What inovations whould YOU put into the Suikoden serial?

[Sexan]

Let's say you have a chance to be a part of the team that creates a new suikoden serial. What would YOU alter in it?
I'm talking 'bout story, graphics, characterization...

Just 4 example, take Prince of Persia 1 & 2. One is light, and the other hard core dark.

I, personally, would insert more massive battles, with anime movie animations (in the game), more blood (so the game would get a more serious and eppic tone it deserves), a quiet, but wise main character, that could bring together 108 stars (S3 was the closest to that IMO)...


YOU?


P.S. I know. My english sucks hard :(

[Aurelien]

The thing that I'd probably like to do the most is to make the game way way way longer than the normal 30-ish hour game. I want to make the game last as long as 100+ hours to cover the game as detailed as possible. And I don't mean 100 hours of repeating similar stuff like in Suikoden III with its Trinity Sight System (though it's an interesting concept).

The reason why I would like to prolong the game is because Suikoden series has always been relying heavily on their storyline, background, history, and characters. And I think we all can agree that the majority of the 108 Star of Destiny are not given enough background/information with them joining out of nowhere. I mean, if we think logically, they should have a reason to join the army. Joining army and getting involved in a war is a big important issue. No one should join just because. Say for example, Karen from Suikoden II ... why join in an army and go to war just because Riou can dance? Doesn't really make sense.

I also believe that Suikoden needs to give out more branches of story in a sense of limited non-linear story. I would like it very much if we have more choices in what we are going to do while limited to still follow the story in a linear way. Say for example the one in Suikoden II where we can choose whether to attack Greenhill, stay at the castle, or hold the Highland reinforcement. It's a good example, but it's too brief and it only affects the major battle (in a sense whether we play at Greenhill or at the border or staying out of the battle). It would be much better if it could also affect the major battle plus 1-2 follow up stories afterwards before the branches combined into 1 again.

Other than branches of storyline, I'd also like Suikoden to have more choices when it comes to characters to recruit, just like Valeria/Kasumi, or the 3 L-monsters in Suikoden II. But hopefully, the choice would somehow be even more important. Say for example we need help from 5 towns and each of those 5 towns have 3 great characters that you can pick 1. So you can have plenty of combination of characters to use if you want to.

Last but not least, definitely keep the 6-men party.
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~City-States of Jowston and Tinto Republic~
06.06.2004 - 20.01.2008

[Acheron]

I'd try to influence the battle and side-quest dungeon aspect.

More variation in monsters you fight. I'm thinking like gank characters from all kinds of games. Monster Rancher, Digimon, Mythologies of all kinds, none would be safe from my plagerisms. The lack of variety becomes blatently obvious with Suikoden IV (I mean random battles were jsut not good in that game). 6 man battle line-ups would be great.

Also better mini-bosses and more dungeons hidden in all those nooks and crannies. Something like the places you've already passed you come back too way later when there's really nothing to get there so many would just pass it off and keep going. I'd put dungeons there that only open late in the game.

More time was a good suggestion. I'll gank that.

Variety in weapons is usually good in the game but in the later ones all the main characters have been sword/dagger weilders. Hugo, Chris, Geddoe, and Hero4 all had swords. Riou and Tir had creative weapons that you don't see everyday which is uncommon in most games. Usually its just a creative looking sword (Keys, water, huge-ness), or a gun sword(...ahem...) or something like that. The sword is just so overused. Maybe it would be cool to have a hero that just had a big shield and cast magic. A mage as your hero and then they get that True Rune, it would be classy.

I would ilke for the upper echelon runes(thunder, rage, mother earth, etc...) to have all 5 spells and the true runes to have all 6 spells. That would make them really feel superior and you wouldn't feel like you just wasted an explosion on some petty random encounter with a Nemesis.

In general if the side characters had more depth that would be ideal. Also if a character dies in what you think is the final battle would be cool. Than the boss leaves and you go on a man hunt and murder them or spare them. That would be cool.

[Wataru]

I would like to see more done with your headquarters. In the Suiko D&D game I'm running, one of the stars is an architect (which my players have not recruited yet) and his function is to design your own HQ. Using him they can place rooms where they want them and customize the layout of their castle. Kinda like SimTower. Location would have an effect on things (If you put people's bedrooms too close to the stable they will complain ... if you put the theatre next to the blacksmith the heat and noise will cause profits to go down and disturb the show).

A change in the Tenkai Star would be cool. A female, an elf, a mage, just something other than the teenage boy with dead parents who gets a True Rune. Thomas was a good start (even though he was a teenage boy with dead parents)
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[Sexan]

You've got some cool ideas!!! Keep it coming.

