Osamu Komuta as the man behind new direction

[KC_MCDOHL]

Yeah, I 100% agree with you there.


If we really want to make a stand against Osamu then I suggest we dont spam his personal accounts. Instead, we could make a thread on here full of our comments about ''why Teirkries was the wrong direction for Suikoden!'' and ''Why Konami must continue Suikoden in the MAIN world'' ...that sort of thing. Then I can outline our concerns in a short paragraph and then send him a link to the thread?

[Xelinis]

Are either of you aware of Sakiyama's stance on the matter?

[KC_MCDOHL]

No, I have not spoke to Mr. Sakiyama about anything since the announcement. I am awaiting a translation of an email, to him, though, which may give him room to elaborate on his opinion of this current game (and, therefore, the direction of Suikoden as a whole). But that may just be wishfull thinking.


Most of what Mr. Sakiyama has said to me is that Suikoden is an important franchise, even for Konami, so we should not give up on it (in other words, the series is not over yet) and that he would love to expand the stories and themes of the Suikoden V era.

[tiki]

n the blog of Osamu Komuta he explained how he thought Suikoden needed to steer away from the "old story."

I see

well, Mr. Komuta, it has been a pleasure meeting with you and getting to know you, but given your views it seems you just aren't fit for the job

now get the **** out and go ruin another story

In his entry, he mentions how there was significant resistance within Konami to shift focus away from the established storyline

hahaha oh my god

Konami were the ones who didn't want him to piss all over the original story by making his own world and he did it anyways

I knew it all along, this guy didn't want to make a Suikoden game, he wanted to make his own special world with his own special rules and his own special characters and if he had to steal another franchise's name to do it, so be it

I need two things

a good English to Japanese translator and his email address

or you can just tell me what 'talentless hack' translates to in Japanese

Doesn't the world of "Genso Suikoden" have greater possibilities?
Aren't there things we are held back from doing because of all the history that exists?

;___; it's not fair guys, I wanna do what I wanna do and you're holding my super special vision back GOSH

seriously though if he felt constricted making someone else's game and Konami wanted him to work in the existing world, he should have left and let them find someone who was up to the task

[Rooks]

Yeah, I only read the Sakiyama emails in his broken (but quite adorable) English. He mentions warm receptions of the games, and cold receptions as well, meaning Tierkreis I think.

Sakiyama said he worked on some Educational Games for kids after Tierkreis.

*Edit*

Nevermind.

Also, Tiki, don't hate him for wanting to make his own RPG. I can kinda understand that, even if it did produce Tierkreis.

[KC_MCDOHL]

All his emails he wrote in Japanese and English. Quite the dedicated man, is Takahiro Sakiyama ^^

[tiki]

Also, Tiki, don't hate him for wanting to make his own RPG. I can kinda understand that, even if it did produce Tierkreis.

I had always hoped that it was Konami who ruined the franchise and that the man appointed to direct Suikoden was just an unwitting pawn put in place to abide by their wishes

he openly admits that, no, Konami hired him to continue the story but he wanted to make his own game, even facing resistance in Konami for wanting to do so

he is the reason we got Tierkreis when Konami seemed to want a game that took place in the main universe

he robbed us of a proper Suikoden game

he is hurting the series and he needs to go away

[Vextor]

If you wish to reach him, one way is through his twitter account "comtang"
At least, it seems like one way to express your feelings and I certainly don't have the right to stop that.

Also, don't forget Konami's official twitter account for the new game, genso573

[JiggleBiscuits]

I went through reading blogs of developers involved in Tierkreis, and in the blog of Osamu Komuta he explained how he thought Suikoden needed to steer away from the "old story."

In his entry, he mentions how there was significant resistance within Konami to shift focus away from the established storyline, especially when continuity was what made Suikoden distinctive from the rest. However, after much thought he came to the conlcusion that change was necessary, and decided going through with the new direction we saw in Tierkreis.

Despite whatever disagreement may exist within fans, I think there's a general consensus that everyone wants to see the story continue, instead of having new directors and producers come in to paint the world their own colors (which is often what creative people want to do).

It seems quite clear that Komuta was the main voice behind the new direction, so naturally it would be best to focus our united voice towards him (if possible). If the fans all agree that one of the main reasons we like the series is because of the continuity, then he needs to be clearly shown that fact-- otherwise he may continue to go on the current tangent.

The man needs to be fired. Immediately. No other option is acceptable.

[Exophase]

A friend told me that in Japan directing two games at once is uncommon. Here's an example from Konami, that while indicating it does happen also highlights how unusual it is:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/24/kojim ... taneously/

If anyone has anything else to add please feel free, but right now I'm going to consider it more likely that Komuta isn't directing the new PSP game than is, which certainly seems like good news.

[Rooks]

Wow, that's pretty hardcore. Well, Kojima has the funding he needs to do what he wants too, no doubt he has some good assistants to help too. So, I think it is safe to assume that Komuta has little or nothing to do with this new title.

And I don't want to see Komuta fired either, just keep him away from Suikoden, please.

[daoster]

The man needs to be fired. Immediately. No other option is acceptable.

