[General Discussion] Suikoden Club v7!

This is the place for all the discussions concerning the Suikoden series. With the recently released Suikoden Tactics, and the upcoming Suikoden V, I'm sure that this thread will be pretty active.

If you have any questions about the series in general, just post them here, and some of the regulars (if they return) will help you out.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

The Flame Champion:

Spoiler:

Well, Hugo is really the only option for Flame Champion, since Geddoe already started with the Lightning Rune, and Chris is supposed to enherit the True Water Rune from her dad. I never really liked that you could choose who would receive the rune, since it doesn't stroke with the overall Suikoden feeeling. It's the Rune that chooses it's bearer, and I always assumed that you couldn't give it up even if you wanted to, so being able to switch True Runes like Chris, Geddoe and Hugo did, doesn't make that much sense to me, nor did the fact that the former Flame Champion mangaged to give up on his rune.

As for the Flame Champion's name, I'm not sure, but it probably appears in the manga, which I've just started reading (only two volumes released over here), so If anyone has read it further, please let us know.

And thanks for the scans Tyr!

Welcome back Leknaat!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I really didn't like IV, it just didn't have an epic feeling like I, II, and to a certain extent III had. Tactics is a huge improvement IMO, since the beginning already manages to create a much more exciting world with the pirates and all. I'm not that far yet, but I have high hopes, although the battles can be fairly hard if you want to get Rank S for some cool items.

How ya doing, buddy?

It's a nice pass time, although it borrows heavily from FFT (not as much as Hoshigami though). The story seems a bit forced at some points, but it still manages to entertain me more than IV's. Battles can be hard, although maybe it's just because I'm near the beginning, and it can be frustrating to permanently lose an optional character. As for graphical presentation, I personally love it, except for Kyril's character pic. It's a rather cool game, although I'm sure that people who played further then me could give you much more information.

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

Ranks are ratings you get after the battles. S rank is the highest, and it's only rewarded when you do really good in battle (I only got it a few times myself). you can get some of the mst powerful items in the game by achieving S; or a bunch of medals which raise stats for lower ranks.

The skill system as seen in III also makes a return. After a battle, the entire battle gains skill points, and you can distribute them among your members. The skills can be rather useful, like a bigger moving range, or more attacks.

I have to agree with you on Rita-pon, that game was pretty damn addicting.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I don't really remember the bigger cannon range in IV, mostly because naval battles where boring, and didn't you need some rare items for that? The skills I've found out up until this point that could be or interest are attack increasing skills, extra move/jump, treasure hunting for a specific character, and magic improving ones. I'm a bit disappointed with the magic though, effects are bland and it's really not that useful to use a spell for 60 damage when the same character can do 100+ with a normal attack.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

When you get a high enough level, you can use the Slash rune on almost any enemy. I usually go for the giant crab on the deserted island, and it gave me enough money in a good hour to get most of the important character's weapon's to max level. If your level isn't high enough, just train with the guy aboard your ship.

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But it was also a rather cheap way, because iirc you couldn't get a game over if you lost a battle with Reinhold, so you basically didn't have any challenge. It was nice to check out the various characters though, helped me to balance out my party for a bit.

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

Are those ports released yet btw? I'm still interested in seeing how what they changed exactly, since I heard that it wasn't a direct port.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Kamui:

Spoiler:

iirc, Mindy, Leknaat's evil sister shows up, and she tries to overpower your party (you don't really fight her, the Golden Dragon fight is the last actual battle you fight), but Barbarossa (the king) uses his last strength to grab her, and he jumps off the top of the palace with her, most likely killing her in the process, although some people doub it.

I'm not sure as to what happened to the hero, but I know that Lepant becomes the new king of the Scarlet Moon Empire. Maybe someone else can elaborate on this, or you may want to check out suikosource, although it contains spoilers for all the games

Suikoden II is DEFINITELY worth playing, one of my personal favourites. It has some hints and returning characters in relation to I, but you can play it without that since you practically finished the first game.

