Suikoden

RETRO NEWS

This week’s retro news brings some welcome returns alongside some not so welcome price increases.

Lufia and Lufia II are finally escaping the SNES, with both classic RPGs heading to modern platforms in a new collection next year. Evercade’s December lineup may have also leaked early, pointing to new collections featuring The Last Ninja, International Karate and James Pond.

Meanwhile, Polymega fans might want to check their wallets, as rising component and manufacturing costs are pushing the Base Unit to $599, with several other pieces of hardware getting price increases in October.

PRESS START

An Introduction To Today’s Game

Suikoden.

One of my favorite games ever.

I’m always amazed to find how many people have never played this series, especially when I worked at Blizzard which had so many gamers.

But even then, you’ll see the sequel, Suikoden II, near the top of my all time favorite RPG lists. While I plan to cover that one in the future, I had to start with the original.

There was something magical about exploring its world and tracking down all 108 characters, never knowing who might join your cause next.

Watching your castle slowly grow as more characters moved in made every new recruit feel meaningful. Add in an engaging story of rebellion, massive battles, and friendships forged along the way, and Suikoden became more than just another RPG for me.

Somewhere between a war epic and a friendship story, Suikoden snuck onto the original PlayStation in 1995 and quietly rewrote what a role playing game could feel like.

It became one of those games I’ll never forget.

BEHIND THE PIXELS

Let’s Dive Into The Game

Picture a political thriller wrapped inside a classic Japanese role playing game, and you're close to what Suikoden actually is.

You play as the unnamed son of a respected imperial general, thrown into a magic rune he did not choose and a rebellion he did not start.

The genre is turn based RPG through and through, with random encounters, a party system, and a world map to wander.

The tone leans more serious here than playful, since this is a story about corrupt empires and the ordinary people caught underneath them. It stands out a bit from the usual group of kids fighting a god which seemed like the go to story for RPGs at the time.

What helps tell the story are the characters and the core group you start with. Depending on your choices, betrayals and even death could happen.

That said, the game does have one running joke among fans, its infamous 108 recruitable characters, some of whom join for reasons so minor it borders on comedy.

Tracking all of them down turns into its own strange sidequest. But this is one of the highlights of the game and one of its most memorable aspects.

Mechanically, Suikoden mixes standard dungeon crawling and turn based battles with something more unusual for its time, large scale war battles and even one on one duels that play out like a simplified strategy game.

Having 3 different battle systems is pretty cool. Switching from a massive battle with hundreds of soldiers to a cinematic one on one duel really helps the story.

The castle is one of the game’s best mechanics.

Early in the game, you earn your own castle, which serves as your headquarters. At first, there’s not much too it. But as you earn and recruit new characters, the castle slowly grows since every new recruit tends to add a shop, a room, or a small conversation to your home base. It is a light management layer, but it works.

The point of it all is simple, gather the 108 Stars of Destiny, grow your rebellion, and challenge an empire that has forgotten its own people.

Having so many characters to use, it’s fun to experiment and try different party combinations. You can have up to 6 party members and many characters can use team up attacks with specific party members. Finding and learning those attacks adds to the fun factor.

Graphically, Suikoden leans on beautiful sprite backgrounds and two dimensional sprites, which still hold up with real charm today even if the character portraits themselves look a bit muddy by modern standards.

The soundtrack carries a strong Chinese and East Asian influence throughout, fitting for a story loosely inspired by the classic novel Water Margin. It is not a flashy game, but it never really needed to be.

What would you delegate if you had a whole team?

With Skydive, you can build a team of AI agents to take work off your plate.

Create agents for customer support, sales, marketing, engineering, ops, and more. Give each one a role, connect the tools they need, and hand off the work.

Your agents can work on their own or together, sharing context and handing off tasks to get bigger jobs done.

Start with one agent. Build a whole team around you.

Make your first agent

GAME INFORMATION

WHERE TO PLAY

• The original copy can be found on PSN.

• Suikoden I & II HD Remaster.

• Original Copies of the Game (All prices in USD)

  • Loose: $25

  • Complete: $50

  • New/Sealed: $190

COVER ART

Analytics on Live Data Without Leaving Postgres

When analytics on Postgres slows down, most teams add a second database. Then they manage pipelines, sync lag, and drift forever. TimescaleDB extends Postgres instead. Analytics run on live data, in the database you already have. No pipeline. No migration. No new query language.

Get $1000 Credit

GAME OVER

Why You Should Play This

So is Suikoden worth playing today? 100% yes. The Suikoden I and II HD Remaster is out now on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and Steam, and it cleans up the visuals and adds real quality of life touches like faster battles, without touching the heart of what made the original special.

If remasters aren't your thing, the original PS1 release still holds up remarkably well thanks to its art style, the character collecting mechanics and it is short enough that a busy adult can actually finish it in about 20 hours.

One really cool factor is how the sequel takes place 3 years after the original. Many characters you met in the original, will join the adventure for part 2. It takes everything you love about the original and elevates it even further and if you happen to collect all 108 characters in the original, you can use your save for the sequel and import the main hero of the original. This was unheard of at the time and it blew our minds!

The series would spawn five numbered titles and a couple of spin offs but has remained largely dormant for years. Thankfully Konami is now working on a new version which is one of my most anticipated games.

For anyone who has ever wondered where the modern trend of army building RPGs got its start, this is a strong place to look. Suikoden earned its cult classic reputation the honest way, one recruit, one castle upgrade, and one small rebellion at a time. It is an all time great and the first two games must be played!

SUPPORT

This is a passion project made with love, and every open or read means the world.
If you’d like to show extra support, you can use the button below.

RETRO HARDWARE

The Miyoo Flip V2 is a tiny clamshell retro handheld that lets you carry a whole library of classic games in your pocket. With a bright screen, solid controls, and the nostalgic flip design we all remember, it’s perfect for quick gaming sessions anywhere. Click the picture to check it out. My readers can use the following code for a 12% discount: NY12