Best Play Order?

[Matthias]

Hey guys, so I'm in university and the Suikoden games are by far my favorite series of video games, so I want my roommate to play them. I own the 5 main games, and I was kinda wondering the other day; what would be the best order to play them in?

Should it be the order they were made? I, II, III, IV, V?

Or should it go chronological? IV, V, I, II, III

Or some other order? When I played the games, 1 was actually the last game I played.


Anyway, what are your thoughts on this? And any other advice?

[Pyriel]

They aren't really connected enough to make playing them in strict, chronological order necessary. In fact, if you're not familiar with the stories already, I think you'd actually miss out on the enjoyment of having some of the supporting cast from games that were later chronologically become central in the games set earlier in the time line. I think it's fairly important that you play 1-3 in order, since those were more closely linked, but most of the links between 4 and 5 and the other titles are either fan service-y; fleshing out interesting, secondary characters as in most prequels; and the usual common elements like Jeane and Viki. Beyond that, going from 5 to 1 would be a pretty jarring regression in terms of game play, at least. The story is a little lighter too, perhaps.

On the other hand, I tried playing one of the early Breath of Fire games from the SNES era a while back. I'd never played it before, so nostalgia wasn't much of a factor, and I just found it too "on-rails" in terms of story, and the mechanics were too clunky for me to enjoy playing it. So if you don't think he's likely to enjoy the original's rather dated game-play, maybe you should start with one of the others just to rope him in...I'd actually say 2 or 5 at that rate. Suikoden 4 tried too hard to avoid the things that were criticized in 3, and wound up being a clumsy mix of old ideas and shaky, new ideas, so if you take the "Best Foot Forward" approach, I'd leave it to the end as a prequel to the entire series maybe, and start with 5. It is passable, though, so if you're worried that 1 might be too dated, and it has to be either release or chronological order, then chronological.

[Sasarai10]

Personally i like to play them by the order they are made. From 1 to 5.

I'd suggest to your roommate to play the 1st Suikoden,because it's much more simple and he'll understand it more easily. If he doesn't mind about the old-school graphics of course.

[darkknightkv]

You also run the risk of having him play suikoden 4 as the first game....

I played them all for the first time this year and yes I did 1-5. I think that will be the better way, the graphics change and the games become more complex as the series goes on. Most importantly though I think it would be best for him to start with Suikoden 1 and 2 to get him interested. Starting with suikoden 4 (Which a lot of people place as the worse in the series) may turn him off to trying the others.

[BrucePrintscreen]

Play them in their original order, 1 to 5. It's definitely the best thing.

Playing 4-5-1-2-3 is bad, it's not what they were made for, you won't get a good gaming experience. 1 to 5 is the way you'll get the most entertainment.

[EternalOnslaught]

Yup, playing them 1-5 will probably be the best experience...can't forget about Tactics/Rhapsodia though. I also would not recommend anyone start the series out with Suikoden IV.

[Matthias]

Hmmm... yeah thanks for the advice. I personally played 1 last, after it was released on PSN. It was really weird going back like that, especially with certain features I was used to, like the item bag, multiple rune slots, and general explanations of what runes/unites do hahaah

[RoBDaWG]

Definitely in order of 1 - 5. I always find it best that way because the graphics and gameplay mechanics evolve as you go along.

A few months ago, after not playing video games for quite a long time, decided to play Final Fantasy 7 again. I hadn't played since the game was new back in '97 or something. I ended up playing 8, 9, X, and X2 (all of which I've never played before). I've played all the earlier games a few times.

I then was going to go back and play some of the older ones, but after playing the newer games with better graphics (much better w/ an emulator), I couldn't go back and play the earlier games.

[zqrahll]

I play them 1-5, but I enjoy 1-3 more, so I have been known to go 1-5 then 1-3 again.

[Wolkendrache]

For all who plan to start playing the series...
I'd also recommend going for the gameplay, so 1-5.

Thinking back about my playing order...
I, II, I, II (no III in Europe, gap had to be filled with replays), 2 hours IV, began Tactics until getting the information about the special characters, speedrun IV, Tactics, V, since then caught in an infinite loop of II, Tactics, V. I'm sure many players made a similar experience.