Suikoden. The series that should never have ended. Too bad Konami would never sell the IP to Yoshitaka Murayama at Rabbit & Bear Studios so he could continue the grand story he begun of the 27 True Runes, the truth of Jeane & Viki, the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia & High Priest Hikusaak, the foreshadowed end of creation, and how the Circle & Change Runes play into the fate of the world - runes theorized by fans to symbolize Order & Chaos.
Couldn’t agree more. I know the original devs are working on a spiritual successor of sorts, but yeah having more games set in this world with these characters would be amazing. It’s sad to see there were so many other True Runes out there that we never got to know about as well as the origin of some characters
I really wish Konami would sell their IPs to other companies. They have Castlevania, Suikoden, Silent Hill, and Metal Gear Solid series. I want to see them get the games they deserve.
@ChaoticHoly always wanted to see Harmonia. I really wanted see more of what happened to Victor, took and the in suikoden 3,but they completely ignored them.that's why suikoden 3 wasn't my fav.
I still remember the day I first experienced this game back in December of 1996. I was 12 and my school had teacher conference that week so we had a 3 day weekend. I recall the night before thinking about a plan to enjoy a new game for my 5 month old PS1. I made plans to go early on Friday morning to have 3 days to enjoy a game at my near by Blockbuster, yep that place. I woke up to failing snow with about 4 inches on the ground already. I walked a mile away to this Blockbuster and recall Suikoden was a new addition in the section. I spent that weekend with my older sister readying and enjoying the games story.
Suikoden was my brother's and my first purchase when we first got the PS1 in '97 I think. We loved it, especially the castle building and army battles.
Sometimes it be like that, I swear sometimes I’ll just be thinking something in my head without even saying it out loud and the algorithm still knows what I’m thinking about. I didn’t know they had hard mode mods for Suikoden out there though, might have to try that out sometime
My older brother introduced me to this series back when I was very young. Having to play all of them, I can say that this series is very enjoyable. Can't wait for eiyuden chronicles!!!
Thanks for the video. I agree with your statement regarding the music in this series. In my opinion it is on par with CT, CC, and FF series. For starters, the OST's are amazing. Like you said, Miki Hagshino(plus a few others) did a phenomenal job. But for me its all the peripheral releases that came with these games. These include all the Celtic Collections 1 through 3, the Asian Collections 1 and 2, Bosque Aroma's Suikoden 3 'Ruslting in the Wind', and please, we cannot forget Shusei Murai's Piano Collections 1 (Adverturino Antes Lance Mao) and 2. There's also the Vocal Collections 'Faraway Star Echos of Love' and 'La Comouve la storia'. And then theres the two music collections: one by hiroyuki namba, and the second by kentaro heneda. I am always blown away by the number of musical releases in this series. It told me that the music was special, and it is. Green Grave Marker ftw! Peace.
I remember trading for this game from a friend back in 1998. I've played it many times over the years and I sure miss this series. I'm nearing 40 already and I doubt I'll see this series continue. I sure hope Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes lives up to what this serious should have been. It's so nice seeing all the fans in the comments!
Same here man. 40 years old. Got my copy at a used video game store back in 97'. Thought the cover art was so different from other games. Bought it and played it numerous times over the years. Amazing series.
Excellent video! I left my blinking mirror with Viktor on my 1st playthru so I kinda know how you feel. You gotta make one of these videos for Suikoden 2
Thank you! Yeah I did as a kid as well and remember getting annoyed by it haha. We do plan on covering the second game in a video like this in due time for sure, in the meantime we’ll probably cover a couple other series first and have a retrospective planned for BoFIV soon
Love to hear that dude, really appreciate you sharing to your friends to help get us out there. We have a lot more dope content planned for the near future we’re pretty excited about that hopefully people will like 👌
There's a sick part of me that thoroughly enjoyed managing each character's inventories individually. Resource management has always been one of my favorite aspects of JRPGs, so I had no problem spending a lot of time in the menus jamming to the music.
Great video! Suikoden holds a special place in my heart as one of the iconic JRPG series from the PS1/PS2 era. This retrospective really captured the essence of the game's beginnings and why it's so beloved. Looking forward to more content like this from Gaming Broductions!
Suikoden, Earthbound and Chrono Trigger are the three JRPGs I basically have memorized and play regularly if I want a game to just plow through without thinking That said, I love this game and actually have more nostalgia for it than the sequel (despite it being a much better game). It's just aged extremely well compared to so many other early PS1 games I played at the time (looking at you Beyond the Beyond).
That’s funny, replace Earthbound with Super Mario RPG and those are also the 3 JRPGs I replay the most often when I want something familiar and comforting. On top of them just being amazing their short length has a lot to do with it too, it’s much easier to replay at 20 hour game than a 50+ hour one We’re definitely in the minority here I think but I also feel similarly as you with having more nostalgia for the first one and would rather replay that over the 2nd these days. When talking to newcomers to the series I always recommend 2 as it is objectively better in a lot of ways, but there’s just something about the first game that makes me prefer it over the second
You and me both, unfortunately I never got around to finishing 5 either. I didn’t play it upon release and played it much later on at a pretty busy time in my life and eventually just dropped it. I do fully intend on going back to right that wrong in due time though, I know a lot of people consider it up there with 2
Lol I couldnt finish 3, 4 or 5. I just felt that it lost its magic when the game went 3d vs sprites but I played the crap out 1 and 2. I want to be buried with my copies.
Great video! It's really hard to find a content creator who talks about this game. I don't get it why this game isn't that popular, i mean this is literally my fav jrpg of all time!
I remember passing on renting this back in the day because of the cover art. Finally, after reading the back and finding out it was a rpg and having a playstation i tried it. It became my 2nd favorite series next to dragon quest.
