Together RPG - Suikoden - 3/11/14 -> 5/11/14

[Violent By Design]

Soooo, why does the dragon sound like an elephant?

Heh, anyway, I started playing tonight. Put in 2 hours, level 10 and just made it to the town of Sarady.

I'm really enjoying it so far, and the music is fantastic.

Thats how Dragons sound like.

[pierrot]

Didn't make much progress last night, but I'm on my way to the dwarf village. I encountered another weird change in the Kobolt Village, where the game just skipped the fight against Kuromimi. I don't really understand the change; Sure it's relatively unnecessary, but it feels weird without it. The screen just goes blank for a second, and comes right back to the Kobolt Village. Whatever.

Soooo, why does the dragon sound like an elephant?

Heh, anyway, I started playing tonight. Put in 2 hours, level 10 and just made it to the town of Sarady.

I'm really enjoying it so far, and the music is fantastic.

Suikoden is not the most polished game in the series, but it is still a great story to play through, and I just love all the characters and locations. Also, prove that a dragon doesn't sound like an elephant. 0_o

I was reintroduced to my favorite track from the game last night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDPjwRigLDQ
I've played the game so many times that the OST has been made less impressive to me over the years, but it's still great work (in part) from Higashino Miki: composer of the original Gradius soundtrack.

[BogusMeatFactory]

I started playing this about a week ago and am having a really hard time getting into the game. Here is where I left off.

I just went to Saraday to pick up the plans for the weapon that will help in fighting the corrupt empire.

Although the music and combat system are all very engaging and interesting, I find it difficult to plod through the story. I find it very predictable and there are certain elements involved that frustrate me, as they offer the illusion of choice, but do nothing.

For instance,

On the mountain path towards Saraday, your team come across an inn with a clearly shady person. It acts like you have the option to move on and not stay there, but no matter your choice, you are stuck having to stay there. You are offered tea that is clearly drugged and you are given options that, no matter what you do, lead to you being drugged. That is frustrating as it serves no purpose to offer choices when nothing different comes of it.

Another instance of feeling like you are being pulled in directions that you don't want to be going is the initial fight with one of the first "bosses" the ant queen. I was fighting her with no problem, dealing damage and having zero threat of being hurt, taking no damage during each turn, yet the story tells me that the fight is too hard, takes over in order to push the plot forward. It was unnecessary for Ted to unleash that spell when I had no threat of dying at any point in time!

Also Ted and his storyline seems so strange.

I get it, he is 300 years old, so why is he hanging out with the main character. How could he not smell the plot that was brewing in the kingdom? Why in the world did he use that spell on the ant queen? The naivete of the character seemed so out of place and unusual. This carries over to a lot of character motivations that do not make sense.

I am finding it a struggle as I don't have much care for the character's, they are thrown in haphazardly and there is little build up in making you interested in their plight.

I want to like it and want to try and continue with the story, but it seems difficult. Any words of encouragement or advice?

[Stark]

I want to like it and want to try and continue with the story, but it seems difficult. Any words of encouragement or advice?

The story and how characters are handled is better in Suikoden II. This is the first game quite like this and IMO they nailed the gameplay mechanics right out of the gate and other bits of polish didn't come until the sequels.

[pierrot]

The argument that the game presents a lot of false choice in the early game is not invalid. A lot of what those choices do is just present some (sometimes only slightly) different interactions. I don't think it's incongruent with the theme of the game, however; and the early part of the game is largely attempting to set the rest of the story up, so I can forgive the false choice. The game's story is really predicated on the idea of destiny, and overcoming it; not just through choice, but through persistence, and bonds between people. To me, these choices all funneling into the same event establishes this sense of predetermination. (Both literally, and figuratively.) As the game progresses, there are choices, and actions that result in markedly different outcomes with regard to the proceding events, and the game as a whole.

To be honest, the game doesn't really make it into its own wheel-house until nearly the half-way point: well into the point at which one is recruiting to build an army. The beginning of the game is always a rough sell these days, but I encourage you to stick with it a bit, bogus.

[Stark]

So if you go here: http://us.playstation.com/games/suikoden-ps3-psp.html, it says that it is for PS Vita. But if you click on "Buy Download" it redirects you to another page that just says PS3 and PSP. Also, as MrPopo said, it is not available on the Vita's store ... I'll buy it and see if I can get it onto the Vita via the PS3 method.

[pierrot]

For real, tho'; What the hell? I've gone up the Dwarf Mountain Path at least six times now, and I'm beset by the same fate each time: Kuromimi walks up, mumbles a little, then as my party is about to fan out for a conversation, the game locks up. It's frozen on me twice before this during battles, but I was able to move past those. This one locks up the exact same way every time. I've tried a number of times with my legit copy; tried once with my backup copy (that is not a backup of my legit copy); tried with my JP Saturn. Nothing. Is this one of those games that doesn't like Model 2 Saturns, I wonder. That would seriously suck. I was looking forward to at least seeing the bonus content in this version. Instead, I've spent probably ten hours (including the multiple times I've gone through the first half of the mountain path) putting up with the bull crap bugs and third-rate programming for nothing.

It pains me to say this, but the Saturn version of this game sucks. I am not amused.

[laurenhiya21]

Played a bit today, but I didn't get too far because I had to grind bleck. At least I haven't had to do much grinding before now...

And I'm not sure if anyone else has this problem, but I'm really finding the story very forgettable. I mean I am a bit absent-minded, but a character will say we gotta go attack somebody and I just won't get why. Maybe it's just because I have a hard time remembering names? DX At least the battles and the characters are interesting enough to keep me going...

*Kinda major spoiler...*

Although they just had to kill off my favourite character gaah ;-; I thought Gremio was awesome... Keep on calling him Ferio though derp

[Stark]

So this is totally not the game I remember playing in college. The game I remember had army building mechanics in it ... Is that a later entry in the series or am I thinking of a different game? I have to know!

Got it loaded on Vita via PS3, make sure you download it, but don't install it to the PS3 or it won't load on the Vita.

like it so far, seems like pretty standard JRPG fare.

[Jmustang1968]

So this is totally not the game I remember playing in college. The game I remember had army building mechanics in it ... Is that a later entry in the series or am I thinking of a different game? I have to know!

Got it loaded on Vita via PS3, make sure you download it, but don't install it to the PS3 or it won't load on the Vita.

like it so far, seems like pretty standard JRPG fare.

There are some army type mechanics, but it is more of a side or mini game. You gather a lot of characters.