SUIKODEN, “In search of the stars of destiny” (Retro Review) # 19

Hello to all my followers as always I bring you the best of the best this time, a game that will surely go running play I hope you like my day to day work that I do with much love and effort for you.

Suikoden is a video game of action, rpg by turns, in its humble beginnings was brought to light in the years 1995 by Konami, one of the giants of the games of the time and today, not only took very good references as soon as to its history, but taking its gameplay to a new level in terms of special abilities, is a video game that will take many hours to really spend it, since it is not only about finishing it and already it contains many secrets within easier than others and others almost unlikely to happen, however it should be noted that this is what gives the mystery and the magic touch that many rpgs lack, Suikoden does not have the same formula as many RPG'S which is the following " Hero + Heroine + Fights with bosses + end "but strings a few extra touches that give you what we always need when playing" Heroes + 108 extra heroes + construction of a castle + secrets + collection of runes + combinations of characters + bosses + secret endings "this means that not only can you play with a little more than 100 characters of the destination (this is what you call yourself), but you can collect runes and search for them all, which have their special characteristics, too combine skills with characters and finally build a great castle which will evolve the more characters you get in your story.

¿What is Suikoden about? It is quite simple the truth, it has its good beginnings you incarnate in the skin of a son of a famous general named Teo Macdohl, our hero does not have a specific name, it is you who will place it according to internet rumors called Tir the protagonist, in short, our somewhat older hero can finally join the royal guard of the palace, it is rather a group of people who work for the crown and therefore have to do everything they are told, Tir Macdohl wants to be like a of these people is accompanied by Pahn, Teo, Cleo and Gremio all friends or good friends of his father. The world of Suikoden is set in a very medieval era in which technology is almost zero but if there is much fantasy, magic is a giant itself, since almost everything here is magic, runes are actually symbols that lie in small rocks which, when they come in contact with your left hand or weapons are embedded, with much practice you can get a lot out of them by reaching the maximum potential.

If, because of certain events you are now strangely accused of treason while your father is not in the kingdom, scared and confused you realized that the whole empire was a lie, the empire is from its roots corrupted by the seed of evil and greed, is not the empire that you had been told since he was an infant but it is all chaos, everything is disguised and therefore has no solution or that is what you thought when you meet Flint the ray, Viktor and Odessa, leaders of a small revolution that is too small to be noticed but quite influential in small towns, that can never be compared to the empire which is almost invincible, with cavalry of dragons, dragon warriors, magicians of very high level, but an idea is born in you to believe that maybe it is possible to change things even though your character is very young, he understands what is happening.

At the end of the series the tragedies usually happen and that is what makes you look at things from another perspective when playing this game since it gives you a third person view of what is going on everywhere, that is why in Some time your character will become the definitive leader of this revolution that will be happening, although the blood of a general runs through your veins is quite complicated to carry everything and many times you will fall into depression but others will take the reins of the matter and form a huge army superior or similar to that of the Empire, Suikoden gives you this great juice mode in which you can fight not only in turns with your characters but in certain parts you can fight a war, although it is not the best way, it is one of the small systems that make you smile.

You will be a traitor to the empire but a leader of the liberation army there are many things you will do and you will be in charge of sabotaging your enemies' plans, fighting against powerful generals, recruiting stars of destiny or friends so to speak, you can also search for runes, search the best combinations of characters for the fight, also decorate your castle, polish new talents and liberate cities.

You will be able to recruit more than 108 stars of fate, I have talked a lot about this but ¿what are they really? Well, they are people destined to meet you, destined not only to accompany you on your journey through the world, but also to be people who will help you to achieve your goals, many of them are not very nice but they are faithful friends, they will fight at your side and make your dream come true. Liberate the Empire of Toran and turn it into a republic.

In the game each star of destiny has its specific rune, however it can change it, however there are some that are destined to possess their rune with their special power explicit, as well as our character which is destined to possess the rune. Souls "a powerful rune that eats your essence in itself, can create a small black hole which can make you disappear from this world, that's why it's called that, it's a pretty coveted rune that can not be transferred unless the user be willing, previously it was owned by Teo, who was almost immortal for being the possessor of it, but was transferred to Tir after his death.

Although our playable characters are 108, there are extra stars that have nothing to do with the story, that is, they are stars that are or are not meant to know you that depends on you, this is a small romance that has this game since these stars are Pretty hard to find and take your time, no character is useless in Suikoden many having history behind them and maybe they will help you get other people if you go with them to certain places.

The runes as mentioned above, are stones with strange glyphs which can be operated, there is an incredible amount of runes, some better than others.

After the events of Suikoden I we situate ourselves in Suikoden II, if we inquire into the story and the Republic of Toran is a fact, our character Tir of Suikoden I succeeded, everything became better, but ... we are no longer Tir, now we play in the skin of a new hero or rather 3 new heroes, we have 3 main characters however 2 of them share a very "Naruto / Sasuke" story our main protagonist is now called Riou and his best friend Jowy along with his sister Nami in a small town, both are adopted by a humble gentleman who was once a soldier, who trained them in martial arts, Nami with clean hand fighting and nunchakus, Riou with tonfas and Jowy although he is not adopted was trained in the art of cavalry and the sword (for being of an aristocratic family), although its main weapon is a long cane.

