You know, Suikoden fans outside of Japan were
pretty lucky when considering the amount of
games in the series that actually made its
way to international shores.
All five main entries were given proper English
releases abroad, and only a few spin-off games
were passed on for localization.
At the very least, you can say that Konami
treated fans of the Suikoden series a lot
better than those of another one of its big
gaming franchises, Ganbare Goemon, which only
saw, what, four and a half games picked up
for overseas markets from a library spanning
over twenty titles?
A damned shame.
For the most part, the Suikoden games that
never got published outside of Japan are very
accessible to the rest of the world, as both
PlayStation One Suikogaiden games as well
as Card Stories for the Game Boy Advance had
unofficial English translation patches put
out online by dedicated fans.
And while the final Suikoden game, The Woven Web of a Century for the PSP never received
such treatment, you can watch my nearly one-hour
long video covering the game and get a pretty
good feel for what it's all about...I suppose
that's no real consolation, but hey, it's
better than nothing...
So between the officially published games,
the fan translations, and an amateurish look
at the one Suikoden game that most fans probably
won't ever have a chance to play for themselves,
the series is covered, right?
Well, not exactly.
When it first came out in late 1995 in Japan,
the original Suikoden immediately won over
the hearts of RPG enthusiasts in the 32-bit
era, and it's arguable that it was the first
really great role-playing game on the Sony
PlayStation.
The following year, Konami released the game
in North American and PAL regions, and while
it never quite attained the popularity it
enjoyed in its home country, it did manage
to secure itself a small but devoted fanbase.
The original Japanese game had some gorgeous
package design and an amazing full-color manual
that featured many story bits and details
about the game's lore, as well as some fantastic
artwork of the characters, items and runes
found in the lands of the Scarlet Moon Empire.
The U.S. version of the game I grew up with
had almost none of these extra goodies housed
in the pages of its bland, black and white
player manual.
Additionally, Konami went the route so many
other publishers did at the time when handling
JRPGs, and well, Japanese games in general,
and replaced Suikoden's iconic box art with
something the PR team thought would more likely
appeal to Western gamers.
While it might just be because of nostalgia,
I can't say I dislike this cover, but I will
say it's a major downgrade from the original.
I always wondered who these people were supposed
to be...and I think I've got it all figured
out.
This suave fella over here has got to be the
main protagonist, Tir McDohl, since he's got
his Chinese-style garb and a fighting bo,
albeit a metallic one...I would guess that
this woman is Leknaat, though she doesn't
seem to suffer from the same visual impairment
that the blind seer does...wait, is Leknaat
actually blind?
Whatever.
Here's a random monster from the game that's
on the cover probably only because he looks
cool.
This evil-looking lady is most definitely
the court magician Windy, sister to Leknaat,
and this haggard old man is Emperor Barbarossa
clutching onto his Dragon King Sword.
The Sovereign Rune on that sword protects
him from any form of magic, in case you didn't
know.
That leaves this guy right here, who I thought
might have been Teo McDohl, since he's on
the side of the Emperor and has a cape...but
that wouldn't make much sense, since he looks
younger than hi son Tir.
I also thought it could be Ted, due to the
bow and arrow, but if you look at Toran Castle
in the middle of the image, there's a dude
wearing the same outfit riding around on a
dragon, so that must mean that he's actually
Futch, the young dragon knight...but Futch
doesn't use a bow and arrow for his weapon,
so how could that be?
He's also not an adonis, well, at least not
at this point in the Suikoden story...
Ah, whatever, I'm looking into it way too
much, and whoever produced this art was probably
just in it for the “potch.”
Anyway, back to the topic at hand.
Whether it was because of the series' huge
popularity in Japan, or Konami trying to get
another fistful of yen, Suikoden I would eventually
find its way to three other gaming platforms,
with each port bringing along unique changes
from the PlayStation original.
These ports also never saw the light of day
in the West, so many Suikoden fans don't know
much about them, that's why for my next contributions
in the the Summer Of Suikoden, I decided I'd
talk about these adaptations and explore what
sets them apart from the PS1 original, and
starting with the Sega Saturn port, determine
which of the four is the ideal version of
Konami's classic RPG.
