Worth Replaying?

[JuveLeo]

I finished Suikoden 3 back in March if I remember correctly and feel like replaying 4 and 5 (V especially!) but I'm really hesitant on playing Suikoden 4. It's been almost 18 years since I last played it and those frequent battles and loading times still haunt me lol. Anyone think I should give it another go or just ignore it completely and move onto Suiko V?

[Raww Le Klueze]

Loading times? That's Suikoden V that was famous for those, you're looking at ~10 seconds for every random encounter if you're playing on original hardware.

[Antimatzist]

IV is the best to replay next to the first one. You can beat it in 20 hours with 100% completion, even getting all the furniture and treasure hunting. I'll replay IV over V anytime. V has terrible pacing and an average playthrough takes me at least 40 hours, if not more if I wanna read every dialogue.

[JuveLeo]

Loading times? That's Suikoden V that was famous for those, you're looking at ~10 seconds for every random encounter if you're playing on original hardware.

I could have sworn loading times were horrible. I stand corrected.

[JuveLeo]

IV is the best to replay next to the first one. You can beat it in 20 hours with 100% completion, even getting all the furniture and treasure hunting. I'll replay IV over V anytime. V has terrible pacing and an average playthrough takes me at least 40 hours, if not more if I wanna read every dialogue.

I'm surprised to hear that. Maybe hearing a tremendous amount of praise for V over the last 16-17 years has clouded my judgement about IV. Thanks for the feedback gentlemen.

[Raww Le Klueze]

I could have sworn loading times were horrible. I stand corrected.

Could be that there are so many complaints about Suikoden IV that I just can't remember the loading times being a particular issue people had. I remember the encounter rate being an issue but mostly I think it's related the ship being so slow to move and the weird decision to have it bounce off islands that exacerbated it.

[Antimatzist]

I just recently replayed IV and found random encounters to be nearly a non-issue. Since you need to fight many to learn the unites, you wanna fight a lot anyway (at least near the end). And while the sailing is boring, you get Viki so early in the story that you barely sail in the game.

My main complaints would be the shallow story telling and the limited party customization, but that's about it. As I said, you can complete the game in 15 hours, whereas any other in the game in the series (with the exception of the first) will usually take you much linger.

[KingSpilly]

Speaking of replaying, are IV and Tactics the only games with NG+ stuff?

My main complaints would be the shallow story telling

But also yeah, the storytelling was a bit underwhelming. The only hint about Cray's backstory or foreshadowing of the last boss's existence is in one of the old books. Even the Kalekka incident was given more references outside of the books. It also took me a few playthroughs to realize the significance of the first few shadow people that you fight in your dreams, and the recruitment of Warlock is very underwhelming, considering how important he is to the backstory. Also, IV just generally feels unfinished, in my opinion. I still like IV better than 1 though.

[Antimatzist]

IV, Tactics and V all have New Game + and are the only games in the series (well, and Card Stories) that have it.

[srd_27]

to be exact, Suikoden Tsumugareshi have NG+ as well