How do you describe Suikoden, if someone asks you?

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Sasarai10
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How do you describe Suikoden, if someone asks you?

Post by Sasarai10 »

I mean if you talk about video-games with someone, and you mention Suikoden...then they ask you "What is Suikoden?", how do you describe it?

I used to say "It's like Pokemon games.", but later I realized it's miles away from Pokemon. More like Final Fantasy games, but with way more playable characters and kinda more Westernized than your average J-RPG.
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Re: How do you describe Suikoden, if someone asks you?

Post by Wolkendrache »

A Robin Hood story escalated to civil war: Being framed -> joining rebels -> becoming the leader -> forming a rebel army -> topple the usurpator / defeating the country’s threat; in a fantastic world inspired by cultures and mythologies from all over the world.
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Re: How do you describe Suikoden, if someone asks you?

Post by Antimatzist »

It's actually very little westernized and a very typical JRPG series.

I hardly try to explain it anymore. I just say it's good, a JRPG with some politics and 108 cool characters.
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sticky-runes
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Re: How do you describe Suikoden, if someone asks you?

Post by sticky-runes »

It's a role-playing game where you recruit tons of characters and build an army and you get your own headquarters and fight large scale battles and some of its like Tolkien and other Western fantasies because there are wizards and knights and elves, and there's also oriental stuff like ninjas and samurais and martial arts masters so you get all these different fighting styles to use in combat, and there are also characters you recruit who don't fight they stay at your castle and run shops and a blacksmith forge and you also recruit people who run little bonus games or they can change the game's settings and sound effects and listen to the music tracks and stuff, oh and the story is all very political and focuses a lot on human drama, so its not all about stopping some evil dark lord taking over the world or trying to stop an apocalypse, it's more like you're just fighting a war to liberate your homeland from an invading empire or corrupt politicians.

Or just say it's like a family friendly version of Game of Thrones.
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Re: How do you describe Suikoden, if someone asks you?

Post by Rein »

For me, Suikoden is about human nature in the format of a game. It's like a novel that gives you many stories and sub stories of different characters, enabling you to see the interaction between them. I recently finished S3, and I have to say that especially that one goes into the meaning of what is our human condition through different perspectives. Sure, you have some cool game mechanics and gimmicks, but in the end, it's the story that puts Suikoden to the top of my game list.

There's a lot of replay value to the games, as each time you can discover likable characters from their huge rosters, and the more experienced in life you are, the more understandable different characters get.
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Sasarai10
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Re: How do you describe Suikoden, if someone asks you?

Post by Sasarai10 »

Wolkendrache wrote:A Robin Hood story escalated to civil war: Being framed -> joining rebels -> becoming the leader -> forming a rebel army -> topple the usurpator / defeating the country’s threat; in a fantastic world inspired by cultures and mythologies from all over the world.

Guess this applies for SI only.
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Re: How do you describe Suikoden, if someone asks you?

Post by sticky-runes »

Rein wrote:
There's a lot of replay value to the games, as each time you can discover likable characters from their huge rosters, and the more experienced in life you are, the more understandable different characters get.
Yeah I find that the older I get the more I can appreciate certain story events and characters that didn't stand out to me as much when I was younger. In particular, the part in S2 where Futch finds a baby dragon and S5 when Marina's feelings for Belcoot are exploited against them both for malicious purposes really hit me hard on my most recent replays.
Sasarai10 wrote:
Wolkendrache wrote:A Robin Hood story escalated to civil war: Being framed -> joining rebels -> becoming the leader -> forming a rebel army -> topple the usurpator / defeating the country’s threat; in a fantastic world inspired by cultures and mythologies from all over the world.

Guess this applies for SI only.
Nope, In S2 Luca usurps the throne from his dad, and in S5 The Godwins usurp from your parents. The prince of Falena is framed as being a traitor to his family. Lazlo is wrongly accused of killing Commander Glen. Riou and Jowy are framed as spies for Highland and are to be hanged for treason. They are all recurring ideas, it's just that S1 is the only game where you are invited to join an official group of rebels because the Liberation Army is already formed by Odessa. In all other games you set up and name the rebel army yourself.
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Sasarai10
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Re: How do you describe Suikoden, if someone asks you?

Post by Sasarai10 »

S3 has a different concept though. It's the story of 3 people brought together. But I still don't get what Geddoe's role was in this plot and he was one of the main heroes. He sticks out somehow.

I really wonder how the game would be if Thomas was the main hero of the game, and only.
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