RPG series you must play! : Suikoden

(Note: The main characters do not have official names, but were all given names in comics. Suikoden III and Tierkreis, are the only Suikoden to give them names.

The heroes will be referred to as the following.

Suikoden 1: Tir
Suikoden II: Riou
Suikoden IV: Lazlo
Suikoden V: Frejadour (Frey for short).

The Suikoden series is vast, but so short at the same time. In total there are 11 games (12 if you count their pachinko machine.. Titles are as followed. 

Main titles Suikoden I, II, III, IV & V

Story games

Suikogaiden I & II (Follows the events before, and after Suikoden II),  Suikoden Card Stories.

Spin Offs

 Suikoden Tactics (Rapsodia in japan. Takes place after the events of IV),
Suikoden Tierkreis  & Suikoden Tsumugareshi (Woven Web of a Century, in english)

Unfortunately, Suikogaiden I & II, Suikoden Card Stories, and Tsumugareshi were only released in Japan. So big time fans such as myself are missing out on some pieces to our favorite series! Some do have fan translations, which I have yet to check out.

The Timeline

The games take place in a particular order, if you were to play them in chronological order, it would be like this.
Suikoden IV (150 years before Suikoden I) - Suikoden Tactics (Shortly after IV) - Suikoden V (144 years after Suikoden IV) - Suikoden (6 years after V) - Suikogaiden 1 (Right before/while the events of II) - Suikoden II (3 years after I) - Suikogaiden II (Right after the events of II) - Suikoden III (15 years after II)

Complete Suikoden timeline

Premise of the games

The Suikoden games always follow a hero fighting against an army of an enemy nation, they're tasked to go around the region looking for recruits to help them fight against their enemy. The hero and their recruits are known as the 108 stars of destiny. There are plenty of characters that the hero has to find, and recruit. Some characters join easily, while others request you to do specific tasks.

In some scenarios, there may be more than 108 characters to recruit (secret characters!), and sometimes you have to choose between one, or the other.

Despite the series being revolved around having an army, the games are really colorful, and filled with great characters, music, visuals, fun battles, and it always has a good story with it too. It also has continuity, which is not something many games have. There are always characters who re-appear in another game, and sometimes you find out about what happened to someone in a different game.

(Except for Tierkreis and Tsumugareshi, since they are both in a different world.)

The cool thing is that you'll hear about a character in one game, and BAM! They're a playable character in another game! There is a character named Reinbach III, he is mentioned in the first two games, and makes an appearance in the fourth game, as a popular noble of the town of Middleport.

The Suikoden games have it's fair share of comedy, death, betrayal, friendship, love, hate.. it has it's dark times, but also bright times. It's an experience!

Lukiae Ende Towayo (Village of the Elves)

The VIPsThere are three characters that appear in all the main title Suikoden games, the list is as follows.

Viki

A magical teleportress, who has the power to blink through time, and space. She is a very useful character, who allows you to revisit places you've been to before. In II & V, she can accidentally teleport you to a hidden location, you can only get to, by her screw ups. (This is good, because these locations have great treasures.)

She's rather clumsy, and tends to teleport herself in time by accident when sneezing.

Because she travels through time, it's unknown what order she is teleporting in. All because we meet her In the first game, doesn't mean it's the first Suikoden war she's been in.
She even hints in the fifth game, that the nation you're fighting for, is no longer a country from what time she's from.

Half of her encounters, she joins during the progression of the story automatically, but a few games you have to seek her out. She becomes a playable character in the second game.

She appears In 7 games, the main titles 1-5, Suikogaiden 2, and a Pachi-slot machine. She does not appear in Tactics, where as the next character, Jeane does. Leaving Jeane to appear the most in the series.

Jeane

Jeane is quite possibly, one of the most mysterious characters in the game. She is a mysterious Rune mistress, who can attach runes onto characters. (Runes will be explained later)

It's hinted that Jeane is in fact not a human, and she doesn't want to scare anyone with her true form.
Since Suikoden IV takes place 150 years before the first game, and Suikoden characters have an average life span, it's debated if she is the same character, or a set of clones/relatives, with the same name. Or if she has some sort of power, or of some kind of race, that allows for her to live long. There's so many different ideas on what Jeane could be!
She finally becomes playable in Suikoden IV, being the earliest in the timeline. Maybe she's only playable IV & V, because she got sick of being in battle by the time the older games in the time line came around.
She has a knack for lightning magic, and has a special "Charm Rune", that coerces enemies to take attacks for her.

She holds the crown for appearing in the most games, she appears in 8 games. Unlike Viki, she appears in Tactics, and Suikogaiden 1.

Leknaat

Leknaat is as a wise seer, she is blind, and is able to appear anywhere she wants (Similar to Viki).

