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[ULTROS!]

So after deliberating on whether getting Suikoden IV or Grandia III, I bit the bullet and picked up Suikoden IV because:

1. I'm a big Suikoden fan and this is the only Suikoden game I haven't completed (not touching Tactics, Tierkreis, and the PSP Tapestry game anymore though).
2. I want a short game.
3. I remember playing but never finishing this game, I remember it being OK.

Suffice to say that I'm in the part where I just got the "castle" and I'm roaming freely. This game is pretty much like a semi-open world where you can go almost anywhere and get characters (unlike the previous Suikodens, lots of areas are closed of until certain points in the game).

It definitely feels like they budgeted the hell out of this game (and you can see how bland the environments are) and how empty and long the sea exploration is but it's still a decent budget game that kinda feels like Suikoden. It's not great but it's not outright terrible.

Thoughts?

 

[SolVanderlyn]

It definitely feels like they budgeted the hell out of this game (and you can see how bland the environments are) and how empty and long the sea exploration is but it's still a decent budget game that kinda feels like Suikoden. It's not great but it's not outright terrible.

Thoughts?

I agree.

Troy is a cool villain and I love the artwork they use for the character portraits - best in the series IMO. Also I loved seeing

Spoiler

Ted and getting the explanation for his aging

.

Worst Suikoden, decent game with a lot of flaws. Tactics is a legitimately good sequel, definitely check it out after you beat this one.

 

[witchedwiz]

Sail part is god-awful, with a daunting random encounter rate..
Intro song is not bad, but worse then most mainline suikoden..
Models were a bit off the mark, portraits were good..
Serviceable i guess, but nobody will remember this dearly as time pass, imho.. I certainly won't...

 

[Lucreto]

It's the worst of the main line series but it's still a good game. I think it suffered a bit from the original creator leaving the company and Konami not knowing where to take the series.

 

[Paertan]

Thoughts?

Random Encounter Rate to high and travel too slow. Other than that I like it! More for the setting than anything else. Combat is kind of bland, story is pretty cool with some great characters. But the general setting of the game with ships and Island Nations is really cool.
A bigger budget SIV could have been amazing.

Ship battles are really fun but I think I remember them becoming to easy pretty fast.

Not a bad game but yes it is the weakest of the main series Suikoden games.

 

[Heartfyre]

I felt the game started off promising, presenting a lot of interesting character dynamics. I thought there was a lot of potential for development.

Then you leave Razril and those hopes are dashed at every turn.

 

[MattKeil]

It's the worst of the mainline Suikodens, but that still makes it a pretty good game. Hoping we get 5 down the road to complete the series on PS3.

 

[ULTROS!]

It's the worst of the mainline Suikodens, but that still makes it a pretty good game. Hoping we get 5 down the road to complete the series on PS3.

I hope it comes to PS4 at least.

I mean, I want Suikoden with trophies mang.

 

[Mephala]

Nothing is inherently awful with the game. The sea travel is a bit too long, encounter rate a bit too high, story beats a little slow, characters a little on the boring side. Everything adds up to drag down the game though and while I did enjoy it somewhat I was kind of glad it is over. None of the other mainline entries made me feel this way.

To be honest, while other Suikoden games could use a HD remaster, Suiko4 going into a HD remake with some overhauls could probably make a decent splash for the series. Then again, I suspect us suiko fans are just starved for more so anything new would make ripples in this stale pond.

 

[SolicitorPirate]

I remember reading a rumour that development for IV actually started after V as a low budget way to make some money as V's development was going longer than expected.

No idea if it was true (I suspect not), but the quality of the respective games didn't do much to quell the rumour.

On topic, IV is a'ight. The weakest entry in an acclaimed series is still competent JRPG

 

[Kageshinzo]

Average representative for the genre; worst mainline Suiko installment. Fucking ugly protag.

 

[Kain]

Waste of time, play III instead.

 

[Hours Left]

I'm a huge Suikoden fan and I think this game is thoroughly average. I don't consider it a blight on the series as some do, but it is a very mediocre experience. I still think it's required playing for any dedicated Suikoden fan, and playing Suikoden Tactics afterwards definitely elevates the experience of both games IMO.

Thankfully Suikoden V was outstanding. (Though then we fell into non-canon spin-off hell, and then obscurity...)