At the beginning the story focuses on Riou and Jowy more than anything, because when they go to the army in the "Highland Unicorn Youth Brigade" they discover a horrible truth that their kingdom hides, sacrifices young people for war, a war more than everything promotional and almost false being the same enemy the same kingdom, both are true rune bearers, the Rune of the shining Shield is of Riou it can be noticed that it is according to his personality since he wants to protect his friends being a shield for them, later it becomes much more than that, not only the shield is defense but also a great attack, then we have Jowy and his Rune of the Black Sword, also according to his personality, since he seeks the power to protect but in a different way.

The personalities of Both characters are very different, at the beginning of the juice have an incredible innocence, especially Riou however Jowy is somewhat cold but gentle, however everything changes as the story, both separate and both take very different paths to protect the kingdom of Highland, that is, one chooses the path of revolution and struggle while another chooses the path of betrayal to make a change, the psychology that exists in this type of games is something incredible since its history It is so well made that it simply absorbs you and leaves you wanting so much more.

Exactly playing with Riou you can learn about the evils of the kingdom and in this case you are absorbed by a revolution in which sooner or later you will be given the command, not only for being a born leader (although you do not know) but for the fact Riou is a character quite blessed to have been chosen by 2 different true runes, it is a very rare event to meet someone like that.

In short, you will be a child, but one who knows how to fight and very well, do not worry about the fact that you do not know about strategies or anything like that, since Suikoden II has the same star system as destiny, you will have Strategist and your good friends near you, you will also find many of the characters of Suikoden I at your disposal, as many of these left Toran to embark on a new journey, including You can find yourself! Yes, if by chance you load your data from Suikoden I to II then you will find yourself at the end of the juice with your created character which will be possible to recruit, apparently you did not stay in Toran and you left it to your friends over there this means that your character after cleaning the Empire disappeared and yes, they are looking for it.

This delivery is something more customizable and a little different from its predecessor, instead of a natural tower that you will form in a big castle, you will make a fort from almost nothing, until it becomes a central point of your army, being able to customize many more things also adding many services if you recruit certain people, the strong one will grow a lot and it will be extremely great to go through it, it is also possible that you lose a bit in it since it is quite big.

The change in your battle mode is quite remarkable, as it is very similar to shift tactics juices, where you will manage your units almost in real time or in turns depending on the scenario, each unit has its points of life, its attack and defense as also special skills, it is quite different from its predecessor but also an extra novelty that this delivery brings us.

Now yes, this game finally touches 3D! it's amazing the way he does it, in his output for Play Station 2, we can already see an incredible jump in the quality of the game, although a bit square some parts is worthy of a 3D Suikoden, yes, it does not lower the quality in in the least the story is still incredible the background of the same impeccable without anything to say, we still have the 108 stars of fate, a curious thing that these 36 heavenly heroes 72 earthly now is the brand of the franchise (A Chinese fable) This part takes us to the lands of Grassland, Highland and Toran are left in the past, but yes, you can incredibly load your data from 2 which also loaded the data of 1 in this installment, which will result in some special events and characters extra.

Tells us the story of the struggle of the knights of Zexen and the 6 clans ¿Tribal enough truth? Since the green lands are that, land full of grasslands and nomadic tribes that live in harmony, but never lacking the imperial enemy that wants seize everything, the lands of Harmonia continue to lurk in these plains because they would be a great achievement for their nation, under the point of view of the mercenary Geddoe, Captain Chris or the son of a clan leader, named Hugo, we will be participants of a quite complete political plot in which we will negotiate treatises, strategy and turns of events worthy of the most stimulating of the intrigue films.Although we do not hate the typical classic story of the bad man saves the world and stays with the girl, we thank konami for bringing us this beautiful installment that dictates a good deep argument for a change, all of which has as its background the search for one of the old heroes, the Flame Champion, gnaws at the people and possessor of a True Runa that gives great power and immortality, you can enjoy some beautiful cut scenes as an extra.

There will be a castle, it is incredibly big and huge where you can get a lot of services and mini-games, Without a doubt, Suikoden III prefers to show things before telling them and the plot is the strong point of the game, although there is no need to have played the previous installments to get all the juice to this third part; a plot that, yes, will get us to remember the events and have been in the game even if our Playstation 2 has been off for some time.

We will not go through the map the way we did before, now it is much more direct and will load the stages in another way, although it is not so "Open World" gives you an excellent way of seeing the world changing its mode of game, and the pixelated battles are a thing of the past giving way to the beautiful attack animations and incredible effects of the runes, which you will be amazed to observe, the combinations of runes are similar to those of their predecessor but better stylized and better made , not only does the combat become more real, there being the possibility of interrupting the characters that are using magic, since it now uses a waiting system to be able to use it. Regarding the battles with the army, it is very similar to its predecessor, but much more elaborate.

To conclude, suikoden has history and a lot, being the same not only a great exponent of this genre "Rpg" but with its evolution from humble beginnings in psx to ps2 can even be a rival of other games such as Final Fantasy or Fire Emblem, reaching a perfect score is one of the few games that has and deserves to be played, the simple and easy plot to be a participant as well as its beautiful battle system make it almost only worse at the same time more of the bunch, this is why it is one of my favorite games, if you want to know much more about this story it is highly recommended to play it since its inception, 10/10 is your final rating from your 2d to your 3d there is nothing wrong with it I can say, only that you will enjoy many hours of play.