[Marshmallow]

Oh man, Suikoden Cereal? AWESOME!!! 108 Different shapes in every box. Marshmallow true runes included, and don't forget the prize inside!

Now made with corn! Kid tested, mother approved.

[Destiny's Warrior]

I would add in bigger citIES and villages and also put in more PSYCHOTIC *if you can't spell it, don't USE it* villans like Graham Cray and Yuber who want total destruction. :twisted:
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CAAANONBALL

[Blackwind]

I'd add marshmellows.
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Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.

[Hugo]

I was waiting for someone to make that joke . Suikoden Cereal , ha , that is pretty funny . It is not a bad idea actually , but would only be available in Japan because we are always getting bumped over here .

[Arenegeth]

[Arcana]

Suikoden Cereal? CINNAMON FLAVOURED! I love Apple-Cinnamon. There you go! 108 varieties, just for you. Apple, there you go. Your years of strategy-coaching have paid off.

What would I add?

NOT MORE TIME. Ugh, 80 hour games just piss me off now. I don't have enough time to play them and I'm rolling my eyes at the lazy script job by the time I get to Hour 30. I would, any day of the week, take an excellent, engrossing, involving game that spans 20 hours than a long, drawn-out boring game that takes 80 hours. Put all of the extra stuff in side quests. And don't "lock" the player out of ANYTHING. I hate games that do that - where you had to have talked to some NPC between Event A and Event B, and doing so only at that time unlocks the super-secret bonus dungeon and if you miss it, you can't ever get it. Total baloney.

And don't say that you can have both - you can't. A game sells for a fixed price in North America and if you raise the price to try to account for extra-long development or whatever, your game won't sell. :(

I would put more emphasis on multi-party battles (like in the ending of Suikoden III), except make that a core, integral part of the game. Every dungeon, you'll be able to bring in a team of 18 or fewer characters, assign a "leader" to each of them, and then you'd try to take out the dungeon. Teamwork is required for getting through the dungeon. One party can take out wandering enemies and "clear a path" for your second party. You can position your parties to provide "cover fire" for each other, or maybe one group has special abilities, like being able to cast magic spells to cover chasms. Basically, you'd have to coordinate the groups so that one group can get to the bottom and everyone else can get out alive. It would also be a great way to insert more character interaction in dungeons, and to allow you to level up more characters.

Of course, there could also be more strategic battles if you're always bringing in 18 people into a dungeon - so you might have short strategy battles at the end of a dungeon before you take out a boss.

I would also consider adding weapon-affinities and armour-affinities, a la Vagrant Story. In Vagrant Story, your weapons were either blunt, piercing, or edged, and these would affect enemies differently based on their armour type and so forth. That would help encourage a rotation in your team members, as well as making battles a bit more intelligent.

Emotion points system - similar to the Star Ocean series - for in-battle conflicts. You'd probably only be able to keep track of the hero and a few super-main characters, but that would be really fun. Characters would react differently to you, and you might hear different rumours in the comment box or even walking in on little events between your party members, like a dinner between two members in your bar, or the cook trying to teach you how to make a great lunch, or whatever. Basically - you'd be wandering around the castle and if the time was right it will throw you a random interaction between party members.

Finally - and here's the real seller - Suikoden totally needs a dating simulator mini-game. :D I'd buy the next Suikoden right away if it had a totally awesome dating mini game.
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Woo, 2000 posts as of Tuesday, 2007 August 28.

[Wataru]

The dating minigame sounds awesome.

I would also make sure you get all your shops for your HQ early. Jeane, Viki, blacksmith, nerchant, armoer, appraiser. Having to wait until the end of the game to get Tessai and Nabokov drove me nuts! Granted, you can just teleport to a townm that has the utilirt you need, but it's soooooo much better having everything all under one roof.
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[Arcana]

That's something else that would be cool - a REAL supply and demand system for trade goods. Set up the trade goods so that things are actually "manufactured", and that there's a limited supply. So if you're always buying armour, eventually the price of iron (and the price of iron armour) goes up.

More food of course would be awesome, and "tools" and other similar items would be nice.
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Woo, 2000 posts as of Tuesday, 2007 August 28.

[zeal]

i would put in other travellers on roads. You know when you're walking on the world map. or say sailing the sea. i would have other travellers/ other ships people you could trade with, hear stories from, etc.

I like the sound of a dating mini-game that would be funny.the real time supply and demand sounds cool too. would just add more culture and realism to the game.

Also i would make recruiting harder. or at least have a more in-depth story on why they're joining.
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First Bearer of the Scarlet Moon: zeal

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[Destiny's Warrior]