 

[SolicitorPirate]

Thankfully Suikoden V was outstanding. (Though then we fell into non-canon spin-off hell, and then obscurity...)

Well, on the bright side, it ended with a bang. Well, the mainline series did, anyway

 

[KyanMehwulfe]

Sort of mentioned this recently in that other thread about the game, but basically felt the game was kinda fun despite it's best attempts to annoy the heck out of me.

Disliked the main characters in Suiko IV... The hero was pretty useless. Snowe is one of the worst characters in the series... Annoying even by 'Suikoden token annoying character' standards.

Also, some of the worst enemy design I've seen in a game, even by Suikoden's already shitty standards. The most annoying anthromorphs in the series, too, which I read was because it was the same artist from Suiko 1 or something but she's obsessed with cats? -- i dunno ... fucking cats though.

But I did beat the game twice... /welp

Rather interesting antagonists and probably the best 'meanwhile... [antagonist scenes]' in the series, other than in Suikoden II.

Fun battles and gameplay. Fast snappy combat. Maybe a bit more snappy than Suikoden II: think FF X-2 though not quite as fast. Runes were pretty fast, too, IIRC (Suikoden 2's one slow area). It's kinda relative 'fast' though -- I played it after Suikoden III, which was slow as hell.

The ship mechanic was neat. It's kinda cool to use a ship as a HQ. Sailing is actually pretty fun, and I personally really got into the setting. I just found it... relaxing.... in the same way sailing in Witcher 3 is: the waves, the open sea... it starts to rain. There's just a sense of freedom and calm to it that I enjoyed. At the very least, it was refreshing.

The naval tactical combat was fun, too, and the most underrated part of its gameplay is probably how customizing your large army of characters with different runes or whatever really made it worthwhile to put a extra effort into leveling and customize everyone -- not just a few characters.

So, it's an OK game... A lot of good reason to hate it, but if you're a fan of Suikoden there is a possibility (varying on your tolerance level) for fun to be had.

 

[Garnox]

After going back a reading the posts after I commented, I feel a little better dedicating time towards SIV.

After I finish ME:A, I believe I'll finally start IV. Like people posted, it may not be a stellar game when stood up against the likes of say Suikoden II, but that's high praise apparently because it's able to hold a candle to it. So it's decent, just not knock your socks off. So I'll give it a try regardless. Thanks to all who added input 😎

 

[Labombadog]

You had one job, OP. Should of went with Grandia III. 😝 Seriously though. I hope you enjoy this game more than I did.

 

[kromeo]

Never thought it was as made as people make out, but it's not exactly great either.. Only having 4 part members was the biggest offence for me

I would probably say the same about Grandia 3 tbf...

 

[Itsuki]

You should have got Grandia III instead of Suikoden IV but I hope you enjoy it more than I did. I enjoyed Tactics more than IV.

 

[Count of Monte Sawed-Off]

I never finished this either. The only mainline Suikoden I didn't. The slow ass boat and high encounter rate just got to me eventually. I remember getting into two or three fights just trying to turn my ship around. The story and characters weren't interesting enough to make up for that.

 

[Like the hat?]

It's such a good game. I know a lot of people don't like it because it's different than the other suikoden games but I really liked it a lot.

 

[Skulldead]

i don't think it was that horrible, but high encounter rate was annoying, but my biggest grip was how unchallenging the game was, i love how much Suikoden 2 and 3 give at least a challenge and you can not just spam group attack and rune to destroy every encounter.

2. I want a short game.

Grandia 3 is not that much longer ... but feel really rewarding with some of the bosses.

 

[kromeo]

The short game part probably rules it out for you but everything about Suikoden 5 is so much better

 

[Toth]

You might want to edit your post Paertan. Autocorrect has screwed up big time lol

 

[Paertan]

You might want to edit your post Paertan. Autocorrect has screwed up big time lol

Hahaha yeah WTF! xD Thanks!

 

[ULTROS!]

Don't worry guys, I'll pick up Grandia III around May or June.

 

[Robaperas]

I'm sorry.

Spoiler

I still leveled up every character while listening to some podcasts, so it wasn't that much of a waste of time.

 

[ULTROS!]

I just finished game.

It seems like a lot of stuff are still lacking like Lazlo's backstory (unless I missed it)? I read his backstory via the web though.

This game is OK but it really feels like an early PS2 game with budgeting. Heck Suikoden III feels more technically and size-wise superior than IV. IV feels like a launch PS2 game.

