Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars

[OCH]

 

The glow up for Suikoden 1 is almost immediately apparent. The script has been tweaked IE better translated. The sprites have QoL improvements and the overworld & town maps have been given a modern facelift. I capped off my first session with acquiring your base. Roughly six hours in. It reminds me there is a reason I hold this series in very high regard. Even the "bad" one (Suikoden IV) isn't terrible. Hopefully if this remaster is a financial success, Konami might even revive the series proper. Or at least give a collection with the other three games (and maybe DS spin-off).

[OCH]

😭

 

It takes a fair amount of effort to get the 108 characters in this game. Just over 20 hours in, I have 107 and I'm all sorted for the >spoiler free< 108th and therefore, true ending. Except I watched a point of no return cutscene before talking to the 107th and so actually locked myself out of the true ending...

 

 

Onwards to Suikoden II...

 

 

[DANGERMAN]

Oof that's rough 

[OCH]

On 09/04/2025 at 07:58, DANGERMAN said:

Oof that's rough 

 

Went back and started again! This time, I got it right. I can't think of the exact number of active fighting characters among the 108 that you recruit. But one of this series greatest strengths lies in that massive roster diversity. If you want to make a party using Elven archers and the guy who builds your bath house, or just the leader and your five Blacksmiths. You can do that and make them Endgame worthy. Considering the playtime of my second file was actually about three hours less, I switched up my team a considerable amount more. It's one of those games that you can pick your favourites (or the series' icons) but they aren't necessarily the most powerful characters you have access to. The glow-up given this game just really amounts to icing on the cake. It was already great (and somewhat underappreciated in it's day) but smoothing over some of it's rougher edges, enhanced it further.

 

Now, I'm going to Suikoden 2.

[OCH]

Suikoden II: Ambition

From the intro cutscene, you see they have pushed the scope and scale of this game considerably from it's predecessor. Note: the art style was not altered for the sequel. Nor the sprites. They just smoothed the edges and left it as it originally was. Ambitious is definitely the best word to describe the opening few hours. It's quite a sedate intro in the first. You are a General's son, born from privilege and your initial party consists of your best friend and father's servants. The protagonists of the sequel are just kids. Yet it's played so much darker from the outset. A lot of the mechanics have been tweaked. Which I recall I was not a fan of, back in the day. It actually means I'm not steamrolling the early game, as I did with Suikoden 1.

 

Funny how some things stick with me though. I did not need a guide to recruit any of the 108 in Suikoden 1. It was all deeply ingrained in my memory. For example, there are locations wherein the character you recruit appears when you exit a map and immediately heel turn back into it. Another, Pesmerga (a personal favourite) appears at the top floor of a dungeon. Only upon revisiting it later in the game, when your HQ has leveled up to it's final level. 

 

Suikoden 2... I am a lot less familiar with character locations. Although I did remember to examine a certain tree a couple of times for an early recruit. Less than ten hours in right now though. So there's plenty of time to potentially miss out on the 108 true ending (this is a recurring benchmark in the series).

[OCH]

Internal screaming 2

When you are 29 hours into an RPG series, wherein recruitment con be very situational and time-sensitive. Don't take a hiatus of a few weeks between. I think I left off just before a key (point of no return) moment. But I also thought I had acquired all those I could in that window. I hadn't. Full disclosure I needed a guide for the sequel. Some of the 108 are extremely obscure to recruit. For example, in the original game, your HQ grew in levels. This was shown every so often by a brief cutscene, illustrating the excavation of the castle. In this game, your HQ is a town. There is no indicators that it has "levelled up". It just.. does. So when they say X character can only be recruited when your town is at level 3. Good luck pinpointing that moment. I wouldn't mind but the town itself does visually expand from mostly abandoned ruin to bustling village, including NPCs. But there isn't an acknowledgement of a pretty important in-game threshold.  

[OCH]

Internal Screaming 3

I've just gated myself out of the proper ending... AGAIN!?!😭

Except this time, it was more my fault than in-game signposting. There was a brief village I passed through roughly 10 hours ago. Wherein there was two legacy characters returning from Suikoden 1. There was a brief scene with them wherein my party interacted, then they left the village and I just assumed I would revisit the tail-end of that encounter later. WRONG. The village is inaccessible after that point and in turn, that was your one and only chance to recruit them.

 

Fast forward to this last big battle. There was a lot of emphasis on this being a "turning point" moment. They gave you time without missions prior to it. Which typically means in Suikoden: This is your moment to collect the last of the 108. I did that. Ended up with (as above) 106/108. There is a moment wherein a character is fatally wounded. There are two trigger points that determine their survival. Pressing a dialogue box that is visible for two seconds and... having all 108 just prior🙄

 

So now, much like with the first game, I am going right back to starting Suikoden 2... from the beginning. 35 hours of game time. 

 

[one-armed dwarf]

Will never ever play this game

[OCH]

5 minutes ago, one-armed dwarf said:

Will never ever play this game

😄

 

I haven't even touched on the min-maxing in this series...

 

 

[OCH]

I'm going to post more videos on tips/glitches you can use if this is your first time playing through the series. I would highly advise you to playthrough Suikoden 1 and then (if you get all 108) 2. It gives you an additional character from the first game that is very OP.

 

However, as an aside. There is a pretty notorious side quest in Suikoden 2 involving the character Clive. That requires speed runner level knowledge of the game to achieve. This has been offset by a huge QoL change. Simply go into settings, turn off the 'Pause Event Timer' option and the in-game clock is off. Removing the time limit to the side quest.