My January 2016 Anime PT 2

One Punch Man

One Punch Man, is about a man named Saitama. Saitama can defeat anyone with one punch, he is invincible! What is his secret?! Well, he does push ups, and sit ups, the usual!! He doesn't know why or how he is strong, but he's pretty bored since everyone he meets is defeated with one punch!

My Thoughts: I thought One Punch Man was a good parody anime that had a good amount of action and comedy, it was exactly what I was looking for, after watching a few anime about everyone dying *cough* Akame ga Kill and Danganronpa  *cough*.

Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate

The anime is about a club that is in danger of closing down. The students apart of this imaginative club, will do what it takes to keep it from closing down!

My Thoughts: So far I've only seen one episode, I like it so far. I like that they have a gay character in it! 

Cuticle Tantei Inaba 

Is about Inaba, a lone wolf type who can find out information by examining or tasting someone's hair.

With his allies, he is out to capture a goat crime boss!

My Thoughts: I didn't think Cuticle Tantei Inaba would be so bizarre, and silly! It's really funny though, it's kind of like Bobobo, because of it's randomness.

Shinrei Tantei Yakumo 

Yakumo has the special ability to communicate with the dead, he uses these powers to help bring criminals to justice! 

My Thoughts: Detective Yakumo is a very entertaining anime to watch, I wanted to watch episode after episode after the first!

Arslan Senki

Arslan Senki, is about a young prince named Arslan. Arslan is set out to go on the battlefield in a war, and during the battle, his army is defeated due to a trap, Arslan had to flee with his bodyguard.

The opposing army takes over Arslan's home capital, it is up to Arslan to recruit new allies to help retrieve his kingdom!

My thoughts: This anime has a Yona of the Dawn, and Suikoden vibe to it.

It's a really good anime and the more I watch it, the more it reminds me of the Suikoden games.

Cool IOS & Android games? Part 2

Here is part two of IOS & Android games that I have found interesting!
This is a part of a series.
Cool IOS Games Part... 
• Part 1 • Part 2 •

Unrelated drawing by me.

Dawn of Magic - Is an old school RPG type with some new elements that haven't really been used before, it's a nice game, although I haven't really played it recently. It has a dating sim component in it, which has turned me off to it. You have the option of the male hero dating one of the three female characters in the game, one which is a maid, and I don't understand why she can't wear normal clothes. (Nevermind, I know why. Straight men are horny, and are not considerate of people who aren't into girls.)
It has an interesting battle system, but it'd be nice if the hero could date a guy!
My Rating: C+

Dungeon Link - A very interesting game, in battles, you link characters to designated spots on the map. If you pass through an enemy, it will attack them with their abilities. If say, a healer character passes through an ally, it can also heal them. There's plenty of characters to collect, and it has a unique gameplay system.
The only problem with the game, is that it crashes frequently, and can be frustrating!
(As I re-edit this post in 2019, I don't remember that much about it. But I know I LOVED this game!!)
My Rating: A-

Long Story - Is a cute visual novel based game, it's about the main character (Who you name, and the hero is genderless, so they are whichever gender you want them to be) Who goes to a new school and has to deal with their school life, you also have the option of romancing one of a few characters, two guys, two girls, no one or the man in the chicken suit! XD
It's not finished yet, but the first chapter was fun to play.
My Rating: B+


Monster Strike - Is a cute game with a pinball kind of battle style to it, you summon monsters to help fight your enemies. Like many of the summoner games, you summon characters to aid you. When in a battle, the characters change into a sphere like motion and you use your finger to direct where they get fling to hit other enemies.
Many characters are named after incredibly obvious things, puns, popular names and historical figures, which gives it's own flair to the game. You have Masamune, a female samurai, a bull named Krewl, a character named Shiva, and to a ice-ball monster named BRR (Very clever, we all see what you did there).
Although I think it's weird that even the human characters are considered monsters, it's still an incredibly fun game with a catchy main theme that you will either love or go insane over (Which I recently realized, the boss battle is a variation of this theme).
The characters all have speaking roles when using their special attacks as well, so you may enjoy that aspect, or not.
My Rating: A