 

[kurahador]

Suikoden Tactics is essentially a companion piece to this game. Has better story too.
Hope to see the game on PSN soon.

 

[QFNS]

Yeah. I picked it up for super cheap used at a Gamestop many years back. I never even finished it and I'm a huge Suikoden fan as well. I got a good number of hours in and just got bored from sailing and fighting and the drab enviroments.

2 was the high points of the series IMO, with 5 being a pretty glorious return to form later on. I really wish we'd see more of this series down the line (and not whatever that 3DS game was). The overarching plot is part of the draw!

 

[Goldrush]

Seems like they made the first chapter and found out they have to end the game.

 

[BassForever]

If someone would make a patch for this game to double sailing speed and 1/2 the encounter rate the game would be infinitely more playable.

 

[ULTROS!]

If someone would make a patch for this game to double sailing speed and 1/2 the encounter rate the game would be infinitely more playable.

I'd say patch in more towns too.

I mean this game has like... 4 towns?

 

[Wood Man]

I love the Suikoden series and wish Konami would go back the main series.

With that said Suikoden IV is the black sheep in the series. I didn't like that it was a prequel that went to far back in time to where it only had a few returning characters. Also didn't like that the battles scaled back the number of party members from 6 to 4. I liked having a bigger crew since there's so many recruitable characters. The sailing was sooo tedious.

Still I completed it with all 108 stars. Good thing they made up for it with Suikoden V being the best in the series. Sorry Suikoden 2 but I think 5 is the better game.

 

[djtiesto]

A lot of people say "bad Suikoden, still a decent game", but for me it was one of the worst RPGs I've played in a while. Tiny and bland dungeons, a battle system you can just freewheel your way through (with the exception of the final boss, which is actually really challenging), hideous artstyle with tons of washed out colors and animation which makes Mass Effect Andromeda's look good, not to mention the clunkiness of maneuvering the ship through a world more empty than Wind Waker's where you're constantly getting attacked. The game is real short and you get new characters thrown at you with barely any backstory, and the main story is really basic and doesn't have nearly the level of intrigue and twists the other Suikoden games have.

 

[Freddo]

Suikoden Tactics is essentially a companion piece to this game. Has better story too.
Hope to see the game on PSN soon.

That would be nice. And Suikoden V too, it's my favourite PS2 game.

Suikoden IV was released on Euro PS Store this week for the PS3. But I can't launch it, instead I'm greeted with an error message right away. "An error occured during the start operation (80029519)".

Anyone got it to work? Probably have to wait until Sony/Konami fix it, if they fix it.

 

[Spman2099]

I would argue that you can't do much worse than Suikoden IV... I still liked some of the characters, but there are a LOT of problems. The combat engine is so inexplicably terrible. Why simplify it to such a dramatic degree? As far as design is concerned, it looks plain bad. The character design is incredibly lacking, and the world is lifeless and dull.

Just... not good.

However, if you are going to play it you should give Tactics a look. It is a far better game and allows you to carry over one of the better characters from IV.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

I just couldn't get past the bland models and environments.

I still need to beat Suikoden V one day...

 

[Seiryoden]

I enjoyed Suikoden 4. It's the weakest of the series, but I never understood the level of animus direrected at the game.

 

[Anoxida]

Always get sad when Suikoden is brought up. I want a new game so bad. Suikoden IV is kind of rough, really ugly. They never managed to get their artwork to translate into 3d. V looks like hot garbage as well, but at least it's a very good game. I guess I still enjoyed IV somewhat when I played it back in the day. Doubt I'd be able to stomach a playthough today though.

 

[The Hamburglar]

One thing that didn't make sense was everyone having rune cannons and the ammo for it when the enemy empire has the tree thus a monopoly on it.

Probably the suikoden where unite attacks are actually useful and balanced.

 

[Linkura]

I enjoyed Suikoden 4. It's the weakest of the series, but I never understood the level of animus direrected at the game.

Same. It's not a great game, but I still enjoyed it whenever I played it (maybe 3 times?). On the other hand, when I replayed 3 immediately before, I got sick of the constant backtracking and going through the same areas with 3 different characters. I think I actually enjoyed replaying 4 more than 3, even though 3 is an objectively better game by a long shot.

