Suikoden MegaThread!

[Wolf Kanno]

Since I mentioned I wanted to discuss the series more.

Favorite Entry:
Favorite MC:
Favorite Tactician:
Favorite True Rune:
Favorite Skill Rune:
Best Castle/Base:
Favorite Minigame:
Top Five Favorite Female Characters:
Top Five Favorite Male Characters:
Top Five Favorite Non-Humans:
Favorite Character with a crush on the MC:
Favorite Legacy Character (must appear in a minimum of three entries):
Favorite Temporary Party Member (Ex: Ted, Jowy, Lulu...):
Favorite Companion who almost never leaves your party:
Favorite Villain:
Favorite Duel:
Favorite Boss Battle:
Favorite War System:
Favorite Country:
Favorite Town:

[Bubba]

Congrats to all the winners

[Pumpkin]

Favorite Entry: II with V a close second
Favorite MC: Tir
Favorite Tactician: Lucretia
Favorite True Rune: Soul Eater
Favorite Skill Rune: The cool ones >.>
Best Castle/Base: SUIKODEN III!!!!!!!
Favorite Minigame: Probably the plays with the chef game in a close second
Top Five Favorite Female Characters: Viki, Kika, Miakis, Iku, Jillia
Top Five Favorite Male Characters: Tir, Luc, Riou, Hix, Viktor
Top Five Favorite Non-Humans: Gabocha, Dupa, Fubar, Gadget Z, Black
Favorite Character with a crush on the MC: Faylen
Favorite Legacy Character (must appear in a minimum of three entries): Luc
Favorite Temporary Party Member (Ex: Ted, Jowy, Lulu...): Ted
Favorite Companion who almost never leaves your party: Lyon
Favorite Villain: L... Masked Bishop
Favorite Duel: meh
Favorite Boss Battle: meeeeehhh
Favorite War System: III
Favorite Country: Harmonia
Favorite Town: Sol-Falena
[/QUOTE]

[Fynn]

Wait, there's a character called Dupa in these games?

That's the word for ass in Polish. and not the donkey kind.

[Wolf Kanno]

Wait, there's a character called Dupa in these games?

That's the word for ass in Polish. and not the donkey kind.

Not sure if that is what they are going for but yes, Dupa is a character. A seven feet tall Lizard Man and Chief of his Clan.

[Fynn]

Holy crap that is hilarious

[Raistlin]

Favorite Entry: II
Favorite MC: Geddoe, with Tir and Riou tied for second
Favorite Tactician: I think I have to say Shu, but Elenor Silverberg (partly due to the hilarity she causes in The High Seas journal) and Lucretia (total lesbian) are also great.
Favorite True Rune: Soul Eater
Favorite Skill Rune: I assume you're referring to things like command runes, that add an ability? Active ability: the Falcon rune is a cool mainstay of the series. Passive ability: Fury runes are utter devastation for every game that's not S5.
Best Castle/Base: II
Favorite Minigame: Tie between SIII's theater and that goddamn cooking game
Top Five Favorite Female Characters: Viki, Kika, Chris, Sierra, and... I'll say Miakis to give S5 some representation (honorable mention: Lorelai)
Top Five Favorite Male Characters: Jowy, Geddoe, Ted, Flik, Viktor
Top Five Favorite Non-Humans: Ridley, Fubar, Black, Sierra, Star Dragon Sword
Favorite Character with a crush on the MC: Kasumi
Favorite Legacy Character (must appear in a minimum of three entries): Luc (honorable mention: Star Dragon Sword)
Favorite Temporary Party Member (Ex: Ted, Jowy, Lulu...): Jowy
Favorite Companion who almost never leaves your party: Lyon
Favorite Villain: J... Luca Blight's successor (followed closely by Luca)
Favorite Duel: eh, most of the duels from S1-4 weren't that interesting, so I guess a duel from S5. Maybe Childerich?
Favorite Boss Battle: Luca Blight, hands down. One of the best JRPG boss battles.
Favorite War System: S3, followed by S5
Favorite Country: Toran
Favorite Town: Muse (Sol-Falena gets nudged out due to S5's load times)

[CimminyCricket]

I have never played a single Suikoden game. I owned IV at some point for the PS2, though.

