Recruit all stars without guide.

[Sasarai10]

Have you ever managed to get all stars without guide in any suikoden game of the main series?? (honestly eh?)

Personally:

I have finished S2 after 10-12 times or so (Mukumuku,and Sasuke/Mondo...took me a lot ) and S3 by the first time (the easiest game according to recruitments).

In S4 i have gone without a guide about 5-6 times,then i got into it...and in S5 i've played the 1st time without guide collecting only about 20 optional characters till the point after queen's campaign war/before twilight forest events or so....but then i gave up,and restarted the game with guide (damn,i should've tried more )

[Punkaiser]

First Suikoden i played was S4. During the first playthrough i missed ted and the mermaid required netfishing lead to impossible to get Snowe. Had to read guide on the 2nd run

Next, i pulled out S3 and play until chapter 2 or 3 and stopped gaming for a while.

Several years later, i started to use emulator to play S1. Um,got almost everyone except Rubi, at that damn moment i didn't know what to do although i tried bringing the whole elven tribe along to talk to him. And it was very misleading the tip about Lester in Moravia castle from a certain old book(i followed old books hints to search for charaacters), I wasted alot of time wandering around and inside the castle for nothing, but still lucky enough to get him in the end, almost missed Leon. In the next run, googled for guide how to recruit rubi lol.

S2 was too easy with richmond's help and the only one i complete with no guide at all.

I gave up very quick on S5 recruitments

Then and a year later when i came back to finish S3, I didn't bother to try at all, I read full recruitment guide for these two last games.

[Sasarai10]

The bad thing with S5 is that Oboro cannot give you any recruitment tips,he will just give you the whereabouts of each character,even the non-optional ones like Georg or Galleon. Plus,he cannot recognize characters who haven't came across with you yet.


Also some characters are very difficult to figure how to get them,like Zunda who wants to see a window (there are many windows in the game),or Egbert where you have not to press any button while he speaks.


Yeah,Ted in S4 was a difficult one,i got him by the 4th-5th time. Also another difficult character was a swordsgirl in Middleport (i don't remember her name). Deborah was very helpful,though.

[veeshadow]

I manage S1 and S2 but that time I never realized either Gremio's revive and Forgiver Sign there so no good ending o____o

[AlOnZo]

Never completed the games with 108 stars first time through. First time I played the series (Suikoden II) I missed so many characters but on IV I came close, think it was five I missed. Tough going IMO.

[dragons_descent4]

I've done it with the first two games and I'm in the process of doing the third now.
After playing the first two games a couple times it was easy to remember where to go and when so I didn't have an issue there. The other games I haven't been quite as lucky but hopefully that will change soon with 3.

[Sasarai10]

Although i finished S1 with 108 stars,i managed to get 105 stars without a guide,so before finishing it,i checked out how to recruit Lester,Jabba and Crowley....not bad i'd say.

Several years later, i started to use emulator to play S1. Um,got almost everyone except Rubi, at that damn moment i didn't know what to do although i tried bringing the whole elven tribe along to talk to him. And it was very misleading the tip about Lester in Moravia castle from a certain old book(i followed old books hints to search for charaacters), I wasted alot of time wandering around and inside the castle for nothing, but still lucky enough to get him in the end, almost missed Leon. In the next run, googled for guide how to recruit rubi lol.

Oh...i've been looking for Lester in this castle too,but he didn't show up.


Clive was a little difficult to get,too. I have searched the inn about ten times to get him,but he appearead after making an alliance with Joshua.

P.S. It would be exciting if someone found Crowley without a guide,and without searching through the Internet about the stone tablet,stars of destiny in each game,etc..so he won't know that this character exists,because in the game's booklet he is mentioned with "?" in the stars of destiny list,plus he wasn't mentioned in some Old Book,of this game,like Pesmerga or Clive.

It would be a truly strange feeling if you find him without knowing his existance

[Punkaiser]

Oh...i've been looking for Lester in this castle too,but he didn't show up.

First I thought he could be in a hidden corner inside the castle like Crowley but was crawling over and over in vein. Then I thought he might appear in random battle outside the castle like Gau in S4 or Yufiee in FF7 (although it would be strange for a chef to appear that way).

It would be exciting if someone found Crowley without a guide,and without searching through the Internet about the stone tablet,stars of destiny in each game,etc..
It would be a truly strange feeling if you find him without knowing his existance

Actually I found Crowley with no problem, if you're familiar with FF series, crawling all corner to search for hidden switch or hidden path will become a habit. Septerra Core even makes it harder to advance the game or to uncover game secrets.

[Sasarai10]

First I thought he could be in a hidden corner inside the castle like Crowley but was crawling over and over in vein. Then I thought he might appear in random battle outside the castle like Gau in S4 or Yufiee in FF7 (although it would be strange for a chef to appear that way).

