I disagree with you about poor characters/characterization Every major character is given clear motivations, set of ethics, etc. But thanks to the 108 character scope, its impossible to follow up with them as regularly as we get to see in say, Xenogears. Camus and Milkotov, loyal to honor and friendship respectively. Patriots who betrayed their oaths in obedience to virtue. Mathiu, a hardened cynic who faked years of sociopathy who was convinced to join the cause by appealing to who he was on the inside. And we get a peak of that character without being outright told, but through actions. Seed and Culgan, who made the opposite choice as milk and camus, but see a potential savation for their honor in the new leader Jowy. Nanami, whose steadfast refusal to believe that things were getting worse was equally pathetic and eye opening. Palika. Nuff said. Theresa who couldnt give up on her city Annabelle. Nuff said I think. Many more
yeah, it was very stunning to me, hearing that assessment of the characters and plot. i'd never heard a takeaway like that before. to me suikoden 2's lifeblood is its heartwarming, endearing, and compelling characters, and the war plot is clever and fascinating, especially with regard to the believable tactics used by shu and jowy to overcome overwhelming odds, the betrayals, and the relatable human emotion consistently fueling it all - the genkaku and cunningham backstory, pilika, anabelle, etc etc. suikoden 2 lives on its characters, and how their lives are shaped by the twists and turns of war. even tiny characters on the periphery are characterized briefly but with such efficiency that they come alive - alex and hilda, rina and eilie, tai ho and yam koo, humphrey, futch, jess, rowd... the examples are endless
I know that this is a comment on a six-year-old video and might never be seen, but I wanted to weigh in on the idea that the runes themselves either are, or are not sentient. They are canonically sentient. This is even displayed in suikoden 1 and 2 with the existence of the Star dragon sword, being a sentient manifestation of the true night rune. That is what gives the sword the power to take the lives of vampires, as well as the reason that it is alive.
I thought Luca Blight was absolutely augmented by the Beast Rune. Even though he didn't bear the rune on his body, it still influenced his actions. It was the cause of his unquenchable blood-lust and his fierce aggression. Sure, because of what happened to him as a child, he was messed up, but the rune saw that in him and the two were drawn to each other. And like a wild beast, Luca Blight was even more dangerous once he was cornered and wounded.
I've been following this channel for a couple of years on an off (mostly on, sometimes off) but I never said how much I liked your work... you rock, keep it up. With that out of the way... this is why I keep coming back. Brilliant analysis! I have always loved Suikoden, so my eyes went wide when I saw that you had made this. Very interesting take on the true runes, etc... as I said, keep it up. You have a gift.
New subscriber but a Suikoden vet!! Love this game, great job on covering it! I still have a mint ps1 copy of this game. I've played the entire series many times. Thank you for continuing to bring life to it!
I was kinda disappointed that you didn't mention the Rune of Beginning, and how its central nature is conflict. There's an argument to be made that Riou and Jowy became the leaders of opposite armies because of the nature of that rune, and that the peaceful resolution at the end was again as a result of its nature. Riou could only save Jowy and no longer fight him, once the Rune of Beginning had been satisfied that the conflict throughout the region was over, and part of that was dealing with the Beast Rune. Another interpretation I like to consider is Luca Blight's relationship to the Beast Rune, that Luca Blight was the chief and indirect vassel of the Beast Rune. He certainly seems to be acting in a way that benefits the Beast Rune's ignoble aspects, though you can see his sister, Jilia, having the more noble aspects of the Beast Rune. I also consider that "Beast" is a bit too negative a name and that it better represents animals in general, and the Blight siblings represent the predator/prey split of animals. Finally (though I could talk about S2 for hours), the nature of the true runes. I personally side with the force of nature interpretation, to that end on what would happen if a True Rune was destroyed. In my opinion it would be like removing a force of nature, it would affect the world as a whole. For example, if the True Wind Rune was destroyed, then no more wind. Windmills would become useless, sailing with this tech would be much more difficult etc. So if the Beast Rune was destroyed, no more animals. Just how far that would effect is difficult to say e.g. do humans fall under the Beast Rune's domain (I'd argue yes), but animals can simply not exist in this world without it, just as dragons can't without the Dragon Rune. Anyway just my thoughts and great video.
