Suikoden had commanded a high price on the PS1 aftermarket as soon as it was released. It's connectivity with Suikoden II helped this. I didn't have a PS1 at the time, and didn't feel like hunting it down when I got a PS2 or playing the sequels available for that platform. I had mild curiosity in a series that was still on going, but if it was ever brought up they talked about the first two games, or that game 4 was awful.
Then Suikoden got a PSN release and I figured a 15 hour RPG that got praise (if it got mentioned) and instead of 100 dollars was 6, why not. It turned out to be a 25 hour RPG, but I'm not going to feel too bad about that, since part of that was collecting our 108 characters. Suikoden is loosely based on the Water Margin another ancient Chinese story I don't really know anything about, but has many different interpretations. That includes 5 RPGs about collecting 108 characters! I guess there is also the DS game which was maybe different?
Anyways! 108 characters means it's hard to give them time to develop. But that's not the only idea this game has. It also has you participating in large scale battles against the evil empire. You try to recruit every person you defeat because the Emperor has changed from how he was seven years ago. And at the very end, he isn't actually evil at all (but he does turn into a hydra). So the plot isn't what is keeping you going.
Hell I think what kept me going was because I had it. Skies of Arcadia is this game, but in every possible way better. If you've never played Suikoden, well just go play Skies of Arcadia again, or for the first time. It's definitely one of the best RPGs ever made!
Shining Force though, I wasn't expecting to play it all the way through. Unlike Fire Emblem, death isn't permanent. Unlike Final Fantasy Tactics/Ogre Battle it doesn't have a huge amount of between battles preparation. Unlike both of those games and most tactics games, it has the feeling of a coherent world. Between each stage you might pick up more (awesome) characters and buy one slot of equipment for the characters you're going to use.
Each battle is important to the story, and if you lose a battle you keep all the experience you gained from it, lose half your money and are sent back to the town before that battle. The battles walk a neat line between being kind of easy, but also always in danger that you could lose. I probably followed GameFAQS a little too much, as I used characters I didn't like because they supposedly became great (but never really did).
No one ever talks about Shining Force's world though. Like how midway through you have to destroy a giant laser eye on the otherside of a canyon. Your party has hawkmen, a baby dragon (that upgrade to an adult dragon), and armadillo in steampunk armor. Along with normal dwarves, mages, elves and humans. What's weird is the most common species in your party is centaurs. Which can go far, but are useless for half the battles because of mountainous terrain.
It was brisk and friendly and knew you could beat it. I'm more interested in the series now, and might pick up one part of Shining Force III at the local game store. It's amazingly unobtrusive for an early Megadrive game. It was a nice fun time. Suikoden I can say is "something I have played." Shining Force is a fun game. I'm sure the GBA re-make is great too (unless they fucked it up.)
Shinning Force is the first RPG I ever played, and I have great memories of it. I beat it over the course of like a year and a half, and I distinctly remember the eyeball-laser level. I used to tell dudes that it was hardcore wacky with the technology. You get a robot dude, for one thing, and your archers eventually upgrade to shooting missiles. I played it at the age where mixing the blue lightsaber and the red lightsaber into a green lightsaber or something was the coolest thing I could think of.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it was an easy game, though! Particularly the beginning, but there were a few places I got hardcore stuck on, like the stupid carnival level.
The bit where you turn into a chicken and the one dude says something to the effect of 'If we can turn people into chickens, we can solve world hunger!' disturbs the fuck out of me to this day.