I love Konami's games, and many of their offerings
on the Sony PlayStation in particular are
among my all time favorites, such as Vandal
Hearts, Akumajo Dracula X: Nocturne in the
Moonlight, aka Castlevania: Symphony of the
Night, and of course, Gensou Suikoden.
In most regions, these three games were PS1
exclusives, but in Japan, each would also
be ported to the Sega Saturn, which meant
altering the titles to run on the platform.
The PlayStation and Saturn had very different
hardware architecture, each with their own
set of distinct strengths and weaknesses,
and porting over titles from one to the other
often resulted in less-than-stellar results.
Take Symphony of the Night, for example.
It suffered from persistent slowdown, scaled
down graphical effects, and longer load times...but
perhaps in order to make up for this, Konami
Computer Entertainment Nagoya, the team in
charge of the Saturn conversion, included
some really cool additional content exclusive
to Sega's version of the game.
Brand new areas to explore in Dracula's castle,
some neat new items, and the ability to play
as fan-favorite Maria Renard are among the
most noteworthy additions, giving this version
a director's cut kind of feel to it.
The Saturn port of Gensou Suikoden was handled
by a different team, KCE Sapporo, but they
followed in the footsteps of the Castlevania
team and also created a sort of director's
cut with their effort.
Aside from differences due to the shift in
hardware, there are a lot of changes made
for artistic reasons as well as newly added
scenarios and gameplay features.
From here on out, I'll explore what sets the
Saturn version of Suikoden apart from the
original, and I won't be analyzing the core
game in any depth like I usually do, so if
you haven't played the PS1 version before,
you probably won't get much out of this video.
I strongly suggest you play the game if you
haven't, it's really great, but if you don't
have the time or just need to brush up a bit
on your Suikoden know-how, I would recommend
watching Super Derek's Suikoden review as
an appetizer, or Game Dave's Suikoden Retrospective
if you're hungry and want the full-course.
Oh, and spoiler warning, duh.
All right, everybody, let's go!
Gensou Suikoden for the Saturn was released
in Japan on September 17th, 1998, three years
after its original debut, and just two months
before Gensou Suikoden II would be published
on the PS1.
Booting up the game for the very first time,
you'll encounter the first of many changes
made to this version, which is a completely
redone, alternate intro movie.
It features brand new artwork and is done
in a style very much like the intro found
in its sequel.
This new opening is really well done and gives
an epic sense of scope to the adventure that
is about to take place.
It's more well-crafted than the original,
though I'm not sure which I like more...must
be that nostalgia clouding my judgment again.
I'll play the Saturn intro movie in its entirety
a little later in this video and you can decide
which is better for yourself.
Other artistic changes in this port are small
and a majority will probably only be noticed
by the most hardcore of Suikoden fans.
During my complete playthrough, I was able
to find the following changes: character reflections
in Gregminster Palace have been squished a
bit, character portraits have been redrawn
and look a lot smoother and less pixelated
now, and also no longer shift positions and
flip during dialogue.
The gray spinning circle that appears under
highlighted characters and enemies in battle
has been replaced with a color wheel, the
scene where Teo bids his son farewell in the
night is no longer monochromatic, treasure
chests are now blue in the beginning parts
of the game, and later become a rusty copper
color closer to those found in the PS1 version.
The illuminated stained-glass design in Leknaat's
astrological tower on Magician's Isle is much
more defined, consuming the poisonous Robber's
Tea on Mt. Tigerwolf will turn the victims'
skin blue, animated flames are now present
in the background when discovering the Village
of the Elves has been set ablaze, and the
Suiko Map displays locations as large blue
squares rather than small white ones.
At the end of the game, the escape scene is
cut short, the red filter is absent, and everything
plays out automatically for the most part,
which means you won't have awkward enemy encounters
during the dramatic finale.
And finally, the post-credits ending image
has been changed completely, from the photo-esque
one in the original, to a full-sized illustration.
These artistic changes are few and far between,
and obviously don't affect the game in any
big way.
However, the same cannot be said for many
of the changes made due to the hardware limitations
of the Sega Saturn, which can drastically
alter the player's game experience.
