Suikoden Revival Movement

[Antimatzist]

Ok, this comes out of nowhere, but... yeah. Rooks, KC_MCDOHL and I are, like a lot of fans here, dissatisfied with Konami handling the Suikoden series. So we decided, to take some action!

What is this?
Suikoden Revival Movement (SRM) is a fan movement which tries to bring the Suikoden series back to its former glory - or even better to new glory. This not only includes the whish for a new Suikoden game set in the main world, but also better marketing of the series and better advertising in the west. Basically, we want that Suikoden is in every gamer's mouth and, hopefully, in every gamer's hand (i.e. playing a new game!)
There have been campaigns like this in the past, but we feel that they were very uncoordinated and not focussing all fan-efforts efficiently. Inspired by Operation Rainfall which recently had (debatable) influence and success in marketing three RPGs/Adventures for the Wii, we will try something similar.

Why the name?
Theoretically, the Suikoden series is not dead - there just has been a new game, but of course, we have our problems with that. With a high chance, it won't come out of Japan, and even if it would, it's not what most fans wish for (i.e. a new game set in the main world). That's why this fan movement is dedicated to revive the old Suikoden spirit - hence the name.

What are your goals?
Ok, I am lazy, so I will c/p our goals from our Facebook site:
1. To encourage Konami to continue the Genso Suikoden series. Including new sequels to the numbered console games, set in the original universe.
2. To have Suikoden and Suikoden II released world-wide on the Playstation Network (PSN). Currently, only the North American version of the PSN has Suikoden, while the European or PAL region lacks the title, as well as the Indian PSN. None of these PSN regional stores carry Suikoden II.
3. To see the release of Genso Suikoden: Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki, or, Suikoden: The Woven Web of a Century to markets outside of Japan, including North America, South America, and the PAL region.
4. To lobby Konami for greater and more wide-spread advertising of the Suikoden series.
5. For Konami to distribute various Suikoden merchandise outside of Japan, such as: soundtracks, posters, and graphic novels.
6. For Konami to launch an official, English language Suikoden Facebook fan page.

Most of these are self-explanatory, some of them are very concrete, some are more general. Of course, this list can change over time, but this is what we are aiming for at the moment. It is also obvious that some goals are more short-termed than others, but we are planning to camapign for as long as it takes to accomplish these goals.

How can I help?
One first step would be to "like" our page on Facebook. This is only a small action, but in the end, this will be what we can show Konami - power comes in numbers and if we can gather as many people as possible there, it might prove them that there is a huge interest in the Suikoden series. Also, we will maybe keep that page the most updated place and use it for news, announcements etc.
Of course, you can also help outside of Facebook (or if you don't have Facebook). Since suikosource.com is the biggest and most active Suikoden-website in the www (at least on English), we will keep this topic as up-to-date as possible, too.
You are encouraged to criticize us here - every opinion means a lot of us and negative criticism might even be more worth than a "Wow, keep it going!". We are well aware that our goals might not be identical with the wishes some of you have, but hope to cover as much as possible. If you feel that we are missing something important out, tell us! If you think that there is a flaw in our campaign, tell us! If you have some new ideas what can be done - go and tell us!
Additionally, we would like to see everyone of you discussing Suikoden in other boards you are active in and promoting our campaign.

I still have a question...
Go and ask us! You can post your question directly as a reply to this topic or message us (Antimatzist, Rooks and KC_MCDOHL) directly. We will try and answer every single question you might have.

Further Links
SRM on Facebook

I will try to keep this topic (and first post) as updated as possible. If we see that there are a lot of questions, we will try to include them in this initial post.

[Xelinis]

Not sure I like the name.

How about Operation Blinking Mirror?

[Sasarai10]

Personaly i cannot understand why Konami hasn't released Suikoden 6 yet,and it released some "Suikoden" titles like Tierkreis or the new one with the big name,which have nothing to with the traditional Suikoden series,whilst many fans are waiting S6 for years

[Rooks]

Well, Xelinis, we talked a lot about the name and decided on it because it explains everything right off the bat. It is not perfect, but it gets the point across. Unlike something more esoteric. It is also too late to change it as the FB site and everything is up.

I have been in contact with Ryan Tyner at Operation Rainfall, and along with the people here, and the 1,600 or so people at Suikoden Day 2012, we should have a very nice following pretty quickly.