I play Suikoden 2 first, after finished the game I search for the Suikoden 1 cause 2 really hit me in the heart. After I found it, I look at the disk art and thinking to myself, did I just get wrong one? Cause the art is like totally different style with Suikoden 2.
I really, REALLY love Suikoden 1, 2 and 5. 1 and 2 played a big part in my youth and love that 5 went back to the old style again. I couldn't care much about 3 and 4, so sad though. I wished they'd stayed with their signature style. Hoping that ONE DAY..... the sooner the better, there will be a true 6 on PS5 or something :) But PLEASE let it be in the style of 1, 2 and 5!
@@Jondedy Eiyuden Chronicle is a spiritual successor of Suikoden, produced by many of the same game developers from the Suikoden series. It is still in deployment, but so far it looks very promising.
@@xizor925 It looks absolutely stunning!!! :o I can't wait!! Added it to my wishlist right away! I hope it adds a lot of elements that made Suikoden great like gathering all the diverse characters and building up your castle. The big world with a lot of towns with all their own character. Very excited right now :D
@@Jondedy considering the same people who made the first 2 Suikoden is part of Eiyuden core developer, i would say all the element fans like will be included. even more so since this is a kickstarter game where (hopefully) they really listen to feedback from backer who loves Suikoden
Its a classic for sure. And I'm watching it now with colour, man so cool... I ended up beating the game in black and white back in the day, to keep it brief because I was playing a NSTC game on a PAL system.
My dad “accidentally” bought this for my Christmas present instead of Beyond The Beyond back then… man, one of those fortunate mistakes, because I loved this game immensely at the time, must have played through it at least half-a-dozen times (especially after finding out a couple of characters that I “lost” the first run through, could be saved), and goodness. You hit the nail on the head with the music. There’s certain tracks that still come to mind during down times, y’know? Like cooking soup on a cold, rainy day, almost always brings to my the “home” track. Is this available currently? I’d consider paying full price on like, Steam or something. It’s a wonder it’s never occurred to me to look before.
Thanks to this series, I've become friends with a bunch of people from an online Suikoden community about 20 years ago. With two of these I literally have daily contact and I consider them my best friends in life, even though we live about 700km apart. We've met up in RL (not enough times tbh), but it's no exaggeration to say that this series changed my life.
I could be way off, but I think Tir is pronounced "Teer". My only thought that led me to this is a possible misspelling of Tyr, the god of single combat.
Great video! This game changed my life as well. In my opinion... i think the characters on the cover are Barbarosa, Ted , and Windy on the left. I believe Tir is on the elephant/dragon. And Luc and Leknaat are on the right.
i think thats not possible..the original creator is focus on eiyuden..we just need to wait and hopefully eiyuden will be at least good as suikoden 2.. p/s: sorry for my poor english..english is not my first language
I remember buying Suikoden on psn and playing the start of the game not knowing what to do, (talk to the Dragon rider) so I left town and fought really strong enemies on the map and other places got stronger then when I did figure out where to go I beat the first boss pretty fast. I like the fact you can go where you want to go much like a WRPG.
This is a really great point and thanks for reminding me, I actually meant to include this part in the script when initially thinking of it but completely forgot when it came time to record 😑 I do really like the level of freedom it gives you at various points in the game to go do whatever you want. I’ll have to mention this when we make a video over the second game
man sooo many incredibly interesting jrpg‘s which I’ve unfortunately missed on ps1 i’ve spent my childhood playing titles like Final Fantasy 8 , The legend of Dragoon , ffx/x2, Kingdom hearts ♥️
All excellent games so your childhood sounds like it was a good one regardless 👍 plus it’s never too late to go back and visit some of the classics you missed out on as a kid!
@@GamingBroductions Yes! I really want to ! I wasn’t aware of the huge smount of quality rpgs the snes and the ps1 had to offer I got really late into rpg’s maybe when I was 12 or something like that , at that time my neighbor who lived with his girl gave me legend of dragoon for a couple of weeks and I was hooked...I remember seeing Lod before on one of those demo discs u could get by buying a playstation magazine... as for now I try to catch up on th secret of mana series , chrono trigger , terranigma and all those other snes classics
The Suikoden series was the pinnacle of JRPGs in terms of great story writing during the PS1 era. and this series kind of influence me to like the genre itself. I'm still hoping the the higher-ups of Konami can somewhat be enlightened to remaster this series. Will play this 100% when that happends. On a side note, fully supporting and waiting for the Spiritual successor, Eiyuuden Chronicles!
My brother bought me the original Suikoden for my birthday. I think he found it in a bargain bin. The case art looked so generic, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was great. My favorite RPG series of all time.
THANK YOU! Instant subscribe - Suikoden I has by FAR The best soundtrack in the series. Far better than Suikoden II. Mix of world music, the insane quality of the tracks themselves and the actual quality of the recordings. Forgotten Days/Village of the Hidden Rune is up there with Corridors of Time from CT and Time's Scar from CC as the single best OST tracks in all of video gaming history
Definitely not, Suikoden 2 improved everything of Suikoden 1, including the music, having one really good theme like Village of the Hidden Rune is not going to make it have the best soundtrack in the series (And comparing that theme with Scars of Time? REALLY? Exaggerating much?). Suikoden 1 battle themes are even very lacking, it doesn't even have a final boss or superboss theme at all, the war battle themes are very generic compared to the later installments. Saying the game has the best soundtrack in the series is a gross exaggeration for completely, especially when you have Suikoden V which soundtrack is by FAR very superior.
