Cheater.

Though I'm vindicated in my prediction that S1 was by itself not top-10 material. 60s sounds fair. Yes, SII is largely a continuation of SI and not just story-wise; SII took everything SI did, but did it better. It's a great example of a development team learning from and building on its prior efforts. But it's also an entirely separate game (I actually played it first, randomly finding it for next-to-nothing at a Gamestop in the late '90s before it became a cult hit).

SII remains my favorite overall game. It's a wonderful story and amazing characters. You have the intricate story of power between nations and backstabbing politicians, but also the more personal story of the endearing relationship between Riou-Namami-Jowy (and Pilika). I love how the True Rune supernatural stuff is basically just used to create a little mystical aura and air of mystery over events, but the focus remains entirely on the actual people. It's not about saving the world, but about saving your home and loved ones. The music doesn't have any of the powerful individual scores of some of the top FF titles, but each song seems to fit the environment perfectly and helps draw you in. Sure, it's on the easy side (though Luca Blight is very imposing on a first playthrough), but if you play JRPGs primarily for the storytelling, then SII needs to be near of the top of your list.

Quote Originally Posted by WK
...my only gripe nowadays is finding people to really talk to about the series. I work on the series Wiki but it's not really the same as a forum experience sadly. So I guess what I'm saying is that I need more of you to bite the bullet and pick up the series.
I'm pretty sure I can talk (and have talked) about Suikoden enough for multiple people.

I've had the urge for a little while to do a new playthrough, but starting chronologically from SIV. If I end up doing that, I'll start a new thread for each game that I'm playing.