I got lucky the year it came out. It was around Christmas time, and my dad had asked a friend of mine what I might like in terms of games. I hadn't even heard of Suikoden, or even that it was coming out, but he had the first one and was getting the second one, so he told my father to pick it up for me. I still have all of the Suikoden main titles in a binder, with their booklets/cases in a box. I adore the hell out of this game, and even though I am not that into JRPGs anymore, I do agree, the SNES/PS1 systems were really where the best of those genres had come out.
In preparation for your next rumination I've been replaying Legend of Dragoon. One of the things I've noticed is that I find myself going out of my way to make sure I get every cut-scene or scene of dialogue. It made me realize that I do that for essentially any game I play. Curious do you ever find yourself doing the same thing? I ask because most of the other people I've discussed this with think I'm being foolish and wasting my time. My argument has been that I see every cut-scene, in any game, as having the potential to develop the characters. Your thoughts?
No I'm pretty much with you on this one. Let me relate it to how things were in the SNES era; back then I'd go out of my way to talk to every NPC I had access to, and re-talk to them when major events changed in the story. Oftentimes it'd be the same dialogue, but sometimes it'd be new, and I wanted to get all the story I could.
you must have had a field day with that in trails in the sky as thats one of it's major points. speaking of that it seems odd your gong to do only the first game as supposed to waiting until you finish both and do one big rumination. [ they were one story broken up into two games as it got too big] but hey requests and all that. edit: ignore that question i got my answer during todays stream.
I meant gold wolves in muse. By sacrificing the whole city of muse. They were able to revive the beast rune. And in essences that why u figure him at the end of the gamd
This is something I've wanted to see you do for a while now. Awesome! Still hoping to see you do a rumination on the Dragon Quest series at some point too.
3 things. The person u couldn't remember her name was Vikki, Vikki teleports thru each video game. Doesn't matter the year. 2nd thing. No real suikoden can would ever forget Viktor or flikk. 3rd thing. The beast rune. .ok let me say this, when u are in muse. They use the beast rune to sacrifice the whole town. That's how the good wolves get into muse. They are sacrificing the whole town of muse so they can use the beast rune . u need a lot of blood sacrifice, at the end of game u fight beast rune but I don't remember how it was summoned
What you described in terms of the scarcity of the game and its poor marketing, is very similar to what happened to Xenogears. In the case of Suikoden, I did not have a chance to play it for a long count of years. I did however, chance upon a Copy of Xenogears early in its life by purchasing it from a friend who did not care for it, for the paltry sum of twenty bucks! I think it was within two years that copies were going for hundreds of dollars!
so is it just me or does anyone else get a batman feel from viktor? so i always read Neclord as Nicolas thinking of it as a french spelling of the name or something (yay dyslexia) as for the true runes i think they have there own mind but work kind of like the symbiote from spider man were if they join with someone that is not right (mentally or physically) it corrupts them in some way and insodoing makes the person they're bonded with worce (the whole power doesn't corrupt it just lets them be themselves with no masks thing) as we know before Neclord the night rune was fine and i believe after it returns to been fine, now i think that True Runes act as focal points for fate just like the 108 do, the second that they start to interact with the world the strings of destiny are blowing in the wind until they run their course.
Depends on your taste. I didn't like S3 all that much because I hated backtracking constantly to get all 108 stars. Even though S5 starts slow, it definitely involves the 108 stars of destiny and the game felt like the ultimate culmination of the series in full 3D (Then again, I still haven't played S4).
+RockingtheRaikou The one thing I dislike about S5 are the very bland environments. It has the unfortunate combination of having nice character models (at least for main characters) but poor backgrounds and lifeless looking NPC's. I find it more forgiving to have games with poor models, but lush and varied settings, like FF7 for example. But S5 is great in terms the characters and making use of such a large cast. It's what saves the game I'd say, and I quite liked having a royal main character, rather than a modest nobody like a lot of RPG's feature. Also, have you played Tales Of Vesperia or Shadow Hearts: Covenant? If you haven't you should try them. Covenant in particular is one of the best JRPG's from the entire PS2 era.
Agree.... they even make perfectly good Castlevania IP into pachinko machines... Everyone in the company higher ups are basically all blood related family. cmiiw
Here I am 6 years later, read masters of one and two on the horizon, and Konami announcing that it is part of their plan to release suikoden 6. I love that this turned out to be wrong.
