Rune levels (True rune > upper tier > lower tier)

[Adrian Magicent]

Personally, I've always found this rather interesting. And, it also makes a lot of sense, from the pictures I've seen of many of the rune, from the mythology, and from the practical stand-point. However, it certainly begs some questions to be answered.

First, do you like the general idea? I suppose this is open to opinions, and people could prefer a limited capacity of the system, or simply not like it much at all. Why?

Second, do you think it should be continued? Should they fill out the system with additional runes to fill the places for the already existing runes, in other words, or work in complete or partial lines in the future, maybe.

And, the meat of the topic: Which runes should they do things with, if they do? For instance, should they have resurrection levels? More to the soul eater line? Lesser versions of different true runes? Perhaps, there should be a true rune for the special attacks and the like that would govern them. (True rune, special attacks, attack type power-up, perhaps?) You should get the idea.

Lastly, any speculations on the spells or benefits of these runes?

Any speculations or insights would be welcome, interesting ones and realistic ones, especially.

[Krawnik]

I like the system, it seems to work fine, and there also seems to be a certain amount of restraint in the system. Are there any Digimon fans in here? As long as the system doesn't become like Digimon I'll be happy. To those of you who are Digilliterate, here's how it tends to go in the series-

1. We upgraded to the highest level a Digimon can reach! Good for us!
2. What!? This new enemy is an even higher level than us! We're doomed!
3. Oh wait, we found a cool way to upgrade to his level now!
4. Oh God, here's an enemy at an even highter level than the one we just reached.

Repeat until all the episodes neccesary to fill a season have been written. Same with Dragon Ball Z, just keep adding bigger and bigger numbers to the term "Super Saiyan" and the series can go on ad infinitum.

As long as Suikoden doesn't have a villain show up with a rune more powerful than the True Runes, I'm happy. If "True Rune" is as powerful as it gets, and the number 27 is the static number of True Runes in the Suikoverse, I think the system will continue to work swimmingly.

It's also kind of neat to see derivations of the True Runes floating about. Like, Rune of Beginning > Bright Shield / Black Sword > Shield / Sword of Rage / Sword of Cyclone / Sword of Thunder. Finding my first Darkness Rune in Suikoden II was pretty exciting, and the Blue Gate Rune was a cool lower-tier Gate Rune (plus, my dad's company is called "Blue Gates Productions", so I always had a soft spot for the Blue Gate Rune).

Long story short, I think it's going just fine, and I hope that Konami doesn't suffer agriegous head injuries and decide to completely reinvent the system.
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416- friggin' racists, messing up my generalizations, also stealing my jobs, women.
RIP Ninjalicious

[cid]

[Adrian Magicent]

Myself, I'm a huge fan of runes. And, I want a complete system, as long as they don't do anything stupid.

[cid]

[Urn]

I believe the system is already fine and completely limited. I agree with Krawnik's statements, though. It is obvious that the True Runes are the highest level of magic available as that has been mentioned on several occassions.
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~ Humbly walk the path of death

KOOLUK SUPPORTS TINTO MINERS

[Exile]

The runes work very nicely as they are, there's still room for more to come in and at varying levels, there are the slightly odd command runes (odd in the fact that we don't really know where they come from or how they came about, are they just a gameplay item that shows the person to have mastered a particular style of fighting, or do they allow a person to use the particular style etc.) to mix things up and if you look to spin off runes you could still create plenty more.

The rune system is pretty grand in itself and I'm perfectly happy with the three tiered way of doing things it seems to have accounted for itself rather nicely thus far and I see it as a mainstay of the Suikoden games, therefore no reason to mess with it much or Konami face my silent wrath over it.
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Cry woe, destruction, ruin, and decay -
The worst is death, and death will have his day.

[Thief]

I was surprised to discover how "ordinary" the first three spells on the elemental true runes. Where Darkness and Shield runes had somewhat distinct array of weaker spells compared to their respective true runes, these elemental ones don't seem all that special to me. (As much as I want to regard Sword of Magic runes as derivatives of Black Sword, they remind me of spawns from the elements more)

Personally, I'd rather have them rework the true runes' array of spells from scratch, instead of easily copying off the last three levels and add on an extra "ultimate" spell on them. It looked like they took the easy way out.

With those out of the way, now we're left with Resurrection, Eight-Devil and Pale Gate runes without appearance of usable true runes. Let's hope they put more effort into such "true" runes when they finally get the spotlight.

[cid]

[Urn]

I would like to see variations on the first three levels of a True Rune's spells, but I think it makes sense for them to keep it the way it is now. Lower tier runes are supposed to reflect the spells of the True Runes. So, it makes sense that they would have some of the True Runes spells. But, I would like to see a variation on the spells to sort of show the prowess of the True Rune. Such as, if a spell for the lower tier rune hit only one enemy, then the True Rune spell would hit a whole group or give some sort of different animation when the spell is cast to show the difference in power.

[Adrian Magicent]

Hm... I hadn't thought of the spell list progression with true rune and other tiers along that line when I made the question about new spells and new runes. My own opinion is that it should keep with the same progression since adding or dropping spells, however, I would alter the animation slightly at least. It makes too much sense with the progression of the runes to really alter it too much. The best alternative is to use the PS3's increased capability and to to refit it so that the true runes have access to ALL the spells of the less tiers, within reason for the rune's nature.

[Lunarblade]

I think it's a great system...I think all the runes should end up stemming from a higher counterpart, eventually reaching back to one of the 27 True Runes...
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[runemaster]

I love runes (hence my name runemaster) and i think that the system is great i would like to stick with it and as long as they dont make some kind of ultimate rune then i am fine.
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-Harmonian Tensoku star-

[108_Destiny]

I like runes and i completely agree about the grading system of the rune

[Hawk Thanatos]

I like it but I think they need to give more rune levels to the Resurrection Rune - which may very well happen in Suikoden V with the Holy skill.