Actually I found Crowley with no problem, if you're familiar with FF series, crawling all corner to search for hidden switch or hidden path will become a habit. Septerra Core even makes it harder to advance the game or to uncover game secrets.

I could never ever think that a chef will be encountered as a random enemy,outside of a certain area...


I haven't played any FF series,except the FF origins,and FFX,which i found a little difficult,but i have never completed them.
Personaly i didn't like FF series a lot,because of the lack of playable characters.


About Crowley,i supposed he would be hidden in some cave,just like Mazus,so i suspected it would be the cave of the past,but damn he wasn't visible like his rival.

[Piisuke]

I also found Crowley without a guide, though I'll admit it was accidental. There's only two dungeons in Suikoden that I recall having secret passages and those are Toran Castle and the Cave behind Qlon and there's no other dungeon in that game that has those passages, iirc.

There are cases in other games where there's hidden passages, such as Lufia and other 16/8bit games (Sonic comes to mind, Final Fantasy), but one can be excused for not realising those hidden walls. Heck, a friend of mine showed me the hidden walls in Toran Castle and that's how I was aware of the ones in Toran Castle.

I have done all the recruits of Suikoden and II without a guide. Only finished Suikoden IV twice, iirc and I'm not gonna bother with Suikoden V. Too many characters that require so much sidequesting and potential moments where they can be missed.

[Sasarai10]

I have done all the recruits of Suikoden and II without a guide. Only finished Suikoden IV twice, iirc and I'm not gonna bother with Suikoden V. Too many characters that require so much sidequesting and potential moments where they can be missed.

S3???

This is the only game were i recruited all the characters without guide (With Kidd's help though),and by the first time.
Landis took me a lot of time in order to be recruited...

[Piisuke]

SIII was not released in Europe. I've played some of it on an emulator, but I find it hard playing a RPG on a PC.

[freshmetal]

It's been a long time, but I believe that I got all 108 on II and III without a guide. In the original game, I got all stars without a guide with the exception of Lester. He was the one character that I could never figure out. IV and V required guides.

[Sasarai10]

It's been a long time, but I believe that I got all 108 on II and III without a guide. In the original game, I got all stars without a guide with the exception of Lester. He was the one character that I could never figure out. IV and V required guides.

The bad thing with Lester is that an Old Book gives you false information,that he is seen in Moravia Castle,whilst he is in Kirov.



IV wasn't that difficult,since Deborah gave you some information about the whereabouts of each character. Although she couldn't indentify some characters like Gau or Ted or a girl who was Reinbach's friend (i don't recall her name).



V had a lot of missable characters

1) Because Oboro couldn't identify the characters who haven't come across with you yet (like Genoh who will appear only if you bring an old guy in the waterfall basin,or Takamu who will appear only if you bring Cius or Lelei in the prison),plus he won't give you any specific information,just the whereabouts of each character.

2) Because many characters requir to be triggered in a certain time like Alhazred,or else they will disappear forever.

3) Because some characters were very difficult to figure out how they will be recruited. For example in order to recruit Egbert you don't have to press any button while he speaks,or Gavaya where you have to bring 3 girls who can perform a unite attack together.

[sticky-runes]

well... I'll describe my experiences in order that I first played them all.

i played suikoden 1 for years, thinking Pahn was supposed to die, then one day I grew a brain and thought "what if i actually tried equipping him with decent armour, sharpening his weapon, and raising his level so that he has a better chance of surviving?" and it turns out that he could win the duel with Teo after all! But the one recruit I had problems with was Lester. It wasn't until I first gained access to the internet that I found out how to recruit him. And this was after I played suikoden 2 for the first time!

With suikoden 2, I did use a guide to achieve all 108 stars. Then I replayed the game so many times that I remembered them all off by heart.

With suikoden 4, I refered to a guide when I was near the end of the game, and that was too late to get a bunch of characters. Missed the chance to get Champo and Nalkul, missed the chance to get Ted, and so did not get Snowe. On my second play through I did get everyone, and I think on my third play I got them all without a guide, no problem.

With Suikoden 5 I still keep a guide close by whenever I replay. I must have completed it 4 or 5 times by now, but there are still character recruitments I don't remember off by heart.

With Suikoden Tactics, I think I did get everyone on my first play except the mercenaries (wasn't particularly bothered about them). I don't think there are any characters who become permanently missable in this game? I think the recruitment quests for all non-story characters can be picked up whenever you want... Must have been on my 3rd or 4th play through that I did go for getting the mercs. By this time I had developed a completionist attitude towards the game.

Then with Suikoden 3, i managed to get most people on my own accord. It was very late into the game that I did start referring to recruitment guides, and turns out that I had not missed any opportunites, and this must have been the first time I completed a suikoden game for the first time with all 108 stars. Whew!