The least significant of these is that the
cute, iconic loading splash screens in the
PS1 version that depicted characters like
Sarah washing clothing or Mina dancing have
been cut out completely, perhaps because of
how the Saturn loads data.
Any sort of transparency effects are heavily
modified or removed, due to the system's difficulty
in rendering such graphics.
Text boxes and menus are now solidly colored,
as well as certain enemies, like the ghosts
in Neclord's Castle.
Other transparencies from the original have
been converted into a sort of cross-hatched,
pixelated style, the most glaring examples
of which are character shadows in battles
or water and light in towns.
The fluffy clouds in the foreground when riding
on the dragon Black are absent, and the titles
of the large scale army battles just kind
of dissolve away, pixel by pixel.
The individual character endings don't fade
in and out like in the PS1 version, and instead
slide from side to side, and the text effects
in the credits have been altered to exclude
any transparencies.
The graphics used for rune and magic attacks
in battles have been completely overhauled
to work with the Saturn's inferior 3D capabilities
over the PlayStation.
Some of these new effects don't look too bad,
and in the case of the Soul Eater, reduce
the time it takes for the spells to complete,
which can be a welcome change, but others
just look pretty bad, and sometimes drag on
longer than they used to on the PS1.
The magic attack used during the army skirmishes
has been altered as well, though it seems
like the same effect could have been implemented
just fine.
One of my favorite parts of the battle system
in the original Suikoden was its dynamic camera
system, and there was a genuine feeling of
excitement generated by the extreme, pixelated
close-ups of characters performing critical
hits.
Sadly, the camera is more subdued in the Saturn
version, and scoring a critical barely zooms
the camera in at all.
While the polygonal backgrounds used for battles
didn't break any new ground in the world of
3D graphics back in 1995, I guess it goes
without saying that these, too, saw a downgrade
in the Saturn port, which have less definition
and grainier textures.
Outside of combat, certain graphical effects
have also been altered, such as when the Soul
Eater is used during a story segment, replacing
the 3D effect with an elaborate, expanding
static image.
For some reason, the teleportation animations
no longer appear in the game, and characters
who do teleport just kind of show up suddenly,
however, this effect was strangely replaced
by a bolt of lightning in a few early instances.
This change is even stranger because near
the end of the game as Windy attempts to take
the Soul Eater from young master McDohl, the
bolts of lightning that accompany the souls
of those trapped within the rune that ward
her off have been removed.
There are other odd omissions in the Saturn
Suikoden, such as the lack of animation for
the rapids on the world map, and it's hard
for me to believe these came about due to
a lack of juice from the system.
Maybe someone just forgot to work on these
parts, or maybe it was just laziness.
Who knows?
Whether done for artistic or hardware compatibility
reasons, the differences in the Saturn Suikoden
I've talked about up until this point have
only been aesthetic, not affecting the game
in any real, meaningful way, especially for
first time players...however, there are other
differences that modify the player experience
in a big way, and not positively, and these
exist solely due to the jump from the PlayStation
to the Saturn.
I'd say the biggest offender is the frequent
load times that break the flow of the game.
In the original release of Suikoden, there
were barely any load times, and everything
moved along at a fast, smooth pace.
Exploring towns and dungeons, getting in and
out of battles...it was all pretty seamless.
Unfortunately, in the Saturn version, no matter
what you do or where you go, your patience
will be tested as you wait for the game to
load.
In places that allow for random enemy encounters,
you'll have to wait about five seconds or
so before every battle begins, and while the
encounter rates aren't overly excessive in
Suikoden, the constant waiting game of staring
at a black screen before combat begins will
definitely make each fight feel like it drags
on longer than it actually does.
Even wrapping up a battle takes up more time
than in the original, since you can no longer
hold the confirm button down and zoom past
each character's EXP gains, and instead you
must press the button for each individual
character to get through the victory fanfare.
For battles, there are a few graphical hiccups
and bouts of slowdown, usually when the screen
is crowded, there are large character sprites,
or when spells are used, but it's not too
bad...well, outside of the final boss fight,
anyway.
Yeesh.  In towns and in dungeons, entering buildings,
rooms, and just moving between screens also
requires the game to load for a short period
of time, and as it loads, the music will stop
playing, breaking the flow even more.
