Outlaws of the Marsh

[Masaya]

I'm not really sure, I couldn't find any other posts on this book but I"m sure there has to been at one point or another so I'm going to apologize for bringing it up again. So I finally ordered a 4 paperback bookset of "Outlaws of the Marsh" a translated into english version ofcoarse, however, it should arive in about a month. Does anyone else know of this book, I heard it has the same story as Suikoden or it's where suikoden might have orginated from? And most important, is this book any good?
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[Leb]

Outlaws of the Marsh is one of the translated forms of "Shui Hu Chuan", which Suikoden is indeed (very loosely) based off of. The story is interesting, as it is essentialy tales about various characters of Chinese folklore mixed into one coherent story. The book itself is fairly good-- there's a lot of humor in its brutality, and no one can deny that reading about drunken escapades is a blast.

And I guess this topic can stay here, seeing as I can't find a forum that it would fit much better in.

[Beecham]

Sui Ko Den is the same as the Shui Hu Chuan, simply in Japanese. You'll find that the game series is actually called Genso Suikoden in Japan, because of this: it isn't Suikoden, it isn't Outlaws of the Marsh, it's Illusions of the Outlaws of the Marsh. Which is basically how the Japanese say that the Genso Suikoden game is based off of the famous story Suikoden. Not a child in Japan but knows the story.

If you read the novel and play the first game, you can see where a lot of the story elements come from. The series takes a bit more of a left turn away from the original premise once you get into Suikoden II, and it's gone utterly by Suikoden III and IV :)

I did read the novels a few years back. I think it's pretty good, but quickly, quickly learned to hate one of the Stars of Destiny, and really get pissed off at the Tenkai for being so lenient. I don't want to explain further, you'll understand yourself once you get to that point in the novel. It doesn't remotely spoil anything, don't worry ^_^

[apathy]

i can see how you were angry at the tenkai star. he could have done more. i wish he was more like li kui or lu da. those 2 guys are my favorites.
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[iscalio]

[Beecham]

I thought both of those were correct, depending on which standardization of romanticized Chinese you use.

[iscalio]

The Chinese government allows only one transcription, and that is pinyin. So every other transcription is "officially" incorrect. The awful Wade-Giles system is outdated.

[Leb]

Yes yes, iscalio's quite right. Anything that doesn't use pinyin is, for the most part, pretty old.

I know "zh" makes a "ch" sound, so I instinctively put "ch" (I say it much more than I write it). Unnecessary the correction may have been, but it is appreciated.

[PirateSigurd]

But is the Chinese Novel of Suikoden are the characters very similar to that of the Game?
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[Leb]

There are characters that share a few traits, but never names, appearances, roles, and the like. Like what has been said, the game shares the book's basis of 108 characters, and that's about it. There are no striking similarities between the two.

[Milan Fiori]

Now see this is where I disagree with some people, I always found there to be a lot of similarties between the book and Suikoden 1. Not so much the others but there was still a few. Events might differ slightly but they happen almost the same way in the game as they do the book. And you can see how the stars match up against each other, and most share small similarites between
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[Beecham]

[Leb]

If you dig deep enough into its basis, sure, you'll find basic similarities. You can do that with any retelling, along with just about everything else.

[Milan Fiori]

Well without giving away to much info, the major similarities that I found was the whole Mt. Tigerwolf, Lepant, Heavy Cavalry, Saving Viktor and Warren. Then character similarities, Tai Ho and Yam Koo, The Three Pirates, Luc as well as smaller similarities like Fu Su Lu and Humphry.

It's quite easy to see where the events for the game were taken from, so that isn't digging for basic similarties. There were almost exactly the same thing, just the Suikoden events had the alittle more leeway in it's showing.
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[Leb]

They still vary in their own way, as you said. If you read a book, play a game, or watch a movie based on an older story that you have read (or vice-versa), you're going to see things that, frankly, share only the conclusion.