LogFAQs > #901181306

ParanoidObsessive posted...

The first one is great, the second one is better, and the fifth one is almost as good as the second. The third is a bit hit or miss, and the fourth is terrible.

The real problem is, when you're talking about 20+ yeard old JRPGs, they can be a bit rough for newer players to get into, because both the more primitive graphics and the more archaic game mechanics can feel clunky as fuck to people who are more used to playing modern games. Especially since they won't have the nostalgia buffer that people who loved the games from back in the day still have.

So I can understand why younger gamers might not be wowed by them if they play them for the first time now, but at the time they came out (and for a while after) they were phenomenal. Easily better than the Final Fantasy games that were coming out contemporaneously.

The 4th is a bad Suikoden game, but still an average RPG. Worst of the 5 easily, though.

As far as old RPGs being "rough," I think Suikoden ages quite well in that regard. One thing I love about the game is how anti-grind oriented it is. Characters level up every 1000 xp, and get more/less xp if the enemy is higher/lower level than them, so plop a level 1 character in the back row of your level 40 party and go to the newest area, the level 1 guy will be level 30+ within like 3 random encounters.
And while combat is turn-based, there's always been an Auto option, and once the party is significantly higher level than the monsters (probably 5 or so levels above, based on my experiences), "Run" turns into "Let Go" where you have automatic success of escaping the combat (more accurately, letting the monsters flee). Not to mention combats load almost instantly (I despised FF7's long battle loading waits), and you input everything at once, so if an enemy will drop from the first guy's attack, 2nd guy will automatically target someone else instead and both attacks will occur simultaneously.

I seriously can't stand when games don't value my time and waste it. Suikoden always felt like it was doing its best to streamline stuff, and I love it for that.