[Antimatzist]

Personaly i cannot understand why Konami hasn't released Suikoden 6 yet,and it released some "Suikoden" titles like Tierkreis or the new one with the big name,which have nothing to with the traditional Suikoden series,whilst many fans are waiting S6 for years

That's the point - we can't understand it, either. Also there were some pretty bad decisions in the past (like S3 not coming to Europe) and generally, the Suikoden series received bad treating (quality control has never been an issue...). We want to show Konami that still a lot of people are interested in the series.

@Xelinis: Like Rooks said we had some other names discussed but decided on this one. At first, I think it was a bit "bulky", but SRM is a cool abbreviation imo and I came to like it.

[Lemmy Claypool]

I just joined. Good luck.

[freshmetal]

Liked on facebook.

[Antimatzist]

Thank you two!

I hope we'll be taken serious by fans. There are really like a thousand groups on Fb saying "Konami, make another Suikoden!!" but most of them donÄt even have 100 members. I just hope that we can somehow focus the fans at one point.

[freshmetal]

Yeah, the Suikoden fanbase only appears small because it's spread so thin amongst multiple fan groups. If we could all unify under one group, we could send Konami a loud and clear message.

[Hirathien]

I think the Suikoden fanbase appear small because it's constantly being compared to fanbases of behemoths like, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy and those.

The name of that Facebook thing is quite a mouthful, but as long as it gets the job done, it can be Operation Gadget for all I care.

[ttfii]

Liked on Facebook.

Also, I think everyone should try to do something to bring more attention to the series. If you're a musician, cover some songs and post them around. If you're a filmmaker, do some shorts that pay tribute. Artists work on more fan art. Writers work on more fan fics. If you're not the creative type, then help promote these works and keep talking about Suikoden. Start a GoodReads account and rate/review the mangas. Every little thing adds up.

I discussed this with KC_McDohl already but I figured I would share my news: I'm currently in the pre-production stage of doing a series of stop-motion shorts that pay tribute as well as parody the Suikoden series. They will be done with Legos and clay. I'm going to make them in a way that they can appeal to people that haven't even heard of Suikoden. Fans of the series will get it but I don't want to stop there. I work part-time in a multimedia/recording studio so the quality should be pretty damn good.

Also, I'm glad we have support from Kotaku and possibly Operation Rainfall. I should mention that a writer at PSX Extreme (His name is Ben something) is also a huge Suikoden fan so I recommend that we try to get his support as well.

And before I forget, my nephew is recreating the first two castles in Minecraft and is going to do a YouTube video tour. He's twelve and loves all the games so all hope isn't lost.

[Neclord X]

This not only includes the whish for a new Suikoden game set in the main world, but also better marketing of the series and better advertising in the west. Basically, we want that Suikoden is in every gamer's mouth and, hopefully, in every gamer's hand (i.e. playing a new game!)

Well, may be thats aiming a bit to high, if it wasnt posible when jrpg were popular I don't think it will happen now when jrpgs are a minoritary genre and portable cannon meat basically.

Anyway I'll join and support but...I don't like "Suikoden Revival Movement" name though, because as you say, it almost imply it is dead.

[Antimatzist]

Of course this is a bit exaggerated. It's impossible for the game to be played by every gamer, but I always have the feeling that the series is more popular and known than we might suspect. The first two Suikodens are quite often named as some of the best PSX rpg's and that's something we can build on.

Also, we have to be a bit drastic,to me, the Suikoden series is in fact dead (or in a coma? Compared to other series, it's not that bad, but anyway, why would you compare two dead series to see which is deader?)

[LanceHeart]

Let's put it this way: The rest of the world just missed out on the franchise's first major release in 3 years. We also have next to nothing (or perhaps we've truly hit the "nothing" threshold) in terms of merchandise and Konami refuses to release, much less discuss the release or what blocks the release of previous games as PSOne/PS2 Classics or Games Archive titles.

Suikoden is pretty much dead outside of Japan. The sales figures of the PSP game in Japan also tend toward Suikoden's original universe being dead, what with it selling out its initial retail shipment and being in the top 25 PSN PSP titles for a few weeks.

[Sasarai10]

I joined too