[General Discussion] Suikoden Club v7!

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Suikoden V was pretty great, although it's marred by some technical issues (load times, clunky-ass menus). The recruiting is as obscure as ever, though, probably worse than 1 and 2 in that regard.

Has anyone recruited all 108 SoD's in any of the Suikoden's without the use of a guide? I know that I haven't. Suikoden I and IV I remember being the most plausible in terms of accomplishing.

Suikoden V however I do not believe that any one person could manage it. Wayyy too many obscurities and stricter windows of opportunity for recruitments.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

None of the Suikoden's have been much of a challenge but that suits me just fine. Well the combat phase anyways.. recruitment can be a real biatch.

With you on Suik 3 and 4 not being as good but played through them anyways. I am sure you will like 5. The concensus is that it that it compares to the first 2 titles. I myself would go as far as to say 5 could be the best one in the series. Nostalgia is what's keeping me back from saying so, and could be the opinion of others as well.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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For those who know a bit about my gaming habits, it’s no big secret that I’m a huge fan of the Suikoden series. Although I’m not a pioneer from the first hour, I played every game, look up on more info vigorously, and, possibly one of the worst habits that I have is that I recommend the series to everyone, causing much annoyance, which has earned me the label of a fanboy.

The thing is.. Suikoden *needs* evangelism. It's not a FFXXX which sells itself through brand name alone. I mean, if you took the exact same FF8 game - stuck another name on the title how much would it of sold?
If Suikoden doesn't sell enough, Konami will stop making them. :/ I don't know how profitable 3, 4 and 5 were.

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Now the game that has kept me busy for the past few weeks is the latest instalment in the series, Suikoden V. Since I was rather disappointed with the fourth game, I wasn’t really getting my hopes up. Sure, Suikoden Tactics corrected quite a few of the errors, but since it wasn’t one of the “main” suikoden games, I still had some scepticism. When the game was released in Japan, I was relieved to see that it got some rather good review scores, and the overall impression was that the game took the series back to its roots. Knowing this, I got rather excited, and I eagerly anticipated it’s release.

How is Suikoden tactics? Being a fairly serious Suikoden fan, the first 3-4 maps/plot/dialogue thus far is making me sleepy. Does it get better?

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The most important aspect of the Suikoden games has always been the story for me. Where as political intrigues, mysterious runes and backstabbing was absent in IV, the latest game provides more than enough of this.

There's also the persistent universe that is a huge appeal to me. It's great being able to find interconnections and mingling plot lines from Games 1-5.
I thought Georg Prime was a ho-hum nobody in Suikoden II but he's so bad ass in V.

Having played through V, the Richmond investigations are pretty cool in II and Konami's detail in keeping track of characters across games.

Georg
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Secret 1:
Name: Georg Prime
Age: 41
From: Unknown
Position: Infantry Captain
Note: Formerly 1 of the 6 Generals of the Scarlet Moon Empire.

Secret 2:
"He's got a hell of a history. In the Scarlet Moon Empire, he was 1 of the 6
Generals. In the Grasslands, he was an Ebony Moon Knight, and in Falena he was
a Royal Knight. He just threw it all away."

Secret 3:
"You'd never know by looking at him, but that old man loves sweets. I watched
him put away 3 pieces of cheesecake in about 5 minutes..."

Secret 4:

Spoiler:

"He can't go back to Falena because he's wanted for the crime of murdering the
Queen. What the hell could have happened back there..."

Everytime Georg rejoins your party in V, he has cheesecake in his inventory heh.

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As for voice acting, just like in Suikoden IV, it’s excellent. The best voices are queen Arshat, who has one of the coolest scenes in the series, especially thanks to the excellent voiceacting, and my favourite character, Sialeeds, who has the best laugh in any videogame. The only problem I have is that the hero is still mute. Granted, this works a lot better than it did in IV, but still, the scenes where you call on your army to head to the battle field always end in a bit of an anticlimax, because all that the hero can do is raise his hands. Another thing related to this is that the hero still doesn’t have a name, so during the entire game, he’s only referred to as “prince”.

With you there. Konami has EXCELLENT VA production values in Suik V. Makes it much easier to identify with the characters. Also the mute hero needs to stop. It's getting weirder when every person is talking but you.


I am ok with it so far, but I wonder if people would tire eventually of the Hero deals with a rune, you recruit 108 people and build up a headquarters scenario. I guess these ARE the themes central to Suikoden but it'd be really hard if not impossible to break from that mold.

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As for replay and extras, as usual, there are few optional dungeons and hidden bosses that you can take on, most of them are related to the recruitment of certain characters. There are several endings that you can get, some during the game if you lose certain battles or make certain choices, and others that depend on the number of stars that you collect. There is a new game+ option, that allow you to start over with your equipment and your levels, if you want to go through the game quickly to get a different ending, but since the game is rather long, it took me 60 hours, I don’t think that many people will be that interested.

Yeah Suikoden V was so good that I played it back to back. First time just trying to recruit what Stars I could and just playing through the game to enjoy it. I missed like probably 40 stars. Those are HARD to get.

