Was bummed to see it in the Eiyuden newsletter this morning. Suikoden and its sequel were formative for me and my immediate friend group growing up. His creative vision definitely left an impact on me. (Or at least as much as made it through the localization.)
It was always such a delight to get random notes from him in the updates. It'll definitely be sad to not get those anymore.
Have never played this game but always wanted to given it's legendary reputation (copies are really expensive). I plan to get the remaster that was announced a while but haven't heard much on it since
From collecting retro games (particularly of the PS1 era) I can tell you from experience that price is not always commensurate with quality. More often, it's tied to rarity, which in turn then raises the perception of quality because, frankly, there often aren't enough copies to dispute it.
Modern ports and especially Emulation has helped knock down some of those artificial barriers and let people more honestly assess how good the games are.
For example: Panzer Dragoon Saga. I managed to play it on a Saturn emulator. Great game? Honestly, yes. Is it a $500 great game? Eh...
I think PDS is special partly (mostly?) because of its part in gaming history. It was symbolic of the end of "peak Sega", a beautiful and ambitious RPG better (or at least more ambitious) than Final Fantasy 7 in many ways, released to virtually zero sales as Sega sunsetted the Saturn.
(In retrospect, the failure of the Saturn was really the last nail in the console of Sega's console business, and the Dreamcast just couldn't overcome that inertia.)
Or at least that's what Panzer Dragoon Saga represents to me anyway...
The only thing I heard was the Suikoden I&II remaster was coming out this year. Considering it is Konami of disown legendary developers and loot nostalgia to pay for our work on video gambling devices, I can only hope for the best.
It really is one of the all-time greats. In my opinion, Suikoden II holds up better than any JRPG from that era. It has fast combat (unlike most RPGS of the era), 3 different battle systems (traditional, 1v1, and army battles), a top-notch story, and one of the best soundtracks to be found on the system.
Suikoden was released on PS1 in 1995, so he would have been just 26 at that time. Amazing. When the topic comes up of changing Japanese box art for western audiences, the first game I think of is Suikoden.
I love this US box art so much it's so dreadful and left such a weird impression on me initially. My friends and I had a hell of a time trying to figure out who the characters were meant to be.
I think by the end of it, our conclusions were:
Left Side: Barbarossa, Ted, Windy
Right Side: McDohl (maybe Luc?), Leknaat, Three headed skeleton demon because ???
Flying on the dragon I always assumed to be Futch, but who knows. If it's Luc in the corner, I guess it could be McDohl in the center, (he is the main character after all.)
The sprite-based games of old certainly gave wide latitude for how you choose to interpret the character designs. It doesn't surprise me that at that time they would've chosen to supplement the sprites with western-style art designs for a western audience.
It's in the same vein (but not quite as hilarious IMO) as what they did to Breath of Fire II's art.
It's a miracle that the NA cover art for Ico came out so beautifully (EDIT: somehow I confused the beautiful Japan/European box art with the NA box art. The NA box art is horrible)
I love how the US box art feels like some obscure Nobunaga's Ambition / Romance of Three Kingdoms strategy game. I can understand why marketing probably thought it was! It's just hilarious.
At least, compared to Mega Man, the Suikoden art is like... competently executed? It's no masterpiece, and has essentially zero correlation to the game, but it's at least professional!
For those not aware of Mega Man's box art, though... gaze upon this wonder
Suikoden was sort of impenetrable for me as a kid. Whereas you could easily stumble through final fantasy, suikoden felt like it had just enough going for it that you actually needed to understand its mechanics. The vast cast was always intimidating and I wouldn’t ever use anyone who didn’t seem obviously strong immediately, and I suspect that was why it felt hard.
On the other hand revisiting turn based rpgs of my youth has generally found them insanely easy (just use buffs) so it could also just be that.
I used to struggle with rpgs as a kid because I had absolutely no patience. I'd just throw myself at bosses while underlevelled over and over again rather than spend a bit of time levelling up/getting better gear etc before trying again.
Now that I've grown up a little, they feel faster and easier.
I’m not so sure. I know that I used to grind way more as a kid and still struggled more.
I think the big differences are: not using buffs (immensely important), healing too much, trying to use only the biggest attacks, focusing on the biggest bad on the enemy team,
Suikoden may have been different with all its characters and actually demanded some grinding?
Yeah this was just the original url where they announced it. I was puzzled with the route, but wanted to give the original authors the traffic. They did a Kickstarter off of it and their lead just died so they can use all the visibility they can get.
I loved Suikoden 1 & 2 as a kid. I had no idea it was considered such a great. I couldn't talk to anyone about it then. Final Fantasy 7 soon took over the landscape. I wonder if it still holds up.
It does! At least Suikoden 2, which I was never able to play as a kid (S1 was one of my favorites, but S2 was too hard to find). I played through it a few years back and it was great. I recommend trying them out.
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[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 90.2 ms ] threadThank you for the wonderful games, Murayama san. You made a lot of people happy.
It was always such a delight to get random notes from him in the updates. It'll definitely be sad to not get those anymore.
Modern ports and especially Emulation has helped knock down some of those artificial barriers and let people more honestly assess how good the games are.
For example: Panzer Dragoon Saga. I managed to play it on a Saturn emulator. Great game? Honestly, yes. Is it a $500 great game? Eh...
(In retrospect, the failure of the Saturn was really the last nail in the console of Sega's console business, and the Dreamcast just couldn't overcome that inertia.)
Or at least that's what Panzer Dragoon Saga represents to me anyway...
https://www.konami.com/games/genso/rem/1_2/us/en-us/
Buying on the secondary market does nothing to enrich the original creators, or even the corporation that owns the property.
Especially with games like this, where the only option is to download it, I don't see any ethical issues.
Rest in peace.
I wish there were more JRPGs that took such a maximalist approach to how many playable characters you get
US: https://u-mercari-images.mercdn.net/photos/m48962020641_1.jp...
Japanse: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/diQAAOSwtPddKcNl/s-l1200.jpg
I think by the end of it, our conclusions were:
Left Side: Barbarossa, Ted, Windy
Right Side: McDohl (maybe Luc?), Leknaat, Three headed skeleton demon because ???
Flying on the dragon I always assumed to be Futch, but who knows. If it's Luc in the corner, I guess it could be McDohl in the center, (he is the main character after all.)
It's in the same vein (but not quite as hilarious IMO) as what they did to Breath of Fire II's art.
JP: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/box/3/8/2/16382_front.jpg
ENG: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/box/3/8/3/16383_front.jpg
From blue-haired anime teenager to Frank Frazetta-style barbarian!
JP cover art: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boku_no_Natsuyasumi#/media/Fil...
Hypothetical NA cover art: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Flpj2mWXwAQY_dI.jpg
It's a miracle that the NA cover art for Ico came out so beautifully (EDIT: somehow I confused the beautiful Japan/European box art with the NA box art. The NA box art is horrible)
But then I looked. WOW. HILARIOUS!
For those not aware of Mega Man's box art, though... gaze upon this wonder
https://images.nintendolife.com/2281194a6f92c/na.large.jpg
https://cdn.wikimg.net/en/strategywiki/images/thumb/f/f0/Sui...
On the other hand revisiting turn based rpgs of my youth has generally found them insanely easy (just use buffs) so it could also just be that.
Now that I've grown up a little, they feel faster and easier.
I think the big differences are: not using buffs (immensely important), healing too much, trying to use only the biggest attacks, focusing on the biggest bad on the enemy team,
Suikoden may have been different with all its characters and actually demanded some grinding?