![Suikoden2_NA[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/QIhaGE2.jpg "Suikoden2_NA[1].jpg")
Recently got into the Suikoden series, beat 1 a couple weeks ago and just beat 2 a few hours ago.
Thought they were both great and I know other people really liked those two, but I never hear about the other ones.
Is 3 any good or should I just stop while I'm ahead?
>he only plays what /v/ tells him to
You're fucking up, OP.
Three is good, its not as great as 2 and 1 are but its a solid game. 4 Is definitely the weakest of them all and then it shoots back up to great at 5.
Suikoden III is the last game made by the series creator/director/writer. And while its a rushed game, much like Chrono Cross, it is a solid game itself. If you really got into the story and characters of Suikoden I and II, then you'll enjoy III. It has some of the best characters in the series and goes even darker in the story.
The rest of the Suikoden games that followed were done by various teams and don't feel much like Suikoden, outside of having runes and 108 characters. Not gonna say you should skip them, but just don't expect games as good as Suikoden I-III.
3 is the conclusion of the over arching story from the first two games. It has some resolution on some major characters as well as gives a lot of info on the world itself. That being said the castle is awful and the map is boring. The story is great, not as good as 2 by and stretch, but its enjoyable. There also is a lack of really stand out characters, like Flick and Viktor.
That being said, the first 3 games are my favorite series of all time. 4 is a decent JRPG but a shitty Suikoden, and 5 is an amazing JRPG but feels detached from the first 3 and suffers for it. Good news is you Suikoden Tactics is actually really solid, and it redeems 4 a lot, so its worth playing after 4.
Just play them all, but be aware that you just finished the best the series has to offer.
>>339209931
I've heard 4 is a trainwreck, but I've typically heard good things about 5. Is that one bad too?
>tfw I prefer Suikoden 1
Approach and lay your lashes unto me.
>>339210205
1 is a solid game and I couldn't fault you for saying it's your favorite.
>>339210326
Better MC tbqh senpai Tonfas are gay as fuc
>>339210326
Stop being reasonable!
>>339210085
Suikoden V isn't exactly bad. But it isn't really good either. By all means, play it yourself and see. But to be honest, it feels more like a Golden Sun game than a Suikoden game.
>>339210205
1&2 are the only games I usually take the time to complete yearly. So as long as you enjoy either of them, you're good in my book.
>>339210205
Suikoden I had the best strategist, Tenkai star and some of the best music. It also introduced the rune and 108 character systems.
Suikoden II improved on nearly everything else, but Suikoden I was still one of the best RPGs on the PS1. I would play Suikoden I over again before any FF game.
>>339210085
4 is a trainwreck when compared to the previous games. It's still a fun RPG with some cool stuff going on, but the entire game will have you missing the first 3. It's just far to separated in the story and style.
5 is great, it feels like Suikoden. It's just not as charming as 1 one or perfect like 2.
>>339210396
2 lets you have not just the MC but McDohl as well. 2gud2bTru
>>339210085
just be prepared for like a 3 hours of cutscenes followed by cutscenes before anything gameplay actually begins in V
otherwise I thought it was pretty decent
I think my favorite part other than the story for II is all the mini games and activities you get in the castle compared to I or III. I mean, I must had spent hours in the restaurant doing the cooking and contests.
>>339210601
The music is absolutely one of the reasons I have such fond memories of the game.
>>339210601
>>339210947
Speaking of:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3vOlOIC0wc
Out of all of them (I haven't played the 'tactics' games) I thought 3 was the worst.
>tfw just started playing Suikoden 1
>get my base
>this is sorta neat
>oh for fuck's sake so many stairs
>oh FUCK off I have to walk everywhere?
>recruit people
>elevator installed
>teleporting mirror
>holy rune
ABSOLUTELY BASED
>>339211171
>I thought 3 was the worst
Nigger I'm warning you...
>>339211268
You thought the stairs were bad in Suikoden I? Wait until you play Suikoden V!
>enter keep
>loading for 45 seconds
>climb stairs
>loading for 20 seconds
>climb stairs
>loading for 20 seconds
>climb stairs
>loading for 20 seconds
>climb stairs
>loading for 20 seconds
>finally get to the top floor
>NPC gives you quest
>have to walk down all the stairs again
>turn off game
>>339212338
yeah, and don't get me started on the hoops you gotta jump through to get the "true" ending. You can basically fuck it up halfway into the game, and never know about it. You literally need a guide or else you'll miss a step somewhere.
>>339209205
4 is pretty bad, but 5 is great, it's easily on par with 2.
I still haven't gotten around to finishing 3, the new battle system it uses is convoluted as fuck.
>>339212598
outside of collecting the 108 stars what in Suikoden V is a hoop to jump through to get the true ending
all you have to do is not be a dick to your sister
>>339210421
>But to be honest, it feels more like a Golden Sun game than a Suikoden game.
