Konami and their poor handling of the series.

[Quing]

I'm going to disagree. There is very little that was "left out" of the Suikoden games, and the older graphics are just fine, thank you. Indeed, I think that they should return to the graphics of Suikoden II. Furthermore, if they were to remake the games, that would cause problems with the question of what is canon, as well as directing the effort away from making new games. No need to remake games when the originals are already tres bisque. While the Suikoden team could use a bigger budget, I would rather see them use it to make new games, or even to release more copies of the old ones without changing anything.

[Zhuge Liang]

I think they're pretty much good in handling the series to local Japanese fans. They published action-figures, calendars, comics, novels, artbooks, official gameguides, soundtracks, magazines that contains news and facts about Suikoden world, even a dictionary. They updated the official sites regularly. These treatments, however, will never reach the international fans of the series. I think Konami only thought the international fans more as consumer for the game software only. IMO, they don't really intend to popularize the series as franchise out of their Japanese market as shown that the official site doesn't even have English language option.

I agree that somehow Konami more concentrated to enlarge their franchise for some games like Metal Gear Solid and Winning Eleven. Those two games has generated big numbers of revenue to the company compare to others, I'd say. While derivatives of those games would still sell well in the market, Suikoden's side games like GBA Suikoden Card Game and Suikogaidens, however, would be costly to produce and not guarantee to make good sales from it.

[KC_MCDOHL]

I don't think Konamis' handling of the series is neccesarily 'bad', especialy not in Japan atleast. But I think they could do so much more for us here in the West, and should.

The seires itself is not in such a bad state since SIII as it seems, its simply the long interval between each game which amplifies any concerns or questions we have of this series. But this is mainly down to the time it takes to produce a game so we cant really complain. With that said, however, I think Konami definantly has some work to do in not only reviving the series itself but in reviving the fans (both inside and outside of Japan) faith in the series.

Especialy in the West, where we are always crying out for more Suikoden media but litelary getting next to nothing. Over the course of 15 years, this really sucks. Konami should definantly be making more of an effort to build bridges with us, imo.

[EstrangedIX]

I don't think they've done all they could have, but it could be worse. Their biggest mistake so far would probably be ignoring Europe with SIII. Other than that, they just don't seem to have the best marketing strategies. Maybe it's budget issues, but spending a little more on advertising could go a long way. I would've bought the SIII books when they were actually in the stores had I known they existed.

Also, giving the west little things for us to chew on between games would help give the series some exposure to potential new fans and give the old fans a reason to keep the faith. Personally, I don't have the potch to drop on soundtrack sets, but if I saw something simple and stupid like the minigames as apps on the android market I'd snatch those up in a heartbeat.

And for the record, I would also buy plushies

[Vextor]

The problem and frustration I feel with Konami is how they do not engage fans. They're missing out on a goldmine of free PR and positive feedback by having this seemingly inpenetrable wall between fans and development.

As a result, you have very few fan sites even in Japan. A lot of fans in Japan end up keeping their sites low-key in fear of being sued by Konami. If Konami allowed the use of official art at not-for-profit fansites, they'd have had larger success as Fumi Ishikawa's art tends to sell itself. Instead we have bunch of fan-generated sub-standard BL, yaoi etc which unfortunately defines Suikoden in Japan (a game intended for "fujoshi").

[Oppenheimer]

This is in comparison to what they could be doing, Capcom is actually working very closely with their fans on designing Mega Man Legends 3. They had a contest to choose from a selection of designs for their female heroine, and now they're also doing the same with some mechs now: http://www.extraguy.com/2010/11/mega-ma ... nnes-mech/
It would be so nice if more companies were like this.

[EstrangedIX]

More interaction would be awesome. Kinda seems like the facebook activity is their way of taking baby steps in that direction. I don't think that's enough, though.

[KC_MCDOHL]

Yea totaly. Thats exactly what I think Suikoden is missing and is what I am trying to establish with Konami. I am trying to make them see that engaging with the Suikoden fans will not only benefit the fans, but can benefit Konami also

[EstrangedIX]

This topic has got me to thinking about something. I wonder what the reality behind "canon stifling creativity" really is, since that tends to be given as an excuse when a series dies out or undergoes a drastic change. It seems to me that the creative teams responsible for series installations (not just Suikoden) should actually benefit from such a rich collection of information. Tropes like different worlds or alternate realities appear to be due more to business expectations and demands rather than limitations of pre established characters and scenarios. It would be better for both the artists and consumers if there were more interaction allowed between them. That way continuity wouldn't be such an obstacle, if it really is in the first place. If Konami would see it this way they would have a nice boost in customer loyalty. Their handling of the fandom is something that puts people off from wanting to support them, hurting both fans and the company.

[AlOnZo]

Konami basically pushed the series aside for Metal Gear, PES and so on... Their advertising for the games was extremely poor and it came down to word of mouth pretty much.

Once the PS2 came out it began gaining momentum with the introduction of the improved 3D graphics then the poorly written Suikoden IV (top selling title to date as well) halted that momentum with its thin plot and emotionless Hero hence Suikoden V didn't sell as well.

If Konami had better advertising of the games then they would have faired not too bad in sales around the globe I reckon.

Suikoden IV had so much potential as well. !

[Night Shadow]

i think overall, konami has handled the series pretty well.

only problem is, as alonzo stated, they dont know how to advertise it very well. they had a pretty good marketing scheme with tierkreis, and for a lot of new timers, it was a pretty good game. if they only applied that with the main series, then we would be getting a much bigger fan base. looking at konamis facebook though, it seems we already do have one. if konami just decided to market the series a bit more (merchandise, etc) i think wed see much more support.

and yes, estranged, i agree. i just sent an email to konami, once again, as a petition for a 6th game. i also asked for a more interactive system between the fans and creators. they have replied in the past, so i hope they do again this time.

and they probably did the "shift" to gain a bigger following. most of us have played all the suikoden games and know pretty much everything about the timeline, characters, history, etc...by introducing a new suikoden and not adding that "6", new players didnt feel "threatened" to buy the whole series, and could at least start from scratch...its a lot easier to follow something if you follow it from the start.

[veriaqa]

I read the other day about gaming industry in general. Basically it says that nowadays the most profitable game is the simpler and cheaps mobiles one (dollar game on iPhone etc). One developer said that nowadays its almost senseless to make a big budget game for console when you can make a cheap mobile game and earn more profit. The developer talks about games like FF, MGS etc. Now how about Suikoden 6 chances to be released on PS3 or even be released at all?

[DoReMi_Vampire]

I don't really know much about how much money the game-industry gets from big-budget games. But if mobile games really are more profitable then Konami could easily release a game based on one of the mini-games in Suikoden. Such games wouldn't have to add much, if anything at all, to the story of the series. And they wouldn't even need to market it as something that's part of a series, yet it still would be better than nothing.

[EstrangedIX]

Games like Ritapon and Chinchirorin would work well on mobile, but I'm not sure about plays or cooking.

[Antimatzist]

I don't really know much about how much money the game-industry gets from big-budget games. But if mobile games really are more profitable then Konami could easily release a game based on one of the mini-games in Suikoden. Such games wouldn't have to add much, if anything at all, to the story of the series. And they wouldn't even need to market it as something that's part of a series, yet it still would be better than nothing.

Capcom does that with Breath of Fire IV. Up until now, there are 3 mobile games based on mini-games I think.