@@alvercaine8893 That's good to know, though you could tell just from the quality of sound. But the compositions themselves with a few exceptions (the main themes, Rokkaku) were just not at the same level as the original's
@@SeventhheavenDK god how can you be so wrong about everything? There isn't a bad track in the whole soundtrack. SV's soundtrack is adequate. Nothing more. You clearly don't know much about music theory or composition. Or have good taste
I remember walking in to Meijer with Christmas money and wanted to buy something like Final Fantasy VII or Metal Gear Solid, two games I had finished in 1997. Suikoden and Wild Arms ended up being what I got and loved them both ... Suikoden's castle waa my favorite part. I've only played through it once and after watching this feel like I should re-play it. Wild Arms too.
I bought this to have something to play on the PSX I'd purchased while waiting for FFVII to be released. As soon as I heard the in-game battle music I knew I'd made a worthwhile investment. Too bad my copy of Suikoden II is in a landfill somewhere. I heard that game is worth quite a lot now.
Beautiful Golden City, best town theme ever. I actually prefer this one more than the second. Probably because of the music (the sound quality (not the composition) of the second (and the third) is horrendous) and the bugs (the US version of the second is Bethesda-level of buggy). Fun fact: Warren Specter (creator of Deus Ex) LOVES this game. 19:00 actually, the first one is not just composed by her, but several people including Tappi Iwase (main composer of MGS1-3). Also, Mrs. Miki Higashino no longer worked on composing music after she got married.
I know this is the first game, but here's a fun story about suikoden 2: when that game got released on PSN as a psone classic, I had a buddy tell me he was disappointed because, and I shit you not, he felt plunking down a bunch of cash on suikoden 2 was a " right of passage" for jrpg gamers to prove that they are truly jrpg fanatics. I haven't talked to him since, and I am a better person for it. As an aside, this same person was irritated when he went to a FF music concert and found that there were a bunch of "jocks" and "frat boys" in attendance. He questioned whether or not they could really be fans of FF, while I questioned why I was interacting with this person.
Love this game, love this series. I might actually like Suiko I more than II. It's just so well streamlined, you can finish it in, like, 20 hours. I wish more RPGs were like that.
Thanks bro! Would love to cover Brave Fencer Musashi at some point, I never actually beat it as a kid so I’ve been curious to check it out again as an adult. We got a dope video over old Squaresoft games in general coming out in the next week or so
'The Cover' This took me literally years to figure out. Barbarossa on the top left, Below him is Futch (Why a 8 year Old (Futch is very young in 1.) looks like a Body Builder I do not know.), below him is Windy, Top Right is Tir, Below him is probably Leknaat, and Below her is Neclord Or the Generic enemy that it actually looks like. I don't know what they were on when they made that art, but the fact it took me NEARLY 20 YEARS to figure that out is bad.
I will always say this game is underrated, even with all the praise it gets. I think this game and chrono trigger are perfect games to get into for first time jrpg players to see if they like the genre or not. I also feel this game has the best jrpg soundtrack, and the water color pixels in this game really showed off each location and character. You really felt the difference between the empire and the poor countryside, as well as good and shady characters. One complaint I had with Suikoden II is the anime stereotypes started there and noone really felt as bad ass as the first game. Plus the dungeons felt more copy and paste. Also, magic and runes meant more in first game where second game was rune slots and fury/double beat runes where you can make your chef out damage Pesmerga... Overall this game and Shining Force II will always be my biggest nostalgia games growing up. Thanks for the retrospective.
I think for me at least Suikoden might actually be my favorite game soundtrack, i know FF7 is masterpiece territory but what puts Suikoden in front imo is because i enjoyed the story and setting more and so that added to my enjoyment of the tracks as i'm listening to them, for example whenever there's about to be a big battle and you go talk to Mathiu in the battle room the music would just get me so pumped up i'd get goose bumps haha
I first played Suikoden 2 before Suikoden 1, but I brought myself to stop playing 2 to play the series in chronological order. I beat 1 and got all 150 stars of destiny, BUT I did something wrong and one of the main characters died. I wanted to replay it but never got around to it. I think ill pick it up again now, great video!
Suikoden 1 was good but 2 was the perfection of the concept. 3 was fun, 4 was... and 5 was really impressive. Would love to see a Suikoden 6 but it seems extremely unlikely it will ever happen now.
From my picture on here to animal crossing suikoden stays with me. I replay 1 as much as possible. I got a tattoo last year in memoran of my mom who watched while I played the game related to me when I was younger because I felt like I lost alot of people I got the soul eater tattooed on my left hand with her death date. I kick started Iudukden chronicles in 2019? 2020 cant remember the original person who came up with the story of 1 and 2 is heading it. I cant wait for more of it
So, hopefully s2 retro gonna come from You. Great video. Loved the game, it was my first jrpg, overall first rpg followed by ff7 and suikoden 2. I was like 13 years back than and zelda and other games havent really catched my interests. Also suikoden 5 was not bad 10 years later. Not best graf but most similar to 1 and 2👍
Suikoden's box art was amazingly bad, I remember taking apart the case and making a new one using the instruction manual as the cover. I have to say I love the castle/tower on the box though, the fact hat it goes above the clouds is crazy. Anyway I'm extremely hyped for the HD remasters coming later this year. I hope they remaster 3, 4, a 5 as well with some improvements (like lowering the random encounter rate in 4). As for the handheld titles, honestly never played em but heard they are bad (I avoided them cause they tossed aside the amazing world building of the first 5). Maybe one day we will get a proper continuation that takes place in the original world. I would love to see a game set in Harmonia (we still don't even know what all 27 true runes are).
I never got around to playing the original Suikoden, mainly because like in most JRPG franchises with standalone games the later entries are often considered better (e.g Final Fantasy, Tales, Persona, or Dragon Quest). It's a bit of a shame though, since this does look pretty good by itself, but I feel like I'll inevitably compare it to Suikoden II, and there's just no way it can compete with that.
