Page 1: Genso Suikoden
Page 2: Genso Suikoden II
Page 3: Genso Suikoden III
Page 4: Genso Suikoden IV
Page 5: Suikoden Tactics
Page 6: Genso Suikoden V
Page 7: Suikoden Tierkreis
Page 8: Suikogaiden Volume 1, Volume 2 and Card Stories

Suikoden IV / Genso Suikoden IV - Playstation 2 (2005)

American Cover

Suikoden IV

Suikoden IV

Despite the fact that Yoshitaka Murayama left the series, Konami decided to make another installment. Many wondered how will this work out without its initial creator, so rather than directly continuing the story of Suikoden III, Konami decided to turn Suikoden IV into a prequel. The story is set one hundred and fifty years before the events of Suikoden I in the Island Nations . You play as Lazlo, a youth who happened to graduate from the marine academy in Razril along with several of his friends. While Lazlo and the others are running various tasks from the neighboring islands, the Kooluk Empire is planning an invasion to the Island Nations. If that wasn't enough, there are rumors that the Rune of Punishment that is circulating throughout the region. The Rune of Punishment is one of the 27 True Runes that governs atonement or forgiveness. Once it finds a host, it'll suck the life out of them until they perish. Once the host dies, it will choose find another host and the cycle starts over. Despite taking place long before any of the other games, Suikoden IV does involve one of the major characters from Suikoden I, and explains more of their backstory. Characters: Lazlo The main protagonist of this installment. He runs quite awkwardly if you make him run really fast. Snowe He's the son of the prominent Vincent Vingerhut. He's always the first in line of the leader role in the academy, though he lacks leadership skills. Brandeau An infamous pirate who yields the Rune of Punishment Lino En Kuldes He's the King of Obel, although he doesn't really look like one. Kika A pirate that roams around the seas along with her crew. Elenor Silverberg She takes the role of the strategist. Due to the circumstances during her time at the mainlands, she's a bit of a drunkard. Ramada He's a merchant that often makes trips to the Island Nations. He has an underlying motive beneath the merchant persona. Troy He's a military officer from the Kooluk empire. He bears the title "Child of the Sea God" due to the fact he made a valiant effort against the opposing military. Graham Cray He's another merchant from the Kooluk empire. He plans to invade the Island Nations to gain economic advantage. Suikoden IV introduces several new features, including voice acting. The character models are now a bit different and look more like human beings than the anime-style caricatures of Suikoden III. The artwork is provided by Junko Kawano, who has improved considerably since her work in the first game. The music is once again composed by Masahiko Kimura and Michiru Yamane, as well as Norikazu Miura, and its style is more in line with the PSOne games. Suikoden IV received mixed reactions from fans and critics alike. The starters, the number of recurring characters in this game is much smaller than Suikoden III. Since Suikoden IV leans more on the old-school feel, many feel that simplifying the formula is a step back compared to Suikoden III. Also, because of the nature of being a prequel, you can't import any data from the previous games. You can once again miss characters, but gaining all 108 Stars of Destiny will only trigger a slightly longer cutscene, as well as enabling extra goodies in the followup game, Suikoden Tactics. Another aggravating problem is that the layout of the world map is 95% water. With aggravatingly high encounter rates, it just becomes a gigantic test of patience. Remember, holding R1 will make your ship go slightly faster. The battle system looks and feels more like the PSOne games as well, although it only allows four people in combat at once. Triggering Unite attacks is also quite different. First, you need to select characters that are likely candidates for a unite attack. Then they must be present for battle approximately ten times. By doing so, they establish a good-will relationship, opening up their Unite attacks. The more you use these attacks, the stronger they get. Pieces of equipment now have enhancement bonuses if you collect a set. For example, if you have a complete set like the Ogre equipment, you'll gain a tremendous strength bonus. But in order to do so, you need to continuously trade items from various islands to get the best raw materials. As you trade items from the trade shop, you'll unlock better quality materials. From there, you can go to the tailor or the blacksmith to make you a set of equipment. The Duel battles still are still rock-paper-scissors style, but it's presented differently. Now all of the actions all have a cutscene animation as opposed to a simple turn-based attack animation. So, when you see the outcome of the battle, there's a lot of flashy movement, and the attacks are glorified quite a bit. Due to the voice acting, you can easily anticipate what the person will do next by just listening to the tone of their dialogue. The army battles are now changed into a gridline battle system with rock-paper-scissors elements. Fire beats Wind, Wind beats Earth, and so on. You go up against a fleet of ships and you have to predict which element will they fire from their cannons. If you get it right, you'll do double the damage against the opposing forces. With an unpolished storyline and simplified gameplay, you might think that this installment is a stinker. If you compare it to the other Suikoden games, that's probably the case. It's not a completely terrible game, it's just fairly mediocre. There's still some substantial character development, and the relationship between Lazlo and Snowe, much like Riou and Jowy, is one of the most interesting elements of the game. Also, there are moments where you can choose which characters to join up with you before you embark your journey. It's quite interesting to see some interactions among your peers in the academy. There is a lot of tedious traversing to point A to point B on the vast open wars waters, and the dungeons are pretty limited, but there's no significant aspects that rend it unplayable. Just don't expect an epic journey like the other games MP3s Download here A New Journey Battle Oh, Sparkling Sea! Oh, Sky!

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