How does this handle so many characters?

[quasius]

I've never played the originals, but am interested in the remakes. But one of my hesitancies is how it handles so many party members. As someone who felt burned with Chrono Cross's "quantity-over-quality" approach to parties from the same era, I've always been cautious to try these.

Are all these characters actually interesting / fleshed out?

Is it that you just pick 6 characters you want in your party and the other 102 just sit on the bench the entire game? Or does the game require you to rotate through characters and/or allow non-combatants to fulfil interesting support roles.

Thanks for any info!

[Vex]

The first game doesn't have enough time to properly flesh out the characters. You get to know them best by recruiting them, and then either using them in combat, or their services in your castle. Some characters will reappear now and then to be story relevant, but its not common.

The second game expands the recruitment for quite a few to get an better idea, but yes, plenty fall into that category of rarely being used outside of parties/services.

Where the second game differs is that you can recruit a private investigator, whom can reveal more information about the characters you've recruited (so long as they're alive). It gives them a bit more depth and story that the first game was unable to provide. There are also one or two parts of the game where characters in your party will have dialogue unique to situations, so depending on who you bring, you'll get to enjoy their personal commentary/reactions.

[Ray Rook]

No, they are not all fleshed out. It's definitely quantity over quality.

For example, one set of recruits in S1 are gotten by doing a set of "Get this for this person, get this for this person, and get this for this person..." Chain of quests within the same small area. That's basically her story so you can get her soap for washing clothes.

In the same town you get a cook that is obtained just by searching the stoves/soups in two houses.

And another recruit there is gotten just by going to the very next area and opening a chest and returning her the item.

Originally posted by Vex:

Where the second game differs is that you can recruit a private investigator, whom can reveal more information about the characters you've recruited (so long as they're alive). It gives them a bit more depth and story that the first game was unable to provide.

While true, I think that's being too generous.

[Tenshu]

Originally posted by Ray Rook:

No, they are not all fleshed out. It's definitely quantity over quality.

For example, one set of recruits in S1 are gotten by doing a set of "Get this for this person, get this for this person, and get this for this person..." Chain of quests within the same small area. That's basically her story so you can get her soap for washing clothes.

In the same town you get a cook that is obtained just by searching the stoves/soups in two houses.

And another recruit there is gotten just by going to the very next area and opening a chest and returning her the item.

Originally posted by Vex:

Where the second game differs is that you can recruit a private investigator, whom can reveal more information about the characters you've recruited (so long as they're alive). It gives them a bit more depth and story that the first game was unable to provide.

While true, I think that's being too generous.

Hell one guy even calls you weird for wanting him because all he knows is how to cut off heads lol.

[Vex]

Originally posted by Ray Rook:

While true, I think that's being too generous.

I don't think so. Like I said, it's a, 'bit,' more story.

Take the character of Georg, for example.

When you recruit him in Suikoden II he describes himself as a wandering swordsman, who admits to being strong, and offers to lend his blade so long as the hero stays true to the cause. Its only through Richmond's investigations that you learn he was the Sixth Great Imperial General of the Scarlet Moon Empire, an Ebony Moon Knight in the Grasslands, and a Queen's Knight in Falena. It does also spoil a certain plot point in Suikoden V, but the point I'm making is, you very quickly realize this drifter is WAY more than he seems.

Now, Georg is a very specific example, but he's not the only one whom benefits from this background building. You learn Luc's origins, for example. Or that Fitcher is way more than a messenger by law.

[Dragnier]

While you have 108 Stars of Destiny on both games, not all the characters will join you in battle. Many of them are support characters, like shop keepers, farmers, or decorators for your castle.
The idea is that many characters join your cause and they aid you in any way they can. Not everyone is a warrior.
Now you will have 40+ characters that could be used in combat, but some characters are better than others. Some can bring combination attacks with other chars or exclusive runes to make them more useful, but in reality you will find the characters that work for you and you will stick with them most of the time. Usually if you are required to bring a character that you wouldn't normally use, after a couple of battles they will level up and reach the same level as the rest of the team.
Don't stress to much to level everyone or keep them with best gear. You can easy swap gear between chars and they can catch up in experience after a couple of battles. And their level or gear won't matter unless you put them in your active party.

[Shiro]

Originally posted by Dragnier:

While you have 108 Stars of Destiny on both games, not all the characters will join you in battle. Many of them are support characters, like shop keepers, farmers, or decorators for your castle.
The idea is that many characters join your cause and they aid you in any way they can. Not everyone is a warrior.
Now you will have 40+ characters that could be used in combat, but some characters are better than others. Some can bring combination attacks with other chars or exclusive runes to make them more useful, but in reality you will find the characters that work for you and you will stick with them most of the time. Usually if you are required to bring a character that you wouldn't normally use, after a couple of battles they will level up and reach the same level as the rest of the team.
Don't stress to much to level everyone or keep them with best gear. You can easy swap gear between chars and they can catch up in experience after a couple of battles. And their level or gear won't matter unless you put them in your active party.

one correction, its closer to 60-75 battle characters i believe

[5.0 V8 S650 | 0-60 in 3.9 sec]

Nope. There was no way 108 characters could have interesting back stories on the old PSX discs. Some are introduced and you never hear their name again. And then some play major roles in the story.

Both S1 and S2 sometimes forces you take certain characters who are often weaker than your favorites. Plan your party members accordingly.