Really, your points about central story and arcs should GET more people to check the game out considering how often we just get a very formulaic approach to a clear-cut hero's journey story. There's absolutely nothing with slice of life or whatever you want to call it if the game does its themes well. It's probably the best way to get attached to characters, in my opinion. Where do you stand with Suikogaidens?
The only one that comes to mind worthy of talking about is Tierkris (probably spelling that wrong), and honestly that was... an okay game for me, but nothing I've ever really felt the desire to replay.
6:30 - Is it really true, because Suikoden 1 seems like a fair elaborated game from my point of view, don´t think they did it after 2 or beta... From Yoshitaka Murayama himself, he does not comment that as being that beta for 2, although what you said might be true, but surely does not look like it at all...
I actually would've liked to hear your thoughts regarding Pesmerga and Yuber. Those two seemed to be linked in an eternal conflict. Its too bad they dropped that subplot in S3. Also, something that irked me regarding this game is how the major characters in Riou's army were using him. Riou just feels like a placeholder, not so much a leader. And also your thoughts on the ending? I've seen fans on forums say how the true ending felt too optimistic with the kids leaving on a journey. I think there are quite a few people who would say that Jowy's death is a better thematic ending.
I don't mind the ending, mainly because of my 'day in the life' comments. The idea of the ending, for me, is that the story goes on even past the game's end, basically.
I've been itching to play one of the RPGs in my backlog, either Suikoden or Tales of Xillia. I think I'll go with Suikoden and Suikoden II. Thanks for the rumination, great as always. Hope to see Chrono Cross someday ;)
16:30 - I would not say you can speak about different dimensions in the Suiko series because actually there are only most of the time different worlds and not dimensions, maybe with the exception of Viki, and of course not talking about Tierkreis, brrrrrrr...
Six-year-old comment, I know, but I just happened to see it. There were confirmed multiple dimensions across the series, the gate rune was literally a gate between them. Most evidence for it is in the third game, with Viki teleporting in an alternate universe version of herself when she sneezed, and using the pale gate rune attack, "empty world," literally transported the battle to another dimension.
Also, how come this is a rare game? It was literally in all basic stores all over Central Europe, and we get only the best selling games if anything at all, we're a neglected market that is run by piracy... and I remember seeing the original copies of this game even in places like Media Markt...
yay Suikoden (because of my dyslexia learned to pronounce it Sue Ko den skipping the I altogether) so im proud to say i still have my original copy of 2, 4 and 5 (i have an original copy of 1 but its not the first one i had, i gave that to my older brother and he LOST IT but i was able to get a new one for $4 second hand (this was back when it first came out, i dont have Suikoden 3 on the list as i never played it as it didnt come out in the UK till much later i dont know when it came out but it was after 5 i think) Suikoden 1 along with FF7 taught me to read when my school had given up on me so they have a special place in my heart, so even though i dont own as PS anymore there is no way im getting rid of them games. characters that stick in my mind are Ted, victor, luc (i wanted to slap him/her so much) neclord and luca blight (i didnt know this fight was coming i only beat it thanks to my character flaw of overleveling in any RPG i had 8 over leveled characters at the point of the fight)
Well, no, it is not like Destiny has been fulfilled if you get 108 stars, but that Destiny can be changed more easily - ´easilier´ - when you do that actually... I can change destiny in Suikoden even with less stars recruited if you may, i can end the game (and defeat the boss and end the war, or lose to it) without all of them, but some results, specially revival ones (of our dead friends for instance), would not be changed without all 108 stars of destiny... Like Leknaat says specially in Suiko IV, "Destiny is not decided"...
Jowy? 'More good' than Delita? Although I have to admit that I may be automatically negatively biased against him because of how much this game tries to whitewash him. Maybe he got affected by the Rune's influence? Maybe. But the game doesn't mention that angle all to often, if at all. The dude 'must have had a reason for doing this', to paraphrase the in-game discussion of the matter. I can see where you are coming from on this point, but... I am getting Mary Sue vibes from him, even if he and Delita are similar in concise summation on paper. Something about his presentation made me think 'my goodness, when the game would allow me to strangle this little snot?' XXX In regards to True Runes' sentience... IMHO, there are examples for and against both of those options you've mentioned. If we take Suikoden 2 specifically, the dual runes the two main characters get seem to be all about a manifestation of a concept that doesn't have any option to do anything but what it does; at the same time there is the talking sword that is apparently also a Rune and even seems to have some character to it. XXX But if Luca was 'just a guy', he wouldn't be able to withstand not caring about injuries in such a manner. I'd argue that the Beast Rune played a part in there. Otherwise he'd either die in the first serious engagement or get ganged up by his own people and torn into wet rags. XXX In regards to Nec/ro/lord, his arc is, IMHO, extremely harmed with how his segments ended up as saturday morning cartoon villain boring sidequests. XXX In concept, Nanami may be a good feature of the story. In practice, however, I have hated her guts. Not because of any 'refusal of the call' or 'audience stand-in', or less-than-smart character dislike I have (I don't), no. I simply found her to be an extremely unlikable character, that was also shoved into the game way too often for my taste. Also, slapstick 'comedy' can go die in a fire.
