What would you want in future Suikodens?

[Acheron]

As far the new suikodens go I'd Defently like to see some more of everything. Heh...

Story: I thought that the trinity system in 3 was one of the most innovative gaming system I have ever used. It showed what each character was feeling like when they interacted with each other. I would like to see it brought back, yet make it so they unlock only after you play through as the Hero, so you can play as your Hero instead of just name him and talk about him. The story could definently handle more depth and have more plot. I don't care if the writers have to start watching soap operas for ideas, lets see something that'll blow my mind?

Basic Gamplay: Give me 6 fighters back! Why did you take away two of my fighters? Of course SIV will be slightly easier in comparison to the other games, you don't have the same number of fighters so they made the monsters easier. Easy in my opinion, by the way. Also, how about we increase the variety of weapons used by the fighters. I don't mind there being new races, just expand a bit on them so we know more about them other than the humans are racist toward everyone but themselves.

Castle: I really wouldn't mind a castle that we could edit shop placement. Understandably this would be difficult but you could make it into a game of sorts. Certain characters would have to be in certain places so they could open shop. Like a smith near somewhere they can build a chimney, and likewise with a chef. Dark Cloud seemed to do it so why not Suikoden? More choices with the castle, also. Why not give a few places to place it? A mountain, or cliffside, or beach, or valley, or plain, or forest. It wouldn't be that hard. Give a choice to tell an architect character where to send him to make your head quarters.

Character: I think it would be interesting if the equipment you wore would be put over your actually character, when they are in your party(meaning excluding the ones just standing around your base.). Not that they wouldn't have a base design that they start with, just that if you give them a Dragon Bone Armor, they would be wearing one in battle and during cut scenes. Voices are good. Give the character one. Preferably use what they had in 4 SPOILER(but not really) like when you choose which battle voice for Hero4 in the begining where you also pick if you fix the camera or not. Make sure he gets a new True Rune. And at least one new True Rune is introduced. Bring back a rune if it fits the story but write a new one into it. Perhaps a Queen of Faleena(hoping that Faleena is the new location) has the rune of the Empress, or something like Rune of Birth. That would follow the Tarot Card theory which I for one think may be true. Perhaps it allows for creatures to be born in the world, which would mean it would only go to a female, which would put a female in power, like a queen and whats the only Queendom in Suikoworld? Maybe throw some Rune of Change in there. O well, now I'm ranting.

Other: Fans would go crazy without Jeane and Viki, but maybe add another "sexy" character. Fans would love that, especially if shes more than just some mage. So typical for the girl to be a mage or some other weapon type in which you stay away from the combat. Lets see an indepedent woman character. Like Ameria or Gretchen, feminine but strong. Maybe make them a pivotal part of the story, too. You have to use them and see that they're awesome.

O well, just thoughts.(sorry this post is huge, I just had a lot of dreams)

[Vincent Chase]

~ First and foremost I'd like to see some more variety in the monster design. As I have mentioned many a time the monster design is the worst thing about the series IMO, and needs to be imporved to at least the level of the Squaresoft games.

~ More money put into advertising. Not really something 'in' the future of Suikoden, but I would love to see Konami try to air commercials and push the game in North America. Alot of people equate this to the 'watering down' of the original franchise and say it's selling out, but it isn't. Let me explain. You have to spend money to make money, and if you don't realize that then you aren't cut out for the world of business, tahts for sure. If Konami marketed their product to appeal more to north American gamers, revenue would increase, and then Konami could use that money to make more Suikoden games. Instead of waiting 5 years for the next game in the series the wait time would be drastically cut down.

~ 27 true runes, one battle...

~ The return of the skill system. I was really a fan of the skill system in SIII. I think that they could go to even further modify it by allowing a) a character to have as many skills/spells as s/he wants and b) allowing anyone to reach an S rank, but someone that would normally get a C in something would needs lots of skill to get to an S, but make it possible. This way you can create custom parties, that creates more playing time. There's always a group of people who will level every character, and doing this will only attach them more to the game.

~ The whole world map in one game. From what I've heard of the PS3, storage isn't really an issue. Of course, it could all be rumors, but the next-gen systems will have a potential to take RPGs, already the most personal of the genres (which is why I like them), and take them to the next level in size, scope and graphics...like a certain RPG did on the PSX 8 years ago now. I want a massive Suikoden game, with the trinity site system, but only instead of six flames there needs to be 27, to follow the story of each true rune. This is what the last Suikoden should be like, and on the new systems it can be.

[TheStrategist]

make the characters more memorable with a deeper storyline...the campaigns through recruiting members from other towns/kingdoms has gotten shorter and shorter...if i see someone standing in my castle/ship, i want a good valid reason for them to be there other than the fact that they were 'bored'.

[Benit149]

[Ayreon]

Yes the trinity system is one of my favorite features in the Suikoden games,but i think 27 would it be kinda bad,since Konami wants to make more Suikoden games after V.

Benit about the RoP,u can find out what happens to the hero when you recruit the 108 SoD.I wont spoil the ending of course,but i recommend you to watch it. :wink:
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''Sail away to Avalon.......''