For what? For making a Suikoden that did decently well? Let me call up Kagemasa Kozuki (Konami's Chairman and President) personally and tell him to fire Komuta personally for ya.

They way I see it...the longer it takes for Konami or Komuta to make a Suikoden game based on the main series, the harder it's going to be to ever go back. We're quickly approaching the ten year mark of a "present day" Suikoden (Suikoden III), and the events of Suikoden III had some pretty broad implications with the world in general.

It's going to be tough to pick up the pieces and tell a story without really knowing what happened in III. Of course, they could make prequels ala IV and V, but...meh, I'd rather see a game that took place after III.

EDIT: And Frontier Gate has a demo already, and is scheduled to be released this year right? It could very well be possible that Komuta has already put the finishing touches on the game and start focusing on this Suikoden. Doesn't Nomura from Square like have his finger in like 20 games at once?

[JiggleBiscuits]

The man needs to be fired. Immediately. No other option is acceptable.

For what? For making a Suikoden that did decently well?

For butchering a series that still had a lot of potential.

They way I see it...the longer it takes for Konami or Komuta to make a Suikoden game based on the main series, the harder it's going to be to ever go back.

That's why Osamu needs to be cut loose now, so we can get back to the real series as soon as possible.

[tiki]

For what? For making a Suikoden that did decently well?

it was literally the poorest selling main game of the series

They way I see it...the longer it takes for Konami or Komuta to make a Suikoden game based on the main series, the harder it's going to be to ever go back.

Komuta is primarily responsible for our not having a continuation of Suikoden right now

people always said on these forums "Well, choosing between Tierkreis and no Suikoden at all, I'd take Tierkreis -- it's keeping the series alive!"

but the thing is, it was never a choice, Konami genuinely wanted a new Suikoden game and this guy did everything in his power to prevent us from getting it to make his own game

if anything he has actively worked against the survival of the series and if this upcoming new game does not take place in the main world, it will be a continuation of his screw up

[Exophase]

For what? For making a Suikoden that did decently well? Let me call up Kagemasa Kozuki (Konami's Chairman and President) personally and tell him to fire Komuta personally for ya.

Everything is relative... Tierkreis's sales were acceptable for the platform and look okay compared to how Suikoden V sold. But who is to say that it actually benefited from breaking away from the mainline story or from its plot in general? It's hard for me to see how this could have been the case. I personally believe that Tierkreis benefited from being one of the few 2009 DS RPGs that took itself halfway seriously. It's pretty much the same reason why the Golden Sun series was praised on GBA while (IMO only, mind you) being only marginally better than the PS1 RPG by the same company, Beyond the Beyond, that was universally panned by critics.

If I'm right Centennial Tapestry isn't going to get such a boost by default, not against all the RPGs PSP received later in its life. Tierkreis being released on PSP today would be kind of a joke.

They way I see it...the longer it takes for Konami or Komuta to make a Suikoden game based on the main series, the harder it's going to be to ever go back. We're quickly approaching the ten year mark of a "present day" Suikoden (Suikoden III), and the events of Suikoden III had some pretty broad implications with the world in general.

It's going to be tough to pick up the pieces and tell a story without really knowing what happened in III. Of course, they could make prequels ala IV and V, but...meh, I'd rather see a game that took place after III.

I don't believe this. Look at this message board, the people here that love the series haven't forgotten about it and if you tasked this forum to write the next Suikoden game I think you'd get a pretty good result out of it. Suikoden V had lots of attention to in-world detail, not only to the Suikoden universe but in particular to events tying to the first two. Konami definitely knew what they were doing and I was convinced that nothing was technically inhibiting them from making a Suikoden VI. What might be a bigger problem is that Konami knows that I and II have the biggest following today (hence re-releasing them and not the later ones) and they may well think that all fans want in the Suikoden is recurring characters, more than continuing plotlines (and they may be right to an extent). A game after Suikoden III would be further away from opportunity to do this, so they focused on a more immediate prequel for V. IV was developed practically alongside V and was more set off in the side to not interfere, I don't really know what the gist was exactly.

So yeah, I do have faith that Konami could do a Suikoden VI that did the series justice, I'm just not sure they ever wanted to after Murayama left. I hope I'm wrong, but like most of us I'd be happy with something furthering the established world.. there are a ton of interesting historical events to center a game around that aren't necessarily sequel material.

EDIT: And Frontier Gate has a demo already, and is scheduled to be released this year right? It could very well be possible that Komuta has already put the finishing touches on the game and start focusing on this Suikoden. Doesn't Nomura from Square like have his finger in like 20 games at once?

I hadn't even heard of Frontier Gate before August, I didn't realize it was that far along, but it looks like you're right :/ I don't think Komuta would have a lot of oversight in Konami, Tierkreis was his first title afaik.

Still, it would be strange of him to talk about the "Suikoden team" disbanding right as he's starting a new Suikoden title. I'd like to think that him saying the team disbanded is his how he puts Konami having kicked him off the franchise. Pretty hopelessly optimistic but I've got to hold on to something here >_>