She's an important character to the story, especially the first two games. She generally appears to the hero, giving advice, and aiding them on their journey. (In some cases, she freaks some heroes out by appearing out of no where, in that fabulous outfit henny!) She is however scarce in the third game and only appears in the very ending, after you beat the game.

She is the holder of the Gate rune, which grants her immortality. But also the power to summon monsters from another world. Originally, she shared a half of the Gate Rune, with her sister Windy, who is an antagonist in the first game.

It was rumored that Leknaat would become the villain of Suikoden VI, which never happened since V was the last installment in the series. It would have been interesting to see how that would have played out, since Leknaat is the keeper of balance.

Battles

Lu from Suikoden V

There are generally three different types of battles.

Normal Battles

Suikoden battles are turn based, you can do normal attacks with a weapon, use magic, use items or even do team attacks known as "Unite" in the first two games. (The other games call it something else such as co-op attacks).

In most Suikoden games, your party can fit up to 6 characters at a time, except in Suikoden IV, and Tierkreis where only 4 characters can be in the party at a time. Characters all have their own weapons, and you do not upgrade them by buying new weapons, you go to a blacksmith to sharpen their weapon to make them stronger. 

One on One VS Battles

The second kind of battle is a one on one, with either the hero or another character, against an enemy character. In most games it's the hero, but in Suikoden III, you get to do one on one with a couple of the main characters, including a side character, whose battle actually leads to a recruit!

You have one of three choices, defend, attack or special attack. It's basically rock papers scissors.. if you do attack and they do defend, you get to hurt them a bit,  if you do defend and they do special attack, you can dodge and do a counter attack. It's all in what the other character says, you have to figure out what type of attack they will use by what they say to you.

Army Battles

The last is army battles! Each game has a different army battle system. It will always be your army against the opposing army, mostly using random npc soldiers, while your characters are leaders of the teams. Some games let you use all of your characters, while ,you only get to use certain characters in the army. The third game flat out let's you use your recruited characters, in non playable Ai battles, where they do what they want to do. The interesting thing about army battles, is that some characters can DIE permanently if they lose in a battle.

Magic

The magic system, also known as "Runes", is unique from other games. Runes are magical orbs that are embedded into the persons body by a rune master, once embedded they can use the runes magic powers, and can freely take it off too. There are a few permanent runes that cannot be taken off specific characters. Runes can be attached on the Left or Right hand, and on the Head, One character in the first game, is said to have 100 runes embedded onto him! (This is just apart of the lore, and not an actual game mechanic)

Cleo, from Suikoden I

There are three kinds of runes, magic runes, command runes, and effect runes.

Magic runes have spells based off of their abilities, such as Fire runes having fire based attacks, or Water runes, mainly having healing spells.

Each magic rune has four spells, Lv1 spell, Lv2, Lv3 and Lv4, the higher the level the stronger that spell is.

Here is an example of the Fire Rune spells in Suikoden 1.

Lv 1: Flaming Arrows: 100 damage to 1 enemy.

Lv 2 : Fire Storm: 150 damage to all enemies.

LV 3 : Dancing Flames: 400 damage to all enemies.

LV 4 : Explosion: 700 damage to all enemies.

Characters get a certain amount of times they can use each spell level, in the beginning they may only have one Lv1 spell...as their magic increases they will get more uses for each level and rank higher with Leveled spells.

Let's say there is a character that has 60 in magic, and they have this fire rune on them. So, their spell usage would be like this.

Lv1. 5/5 spells

Lv2. 2/2 spells

Lv3. 1/1 spells

Lv4. 0/0 spells

They can use up to 5 flaming arrows, 2 fire storms, and 1 dancing flame spell. After they deplete their magic, they have to go to an inn, to restore their magic. (In some cases, some save spots, can restore magic power)

Command runes are more like special attacks, like the Great Hawk rune allows a bow and arrow user to shoot multiple arrows at all enemies, the Lion rune allows for fist fighter characters to do a special martial arts type of attack.

Effect runes are runes that do something for the user, a Killer rune gives the character a better chance at making stronger blows with a normal attack. Meanwhile, the Sunbeam rune heals the character a little bit while walking around on a world map, and sometimes in battle.

Unique Runes. Some characters come with their own one of a kind runes too, they are not removable and usually no one else has it. The character Mel, from Suikoden III has a rune called Devils Doll, it allows for her weapon (A Puppet named Branky), to literally breathe fire at one enemy per battle!

Characters can hold up to three runes at a time, however.. each character is different! Some characters can have three runes, while others may only be able to have one on at a time.

In the first Suikoden, you could only have one rune on at a time, they changed this in the rest of the games. Which is sad because some characters are stuck with a rune that may not even be useful!

The character Juppo, is a perfect example of this. Having great magic power, but has an affixed rune on him, making him one of the most useless characters in the game.