If you actually look up how the Japanese say it it's pronounced soo-ee-kau-den or it fast speech it gets reduced to sooy-kau-den, not swee-koh-den...it sounds so horrible how you say it and I can't figure out why would anyone read it that way where does the idea even come from, when you look at the word written down it doesn't look like something that could be pronounced with a "swee", wtf...
Thank you very much for your time and words.
The base building mechanic and the trade mechanic have always been an inspiration for D&D adventures, especially in the Forgotten Realms setting. :)
I disagree with you about poor characters/characterization
Every major character is given clear motivations, set of ethics, etc. But thanks to the 108 character scope, its impossible to follow up with them as regularly as we get to see in say, Xenogears.
Camus and Milkotov, loyal to honor and friendship respectively. Patriots who betrayed their oaths in obedience to virtue.
Mathiu, a hardened cynic who faked years of sociopathy who was convinced to join the cause by appealing to who he was on the inside. And we get a peak of that character without being outright told, but through actions.
Seed and Culgan, who made the opposite choice as milk and camus, but see a potential savation for their honor in the new leader Jowy.
Nanami, whose steadfast refusal to believe that things were getting worse was equally pathetic and eye opening.
Palika. Nuff said.
Theresa who couldnt give up on her city
Annabelle. Nuff said I think.
Many more
nuff said brother
yeah, it was very stunning to me, hearing that assessment of the characters and plot. i'd never heard a takeaway like that before. to me suikoden 2's lifeblood is its heartwarming, endearing, and compelling characters, and the war plot is clever and fascinating, especially with regard to the believable tactics used by shu and jowy to overcome overwhelming odds, the betrayals, and the relatable human emotion consistently fueling it all - the genkaku and cunningham backstory, pilika, anabelle, etc etc.
suikoden 2 lives on its characters, and how their lives are shaped by the twists and turns of war. even tiny characters on the periphery are characterized briefly but with such efficiency that they come alive - alex and hilda, rina and eilie, tai ho and yam koo, humphrey, futch, jess, rowd... the examples are endless
Even in the best ending Pilika didnt get to be with Jowy
I know that this is a comment on a six-year-old video and might never be seen, but I wanted to weigh in on the idea that the runes themselves either are, or are not sentient. They are canonically sentient. This is even displayed in suikoden 1 and 2 with the existence of the Star dragon sword, being a sentient manifestation of the true night rune. That is what gives the sword the power to take the lives of vampires, as well as the reason that it is alive.
I thought Luca Blight was absolutely augmented by the Beast Rune. Even though he didn't bear the rune on his body, it still influenced his actions. It was the cause of his unquenchable blood-lust and his fierce aggression. Sure, because of what happened to him as a child, he was messed up, but the rune saw that in him and the two were drawn to each other. And like a wild beast, Luca Blight was even more dangerous once he was cornered and wounded.
I've been following this channel for a couple of years on an off (mostly on, sometimes off) but I never said how much I liked your work... you rock, keep it up. With that out of the way... this is why I keep coming back. Brilliant analysis! I have always loved Suikoden, so my eyes went wide when I saw that you had made this. Very interesting take on the true runes, etc... as I said, keep it up. You have a gift.
At 8 minutes "I don't have much to say about Suikoden 2." One hour later. :D
One of my favorite RPGs, awesome to see you talk about it!
New subscriber but a Suikoden vet!! Love this game, great job on covering it! I still have a mint ps1 copy of this game. I've played the entire series many times. Thank you for continuing to bring life to it!
I wish they would remaster all of the Suikoden games and get them on PC. I'd buy them in a heartbeat. I'd overpay.
oh man...that will be a dream......forever😭😭😭
@@DisoulsoundOfficial THE DREAM US NOW TRUE
gosh thanks for a great hour, loved every minute of it!
ack now I want to see a lore run of all the Suikodens, has arch done any?