Most Suikodens can be seen as standalone games, but they are all part of some bigger story around the True Runes. It'sa pretty huge universe.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Hey, it's been 3 or 4 years since I last played the game, of course I forgot a ton of stuff. Is it officially called the Toran Republic, because in III and Tactics they surely mentioned the Scarlet Moon Empire (I know Tactics is a prequel, but III can't be because of Luc).

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Maybe I confused it with that, thanks for the reminder.

As for my status on Tactics, I'm currently just before the battle in Haruna, where you have to save some mage. The game can get incredibly frustrating sometimes, especially in the Ruins of Obel. The fifth level is incredibly hard if you get unlucky with the number of Golems, and the wrong elements on characters. I've spent hours on getting through it, only to be kicked out, and it seems that I have to start from the beginning again. It's still a higly enjoyable game though, and it was rather rewarding when I finally got past that level.

Most amazing jew boots

Don't talk to Deni, I believe he hates III. It's one of the better Suikoden games, imo, with an interesting story, an awesome bonus for getting the 108 stars and nice character designs. The battle system will take some time getting used to though, as will the Trinity System.

I was speaking idiomatically.

The Packaging for Suikoden V:



It looks a lot better than the Tactics packaging, but not as good as IV, imo, it's a bit too cluttered.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I'll be getting the game soon, but I first want to finish the new Shadow Hearts (which I've only just started), I'm really anticipating this one.

In other news, I recently finished Suikoden Tactics, and I've taken the liberty to review it:

Quote:

I’ve been interested in the Suikoden Series since the third game, and after tracking down the first two, it has quickly grown to become one of my favourite RPG series. Unfortunately, IV was a disgrace in comparison to its predecessors, and for a moment, I feared that this would be the start of the decline of the Suikoden world. Now that Suikoden Tactics, the first strategy RPG set in the Suikoden Universe, has been released, it looks like there are steps being taken towards the old glory and epic view that I loved in the first games. It’s already a huge improvement when you compare it to IV, but alas, there are still some flaws to be found. Please note that this review will contain inevitable spoilers for its predecessor.

The story is a direct sequel to Suikoden IV. The Island Nations have declared their independence, and Fort El-Eal has been destroyed, together with the Giant Tree, one of Kooluk’s symbols of power. Now, a group of adventurers from the Scarlet Moon Empire is investigating the Rune Cannons and their main power source, an entity from another world called the Evil Eye. It’s not for too long that they discover that the Kooluk Empire is making manoeuvres again, and gathering the remaining Rune Cannons for a mysterious purpose.

Suikoden Tactics’ story is surely a step up from the one we had in IV. From the first hour or so, it already managed to captivate me more than its prequel. The game starts out with a flashback, which teaches you the characters motivation to search for the rune cannons, and from the scenes following that, you get an epic feeling that IV was lacking. The few naval battle scenes that the game has look a lot better than the boring strategic battles. The story also concludes the start that IV made, by giving an answer to some of the unresolved connections between certain characters, and even better, it gives us a lot more insight in the Kooluk Empire. Despite being the main enemy in IV, you barely get to see a glimpse of its motivations, and you don’t know who’s pulling strings behind the scenes. Tactics manages to give more insight in this, and it provided me with a satisfying conclusion.

Unfortunately, the story has its flaws. For one, some of the plot lines are too predictable, and feel forced. It’s clear that Tactics’ story was thought up after IV had already been released, and they had no choice to force a few changes through. The biggest problem I had was the Evil Eye. You know where it’s coming from, what it can do, but there’s still something lacking. I personally would have found it much more interesting if the Rune Cannons drew their power from a True Rune, which would make Tactics important in comparison to the other Suikoden games. Now it feels like nothing major has been accomplished, and the story is overly insignificant in the Suikoden universe. It is nice to see a glimpse of the higher forces that are controlling the world, as was hinted in IV before.