Higher, and more rare level runes exist in the world. They have stronger spells, usually getting rid of the level 1 spell, and moving all spells down, and having a much stronger level 4 spell.



Sarah from Suikoden I

Example: Rage Rune

LV 1: Fire Storm: 150 damage to all enemies.

         LV 2: Dancing Flames: 400 damage to all enemies.

LV 3: Explosion: 700 damage to all enemies.

    LV 4: Final Flame: 900 damage to all enemies.

True Runes
Are mysterious Runes that are said to help create the universe, they all have unbelievable power, and allow it's users to become immortal from age, and disease. (They can still die from being murdered, etc.)

True runes are seen as entities, rather than just items of magical power. They are also the reason that normal runes can exist in the world.

There are 27 true runes.

In most games, the hero gets one of the 27 true runes (I,III & IV), but on occasion will get a rune involved with a True Rune (II & V). Suikoden III is the only Suikoden to showcase the most amount of true runes with 8, and allows the player to control 5 of them.

Because the Suikoden series ended, we will never know all of the True runes. Only 18 of them are known, leaving 9 of them to be a complete mystery.

Check out the True Runes on the Suikoden wiki

The World

The Suikoden world is so big, that the entire world is not in just one game alone (Which many games do). Each game shows you a new region of the world. The first game, you go to the Scarlet Moon Empire, the second game allows you to visit Dunan, a country to the north of Scarlet Moon. The third game you visit a few places, The Grasslands, Zexen and a part of Harmonia, which are all north from Dunan. The fourth game goes to the Island nations South of Scarlet Moon, and in the fifth game you go to the Queendom and Falena, a big island to the south of the Island nations.

There is the country of Kanakan to the East of Scarlet Moon, or the badlands to the west of Toran, where the magicians Crowley, and Mazus fought each other, and tore the entire region into a desolate wasteland.

Faylen from Suikoden V

Apparently there is also a western continent and the country of Armes to the east of Falena. Harmonia, where it all began with the mysterious figure known as Hikusaak! He wields the true rune known as the circle rune, and fought against the kingdom of Aronia, following the defeat he/she/they changed the country's name to Harmonia.

Suikoden World map

Lore

What makes suikoden so special, is that you learn about these other characters, other places in one game, that you get to see in another game! Unfortunately, there are some pieces missing in the puzzle, as the series is quite unfinished and the company has pretty much left the series.

It's really amazing to hear about one thing, and find out about it in another game. With Suikoden, the story is never finished, there is always someone or someplace else to find out about!

The earliest Suikoden game is not even the beginning of the story, there are stories in some of the games that date over 100 years before that actual game, characters, and battles told, but never seen in any game.. which also allows for continuation! (Essentially each game talks about a previous war that happened before, which would be cool if those stories had also been fleshed out more)

Hikusaak's battle in Aronia happened hundreds of years before the earliest Suikoden game in the timeline took place, a story that they could have definitely made a new game about.

Protagonists

 Suikoden


Eileen from Suikoden I

Tir

Suikoden I follows the events of Mcdohl (Tir in the manga), a young man whose father is a general in the imperial army of the Scarlet Moon Empire. After meeting with the emperor, and doing some tasks for the emperor. Mcdohl and his friends start to wonder if the emperor is actually a good person?

They end up joining a group called the Liberation army, a group sought out to destroy the Scarlet Moon empire of it's evil ways, and along the way they recruit 108 stars of destiny to help them in their battles.

Featured True Runes: Soul Eater, Dragon Rune, Night Rune, Gate Rune, and Sovereign rune.



Suikoden II





Millie, from Suikoden II. My favorite character of all time.



Suikoden II follows the story of a young man Genkaku (Riou in the manga), Riou ends up right in the middle of an invasion by his home-land! The leader of the army is Luca Blight, a very vile man who goes around on killing sprees, and burning villages one by one like it's nothing.

Riou

Riou enlists the help of old, and new friends to put a stop to Luca and the Highland army from invading their country.

Featured True Runes: Soul Eater (You can have Tir join up later in the game), Blue Moon, Beast Rune, Night Rune, Rune of Beginning.

Suikogaiden

Suikogaiden is a Visual novel and stars Nash, an agent of Harmonia who is sent to the region of Dunan to find out information about one of the 27 true runes. Nash, also appears as a playable character in the third game. (I have yet to play this game, but I really should someday!)

Suikoden III

MiddlePort

Suikoden III has 6 point of views, you have the three main heroes, Hugo, Chris and Geddoe. Then you have Thomas, who is a side-character hero, but not the main focus. The other two characters are extras, you can run around as a dog Koroku, and the last character is a SECRET!!!