I definitely hear you there. The Suikoden series is very interesting because while the games are technically stand alone, they all take place in the same world and with various returning characters unlike FF, Tales, etc. So while you don’t need to play the others to understand whatever entry you’re playing, it does flesh out the world a bit more and provide some nice callbacks. I would argue that of those examples of series listed, Suikoden has the best original game that is the most playable to this day and age. I mentioned it in another comment but I’m probably in the extreme minority that actually prefers 1 over 2 in some aspects, however a lot of that probably comes from playing it as a kid and not the second game until I was older, as 2 is ‘better’ in a lot of ways and improves upon many aspects
First RPG I ever played ever...I borrowed it off my dads mate at age 10...I played it that day n not having a clue what I was doing I kept leaving gregminster with Ted n getting battered...I hated it I put it on again a week later on the last day I borrowed it and had no memory card...I got upto the castle but died against the dragon...I was hooked. Bought it for £10 a month later and absolutely hammered it .my first playthrough I missed so many characters..lost pahn ,Luc and loads of people..I was distraught at the end thinking flik and Viktor died as well ... I played it again and eventually got the good ending. The 2nd came out and I refused to buy it..it wasn't mcdohl and I read a review of it that said it was an average game...I didn't want my memory of the first tarnished so I left it. Few years later I left school and saw it at the start of the 6 week holidays for £30... I thought...sod it ..let's see for myself.... And it is still to this day my favourite RPG of all time.... Wonderful series..I still own them all and backed eiyuden chronicle in minute's
Lol this game reminds me of the crazy piece of internet lore known as the final fantasy house. Cant remember if the suikoden cult came first, or the house. Anyone who wants a nice little deep dive should look into the story
Probably the second one, it’s often considered the best in the series and one of the best jrpgs of all time. There are some returning characters from the first game, but outside of a few references not that much is referenced to the story so you don’t need to play that one to play 2 as it has a stand alone story. I’m probably in the extreme minority that actually prefers 1 over 2 in some ways because I played that one as a kid and not 2 until I got older, but 2 is objectively better in a lot of gameplay aspects and the villain is one of the best ever
Tir is pronounced like "teir". Also....Im hard of hearing so I use CC on RUclips for the things I miss....and TY is absolutely trolling me rn lol. Everytime you say Suikiden, it types sweekidin, priceless
1:10 Kind of weird Camelot made the mediocre on the PSX Beyond the Beyond before they made Shining in the Holy Ark and Shining Force 3, let alone the later Golden Sun series, all fondly remembered... They never made another PSX game either. I wonder if this had gone better whether they would have continued making JRPGs instead of churning out Mario Tennis and Golf sequels.
Really hope that Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes will be as good as Suikoden. I really like Suikoden very much, too bad Konami stopped this IP.
Remasters of 1&2 have been announced with a few improvements.
Suikoden. The series that should never have ended. Too bad Konami would never sell the IP to Yoshitaka Murayama at Rabbit & Bear Studios so he could continue the grand story he begun of the 27 True Runes, the truth of Jeane & Viki, the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia & High Priest Hikusaak, the foreshadowed end of creation, and how the Circle & Change Runes play into the fate of the world - runes theorized by fans to symbolize Order & Chaos.
man u alrdy represent my opinion about this lovely series, my favourite game ever. Konami should make suikoden 6, still to many mysteries to solve 😔
Couldn’t agree more. I know the original devs are working on a spiritual successor of sorts, but yeah having more games set in this world with these characters would be amazing. It’s sad to see there were so many other True Runes out there that we never got to know about as well as the origin of some characters
If Eiyuuden becomes a success it will be a slap on Konami's face. They already f'd up when Iga proved them wrong in Bloodstained.
I really wish Konami would sell their IPs to other companies. They have Castlevania, Suikoden, Silent Hill, and Metal Gear Solid series. I want to see them get the games they deserve.
@ChaoticHoly always wanted to see Harmonia. I really wanted see more of what happened to Victor, took and the in suikoden 3,but they completely ignored them.that's why suikoden 3 wasn't my fav.
I bought suikoden on blind faith at a used game store in the 90's. Can't even tell you how many times I've played it.
I did the exact same thing!
same. bought it on a lark, thinking, "maybe it'll be as good as that one time I bought Breath of Fire".
A lot of the best games I played were blind purchases.
Love suikoken so much, spent many many hours playing 1 & 2. Even now i could still find every character without a guide. The music is epic as well
I still remember the day I first experienced this game back in December of 1996. I was 12 and my school had teacher conference that week so we had a 3 day weekend. I recall the night before thinking about a plan to enjoy a new game for my 5 month old PS1. I made plans to go early on Friday morning to have 3 days to enjoy a game at my near by Blockbuster, yep that place. I woke up to failing snow with about 4 inches on the ground already. I walked a mile away to this Blockbuster and recall Suikoden was a new addition in the section. I spent that weekend with my older sister readying and enjoying the games story.
Great comment ❤
This game changed my life.
same. And i think we"re not alone. Most people who played it back in the day have very fond memories.
Can you tell me how it changed your life? Just curious
Suikoden was my brother's and my first purchase when we first got the PS1 in '97 I think. We loved it, especially the castle building and army battles.
Damn bro i just finished a Suikoden hard mode playthrough and RUclips sent this my way. I swear the algorithm knows me better than I know myself.
Sometimes it be like that, I swear sometimes I’ll just be thinking something in my head without even saying it out loud and the algorithm still knows what I’m thinking about. I didn’t know they had hard mode mods for Suikoden out there though, might have to try that out sometime
I'm a huge fan of Suikoden
It all comes together to create such a memorable package. Still so much to the world and its lore we never got to see either, sadly
My older brother introduced me to this series back when I was very young. Having to play all of them, I can say that this series is very enjoyable.
Can't wait for eiyuden chronicles!!!
God bless your big Bro!
