Surprising Characters

[Dura Sinai]

Alright.... surprisingly good and bad huh? I'll bite.
Funny thing is the first two games I think most people fit most of my expectations one way or another. There weren't too many surprises.

3rd game was the one that had lots of surprises going both ways.

4..... I rather pretend I didn't spend 40 bucks on it and it never happened.

Suikoden 1.

Good:

Cleo - You need to remember that when Suikoden 1 came out there were hardly any really good rpg females. Often they were decent healers and not asked to do much more. However, this one is very balanced. While her attack is average, and her HP a little low, she has the advantage of being a long range fighter and is also a good mage. This was nice when you didn't want to waste magic on random enounters but wanted the character to do SOMETHING.

Bad:

Gremio - Simple explanation... you cannot get rid of him and as mentioned he is mediocre at everything. Not to mention it is creepy how he keeps watch over Tir while he is sleeping. But he had few real redeeming battle qualities unless you took him over level 60. You don't need characters at that level to beat any of the suikodens.

Kai - Gotta follow the crowd on this one. His stats are all around awful. Considering the whole sensei to tir thing you would expect him to be good at SOMETHING. Nope. Best part is his unite attack.

Krin - Why do you need to use him? There was a reason why nobody bothered to level him past 7 up to the save Viktor quest. He has speed and nothing else. Speed only goes so far.


Suikoden 2

Good:

Rina - I like long ranged mages. I like having the option of not standing around on random encounters while the tanks up front do the grunt work. She fits well, particularly early in the game when you are often at a loss for heavy magic (at least until you get Luc) and you have to use her for a bit.


Bad:

Freed is a given and really needs no more explanation.

Viki - She is adorable and funny but she needs to keep her butt by the mirror and only come out when asked. Sure she is a decent mage statwise. She has the traditional high magic attack and defence and no hp or physical defence. However what good is magic if it has a good chance at backfiring? I'll take out the other mages and some of the mage/fighters first.

Hix - I forgave his crapiness in the first game was he was kinda sorta a ruty little kid. But you would think over the years he might improve slightly? Nope. And to add to it, he has the brains of a rock in dealing with the subquest Tengaar sets up.

Sierra - What the hell is she doing in the front row? Everything about her would make her a tolderable back row person. But even then her stats are pretty lousy. And despite the bad stats you cannot use her true rune!


Suikoden 3

Good:

Emily - Every game seems to have one female character at least that surprises the heck out of me. Definitely Emily here. Her averagish strength is more than overridden by the sheer number of attacks.

Nei - Stumbled on her while trying to find a good support mage who can help heal considering the amazingly few people who had both decent mag stats and an affinity for water magic. She became a major healing and support mage.

Cecile - From the mishap team she ended up being the mini version of Chris. She single handedly handled the budehuc strategy battles with Thomas' chapters.

True Earth Rune - The bearer was exactly what I expected... replacement for Luc or better yet Crowly/Mazus consdidering how late he comes in. But Earth magic has always been the one element with enough useless spells to make most of us stay away. They compensated nicely with Canopy Defense and Land of Eternity. Combine with the old favorite of Earthquake and things are very fun.

Salome - Best strategist in this game and puts the Silverberg boys to shame. Seriously, he seems to concoct all the truly clever schemes and is resourceful enough to do it efficiently. I would hate to be on his bad side.


Bad:

Nash - Same situation as Lepant in that he is not bad perse but he exudes so much coolness that he should have been good.

Leo - Slow and clunky he has the phsyical strength and a couple of good skills to fit that but nothing else. As mentioned he gets no additional attacks. He was often the first knight dead, not because of physical attacks but magic instead. The moment a spell goes off he is toast.

Lizards - Why did they suck? They are supposed to be one of the two warrior tribes of the grasslands. I expect these huge lizardmen to at least be good fighters. Instead the fell as being rather mediocre.

Fire Magic - While I understand the concept, it certainly isn't much good to use spells that are more likely going to fry your own team.


Suikoden 4

Good:

Eugene - Can use the one vital flaw on him, the permanant firefly rune to his advantage with a violence rune. Actually that combination along with a well placed earth magic spell has been my best bet going into the hairballs with the high level single target lightning spell. He has the HP to soak up the damage and once violence kicks in he is rather good. Until then, give him fire magic as he is decent with it.

