The future: What to keep, change, & bring back...

[EnigmaticThief]

My priorities for an ideal Suikoden would be:

-- Intuitive, Cinematic Camera-work

Suikoden has left sprites behind, so detailed 3D environments are a must. But, even moreso than that, I believe that Konami needs to recognize that you can have all the great rendering in the world, but it doesn't mean anything if you can't see it from the right angle. In Suikoden IV we were able to gain a unique perspective with the first-person view, but the environments were so drab that there wasn't anything to look at. In V, the localles were much more interesting, however the overhead camera was a big pain. Every time you talked to someone that began a story sequence the camera would pull back to its farthest perch, where you could barely see your characters, let alone their expressions. Their predecessor, Suikoden III, managed to pull off this ideal, with the camera pulling up close to let us really see the characters during story scenes. I suppose what I'm trying to say is, don't leave it to cut-scenes only, Konami.

-- Creative Recruiting

At this point, I think we can all say that simply walking up to someone and asking them to join your army has gotten a bit dull. Rather than sheer force of politeness, I'd like to see certain recruits be affected by your performance in-game. For example, say you're in a war battle in a siege-type situation. If you manage to hold out for a certain amount of turns without losing a unit, perhaps a character might come to your aid, impressed by your strategy. Lots of other factors like this could be used, depending on each character's personality.

-- Connectivity

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Suikoden thrives on connectivity, both in-game and amongst the series. Returning characters and localles give a sense of familiarity between games. In the individual titles, characters are most interesting when they have a partner or small group to act with, creating established relationships and the potential for new ones according to the game's storyline. V did a great job with this by giving the "nameless Hero"-type Prince an extended group of family and friends.

[Kirkis]

I like the idea for creative recruiting, and I seriously think there needs to be more side-quest recruiting, like Futch & Humphrey where you had to go through a dungeon and kill a boss, and same goes for Eresh, who had a dungeon filled with the hardest enemies in the game (Minus the very final dungeon).

As for cameras... a LOT of people complained about the Suikoden V camera... I would've preferred a camera that was between the middle & furthest out... some sort of midway point... but, yeah, zooming in for dialogue/scenes would've been good, but I don't think it obliterated the scenes & game like some people claim.

Also, connectivity rocks, however, there's something I actually learned from the Pokemon series, people become VERY dependant on certain characters, like, in Pokemon, almost EVERYONE would have a Gyrados, a Pikachu, and an Allakhazam, just because those were the 'best of the best', and they'd use them throughout all the original pokemon games. When Ruby & Sapphire came out, it was a "BAM! 80% of the old pokemon do not exist in this game!" and people had to use new pokemon and new strategies... so... what I'm saying, is that if somebody likes Viki or is familiar with her from a previous game, they're going to always use that character. So, I'm hopeing that whatever comes in future Suikodens is a lot like V. Only a very small handful of characters from previous games, so you don't get stuck in a niche and use the same characters all the time, even though you have tons of others at your disposal... which is also why I like the 'group' systems, when you have to spilt up into 2 or 3 parties worth of people, it forces you to have more than 5-6 favorite characters.

[sehk]

I really liked Suikoden III except for the graphics.. and slight bugs/ intentional balances (Pale Gate) I wish there were more war battles in the manner of Suikoden III. It doesn't feel epic in suikoden III but it took advantage of the 108.
It seems like a waste to have 108 characters if there would be no reason to use 54 of them.. (I discounted all the characters that offer services that aren't only battle based)
Maybe make the war battles bigger and with side objectives to make it feel more like a war instead of skirmishes.

I didn't like V's system of having two skills or one unique skill.. III' system of set skill slots gave each character more set variation. It basically came down to stats.. liked the entourage idea though

they should've left treasure bosses in.. it was fun to test out new characters and combinations on a target you know is worth fighting against..

yea, definitely more creative recruiting instead of the "ask and ye shall receive" method..

I think the rune system needs more balancing too.. I'm sure a lot of people haven't used a lot of the different runes and for good reason..

have character personality and runes spill over to other parts of the game. have holy dash S? run like hell on the adventure map..
equiping a fortune rune not only increases item drop in battle but in mini games too.. kinda like golden sun where you can use magic outside of battle


maybe even make duels into a fighting game instead of rock paper scissors.. and have runes play a part in it have a water rune attached before dueling- somehow charge up to level 2 bar and breath of ice your enemy..

got a lot of ideas.. yea

[Kirkis]

Hmm... I think the duels are fine the way they are, Suikoden has always been, and will always continue to go to it's RPS roots, it seems 99% of any of the battle systems, duel systems, and even mini-games operate off of a Rock, Paper, Scissors system.

[futanchen]

i just want more mini games in the future suikoden, ESPECIALLY Cooking contest, with more recipes, ingredients, and more visuals of the foods we make.
and i also want more developing stories and charcters connections from the previous suikodens.
and finally a bigger castle with more facilities in it.
Those will make a Bloody Freakin' Awesome Suikoden!!!