Mystery Room - Fans of  Professor Layton will love Mystery Room, it stars a Detective and Detective in training, they go around solving mysteries. The first three cases are free, but if you like the game you can purchase the other stories to solve.
My Rating: N/A

Shards Of Magic - Is, in my opinion, the mobile version of the Suikoden series. Shards of Magic has an unlockable 6 character party system, a variety of characters with different abilities. It has sassy characters, and even a rune system that the party can use as a whole. (I believe 4 runes can be used at a time in battle)
It's such a fun game, and feels like a real RPG for the mobile.
My Rating: A+

Spellfall - Is a medieval match it game with a twist; you aren't matching the same symbols for no reason, you're actually in battle and you have to match one of five elemental signs to use a spell against an enemy.
The game is really fun and really interesting, there is Fire, Water, Earth, Lightning and Cold (Which I thought was wind for a while.. for some reasons games leave out wind.. it's like Wind is a real element in a couple of cultures... not "Cold".. that's not a thing... and if anything it's water.)
When you match three of an element up, a small elemental spell is used. You have a certain amount of turns to use before the monster you're fighting attacks you.... The more you're able to match the more powerful and there are also certain things that appear that can increase damage; for example, elements that are glowing will allow you to use a powerful spell against the enemy. Sometimes an element sign appears with arrows, those will turn all symbols in the row that element and will cast a powerful attack.
 The downside with Spellfall is that the game goes from zero to ten thousand in a minute, monsters become really strong and everything gets expensive.. and the only way to win is to use real money to pay for them.....
My Rating: B+

Terra Battle - An IOS game by SquareEnix, it's a tactical card type of game with many rpg elements and lot's of characters to recruit. I haven't played much of the game, but it's very interesting and has lot's of cool characters to recruit! My problem is that I don't know how to play it that well yet.. I didn't understand how to play it that well... XD
My Rating: N/A

Warriors - A very popular ISO game, it's a cool game with a different kind of battle system that is more like a music game where you hit the button at a certain time.. You hit the button on the red line for a powerful blow and the further away it is, the less powerful it is, using a special ability has a similar function.
There are plenty of characters to summon, but it takes a while (If you're a Free to play person) to get more characters. Each character has an element, Fire, Water, Wind and Earth. (This is about the only IOS game that got the elements right lol), each character is weak to a certain element. All of the characters are based off of actual people that were great warriors in history, such as Vlaad the impaler (You know, the guy who Dracula is based off of.). I just hope they have Fu Hao, she's awesome! I totally did an art project on her once!
My Rating: B-

RPG Series you must play! Chrono Trigger/Cross

The Chrono series has two games, and one text based visual novel.
Chrono Trigger, was the first game that came out in 1993. Radical Dreamers: The Unstealable Jewel, was the visual novel that only came out in Japan. Last but not least is Chrono Cross, which came out in 1999, and is personally my favorite, but also my introduction into the series.

If the animation looks familiar, the same creator of Dragon Ball did the animation, and character art for Chrono Trigger!

Characters: 

Crono:

The main character, and silent protagonist. He wields a sword, and has an affinity for lightning/holy magic.
Lucca: A mad scientist, and one of Crono's best friends. She uses a gun/mallet as her weapon, and uses fire magic. She's the engineer of the group, and sometimes can help with mechanical issues that may arise.

Robo: A giant robot, whom Lucca takes a fascination from. Due to being a robot, robo has no magic abilities.
Marle: A princess, whos weapon is a crossbow, and is good with water magic.
Frog: Previously a knight, who was turned into a frog. His real name is Glenn, and they introduce a Glenn in the second game as somewhat of a nod to Frog. Like Marle, he also uses water magic.

Ayla: A cavewoman from 65,000,000 BC, we meet her mother in Chrono Cross. Due to being born before magic was found, she has no magic capabilities.
Secret Character: Is the 7th, and final character to join the party. He starts off as a villain, who later joins Crono and his team. His weapon is a scythe, and he uses dark magic.