The three main characters, Kyril, Andarc and Seneca get more than enough screenplay and are developed pretty well, and some of the other major story characters (Kika, Simeon, Corselia), also get more than enough light shed upon. A great feature is the rest option when you enter the caravan, where you can see various interactions between the members of your group, which gives you more insight in their relations. You’ll also see some familiar faces, not only from IV, but also from other Suikoden games, like Jeane, the mysterious runemaster.

A problem is that most of the character development happens before you actually recruit them, after which they are hardly shown at all. Take Kika for example, she has a rather big role in the flashback in the beginning, and in the first hours of the actual game, but afterwards, she only makes one or two insignificant appearances. This is the understandable nature of strategy games, something that also bothered me in Final Fantasy Tactics, but I guess it can’t be helped.

As for graphic, it’s obvious that not much time and money was spend on this, which is the main complaint that people will have. Personally, I really like it. While you can’t actually walk around cities or fields, you are presented with some nice artwork, which will be familiar to those who played IV. Battle Maps also look great, although it would be nice if they were a had a more complex design, since they are pretty straightforward now. Character animations look awesome, in my opinion. They are not too detailed, but they move fluid, and look nice with overall bright colours. I generally don’t care about the graphics, so it really doesn’t bother me that much that there isn’t as much detail as most gamers would expect.

The only minor disappointment is the character artwork for Kyril and Andarc, which makes them look incredibly dull, and the spell animations, which have been imported straight from IV, and don’t really have the majestic feeling that was shown in II or III. I doubt that we’ll ever see CG used for spell effects, like it was in II, in a next Suikoden instalment.

As for music, there isn’t much variety in the chosen tracks. Most of the tunes are pleasant, and some of them even remind me of FF Tactics battle themes. There is one theme in particular, that plays during sad scenes or during resting that I really like, and it reminds me of the old favourites from the Playstation Suikoden games. I wish I could say the same from the main opening theme, but it’s just not as good as Transcending Love (III) or La Mer (IV).

Voices are a mixed bag for this one. While most of the characters have decent voices, there are some moments in the game where they can sound incredibly dull. This is not to say that they are bad, in fact, Kyril’s voice actor does an excellent job in some particular scenes, but the quality isn’t consistent. There have also been changes, Lino El Kundes, the king of Obel has a new voice, which I don’t understand since the one in IV was perfect for the job, and one of the better voices in the game.

The gameplay is the biggest factor that can make or break a game. The first steps that Suikoden takes in the tactical RPG genre are done pretty well. While the system is not as complex as Final Fantasy Tactics, you still need to carefully plan your manoeuvres. One of the main factors that can decide the outcome of a battle is the terrain element. Each character has a specific element (thunder, fire, water, wind or earth), and when they step on a tile with that element, they recover health, and their stats improve. But if they step on a tile of the opposite element, their stats decrease and take damage. The game gives you items that let you change the terrain elements, but the enemy can also change this. The best tactic in battle is to set up a good terrain defence, but keep in mind that the enemy will do the same.

Aside from that, it’s a nice combination of traditional Suikoden gameplay elements, like the use of Runes, each with four different levels of spells, blacksmithing to improve your weapons, and typical Tactical RPG elements, doing more damage from behind, limited move range, etc. The overall battle system is enjoyable, challenging for some specific battles and easy to learn. I don’t see a lot of flaws, except for character deaths. Characters that play an important role in the story don’t die when their health hits zero, but they withdraw. Characters that don’t have a significant role and can be recruited optionally, will only rarely withdraw, instead they’ll die for good. This can be incredibly frustrating later on in the game, when you’ve spent hours powering up a character, only to have them die in a few seconds. This is the main reason that I often have to restart battles, and it made me throw around the controller in frustration.