Mitsuba - When I first saw her I thought she was going to be one of the characters that typically backfired on you. To see her drag that huge sword about really gave doubts. But she wasn't terrible. I preferred her to the main character at times.

Bad:

Hero - Okay, sure Thomas was not a powerhouse either but he at least had personality and you didn't need to keep him around constantly after his chapters, The main hero here was painsakingly average for the major hero and had zero personality to make you like him anyway. His true rune quite frankly was useless once the 1st lv spell was obsolete.

Jeane - She was there for boob factor. As mentioned before, the system used this time around relied heavily on skill and she was the slowest mage around. I also found her falling under more than a few acute cases of death any time the enemy would so much as look in her direction. Sure mages are low hp and low defence.... that is what the back row is for which was sadly missing from this game. But Jeane is the new Pesmerga. Everyone seems to love her despite the fact she isn't all that talented.

[Justice Johnny]

[Dura Sinai]

See my Emily ended up with decent but not great power. She was definitely beat out by all of the classic 'tanks' So she was probably above average, it doesn't stand out until you start increasing her number of hits.

[Justice Johnny]

I dunno... Emily always had super high PWR. You'd have to be very unlucky if Emily ended up having lower PWR than, say... Geddoe, Duke, Borus or Fred. What probably made it seem like her PWR isn't that high is because of her weapon, since claws/fists are generally the second weakest kind of weapon, only next to canes.

[Dura Sinai]

[Erinyes]

Emily isn't much of a surprise. It's expected for someone who looks and acts like an amazon and is the daughter of Ronnie (sp?)
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~Even those who are eager to die still wants to exist...~

[Dr. Chaos]

I'm surprised at the amount of heat Nanami is getting. For me, She's the number one Suikoden character that really surprised me in battle. She's incredibly solid or maybe It has more to do with the fact that everybody else in my party sucked..It's been a year or two since I've played Suiko II and with the announcement of Suikoden V, I'm going to have another go at all four original games, maybe when I get to II again maybe big sis won't seem so great anymore but as far as I can remember, She kicked ass.

[Shikai]

Suikoden I
Good
Cleo O_O . .. . I don't know why I didn't expect her to be very good, but if trained properly, she could dish some major damage, and keep your party healed!

Tir. I have what you call protagonist-hate syndrome. It seems, to be most rpg main characters I end up hating, and can't seem to use them well in battle. Tir was a refreshing change. I really liked Tir, and he and soul eater certainly made enemies last considerably shorter.

Dissapointing
Gremio!!! NO! I love you Gremio, but those stats. . oi! His good points are that he has a rather strong weapon, and isn't particularly weak in any area - but that means he ends up being mediocre in all of them. Before lvl 60, I must admit he was really kinda mediocre. But luckily, they start to shoot up nicely after that. I always have him in my party if I can though ^_^
Bad
Clive - Eh. For a guy with the most advanced piece of technology seen in the game, I think he could do better. I mean, wasn't he raised under rigorous training too, or something? Oi. . . well I wans't impressed by him.

Kai - YOU trained Tir? Oi . . . I would have thought the man behind Tir's impressive staff work could do better. But admitably, you are getting old ^_^

Suikoden II
Good
Hix - I kinda ignored him in the 1st game. But him and Tengaar kick some serious ass if you know how to use them right. Hix might not be the strongest warrior, but he holds his own.


Dissapointing
Sierra - she isn't bad really. But I thought she could have been a lot stronger, seeing as 1) she's a vampire 2) she's the oldest living thing still on the world as far as we know (800+ years) and 3) The story line makes her out to be so strong. She's still a great character, I was just expecting more is all.

Luc - His defense was lacking . . . I dunno. I expected more out of him, but he was still very powerful.

Bad
Pesmerga - I think he was pretty useful in Suikoden 1, but he kind of outlived his usefulness. Eh. Sorry Pesmerga.

Clive- Okay. I was a little dissapointed in you in Suikoden 1, but whaaa? O_O . . .. what happened? under the right circumstances you were useful in Suikoden 1, but now you're pretty useless. . ..

