Konami and their poor handling of the series.

[amelia108]

Seeing how well Suikoden V turned out being mainly handled by Hudson, I think it's time Konami sold the franchise. I'm sick of their lack of faith in the series and instead I have to settle for thousands of sub-par Tales and Mana spin-offs because I get so little Suikoden. If any other company had Suikoden I'm sure they'd treat it a little better and possibly even make better games.

The fact that they won't release games because they won't "do well" just bothers me lately. I want SuikodenI+II on my psp, I want Suikogaidens, I want Suikoden Card Stories. Does a game simply being great count for anything?? And now the possibility that 6 might not even come out bothers me even more.

End rant. What do you guys think?

Oh and please don't go into detail on how making games is mostly about profits, because I already know that.

[patapi]

Realistically? No way would Konami translate those lesser spin-off titles for a select few fans outside Japan. Even then, I reckon titles like the PSP bundle is probably held down by not only lack of potential profitability, but also Sony's handling of their precious handheld, etc. This isn't the only PSP localisation casualty, so to speak.

Those titles are out in Japanese anyway, so learn the language and you'd find far more games (beyond the Tales and the Manas, of course!) to fill in the gaps between the obviously infrequent Suikoden titles. This series is unlike Final Fantasy, where they produce multiple titles every other month, and honestly I am among the many who are thankful for that.

Nothing is holding us back from picking up an extra language and play these games in all their original fame (and do so much more!).

Nothing.

p.s. Which part of Suikoden V was handled by Hudson anyway. The core team seems to be assembled from the series familiar staff members?

[Quing]

Honestly, I think Konami is handling the series just fine. I don't know about them sub-contracting to Hudson, but something was done right with Suikoden V, and if it was the sub-contracting that did it, then Konami is brilliant for realizing that they needed to sub-contract.

All right, so look at one of the alternatives. Say Konami sold Suikoden to Square-Enix. The series would be butchered! We'd have all of the problems of Suikoden III with none of the redeeming virtues, and within a short period of time, either the Suikoden series would become worthless, or it would cease to exist.

Besides, there are a lot of companies that will sell stuff just in Japan. I mean really, if Suikogaiden had been released in the U.S., it would have sold terribly. It's an electronic picture book.

And I don't agree that the series is being neglected. So we haven't seen direct news about Suikoden VI yet. The game designers are mortal and thus need time to design the game. In the meantime, Suikoden books and stuff are still being made and sold. If Konami had given up on the franchise, they would not still be selling merchandise. And if the franchise were being neglected, then we'd get shoddy good-for-nothing merchandise like plushies instead of comic books.

Sorry if it seems like I'm ranting. It seems that one of my buttons was just accidentally pushed. I think there's hope for Konami yet.

[amelia108]

Maybe I should have been more specific. I'm bothered with Konami's handling of the series in the U.S. for the most-part. I mostly just wanted to rant about Suikodeni+ii psp but I felt like I had to have other reasons. I can live without the Suikogaidens and Cardstories, but Suikoden i+ii not selling well here? That rationale sounds misguided to me.

Basically I think Konami has other priorities, like Metal Gear and Castlevania and what-not and Suikoden gets the shaft because it is albeit popular but by no means a top seller.

If Konami handed the series over to a smaller company whose main focus became Suikoden, I think the series might get more attention that way.

Anyway, don't even mention Square-Enix, that would basically be suicide.

[Basel]

If Konami handed the series over to a smaller company whose main focus became Suikoden, I think the series might get more attention that way.

Anyway, don't even mention Square-Enix, that would basically be suicide.

I would prefer seeing the Suikoden team(s) being transfered into "Murayama/Viki Productoin" rather than handing the series over to another company. I don't see Konami releasing UMD version of Suikoden I+II, however, I am hoping for a release on the PSN.

[Queens Knight]

Better keep hoping, Sony all but ignores ps1 game updates on the psn.

[Duke Gallison]

Considering that Suikoden V saw its U.S. release only a month after its Japanese release (and I don't think the translation seemed rushed at all), I'd say they were handling the series pretty decently in the States...I would love to see the localization of more RPGs begin even before their Japanese releasees...

[nephlabobo]

All right, so look at one of the alternatives. Say Konami sold Suikoden to Square-Enix. The series would be butchered! We'd have all of the problems of Suikoden III with none of the redeeming virtues,

There were no problems with Suikoden III.

[Duke Gallison]

All right, so look at one of the alternatives. Say Konami sold Suikoden to Square-Enix. The series would be butchered! We'd have all of the problems of Suikoden III with none of the redeeming virtues,

There were no problems with Suikoden III.

Well, aside from poor musical presentation and no transportation other than feet for most of the game

Still a good game, though.

[skymansxeno]

Despite suikoden not being the most popular rpg series and not that big of a cash cow, it's all they have in the rpg market. They are trying to strike a cord with current rpg fans by still attempting new rpgs every now and then. But I doubt konami would drop or sell the series for a while.

[Angrylobster]

Seeing how well Suikoden V turned out being mainly handled by Hudson, I think it's time Konami sold the franchise. I'm sick of their lack of faith in the series and instead I have to settle for thousands of sub-par Tales and Mana spin-offs because I get so little Suikoden. If any other company had Suikoden I'm sure they'd treat it a little better and possibly even make better games.

The fact that they won't release games because they won't "do well" just bothers me lately. I want SuikodenI+II on my psp, I want Suikogaidens, I want Suikoden Card Stories. Does a game simply being great count for anything?? And now the possibility that 6 might not even come out bothers me even more.

End rant. What do you guys think?

Oh and please don't go into detail on how making games is mostly about profits, because I already know that.

No reason to hate on the Tales games. Subpar? The only subpar Tales game I can think of is MAYBE Abyss, and thats only compared to the rest of the series. Its a great game on its own

[IamMe]

I was thinking the same thing, although there is plenty of reason to hate on Mana... still, I don't think that's what this thread is about.

I kind of agree but I kind of don't. I feel like the quality of the time management would probably be a lot better if sold to a smaller company devoted to such series but I also think that the game would probably lose a lot of its feel if it were managed by a different company. Who knows though.

[amelia108]

I've tried out a number of Tales games and they've all bored me to tears. On top of that, they feel very cliche. No offense, but that's my opinion on them.

Mana is...yeah... hasn't been good since SD3.

Back on topic: I don't necessarily want the series to be sold either, this was just to start some kind of discussion instead of waiting silently for VI.

[genso19]

what I hate/dislike about is that they made few copies of the first 2, so the quality of Suikoden is not much known, one of the factors why FF series won in fame factor, if S1 and S2 only have many copies, it could have been widely known and could have even brought the other installments into boom. So instead of handling the series or focusing, it would be better if they made new copies of the first 2 installments

[Tsubaki]

I kinda agree with ya i think konami could give suikoden more effort and a bigger budget just over all focus more on it because they do seem to be slippin a hell off alot latly like when was the last time they even mentioned it?... Basicly if they put in the extra work they would get more out. I love the suikoden series an i have played them since S1 got released and i still remember looking forward to S2 after reading about it in a playstation mag, so what i think they should do with the series is once they have finished making it they should remake every game with a big budget (like they do with MGS) with the same amazing PS3 next-gen graphics and style adding in everything that got left out, then advertise really well (like they do with MGS) and then they would sell like crazy!