Suikoden is a JRPG originally released in 1995 for the PlayStation and was later ported to Sega Saturn and PCs. Since it was an early PS1 title and a JRPG to boot, it retains the 2D sprite graphics from the SNES era. This does allow the presentation to age quite well. One glaring flaw is that the game needs a good tutorial because it does not explain anything. It's really frustrating since the game has such an outdated design too and you have no idea how to even use magic. The descriptions for things are hidden within the inventory menu so you need to already know the item's or spell's effect during battle because it won't tell you then. Suikoden has a simple turn based combat system. You can have up to six characters in your party, and they can all participate in battles. You can arrange the characters into two rows, therefore formation is important as some characters can attack from the back row while others cannot. You can also use an item, defend or cast magic. Two characters may also have the option to join together and complete a unite attack. For weak enemies, there is an option for auto-battle.
Magic is based upon whatever Rune you have attached to your character. While there is no MP bar, spells have a limited number of uses before you have to rest at an inn to reset it. One of the biggest draws to the game is that the player can recruit up to 108 characters to their cause. While not all are usable in the party, the majority of them can. It's not obvious though and some are hidden quite well. Each character has different stats that suit them to a particular role, however, the game is designed such that you can theoretically pick any party and still be able to beat the bosses. Even though there are so many characters, a lot of them do not have much characterization and feels like they are there just to make up the 108. If a character dies in battle, they're usually dead for the whole duration as there is no mention of resurrection during early game. Having your party wiped out means restarting from the last save.
Due to the game having so many playable characters, your party changes all the time. This is forced upon you due to story reasons and it gets annoying as inventory is tied to characters. Furthermore, you need to upgrade their equipment again and this makes it really expensive. You can only buy defensive equipment as each character keeps their original weapons, but they require sharpening at a blacksmith to increase in attack power. The worst part is when you have geared up all your party members ready to go and the game forces upon you an additional character so you need to kick one out. The last thing is that newly recruited characters are much lower than your party's levels at the time. Experience scales, so while you'll have characters whose levels are 10+ lower than what you have currently feels like a massive disincentive to use them, they jump in levels to catch up really quickly.
The game has not aged well in terms of menu design. The clunky inventory management system is the biggest negative. You need to move a piece of equipment to a character's inventory before you can use it. Finding items in treasure chests will automatically put it to the next character with free slots. If one character doesn't have any medicine in their inventory, they cannot use it while another character might have six of them at the same time. You'll eventually get used to it. It's also very easy to get lost and not know where to go next. As expected, the game features random encounters which are quite low in the beginning... but then you get to the point where it is a battle every two to three steps and it starts to get really annoying. The early bosses are easy until you get a tiny bit further into the game and bam, it throws you with a hard hitting boss that can attack the whole party at once. It does not help that when just before facing the boss, you got two new characters with horrendous armor, forcing you to grind enough money just to buy the decent equipment. You end up having to rely on the money exploit to get the best gear at any point and it's a shame that they made everything so expensive.
As you can only save at save points and inns, it hurts when the developers did not put a save point right before a tough boss. If you accidentally stumble upon them (and there is no indication at times that you're about to face a boss) without preparation after trekking through a tough dungeon and lose, it's frustrating to lose all that progress. The story hast he player take control of the son of General McDohl. Able to name the player character, he finds himself joining the Imperial Army along with his friends. Of course, this soon takes a turn for the worst and he ends up travelling the world in order to eventually save it. The story can be quite political at it calls into question the corruptness of the Empire. While the story is very slow in the beginning, and doesn't really pick up for most of the game, during the last part, you might realize that you are enjoying it. As you get closer to recruiting all the characters and seeing your army grown, it gives a sense of satisfaction. True, the story never goes above the simple plot of the hero defeating the corrupted emperor in order to save the world but it carries its charms. The game is short for a JRPG though, taking only 15-25 hours, depending on whether you are following a walkthrough or grind for money.
There are a few sections where the normal battle system doesn't come into play; rather, it changes into a rock, paper, scissors type of minigame. It's really annoying given that it is down to luck for the earlier battles. You eventually gain abilities that make it a lot easier. It doesn't help that some of them you are meant to lose, while others will dictate whether or not a character dies permanently. Overall, Suikoden is still a solid JRPG in this day and age. The menus and inventory system has definitely not aged well but everything else, from the story to the sheer amount of playable characters (which is still unique to this series because it's not a monster collection, each character has their own backstory, however brief). The sprites and 2D graphics shouldn't be a barrier and the random encounters aren't too bad, so Suikoden is well worth a play if you are interested to see what all the hype was about.
----------------------------------------------
For other game reviews, have a look at this page.