Story:
The game starts with the hero Crono meeting up with his friend Lucca, at a festival in a nearby town. Upon arrival, he bumps into a mysterious blonde girl named Marle. The two tour the town, until they find Lucca, and her new invention, a teleportation machine! Marle decides to give the machine a try, and instead of teleporting to another teleporting pod, she disappears without a trace! Marle was wearing an amulet, that when it was used in the pod, it instead sent her to a different time period.
The pendant stayed in their time, in which Crono goes after Marle! Lucca later joins up.
Crono, Marle and Lucca find themselves in 600 AD, medieval times. (Crono and the gang are from 1000 AD.)


Pierre from Chrono Cross

Battles: 
Unlike many RPGs, including it's sequel, Chrono Cross. Battles in Chrono Trigger appear on screen, in real time. 

Characters are also able to do combo attacks with other characters, Lucca for example, can turn Crono's sword into fire, and deal a fire attack on enemies in the surrounding area.

Magic:
They eventually meet Frog in this era of the past, and find out about magic. Each character has a specific affinity to a certain element, and can use spells based on that element. Crono is Light and can use Light and lightning based spells, Lucca is Fire, Marle is Ice, Frog is Water, Magus is Shadow and Robo and Ayla cannot use magic due to Robo being a robot, and Ayla was born before the times of magic. Robo does have attacks that are Shadow, Fire and Lightning based.  Based on Ayla's attacks, if she were a magical being, she would probably have Earth. As one of her attacks is "Boulder Toss". Earth magic does not exist in Chrono Trigger, but it does in Chrono Cross. In fact, Ayla's mother appears in Cross, and her element is yellow. Which is lightning/earth.
Magic varies between games. In Chrono Trigger, characters can use real magic they obtain as they level up. While in Chrono Cross, the characters use a fake magic, that can be purchased at shops.

There's a little bit of an error, as one of the covers for Chrono Trigger shows Marle using fire magic, when she cannot actually use fire, only Lucca can.

Bio:
Crono, and his friends go on a journey through time, they find out that there is an alien being known as Lavos. Lavos has been in their world since the very beginning, around Ayla's time period. Lavos is sucking the life force out of the planet, and on 1999 the planet will die out, and cause the world to go to waste. Crono and his friends get to go into the future, to see what happens to the world. Crono, and friends decide to stop Lavos, and save the world.

My favorite time period is when Crono and the gang go to 65,000,000,000 BC. It's mostly a volcanic island, with some really nice music, and scenery!

Radical Dreamers

Radical Dreamers is a text based game created three years after Chrono Trigger, and was never released in English. 

It stars Serge, Kid, and Magil, who are after the ancient artifact known as the Frozen Flame, which is a fragment of Lavos.

Chrono Cross is largely based off of Radical Dreamers, Serge and Kid are main characters, while the main enemy Lynx, is also the enemy in Cross as well. Magil, is not in Cross, however, the character Guile is possibly based off of him.

Many of the songs in Radical Dreamers are re-used in Chrono Cross.

Bio:

Chrono Cross takes place 20 years after the events of Chrono Trigger, it stars Serge a 17 year old boy from the village of Arni. On his way to Opassa beach, he gets teleported to another dimension. In this world, he died ten years ago, when he was 7. He bumps into a strange girl named Kid, who is off to Viper Manor to go and steal a magical item known as the Frozen Flame! Kid is chasing after an anthropomorphic panther man named Lynx, who is also after the Frozen Flame. Serge decides to accompany her, in search of the Frozen Flame. 

The beginning of the game entails a dream that Serge has, it involves Serge, Kid, and randomly one of the other 45 playable characters. Going to Fort Dragonia, to defeat Lynx. This is a really interesting feature, as you get to see all of the colorful characters that are in the game, right from the beginning.



Harleequin (Harle for short), a leading character in Chrono Cross.

