Remember Suikoden, the first spark for JRPGs on PlayStation?

The main theme of Suikoden is playing. It takes me back to my youth, back to my then-best friend’s bedroom. A familiar smell fills my nose. It’s spring 1997. The sun is shining outside, but my friend and I are sitting inside in front of his tube TV. We’re playing Suikoden, our first JRPG on the original PlayStation. Yoshitaka Murayama’s game completely captivates us.

From handheld to console

Production for Suikoden begins in 1994. Konami is developing its own handheld at the time, and Suikoden inventor Yoshitaka Murayama is commissioned to develop an RPG for it. However, the plans are scrapped when Konami finds out about the PlayStation. Instead of hardware, the company wants to focus on games for the new console.

Since Murayama is now developing an RPG for a console and not a handheld, the team drops its original plans. The possibilities with the console are greater. They want to focus on the game world. Murayama only transfers the name of the main character’s best friend from the original project – Ted.

Murayama is a manga fan, especially of those with a large cast of characters. He wants the same for his game, a dramatic story with lots of characters. Everyone who plays the game should be able to identify with personalities in the group.

To make his idea palatable to Konami top brass, Murayama drew on Chinese book series Water Margin – Suikoden in Japanese. In the story, 108 bandits come together to oppose the government. Those in charge like the idea, and the 108 Stars of Destiny, as they’re called, find their way into the game. However, Suikoden isn’t intended to be a copy of Water Margin.

Murayama also draws inspiration from The Eternal Champion, a fantasy novel by Englishman Michael Moorcock. This mixes Western and Far Eastern fantasy elements in Suikoden.

The game is one of the first JRPGs for the console to make it to the West, triggering a wave of other genre entries. Murayama is also responsible for the second and third parts of the series. However, he leaves Konami before the release of part 3 to found his own company, Blue Moon. He doesn’t live to see the release of his latest work Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. According to his current company Rabbit and Bear Studios, Murayama died of a long-term illness on 6 February 2024.

Suikoden’s plot

Minor spoilers about the beginning of the game follow. If you still want to play it yourself, it’s best to skip this section.

You are Tir McDohl. Tir’s the default name, but you can also give your character a custom name. Tir is the son of Grand General Teo McDohl of the Scarlet Moon Empire. At game start, he embarks on a mission. Tir stays behind with employees Pahn, Cleo and Gremio as well as his best friend Ted. Tir also has a friendly relationship with the servants of the McDohl household.

Tir starts his own military career at the beginning of the game. In the absence of his father, he goes on his first missions with his friends. While doing so, he witnesses the corruption plaguing the Empire and Emperor himself. Events come to a head. Ted, who possesses one of the 27 True Runes – unique magic items – dies and leaves his Soul Eater rune to Tir. He has to flee as a result, the government is after the rune.

Tir joins the freedom fighters and soon takes over its leadership. In addition to the actual story, he has to recruit the 108 Stars of Destiny to grow his army, all with the goal of reforming the country.

Suikoden is aimed at a younger audience

The plot of Suikoden is relatively simple, perfect for me and my friend at the time. After all, the game was only released in English, a language we weren’t yet as proficient in as 14-year-olds. Even from today’s perspective, the simple plot isn’t too basic. It contains many good character subplots that add depth to the story. Even though most of the 108 characters aren’t given any major backstory, they aren’t flat. All of them have their own motivation, and the villains aren’t simply just pure evil. Murayama and his team manage to give characters nuance with just a few lines of text. Yes, lines of text. In 1997, voiced JRPGs were still a thing of the future and there was a lot to read.

Suikoden is aimed more at a younger audience. Nevertheless, the horrors of war, issues such as terrorism, chemical warfare, genocide, racism and patricide are also dealt with. But the whole thing is packaged in such a way that it’s easily digestible for young people. The story shows the world as it is, neither black nor white. If my son ever gets interested in JRPGs, I’d recommend Suikoden to him first.

A peculiarity in Suikoden is that the main character is mute. He never speaks. This is meant to encourage you, the player, to project your personality onto him. You can actually make decisions from time to time, not that there’s too many options. In order to progress, you must make decisions provided by the game. This false freedom of choice is common in JRPGs.

