Suikoden
I'm glad to see Konami take a shot at the RPG frontier. And for one of their first US RPGs, Suikoden turns out to be a good little romp. What sets this aside from other RPGs is the fact that there's 108 different characters to find, build, & use on your party. It might seem excessive & not all the members get their fair share of story time. But at least anyone can find a character they like. Another neat feature was when you had to construct the castle that would contain so many warriors. As the story progresses & as you obtain more friends, the castle grows & changes to fit the likeness & needs of the characters. The graphics aren't all that exciting. They appear to be of 16-bit nature like Super Nintendo. I just don't know why companies can't put effort into RPG graphics. However they retain their Anime-flair. And the other problem I had was with the ending. Due to the ridiculous amount of characters, most of them just get a small paragraph that sums up what they did afterwards. However, the story is interesting enough with the several characters it focuses on to keep you going. And the battle system isn't that bad either. The game even has several mini-games & plenty of side quests too. It's far from perfect, but Suikoden got enough reasons to make you take a look.
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Codes & Tips |
| Category | Score | How & Why |
| Graphics | 7 | 16-bit Anime Style / Could have used more Detail & Playstation special effects |
| Music | 9 | Very Heroic & Inspiring / Almost rivals Square's Soundtracks |
| Gameplay | 8 | Your Basic Menu-Driven Battles / Moves are Interesting & Keep your Eyes Peeled |
| Innovation | 8 | Really an Average RPG / 108 Characters ensure you'll find a character all your own |
| Replay | 7 | You'll Play to See How the Story Turns out / But there's too many characters to give credit too & actually give you time to Develope |
Overall Score: 7.8
Written by ShinjiZ - Last Updated: 7-1-1999