I've seen you say this several times. Explain yourself.
>>339212808
I'm talking about wherechildhood friend doesn't die, which requires you doing a bit of legwork and talking to specific people. I meticulously played it blind, and missed it knowing damned well there was an alternative, only to realize i didn't talk to a specific NPC before progressing story at one point.
>>339212338
>Emulate game
>Loading times are 3 seconds at most
>Can use speedup to deal with all the other slow-paced elements
The loading really isn't a complaint worth mentioning anymore. Who's really going to s till be playing the game on their PS2 these days?
>>339209205
i just started playing suidoken 2.
Shold i stopp and play suidoken 1 first or can i simply continue playing the game? When i started it asked me if i had a save file from the previous game so it probably has some content related to it.
>>339212598
>>339213078
The only guide I used for it was Suikosource's character recruitment one, and I don't think that mentioned it, but I guess I got the true end based on your description.
With all the easily missable and arbitrary shit in Suikoden games I can't imagine playing them without at least a character guide. They'd be too frustrating otherwise.
>>339213303
Yes, play 1 first. 2 has a lot of minor improvements that will make it harder for you to go back and play 1 if you experience 2 first, and there are returning characters.
>>339213303
>Shold i stopp and play suidoken 1 first
Yes. Why the hell did you think it was a good idea to play 2 first?
>>339212887
-Long prologue
-After you actually have the ability to travel the world, its mostly just a straight line to the next town
-Main characters are one dimensional and have little growth
-Characters would spend 30 minutes debating something that should have taken 10 seconds to decide, in other words, way too much superfluous dialogue that added nothing to character development or the plot
-Graphics are the most impressive part of the game
>>339213381
Cool. i just started 2 and didnt get very far.
>>339213429
because it was on sale for very cheap
>>339213476
Those sound like very superficial reasons to consider it more like Golden Sun than Suikoden.
And your second and third points are just plain wrong.
>>339213341
Yeah, you gotta get all the 108 stars, but you can miss them entirely if you don't recruit some of them within a timeframe.
>>339213080
me, fucking hell
>>339213528
>it was on sale for very cheap
good goy
just emulate them my dude
>>339214293
but i lie playing these games on my vita, it is really comfy. I also really don't mind spending the price of a snack in a game.
>>339214293
yeah, just emulate it off of disc, it works better than using your actual PS2 and you can enhance it as well. The only exceptions are the few and far games that refuse to emulate properly for any given reason.
>>339213080
>The loading really isn't a complaint worth mentioning anymore.
The people who actually bought the game for $50 when it released can't erase their bad memories. And even with the loading times reduced, that doesn't fix the original game.
>>339209205
3 is solid, if you like true runes, it's a runefest in that game as far as plot is concerned. Geddoe and his crew are the best.
Most would say skip IV, but I played it anyways, I'm a sucker for nautical settings and I enjoyed it. If you play IV, Suikoden Tactics is solid, terrain is a must if you want to win.
V was solid, I enjoyed it as much as III. You'll see some familiar faces in it too if you played 1 and 2.
![rv0ivparuguledyldziz[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/ey3FXv5.jpg "rv0ivparuguledyldziz[1].png")
>3d suikoden
no thank you, 2d graphics a best
>>339209463
/thread
>>339215753
Suikoden III probably would have been a complete game if they didn't have to spend so much time and money making a new 3D engine.
I stopped my last play through after getting a castle because I saw something that said you have to get all 108 recruits to get the good ending, should I just ignore that and hope for the best or am I going to have to break out a guide on this one?
>>339216057
If you want all 108 characters, I can guarantee you're gonna need a guide. You can probably find a big chunk of them on your own, but a few of the are really unintuitive on how to get.
Also remember to not let important people die in big battles.
>>339215123
>And even with the loading times reduced, that doesn't fix the original game.
It does fix the loading times complaint though. What bothers me is that people keep bringing it up as a significant flaw of the game when it's something you've been able to avoid for years already.
Come to think of it, did the PSN release of Suikoden 2 fix all the bugs?
>>339216048
It was 3D because that was cheaper than making a new 2D entry though.
>>339216327
>What bothers me is that people keep bringing it up as a significant flaw of the game
Because it still is a flaw of the game. You're using a tool to avoid it. But it doesn't mean the coding of the game was fixed.
its like me using emulation to make battles in Final Fantasy IX go faster. The fact that I have to use emulation to make it bearable points out that it is a flaw.
>>339216481
>3D games are cheaper than 2D games
In what universe? Even if we accepted your crazy premise, they could have just used the pre-existing engine from Suikoden II. Cutting down the development costs dramatically.
>>339216495
It's a flaw with an easily available workaround. It's a flaw of the original game, but it's not an issue that's still particularly relevant, or anything to discourage people from playing the game as a result, except for the few diehards who wish to play it on their actual consoles.
>>339216289
would it be the end of the world if I didnt get all 108?