That hardly bothered my friend and me at the time. On the contrary, we thought it was cool that the main character didn’t say anything. And then there was his iconic look, the green scarf on his head and the staff. We identified with the young gentleman.

Many ways to fight

Suikoden is one of the easiest JRPGs I’ve ever played, exactly why it’s also suitable for beginners. Murayama wanted the game to be stress-free. This is best shown by the encounter rate, i.e. how often enemies appear. The rate decreases if the main character walks in one direction for a long time. So if you’re travelling to a certain location, the encounter rate decreases. However, if you want to level up and run back and forth, it goes up.

As levelling up all those characters is tedious, lower-level ones receive much more experience. If a new party member has 20 levels less than the main character, this difference is reduced to a few levels within five or six battles. This also encourages you to try out different party combinations.

One of the best options is to run away from fights. In many JRPGs, this is completely random. Only partly so in Suikoden. If your characters are at a similar level to your enemies, the command to escape is Run. In this case, whether you escape or not is a matter of chance. However, if the command is Let go, this means that your party is stronger than your foes. You’ll always be able to escape, or rather, let your enemies go.

As usual for JRPGs of the time, battles are turn-based. Your party consists of up to six characters standing in two rows of three. You can perform physical attacks or use magic and items. Unite attacks are a special feature: certain characters can attack together, doing more damage.

Characters are divided into short-, medium- and long-range attackers. If you place them in the wrong row, they can’t attack enemies. Short-range attackers, for example, only fight from the front row, so you shouldn’t just assemble your party using only them.

But the classic six-character turn-based battles aren’t the only option. Since Suikoden is a war story, there are mini-games in the form of battles. There, you fight with various units of the liberation army against imperial forces. In essence, battles follow the rock-paper-scissors principle. Charge beats Bow, Bow beats Magic and Magic beats Charge. However, depending on the characters you recruited, you have further options to secure strategic superiority. As an extra punch in the gut, characters can die for good in these battles. However, if you want to see the perfect ending to Suikoden, not only must all 108 characters be recruited, they must also survive. So battles have consequences.

In addition to these big encounters, there are also individual duels. These also follow the rock-paper-scissors principle. Attack beats Defend, Defend beats Desperate Attack and Desperate Attack beats Attack. You can figure out what your opponent’s next move will be by their pre-attack statements. From today’s perspective, the fights are simple. But as a kid, they were epic and made my heart rate skyrocket.

Annoying inventory, magnificent castle

As is typical for the genre, you can equip yourself, shop, upgrade weapons or do side quests. In contrast to the rest of the gameplay, however, item management is anything but accessible. Each character has their own inventory with nine slots. This also includes their equipment. If you run out of space, you have to laboriously shovel items back and forth between characters or leave them lying around. You can also temporarily store unused items in your headquarters. But be careful: important items should always be in the possession of your main character. If someone else has them and they leave the party for a certain period of time, the items will no longer be available to you.

The headquarters is one of the highlights of the game. When you first conquer the castle that serves as your base, it’s empty and run-down. Every time you recruit someone, it changes; the place comes to life. Stores and services spring up, and you can play mini-games. Fast-travel options or boat upgrades are also added with new characters. I still remember my friend and I going back to the base every time a new recruit arrived to see what had changed. Even if you never actively use all 108 characters in your party, they all have a purpose.

An ingenious, emotional soundtrack

Finally, I have to come back to the soundtrack, crafted by Mimi Higashino. A relative unknown, she’s made tracks for Gradius and Vandal Hearts, among others.

Higashino has a background in classical music, and you can hear that in the soundtrack. Nevertheless, it’s very diverse. Higashino wanted to use the music to emphasise the different cultures and races in the world of Suikoden, to great effect. I like every track in the game. They convey exactly the emotions the game seeks to evoke.

The main theme is particularly noteworthy. Its leitmotif changes from bold and courageous to soft and sentimental. It conveys so many emotions at once, emotions that return when I listen to the soundtrack again, even after years of playing it for the first time.

For me, the piece not only brings back memories of the game, but also of all the hours I spent with my friend back then. I cry as I listen to the main theme again for the first time while writing. My friend passed away five years ago. As a result, Suikoden is above all a reminder of him. I’m also looking forward to the remasters now, so that I can remember him and our time together while gaming.