[General Discussion] Regarding Suikoden...

I practically gave IV and Tactics away. I spent way too much time on them before I get fed up to the point of not caring about storylines, gameplay, etc.

I, II and V are just such amazing emotional roller coasters. Very raw moments in all of them and it's brought to life by the fact that there are so many characters who join your side. If you play all three, you can get a sense of predictability, but it still seems fresh each time. V takes time to get started, but once the 7 hour prologue is out of the way and you start exploring/recruiting, it's amazing how well it takes off.

There are two sections in V that reference IV, but it's not a huge deal (the sections are actually kind of silly, although Bernadette is one of my favorite characters). It's more fan-service related to 1 and 2 though.

I've always been a fan of large parties as well, so the gameplay, while traditional, satisfies me a lot more than the average RPG. Choosing, outfitting and fighting with 6 characters should be a standard for the genre, IMO.

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I've always heard mixed reactions about Suikoden III. It definitely feels different, but I never quite got into it. The storyline was a good read though. Too bad it's so out of order with everything else.

When you play the others, you'll see how poorly the events that held IV together were put together. Felt like too much was random or I'd be sidetracking everywhere to trigger an event. IV is like, "Here's a character/bunch of characters. They're joining your party". V is like, "Here's a character/bunch of characters and here's why they matter..." And don't get me started on the boat overworld...PAH!

There's nowhere I can't reach.