[Wolf Kanno]

Favorite Entry: Suikoden I&II
Favorite MC: Tir McDohl followed by Geddoe and Chris
Favorite Tactician: She, followed by Elenor Silverburg and Mathiu Silverburg
Favorite True Rune: Soul Eater
Favorite Skill Rune: Falcon Rune and the Werewolf Rune in SII
Best Castle/Base: Suikoden II and III
Favorite Minigame: Iron Chef, Plays, and rITAPON
Top Five Favorite Female Characters: Viki, Kasumi, Valerie, Sierra, and Cathari
Top Five Favorite Male Characters: Georg Prime, Viktor, Flik, Reinbach III, Nash
Top Five Favorite Non-Humans: Sgt. Joe, Unicorn, Star Dragon Sword, Chiepoo, and Bright
Favorite Character with a crush on the MC: Kasumi
Favorite Legacy Character (must appear in a minimum of three entries): Viki
Favorite Temporary Party Member (Ex: Ted, Jowy, Lulu...): Ted and Jowy
Favorite Companion who almost never leaves your party: Nanami or Geddoe's crew.
Favorite Villain: Luca Blight
Favorite Duel: Teo McDohl, either of them.
Favorite Boss Battle: Luca Blight
Favorite War System: Suikoden V
Favorite Country: Toran/Scarlet Moon Empire
Favorite Town: Iksay Village

[Raistlin]

How did I completely not even think of Viki for Legacy Character? She's an obvious favorite.

Speaking of obvious favorites, "Favorite True Rune" might need to be "Second-Favorite True Rune" in order to get any variety. Mine would probably be the Black Sword Rune.

I love the Star Dragon Sword, but I hate his goddamn dungeon and I especially hate having to do it all over again to get Pesmerga (see also: Tinto mines).

Also, Sierra and Nash are both great. If you haven't already, in S3 I highly recommend casting Nash in Sierra's role in the Neclord script.

I have never played a single Suikoden game. I owned IV at some point for the PS2, though.

That sounds like something you need to fix.

[Wolf Kanno]

Yeah Viki was the first character to come to mind when I thought of the question besides Jeane.

[CimminyCricket]

I have never played a single Suikoden game. I owned IV at some point for the PS2, though.

That sounds like something you need to fix.

Well I googled it to see what the game play was like and come to find out I also owned Suikoden Tierkreis for the DS. I've owned two games, but have no idea what the game is like.

[Wolf Kanno]

Combat and gameplay is mostly standard RPG turn based affair while exploring world maps and fighting random encounters in dungeons and on the field. Characters equip between one to three Runes to utilize magic, skills, or support abilities. Magic runes have four spells a piece and use D&D style casting charges instead of standard MP. Skill Runes can be used indefintely but can sometimes cause the character to lose a turn to charge or recover an ability. Support runes have no issues. Parties mostly use six people with the exception of IV and possibly Tiekeris, which use standard four.

There are two unique battle types in the series: Duels and War battles.

Duels are one on one affairs that play rock/paper/scissor style combat where you choose attack, defend, or special based on your opponents dialogue. In a fun subversion of these types of alternate combat syles, your characters levels and equipment actually do determine damage algorithms.

War Battles vary from entry to entry:

Suikoden - Rock/Paper/Scissor mechanic with Calvary/Troops, versus Mages versus Archers. You can also utilize special troops like Ninjas to learn what your opponets next move is for a guaranteed win, Merchants to bribe the enemy on your side, or Dragon Knights to bombard the field with fire. Each army has a set amount of troops and when one side loses all of them the other team wins.