Well, at least the BGM doesn't start over
from the beginning when this happens, so it
could have been worse.
Regarding other audio issues, there are a
few sound effect mix-ups here and there during
battles that are more amusing than irritating,
and sometimes the music will cut out during
cutscenes, which did happen here and there
in the PlayStation version, though it seems
to occur more often in this port.
Once in a while the BGM will glitch out and
audio levels will change sporadically, killing
the ear drums of any within the television's
immediate vicinity.
Though my disc is in very good shape, I'm
not completely certain if the problem stems
from programming or physical media.
The quality of the game's amazing soundtrack
has been preserved for the most part, though
the world map and headquarters themes have
been changed to inferior midi versions of
the originals.
Have a listen for yourself:
I'm sure by now you're wondering why anyone
would play this port over the original if
they had a choice, as a few meaningless aesthetic
changes, a downgraded gameplay experience,
and a redone introduction movie don't exactly
make for a compelling reason for newcomers
or seasoned fans of the series to try out
Suikoden on the Saturn.
Well, as I mentioned earlier, this version
also introduces some brand new content to
the game, which is advertised on the spinecard.
First off is a new scenario involving the
Pirate's Fortress.
In the original game, bringing over Tai Ho
and Yam Koo and speaking with the pirate leader
Anji led to a fight, and upon victory, the
three pirates join the Liberation army and
that was that.
However, in the Saturn game, speaking to Anji
and getting brushed off will trigger an event
where the pirates randomly kidnap two female
Stars of Destiny, and you'll either have to
confront them in battle or pay a heavy 500,000
potch ransom to get your allies back.
There are some funny bits of dialogue between
the pirates and their victims, such as Lotte
only being concerned about finding her cat
Mina, and offering to join the pirates if
they fetch the feline for her, the traitor,
and Esmeralda just complaining about the state
of the swashbucklers' abode and inquiring
about tea time, making her kidnappers question
just exactly what kind of operation the Liberation
Army runs with these kinds of members.
After defeating Anji and his crew, saving
your allies, and having Tai Ho talk to them,
they'll finally join up with you.
Recruiting the pirates in the PlayStation
Suikoden always felt lacking, so it's nice
that they and a few other characters were
given a bit more personality and things to
do here.
In Suikoden, Eikei is a wandering marital
artist who values strength as the only truth,
and will only join the roster when the hero
has achieved a certain amount of strength,
specifically when he reaches level 40 or higher.
In the PlayStation version, that's pretty
much where Eikei's role in the game ends,
as he's a decent short-ranged fighter that
most people probably won't add into their
party more than once, if only to jack his
double-beat rune to hand over to Viktor.
But in the Sega Saturn version, he is the
bearer of a very special rune, the Beast Colosseum
Rune, which allows him to summon forth monsters
from different worlds to combat on the roof
of Toran Castle.
In this new arena mode, you can select one
character from your party to test his strength
over six rounds, each consisting of several
one-on-one matches with a variety of standard
and boss enemies, all for the low entry fee
of 5000 potch.
Instant-death attacks from runes such as the
Soul Eater are ineffective, and challengers
won't have their status restored between matches
or rounds, though they are free to use items
and other traditional spells.
Winning a round gives the option to quit while
you're ahead and claim your prize, but as
the first few bouts are laughably easy and
the rewards reflect that, you'll probably
want to go on until at least the fifth trial,
which will earn the champion a fresh set of
Windspun Armor.
However, going for the gold and overcoming
the final round of monsters will grant the
ultimate prize, one of two new items specifically
added to this port.
The one you'll receive is determined randomly,
and the first is the Darkness rune, which
would also see its way to Suikoden II, and
is just a lower form of the Soul Eater with
one weaker spell available in place of Judgment.
The second item you may receive is the Silver-spun
Dragon Armor, the very best armor in the game
with +70 defense and a 20 HP restoration bonus
each round, another item that would be added
to the sequel, although in slightly gimped
form.
The biggest addition to the Saturn port affecting
Suikoden's storytelling comes in the form
of a few brief, interactive cutscenes involving
Gremio during the path to the game's true
ending, which takes place right before the
final battle against the Scarlet Moon Empire.