Cannot wait for the remaster + eiyuden chronicles!!!
My favorite jrpg series and the most underrated jrpg series ever
Thanks for the video.
I agree with your statement regarding the music in this series. In my opinion it is on par with CT, CC, and FF series.
For starters, the OST's are amazing. Like you said, Miki Hagshino(plus a few others) did a phenomenal job.
But for me its all the peripheral releases that came with these games. These include all the Celtic Collections 1 through 3, the Asian Collections 1 and 2, Bosque Aroma's Suikoden 3 'Ruslting in the Wind', and please, we cannot forget Shusei Murai's Piano Collections 1 (Adverturino Antes Lance Mao) and 2. There's also the Vocal Collections 'Faraway Star Echos of Love' and 'La Comouve la storia'. And then theres the two music collections: one by hiroyuki namba, and the second by kentaro heneda.
I am always blown away by the number of musical releases in this series. It told me that the music was special, and it is.
Green Grave Marker ftw!
Peace.
I remember trading for this game from a friend back in 1998. I've played it many times over the years and I sure miss this series. I'm nearing 40 already and I doubt I'll see this series continue. I sure hope Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes lives up to what this serious should have been. It's so nice seeing all the fans in the comments!
Same here man. 40 years old. Got my copy at a used video game store back in 97'. Thought the cover art was so different from other games. Bought it and played it numerous times over the years. Amazing series.
Good work. I pronounced Tir like “tier” and Luc like “Luke”
Those are the correct pronunciations.
Excellent video! I left my blinking mirror with Viktor on my 1st playthru so I kinda know how you feel. You gotta make one of these videos for Suikoden 2
Thank you! Yeah I did as a kid as well and remember getting annoyed by it haha. We do plan on covering the second game in a video like this in due time for sure, in the meantime we’ll probably cover a couple other series first and have a retrospective planned for BoFIV soon
You guys are killing it - I always look forward to your videos and share them to my buddies on the nerdy achievement people discord :P
Love to hear that dude, really appreciate you sharing to your friends to help get us out there. We have a lot more dope content planned for the near future we’re pretty excited about that hopefully people will like 👌
There's a sick part of me that thoroughly enjoyed managing each character's inventories individually.
Resource management has always been one of my favorite aspects of JRPGs, so I had no problem spending a lot of time in the menus jamming to the music.
Great video! Suikoden holds a special place in my heart as one of the iconic JRPG series from the PS1/PS2 era. This retrospective really captured the essence of the game's beginnings and why it's so beloved. Looking forward to more content like this from Gaming Broductions!
HD remasters coming this year!!!
Suikoden, Earthbound and Chrono Trigger are the three JRPGs I basically have memorized and play regularly if I want a game to just plow through without thinking
That said, I love this game and actually have more nostalgia for it than the sequel (despite it being a much better game). It's just aged extremely well compared to so many other early PS1 games I played at the time (looking at you Beyond the Beyond).
That’s funny, replace Earthbound with Super Mario RPG and those are also the 3 JRPGs I replay the most often when I want something familiar and comforting. On top of them just being amazing their short length has a lot to do with it too, it’s much easier to replay at 20 hour game than a 50+ hour one
We’re definitely in the minority here I think but I also feel similarly as you with having more nostalgia for the first one and would rather replay that over the 2nd these days. When talking to newcomers to the series I always recommend 2 as it is objectively better in a lot of ways, but there’s just something about the first game that makes me prefer it over the second
Amazing video man! Love your channel and dives into these great titles.
Maybe someday we will get a new entry in the series..... maybe.
This is one of the series I miss the most and my biggest regret is not finishing Suikoden V.
Heard 5 was really good.
You and me both, unfortunately I never got around to finishing 5 either. I didn’t play it upon release and played it much later on at a pretty busy time in my life and eventually just dropped it. I do fully intend on going back to right that wrong in due time though, I know a lot of people consider it up there with 2
Lol I couldnt finish 3, 4 or 5. I just felt that it lost its magic when the game went 3d vs sprites but I played the crap out 1 and 2. I want to be buried with my copies.
5 is intense!
real tear jerker at times
2 and 5 are definitely the best in the series.
Great video! It's really hard to find a content creator who talks about this game. I don't get it why this game isn't that popular, i mean this is literally my fav jrpg of all time!
I remember passing on renting this back in the day because of the cover art. Finally, after reading the back and finding out it was a rpg and having a playstation i tried it. It became my 2nd favorite series next to dragon quest.
I agree with the music. it's phenomenal. here is a sub for you.
dont forget the soundtrack is one of the main nostalgia factor. miki higashino made stunning ost for this series
I play Suikoden 2 first, after finished the game I search for the Suikoden 1 cause 2 really hit me in the heart.
After I found it, I look at the disk art and thinking to myself, did I just get wrong one? Cause the art is like totally different style with Suikoden 2.
yeah the art in the first one is far better at least the character portraits
I really, REALLY love Suikoden 1, 2 and 5. 1 and 2 played a big part in my youth and love that 5 went back to the old style again. I couldn't care much about 3 and 4, so sad though. I wished they'd stayed with their signature style. Hoping that ONE DAY..... the sooner the better, there will be a true 6 on PS5 or something :) But PLEASE let it be in the style of 1, 2 and 5!
Have you heard of Eiyuden Chronicle? I urge you to check it out, if you have not.
@@sacredknoll848 Never heard of it no :o I will check it out :D
@@Jondedy Eiyuden Chronicle is a spiritual successor of Suikoden, produced by many of the same game developers from the Suikoden series. It is still in deployment, but so far it looks very promising.