Don't judge a character by their appearance. What looks like a weak character ends up being a strong character and what looks like a strong character can end up being a weak character.

[Quenlin]

Even in the novel that inspired it most of the 108 are a footnote at best.

[Minneyar]

While most of the characters don't get any development past the scenes where they join (and in the second game, the info you get from investigating them), every arc of the game's story also has a group of characters it focuses on who get a bit more development, and there's also a core cast of characters who is important over the course of the whole game. Usually you will have a couple of characters you are required to bring with you and a few extra slots so you can bring anybody you want.

Plus, since this is a series of games that all take place in the same world over a span of time, there are several recurring characters who don't play a large role in the first game, but are more important and get more development in the next few.

For what it's worth, I consider Chrono Cross to be one of the most disappointing JRPGs I've ever played, while I absolutely love the Suikoden games. It also helps that the character designs and personalities are generally consistent with the setting and aesthetic of Suikoden and you don't have, like... a random luchador or a skeleton clown.

[Zeo]

Originally posted by quasius:

I've never played the originals, but am interested in the remakes. But one of my hesitancies is how it handles so many party members. As someone who felt burned with Chrono Cross's "quantity-over-quality" approach to parties from the same era, I've always been cautious to try these.

Are all these characters actually interesting / fleshed out?

Is it that you just pick 6 characters you want in your party and the other 102 just sit on the bench the entire game? Or does the game require you to rotate through characters and/or allow non-combatants to fulfil interesting support roles.

Thanks for any info!

Not ingame, because games from this era also had mangas and audiobooks that we never had here, Konami released more info on events and japanese exclusive magazines of that time (this is how we know Luca Blight past for example), but honestly this was common back the day.

So it is not fair to me say that they don't have background, they have but through another medias, specially Suikogaiden.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HwoIekBxzQ

[Mikan]

Most of the characters are simplistic, and other ones are fleshed out, even the ones that you don’t end up recruiting. However most of these stories need to be searched up inside tha game library or with outside sources like suikogaiden, tied up with the other games or with information that npcs gives to you in order to know more about the story.

One of the examples is, Anabelle in the second game, she 's the mayor of Muse, and her father was a mayor during the Higland-Jowston war.
And when it came to an end, said mayor Orchestrated an attack on the royal Highland family, resulting on the capture of Luca, the rape of her mother, and thus her sister Jilia being a bastard child. This being one of the reasons why Luca despises Jowston and the ineptitude of his father and that's why Luca is so ruthless against civilians of that nation.

Other characters also have different interactions or phrases depending on the position, I:E, depending who you have in second position at the side of your MC, that character will be the one to help you to escape during the final battle or the Tinto city attack.
The same thing will happen during new leaf academy, depending what characters you decide to bring with you, they will behave in different manners.
During the recruitment of Siegfried, girls will react differently to being called a pure maiden that will be protected by him.

Honestly those are just small touches of personality during those events, if you want to know more about certain characters, you need to explore either side content or the other games. But don't worry, you can keep the party you want, skip most of the background lore and still beat the game. Just a suggestion, keep Nanami with you all the time, and equip her with the best gear possible in the defensive stat.

[Tyrant]

Originally posted by Tenshu:

Originally posted by Ray Rook:

No, they are not all fleshed out. It's definitely quantity over quality.

For example, one set of recruits in S1 are gotten by doing a set of "Get this for this person, get this for this person, and get this for this person..." Chain of quests within the same small area. That's basically her story so you can get her soap for washing clothes.

In the same town you get a cook that is obtained just by searching the stoves/soups in two houses.

And another recruit there is gotten just by going to the very next area and opening a chest and returning her the item.


While true, I think that's being too generous.

Hell one guy even calls you weird for wanting him because all he knows is how to cut off heads lol.

It can be really difficult to find a good executioner, cutting off heads effectively has a high skill ceiling

[Quentin1980]

The idea of Suikoden are adapted one from China's four novel, "water margin" or english version "outlaws of the marsh". In the novel, all 108 heroes, normal people gathered for a reason to oppose the corrupted empire in China during that time of era. Now back to the game, whether player want to utilize all 108 chars is up to the players choice, but the game makes it player to explore all chars specialty, combo attacks, magics, special runes. That is why the number of heroes is 108, the star of destiny. U dont have to use all chars, u can chose a certain few of your liking, or u want to explore a bit more of the chars u can train them as u see fit. Some of the chars in SKD 1 and SKD 2 are indeed inspired by the China's novel, water margin. Suikoden here at least is a happy ending to all star of destiny heroes.

[Lu2]

its pretty much similar to crono cross when it comes to character customization but your hoarded team contributes to more stuff tied to minigames

[jschmed4]

Your concern was mine when I found out about this game and played it in the 90's. It's 108 specifically because of Chinese Mythology, and what I would say to you now is that variety is the spice of life. Because of the wide variety of characters you can feel free to play however you'd like. There are characters better/worse at weapon attacks/magic attacks and those who walk somewhere in the middle and then there are ones who kinda fail at both.

If you want to focus on only using the characters who transfer over to the sequel as much as possible, you can. Feel like playing a challenge and taking really wimpy characters whenever possible? The game won't stop you. Have a few you like because of their look/style/weapon type? Yep, that's an option. Certainly there are VERY few opportunities for you to use any 5 characters of your liking at once; however even within the scripted sequences there's enough wiggle room to play around with the unite attack system and magic system.