What do you think Suikoden IV did RIGHT?

[Benit149]

I admit, IV was an overall bummer compared to its prequels, but I did notice some things that could be utilized in future games. So what do you think IV did that should/could be kept in sequels? Let's not bring up the multitude of negatives IV achieved, but rather the positives. If you don't have any, then don't post. Easy as that. :) My thoughts are the following:

1. Making Jeane a fighter. Her offense may suck, but that doesn't matter compared to her magical prowess. We've heard rumors of her skills as a Runemaster, and IV allowed us to witness her power. And man, Jeane has a lot of magic to burn!

2. Restoring HP entirely when a new level is gained. This saved my butt several times when I was low on items, since I rarely use Water Runes to heal outside battle.

3. Keeping constant values on items within the trading game. It's realistic to fluctuate prices, but it's a bitch to keep track of compared to stable trading routes. Stable routes may not be exciting, but it helps me rake in the money for blacksmithing.

4. Rita-pon. I wasn't a big fan of Rita-pon at first, and I'm still not too hot about it, but lots of other IV players seemed to like it. It's better than Mike's stupid Kabu game or Georges' matching cards game. I wouldn't be surprised if the next 'gadget girl' has this game available as a tradition passed down through her family, due to its popularity.

5. Being able to recruit Viki earlier in the game, rather than later. Everyone can agree with me that Viki saved my sanity from all that sea travel.
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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.

[Marshmallow]

1. Definitely bringing the series back closer to its roots. As much as some might disagree, I felt that this game was very reminiscient to Suikoden I, and I enjoyed that.

2. Good music. I got addicted to Nei Island's theme, the ship theme and the Obel theme.

3. Adding more characters as optional recruits, as opposed to the mass amount of characters that joined you forcibly in Suikoden III.

4. Chinchirorin. Too bad they made the name suck now, and the Chinchirorin music wasn't in there either :(

[Milan Fiori]

Everything, I thought the game was awesome. I know some would disagree but that's you, not me.
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Be awed by our prowess!

[Child of The Sea God]

1. The art cover, it looks the best out of all the suikoden art covers in my opinion.

2. Make Jeane more realistic. :mrgreen:

3. Put my favorite male character in the Suikoden series Troy in the game.

5. Add those elemental magic combos.

6. They added voices this time!
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Life is like a play, you're given the role that fate hands to you.
-Me

[Ayreon]

I think that the music is one of the strong points of the game.Also the possibility of recruiting Ted.
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''Sail away to Avalon.......''

[Thief]

Everything. Especially when it decidedly broke away from the absurd anticipation for the next game being set in nowhere else but Holy Kingdom of Harmonia. Well done, Konami.

[Sami]

Fixed practically everything that was wrong with Suikoden III. Wonderful to play and truly captivating. It's definitely got the true Suikoden feel, from a great and realistic storyline that comes very nicely together in the end to a massive roster of lovable, personal and interesting characters.

[kuwaizair]

hmm I agree with most said, I only have some musics I really liked, as opposed to having 10 or more tracks I fell in love with.

the confession room is kind of funny...its always a joy trying to figure out whos who. Its funny how everyone complains about basicly 4 or so people.
I dissagree on Ritapon, I want to make her eat her blocks.

the wepons changing shape is cool, but hero4's level 15 sword has holes in it.

coming back when you die in battle. yes Continue and come right to where you were!...the same goes for wars and such. Oh navle battles are kinda easy too.
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few runes short of a set of 27

[Barbarossa Rugner]

Let's see. First off i would like to start by saying that i enjoyed Suikoden IV. No i didn't like it as much as other suikodens, but it was a good game that i thought had an early suikoden feel that was lost with suikoden 3 in my opinion.

The first thing i liked would have to be the Rune of punishment. I thought it was a great rune both in storyline purposes and also in power. I enjoyed how the cut scenes allowed you to view a little background on those who previously held the rune. This opened another view of what it is like to hold a true rune and the turmoil those who bear it go through. It is a good solid rune that ranks as one of my favorites.

I also really enjoyed the characters in this suikoden. It is a mixed group that at the same time seemed to carry a commom theme. Although no one character struck me as utterly cool, troy being the only exception, i still enjoyed the different personality types associated with each person.

One of my favorite additions to the game would have to be the ability to hold an unlimited amount of items. Although this may seem small in comparison to some of the other changes, it was nice to be able to carry as much as i wanted without checking things in at a warehouse. It saved me a lot of money and time because i was no longer forced to replace or throw away an item once i had too many in my posession. Also i didn' t have to spend time looking through a warehouse for something that should be redidly at my access. This is a feature that i think should continue in the suikoden series, even if they decide they want a warehouse with a warehouse keeper. Go ahead and bring back the warehouse, i will just never use it.