[EnigmaticThief]

I agree that the cooking section could use a revamp. It was a great idea back in III where food items eventually spoiled and became poisonous to consume. I don't know why they didn't carry that over.

[Pahn]

I think the 1 on 1 duels could benefit from foes not being PAINFULLY predictable. You can win duels in S5 without taking a single hit quite easily.

[soonket]

ALRIGHT ITS MY TURN !!

A storyline as good as suikoden II is needed badly.. haha

Where is the so cool magic animation and effect in suikoden III ?!? im dissapointed those in IV n V... These effects is wat i remember the most of suikoden III lol.. BRING THEM BACK !!

And make the game harder man... we need difficulties man.. no challenge LOL... i mean war n duels too.. not onli battles..

Mathias, i think the suikoden IV is so bad is mayb because they made it in a rush ?? haha mayb.. And it got its good points too.. their character model is the best in the series so far, for me that is...

Dun mind me if wat i suggest has already been stated by the others..

[hotspot]

how about a ball as a weapon? like wakka's from ffx exept like a handball this way it's different then wakka's.

more boomerang users there's only two.(4 if you count two other characters that have a weapon like a boomerang)

more unique weapons.

all of the true runes lesser forms in one suikoden.

[Majin]

My most urgent needs.

1.Less overpowered characters and rune system.

2.Harder bosses.

3.Keep the quality of plot (intrigue, politics etc).

4.PLEASE GIVE THE MAIN CHARACTER A PERSONALITY AND HIS OWN LINES.

5.PLEASE GIVE THE MAIN CHARACTER A BIGGER ROLE IN HIS ARMY THEN SIMPLY AS A RECRUITMENT OFFICER (specifically speaking, i would like to see the main character grow in terms of military strategy to rival the tactician thats going to appear in the game).

6.PLEASE STOP MAKING THE TACTICIAN THE ONLY ONE WHO KNOWS HOW TO DO THINGS, every suikoden i play, i feel its the tactician who truly is the hero, won the war, made everyone look stupid in comparison.

7.purple haired spunky ninja must be a staple of the series, we know who im talking about, Miakis.

[layleijecht]

I'd like to be able to embed runes in weapons again. I mean, there's all these silence and poison and sleep runes, but I hate wasting a precious rune slot on them. I liked being able to embed those kinds of runes in my weapons, so I could use a silence rune, and still be able to use "regular" runes on my characters.

[BlackKnightYuber]

I apologize in advance if there's already a thread devoted to this topic. I'd like to get everyone's thoughts on what they feel is good about the Suikoden games and should definitely not change, and likewise, what you feel needs some tweaking. Also, if there was something from past games that you liked that you'd like to see make a return, list that here as well. I'll likely edit this list as I think of a few more, but for now, my list is as follows...

Keep

- The six member party mechanics from Suikoden V, as well as the various formation changes.

- The duel system, also from Suikoden V. I like the time limit, and the fighting mechanics looked great.

- The entourage. Maybe even expand it. It was nice being able to take along more than 6 party members and being able to swap them out whenever I wanted.

Change

- The skills system. As I mentioned in a previous post, make it a hybrid of the best aspects of all of them. Customization is supposed to be fun, which is why I was so disappointed when Suikoden V limited it so much.

- War battles. I suppose the old rock/paper/scissors style had run its course, but I didn't care for war battles in Suikoden V. When that battlefield expanded and you had both land and water units to look after, it was way too easy to get slaughtered in real time. Either tweak it or blow it up.

- Random encounter frequency. Suikoden games, with the exception of III, has always had a high encounter rate. I feel it's time for that to change. Encounter rates don't have to be as infrequent as Suikoden III, but somewhere in between would be an improvement.

- Let me pick my final party. Don't shoehorn a handful of characters I may not want to use into it. I'm stuck with the Tenkai. Allow me to choose my remaining 5.

Bring back

- The ability to equip any rune you want on anyone you want. I hate how Suikoden has added rune affinities. For example, if someone has a high magic stat, I don't want to see that they're a level 4 in lightning, but just a 2 in fire. Affinities like this make party selection very limited.

- The training hall, from Suikoden IV. This was a nice little addition that allowed you to level up lower-powered characters rather quickly.

- A rotating camera. Either that or change the camera angle so that you can't get lost behind buildings like in Suikoden V.

- The lottery. I know, it's always been so random in all its incarnations. Still, I missed having it in Suikoden V. Fortunately it was very easy to make potch in that game.

- Subala's fishing mini-game, with or without Subala. As long as some character picks it up, I'll be happy. Damn, that thing was fun.

[JanusThePaladin]

I personally like magic afinities, as it makes it a requirement to put more thought into your party rather than just use whoever you want.

