Suikoden IV

In the beginning...

Suikoden is probably my favorite JRPG series, maybe only nearly almost eclipsed by the Persona series. The former is now all but gone, and yet the latter is still thriving, now even reaching every major platform there is. They both started out in the PS1, made drastic changes in their PS2 iteration, but that's where their fates diverged.

Starting off with the PS1 era, the first Persona title wasn't far removed from the original SMT titles, still having that first-person dungeon exploration, but the battles were in your regular JRPG style where you can see your characters. The second one fully diverged from the trademark SMT style by introducing full classic JRPG view, and even by today's standards, a unique duology which tells a single story when combined. The first one's reception was lukewarm at best, the second one had more positive reviews but the weird thing is Atlus decided to port the second of the duology, so as a kid, and I bet with most people back then, we were left scratching our heads on some of the details of the story as it felt like something was missing.

Suikoden on the other hand came out relatively strong, the first title in the series looked like a very good SNES title but with the power of the PS1, infused its game with an amazing soundtrack and introduced its hook of 108 unique characters you can recruit throughout your game, and a base you can improve as you get more people to rally behind your cause. The story was pretty good as well. Then came the second title. Widely thought of, including by yours truly, as one, if not the finest JRPG ever made, Suikoden II just blew the first one away. It's a masterclass in storytelling, the OST is one of the best I've ever heard in videogames, multiple endings, one of the most memorable villains in videogame history, and an amazing payoff should you put in the work to get the perfect ending by recruiting all the Stars of Destiny and doing some extra steps. The headquarters that you build as the game goes along is huge and has a lot of details, there's even a cooking minigame that's like Iron Chef. Eat your heart out, Square and Enix(and Square Enix). Sadly, the game's release was eclipsed by a little known seminal title, Final Fantasy VII.

Let the good times and bad times roll

We now come to the PS2 era, Atlus decided to do something wild with the Persona series. And by wild, I mean turn it into a life-sim, dungeon crawling, cool anime experience, and wow, what a great change that turned out to be. 3 main titles and countless spin-offs later, Persona is still going strong to this day, and I think it's fair to say that the series is primed to get its widest audience yet with the next mainline title.

The Suikoden series on the other hand, failed to reinvent itself. The third title in the series, the first one on the PS2, featured 3 different protagonists which was quite the change at that point. It wasn't the first title to do that first(Wild Arms comes to mind), but they did it in such a way that having three different protagonists actually has a big role in the story. It's an imperfect title, but still good enough not to tarnish the series. Then came the fourth title. Gather around everyone, this is the review of the black sheep of the Suikoden series, Suikoden IV.

Braving the beautiful but deadly seas

I first played Suikoden IV as a kid in a wet market, which you can find in most Asian countries. One stall there had arcade cabinets and a few TVs with PS2s. At that point in time, I didn't have a PS2, so what I did when I had some errands to run is after I bought all the stuff I could, I would spend an hour in that stall to play some PS2. I noticed Suikoden IV was already out, at that point the only other Suikoden game I've played was 2, and I loved that to bits, so I was expecting IV to be a great title as well.

First off, the graphics were excellent. The characters and environments were all fully in 3D, and what is this? Voice acting? The game also started out in a brisk pace, you start out as a student in a military academy, you have your friends, you graduate, then you head on to the open seas. That's when the game's biggest problem became apparent: the sea.

You see, JRPGs are avoided by most people because of random encounters. Titles in this genre often will get deducted heavily if the random encounters are so insane, and in this genre, most of them are. This game takes random encounters to the next level, or should I say sea level. See, the ship is a main part of the story, and navigation requires you to sail around to get to the other towns. The thing is, it seems like every few seconds, you will run into random encounters. These encounters are mind numbing, and you will get tired of them fast. Battles in Suikoden titles have always been very simple, but in this case it's glaring since you will often be in battles as you go from one point to the next. In Suikoden games, there is a character which will let you fast travel, but I'd wager in this game, most people would've quite before they even reached that point. It's a shame, really, because the other things that the game has it going for it still stay true to the series.

The characters in this game are well designed, even the portraits, and seeing characters in full 3D was a treat. The visual effects are great as well. The environments are well designed as well, a far cry from Suikoden 3 were space is there just to pad out the game's length. I cannot remember the number of times I was wishing the areas were smaller in that game because the backtracing there was pretty bad.

Oh, and the voice acting, I think all characters in cutscenes have voice acting and they're all great. It all adds to the political/war drama the series is known for.

The story is interesting but I feel like it's too short, and some characters have confusing motives. I think they corrected this by releasing Suikoden Tactics which I've yet to play. The story being short directly coincides with them deciding to amp up the encounter rate, to pad the game.

The minigames also this time around seem more complex, especially that one mahjong game where you need to win to a certain point to recruit someone. This could either be good or bad for you, depends if you'd like the game. Personally I just did the minigames to recruit the characters.

The base this time around is a ship, and I think they traded aesthetics for functionality, and while I appreciated that, I feel like I have less use for the base this time around, except for the Training Hall. The Training Hall is awesome, it's a way for you to level your characters in a shorter amount of time instead of say, doing random battles for hours on end.

There's a treasure hunting side activity and a few optional mini bosses you can fight as well, but I did not bother with both as by the end, with the help of the Training Hall, I was able to decimate the final boss.

The game has multiple endings as well, and a sort of multiple paths depending on which characters you choose to take on a certain point. Ultimately the story ends up the same but the characters you choose to take will definitely have an effect on some part of the stories, especially on one hilarious false ending where the game creators created little comics of the characters as the avatars.

Land ho!

When this game first released, it was critically panned, and to this day this game is still seen as the weakest of the Suikoden series. Honestly for me, who loves the series, I think it's worth a playthrough if you're in the same boat as well, as it still gives of the same Suikoden vibes as the other titles, just be prepared to be patient as this game is a chore to get through. Better yet, load it into an emulator and go ham on the fast forward.

Konami tried to correct things with Suikoden V which was hailed as a return to form for the series, but at that point, it was too late, most people have moved on to other things. With the impending release of the first and second title remasters, who knows, maybe a new generation will discover these games, and maybe people will be kinder to the black sheep of the series, Suikoden IV, if they're braver for the stormy seas,

Murayama's absence is painfully evident in Suikoden IV. A mess of half-baked ideas, the product lacks inspiration, notable characters, meaningful plot, and ultimately, a soul. This game may infamously go down in history for containing the worst world map in a video game.

I really like the Suikoden series, and I can often put up with a lot of gameplay quibbles if the game does something interesting but with Suikoden IV I was thoroughly disappointed.

Clunky and unpolished in most ways including awful voice acting, ridiculously high encounter rates on the ocean, and poor ship controls, and a reduction of party size. I never got enough into the story to properly grade that aspect of it but the parts I did play were missing the intelligence, charm and wit of the earlier titles.

Luckily, this is a prequel and it takes place very far from the relevant areas of the first 3 games so you don't need to play it to understand what happens in the other four games.

I recommend picking it up only if you feel the need to complete your Suikoden collection or if you are just incredibly curious and have already done everything else Suikoden and need more. Otherwise, stay away.