Overall I like your review, maybe consider posting it on Gamefaqs?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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Tony>Suikoden Tactics is not that great. It's a yawnfest all the way through. The tactics basically consist of "get on a matching elemental square and kill stuff". And the story never really picked up either.

uggg.. how lame. I might slug through it anyways just ::because:: its Suikoden but it just seems to have low production values. I guess in general people give it ok->favorable reviews and I'd really like to know why.

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Thanks for the comments! I've posted a review for Tactics somewhere in this thread, or in my journal if you're interested.

Cool. Will check it out. We see pretty much eye to eye on things Suikoden.

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I can see your point about the lack of innovation in the basic concept of the game, but this is exactly what makes the series "Suikoden". Sure, it's always the same, but I fear that if they changed it too much, it would only disappoint the fans (I for one would be rather sceptic against a new concept that doesn't have the 108 stars, or some true runes).

Hopefully there will be some serious shakeup going on. Maybe in Suikoden VI they would have former stars of destiny battle each other. They do this in some sense like Jowston versus Leon Silverburg and regional battles between Republic of Tinto -> Grasslands -> Toran Republic

Any guesses where Suikoden VI might take place? I've also heard the Suikoden 4 team is working on it. <cry>

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

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Warning: Spoilers:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DU2ct0cENbA& … ikoden%20V

Thanks for sharing that link. It's definently one of top 3 dramatic Suikoden movements across all games. Luca Blight's die pig is #1 for sure. heh I explored that alternate path for my New Game+, second play through. The thing is..

Spoiler:

It would seem pretty natural to want to stay and fight instead, maybe assume that you could revive Roy later like you did Gremio in Suikoden 1.

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Save for the lead art director, the core development staff for Suikoden IV is the Suikoden V staff. They made a lot switches to the Suikoden development team for V and many of the people who worked on IV were let go. But for arguments sake, the Suikoden IV and V production teams are the same staff.

So I would not worry. For the most part the team responsible for V should be making VI. I doubt they brought in the people from IV to work on it.

Do you have a source for this? It's been mentioned repeatedly on the Suikosource and Suikox forums that they are two development teams for the Suikoden series - one made 4 and the other made 5.

I would be happy if I were wrong and the same team from Suikoden V was working on VI. After Suik 3/4, 5 is the one that says "Suikoden is BACK"

How ya doing, buddy?

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Maybe...I figured several things before I made the choice:

Spoiler:

Yeah all of those are great reasons. I trusted Lucretia too and made the choice to abandon. It wasn't until the need to explore alternate endings did I start trying stuff out.

On the other hand it was damn fun to fight those additional army battles. I can see some people saying they could beat the shit out of everything and going and stay.

Yeah Childerich is pretty freaky. He looks eerie in the Queen's Knights regalia.

Btw, which 108 star ending did everyone choose?

Yeah the loading is painful, everyone complains about it but its hard to blame a technical limitation right? Suikoden V looks amazing and still fit 6 member parties. Suikoden V in standard resolution is better looking than IV in progressive scan.

The Stars are a big pain in the ass with some of them having limited recruitment opportunities and previous character dependencies.

Yeah, I used the Brady Guide in conjunction with
http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/f...ar_recruit.txt
to get the 108 Stars. This guide actually helps you get some of the Stars sooner than when the Brady guide tells you.

I agree with the top notch assessments. It easily compares with the first two in the series. I'm just wondering where VI will come from since sales were not that good and the PS3 is gonna be one expensive gargantuan of a console. :/

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

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Suikoden was in the top 2 when it was released in Japan selling over 200,000 and it has sold over 50,000 in the US. That's actually pretty good for a low profile game. And not all PS3 projects require millions of dollars to make(assuming this is what you mean by expensive.)

I was mainly thinking the console cost of the PS3. No idea how much market penetration it will achieve with a 600 dollar cost. Also glad you brought up the software portion. Yeah Suikoden doesn't have to be a multi million project but it would have to still look next gen. Graphics is not the most important part of a RPG but review sites and casual fans make a big deal out of it. Yes the story has to be good but it HAS TO HAVE GREAT GRAPHICS!

Most amazing jew boots

Final Boss Strat

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Sun Rune Incarnation:

Use any formation that puts one person on the very front line with high physical and magical defense. I think I used arrowhead and had Ghalleon up in front.

Fill out the rest of your party with people who can take around 200-250 worth of magic damage each turn.

If you use Miakis, and Kyle they can heal the entire group each turn with the shield rune or flowing rune.

Keep attacking the central boss (ignore the adds) each turn and group heal each time.

Keep this up for around 14,000 hp on central boss and you will win.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

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Other minor scare was when I almost couldn't find the window maker in the Dwarf Camp...That little blue guy is hard to see.

Umm that's Zunda. And she's a woman.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Good place to start is
http://www.suikosource.com

Pictures everywhere and forums have links to other areas.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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Yea, I'm about 25 hours into the game, and I'm loving it. I just got my castle, and I've run around recruiting people. Though apparently I didn't do well enough in my last battle to get two rather picky generals in Raftfleet. Bastards.

Have Viki in your party and I believe they will join you.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.