Originally released in 1995, Suikoden launched a series that would come to join the halls of JRPG royalty. Its politically driven stories, with huge casts of characters, were and remain unique in the genre, but for some reason even in this age of abundant HD rereleases and remasters, Suikoden remained in Konami’s back pocket. Fortunately for those of us who missed it when it originally was released, and didn’t want to dish out upwards of $200 for a secondhand physical copy, the wait is over. Suikoden and Suikoden II were released early in 2025 as a readily-available, remastered combo package. This review focuses on Suikoden in particular and aims to answer whether it holds up for new players, and whether it has some substance for those playing with thumbs of faith. In short – it certainly has the substance, but it probably still takes some patience for decidedly old-school JRPG conventions to uncover it.
In Suikoden, you play as the son of Teo McDohl, a famous general of “the Empire”, living in a not-insignificant amount of luxury in the imperial capital of Gregminster. Right away, your father is called upon to quell skirmishes along the Empire’s northern border, leaving you to be pressed into service as well. Fortunately, you’re not alone – you as the young McDohl are joined on your first assignments by Gremio and Cleo, imperial veterans who’ve helped raise you, and Ted, your friend since childhood. Initially, you’re charged with recovering taxes from the corrupt mayor in a nearby town, but the more you interact with the locals, and the bandits besetting them, you see the Empire’s also been abusing its power in ways both large and petty.
The path to the bandits puts the party in grave danger, and it’s only by the magical abilities of your friend Ted that you’re able to escape. It turns out Ted is the possessor of one of the twenty-seven True Runes, and in saving the party, he alerts his presence to the Empire’s court sorceress, Windy. As it turns out, Windy’s been hunting for Ted – but more importantly his True Rune – for 300 years. In order to continue its protection, Ted passes the rune to you and sacrifices himself so you can escape in secret with Cleo and Gremio. Now on the run and unable to return to your home, you fall in with a small liberation movement, and begin to help them raise an army to fight against the empire’s growing tyranny.
Raising that army is one of the unique hooks of Suikoden, in which you’re not just traveling the world solving its problems, as one might be wont to do in a JRPG. You’re also seeking to recruit up to 108 heroes from a host of colorful characters. Some join your party automatically for story reasons, but many only join after you solve a small puzzle. Generally speaking, a character’s dialogue will strongly hint at what you must do, but the tasks are still fairly satisfying to complete. Once they’ve joined, they’ll take up residence in your castle, which grows with your retinue. Some characters even offer helpful services or fun perks at your home base, such as convenient shopping, item storage, minigames, and even window and sound effect customization. Those who do not provide benefits inside the castle are meant to help outside, giving you more options in army battles, one of the three battle systems in Suikoden.
Army battles are mainly used to theatrical effect, when the standard six-person party just won’t cut it to communicate the scope of the conflict. The characters you’ve recruited will be automatically split into teams of three, each of which can perform a single action in the battle. These actions are generally melee charges, arrow barrages, or magic attacks, which are opposed to each other in a rock-paper-scissors style system of direct counters. A few groups have special actions such as identifying the enemy’s next move, but these can only be used once.
The mechanisms at the root of these army battles offer you little in the way of planning and executing a strategy. Once you’ve exhausted the few special action groups you may recruit, trying to pick the right counter against the enemy is a matter of chance. The stakes are pretty high, too, as picking the wrong action might mean the permanent death of one of your characters. While I appreciate that all of these systems help to better demonstrate the size of the war and show the growth of your army in a tangible way, I still found it frustrating that winning was based mostly on luck. Fortunately, army battles are used sparingly throughout the game, and are often a way of giving you a little bit of choice during what otherwise would be a narrative sequence.
The second unique, and similarly theatrical, battle system in Suikoden is dueling. Like the army battles, they depend on rock-paper-scissors mechanics, but instead of being left up to chance, you’re given dialogue clues as to your opponent’s next move. The choice is not always obvious, and the price of a mistake is steep. Consequently, duels are tense, dramatic affairs that are a fun change of pace and something I would’ve liked to have seen more.
Standard party-based battles in Suikoden have a very old-school core, but come with enough twists on the formula that the result is satisfying and swiftly-paced. Each character is capable of a physical attack with their unique weapon, which has either a short, medium, or long-range property. Characters with short range weapons can only attack from the front row, and may only target the enemies’ front row. Medium range may attack from the front or back, but still only target the front row, while long-ranged weapons can attack from anywhere and target anyone. Certain characters in your party may also Unite their attack with each other, which brings unique animations and battle effects to the table. Once your army grows sufficiently, identifying which characters make for a good formation and effective combinations of Unite attacks is an interesting planning exercise.
Magic usage is tied to runes, of which a single rune may be attached to any character. Generally speaking, each rune is associated with an element, and has four spells of increasing potency. (Think D&D-style magic levels, or the way the earliest Final Fantasy games handled their magic systems.) Spells have a limited number of charges that may be used before resting at an inn, but are quite potent when used correctly. Items are as you’d expect – but I bring them up just to note that their use in battle is tied to the character to whom they are equipped. Item management in general is probably the biggest source of friction in Suikoden, and fortunately the sequel fixes most of it.