Suikoden III
Good
Lilly - for a spoiled child from Tinto, she kicked some serious arse. Too bad your stuck with Samus and Reed when your with her, at least at first. But outside of battle, I also gotta say her I liked her quite a lot. She was ... amusing ^__^

St. Joe - As someone already said - OMG O_O . .. ITS A DUCK. You're fighting with a giant duck. He's not bad either! .. . though he could have been better though, for a supposed 'hardened veteran'.


Dissapointing
Fubar - was it just me, or was he below acceptable when unmounted? Same could be said for Hugo though, certainly. For a giant Griffin I thought he could have done a little better though . ..

Dupa - I love Dupa but O_O . . I thought he should have been a powerhouse. Well, he was a powerhouse in one sense, but I mean, he should have wiped the floor clean O_O . .. I expected him to be better. I still use him quite a bit ^_^

Salome - Salome >_< . .. I like him as a strategist, and as a character, but I thought he could have been stronger in battle. Also, he's an insanely cool character, and as cool as he was, I thought he deserved to look cooler. Not to sound shallow, but I hold video game characters to different standards. O_O it's his hair that really bothered me. .. .
Bad

Suikoden IV
Good
Aldo - I didn't think he was anything special for a very long time, but when I tried him out - wow. He can be a very good rune user, and he's not a bad damage dealer either.

Millay - for someone we had to rescue, she was pretty strong!

Dissapointing
Reinbach III - My dream since S1 was ruined ;_; . .. Actually, I still really liked Reinbach though. Though I was very dissapointed to find this is where the whole Scholtenheim Reinbach thing came from . .. I was pretty surprised by how useful he could be in battle, and how he acted. When I saw him I thought "GREAT. They turned the legend of Reinbach I had so been itching to hear about into, not only a fraud, but a narcissistic Red Rose Rune bearer. . " .. . . well, I actually ended up not hating him. He wasn't at all like most of the other Red Rose Rune bearers, and wasn't as self centered as you'd think, if you look at it - just a little.. melodramatic.

Tal - I thought WOW . .what a POWERHOUSE. But as the game progressed, and more characters joined you .. . eh!. . . he outlived his usefulness..

Viki - HER VOICE!!!! NOOO!!! WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO HER!!!

Ted - Souleater was greatly down-graded. . . Eh, oh well. Also, I was rather annoyed that he was a naive, mopey brat. And his portrait bothered me - he looks so happy O_O .. too happy.. kinda creepy. Especially when he asks so depressed. It just didn't fit.

Bad
Maxine - a lot of people found her really useful, but . . . eh.. .I just didn't like her that much. And I don't really like her as a character. Nice Cyclone rune though.

Warlock - Not that he wasn't a decent mage . .. well no. I really didn't think he was. He had some pretty high affinities.

[Sophita]

I've always found Clive extremely useful in Suikoden 2. I got more criticals with him than any other characters (high tech stat, I think?) and once he was fairly heavily leveled up, he got off more shots than most of the other members of my party, save perhaps Riou. There were times when battles would start and Clive would shoot, like, every single enemy and kill them. He was always a good assasin for me, so I always stick Clive in the back row, not just in SII but S1 as well. (Then again, I am a huge Clive fan, so there you go.)
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[Elzamine]

Suiko 1
Good- Rubi, I wasn't expecting much, but he turned out pretty nice :)
Bad- Gremio, the poor guy, I liked him.. but it was nice to be rid of him for awhile

Suiko 2
Good- Luc, I would habe used him either way, but his much better self was wonderful
Bad- Freed Y. I couldn't find much use for him AND he annoyed me, not a good mix

Suiko 3
Good- Juan, I was pesimistic at first with the waking rune, but he turned out awesome. I was surprised by Thomas too!
Bad- Rody. I liked the guy, but I just couldn't get enough use out of him.. mind you I would have taken Sasarai over him regardless anyway

Suiko 4
Good- Helmut, he ended up permanent in my party, when I was only going to try him out. Good overall :)
Bad- The hero.. I just always found him weak, even compared to most of the team.
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-My DeviantArt-

[Child of The Sea God]

For me it was Snowe. At the begining of the game you see him as some wussy. Then later in the end if you set him up right he deals huge damage.
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Life is like a play, you're given the role that fate hands to you.
-Me

[Lazlo]

It's been said many a time, but Chiepoo's usefulness in IV astounded me... When I saw his character design I was like "Cool! A Talking Cat! Please oh please let him be a good character..." and he was. I was very happy.

