Ted and Souleater's change

[QueensKnight12]

I just started playing suikoden IV for the 1st time and, just got Ted! Yay! My question, is why did Suikoden IV creaters change the graphics and abilities of Souleater so much. Deadly fingertips and Hell seem so much weaker. I wanted instant death not healing. The judgement attack is still just as strong, but no demon death angel or firey backgrounds..sigh...just a big black ball..i mean come on. In Suikoden II, black shadow dealt 500 and now its back down to 300. oh well, i guess i am just venting more than anything.

[RangerDeon]

In my opinion: Every rune's animation was taken down a couple of notches in SIV.
They were incredibly generic.

[suiko2fan2]

Yeah the attacks were pretty generic, but i do agree with Queen that they shouldn't have gotten ride of the instant death for souleater.

[Blutiger Engel]

My guess is that they toned down the Soul Eater so that it wouldn't compare to Tir's, as he was the hero and all. Sure, it's the same rune, but they probably didn't want Tir to be overshadowed by an optional character in a later game.

[King Krimson]

My guess is that it's spells differ depending on the will/soul of the bearer and of the souls it absorbed?

[suiko2fan2]

My guess is that it's spells differ depending on the will/soul of the bearer and of the souls it absorbed?

no because ted does use hell on the queen ant in one, in the same way tir's did.

I agree about overshadowing, but i'm thinking about they didn't want it to out perform Lazlo's rune. i mean let face it lv3 "voice of death" and tir's lv1 "deadly fingertips" are the same. So if they tone down the Souleater it wouldn't out shine the ROP so much..if that all makes sense.

[eldrasidar]

i think it's stronger than lazlo's rune of punishment, but that's just natural given that Ted is substantially better mage to begin with, and seems to have better affinity for his rune than Lazlo, which means that although lazlo's spells are better on paper, Ted's tend to be more effective in reality.

as for the soul eater being weaker than it was in 1 or 2, one should keep in mind that almost every rune has gotten weaker through the series, but this is just a natural progress of fine tuning and balancing the game. the only really big loss for the soul eater rune was hell, which let's face it, wouldn't be all that useful in suikoden 4, since most opponents can be beaten in one round anyway, and for the most of those rare opponents which can't, they'd more than likely be immune to instant death anyway. another thing to keep in mind is that true runes, and probably most other runes can actually cast far more than the 4 spells you have access to in any game, however the caster either only knows how to use up to 4 spells, or has chosen to only use 4 spells for the duration of that game, most likely their favorite 4 at the time, or what seems to be the most useful spells they can channel through that rune.

[patapi]

The spells that come with runes change with nearly every game in some way, while generally kept to a central theme unique to individual runes. Just look up and check out how the basic Water Rune gets revised throughout the six games, for example.

Rune of Punishment was a novel concept in Suikoden IV, but to me it didn't really shine until you get full command of the Forgiveness phase in Suikoden Tactics. It literally broke that game; on paper or not.

[suiko2fan2]

The spells that come with runes change with nearly every game in some way, while generally kept to a central theme unique to individual runes. Just look up and check out how the basic Water Rune gets revised throughout the six games, for example.

Rune of Punishment was a novel concept in Suikoden IV, but to me it didn't really shine until you get full command of the Forgiveness phase in Suikoden Tactics. It literally broke that game; on paper or not.

I agree about the ROP in tactics it seemed to be "upgraded" by contrast the Souleater in SIV got "downgraded" given how each of the 2 games systems are designed!

[Antimatzist]

1. I don't think you can explain every gameplay mechanic by real background information. You could also say that the enemies in the Island Nations are much stronger than the ones in Duran/Toran and that's why some runes do less damage.
2. I never thpught the ROP was useful in IV, it is a really, really bad rune. I mean why should I do damage to myself? And the Lvl4 Spell is a joke too... Lazlo is better of with a Fire-rune (I mean the upgraded version)

[QueensKnight12]

1. I don't think you can explain every gameplay mechanic by real background information. You could also say that the enemies in the Island Nations are much stronger than the ones in Duran/Toran and that's why some runes do less damage.
2. I never thpught the ROP was useful in IV, it is a really, really bad rune. I mean why should I do damage to myself? And the Lvl4 Spell is a joke too... Lazlo is better of with a Fire-rune (I mean the upgraded version)

The gamemakers could justify the change of the souleater's power by saying that in 300, the souleater hadn't gained the strength it at the start of Suikoden 1. Meaning that in that interm of 150 years ted's rune harvested more souls and thus grew power, which could explain the difference in power. Furthermore, in the 3 years between suikoden 1 and 2, it could make sense that Tir's mastery of the rune and any stray souls that souleater could have picked up along the way, would explain why the attacks strength of "black shadow" grew from 3 to 5 hundred.