The ability to recruit ted was another home run by the game developers. I feel that one of the main components of suikoden and a driving force behind it's appeal is the fact that old characters reappear in the new games. It gives the game a sense of familiarity and gives the gamers something to look foreward too. We have now seen the Souleater in three of the four suikodens and i would not be surprised to see it in future installments of the game. We also got to actually use ted for an extended time in the game which i know brought many ted fans a great deal of happiness.

I liked how many of the characters were harder to recruit in this game in comparison to 3. Snowe and Ted, just to name two, were characters that could have been easily missed without proper preparation. This is a big deal when you think of how many characters are actually recruited over the course of the game. Those who are easy to recruit are often lost in the shuffle and not much attention is payed to them. Those that are harder to recruit are much more likely to be remembered and used throughout the game.

New game plus. I personally think this feature is great. For years now one of the things the suikoden series has been known for is it's replay ability and with the new game plus feture there is now some bonus attached to replaying the game. Although some may see it as a cheap way of squeezing more out of a game, i see it as a valuable addition to a game that i was going to play again anyway.

Voice acting was a good addition. I thought the voice acting was done pretty well. It was not overused to the point that it became annoying so i saw it as a good addition. I also enjoyed hearing the correct pronunciation of certain names and words which otherwise could have been confusing to pronounce.

Another rather small addition i liked about suikoden 4 were the 2-D sprites displayed while the game was loading. This is nothing to brag about, but i though it was nice to see. It brought back some of the playstation 1 feel to suikoden.

I also enjoyed the mushroom vs mint war. I had always enjoyed the Suikoden 1 major battles and this brought back some good memories. Just a small addition, but a enjoyable one nonetheless.

The last thing i can think of is during the normal battles. I like how they returned to stationary characters during the normal battles. What i mean by this is the fact that the characters attack then return to their place on the line. One of the things i found most aggravating about suikoden 3 was that the characters would move around the battle field, often getting caught in harmful spells or left out of healing spells. Hopefully this will be a common component of future suikodens and stay around for a while.

Well this is all i can think of at the moment. I hope my views on some of the perks of Suikoden 4 have somehow swayed some of you to see it in a new light. It was a pretty good game. I just think the fact that we were spoiled with excellent games kinda gives us a precedent for all future suikodens to live up to.
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The Rune on my Sword, the Dragon King Sword, is protected against any form of magic, Even the rune of the Gate - Barbarossa Rugner

[Carabbit]

I loved all of it, but my absolute most favorite thing is that they did away with the long animations for spells/monster attacks/everything. It sped up the pace of battle and the gameplay as a whole and made it a heck of a lot more fun to play than the previous Suikodens. Honestly, the spell animations in II and III made want to break my TV.
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Jack Bauer doesn't miss. If he didn't hit you it's because he was shooting at another terrorist twelve miles away.

[Neclord]

Not a lot to list really since it was stripped of the vast majority of additions to Suikoden.

Good things however that should be kept include:

1.) The unlimited items, I always hated the vault system, sure its not very realistic carrying that many items at once but who cares.

2.) Ritapon! I have never been a Suikoden mini game player, ever, I always hated them. With the exception of the cooking game and the rock climbing. Ritapon I LOVE, very addicting once you learn to play.

3.) Rush command, I thought it was a neat little add on, however useless it may have been later in the game.

That is about it, everyone is entitled to their opinion on Suikoden IV but there really isn't much to be desired as far as keeping for future installments.
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You must not fear death, my lads; defy him, and you drive him into the enemy's ranks.
~ Napoleon Bonaparte

[Beecham]

Not useless at all, when you use it on bosses with obvious patterns. Like, oh, the final one.

Or those damned skeletons in Obel. Knocking them all down at once is so much easier with Rush.

Obviously, I'll second the Rush option as a good addition to the game.

[Elc]

I liked the Rush command as well, particularly if you were in a battle which was taking a while and the hero was taking the majority of the hits. Instant recovery to max. HP and an attack against all enemies without having to use a rune... that's definitely a useful function.

Another thing I particularly likes were the animations added to the duels. It may drag the duels a little bit in cases where both duelists defend, but it makes it more realistic than just having both of them stand on opposite sides of the screen until one (or both) does an attack.

Speaking of duels or, more specifically, combat... I really like the idea of the training hall. What a great way to level up characters without wasting time running around a dungeon trying to get into random battles. I only wish they could have had something similar for one-on-one duels. (sans voice acting, of course. that would probably take up too much space if they voiced 70+ duel characters)
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"You make me smash the clock and feel, I'd rather die behind the wheel.
Time was never on my side, So on I wait my whole lifetime."

[OptimisticPessimist]

Oh, the Rush Command, absolutely.

It cut down so much of the time needed to kill monsters, especially after I get Ted and equip 3 Speed rings on him.

:D One Turn Kill!
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♪~ OptimisticPessimist ~♪
Tensui Star of Harmonia

[Beecham]