@@xizor925 It looks absolutely stunning!!! :o I can't wait!! Added it to my wishlist right away! I hope it adds a lot of elements that made Suikoden great like gathering all the diverse characters and building up your castle. The big world with a lot of towns with all their own character. Very excited right now :D
@@Jondedy considering the same people who made the first 2 Suikoden is part of Eiyuden core developer, i would say all the element fans like will be included.
even more so since this is a kickstarter game where (hopefully) they really listen to feedback from backer who loves Suikoden
I just wanted to say that I have been binging your video with great interest. They are well made and it shows you put a lot of effort in your work.
Its a classic for sure. And I'm watching it now with colour, man so cool... I ended up beating the game in black and white back in the day, to keep it brief because I was playing a NSTC game on a PAL system.
All Suikoden's need to be ported to current gen.
My dad “accidentally” bought this for my Christmas present instead of Beyond The Beyond back then… man, one of those fortunate mistakes, because I loved this game immensely at the time, must have played through it at least half-a-dozen times (especially after finding out a couple of characters that I “lost” the first run through, could be saved), and goodness. You hit the nail on the head with the music. There’s certain tracks that still come to mind during down times, y’know? Like cooking soup on a cold, rainy day, almost always brings to my the “home” track. Is this available currently? I’d consider paying full price on like, Steam or something. It’s a wonder it’s never occurred to me to look before.
This is a nice look at a game that’s not mentioned much these days. Always figured Tir’s name was pronounced “Teer,” though.
It is. "Turr" is a hilarious Americanization of it, though.
Thanks to this series, I've become friends with a bunch of people from an online Suikoden community about 20 years ago. With two of these I literally have daily contact and I consider them my best friends in life, even though we live about 700km apart. We've met up in RL (not enough times tbh), but it's no exaggeration to say that this series changed my life.
I could be way off, but I think Tir is pronounced "Teer". My only thought that led me to this is a possible misspelling of Tyr, the god of single combat.
If you make a video about Suikoden 2, I will watch that as well.
Great video! This game changed my life as well. In my opinion... i think the characters on the cover are Barbarosa, Ted , and Windy on the left. I believe Tir is on the elephant/dragon. And Luc and Leknaat are on the right.
I just finished this game last week. 😍
Awesome, what did you think of it?
Konami should definitely continue the Suikoden franchise. There's so much lore that's not been shown.
i think thats not possible..the original creator is focus on eiyuden..we just need to wait and hopefully eiyuden will be at least good as suikoden 2..
p/s: sorry for my poor english..english is not my first language
I remember buying Suikoden on psn and playing the start of the game not knowing what to do, (talk to the Dragon rider) so I left town and fought really strong enemies on the map and other places got stronger then when I did figure out where to go I beat the first boss pretty fast. I like the fact you can go where you want to go much like a WRPG.
This is a really great point and thanks for reminding me, I actually meant to include this part in the script when initially thinking of it but completely forgot when it came time to record 😑 I do really like the level of freedom it gives you at various points in the game to go do whatever you want. I’ll have to mention this when we make a video over the second game
Konami abandoned Suikoden, Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania and Silent Hill. 4 amazing series. Super sad. Looking forward to Eiyuden Chronicle though.
man sooo many incredibly interesting jrpg‘s which I’ve unfortunately missed on ps1 i’ve spent my childhood playing titles like Final Fantasy 8 , The legend of Dragoon , ffx/x2, Kingdom hearts ♥️
All excellent games so your childhood sounds like it was a good one regardless 👍 plus it’s never too late to go back and visit some of the classics you missed out on as a kid!
@@GamingBroductions Yes! I really want to ! I wasn’t aware of the huge smount of quality rpgs the snes and the ps1 had to offer I got really late into rpg’s maybe when I was 12 or something like that , at that time my neighbor who lived with his girl gave me legend of dragoon for a couple of weeks and I was hooked...I remember seeing Lod before on one of those demo discs u could get by buying a playstation magazine... as for now I try to catch up on th secret of mana series , chrono trigger , terranigma and all those other snes classics
The Suikoden series was the pinnacle of JRPGs in terms of great story writing during the PS1 era. and this series kind of influence me to like the genre itself. I'm still hoping the the higher-ups of Konami can somewhat be enlightened to remaster this series. Will play this 100% when that happends. On a side note, fully supporting and waiting for the Spiritual successor, Eiyuuden Chronicles!
While 2 is my favourite game, I still have a Soul Eater rune on my shoulder.
Best series of all time with suikoden 2 being the best game ever. I’m hoping Eiyuden Chronicles captures the same magic.
My brother bought me the original Suikoden for my birthday. I think he found it in a bargain bin. The case art looked so generic, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was great. My favorite RPG series of all time.
How badly can a company fail their fans? Easy. Look at what Konami did to Suikoden and Metal Gear. You have your answer.
THANK YOU! Instant subscribe - Suikoden I has by FAR The best soundtrack in the series. Far better than Suikoden II. Mix of world music, the insane quality of the tracks themselves and the actual quality of the recordings. Forgotten Days/Village of the Hidden Rune is up there with Corridors of Time from CT and Time's Scar from CC as the single best OST tracks in all of video gaming history
Definitely not, Suikoden 2 improved everything of Suikoden 1, including the music, having one really good theme like Village of the Hidden Rune is not going to make it have the best soundtrack in the series (And comparing that theme with Scars of Time? REALLY? Exaggerating much?).
Suikoden 1 battle themes are even very lacking, it doesn't even have a final boss or superboss theme at all, the war battle themes are very generic compared to the later installments.
Saying the game has the best soundtrack in the series is a gross exaggeration for completely, especially when you have Suikoden V which soundtrack is by FAR very superior.
