Plotting plot

[LGM]

I guess this is where I should post this question:

'How far do you think Konami plans the plot for Suikoden in advance? Do you think there is an actual goal the creators are working to, or are they influenced game by game?

And do you think they include certain characters in some games late on to set them up for a big story in the next (e.g Clive), or is it just what characters (or lands for that matter) become popular with the fans?'

Because if its an organic storyline, chances are the makers are as much in the dark about Runes, Windy, Yuber, and Hikusaak as we are.

[Sol Fury]

I think there must be some sort of plotline bible to lay out the basics of the world and the key plotpoints to make everything fit in, but yes, it is an organic entity, so things can be amended later on. I think the makers are a little less in the dark about some things because of this, because they know where they need to end up at.

[Harukaze]

Except that the creator has left, thus I'd say as far as the -original- direction the story was going, the authors now are as much in the dark as we are. So who knows where it'll go next.

[Red Killey]

Original creator (Murayama) leaving Konami wouldn't leave the other staffs in the dark at all. Despite being the writer, in the end they still worked together as a team. So the team must've known the basic guidelines as well. It's just that we now wouldn't know how true they would stick to the guidelines (if there was ever one in the first place).

My personal opinion to the original question is that Konami had the goal (meaning how they wanted to end the series), but the story in-between the beginning and the end is totally empty. So they create a story for the games when they wanted to make the games, while leaving the end of the series as the only one that they sort of had in mind already.