Suikoden 4 positives

[Windspun_Monkey]

I know that Suikoden 4 was a horrible game but there are a few things that I actually liked about it. I liked the battle system better than most of the other games. The only negative was only having parties of four. I liked not having to equip curative items on individuals and I loved the flash command.

The biggest problem with Suikoden 4 was the plot and character development. At the end of the game I didn't feel like I knew much about any of the characters and the plot was a little bit weak. If they would have spent more time developing characters and made us all have our favorites based on who they are rather than strictly abilities the game could have been solid.

The battle system is better than 3's by a long ways but 3 developed 75% of the characters very well. It helped by having 3 stories taking place at the same time. At the end of 3 you felt like you knew most of the characters very well. You could read their name on the screen and know their personality, Most of the Characters in 4 didn't even have personalities.

But the thing that I'm getting at is that despite it's faults, Suikoden 4 did have some positives and hopefully Rhapsodia clears up a few of it's negatives.

[Himuro]

IV's battle system is not better than III's. In IV I pressed auto the whole battle and only died at the final boss. To say that IV's battle is better than III's is like saying sitting on a bed of nails is better than sleeping on queen sized bed with comforter, though it's edgy in some spots it's infinitely better than the weaksauce version.

The only positive from IV I can even think of is the HQ. The HQ in IV ROCKED. It was huge and I had lots of fun it, especially the interrogation room. That room got hours of entertrainment from me.

[Windspun_Monkey]

I liked the battle system in 4 better. I didn't like the pairs in 3 at all. The battles being easy have more of a reflect on the difficulty level of the game than the mechanics of the battle system.

[Elzamine]

The main problem with 4 was ultimately the character development, or lack thereof. While some of the support characters were developed alright, having a main character so out of the loop without much feeling like that is what in the end really killed the game.. While there's lots of faults we can get into, had the character development of at least the main character been half decent the game could have been much more successful. as well as the 4 person battle concept.. did not fly well, why they ever even though to try that is beyond me.

However back onto the actual topic -what's good. I felt the side story with the ghost ship was a good add on. The system of being able to make armor and accessories with raw materials was interesting, and made trading a more important concept as well. I was alright with the hq, was a new concept, did alright as far as I could tell. The naval battles didn't really bother me either, using the runes cannons and such. With the naval battles however, I found it was too easy to just get close enough to board the ship and whomp on everyone. I also found there was more focus on the armor sets in this game, which is also nice, since it adds more customizing to characters.. the armor sets set up with the suiko 3 skill system would have really worked well together I think.

Again while Suiko 4 does have it's good points, the characters really needed worked on. It's just too bad, because the game had so much potential.
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[Admiral Ackbar]

Another positive of Suikoden 4 is that Suikoden 5 will be out in a few months so we won't have to think about it ever again.
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[Kikito]

You're very right indeed Blue Thunder. However there are some good things about Suikoden 4. For one thing, as someone mentioned above, the material combining system was a pretty interesting way to get armor and accesories. I wouldn't mind if they brought something like this to Suikoden V.

Also, I kinda liked the short spell animations a little. Even though the spell animations from the previous installments(mostly Suikoden III) were increadible, sometimes you're just not in the mood to go through the long animations some of the attacks have. This could be easily solve by adding some sort of option in which you could choose either the long animation or the short ones.

Hey, and who couldn't forget the return of Ted. Even if he doesn't have an important role in the story, it stil feels good to have hime there with the Soul Eater. And the "side quest" to get him is pretty interesting.

There's also the expansion of our knowledge of the Suikoden world geography. Thanks to this game's remote approach to the series we now have a better comprehension of the Suiokoden world. It gives us some insight into the Island Nations and the formation of the Federation. Oh and we also get to know a little about two completely new nations: the Dukedom of Gaien and the Kooluk Empire. Even though we don't get much insight into Gaien, we get a bit into Kooluk, and how things work over there, as well as their relationship to the Scarlet Moon Empire.

Another thing is this game spawned the first ever Suikoden Tactics game, which as I've read in reviews is much needed improvement to Suikoden 4's story.

I tried very hard to find other things that are good in this game, so these are all I could think of. I'll keep trying to think of more positive things about this game.

[Himuro]

[Parallax]

...I sort of liked the HQ in four, and I liked the pirates (although that's entirely an aesthetic concern that others might not at all share). Otherwise... I'd say that the game won't be making my top ten list. I still boggle at how they could have done such a good job with all of their other games, and fail so miserably with Suikoden four. Did anyone actually think four was a good game?

Oh, I know! I thought that Cray guy was alright, for a bad guy with virtually no development behind him and almost no role whatsoever in the storyline. -.-
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[Jinners]

Omg that comment rocked....indeed, when Suiko 5 does come out we wont think about Suiko 4. Still...