I dont doubt that the strategic battle system will change, as it has in every incarnation, i personally liked S2 and S4s the best, and i absolutely HATED S3s.

As for my own thoughts, i personally think that the skill system is very good how it is in S5, and would like for it to remain. Same goes for the tactics system implemented in random encounters in S5. I would personally like to see a return of non-talking animals! Besides that it would be nice to have another darkness rune. I would prefer it if they brought in a Dueling Minigame, as personally i always felt the duel was the most exciting and enjoyable part of the games.

If i think of more, i'll let you know...

[BlackKnightYuber]

Concerning rune affinities, I just don't see it that way. Let's say I'm defensive-minded, and I really want someone with an Earth Rune in my party to face a tough boss. But what if I don't like a single character in the game with a high Earth Magic stat? I'll be forced to use one of them anyway. That doesn't strike me as being very strategic. For me, it just kind of sucks the fun out of it. I respect your opinion, though.

As for the skills system in Suikoden V, I just thought it was a complete bore only being able to equip 2 at a time. And remember, some characters had a permanent skill that you couldn't swap out at all. You could argue that it, too, was also an issue of strategy. But again, I just feel that customization is supposed to be fun. When I can't see the full benefits of upgrading all those skills, I just think that's a cop-out.

[KFCrispy]

Concerning rune affinities, I just don't see it that way. Let's say I'm defensive-minded, and I really want someone with an Earth Rune in my party to face a tough boss. But what if I don't like a single character in the game with a high Earth Magic stat? I'll be forced to use one of them anyway. That doesn't strike me as being very strategic. For me, it just kind of sucks the fun out of it. I respect your opinion, though.

As for the skills system in Suikoden V, I just thought it was a complete bore only being able to equip 2 at a time. And remember, some characters had a permanent skill that you couldn't swap out at all. You could argue that it, too, was also an issue of strategy. But again, I just feel that customization is supposed to be fun. When I can't see the full benefits of upgrading all those skills, I just think that's a cop-out.

i agree with keeping elemental affinities. with 108 characters and usually more than half of them usable in battles, we need more ways to diversify characters. it also is more "realistic" in terms of the Suikoden world, because there is heavy emphasis on elemental affinities (see Rhapsodia) and it helps make runes also more special because you can't go FF7 style (Barrett spamming magic? No problem! still does 9999 dmg...) and just give everybody the same type of rune and expect the same kind of effectiveness.
however, perhaps they can make "average" affinities a little less penalized. someone with a C in something in Suikoden III would take more than a turn to cast a weak spell... that makes it completely unusable, and the damage dealt is also poor.
Here's what i propose for magic... many of these elements already exist in Suikoden games--
1. MAG controls your MP and also your cast time. MAG and Cast Time were correlated in Rhapsodia. That correlates MAG to "potential".
2. A basic Skill (Incantation) should be available that can boost your cast time. people with high MAG will also cast quickly and might not need it. characters with low MAG and low SPD should use this skill to get their spells off in a reasonable time. Natural talent comes from MAG while you can also improve upon your casting skills with Incantation.
3. Affinity controls your power output, affects more targets, or improves/adds effects. Affinity = Proficiency with an element. The better you are with an element, the more complicated or powerful your spell should become. Some people are born to be more compatible with certain elements, an idea that's been around since affinities started in Suikoden II, and further expanded upon in Rhapsodia. However, there should be plenty of equipment available that can boost affinities to fit the element you want.

so an Earth magic user that's not good with Earth but wants to use it can still cast a spell to get the basic effects, which might be all you want, and the casting speed isn't controlled by the natural affinity, it's determined by how much you trained Incantation and also how high your MAG stat already is. characters with higher affinities will cast a stronger version of the spell (remove negative status for all instead of just 1), or perhaps have a % chance to do so.



I definitely like Suikoden III's skills system, where characters gained skill slots and unique skills as they leveled up (actually i'm not sure if they gained empty skill slots). It should be more flexible, however... unique skills like Thief should be removable. They will be available for the character to equip but it's not nice to make it a permanent skill... it's not like Roy is obsessed with stealing money all day long..
Unique skills should be very powerful, though. The Thief skill should be one of your best ways of obtaining cash and/or maybe allow you to steal rare items, otherwise people will never use it. Something like Mow Down is a good example of a unique skill that you will want to have.


The runes need an overhaul. We discussed it to death in another thread.


Defend... make it useful. Defend should allow you to protect another character, like someone who needs to cast a spell. Or choose to just defend yourself if the character is low on HP, and possibly regain some HP if you defend yourself. In every game it's always been the command I used when testing things out.... sure it's good for testing stuff but it has no real purpose.


They need to implement a Coliseum (Suikoden I Saturn version had one -_-) and a challenging dungeon. They would be completely optional, of course.