>>339216632
>In what universe?
In this universe. Where have you been? This has been the case for a long, long time. It's much faster and easier to make some cheap 3D like Suikoden 3 was than to spend all the time making great 2D sprite art which 2 had.
Yoshitaka even said so himself, that 3's development was heavily restricted by its low budget.
>install ps2 emulator
>get suikoden 3 iso
>boot it up
>everything is 3d now
>instantly dropped
3d has no charm.
>>339216846
You should get all 108 characters in Suikoden I and II because with the save state transfer, you get bonuses in the next game for having all 108. But Suikoden III was the last game to have the save transfer. If you don't get all 108 characters in Suikoden III, it doesn't matter. Can't transfer the save to Suikoden IV.
>>339217003
Literally the only good thing about the game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA_gDnwcdZ8
>>339216846
no, but all the endings are strong in their own right. I'd say play it blind once then go again for a complete play
>>339216996
>This has been the case for a long, long time. It's much faster and easier to make some cheap 3D like Suikoden 3 was than to spend all the time making great 2D sprite art which 2 had.
In later generations, it is cheaper to make a 3D game as it cuts down on resources. But not at the beginning of the PS2 era. Plus, a lot of the games these days use a pre built engine like Unity or Source. Suikoden III had to make an engine from scratch.
If they had made Suikoden III using the engine from Suikoden II, then it would have been cheaper by far. Just like how Castlevania kept churning out 2D games on the same two engines. And then used the shitty nanobreaker engine to make the 3D Castlevania games.
>>339217338
a gawd that OP just makes me erect. IV's OP music wasnt half bad either, but the visuals were awful.
>>339217003
The 3D in Suikoden III basically looks like a brighter version of Ocarina of Time. So I didn't mind it too much. What also made it easier was that while the 3D designs are so primitive and slow, the UI of the game is one of the best I've ever seen. So I actually enjoyed min/maxing all my stats and constantly using the menu.
>>339209205
Suikoden 3 is decent. It's fairly innovative with the three different character paths, and with the ending being a bit different because you can attach True Runes to different people. It also featured a new and very different skill system compared to Sui2, something which may not make much sense at first.
On the other hand, Sui3 had some strange problems. Your party is grouped into three "units" of two characters each. They get one action each and move independently about the battlefield performing it. This means that a mage might rush up and try punching someone in the face, because you selected the attack option for the front character to hit an enemy. It also means your characters can (and almost always will) rush forward and get caught in any damaging spells you toss out.
Suikoden 5 is my favorite of the series. What I like about it is that every character gets at least a short story surrounding them, if not a plot branch. One thing that annoyed me with earlier Suikoden titles is how almost half the 108 stars were either random recruits you found in bars, or were generic blacksmith/innkeeper/gambler upgrades who just signed on and had no dialogue past that. Sui5 did a good job of even making the innkeepers and shopkeepers noteworthy, with a reason for joining. Oh, and (somewhat) different endings.
The negative aspect of Sui5 are the load times, especially around the main camp. The army battles changed to a Tactics-like grid combat system, as opposed to the rock-paper-scissors combat. (That is still there in duels, though.) Everything about the game is quite easy, both fights and bosses and the above war combats. And the tactician you get this time around is ALWAYS RIGHT ABOUT ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING, which makes following the story a bit uninteresting. Ghee, my tactician says we need to retreat at this point. I wonder what we're going to be doing soon.
I've not played Suikoden 4, so can't say much about that one.
>>339217696
>Suikoden 5 is my favorite of the series. What I like about it is that every character gets at least a short story surrounding them, if not a plot branch. One thing that annoyed me with earlier Suikoden titles is how almost half the 108 stars were either random recruits you found in bars, or were generic blacksmith/innkeeper/gambler upgrades who just signed on and had no dialogue past that. Sui5 did a good job of even making the innkeepers and shopkeepers noteworthy, with a reason for joining. Oh, and (somewhat) different endings.
But its kind of the opposite. Suikoden II had small story arcs for most of its characters, but well over half the cast of Suikoden V had nothing. Or you'd get a bunch of characters who all shared the same story arc like the beavers or the girls from the fishing village.
>>339217941
>>339217696
They're both pretty much the same. Both games had a bunch of characters with small story arcs and a bunch of characters with pretty much nothing to them. Neither one is better than the other in this regard.
Suikoden III had the best dogs, Koroku is even based enough to know Jeane's secret.
>>339215753
>Tyr drunk
god damn it tyr, get a hold of yourself.
>>339218224
Fuck Jeane's secret.
I wanna know Viki's secret. Like why she can blink through time and why her younger self appeared and is smarter than her older self.
Sierra is best girl
>>339220981
Well duh.
>>339220845
I want a game where you control Viki. And she keeps involuntarily warping through time. Each new time period she goes to is having a major war, but through her ditzy antics and time travel, you stop all the wars from happening.