I was kinda disappointed that you didn't mention the Rune of Beginning, and how its central nature is conflict. There's an argument to be made that Riou and Jowy became the leaders of opposite armies because of the nature of that rune, and that the peaceful resolution at the end was again as a result of its nature. Riou could only save Jowy and no longer fight him, once the Rune of Beginning had been satisfied that the conflict throughout the region was over, and part of that was dealing with the Beast Rune.
Another interpretation I like to consider is Luca Blight's relationship to the Beast Rune, that Luca Blight was the chief and indirect vassel of the Beast Rune. He certainly seems to be acting in a way that benefits the Beast Rune's ignoble aspects, though you can see his sister, Jilia, having the more noble aspects of the Beast Rune. I also consider that "Beast" is a bit too negative a name and that it better represents animals in general, and the Blight siblings represent the predator/prey split of animals.
Finally (though I could talk about S2 for hours), the nature of the true runes. I personally side with the force of nature interpretation, to that end on what would happen if a True Rune was destroyed. In my opinion it would be like removing a force of nature, it would affect the world as a whole. For example, if the True Wind Rune was destroyed, then no more wind. Windmills would become useless, sailing with this tech would be much more difficult etc. So if the Beast Rune was destroyed, no more animals. Just how far that would effect is difficult to say e.g. do humans fall under the Beast Rune's domain (I'd argue yes), but animals can simply not exist in this world without it, just as dragons can't without the Dragon Rune.
Anyway just my thoughts and great video.
I got lucky the year it came out. It was around Christmas time, and my dad had asked a friend of mine what I might like in terms of games. I hadn't even heard of Suikoden, or even that it was coming out, but he had the first one and was getting the second one, so he told my father to pick it up for me. I still have all of the Suikoden main titles in a binder, with their booklets/cases in a box. I adore the hell out of this game, and even though I am not that into JRPGs anymore, I do agree, the SNES/PS1 systems were really where the best of those genres had come out.
In preparation for your next rumination I've been replaying Legend of Dragoon. One of the things I've noticed is that I find myself going out of my way to make sure I get every cut-scene or scene of dialogue. It made me realize that I do that for essentially any game I play. Curious do you ever find yourself doing the same thing? I ask because most of the other people I've discussed this with think I'm being foolish and wasting my time. My argument has been that I see every cut-scene, in any game, as having the potential to develop the characters. Your thoughts?
No I'm pretty much with you on this one. Let me relate it to how things were in the SNES era; back then I'd go out of my way to talk to every NPC I had access to, and re-talk to them when major events changed in the story. Oftentimes it'd be the same dialogue, but sometimes it'd be new, and I wanted to get all the story I could.
you must have had a field day with that in trails in the sky as thats one of it's major points. speaking of that it seems odd your gong to do only the first game as supposed to waiting until you finish both and do one big rumination. [ they were one story broken up into two games as it got too big] but hey requests and all that.
edit: ignore that question i got my answer during todays stream.
Sierra. She was the leader the Moon Village and original bearer of the Moon Rune.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Blue Moon Rune seduced and brought out the worst traits of Neclord to go for a very enthusiastic walk.
I called her Lek-naat for years, till 4 or 5 when she said I am Le-Naat. Silent K...
I meant gold wolves in muse. By sacrificing the whole city of muse. They were able to revive the beast rune. And in essences that why u figure him at the end of the gamd
This is something I've wanted to see you do for a while now. Awesome!
Still hoping to see you do a rumination on the Dragon Quest series at some point too.
I would love to see a rummination on Legend of Legaia.
3 things. The person u couldn't remember her name was Vikki, Vikki teleports thru each video game. Doesn't matter the year. 2nd thing. No real suikoden can would ever forget Viktor or flikk. 3rd thing. The beast rune. .ok let me say this, when u are in muse. They use the beast rune to sacrifice the whole town. That's how the good wolves get into muse. They are sacrificing the whole town of muse so they can use the beast rune . u need a lot of blood sacrifice, at the end of game u fight beast rune but I don't remember how it was summoned
Can i post on here a link from Gamefaqs on how to get Suikoden 2 on your psp?
