately.

[Miketopus]

Meg and Gon helped, maybe. I put them in the party and had it about twenty minutes later.

I think the RNG in this first game is just so much more unwieldy than I remember. Even farming money with the dice game is proving to be a bit of a nightmare this time around.

Well, except the time he rolled three 1's three times in a row, that was nice and easy.

[F.S.>Priest]

I think loot get some changes. In S2 You can get Double Strike Orb from Rabbit at start. In PS1 i Get about 5 from 1H farm. In PC I farm about 3H and get only 1. Also I loot Techiq Orb about 6 times. Never loot it Before in PS1

[LoveTruffle]

Originally posted by Miketopus:

Meg and Gon helped, maybe. I put them in the party and had it about twenty minutes later.

I think the RNG in this first game is just so much more unwieldy than I remember. Even farming money with the dice game is proving to be a bit of a nightmare this time around.

Well, except the time he rolled three 1's three times in a row, that was nice and easy.

It feels like they rigged the dice game. I've literally lost over 24 rounds in a row. It's absurd. I remember making a lot of money on that in the PS release.

[hush]

Originally posted by LoveTruffle:

Originally posted by Miketopus:

Meg and Gon helped, maybe. I put them in the party and had it about twenty minutes later.

I think the RNG in this first game is just so much more unwieldy than I remember. Even farming money with the dice game is proving to be a bit of a nightmare this time around.

Well, except the time he rolled three 1's three times in a row, that was nice and easy.

It feels like they rigged the dice game. I've literally lost over 24 rounds in a row. It's absurd. I remember making a lot of money on that in the PS release.

24 rounds woow. i lost 5 rounds straight and i instantly alt f4ed the game. you got patience

[Miketopus]

If it helps any, I notice that sometimes in the dice game the computer gets into a "streak" one way or the other, and quitting to title and reloading seemed to reset streaks.

Could be my imagination though. The RNG in the dice game has always been insane.

[[BRE] Ralf]

Originally posted by Vex:

Did you talk to the proper NPCs first?

For the Nameless Urn, there's a faceless, nameless NPC that mentions Jabba once couldn't appraise an urn. That seemed to be the trigger for it to be added to the loot pool.

For the Opal, you had to talk to Esmeralda first.

At least, that was my experience with those particular items back in the originals. I once spent like, 10 hours trying to get the nameless urn before I remembered an NPC that mentioned it. Spoke to that NPC, got the urn like 3 battles later. Same for Esmeralda. Tried to get it before talking to her and spent ages. Spoke to her, and then I got it within six battles.

I got the urn in my first fight against the fairies and have not even reached Riku. That was lucky.