As Leknaat uses her Gate Rune to bring back
Gremio from the dead to be reunited with his
beloved friends and young master McDohl, you
get to control him as he wanders the afterlife,
chasing after the boy he dedicated his life
to taking care of, and reliving some key moments
of Gremio's life before it was abruptly robbed
from him at Soniere Prison.
It doesn't last long, there are no memories
included that the player isn't already familiar
with, and upon completion of this segment,
the game continues on just as it did in the
PS1 version, but for a fan of Suikoden and
the Gremio character especially, it's a really
nice, touching, and welcome addition.
Some of the weirder additions to the game
include a kind of pet cat simulation and brand
new gambling mini games that replace the old
ones for no good reason.
Revisting Lepant's hometown of Kouan later
in the game, you may hear the cries of an
unseen kitten hidden away within some boxes
in a random event that occurs there.
You can bring the cat back to your castle,
where it will take up residence in the protagonist's
bedroom.
From here, you can interact with the cat in
a few ways—feeding it to keep it full and
healthy, playing with it to lift its spirits,
and punching it to show the world how much
of a bad person you are.
There is a timer that I assume is related
to the Saturn's internal clock, and hunger
and energy levels will drop if you don't attend
to the kitten for a while or go overboard
on feeding, playing, and punching.
The little guy will level up as you take care
of it, and I got it to level 99 somehow.
The reason for doing so is a mystery to me,
and as far as I can tell it is there only
to serve as a mildly amusing distraction from
the main game.
That or someone who worked on the port just
really loved cats.
The gambling games in the original Suikoden
were classics—you had Marco's cup game,
one coin, three cups, and a big win if you
can guess where that coin ends up after it
gets shuffled around.
Georges played a card-matching mini game that
was pretty pointless, but was kind of fun
nonetheless.
And Tai Ho and Gaspar introduced players to
chinchirorin, which is basically the dice
game cee-lo, a pastime that some would argue
is the heart and soul of Suikoden.
Well, they've all been scrapped completely,
and now Marco plays a game where you must
guess whether three spinning coins hidden
in cups will end up as heads or tails, Georges
is a dealer in a blackjack variant, and Tai
Ho and Gaspar toss dice into a bowl and you
need to guess what range of values they'll
add up to, with the less-likely combinations
rewarding greater multipliers.
They're all lame, and now you'll have to win
5000 potch from each of the games to recruit
their dealers.
Also, in the original version, although Tai
Ho says you need to bet all of your money
to prove your luck to him in order to use
his boat, he will actually only require a
1000 potch buy-in.
In this version, he actually does take all
of your money if you lose, so you'll probably
find yourself much more frustrated getting
past this part of the game in the port.
Well, that's basically the gist of the Sega
Saturn version of Konami's Gensou Suikoden.
Though I left out a few minor or specific
changes that are pretty much more or less
what I talked about already, with this video
you should have a pretty good idea of exactly
what was changed from the initial PlayStation
release.
As far as which provides the superior experience
between the two versions, I think it's pretty
clear—the original all the way, especially
if you'll be playing Suikoden for the first
time.
The extra content is nice in the Saturn game,
but the constant barrage of load times, slower
gameplay, and other smaller technical flaws
and limitations do hinder enjoyment quite
a bit compared to its Sony counterpart.
If you're already familiar with the game,
however, and especially if you're a big fan
of the Suikoden series, I would definitely
recommend giving this port a playthrough.
It may be all in Japanese, but it's a simple
enough game that anyone familiar with the
original should be able to get through it
with very little problem, language barrier
be damned.
It's also such a short game for an RPG, so
it doesn't need a huge time investment from
start to end.
Well, this is just the first part of my look
at all of the Japanese exclusive Suikoden
I ports.
Next up, I'll take a look at the PC version,
released in the same year as the Saturn one,
and then I'll top things off with the PSP
edition from 2006.
Are either of these ports superior to the
PlayStation original?  Hmm...
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the video and
will take a look at what follows, and I also
hope everyone's enjoying the #SummerOfSuikoden
as it begins to come to a close.
As always, thank you for watching—this is
Jimmy Hapa, take care.
