Animal Characters

[Kirkis]

I suppose there really isn't another place to ask this, so I'll ask it here, my appologies if this is the wrong place for it.

What's the deal with all the animal characters, it seems that with every Suikoden it becomes more and more rediculous, although perhaps that's because the originator or whomever got off the suikoden train when Suikoden 3 came out?

I was cool with Kobolds and even the silly Squirrels, but now we have Beavers & Ducks? I mean... c'mon!

Anyhow... aside from the question of "Do you think that the animal characters are pointless/annoying/filler characters/useless?" the more important question I have is "Is there any explaination for this in the original chinese story, perhaps a half-man half-dog/cat/something that was one of the stars?"

[cyra_flome]

I don't think that those animal characters are that bad. I have tried using sgt.Joe (a duck) in SIII and he proves to be strong enough. The same goes even for the dogs Koroku, Koichi, Kogoro,etc...

I think you only need to train those animal characters, and besides, those animal characters are the elements that makes suikoden series really unique.

About the other question, I haven't read the whole original chinese story, but so far, I haven't found any of the half human half animal characters.

[patapi]

I was cool with Kobolds and even the silly Squirrels, but now we have Beavers & Ducks? I mean... c'mon!

Those Squirrels were not only silly, but pointless too.

On the contrary, the Beavers were of strategic advantage when the terrains of Falena are taken into account. There are easily the most formidable unit type on water, alongside the Dragon Cavalry.

Ducks provided an interesting element of balance among the Six Clans of Grasslands. They are active warriors unlike Chisha, but not overly aggressive like Karaya or the Lizards.

If you want to use the original legend as reference, ALL stars in that book are humans. No demi-human, no pure animals. Some of them do have animal-based nicknames, but that's it. (After all, that is a story of 'real' historical figures fighting in mainland China...)

I'd be more worried about the relevance of random animals like Abizboah or Genoh. They not only have minimal influence on the storyline, but they also require an extra slot for usage.

[Kirkis]

Yeah... Suikoden II did have quite a lot of animal animal characters like the Unicorn.

I've just always found them silly and while the Nay-Kobolds had a pretty witty race name, they REALLY creeped me out.

[pesmerga786]

I dont mind all the new races but if konami does do that i think they should integregate the races so we dont find all beavers in ONE village. Or we only see dwarves in ONE village. How about them living together or something. If not that then at least have more than 1 village for the non human races.

[Yamms]

I think they've gone over board with some new characters I've seen.. One is a Cat person (like a kobold but a cat) and THEN on top of that they have a half girl half cat neko type char, THAT is a little lame. x_X

[Wicked_Rune_Bearer]

if your going to say that animal characters are pointless, then say true runes are pointless while your at it, or a blinking mirror or some one who can teleport through worlds is pointless too. what i'm saying is even though i dislike the fact of nay-kobolds and beavers and some other weird creatures you can't say their pointless or silly cause if you do your saying suikoden is pointless and silly. and there is no half creatures in the book, off the top of my mind and memory because i'm not looking it up but maybe the animals, are the stars of those who had animal like qualities

[Chris_Lightfellow]

Even though I'm excited to have another person from IL on here, I have to point out that one of your points is wrong Yamms. Noah isn't half-girl half-Nekobold. She's just a girl playing dress up basically and pretending to be a Nekobold.

[Kirkis]

I don't think Suikoden is silly, but I do think some of their races are way too far-fetched for a storyline that is so serious, I mean... the Nay-Kobolds are just rediculous and I honestly don't think they have a serious bone in their body, and that can be said of MANY races, they seem to make like 5-8 animal type characters all from the same race, all with subpar stats, and all recruitable by members of their race in some random scene.

[Wicked_Rune_Bearer]

i think the reason konami likes adding animal characters into the storyline is because it keeps the game from being to trational like the last one. if there weren't any animal characters then suikoden would'nt be as good as it is. first off there wouldn't be any grasslands, well there would be but it wouldn't be the same, the 2 river peace treaty with kiba wouldn't have worked out like it did had their not been wingers and kobolds, i'm sure your fine with elves and dwarves so i want say nothing on s1 plus their not really animals, i think the animals bring a different dimenision to the game, whos to say that it's really that riduicuolus, i',m sure that if someone from suikoden came into our world that they would find a lot of riduicoulus things about our world. instead of thinking how weird the animal characters are just think that, huh that could be possissble in another world if animal intellegence was high enough.

[Alastor]

Well, i dont like them.
Especially duck. Shoot the DUCK!

[Yamms]

Even though I'm excited to have another person from IL on here, I have to point out that one of your points is wrong Yamms. Noah isn't half-girl half-Nekobold. She's just a girl playing dress up basically and pretending to be a Nekobold.

Point taken ^^

I don't mind the animal characters but that woulda just O_O Glad it's just a lil girl

[Kirkis]

I suppose so, but some characters were just there for comedic relief, like the ducks & cats, atleast make them cool and have actual warrior like abilities, don't give me a cat wearing a vest, y'know?

[Wicked_Rune_Bearer]

i myself didn't like them too much either, the series probably would have been a little better if it had went in a more serious direction like kirkis said, least for those who didn't like the animals that much, (but i think any animals you recruit yet don't talk, or have a mythological background, i didn't mind) i think it should have went in a more actuall 12th century based world without the animals that talk rather then with them.

[thecontrivance]

These kinda creatures are elemental to, not just the Suikoden world, but all Fantasy games. Demi- humans, Elves, and Dwarves have been in fantasy tales since the first ones and have always played a significant role.

They are important to fantasies, but Konami has hardly given any of them significant roles in the Suikoden world(besides comic relief). Suikoden tends to deal only with the human world and not the world of Jinn's.

How many glimpses of their world have we seen? the Great Forest? Na- Nal Island? Nay?

I guess what I am trying to say is that they are significant its just Konami, for whatever reason, dosent focus on them.

I wish we could have more Kirkis's, Borus', Sgt Joes, and Paulas