[Suikojowy]

I wouldn't want it to be a clone of suikoden 2 but i'd like it to have the same characteristics such as bright anime type setting as the environment for suikoden 4 was too dark and gloomy *mumblestupidheadquartersmumble*.
A nice gripping storyline, more character development, stronger relationships between characters and they shouldn't let (automatic) charaters fade into the background 5 mns after they join you.

The Custom hero thing is a nice idea but it'll be a little tough, a choice between genders and costumes would be nice though but too much detail would take ages and i want suikoden 5 asap =).
The ability to customize a castle is possible but i'm lazy so i'll just want it there for me right away and never bother with it again.

I'd also like things like ore strategies since eleanor was horrible, a longer game would be nice.
As for mini games i would like the tactical battles from 2 and 3 to return and be accompanied by tactical battle minigame where you practice against your strategist whenever you want, along with a duel minigame where you can fight the attack-guard-special against a selected star

[Benit149]

It'd be neat if you were required to level up in the other two aspects of battle besides from the standard random battles. A couple of characters in the HQ would be required for this, like Elenor was for the practice strategy battles. The higher your levels would be, the more challenging the strategy or duel fights would be, but these leveling ups would help you in the actual story against an extremely tough opposing nation, like Harmonia, which has an army rooted in centuries of experience versus your dinky blip of an army.

I've looked around other messageboards that deal with this same question, and I noticed some popular wishes:

1. Female Tenkai star.
2. Locate the story back to after Suikoden III. Some believe it to be east of Harmonia or south of the Grasslands/west of Dunan. There're also the Nameless Lands and Falena to consider, since it may be too early to involve Harmonia without first revealing all the True Runes.
3. Not to return to sea.
4. More Pesmerga/Yuber (tho' that's a given)... plus more insights into the mysteries of Jeane and Viki
5. A final boss with relevance to the story once again, like 2 and 3. 1 and 4 seemed to come out of nowhere for me.
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"Luca Blight, patron saint of population decrease." -- Benit, MST149

Benit149: First Lady of Addervon, Princess of Slight Fever, defender of the Nameless.

[Arcana]

I don't really get what the resistance is to the character customization. A game like Ultima has had customization for a long, long time - you could select your character portrait and your gender, at least, until they put in voices.

You also answered a set of something like 15 personality-related multiple-choice questions that would determine your stats at the beginning of the game - something that's become somewhat of a staple in most RPGs for the PC now as a method of character customization. Based on what you answer, your character's stats are supposed to reflect your style.

I still think that clothes, weapon types, and so forth would be quite fun. The default archetypes, of course, should be left in for those who don't care to do it, and it would also settle the question of "Who is the official Tenkai star?" Remember that Tir and Riou both didn't have names by default in the game, and were named only in sources external to the game, so I imagine that the producers would have liked to add more customization.

With the advent of voice-acting, I do NOT see choosing between male and female as being a real option. However, I also think that the idea of a silent hero is also extremely passe and should be abandoned in the age of voice-acting and dynamic plot development with huge character interaction. You can make your Tenkai star pretty silent, but not totally so, because it jst makes the game... awkward.

I don't want to see totally independent branches of story that don't eventually merge. I don't have time to play a game for 150 hours ,and I don't want to have to play a 50 hour game twice to get the "full experience". If they make one path with minor variations, I'm okay with that. Two totally independent viewpoints would also be okay as well, assuming that they're not each 80 hours long. Remember that this "differnet perspective" system is basically what we got in SIII's Trinity Sight system. :)
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Woo, 2000 posts as of Tuesday, 2007 August 28.

[Weyoun]

[Arcana]

Wasn't Suikoden II's boss just... out of nowhere as well? Leon just said, "OHSNAP they're coming! I'm going to die~~~~! END BOSS BUY ME TIME... err, KILL THESE HEROES!"
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Woo, 2000 posts as of Tuesday, 2007 August 28.

[Benit149]

It wasn't for me. Remember in Muse when Luca sacrificed the citizens to the Beast Rune? Just by that alone, I could figure that you would have to fight it in order to suppress it, since it looked rather vicious to me. On the other hand, it's impossible for me to figure out how the hell IV's final boss ties in with the game. Overall, of the four Suikodens, III's final boss seems to be the most obvious, while IV's was downright stupid. OK, on a scale from Unpredictable -> Obvious, it would be for me:

IV -> I -> II -> III

Thus, I want a final boss that I can guess about during the duration of the game, like I did with the Beast Rune.
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"Luca Blight, patron saint of population decrease." -- Benit, MST149

Benit149: First Lady of Addervon, Princess of Slight Fever, defender of the Nameless.

[Arcana]

Obvious villains with great development totally trounce "random spiritual evil being".

In my opinion. :)

Also, I don't understand what the appeal of "sailing across the entire world" is. It would take like, an hour of game time to walk across the map, and then the game would require 400 million man hours of work to make each area, and then it would never get released because people just wouldn't be able to make a few hundred custom areas.