And in III....Thomas. Hands down. You see, there's a hidden story in three that we never get to see where Thomas inherits the True Bad@$$ Rune, because he's so awesome. Then he and Tir McDohl ride off into the sunset, crack open a few beers, and wait until they're put in the next Suikoden.

[Eden]

Suikoden 2 and 4 are the only Sui-game I've played so far...
but in Suikoden 2 the names are:

To tell the truth, I only noticed Killey's greatness last week the time I've read it on this forum... ;-)
The same with Sheena.

I was kind of disappointed of Bob. He's not bad, but I thought he will be a king the way he hesitated to join me.
Persmerga and Georg were bad when I realized the system behind the magnitude of characters.
Last and unfortunatitlyleast is Genshu. Cool like the northpole, but has got no free rune slots and is weak like a four-year-old.
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The Fool

[Pierrot Le Fou]

I was surprised by

Suiko I
Good - I would jump on the Rubi bandwagon, but how about that Kuromimi eh? He held his own at Pannu Yakuta (sp?) alongside Flik and Viktor easily. I thought he was tougher than Gengen anyway, but I could be wrong.

Bad - Sydonia, even though hes damn cool he really doesn't have much going for him in the fights. Hes just too weak, with no real exceeding strengths that outweigh the flaws. I remember he dodges well but on the occasion that he takes a hit he folds.

Suiko II
Good - Hoi, you'd think for an epigone he wouldn't be very useful, but not only is his Technique Rune awesome, once you sharpen his tonfa past level 13 or something his attack power catches up with Riou's. Seriously try it sometime! And its fun to get 10-20 thousand extra potch every fight as well. He also has a pretty funny unite attack with Riou if I remember correctly.

Bad - Bolgan, hes too oafish and can't hit anybody, his rune is also pretty craptastic. But, should you have Sierra and Bob in your party you gain access to the coolest and most violent unite attack in all the Suikoden games (are there any that are better?) that does something like X4 attack power but also hurts Bob and Bolgan. This attack can do about 1200 damage every turn, pretty hardcore. As a stand alone character though, Bolgan's only real use is during the moutain path.

Suiko III
Good - Fred Maximillian, who knew that we'd ever get to use a member of these guys? If I'm not mistaken he is one of the top potentials for the best of the magic sword skill.

Bad - Edge, I mean he had the Star Dragon Sword! What is wrong with this kid??

Suiko IV
Well, I never got all the characters, and I only played through it once so I couldn't tell ya.
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A not unblack dog was chasing a not unsmall rabbit across a not ungreen field.

[Darko]

Suikoden I:

The good:

Tir- I don't know what some people are talking about but Tir was amazing! I wasn't too fond of him as a character but he kicked derriere big time in battle. He dealt a lot of damage with his little stick and could even decapitate an entire party with his Rune! I mean...COME ON!! I don't think he died ONCE in any of my save files throughout the game.

Cleo- She was awesome...hands down. I thought she was possible the best mage because she wouldn't fall down dead in an instant if one of the enemies flicked her with their finger like all the other weak mages!! :x . She was also cool character-wise as well.

Honestly...none of the other character's wowed me too much...

The Bad:

The Dragon Knights: Come on!! You look cool but you suck a*s in battle! They could have done a way better job with them for sure!

Gremio- STAY IN THE ****ing KITCHEN COOKING!! Well at least he didnt' fight with a freaking frying pan or something...I would have put the game down if that had been the case. Anyway...this guy game me a headache. He kept dying early in the game...I just wanted him out...out out out!! :evil:

The Ugly:

Kuromimi- Worthless dog! Well he is a dog! Fine, fine...WORTHLESS KOBOLD!!

Kage- NINJA'S ARE SUPPOSED TO BE COOL! And DEADLY! What a waste of 20,000 potch! I could have had my weapons sharpened!!