Aside from the battle system, the main gameplay comes from the quest guild. You start out with some easy fetch quests, but as you do more quests, your rank increases and you get harder missions. The common reward for a completed quest is money and skill points, used to activate skills that can fine tune your character, and the occasional piece of armour or recovery item. The most time-consuming quests are the one that force you to explore the Ruins of Obel, which brings me to the next point. The Ruins of Obel is a 6 floor dungeon, with an elemental chamber at the bottom, that offers some of the strongest enemies in the game. The levels get progressively harder, and the Elemental Chambers are the hardest battle fields in the game, that will require careful planning and positioning, but the rewards can be huge.

One last point of criticism is the overall localization. While translations were okay in the beginning, near the end of the game it looked like they just wanted to finish the job, and the translations got progressively worse. It would be understandable if the written text contains some errors, but when the voice actors just repeat the errors without noticing the mistakes, I have to question the efforts they put into the localization.

The game offers a New game+ option, which I have yet to try out, and aside from that there’s always the Medal challenge. Depending on your performance in battle, you get a rank awarded in battle, ranging from C (worst) to S (best, and incredibly hard to achieve on a first playthrough), and you receive a unique item that will boost some stats. It’s an extra challenge for those who can’t get enough of the game, although I myself haven’t really bothered much with it, except for a few battles.

In conclusion, Suikoden Tactics is a highly enjoyable game, that will give you at least 30 hours of entertainment. It’s a shame that it’s rather insignificant in the Suikoden universe, since it would earn a place there a lot more than IV. If you’re a fan of Suikoden and Tactical RPGs, I’d really recommend checking it out.

I'd be more than happy to participate in the Suikoden week, if any would be kind enough to provide me with a ava/sig set.

FELIPE NO

Having finished the wonderful latest installment, I've written a review that no one cares about!

Quote:

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. I myself don’t agree with this, since the average fanboy either doesn’t see any flaws in the games that he worships, or he criticizes on everything, from the smallest grammatical error, to a mispronounced word. I like to position myself somewhere in between, where my main interest in the game is the fun-factor, the overall story, and the significance it has to the Suikoden universe in general, but where I’m still sane enough to recognize flaws when they present themselves. As you can see from this introduction, I can’t help but being a little biased towards the games, but I still try to keep my final opinion objective enough so that this review has at least some use.

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.

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. This time, we focus on the kingdom of Falena, a realm blessed by the light of the Sun Rune, one of the True Runes that govern the world. It provides prosperity to the country, but it also can be destructive against those who intend to do harm to the land. While it’s normally kept in a sanctuary, an incident in the recent past forced Queen Arshtat to use it, and she has it attached to her forehead ever since. She continues to rule the country with a firm hand, but she also starts to show signs of growing insanity, that worries her family, and also the Queen’s Knights, her personal bodyguards.

If this wasn’t enough trouble already, the senate also seems to have plans of it’s own, especially the two main factions, the Godwin family, who desires a powerful nation, strong against it’s neighbours, and the Barrows family, who seems to care more about domestic peace, but at the same time hides some dirty secrets. In the middle of this stands the main character, the prince of Falena. While he seemingly leads a carefree life, going on some missions for his mother, he’ll soon be wrapped up in a web of political intrigues that will change his fate, along with that of the country.

With this short description, I haven’t even scratched the surface of the game’s plot. I could go on for hours about it, but since this is a review, it wouldn’t be a good idea to spoil half the game. As you probably guessed, I love this story, mainly because it goes back to the roots of the series, and gives us a deep plot, which make the weak attempt that IV was fail in comparison.

There are only a few things that bothered me a bit, but they didn’t ruin the overall experience, and only fanboys will be upset about it. The first one is that the game starts rather slow. By the time the “actual” war begins, you’re already ten hours in the game. Now, with most games, I would have given up if there were no real developments after such a long time, but it wasn’t really a problem with this one for me. The main reason for this is because the introduction, mainly focused on the royal family, makes you genuinely care about them, you become emotionally attached to not only the king and queen, but also their entourage, the Queen’s knights. This makes later events much more important, and it motivates you to go on. But as I said, the slow start may push people away, so it’s only a tiny flaw.