Youre right, but theres a reason. Suikoden 1 had a real group recording the ost. 2 had the psx sound chip
@@alvercaine8893 That's good to know, though you could tell just from the quality of sound. But the compositions themselves with a few exceptions (the main themes, Rokkaku) were just not at the same level as the original's
@@SeventhheavenDK yeah no SUikoden 1 has the best soundtrack in the series. Not debatable
@@SeventhheavenDK god how can you be so wrong about everything? There isn't a bad track in the whole soundtrack. SV's soundtrack is adequate. Nothing more. You clearly don't know much about music theory or composition. Or have good taste
One of the best IP ever created.
i love this game wish i could play it again
I remember walking in to Meijer with Christmas money and wanted to buy something like Final Fantasy VII or Metal Gear Solid, two games I had finished in 1997.
Suikoden and Wild Arms ended up being what I got and loved them both ... Suikoden's castle waa my favorite part.
I've only played through it once and after watching this feel like I should re-play it. Wild Arms too.
I bought this to have something to play on the PSX I'd purchased while waiting for FFVII to be released. As soon as I heard the in-game battle music I knew I'd made a worthwhile investment. Too bad my copy of Suikoden II is in a landfill somewhere. I heard that game is worth quite a lot now.
Beautiful Golden City, best town theme ever.
I actually prefer this one more than the second. Probably because of the music (the sound quality (not the composition) of the second (and the third) is horrendous) and the bugs (the US version of the second is Bethesda-level of buggy).
Fun fact: Warren Specter (creator of Deus Ex) LOVES this game.
19:00 actually, the first one is not just composed by her, but several people including Tappi Iwase (main composer of MGS1-3). Also, Mrs. Miki Higashino no longer worked on composing music after she got married.
I know this is the first game, but here's a fun story about suikoden 2: when that game got released on PSN as a psone classic, I had a buddy tell me he was disappointed because, and I shit you not, he felt plunking down a bunch of cash on suikoden 2 was a " right of passage" for jrpg gamers to prove that they are truly jrpg fanatics. I haven't talked to him since, and I am a better person for it.
As an aside, this same person was irritated when he went to a FF music concert and found that there were a bunch of "jocks" and "frat boys" in attendance. He questioned whether or not they could really be fans of FF, while I questioned why I was interacting with this person.
Love this game, love this series. I might actually like Suiko I more than II. It's just so well streamlined, you can finish it in, like, 20 hours. I wish more RPGs were like that.
I’m digging what you do with yo the retro games bro. You should do Brave Fencer Musashi.
Thanks bro! Would love to cover Brave Fencer Musashi at some point, I never actually beat it as a kid so I’ve been curious to check it out again as an adult. We got a dope video over old Squaresoft games in general coming out in the next week or so
Can't wait for eiyuden chronicle!
This was the first rpg I played and I haven’t looked back since.
'The Cover'
This took me literally years to figure out.
Barbarossa on the top left, Below him is Futch (Why a 8 year Old (Futch is very young in 1.) looks like a Body Builder I do not know.), below him is Windy, Top Right is Tir, Below him is probably Leknaat, and Below her is Neclord Or the Generic enemy that it actually looks like.
I don't know what they were on when they made that art, but the fact it took me NEARLY 20 YEARS to figure that out is bad.
Blackman's random useful function is being a top tier fighter. Seriously, he's S Class.
Suikoden I and II are one of my favorite RPG's of all time. They both have a place in my Top 10
I will always say this game is underrated, even with all the praise it gets. I think this game and chrono trigger are perfect games to get into for first time jrpg players to see if they like the genre or not.
I also feel this game has the best jrpg soundtrack, and the water color pixels in this game really showed off each location and character. You really felt the difference between the empire and the poor countryside, as well as good and shady characters. One complaint I had with Suikoden II is the anime stereotypes started there and noone really felt as bad ass as the first game. Plus the dungeons felt more copy and paste. Also, magic and runes meant more in first game where second game was rune slots and fury/double beat runes where you can make your chef out damage Pesmerga...
Overall this game and Shining Force II will always be my biggest nostalgia games growing up. Thanks for the retrospective.
Great video!
Thank you!
I’ve played all the Suikoden games except for the first one. I feel like I’m missing out a little bit. All the Suikoden games are great
the first one is the best!!! and has the best soundtrack. Get a ps1 emulator
I think for me at least Suikoden might actually be my favorite game soundtrack, i know FF7 is masterpiece territory but what puts Suikoden in front imo is because i enjoyed the story and setting more and so that added to my enjoyment of the tracks as i'm listening to them, for example whenever there's about to be a big battle and you go talk to Mathiu in the battle room the music would just get me so pumped up i'd get goose bumps haha
the soundtrack is fucking glorious
I first played Suikoden 2 before Suikoden 1, but I brought myself to stop playing 2 to play the series in chronological order. I beat 1 and got all 150 stars of destiny, BUT I did something wrong and one of the main characters died. I wanted to replay it but never got around to it. I think ill pick it up again now, great video!
Thanks, would love to see a similar video for Suikoden 2 (the rest of the series also, but 2 is more important)
Suikoden 1 was good but 2 was the perfection of the concept. 3 was fun, 4 was... and 5 was really impressive. Would love to see a Suikoden 6 but it seems extremely unlikely it will ever happen now.
😭😭😭😭😭😭 my childhood, first Rpg,my favorite rpg of all time, and better than 2 to me!
Main Theme Guitar Version
Rising Tide
Yeah this one had the best music out of them all.
From my picture on here to animal crossing suikoden stays with me.
I replay 1 as much as possible. I got a tattoo last year in memoran of my mom who watched while I played the game related to me when I was younger because I felt like I lost alot of people I got the soul eater tattooed on my left hand with her death date.
I kick started Iudukden chronicles in 2019? 2020 cant remember the original person who came up with the story of 1 and 2 is heading it.
I cant wait for more of it
So, hopefully s2 retro gonna come from You. Great video. Loved the game, it was my first jrpg, overall first rpg followed by ff7 and suikoden 2. I was like 13 years back than and zelda and other games havent really catched my interests.