There were a few points that i did like about Suikoden 4. The ship seemed vast, while not the most colorful it was big enough that you could roam around (and hunt down the 108 stars! >_<) and talk to them. Also---the battles i think were okay---i'd admit i've played more games with that simple 4 style then the Suikoden 3 one. Either way, it was a battle. End of story.

What really got me was...Brandeau. Specifically the Grishend (This *was* Lady Kika's pirate crew name right?) and Brandeau. i loved Brandeau so much....and lady Kika and her crew. They were awesome. Another positive was Elenor. She was a cool strategist and possible my third or second favorite character. She really brought the game up for me *alot*. With her speaking and directing everyone i *wanted* to sit through the game...

I didnt mind the naval battles. It was a fresh change.

[Admiral Ackbar]

Alright, to be fair I still think Suikoden 4 had a few redeeming qualities. This doesn't mean I like the game as a whole though. You can put a pretty red bow on a cow turd...but it still smells like a cow turd.

1 - Unite attacks. They can upgrade in power over time. This finally gives a bonus to people that like to use certain characters, and adds another dimension to using your characters. And every character in the game (except Wendel and Maxine) are in a unite attack. Unfortunately these aspects are dulled out by the fact that you can't use unite attacks until the characters in question have been together in battles a certain amount of times. And the unite attacks upgrade only to Level 3 (max level), and fairly quickly too.

2 - Material system. This was probably the best "addition" to the series. You can finally make your own items! Now if only half of them were useful enough to wear by the time you could make them...

3 - Armor sets. These were in Suikoden 3 (and Suikoden 2 if you count the Mole Set) but Suikoden 4 has over a dozen of them. The downside is that most of the armor sets give such minimal boosts to stats (+5% is a joke) that equipping more powerful items that are not part of a set can usually give you a better stat boost in the end.

4 - There were a few good characters in the story. Despite the fact that Elenor is hands-down the worst strategist in the series (right before Caesar) she still had an interesting personality and attitude. Enough of one that made me sit through her pointless and tactic-less lectures before every battle. There are other admirable characters in the bunch...Katarina, Glen, Ramada, Kika, Colton, and others I can't be bothered with to remember. It's just a shame that the majority of main characters don't even have a noticable presence. Even the ones I named have as much backstory and personality as any optional character from Suikoden 3. Indeed, even the most minor of characters from Suikoden 3 are more developed than the most major of characters from Suikoden 4.

5 - Ritapon...the one enjoyable mini-game of Suikoden 4. Even though the potch reward wasn't worth it when compared to the Slash Rune + Properity Rune + Potch Finder money maker, it was still fun.

6 - The game disc can substitute for a cup tray.


I disagree with Ted's appearance in the game as a positive. I personally found it insulting that a character like Ted, a character every Suikoden fan adores to death (oops), would be an optional character. Plus he has a True Rune! And his rune is a lot like the Rune of Punishment in theme and mood. There should have been some kind of friendship or kinship between Ted and Lazlo, but Ted doesn't really do anything after you recruit him. And I find it odd that Ted is always so down and depressed in the game...he's had 150 years to get used to his rune's curse. Tir McDohl was chipper in under a year.

But that's just me.
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[Himuro]

I never made a material once in SIV. Not once. I didn't see the need considering I could just buy some stuff from the shop.

[amadeusx]

some positives i found was:

unite attacks- as someone mentioned about the lvl up on unites attack being a positive. i would have to agree. but also add the fact that you have to train the two/three/four characters in battle first to learn the attack was a positive for me too. cause i see the game as a journey and when they fight those people are out there fighting when everyone else is on the ship. so learning how to do a unite attack with someone you hardly know or know by being on the ship seems better then automatically knowing it. not sure if you all understand me.

armor/accessory creation- although i was frustrated with this i found that it gave the game some difficulty to be honest. some gamers like the challenge of finding or obtaining some great gear. me being one of them. and some armor/accessory were quite decent. although there was some you can buy.

story- the story was sort of a positive for me. i say sort of because i wasn't as caught up in the story in s4 as i was in s3 (but that could be from the 3 person perspective from s3). i would have to say it was a little fast paced though, which was fine with me.

thats all i can think of
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[Mukumuku]

I loved the imporved graphics on suikoden IV compared to III. I also liked how charaters acually talked! And they remeber Scolten Reinbatch III!

[Samantha Carter]

I liked that i could finally fight with Jeane, i have been waiting for that for ages.

Also, i liked the New game+ thing that allowed you to change who you walked around as.
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[Thief]

The most positive thing about Suikoden IV? It's still a part of the series proper, and no one can completely ignore what happened in the game no matter how much more popular all the following games would be.

And it gave way to Rhapsodia, which is easily the best spin-off title in this series yet.

Considering the fact that my sole complaint with this game is its gameplay, there's definitely plenty of positive points for me.