Suikoden was originally released in the US in 1996, for the Playstation. Like many RPGs at the time, its cover had nothing to do with the game at all.
Seriously. Nothing here has anything to do with the game, at all. None of these even resemble the characters.
Suikoden was the first playstation game I owned, and I still enjoy it. The basic plot of the game is that you are Tir McDohl, son of Teo McDohl, one of the Emperor’s six great generals. Though a few crazy mishaps, you find yourself a fugitive leading a rebellion army against the Emperor, and the witch Windy who is controlling him behind the scenes. You have to gather an army (and there are 108 recruitable characters in this game, so it is an army!), meet the enemy generals on the field of battle, and stop their overall villainous plans. While Windy and her sorcery play a heavy role in the story, the real meat is the rebellion, and the two opposing armies. You’re not saving the world from a crazy white-haired clown, you’re just a son of a famous general thrust into opportunity to lead people to freedom.
Styles are mixed, but never feel out of place. Look at the two characters above – one is dressed like a traditional European knight, the other a martial artist. Many complain that the monk class was out of place in 3.5 D&D. Yet somehow, Suikoden makes it work. The music generally has an asian feel to it, as to many of the characters. Yet there’s just as much scenery that fits our images of castles and knights. I have no idea what the secret to this is - I'd be curious to hear people's opinions in the comments. Is it that both styles are introduced early, and mixed freely throughout?
Mathiu Silverberg, a former military strategist from a family of military strategists gets more screen time than probably any other character. You recruit him early game to help lead your army, and he’s the one who comes up with the ideas for what you, the hero, will have to do next. While the ideas of patrons who give out quests are hardly unique for tabletop games, Mathiu is interesting in that he doesn’t want to help you at first. It’s only after you convince him to help, and he sees how corrupt the Empire has become, does he aid you. This leads to an important effect that could be duplicated in RPGs – it won’t feel as much like railroading if the players ask for the next lead, rather than simply being given it. When they know their patron is a genius who they’ve convinced to help, it feels more like they’re accomplishing something.
Kalekka is a town you hear about early in the game with regards to “The Kalekka Incident”. Mathiu has a connection to it, but doesn’t say what. Eventually, you have to pass through this town to reach a destination – and when you do, you find it a waste. Buildings are demolished, farm fields burnt. Kalekka is in total ruins. Later, you’re adventuring with Humphrey, a knight who rarely says a word. He meets an old friend, and the two catch up, with the friend asking why Humphrey was no longer in the Emperor’s army (which was unrevealed, up to this point). Humphrey explains that he left after the Kalekka incident, revealing that what he was ordered to do made him so angry, he killed his commander and fled right then. Never is it revealed what actually happened in Kalekka – it’s up for the player to imagine it. Sometimes, letting people infer something happened is more useful than outright telling them. Rather than explaining what happened at Kalekka, the player is left with the understanding that it turned Mathiu off of war, destroyed a town, and made the stoic Humphrey kill a man in rage. The exact details of the event don’t matter – how people have responded to it does.
Suikoden also has one big gut-punch. The Emperor has six great generals, and as mentioned above, the main character is the son of one. The first two are both acting like dictorial dicks when you meet them, and after defeating them, you discover they were being controlled and forced to act evil by a mind-control rune placed by the witch, Windy. The rune is removed, and you’re able to have them join your army. After fighting the first two generals, Teo, your father, is sent to confront you. Like the previous two, you’re first forced to do a fetch quest to be able to acquire the mcguffin that lets you defeat his army, and then do battle with him personally… only to discover that there is no rune controlling him. He was just a good, honorable man, doing the wrong thing out of a sense of loyalty and duty. He gives his blessing to your rebellion with his dying words, urging his soldiers to follow you. With a repetition of the same plot structure twice in a row, the player is naturally expecting it to occur the third time, and it seems to, right up until the end. The sudden lack of an expected element right at a crucial point comes as a surprise. There was no earlier indication to suspect that Teo had a rune controlling him – unlike the previous two generals, there was no horrible act he was committing – but that’s easy to skip over at first. It’s made all the more effective in that Teo was a good character doing bad things, something tabletop games need to include more often.
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