Also suikoden 5 was not bad 10 years later. Not best graf but most similar to 1 and 2👍
Hopefully in the remaster they make some quality of life upgrades that let you run/warp home anytime.
only thing i liked about this game series is the carry over game data to the next one and continue the story over
I love J RPG, I love nostalagia, I love pixel and I love your channel
please do Suikoden 2
oooh almost forgot, the remaster is on the way, sooooo happy
Suikoden 1 my must favorite out of the series lol
Suikoden's box art was amazingly bad, I remember taking apart the case and making a new one using the instruction manual as the cover. I have to say I love the castle/tower on the box though, the fact hat it goes above the clouds is crazy.
Anyway I'm extremely hyped for the HD remasters coming later this year. I hope they remaster 3, 4, a 5 as well with some improvements (like lowering the random encounter rate in 4).
As for the handheld titles, honestly never played em but heard they are bad (I avoided them cause they tossed aside the amazing world building of the first 5).
Maybe one day we will get a proper continuation that takes place in the original world. I would love to see a game set in Harmonia (we still don't even know what all 27 true runes are).
The random battle rate in this game was brutal lol.
Not as brutal as S3 or S4
As someone whose name is “Luc” (pronounced “Luke,”) hearing you say “Luc” like “Luck” was a trip 😂
I never got around to playing the original Suikoden, mainly because like in most JRPG franchises with standalone games the later entries are often considered better (e.g Final Fantasy, Tales, Persona, or Dragon Quest). It's a bit of a shame though, since this does look pretty good by itself, but I feel like I'll inevitably compare it to Suikoden II, and there's just no way it can compete with that.
I definitely hear you there. The Suikoden series is very interesting because while the games are technically stand alone, they all take place in the same world and with various returning characters unlike FF, Tales, etc. So while you don’t need to play the others to understand whatever entry you’re playing, it does flesh out the world a bit more and provide some nice callbacks.
I would argue that of those examples of series listed, Suikoden has the best original game that is the most playable to this day and age. I mentioned it in another comment but I’m probably in the extreme minority that actually prefers 1 over 2 in some aspects, however a lot of that probably comes from playing it as a kid and not the second game until I was older, as 2 is ‘better’ in a lot of ways and improves upon many aspects
First RPG I ever played ever...I borrowed it off my dads mate at age 10...I played it that day n not having a clue what I was doing I kept leaving gregminster with Ted n getting battered...I hated it
I put it on again a week later on the last day I borrowed it and had no memory card...I got upto the castle but died against the dragon...I was hooked.
Bought it for £10 a month later and absolutely hammered it .my first playthrough I missed so many characters..lost pahn ,Luc and loads of people..I was distraught at the end thinking flik and Viktor died as well ... I played it again and eventually got the good ending.
The 2nd came out and I refused to buy it..it wasn't mcdohl and I read a review of it that said it was an average game...I didn't want my memory of the first tarnished so I left it.
Few years later I left school and saw it at the start of the 6 week holidays for £30... I thought...sod it ..let's see for myself.... And it is still to this day my favourite RPG of all time....
Wonderful series..I still own them all and backed eiyuden chronicle in minute's
Lol this game reminds me of the crazy piece of internet lore known as the final fantasy house. Cant remember if the suikoden cult came first, or the house. Anyone who wants a nice little deep dive should look into the story
i really hope that eiyuden will be at least as good as suikoden 2..cant wait for next year
Gotta do a suikoden 5
I played 4
And got hooked
Bought 5 after and it was good aswell
But i did enjoy 4 way more
But thats all i know about the franchise
Suikoden Collection incoming? :D
hope they add it to the psn store sooner or later. got em on psp but on ps5 on tv would be great
0:00 Never expected to hear slavic singing in a Japanese game trailer. As a slav that likes JRPGs I am very surprised.
wait.. is that a scene from one of the 3 ninja's movies at 1:52?
Just wish that the good Suikoden games weren't so bloody expensive now.
I still have yet to play a Suikoden game. If you could recommend one and only one, which would you select?
Probably the second one, it’s often considered the best in the series and one of the best jrpgs of all time. There are some returning characters from the first game, but outside of a few references not that much is referenced to the story so you don’t need to play that one to play 2 as it has a stand alone story. I’m probably in the extreme minority that actually prefers 1 over 2 in some ways because I played that one as a kid and not 2 until I got older, but 2 is objectively better in a lot of gameplay aspects and the villain is one of the best ever
Suikoden 2 is considered one of the best RPGs of all time for very good reason. It's only $10 on the PSN so you can't go wrong
@@GamingBroductions I just went back and am finally playing Valkyrie Profile for the first time, but maybe I'll play Suikoden 2 next, then!
What is the game at 0:44 seconds with the skeleton guys?
Arc the Lad
How did you go this entire video without ripping off Marco to sharpen everyone's weapons?
swee-ko-den? I've been calling it Sue-ko-den...
It's actually Suu-ee-koo-den ("sou" of "soup", ee, "co" of "cold", and den)
Tir is pronounced like "teir". Also....Im hard of hearing so I use CC on RUclips for the things I miss....and TY is absolutely trolling me rn lol. Everytime you say Suikiden, it types sweekidin, priceless
Konami still milks Suikoden with their merchs. Hope Eiyuden's good enough to become its successor.
This is the favorite jrpg for me
With Suikoden V the best followed by II and I
1:10 Kind of weird Camelot made the mediocre on the PSX Beyond the Beyond before they made Shining in the Holy Ark and Shining Force 3, let alone the later Golden Sun series, all fondly remembered... They never made another PSX game either. I wonder if this had gone better whether they would have continued making JRPGs instead of churning out Mario Tennis and Golf sequels.