Suikoden I & 2 HD Remaster Review - Rebel Yell
I can’t help but get a mix between a sense of unease and exhaustion at anything remake or remaster. There are a lot of them, and they come out with such regularity that it’s hard to get excited. It can also be a crapshoot in terms of quality. I don’t just want upscaling. I want better graphics, I want quality of life improvements, or maybe additions of content that came out after the initial launch. With this in mind, I had a keen eye on the Suikoden I & II remaster. Off the back of the very cool Romancing SaGa 2 remaster, I was encouraged. I loved the original game too, and whilst I did enjoy Eiyuden Chronicle, there’s nothing like the OG.
I’ve got two games to talk about here, so we’re going to speedrun explanations. These are both old-school turn-based RPGs centred mostly around recruiting an army of playable characters and generally being the underdog and overthrowing authority. The hook here is that the playable cast is 108 in both games (sort of), much like the title it’s loosely based on, The Water Margin. What’s refreshing is that this game doesn’t sugarcoat things. You’re up against awful odds and an awful situation. Expect a lot of dark themes.
Even though I’d played both of these games back in the late 2000s, I was surprised at how much I just didn’t remember. I somehow thought the first game was 80 hours, and was surprised to see credits in 30 or so, even when taking my time. The first game was such a breath of fresh air back when it was released, and while I think it still holds up really well, the blazing pace of the story was surprising. It’s still a really good story, but it does pass at breakneck speed. I honestly wish there was more time to sit with some of the larger plot points before moving on. The sequel has much better pacing and takes place 3 years after the first game, and took me around 60 hours. It’s a juicy game and improves upon the original in a lot of ways.
The biggest upgrade is in the graphics department. The game is now widescreen, and in a modern resolution. Environments look fantastic, given more detail which makes scenes pop a bit more. Portraits were redrawn by their original artists too. A lot of love has been given here, and it makes for a very visually appealing product. Interestingly, this update only has been applied to the original game. Oddly, when I was comparing the portraits vs the originals, I noticed that some of the small flourishes, such as one character’s nose size has been standardised, which I find removed a bit of the charm via the weirdness originally. Still, Suikoden II did get a touch-up of the portraits, so they haven’t completely been left behind.
Personally, I still enjoy the style of combat that Suikoden has. Combat is turn based, and you bring up to six characters into combat, three in the front and three in the back row. Back row attackers attack based on their range of weapon, but they can switch up with the front if needed. It’s pretty light, but I like fiddling around with the variety of the cast, finding Unite attacks from combinations of units. As the cast is so large, you can experiment a lot with different characters, or fall back on a small cast of faithfuls you’ll rely upon.
Whilst quite a few of the upgrades are nice, some are oddly missing. Inventory management in the first game is still awful – every character has their own unique inventory, and you can’t see if they can use gear or not from storage, to name but a few bugbears. The save system is by far the most annoying, where it autosaves at key points or when you enter a room with a save point. Good lord, the save point is right there already. I feel like this sort of stuff could have been adjusted without altering the core DNA of the game, but they chose to leave it as is.
What’s left, when you strip back all the improvements and baggage (for positive and negative) of an established title is still amazing. There’s a reason these games used to go for a lot of money on the second-hand market. Suikoden, even after all these years, is still an amazing set of RPGs. For the price too, it’s a bargain. These are tales of political intrigue, strong combat and a banging soundtrack. Even with so many characters, there’s a surprising amount of charm and depth. These are classic games, and I’m glad that there’s a serviceable remaster out there that I can now recommend to people who have never tried them.
I could go on and on about changes, fixes, and upgrades. I don’t really need to though. People who have played these games before will know if they want to pay to revisit them with the upgrades that have been made. Those who haven’t played them before, well, I’d say give this a try.
Suikoden I & II was reviewed on the PS5 with code kindly supplied by the publisher.