 There are a total of 45 playable characters in the game, not all can be recruited in one sitting. Some can only join if certain needs are met.
There are three separate characters to recruit, on your way to a place called Viper Manor. Once you recruit one, you can't get the other two, unless you start a new save!
The same can be said for a storyline later on, when trying to save a character. If you find a way to save them, three specific characters can join, and if you don't try to save them, three others will join you instead.
If you've completed the game, and have saves with all the characters, there is a way in the end of the game to automatically have all 45 characters!

The funny thing is that there were supposed to be more than 60 characters, as well as a "journey to the west" scenario. Unfortunately this was scrapped, but you can find out about it by searching up unused characters in Chrono Cross, if you're interested!

Battle:

Despite the fact that the game has 45 playable characters, Chrono Cross sticks with Chrono Trigger's 3 character party.

Battles are different from Trigger, as the battles are not time based, and the screen fades to enter a new "Battle" area, like in most rpg's.. 

The interesting thing about Cross is that every character has 3 levels of regular attacks.

The higher the level, the stronger, while the lower is weaker. Level 1 is the weakest while level three is the strongest, but the higher the attack the easier for enemies to dodge! So, you have a better chance of hitting an enemy with a level 1 attack, than a level 3 attack.

Each level of attack has a different animation too, which is really interesting. On level 1, Serge will stab an opponent with his weapon, while a level three attack he does a spin slash attack and each level has two animations. The interesting thing with levels is that some characters can actually attack all enemies with their level 3 attack, but it has a better chance of missing. Characters with Boomerangs, and magic staffs can attack all enemies with their level 3 attack, this only includes 5 characters in total, with there being 3 staff users and 2 boomerang users. Staff users actually shoot magic orbs at enemies on their 3rd level, while boomerang users do a strong throw to hit all enemies.

The amount of normal attacks you can do is based on the characters stamina points, usually you can only use the third level attack twice and maybe one 1 level attack per round. Weaker attacks use less stamina, while stronger attacks use more stamina, so you could do many more level 1 attacks than level 3 in one turn.

The level attacks also allow the character to use magic, if the character uses a level 1 attack, they unlock their level 1 magic spells, while level 3 would unlock level three spells, and if they do a level three attack again, it would unlock level 6 spells. 

Skelly from Chrono Cross

Magic: Elements

Unlike Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross has a different set of magic. Elements are purchasable items that allow characters to use a magic spell once per battle. If a character has one fireball spell equipped, they can use it once. If they equip 3 of them, they can use it up to three times. Elements recharge after battle, which is a nice battle mechanic that hasn't been used in a game before.

Chrono Trigger is the opposite, where a character has a natural ability to use magic, which used magic power, instead of recharging after battle.

Elements allow for the player to choose who can use what kind of spell, which I think is also better, since I hate it when characters can only use certain set spells (like Chrono Trigger). I like it when you can give whatever you want to a character, be it magic, or weapons. While most elements are items you can buy at shops, some are consumable, and rare ones are usually only found while treasure hunting. 

There are 6 elemental affinities in Chrono Cross, White, Black, Red, Blue, Green and Yellow. White is Light magic, Black is Dark, Red is Fire, Blue is Water, Green is Wind and Poison, and Yellow is Earth and Lightning.

Each character has an elemental affinity, Serge is White, while Kid is Red. Certain elements can be more powerful against others, and characters who have that affinity, will have more stronger attacks with those spells. A Red element spell would be more powerful when Kid uses it, rather than when Serge uses it.

Each element has an opposite, and when the opposite element is used, it damages the character more than it would another element.

Red innate characters are weaker to blue innate spells than a green innate character would be, while blue innate characters are weaker to red innate spells.

Red < >  Blue

Yellow < > Green

White < > Black

Each character gets 3 special elements that are attributed to their personality, and fighting style, they get more as bosses are defeated. Everyone gets their first two special attack elements at the same boss battles, but some characters you have to do something in particular to get their last attack. For example, the character Poshul must speak to the character Leena, in Serge's original world, in order to get her final element called Unleashed.