Hugo lives in the Karaya tribe in the Grasslands, and after his village is burned down, Hugo wants to become a hero and try to stop injustices from happening. Of course, eventually he joins up with the other 3 heroes in the middle to end of the game.

Chris Is the closest the series has ever gotten to having a female main character. She's the captain of the knights of Zexen, and although she's trying to keep peace with other countries and borders, she notices that there is something fishy going on...

Nash from the Suikogaiden spin off, joins Chris' team.

Geddoe Is the oldest of the three, he is actually a part of a Harmonian defense unit. He just goes around on missions with his team. Eventually, he recruits a Karaya clan member who got lost and becomes fascinated with soda, she joins up in the first chapter of his POV.

Thomas is more or so a side character, but at the same time plays a big role in the story. His story is completely optional, and revolves around him and his new ragtag team trying to gain more allies so the castle that was bestowed to him, will stay and become more popular for tourists, and anyone that wants to make a business there.

He runs into the three heroes at some point in the game before they all join forces. When they meet him, he asks them to recruit people. Once recruited they can use those characters during their own story until they all join up. Afterwards anyone can bring anyone along at that point. After they all team up, Thomas becomes a secondary character, and you don't control him anymore for the rest of the game. You can however choose to play as Hugo, Chris or Geddoe at any time.

This Suikoden is actually more good VS evil than the other Suikodens.

Featured True Runes: Eightfold Rune, Gate Rune (Appearance of Leknaat), Night Rune, True Fire, True Water, True Earth, True Wind, True Lightning.

Suikoden IV

Rita, my favorite character in Suikoden IV & Tactics.

Suikoden IV takes place on a nice set of islands, a more tropical theme, and lot's and lot's of ship sailing! Half of the battles are at sea! The story revolves around the hero, who is named Lazlo in the official comics. Lazlo and his friends all live in the Island nations, but the Koluuk army is trying to invade the nations, and well, Lazlo and friends are not having none of that! The main antagonist, is the previous holder of the True Rune of Punishment. (Which now belongs to Lazlo).

Featured True Runes: Soul Eater, Rune of Punishment.

Suikoden Tactics

Kyril

Suikoden Tactics stars Kyril, a young man set out to destroy Rune cannons, which are objects of mass destruction that were used during Suikoden IV. (Like Suikoden II, you can recruit the hero from the last game, Lazlo, as a playable combatant in Suikoden Tactics.)

Featured True Runes: Rune of Punishment, Gate Rune.

Suikoden V

Josephine from Suikoden V

Suikoden V stars the Prince of the Queendom of Falena (Freyjadour). Unfortunately, his kingdom is taken over and he ends up having to fight the very country he was a part of.

The hero has feminine featuristics, so fans thought this game would be the first to have a female hero.

Frey

Featured True Runes: Sun rune, Gate Rune

Suikoden Tierkreis

Tierkreis is the first game to take place in another world, and is the first game to actually tap into the idea of alternate realities, as it was mentioned in a previous games.

The hero is by far the goofiest Suikoden hero, the hero (Sieg) and his friends are fighting against an enemy force of people who think that everything should be done one way, known as "The one true way". A being known as "One King" is going around destroying worlds, once a world is destroyed, fragments of it merge with their world. It's up to the hero and friends to stop the One King.. but he's not alone.. he's joined by heroes from other worlds that help him along the way.

The map of Tierkreis actually looks like it may be a parallel universe to a place in the original Suikoden world called, the Badlands.

Sieg

Suikoden Tsumugareshi

Suikoden Tsumugareshi takes place in another world yet again, but this world has a different problem. A difficult monster appears every 100 years causing mayhem, they have to go back in time and get help from their ancestors in order to help defeat it in the present time, and hopefully stop the monster for good.

The hero, recognized as Natasaka, embarks on a journey to discover the mysteries of this world.

Unlike the other games, there are only 18 playable characters, and a few temporary playable characters.
I have yet to play this game, since there are no translations, but it would be great to do some day!

Simone, from Suikoden II

My Opinion: The Suikoden series is my favorite series of all time. In a way, it's shaped me into the person I am today! II is my favorite for nostalgic reasons, but I like all Suikodens equally, except III, that is my least favorite. III was a bit too different from the first two games, and had a weird battle system not fit for a Suikoden game, and not the best graphics. But because it's a Suikoden game, I still love it.
Back in the old days, everyone loved 2, and hated 3 & 4, now everyone hates 2, and loves 3. It's so weird, but to me, 2 will always be a masterpiece, 3? Not as much.
4, most people disliked, but I think it's a great installment! Also really nice to just goof around in as well!
Suikoden Tierkreis on the other hand, I love the artwork, the music, characters...etc, but I could only beat it once because it would just bore me after a while.

I love this series! It has fun characters, a great story that connects the games together, great music per game.