The second “flaw” is the game’s villain. You have several, and some of them are great, but the main evil guy behind everything just doesn’t live up to the reputation that previous bad guys like Windy or Luca Blight had. The game sets their schemes up pretty good, giving you enough questions to motivate you, but in the end, the questions don’t get a satisfying answer, or sometimes no answer at all.

As for the cast, as mentioned during the story description, the main characters are just wonderful. Characters like Lyon, the prince’s loyal bodyguard, Georg Prime, the head of the Queen’s Knights, who was given some heavy tasks by the King, Ferid, or Sialeeds, the Queen’s sister. She especially is one of my favourites, since she has some wonderful character flaws, that make you want to hate her sometimes, but you can’t help but love her. This is also the first game where the main character has a love interest. Now, this is often risky business in RPGs, because gamers will feel that it’s forced, but this game just makes it seem natural. I’m rather fond of this development, and I’d love to see more stuff like this in future games.

As with most Suikoden games, we see some recurring characters. As expected, there’s Jeane, the mysterious rune master. We get a bit more on her background, but it only raises more questions. Of course, Viki, the sneezing teleportation mage is involved, but no new developments here. One of my personal favourites also makes a return, Lorelai. I’m thrilled that she gets a bigger role, together with Killey, with who she seems to have a strange relationship, and we get a lot of information on her background and her motivations. We cannot forget Leknaat, who returns with her philosophical rambling about the Staros of Destiny, but this time she is accompanied by a new character, Zerase, bearer of the mysterious Star Rune, and knowledgeable about the Sun Rune.

As I’ve said in my introduction, I value the significance of the game to the entire Suikoden universe, and this one is quite significant. For one, we finally learn the truth on Georg Prime, a mysteries that kept players busy since Suikoden II. Another rather important development is made in solving the mysteries of the Sindar, a race that has left advanced ruins all over the world. We learn more about who they where, although the question of their disappearance isn’t anywhere near an answer.

I don’t pay much attention to how games look, but the Suikoden games have been an exception when it comes to spell effects. From the first game, the spells, especially those from True Runes have looked awesome, even with CG animation in the second game. While IV was really disappointing in this aspect, V has some awesome spells, but unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be seeing CG spells anytime soon.

Character designs in Suikoden V belong among the best I’ve seen in the Suikoden games. I’m really glad that the hero doesn’t look like a douche anymore. As for the other characters, designs look awesome, although the conversion to in game graphics isn’t always as smooth as I wished. Some characters do look better in game, like Killey for example, but overall, I prefer the designs. As for the enemies, we don’t see any really original designs here, just the generic ones you’d expect from Suikoden games, or RPGs in general. The final boss is a bit underwhelming, when compared to my favourite Suikoden one, the Rune incarnation in the third game.

Musically speaking, Suikoden V doesn’t have the best OST among the games. The opening theme is one of the weaker ones when compared to La Mer (IV) or Transcending Love (III), but it’s still a rather nice piece that sets the mood for the rest of the game. The rest of the music is as expected from Suikoden games, nothing really outstanding, nothing bad either. There are a few themes that I like, mostly some of the later boss themes, but also some of the remixes of older Suikoden songs.

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”.
As for gameplay, the Suikoden games haven’t shown that much innovation, and V is no different. Since I assume that the basics are well known, I’ll limit myself to the few innovations. The regular battle system has gone back to the beginning. 6 party members, each can equip various runes to enhance certain aspects or use magic. Cooperative attacks are also back, but without the levels that were used in IV, magic hasn’t changed, although the combination spells are now already selectable, where as you had to find them out for yourself in the previous games. What is new is the use of tactics and formations. During your adventure, you’ll find several so-called “tactics”, that allow you to put your party in a different formation, that gives you an extra skill usable in battle, like casting two spells in a row, or a huge attack on the enemy, and a small stat boost. I played a bit with this in the beginning, but I didn’t bother changing formations in the second half of the game.