 

[Tookay]

I finished it but felt like it actively wasted my time. The slow movement speed + high encounter rate just killed the game's pacing.

Everything just felt low-budget in comparison to what came before (and eventually after).

A shame, since the premise of a seafaring Suikoden was pretty cool.

 

[InsaneTiger]

I liked the game and it was nice to see Ted before you met him in Suikoden. I do wish you could have met Lazlo in Suikoden V though get a nice tie-in with and maybe use the Punishment Rune again. Definitely not as good as the other Suikoden games but I like the ability to choose each individual character's actions (like older games) over the Pair system in Suikoden III.

Talking about Suikoden makes me wish we would get another. The lore of that series is so fascinating.

 

[Wireframe]

Two pretty meh games in otherwise stellar respective series. I'd have picked SIV too.

 

[KyanMehwulfe]

One thing that didn't make sense was everyone having rune cannons and the ammo for it when the enemy empire has the tree thus a monopoly on it.

Middleport had been producing rune cannons and ammo for Gaien (the good empire) for a while, I think. The, when Kooluk (the enemy empire) captured Middleport (think it was like 10 years before the IV story), they left Middleport to be free under the condition they would do free trade with both Kooluk and Gaien.

I'm not really sure when the tree when to that El-whatever big Kooluk fortress, but continued to produce and ship rune cannons and ammo for like 10 years up until the IV story starts. That was the start of the game, if you remember how they discover the trading company was actually a front for the Graham Clay trading company, and they discovered the Middleport ship they were escorting was carrying giant rune cannon ammo, not spices. So they had been manufacturing and supply not only rune ammo but giant rune ammo without tree (since the tree was at El-whatever already being used to make the giant Junon Death Star cannon thing)

I guess rune ammo had been manufactured and freely traded for so long, and it seems as if while not easily made Middleport was still able to manufacture it without the tree. Also, I suppose since the main theme of the game is 'sea trading and pirates' there's probably a lot of supposed supply storages, raiding, trade depots, and an ample '

So, I suppose Middleport and Warlock were able to still manufacture the ammo... Suikoden Tactics showed that other places such as Scarlet Moon Empire had discovered and creation their own rune cannons, too; so the tree wasn't the only source.

Cray Trading Company technically wasn't producing the general rune ammo. Middleport was, and then amidst all their free trade to both empires, they were secretly sending most (all?) to Kooluk via Orark Martime Trade, which was a spice shipping front for Cray Trading Company.

I think... the main thing Graham Cray was producing or had unique was the tree, but he was using that for the giant rune cannon that specially made at El-whatever fortress -- the Death Star/Shinra Junon cannon thing lol that destroys the island city.

But Middleport was still manufacturing and producing ammo something like 10 years priors to the story all the way up to the start of the story, despite the tree having been move to El-Junon Deathstar fortress whatever. Middleport itself and Gaien may have had ample stock; pirates may have raided stock.

Then, Middleport signs a deal with your army, what, about halfway through the game, to remain neutral. So I guess presumably they continued to manufacturer rune ammo for both sides.

I think at least lol I had to refresh on the wiki. Sort of interesting though.

Despite most of the art and theme, I did quite like the sort of shipping and sailing theme: the plot focused on a sort of secret arms industry, ports, and trading companies.

 

[Deepwater]

It woulda been fine IMO if they kept it at 6 characters per battle instead of lowering it to 4.

 

[DukeLongfellow]

I played through all 5 games on a break some 4 years ago (went for 108 on all of them) and this was the weakest of them all for sure.

But man, I REALLY liked the ship strategy battles for some reason. They had a real charm but were way too few and far between. I wish there was a "mini-game" section where you could play through random encounters or something to that effect. I remember there was one point in the game where you could "practice" these battles but it was barebones in its possibilities.

Also,

Spoiler

I liked the Suko 1 character being included (forgot the name, it's been a while)

.

 

[ModernBoxes]

This game crushed my soul. I did not like 3 because the ORIGINAL Fire Champion was the coolest character, but not in the game. There also wasn't Tir McDohl or the Suikoden 2 hero. Then they gave you choices that weren't canon.

Along comes 4 Devoid of color, personality, and budget. Ted wasn't enough. Thank goodness V was so great... but I have the game and no way to play.

 

[Solidino]

Suikoden 4 has been removed from UK PSN store, many people purchased it, but they getting error code when launching the game.

Hope they fix it soon.