I thought I was finally going to know what it feels like. As big fan of one of the least-popular games in what seems to be, I begrudgingly admit, a bit of a niche JRPG series, my eyes lit up earlier this week while scrolling through Twitter. Somehow, my silent prayers had finally been answered, and even though Konami’s put a delay on the remastered versions of Suikoden and Suikoden 2, my personal favorite game in the series (and what seems to be the redheaded stepchild in the Suikoden community) was revealed to have its own remaster already in progress. Oh, happy day!
Folks, this is why you always read the fine print.
Clicking the link to a site I wasn’t all to familiar with, I quickly scrolled down to the attached images and video to find the muddied textures of Suikoden 3’s Zexen continent (which I used to look so good back during its PlayStation 2 debut in 2002) lovingly updated, with lifelike leaves and blades of grass, dusty dirt paths peppered with realistic rocks and pebbles, and happy, poofy white clouds drifting across a serene sky. The squat, bulky character models still looked like they needed some work, but at least they were appearing in higher contrast, and hey, it’s a recently announced work in progress, right? Still time to get it up to snuff.
And then I scrolled back up and read the article. It’s a fan project. Oh, my heart.
Don’t get me wrong; I love you, 1vierock, for these beautiful images that you’ve shown me. Too often, my sense of nostalgia for beloved games from bygone eras is shaken to the core when I actually go back and play them, realizing just how butt-ugly the graphical limitations of consoles a few generations past made games look when compared to the cutting-edge technology we’re seeing on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. But I was just hoping for something a little more official; something I can find popping up on my console’s home page, or better yet, on Game Pass, or at least buried in the back of the digital storefront.
Because the Suikoden series is one that’s been severely neglected by the JRPG community for a long time, and it’s one of my favorites. Of the five mainline games, the last came out in 2006, and while a lot of the series’ fans saw it as a return to its roots, I found it to be slow and boring, and I can understand why it effectively killed off the series.
The first two games, which both appeared on the original PlayStation, are beloved classics, allowing you to collect 108 different characters to add to your roster, with most of them playable and some others acting in support roles, either in combat or serving as merchants and even UI conduits around your home base of operations. Adding to that, the gameplay offered a lot more than most RPGs of the era, as standard turn-based encounters were also peppered in with one-on-one duels and large-scale battles in which you would command your entire army. I paid a hundred bucks for a copy of the first game that I was lucky enough to find on display at my local GameStop, and I don’t regret it one bit.
But Suikoden 3 brought those same mechanics from the first two games into a stunning (at the time) 3D world, adding in some fun mechanics like actually having characters move around the field of battle, which both made each character’s movement speed a factor and really made you think about whether you should be casting that massive flame storm, as some of your physical attackers might get caught up in the (pardon the pun) friendly fire.
Beyond that, the story was phenomenal, and it only got better after I’d gone back to play its predecessors and had a better idea of what was going on. Instead of a single protagonist, you play chapters detailing the lives of three people caught on different sides of a continent-wide war: Hugo, eager son of the Karaya clan’s chief; Chris Lightfellow, disillusioned captain of the Knights of Zexen, and Geddoe, mysterious mercenary leader working on the borderlands of the expansive and looming Holy Harmonian Empire.
Despite the hatred bred for each other through the war, the game brings these three (and a whole lot of other colorful characters) together as heroes fighting against a power that wants to wipe their very essences out of existence. Oh, and you get to choose your favorite to be the main hero through the game’s final chapters, so that was a nice touch too.
I was excited, but not entirely surprised, when Konami announced those first two games would be getting their own bundled remaster, even if it has been pushed back a bit, but I was also disappointed. Why stop at Suikoden 2 when my favorite game in the series (which, to be fair, was also my entry point), is numerologically and chronologically the next obvious step?
Once those two remasters are out, I’ll be keeping my eyes on you, Konami. If a fan can do it, so can you. Don’t keep me waiting forever.