Some elements can also only be used by characters with that elemental affinity, a blue innate character can't use special elements that can only be used by fire innates, those elements all have stars next to them and usually have certain circumstances to obtain and use. Really powerful elements such as "Frog Prince", which only blue innates can use, must actually be captured with an element that traps other powerful elements.

Elements are equipped to an element grid on the character, the grids have levels. There are 8 levels, each characters first special element attack is on the third level of the grid, their second special attack is on 5 and their third special element attack is on the 7th level. Every character's element grid is different, their element slots all appear at different times.

In order to attach elements to characters, they have an element grid. There is a certain amount of slots that characters can unlock, and the grid also has levels. Level 1 slot on the grid, is the weakest, while level 8 is the strongest. Elements themselves do better, average or worse when on certain levels. A fireball Element is a level 1 spell, and will do good on any level, but if it's put on a level higher than level one, the power of it increases and it becomes Fireball +1, +2, +3 etc.. 

Some Elements can't even be equipped to lower levels on the grids, while others can also suffer if they are put on a lower class, a negative sign will appear and the spell will be weaker than normal.

Elements also replace use-able items, instead of having a potion in the party bag, you equip items like "Tablet" to a characters element grid in order for the character to use the item. (Tablets, Capsule, and Nostrum, are all consumable elements.)

Elements are more complicated than normal magic in Chrono Trigger, but they're much more customizable. You can give any character almost whatever element you want to give them.

Mojo, a living VooDoo Doll.

Characters - Chrono Cross has a total of 45 playable characters! From talking dogs, to skeleton clowns, Voodoo Dolls that spread love, Dancers and Artists with boomerangs! Chrono Cross has a creative cast of playable characters that join Serge on his adventure to uncover the secrets of the world, and it's two alternate realities!

My two favorite characters are Poshul, a talking pink dog, and Van, a painter whose weapon is a boomerang.

Poshul

Van

Visuals

The imagery in Chrono Cross is just as amazing as Chrono Trigger, and maybe even better.

The creators made a blend of 2D sprites and 3D and they did it right, the backgrounds to places are just stunning! I definitely recommend checking out some of the official artwork!

65,000,000 BC (Chrono Trigger)

Opassa Beach (Chrono Cross)

The world Map, is smaller than most games. But you are traveling through two dimensions where the same place will have different settings, there are about 4 towns in total, double it and you have 8 places where you can buy stuff.
Towns being Arni, Serge's home place, Guldove, Termina and Marbule, the town of demi humans. The other places are dungeons, and tropical get-a-ways.

When I was little, I was always so disappointed that you never get to go to this little island that is south from Arni village. I always thought you would get the fairy character Razzly there, I thought you'd find her in the woods or something. I also thought something similar for another place "Fossil Valley", where you meet the character Skelly, for the first time. For some reason, I thought there was a separate path behind Skelly, to go to another town. I don't know why I thought this, but I kind of wish it existed!

So that is my detailed review on the Chrono series, I've played both Trigger and Cross and they're both great games! Although, it may be obvious that I prefer Cross. It was my first game out of the series, and I just loved everything about it. Suikoden was my first RPG, and to me Chrono Cross had many similarities, and I think that's a big reason why I loved Cross so much.

Did you know?

Magus from Chrono Trigger, Magil from Radical Dreamers, and Guile from Chrono Cross. Were all supposed to be the same character in disguise! Guile, is in fact not Magus.

