The Suikoden series. The mere mention of the name “Suikoden” will draw hardcore JRPG fans out of the woods, and into epic ramblings about how great the first two titles were. Personally, the third iteration of the series remains my favorite one.
Suikoden V would end up being the last title in the long running series. The series was left in the Abyss after the aforementioned title sold only 300,000 copies. Perhaps, one of the reasons why Suikoden V flopped is because Suikoden IV was, in truth, a very pedestrian experience.
The Tribulations of Sea Faring
The one thing that remains fresh in my memory from playing Suikoden IV, is not its mediocre plot, nor its mundane visuals, but rather, its tedious, slow, and frustrating sea faring mechanics. Suikoden III had ditched the “Over World” approach in favor of interconnected areas. I actually complained about this but found myself quickly regretting it as I sailed through Suikoden IV’s high seas.
Getting from island to island, was long and tedious process. It could take an hour of sailing (perhaps more) in order to find a new land. The long sailing was made worse by the large frequency of random battles. When I say that I encountered a fight every five seconds of sailing, I am not overreacting. I don’t think I have ever despised travelling in a game as much as I did here.
To make matters worse, the game gives you vague details of where to go next, as in “where to next in order to keep the story going?” Quite simply, I found myself stumbling into plot points by random luck, rather than by me knowing where I had to go next.
Getting the 108 stars to join you in the quest (one of the big features of previous games) is nearly an impossible task, thanks to how big and slow the game world, and traversing it feels. Unless you have a guide in hand, I suspect that this venture could take about 100+ plus hours.
Not all is terrible in Suikoden IV’s sea faring adventures, however, as ship combat could be fun and strategic at times.
The Loss of Yoshitaka Murayama
Director and writer, Yoshitaka Murayama’s absence from Konami was felt in Suikoden IV. A silent protagonist, trust into a long and drawn-out plot that had none of the drama, and deep moral (and ethical) themes of the previous entry makes Suikoden IV’s story a forgettable epic.
The story heats up in the later parts of the game, but the amount of seafaring and random battling needed to get there is not worth the story that the game has to tell even in its finest moments. Quite simply, in terms of storytelling Suikoden IV does not live up to the standard set by previous entries, especially Suikoden III.
Suikoden IV reverting back to a silent protagonist was a killer. Very few games have made the ‘silent protagonist’ mechanic work, and unfortunately, Suikoden IV is not one of them. Silent protagonists should have remained in the 2-D sprite era.
Unless there is a dialog tree that allows the player to choose answers for the protagonist during key plot moments. I do not see the need for silent protagonists, though again, some games have made this work before.
Avoid at all Costs
Unless you are a hardcore collector, I see no need to invest in getting a copy of the game. The series has four entries which are vastly superior to Suikoden IV. With a 63 Metacritic score, the game will forever be known as Suikoden’s ugly duckling.
Agree with the author? Couldn’t disagree more and are frothing at the mouth to tell him? Leave a comment here, on Facebook or send an email and make sure to follow Never Ending Realm on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube!
I personally disagree. You say avoid at all costs based on the critic score, but IGN and GamePro gave it a solid score back at the time and user reviews have actually been quite favourable for it. Telling people to avoid the game at all costs based on your own experience and old critic reviews which didn’t represent the majority of opinions isn’t the most useful advice. My main criticisms with the game are the rushed ending and high encounter rate, but visually it holds up really well and in my opinion is the nicest looking 3D Gensou Suikoden. The music is just as good as III and V although I think that I and II are the standouts for the music. While there is a 4 person party, it plays smoothly just like any good JRPG. I think that the map was too big considering that a lot of it was empty, but when knowing where to go and what to do, it is actually not that troublesome.