What you described in terms of the scarcity of the game and its poor marketing, is very similar to what happened to Xenogears. In the case of Suikoden, I did not have a chance to play it for a long count of years. I did however, chance upon a Copy of Xenogears early in its life by purchasing it from a friend who did not care for it, for the paltry sum of twenty bucks! I think it was within two years that copies were going for hundreds of dollars!
Is that a recorded ambient background you can share? It sounds very relaxing. It's a good tone for the rumination as well.
could i request a rumination on suikoden 1?
so is it just me or does anyone else get a batman feel from viktor?
so i always read Neclord as Nicolas thinking of it as a french spelling of the name or something (yay dyslexia)
as for the true runes i think they have there own mind but work kind of like the symbiote from spider man were if they join with someone that is not right (mentally or physically) it corrupts them in some way and insodoing makes the person they're bonded with worce (the whole power doesn't corrupt it just lets them be themselves with no masks thing) as we know before Neclord the night rune was fine and i believe after it returns to been fine, now i think that True Runes act as focal points for fate just like the 108 do, the second that they start to interact with the world the strings of destiny are blowing in the wind until they run their course.
any chance we can get you to ruminate on 5 next? its tied with 2 for my favorite.
Same here, S5 is awesome.
Depends on your taste. I didn't like S3 all that much because I hated backtracking constantly to get all 108 stars. Even though S5 starts slow, it definitely involves the 108 stars of destiny and the game felt like the ultimate culmination of the series in full 3D (Then again, I still haven't played S4).
+RockingtheRaikou The one thing I dislike about S5 are the very bland environments. It has the unfortunate combination of having nice character models (at least for main characters) but poor backgrounds and lifeless looking NPC's. I find it more forgiving to have games with poor models, but lush and varied settings, like FF7 for example. But S5 is great in terms the characters and making use of such a large cast. It's what saves the game I'd say, and I quite liked having a royal main character, rather than a modest nobody like a lot of RPG's feature. Also, have you played Tales Of Vesperia or Shadow Hearts: Covenant? If you haven't you should try them. Covenant in particular is one of the best JRPG's from the entire PS2 era.
I love Shadow Hearts: Covenant.
I love the Suikoden series.
When is the next one out?
Oh yeah....
F*ck Konami
It's unfortunate but the series is done at this point and I doubt that there will be another game in the series.
Agree.... they even make perfectly good Castlevania IP into pachinko machines... Everyone in the company higher ups are basically all blood related family. cmiiw
Quit being ingrateful
Jonathan Luoto just as soon as hell freezes over
Here I am 6 years later, read masters of one and two on the horizon, and Konami announcing that it is part of their plan to release suikoden 6. I love that this turned out to be wrong.
Why are you dressed like uncle Fester?
Really, your points about central story and arcs should GET more people to check the game out considering how often we just get a very formulaic approach to a clear-cut hero's journey story. There's absolutely nothing with slice of life or whatever you want to call it if the game does its themes well. It's probably the best way to get attached to characters, in my opinion.
Where do you stand with Suikogaidens?
The only one that comes to mind worthy of talking about is Tierkris (probably spelling that wrong), and honestly that was... an okay game for me, but nothing I've ever really felt the desire to replay.
6:30 - Is it really true, because Suikoden 1 seems like a fair elaborated game from my point of view, don´t think they did it after 2 or beta... From Yoshitaka Murayama himself, he does not comment that as being that beta for 2, although what you said might be true, but surely does not look like it at all...
I actually would've liked to hear your thoughts regarding Pesmerga and Yuber. Those two seemed to be linked in an eternal conflict. Its too bad they dropped that subplot in S3.
Also, something that irked me regarding this game is how the major characters in Riou's army were using him. Riou just feels like a placeholder, not so much a leader.
And also your thoughts on the ending? I've seen fans on forums say how the true ending felt too optimistic with the kids leaving on a journey. I think there are quite a few people who would say that Jowy's death is a better thematic ending.
I don't mind the ending, mainly because of my 'day in the life' comments. The idea of the ending, for me, is that the story goes on even past the game's end, basically.
I've been itching to play one of the RPGs in my backlog, either Suikoden or Tales of Xillia. I think I'll go with Suikoden and Suikoden II. Thanks for the rumination, great as always. Hope to see Chrono Cross someday ;)
16:30 - I would not say you can speak about different dimensions in the Suiko series because actually there are only most of the time different worlds and not dimensions, maybe with the exception of Viki, and of course not talking about Tierkreis, brrrrrrr...