Technical specifications are almost NEVER the limit to the number of areas you can explore - it's almost always human limits. People have limits to their creativity output in a short amount of time. They also can't continuiously churn out models for houses, streets, lamps, people, and maps for every single area of the game in a huge huge Suiko game. I personally would much prefer 10 very detailed dungeons and towns with superb amounts of customization to 100 areas that are complete, but end up being very generic and repetitive.
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Woo, 2000 posts as of Tuesday, 2007 August 28.

[Sophita]

Note: Spoilers in black, highlight with your mouse to read.

1. I want Konamii to revive the memory card load at the beginning of each new game. While I realize it would have been incredibly hard to feature in Suikoden IV (since each data transfer has built upon what you did before; this one predates the others), I was still sad not to see it. The least they could have done was carry over Jeane or Viki's stats or Changed Ted's character ending to reflect the events of Suikoden I or such. I loved this because it was such a nice way to reward the fans who actually stuck through the entire series; if you were new, well, you could still do everything and it wouldn't have much effect on you because whatever it entailed, it was something that was related to a previous game you hadn't had contact with. If you did want to experience it, well, you went and sought out the previous games. It was clever, it was fun, and I really miss it.

2. I want the return of the 6 person party. I hated how few characters I could put in my party at once in Suikoden IV. I'm the kind of person who enjoys using all the characters that are available, not just one set party. In fact, I think the main appeal of the Suikoden games is that You have 108 characters to play around with. They should be highlighting that feature and making it easier to use and experiment with, not harder.

And while Suikoden IV did allow you to use 3 parties at once on the ship, the idea was executed very poorly. It took so darn long for the teams to switch spaces that I almost never used it. And the experience only went to the team who beat the enemies, so it wasn't that effective as a experience gaining function.

2a. I also think that they should allow you to customize your whole party's equiment while you're shopping in your castle. I can understand only being able to alter the party you're currently using while you're outside of your headquarters because not everyone is with you, but everyone is at headquarters, and if I want to alter their armor, darn it, I should be able to do so. That goes for sharpening their weapons and attaching their runes, too.

3. I would like to see more effort put into towns. A lot of the towns in Suikoden IV feel very generic. For example, I don't see a lot of opulance in Middleport that Razril doesn't have, despite the fact that it's supposed to be a lot richer. I want to be able to go into a town and know that town's standing - whether it's a puny outpost, a large metropolis, or somewhere inbetween the two.

4. The villians development is something that, up until Suikoden IV, had always been a hallmark of Suikodens. Even when the hero was an insane murderer like Luca Blight, you still felt sympathy for him because you knew his background and his family. A villian like Luca could have easily been a lot more campy and less menacing, but Konami managed to turn out a well developed villian - you understood his motivations, even if you didn't agree with what he was doing (whicch I would, ah, hope you didn't). In Suikoden IV, I barely felt like I knew Graham Clay. I knew almost nothing about him and while I was interested in him, I didn't exactly get enough information that I thought much of him. I really needed to know more, and the game just left me high and dry. When you're fighting wars, you need to know what the other side is doing and why they'd doing it, and just "well they're bad!" doesn't really cut it.

5. I want to be able to access more areas, including outposts to other countries. I don't expect to go everywhere on the Suikoden world, but I would like to be able to traverse the entirety of a country I'm trying to unite, and possibly border towns that share their limits with another country. (It's perfectly understandable that you wouldn't be able to go into that country - especially if that country were one you were at war with.)

6. More character development. Character development has always been given a bit of a short stick in Suikoden, but when you have 108 characters, you have to realize that they're doing pretty damn well to give us what we've got so far. However, that doesn't mean it can't be improved. I would like to see more development that flows nicely with a story.

7. A female main character. Because it's time.

8. A choice between a silent and a speaking hero. I think the silent hero's time is pretty much gone; I would like more character given to my, well, main character - who is this hero that people are uniting around? I realize that he's supposed to be a blank slate for myself, but, well, I'm not a boy, and um, any resemblence kind of goes downhill from there. Show me some of his character traits and not just infer them from what others say.

[Benit149]

[Beethoven4567]

1. I want Suikoden 5 or 6 to feature a storyline involving a territory ruled by Harmonia that wants to secede from Harmonian rule. The hero could be a young warrior leading a resistance movement against Harmonia. At some point in the game the hero would gain control of a True Rune and start claiming victory over victory over Harmonian forces with some possible intervention by another regional power such as Falena or other nations yet to be mentioned by Konami. In this game i hope you get to go inside Harmonian cities and towns as well as focus on interpersonal relationships such as love, rivalry, hatred and sorrow kinda like FFVIII. It would also be cool to go to towns on the neighboring countries bordering Harmonia and fight alongside their troops against Harmonia. The motives of the neighbouring countries to help the liberation forces would be to weaken Harmonia so that the Harmonians wouldn't be able to threaten their interests.

2. During war battles make them far more strategic like Suiko2.
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"In war there is no substitute for victory"