Way Back Wednesday: Suikoden

Suikoden is a role playing game released by Konami, and is the first installment of the Suikoden series, in NA December 1996. Suikoden gives the player many things that games don't do these days, as well as being overbearing at the same time. In each game, there are 108 Stars, characters, that are able to be recruited and a castle that is built over time that increases in size as more characters are recruited.

Suikoden centers around a political struggle of the Scarlet Moon Empire, the story being led by a silent protagonist and son of a famous general, Teo McDohl. During the first few moments, Teo is called away to a battle leaving his son in the guardianship of his friends and servants. Among these servants is Young McDohl's best friend Ted, and possessor of the Soul Eater Rune.

Young McDohl is given a mission by a corrupt commander, Kraze, to seek out a Rune Seer named Leknaat, also being acompanied by a corrupt official named Kanaan. On this journey, Ted is forced to use his Soul Eater Rune to dispatch a strong beast. After returning to the capital, to report their accomplished mission, Ted is called into the capital by Windy, the Emperor's sorceress, and attacked. Ted manages to return home to Young McDohl, but is followed by the empire soldiers. Young McDohl is forced to retreat and leave Ted behind, but not before being bestowed with the Soul Eater Rune from Ted.

Young McDohl flees the empire, joining up with a resistance group headed by a woman named Odessa. To prove their loyalty to Odessa and her crew, Young McDohl and his team has to help bandits, Varkas and Syndonia to earn Odessa's trust. Later in the game, Young McDohl meets Odessa's brother Mathiu, a famed strategist, who helps Young McDohl acquire a castle and allows the player to start recruiting party members.

The game is rather lengthy, lasting fifty plus hours, depending on whether or not the player tries to recruit all characters or not. The graphics are pixel based on the World Map, drawn out more in battle and towns. The music in Suikoden is really important, able to set the mood perfectly. While the story seems overly cliche in this day and age, the story for when it was released was engaging and emotional.

Suikoden walks away with a 8/10 for the great character development, story, music, and unforgettable moments. Even with all of the good, there still is some bad. With 108 characters, it's really hard for some characters to get the spot light, and don't develop. Meanwhile there are a lot of characters that get developed the right way.

That's it for this week's Way back Wednesday, be sure to comment and subscribe!