Six-year-old comment, I know, but I just happened to see it. There were confirmed multiple dimensions across the series, the gate rune was literally a gate between them. Most evidence for it is in the third game, with Viki teleporting in an alternate universe version of herself when she sneezed, and using the pale gate rune attack, "empty world," literally transported the battle to another dimension.
Also, how come this is a rare game? It was literally in all basic stores all over Central Europe, and we get only the best selling games if anything at all, we're a neglected market that is run by piracy... and I remember seeing the original copies of this game even in places like Media Markt...
nice video, i will have to try this game
"Nec" in Latin means "not". So Neclord could mean "not a lord".
Always a pleasure ro listen to arch
I still have a copy of the playstation game.... but I never actually got around to playing it... I really want to some day.
yay Suikoden (because of my dyslexia learned to pronounce it Sue Ko den skipping the I altogether) so im proud to say i still have my original copy of 2, 4 and 5 (i have an original copy of 1 but its not the first one i had, i gave that to my older brother and he LOST IT but i was able to get a new one for $4 second hand (this was back when it first came out, i dont have Suikoden 3 on the list as i never played it as it didnt come out in the UK till much later i dont know when it came out but it was after 5 i think) Suikoden 1 along with FF7 taught me to read when my school had given up on me so they have a special place in my heart, so even though i dont own as PS anymore there is no way im getting rid of them games.
characters that stick in my mind are Ted, victor, luc (i wanted to slap him/her so much) neclord and luca blight (i didnt know this fight was coming i only beat it thanks to my character flaw of overleveling in any RPG i had 8 over leveled characters at the point of the fight)
Well, no, it is not like Destiny has been fulfilled if you get 108 stars, but that Destiny can be changed more easily - ´easilier´ - when you do that actually... I can change destiny in Suikoden even with less stars recruited if you may, i can end the game (and defeat the boss and end the war, or lose to it) without all of them, but some results, specially revival ones (of our dead friends for instance), would not be changed without all 108 stars of destiny... Like Leknaat says specially in Suiko IV, "Destiny is not decided"...
Jowy? 'More good' than Delita?
Although I have to admit that I may be automatically negatively biased against him because of how much this game tries to whitewash him. Maybe he got affected by the Rune's influence? Maybe. But the game doesn't mention that angle all to often, if at all. The dude 'must have had a reason for doing this', to paraphrase the in-game discussion of the matter.
I can see where you are coming from on this point, but... I am getting Mary Sue vibes from him, even if he and Delita are similar in concise summation on paper. Something about his presentation made me think 'my goodness, when the game would allow me to strangle this little snot?'
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In regards to True Runes' sentience... IMHO, there are examples for and against both of those options you've mentioned. If we take Suikoden 2 specifically, the dual runes the two main characters get seem to be all about a manifestation of a concept that doesn't have any option to do anything but what it does; at the same time there is the talking sword that is apparently also a Rune and even seems to have some character to it.
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But if Luca was 'just a guy', he wouldn't be able to withstand not caring about injuries in such a manner. I'd argue that the Beast Rune played a part in there. Otherwise he'd either die in the first serious engagement or get ganged up by his own people and torn into wet rags.
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In regards to Nec/ro/lord, his arc is, IMHO, extremely harmed with how his segments ended up as saturday morning cartoon villain boring sidequests.
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In concept, Nanami may be a good feature of the story. In practice, however, I have hated her guts. Not because of any 'refusal of the call' or 'audience stand-in', or less-than-smart character dislike I have (I don't), no. I simply found her to be an extremely unlikable character, that was also shoved into the game way too often for my taste. Also, slapstick 'comedy' can go die in a fire.
i doubt that he really knows the game
Play the game before doing an analysis for it. This seems incomplete. Same with the Suikoden 3 video I just finished watching by you.
I mean its a great game.. Why are u acting like u dont even want to do it
If you actually look up how the Japanese say it it's pronounced soo-ee-kau-den or it fast speech it gets reduced to sooy-kau-den, not swee-koh-den...it sounds so horrible how you say it and I can't figure out why would anyone read it that way where does the idea even come from, when you look at the word written down it doesn't look like something that could be pronounced with a "swee", wtf...
why not? Seems a reasonable transliteration to me. Think sushi.
First!
Last!
That's a pretty sweet KH coat