You can also enhance your characters’ stats by using skills. Battles reward you with skill points, that you can use to raise certain skills. You can only equip two skills at first, but later on you’ll find “epics”, combinations of various skills. If you think that you can just fight enough in the beginning to max out your skills from the start, think again, because the later levels have to be unlocked with special items. The only problem I had with the battle system is that it was too easy. I only died once in a regular battle, and that was only because I wanted to see a special rune’s spells. For the rest, you’ll have a rather easy time going through them, and since there are enough healing items around, you don’t really have to worry about anything.

The duel system hasn’t changed one bit, except for the fact that you now only have three seconds to enter an action. But for the rest, you still have to divine what the enemy will attack you with by paying attention to their lines. There are a few guys in the game where this isn’t possible, so you just have to guess what they’ll attack you with.

The coolest changes can be found in the War system. Wars now take place in real time, and combine various aspects from the previous games. The biggest change is that your units now advance in real time, and that you continuously have to pay attention to the entire battle field, because the enemies attack from everywhere. The battles themselves play like rock-paper-scissors, only replaced by cavalry, infantry and archer squads. Archers can also be equipped with runes that allow them to unleash a powerful magic attack on your enemies, and all units get recovery spells, charge attacks, that allow you to hit the enemy without receiving any damage, and a few special commands. When one of your units attacks, you get to see them charge through the enemy, or you see the devastating effects of a rune spell. This is pretty cool, and makes the battles seem more epic

The major battles are not easy, you have to pay attention to every unite, don’t rush into things, lure enemies away from the group to slaughter them, heal a lot, run away and you really have to sue tactics, where as the previous games had pretty easy battles that could be won without to much effort. I had a lot of fun with the major battles, and I wanted more of them. The use of your tactician’s strategy also took some effort on your part, and you couldn’t mindlessly obliterate your opponents. This is my favourite system yet.

The rest of the gameplay also remained the same. You still have to search for the 108 stars of destiny, but they are rather hard to find this time. Some of them require you to go back several times, others have you fighting bosses, and there are even some that are missable permanently, so that you can’t get the best ending. I was glad that finding the stars actually had more meaning to it compared to Suikoden III and IV, where it didn’t seem that they had an actual reason to join you. It’s still one of the coolest aspects of the series, and I look forward to this with every new game.

Finally, after two shitty Headquarters, this game gives you a place that reminds you of the glory of the old lake fortress in Suikoden I, or the castle town in Suikoden II. This is the biggest base yet, and I had a lot of fun exploring it. As in the previous games, there’s a lot that can be done in your headquarters. There are various shops, places to customize menu’s and a lot of minigames (fishing, dragon horse racing, gambling,…). One of the coolest activities is always finding the so-called “Old Books”, because not only do they provide you some useful gameplay tips, they also give you more insight in the history in the world. The game surely doesn’t disappoint here, since there are as many as 13 books to be found.

Overall, while the gameplay can’t really be called original or innovative, it continues to be a lot of fun, mainly because the variety in activities that you can do. If your bored with searching for Stars of destiny, you can always go play some mini games at your castle, or explore a few optional dungeons. There’s plenty to be done, but you won’t get so lost in it that you forget the main story.

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.

In conclusion, I can say that I had a lot of fun with this latest instalment, more than I expected to be honest. Although there are still some flaws, I personally rank it among the top Suikoden games. If you’re interested in the series, this is an excellent game to start with, if you don’t find the older Suikoden games (which is a rather good possibility), since it doesn’t require a lot of knowledge from the previous games, and because it contains enough intriguing points to suck you right into the Suikoden universe.

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

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

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).

I already posted it on gamefaqs btw.

How ya doing, buddy?