Quincy- Didn't your mommy ever tell you people who suck shouldn't be pretentious! :no:

Suikoden II

The Good:

Wakaba: She kicked as*! I loved seeing her legs moving back in forth a la Chun Li and then the monster would disintegrate! She was pretty damn cool! Equipped with a double beat and she's DEADLY!! rawr!

Clive: Was awesome! The camera would zoom in and BAM! Critical Hit! Almost every time! :twisted:

Luc: Awesome magic. He doesn't need to be able to attack. Jeez! Just keep him in the back and give him a thunder rune! Bye Bye monsters! Blue Gate Rune saved me in so many boss battles like the one against the dragon at Greenhill! *bows down and praises Luc*

Nanami: She was a good all-around character. I don't get all the Nanami-hate...LONG LIVE NANAMI!! :twisted:

Oulan: She was great! She was literally the last one standing against Luca in his infamous last stance! She ruled! And it was funny how it looked like she was flipping the enemy off when she was about to attack with her rune! lol

The Bad:

Freed: Stupid nerd! Sorry! But he died all the time...weak little man!!

Chaco: Annoying as hell in and out of battle!

The Ugly:

Bolgan: He was just slower than a slug (excuse the pun! HEE) and every time I saw him I would pretend he would say "A-duh!!" while drool came out of his mouth.

Suikoden III:

The good:

Juan: He was really good once I got rid of the stupid sleeping affect of his permanent rune.

Nei: What a surprise! She rocked! I really liked her especially since I totally overlooked her my first play-through!

Sasarai: Very good character! He was like another version of Luc but his Earth rune kicked butt!

Sgt. Joe: I hated him as a character but he was really good. He would often be the last one standing against powerful enemy parties.

Cecile: AKA Lil' Tank! She was the best character in Thomas' chapter along with Juan. And she was cute as heck to boot!

The Bad:

Leo: So annoying. The worst knight of the bunch! His defense couldn't make up for the suckiness of the rest of his stats.

Ace: Sure after you raise all of his skills he's good. But he was crap in the beginning of Geddoe's chapters. I disliked him the most out of all of the mercenaries.

Duke's group: They were a poor man's Geddoe's Mercenaries in every way. Jeez...and they didn't even have a magician in their group. Blegh!

Lucia: So just because you had a kid it means you have to drop down from a 10 to a 2 in fierceness. Quite the "big momma" role and become the big bad bit**h you used to be please?!!

The ugly:

Thomas: He was worthless. I can't be leave he held the Tenkai star. YOU HAVE SHAMED ALL OF THE TENKAI STARS!! Sure some might say he's pretty good when he gets to level 99 (lol) but I detested...I abhorred playing his chapters because he sucked!!

Piccolo: Stupid old geezer...*slaps him* Don't ever compare use Crowley's name in vain!! :no:

The Lizard men: All of y'all suck!! Geez and you think you're all tough! Whatever!! I'm gonna have me some grilled lizard tonight!

Tactics:

The good:

Maxine: She rules! I haven't played IV but in Tactics she's the best mage so far! Incinerate all them foos!

Andarc: Who knew someone who looked so nerdy could kick so much arse!! He's a perfect magic swordsman...well he doesn't use a sword but whatevers. He deals awesome damage both physically and magically!

Kika: She is AWESOME!! Her rune is unstoppable!! She's great really!

Rachel: Equip her with Unicorn run and watch her kill rows of enemies

Coop: He's really good! I like him a lot! Two-handed sword tank!!

Sigurd: An awesome character!! Can attack from afar and his Water Magic Rune has the potential of being devastating!!

Trishtan: He's surprisingly good!! And his *cough cough* is funny!!

The bad:

Pablo: You suck bad!! You need to have another rune slot sooner!!

Axel: I don't know what your people from Na-Nal are talking about but you're not so cool! Stop scowling it's not going to make you any cooler!!

Champo: Stupid cat!

Jeremy: Dude, he sucks! Still haven't found anything good about him at all!

The ugly:

Kyril: Ok...I haven't finished the game yet but I REALLY dislike Kyril so far. He sucks. Even when he gets the protection/boost of fire element terrain enemies are always kicking the crap out of him. The only time he does well is against those fish monsters but he can't even kill those!! ARGH! He better get better as the story progresses!!
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