Suikoden II - Turn Based Strategy, Unit type is determined by the character assigned as leader but still follows the lineup from above. You can assign up to three characters per unit which will add to the units stats or give them unique skills like Critical or Evade. You can also cast rune spells to heal units or soften the enemy units up.

Suikoden III - Turn Based Strategy with units built up by allies, but unlike SII, battles are played as as normal battles, but with the A.I. doing most of the heavy lifting. Since the battles do utilize your characters, their levels, gear, and set-ups do matter.

Suikoden IV - Turn Based ship battles where you either exploited elemental weaknesses with Rune Cannons or boarded the ship with party members.

Suikoden V - Real Time Strategy battles with a similar setup as Suikoden II but with the addition of ship battles.

I don't know if the DS or PSP games retain either of these features.

Another feature of the series is castle building. There are 108 characters (sometimes more) to collect in each game and they will bring in new features to the castle like shops or minigames. The real challenge of the series is actually trying to collect the 108 party members as you sometimes have to undertake quests or fulfill certain requirements before the characters will give you the time of day.

[CimminyCricket]

I remember reading about 108 characters way back when and thought it was cool.

Here's a follow on question - is it like Fire Emblem where when they die I'm out of luck?

Also, should I play them in release order, or in order of timeline?

[Wolf Kanno]

I remember reading about 108 characters way back when and thought it was cool.

Here's a follow on question - is it like Fire Emblem where when they die I'm out of luck?

Also, should I play them in release order, or in order of timeline?

Yes and no about perma-death. Characters can die in major battles if you screw up or the RNG just really hates you, but it becomes increasingly rare as the series goes on. You are more likely to lose a character through poor choices within the story. For instance, you can execute a few of them instead of forgiving them if they were former enemies, making a poor choice in battle can sometimes send a character into a suicide mission, etc... It's more common in the first two and final entry than III and IV. There are also some characters who do die in the plot regardless of what you do, but the game makes it obvious that there is nothing you can do about it.

The lone exception to all of this is Suikoden Tactics, a spin-off entry connected to Suikoden IV. It does actually have perma-death for the recruitable characters, but in an really bad case of hindsight, the game also gives you plenty of story characters who don't have this issue and can never die, making the whole issue kind of moot.

I would honestly play them in release order first and then chronologically. Technically the first three entries are in chronological order, it's not until the last two entries that the series goes into prequel mode. Even then the major references may be lost on you if you don't have knowledge of some of the other games. To be fair, while the games are interconnected politically and geographically, all of the stories are fairly self-contained. More importantly, it's more interesting to watch the game mechanics evolve in order as oppose to starting with the later entries and then getting plunged back into the earlier games mechanics. Even with the balancing issues the game has, I feel it would be jarring to go from SV's real in-depth battle system to S1's bare bones mechanics, and S2's less refined version of SVs.

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More Questions!

• Who was your final team in each entry?
• Who do you consider to be the hardest character to recruit?
• Did you ever complete Clive's Quest in SII?
• Favorite Scenario in SIII?
• Which game had the best overall cast?
• Favorite Unite Ability from each game?
• Who has the better version of Soul Eater, Ted or McDohl?
• Which is your favorite of the Five Elemental True Runes?
• Which optional set of characters were your favorite to collect? (Flying Squirrels, Dogs, Mermaids, DoReMi Elves)
• What do you believe is Jeane's true form?
• What do you think is the relationship between Yuber and Pesmerga?
• Is Nash a vampire or just has really good genes?
• Do you believe the Beast Rune may have been affecting Luca Blight?
• Is the leader of Harmonia still around?
• What is up with Viki?
• Which is the more cursed Rune, the Soul Eater or Rune of Punishment?
• Did you ever wish you coudl use the Rune of Beginnings or Sun Rune?
• What do you think is Leknaat's Ultimate Goal in the series?