Suikoden IV - Does it Really Deserve All the Hate?

suikoden and suikoden 2 were both rpgs that flew under the radar on the playstation but both became cult classics that are widely appreciated now suikoden 3 represented the franchise's entry into the 64-bit era but it did throw a few curveballs into the series especially through the various combat changes and by presenting the story through the eyes of multiple characters sweekenden 4 which was released about two years later seemed to bring the series back to its roots to some extent suicide 4 ties in with the cannon established by the franchise and takes place 150 years before the events of the first weekend game it's the first entry in the series to be produced after the departure of franchise creator yoshitaka moriyama from konami beyond that there were other notable changes including the introduction of voice acting for the first time and i would actually say the voice acting quality is pretty good overall there's a few spots that are a little oddly adapted but it's really not as bad as some of the other voice acted games from this era not all the text is voice acted either but the major storyline dialogue is unlike suicode in three suicide iv returns to a single narrative that plays out through the eyes of a single protagonist this move isolated suicide in iii from the other titles and went back to a more simplified approach as far as i see it this was a good decision since the player isn't just balanced between many different groups of characters you're able to watch them grow in a unified narrative also in an area that will be very familiar to suikoden 1 and 2 fans the main protagonist is silent though you do get to select from various dialogue options throughout the game that dictates how certain things play out and speaking of the protagonist you play as rasro who is training to become a knight of gaian a dukedom on an island in the kuknazi sea during his training the gaian knights become involved in a conflict with a group of pirates in the process the commander of the gaian force obtains the rune of punishment one of the 27 true runes and the story takes off from there much of it consists of razro's attempt to clear his name against the wrongful accusations against him and to unite islanders against the ruthless kuluk empire thematically it fits perfectly into sweykoden's universe which always focused on the history of the runes and their power to create both chaos and peace one great thing about suicide in four is that the title throws you into all three modes of gameplay right away in the introduction first the ship battle so we can enforce version of the strategic battles involving your entire fleet of ships and crew second is normal combat the most common battles that play out throughout the game and lastly the duels one-on-one combat that also plays a memorable role in all other suicide and titles the traditional combat is a bit different from all three of the previous suicide games it's still turn based but your party can only support up to four characters instead of the traditional six however it does do away with sweeken and three's major combat innovations both the buddy system and characters moving across the screen are gone the roon system remains intact with a series of tiers that grant runeholders a limited number of special abilities and where number of casts available decreases the higher the tier as far as the one-on-one duels go you can choose to attack defend or unleash your special attack against your opponent and the resulting damage depends on the opponent's choice stripped down it's really just a visually enhanced paper rock scissors game but i think those that criticize this fact fail to understand why these duels were so fun to the player in the first place rather than the aspect of chance the player's excitement was driven much more by the successful interpretation of the enemy's comments and using them to counter it some of your adversary's remarks made it easy to interpret their next action but others are trickier to understand this balance is what creates the challenge and sense of accomplishment when you manage to respond correctly suicide 4 did offer a few major innovations that made it stand out from the other titles in the franchise the first is that the game is very c-oriented most the story takes place on various islands and on the high seas which certainly was a departure in addition your new fortress to house the 108 stars of destiny is appropriately a ship that grows to span multiple decks my only complaint about this approach is that the ship itself moves extremely slow so going from place to place is really cumbersome you do eventually get the ability to teleport to existing locations but this method is still required for new locations and it's a real drag the other way suikoden4 revolutionized the franchise was through the ship battles i mentioned earlier fans of the series know that the previous weekend games featured some form of strategic battle but they evolved over the course of each successive game this time they're probably more distinct than ever seen before the ship battle encounters take place on a grid-oriented system like suicide in 2 but there's a few more complexities ships can be customized by assigning different captains to them and filling them with crews ships use elemental based rune cannons and the key to winning is to use the appropriate element to negate your opponents in my mind the graphics in sweekenden 4 are really solid for this era especially for rpgs character polygons and the actual environments are much more realistic and i think the animations in battle sequences look a lot better than fans would have expected compared to suikoden 3 i think you'll be pretty impressed it doesn't look as great as say final fantasy 10 or final fantasy 12 but the sweekening games were never known for their spectacular graphics if you're like me and think that suicide 3 jumped the shark a bit by introducing 3d graphics i think you'll be more satisfied with suicide in four for improving a lot in this area suikoden and suikoden 2 composer miki higashino left konami even before suicide 3 came out but some of her music from the first few titles was rearranged and placed on the soundtrack for sweekit and 4. i don't think the soundtrack style differs too much from its immediate predecessor and you can pick up influences from the previous games in the series two of the three composers from suicide and three created this score as well and i'd say it's very similar to what fans got in suikoden 3. at 67 total tracks it also offers a lot of variety that won't bore you to death with the same tunes repeating over and over in polls i've done personally for the channel and also those i found on the internet suicide 4 is usually ranked as the worst game in the series even so i'm going to go on record saying it doesn't deserve the hate it gets and i think it's at least better than suicide in three i think the story is really memorable and the narrative is presented in a logical way the sea and island settings are very unlike the other games in the series but the underlying themes are unmistakably sweeken the game isn't without its flaws though i don't think the story or soundtrack is quite as strong as some of the other games in the franchise and there's random encounters in towns which seems out of place and is really frustrating some of the load times are longer than i expected and the characters aren't as lovable however there are some great tie-in characters from the other games in this series including vicky gene and even ted holder of the legendary soul eater rune now that's about as good of a nod to the hardcore suicide fans as i can imagine in conclusion suicide 4 is definitely worth playing and may even rank in my personal top 10 rpgs on the playstation 2. it doesn't deserve all the negativity it gets and is worthy of this we couldn't name so do you agree with me on this in the comments below let me know where you think sweet code and 4 ranks in terms of the series is this one of the best worst somewhere in between i want to hear from you make sure to like subscribe and click the bell below for more retro gaming content and please join my discord community linked in the description please consider supporting my channel via youtube's join feature to receive member bonuses such as advanced videos and complete video transcripts you

Channel: Xygor Gaming

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Id: nJHNVOq32EI

Length: 8min 52sec (532 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 23 2022