My Problems With Each Suikoden

[sticky-runes]

This makes me pretty glad I don't remember IV.

Except you're planning to do a marathon soon, so you'll have to relive it all over again! On the plus side, Suikoden 4 does have a lot of good looking characters. It's probably the only suikoden game where the characters look better in game than in their official artwork!

[freshmetal]

This makes me pretty glad I don't remember IV.

Except you're planning to do a marathon soon, so you'll have to relive it all over again! On the plus side, Suikoden 4 does have a lot of good looking characters. It's probably the only suikoden game where the characters look better in game than in their official artwork!

It's too bad a majority of those characters were bland and forgettable. Aside from that, my gripes with Suikoden 4 are the same as what others have mentioned:

-Too many random encounters at sea
-The ship turning around if a dock is approached perfectly
-4 man parties rather than 6
-Very weak spell animations
-Lazlo's never changing pissed off facial expression. We get it, your rune is cursed and you're probably gonna die. Would it hurt to smile ONCE in the game?

[EstrangedIX]

Lazlo did look rather peeved the whole time, but then I guess he really didn't have much to smile about. They should've at least had him giggle at Snowe's dog collar.

Some of IV's characters did look better in the game, like Troy and Helmut. Aldo, Hervey and Sigurd too. Sometimes people walked funny though, except Lazlo. His running on the other hand... Lol

[LadyCyclone]

Suikoden 1 had EVERYTHING to do with imagination - the graphics were a myriad of colours with a few human outlines here and there - no voices, just written speech - and music to go with the event at hand. The perfect opportunity to imagine what the characters look like/sound like/how they act, etc. Something the 3D games seriously lack.

[Antimatzist]

Suikoden 1 had EVERYTHING to do with imagination - the graphics were a myriad of colours with a few human outlines here and there - no voices, just written speech - and music to go with the event at hand. The perfect opportunity to imagine what the characters look like/sound like/how they act, etc. Something the 3D games seriously lack.

And most SNES-era and sprite-based PSX games do a lot better imo.

[LadyCyclone]

I wouldn't know - I'm not a large gamer. But comparisons aside and looking at the game purely as a stand-alone, I feel imagination is the key. At least for me. Perhaps we're going to have to agree to disagree, Antimatzist.

[sticky-runes]

And before there were video games on 16 and 8 bit consoles, people were playing role-playing games with dice and bits of cardboard. Times have moved on. You can't sell a video game these days with sprites that can only move in 4 directions and expect the audience to find it engaging. Video games are supposed to be a visual experience, that's why they hire talented artists and animators to create the world and characters living in it. There may occasionally be off-camera events like back stories that are left to the imagination, but when you're playing a game in real time, you're supposed to feel like you're there taking part in the action and drama, not imagining what it would probably look like if it had better graphics.

[freshmetal]

Great graphics aren't the most important thing when it comes to gaming. Sure advancing technology is great, but there's always going to be a place for simple visuals and player imagination. If photo-realistic graphics were all that mattered, there wouldn't such a huge popularity of inde-games going on.

I've gotta take LadyCylone's side on this one. It's been discussed in other threads how much the inclusion of voice acting has "ruined" the experience for a lot of gamers, myself included. All it takes is one or two awful voices to kill a game. I'm looking at you Lymsleia and Lyon.

As I've said in another thread. I had voices imagined for the cast of FFVII going back to when I first played it in the 90s, the Advent Children was released and a bunch of the characters didn't sound like how I imagined them. In fact, some of them sounded down right retarded. This ruined the experience for me.

[Warcrown]

I'm looking at you Lymsleia and Lyon.

Oh come on! Am I the only one in the entire world who doesn't hate those 2?

My problems with those i've played...

Suikoden III: Hugo. I absolutely hated him! Fubar and Joe are preety cool though.

Suikoden IV: I don't hate this as much as most people. Lazlo was my biggest problem eith the game. I find it hard to imagine how he befriended Keneth, Jewel, Paula, etc, etc.

Suikoden V: Loading is my only real issue. That and the fact my disk won't load past the truly heartbreaking situation with Miakis in Doraat anymore. I swear I cried at that point.

[gildedtalon]

I love Lymsleia and hate Lyon. I love Lyon as a battle character however, she crits and multihits often

[sticky-runes]

Oh come on! Am I the only one in the entire world who doesn't hate those 2?

I think Lymsleia is awesome. Lyon gets on my nerves, but she has a few cool moments. As for their voices, Lymsleia sounds how I'd expect her to, whereas Lyon definitely should have been given a more mature voice like the girls from Suikoden 4.

Worst voice casting goes to Roy, because he gets some good lines throughout the game but he sounded crap during the cut scenes.

[TMan]

I just started SV last night and it is ridiculous how little of that game I remember. I mean, seriously, everything feels like the first time through.

As for this imagination or not schtick: S2 was also tiny sprites with almost no faces and no voices. Took the same amount of imagination. Difference was that S2 was beautiful and S1 was, as stated before, ugly as sin.

Observe: S1 Gregminster Throne Room http://cdn.lordyuanshu.com/images/Suiko ... jpg?cda6c1
S2 Throne Room
http://cdn.lordyuanshu.com/images/Suiko ... jpg?cda6c1

[sticky-runes]

It's hardly fair to bash suikoden 1, since a lot of it's faults were improved on in suikoden 2 onwards, from graphics and menus, to having a 'run' button and little extra dialogue bits with supporting characters. I can understand criticizing the later games, because they're supposed to get bigger and better, but Suikoden 1 was the starting point. It's a bit crap of someone to say S1 had unforgivably bad things about it, when Konami did actually make improvements on it later.

You wouldn't say to somebody "you were a complete dumbass as a baby because you couldn't walk properly"

[TMan]

Suikoden 1 is not a person. We do not have to worry about the feelings. And the fact that we are all hanging out in a forum on a site dedicated to the series that S1 started is a testament to our enduring love for the game and the series it spawned.

It's just talking. The game will not be sad, I promise.

[sticky-runes]

I know. The point is, most of S1's flaws can be excused for it being the earliest in the series, rather than adding them to the list of problems with the whole series.