Why I dislike popular things

Something I've noticed is, I usually don't like popular things. Call me a hipster all you like, but I just don't find interest in many popular games, or shows. I also don't think it's cool how popular media steals so much of the spotlight (But I guess at the same time, if something else took it's place it would be popular instead).
People's favorite anime tend to be the really popular anime like Death Note, or Sword Art Online, and stores will milk these franchises to the bone. People will talk about it non-stop. That's alright to sell merchandise, and love a particular form of media, but I just find that the non-popular video games, anime and other media tend to actually be 10 times better than the most popular entertainment franchises.
The annoying thing is, I can get merchandise of stuff I don't like, up the wazoo. But anything I do like, there's almost nothing for. You can have tons of Super Mario items, but not a single Kya Dark Lineage item, for example. There are fans for everything, but fans of certain things get gypped because they like something that is not popular enough to merit some cool merchandise for the fans! The sad thing, is that with unpopular shows or games, you don't always get cool merchandise for that show or game.
 On the other hand, there are popular forms that I do like, for example, I find that Madoka Magica was a very well written anime with a plot twist in every episode. But I find that the best programs and games are the ones that aren't as well known, such as Shangri-La , Hatenkou Yuugi, Suikoden or Kya Dark Lineage for example are all amazing anime, or games, that no one knows about!

Meanwhile, there are other things that are milked like no tomorrow, and come out with the same boring story, and characters. They're the most popular thing in the world, and I have no idea why! (My example is Final Fantasy VII, I hated Final Fantasy 7, I thought it was the most boring game ever, but everyone and their mother loves it!)

This also includes anime, especially anime with many episodes such as Bleach or One Piece get milked with over 1000 episodes. The shows I'd love to see just a second season for, will never see the light of day again!
It's funny, because I remember someone once saying that the anime with lot's of episodes are "bad", and the anime with a small amount of episodes are "good". It's reverse for places such as America, where shows with a short amount of episodes are "Bad" and the shows with lot's of episodes are "Good". A sneak peak at cultural differences.

"Originally, I had posted an image of Cloud, from Final Fantasy VII, saying "I'm not a WHORE! Cuz whores get paid n stuff!" (I don't know who made it, nor do I have permission to post it, so I took it down)

I also hate it when people are like 

"OMG THIS IS LIEK THE BEST GAEM EVAR!! IF U DNT LIKE IT, YOU HAVE NO SOUL, K!LL URSELF!"

to a popular game....

My instance this time, is Legend of Zelda. I played I think LOZ Seasons for the gameboy, once a long time ago and I didn't care for it. I am interested in getting into the series however, but there was something that bothered me once. Someone said that they "hate it when a hardcore gamer has never played Legend of Zelda before." I am a hardcore gamer, and I mostly play RPG's. I also only grew up with Playstation games, so I find this statement to be just flat out rude, and kind of ignorant. People like what they like, and there is also the fact that sometimes you don't have money for certain things. But that is like if I said the same statement about the Suikoden series, it's my favorite series and in my opinion the best game/s of all time. But I wouldn't say something as rude as the above quote, not everyone is going to like something, or be interested in it, and all because you like something doesn't mean other people have to play it.

 It is just not cool when people push their opinions as a fact.

(Side Note: I got to play Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, in 2018. It's by far, an amazing game. So yeah..)

Another thing that really bugs me is, all of the tv shows that I like get canceled! Shows that I really enjoyed shows such as Happy endings, and Pushing Daisies, I also liked Sean Saves the World...
Two other shows, Mystery Girls and the Mysteries of Laura, I like, but everyone seems to hate them!
The reason why I don't really watch television anymore, is because most of the shows I liked get canceled! It's like, why even bother investing time in them then?!

This ESPECIALLY applies to characters as well! There are plenty of characters that I absolutely LOVE! But everyone hates! Examples are Quina from Final Fantasy IX, Orihime from Bleach and
As much as I love these characters from popular franchises, they are very hated within the community. Orihime is actually on Anime-Planet's top 10 hated characters! (As of 2019, she is 16th on the list)

Quina

I know I must have been a little ironic, and contradictory, but what I was trying to get to is, I just feel like popular shows and games aren't always what they are cracked up to be. While other times they are popular for a really good reason! But I also find myself usually enjoying media that is not well known, and I think people should invest more time and effort in the things that aren't as known.
It also bothers me to see everyone talk about all of the popular things, and never the shows or games that aren't as popular. I have a friend who has mostly only seen anime that is popular, and I am helping her by recommending anime that aren't well known that I have seen.
I notice on anime sites all anyone can ever talk about is popular anime.. but it's just like, where is all of the talk for other anime?!

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.