In the standard battles, there’s no Active Time Battle, Continuous Time Battle, or other equivalently acronymed system here – you just pick your commands ahead of a turn and watch them play out. In a game where the cast of characters was small, this system would probably drag after a while, but I think the combination of systems works pretty well for Suikoden. Picking your party forces you to make interesting decisions between competing goods – maybe you want a character for their current rune, but you also need others for their Unite attacks, but then maybe you’d be overloaded on short range characters, etc. The old-school magic system may be a little intimidating to those more used to MP and MP-restorative items, but the encounter density felt balanced enough to me where I usually had enough charges to use to get through to the next rest. There’s also the option to let enemies go when your characters are of a sufficient level, and by fighting every battle until reaching that point, I never felt like grinding was required.
Three battle systems and over one hundred characters, in addition to all the required environments, must’ve been a daunting task for the Suikoden art team. Consequently, the fact that the sprites convey so much character is a testament to their efforts. The portraits that accompany the dialogue (redone for the Suikoden remaster) are colorful and charming – and a necessity given the size of the cast. The large army battles are maybe a little less impressive in that they come across somewhat cartoony, but I’d say that’s forgivable given the development team’s ambition to convey a scale that exceeded the standard party battle.
What’s less successful graphically are the redone backgrounds, particularly for the outdoor regions. I couldn’t shake a sense of disconnection between the sprites and the backgrounds, and particularly in natural settings the simulated verticality and perspective always seemed a little off. Perhaps this is a nod to preserving the original backgrounds, but it’s certainly noticeable for newcomers like me.
The music was also a bit of a low point in my estimation. Nothing stood out as bad, but I’m conditioned through years of Final Fantasy obsession to stirring battle themes and memorable accompaniments to the journey in general. Suikoden’s battle music has a certain intensity that befits a fight, but lacks sufficient melody to keep it fun over the countless battles you’ll face. The overworld and town themes in many cases help sell the mood and culture of a given city, but I’d also struggle to recall any of them.
Minor musical missteps aside, there’s much to commend in Suikoden. It has a quickly-paced story that, while adorned with fantastical trappings, often has less to do with restoring or obtaining a magical macguffin and more to do with choosing virtue in a world that tempts heroes into compromising their values. There’s certainly old-school sensibilities to contend with, such as individual character inventories and relatively basic battle systems, but it’s balanced by the complexity stemming from formulating a party out of the 108 possible characters. In general, Suikoden is colorful and brimming with charm, and is well worth playing for those versed in the genre.
Spiritual Value
The Suikoden series’s most notable hook is the recruitment of up to 108 heroes, and the delightful way it’s handled in Suikoden provides something worth pondering both at the macro and micro levels.
Part of the charm of Suikoden is that its heroes aren’t just plucky teens off to save the world with the power of youthful passion, but rather come from all walks of life. You’ll recruit young and old, men and women, married and unmarried, warrior and innkeeper, etc. Each has an important role to play, whether that’s directly in battle, or back at home base. In this, I couldn’t help but be reminded of St. Paul’s eloquent descriptions of our unity in Christ as his mystical body. Just as the varied heroes contribute to the growth of your castle, we are called to bring our unique skills to bear in building up God’s kingdom.
If we look a little deeper, though, that very growth of the castle also offers a baptismal metaphor. Before McDohl can establish himself in the castle, he must defeat the beast currently living there – a zombie dragon. With the dragon defeated, he dwells therein and over the course of the game the castle is cleaned up and built upon, being perfected with each of McDohl’s triumphs. Is this not the story of our baptism and sacramental life? May we be that castle, open to Christ’s triumph over sin’s presence in us, and open to his sanctifying grace so we may become what we are meant to be. May we, recalling the words of Psalm 24, lift up our gates and open our doors wide to welcome our Lord, strong and mighty.
Scoring: 80%
Story: 4.5/5. The fact that such an expansive cast has so many characters that still feel decently fleshed out is impressive, particularly in the first outing of such a series. The emphasis on heroic virtue in the face of realistic temptations is welcome, but I did think there was a missed opportunity to dive into what it means to possess the True Gate Rune. (It’s similar to holding the One Ring, and Tolkien’s treatment of the concept is superior.)
Aesthetics: 3.5/5. The music rarely stands out, and some of the backgrounds feel off, but the sprites and portraits are expressive and lively.
Gameplay: 4/5. Once you have access to your castle, which fortunately isn’t too long into the game, its mechanical fun unfolds for you. Shortly thereafter you earn the ability to warp around the map, which also makes searching for recruitable characters a much more pleasant experience than you might expect in a game that otherwise has decidedly old-school sensibilities. The army battles and duels are a fun addition that don’t overstay their welcome, and regular combat offers enough crunch without feeling tedious. (Though my assessment of tedium may be somewhat suspect, as I’m probably habituated to JRPG quirks at this point.)
Morality/Parental Warnings
Innuendo: there’s a scene or two that hint at illicit activities, but I don’t recall anything being openly shown or discussed.
Violence: it’s a story about war, and it’s not particularly shy about its consequences, but it’s also a two-dimensional sprite-based game, so such portrayals are not gory. There is also a suicide that takes place off-screen. I would argue that it isn’t glorified, but the writing comes near to giving it an air of nobility it certainly does not deserve.
Occult imagery: The Gate Rune has powers that are centered on death, and both look and sound “dark”, but it’s also not really explained how those powers work. The villain is certainly interested in using them to cause the death of others, but in the hero’s case it’s more about bearing the pain of witnessing the ultimate sacrifices of those close to him. The hero is not using the rune’s powers for evil, so it could be read as akin to meting out divine justice.
