Suikoden Beginnings

Ask questions about the events that take place during the Suikoden games themselves.
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freshmetal
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Re: Suikoden Beginnings

Post by freshmetal »

The thing that made Suikoden 5's beginning painfully boring for me was constantly being told that I look tired and should get some rest. The Queen tells you to go rest, go to the senate, and you're told to go rest, go to Stormfist, and you're told to go rest, go to Lunas, and you're told to go rest, go to Raftfleet, and you're told to go rest... It seems like after every little event that occurs at the start of the game, the NPCs always INSIST that you go rest before the game can progress.
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Nikisaur
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Re: Suikoden Beginnings

Post by Nikisaur »

Lol! It's definitely a common technique in RPGs. "Go to your room and sleep! We need to advance the story!"

Or maybe the prince is just a sickly wee soul.
The only thing Suikoden lacks...is dinosaurs.
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Rachael
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Re: Suikoden Beginnings

Post by Rachael »

To be honest, a Suikoden game doesn't really "begin" to me until you can start recruiting characters. I guess that happens sooner in the early games. Along with watching the same scenes over and over, it's annoying using the same characters all the time until you can get more variety. Let me tell you, I've gotten pretty sick of Chiepoo by the time you get to kick him out.

As for S5, it seems to have wayyyy too many SoDs who join your party for some sidequest early on and then aren't recruitable until much, much later in the game. Every game has a few SoDs like that, but there seemed to be an awful lot in S5.
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ericm
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Re: Suikoden Beginnings

Post by ericm »

I appreciate what they're trying to do with the Beginning of V, trying to immerse you in Sol-Falena and your, I guess, 'fun' life as a prince, running around carefree with his family and associates. Obviously there is also some straight up character development, and they are letting you know this particular setting is a bit more complicated than what we've seen previously. Personally, I like the beginning overall. I just think it could probably be much better. Most of the characters at this point are fairly annoying, but I tend to go with it because I enjoy learning about the social/political situation at hand rather than delving into action. Again, I just think at times the characters just aren't that great; or maybe they're just too childish in presentation.
Whoever compared Lyon to Nanami- Outside a couple bath scenes, and MAYBE a couple lines here and there, Lyon really just lacks any charm, humor, anything to really latch onto. Nanami is, on the other hand, overflowing with charm. In my most recent replay of Suikoden II I found myself wishing she was actually imposed in your party more often, for the sake of having more lines of dialogue.
I just finished V and I think it's a pretty damn good game. But its major flaw throughout is also reflected in that beginning section that many seem to dislike- the actual movement is too slow, or there is too much open space, or both. Load times are terrible. And the way this game approached battles in particular I found to be insulting; for a series that, early on, scored major points for getting you in and out of battle relatively quickly, V loads the battle oh-so-slowly, actually letting each character appear one by one before the battle commences. And then the action doesn't move like it should. It's finally over, and there's some load time. Insulting.
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Sasarai10
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Re: Suikoden Beginnings

Post by Sasarai10 »

Personally i found all intros boring,especially the one in S2 where you were a prisoner in the Mercenary Fort,and doing different chores

S5 intro was way too boring,because it was extremely long (probably almost as long as the whole S1 game)...when i first played the game,i disliked it because of the boring intro,and i stopped playing it for a short period. But then i decided to continue it and when i reached to the point where you escaped from Sol-Falena,i started to find it interesting and as i proceed the story it blew me away!
JanusThePaladin
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Re: Suikoden Beginnings

Post by JanusThePaladin »

Tactics. Tactics had the best beginning: Here's you as a kid. Here's your friends. Here's your loving father figure. Here's OMFG WHAT IS THAT A GIANT FISH MONSTER! DAD? DAD? DADDY NOOOOOOOO! OOOOOOOOOH GOOOOOOOD GOD WHY! *transition to several years later* Story begins. Best. Beginning. Ever.
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sticky-runes
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Re: Suikoden Beginnings

Post by sticky-runes »

Yes, Suikoden 5's beginning was boring. I hate to say it, because I appreciate that we do need to get familiar with all the political stuff that's going on and we need to get to know the royal family and nobel families and knights. My problem isn't so much that there is too much dialogue, but there is a severe lack of exploration and combat throughout the early stages. You get that little flashback section in Lordlake, and the sewers and wood path at Stormfist, but they are very short sections. Most of your hours are spent reading and listening to dialogue, which is fine for a novel or TV series, but when playing a video game, I need activity.

And I actually don't mind lots of cutscenes either - at least with cut scenes, we get to see the characters up close with some lively animation. It's the dialogue that occurs with normal gameplay camera angles that gets tedious. We're lookign down on these bolygons just standing there looking at eachother. There's just no sense of drama to these scenes. The top down style doesn't work well for Suikoden 5, in my opinion.

Whereas all the other Suikoden games get their beginnings just about right.

Suikoden 1 gives us the right balance of dialogue and gameplay - there's not too much talking, but just about enough so that we get a good feel for the characters' personalities and relationships with eachother.

Suikoden 2 actually gave us a mercenary fort so that we have an early experience of what it's like to have a HQ with recruiting members and adjustable parties - Nice!

Suikoden 3 (I've only played it once) did have a lot of dialogue, but it was more interesting than 5, because again, it was all up close, the characters were animated, not just standing there lookign at eachother, and we were exploring different cultures witha range of different major characters.

Suikoden 4 started you off in a naval battle (OK, 4 didn't have the most exciting battles in the series) but you get a feel for what it's like being a knight who's about to graduate with his peers. Probably could have done with more dialogue, actually, but it was all fairly fast-paced, and we got the stories with Snowe and Commander Glen that we needed.

And yes, Tactics had a good beginning. We got to meet a bunch of S4 characters when they were a bit younger, and we also got involved with a critical moment from the Rune of Punishment's history, so that was cool.
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