When we talk about the first PlayStation, few franchises are as fondly remembered as Suikoden. Sure, after the initial two entries it sorta fell in a ditch thanks to frankly unhappy attempts at recapturing the magic, so much so that there hasn’t been any movement in regards to the series past a number of spiritual successors. Now, with fan unfavorite Konami’s resurgence as both a developer and publisher, we’re getting to enjoy both Suikoden I and Suikoden II in glorious HD via the extremely aptly named (start your stopwatches!) Suikoden I & II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification.
Save for its unnecessarily long name, this is a pretty straightforward repackaging of the original games, complete with some graphical additions, practically no load times, and… well, not much else. Compared to other similar releases for other classic franchises, the Suikoden one feels relatively barebones features-wise, which is a shame, because some of them would’ve gone a long way into making this one of the best out of the bunch for its content alone.
Any compilation worth its salt these days includes the most basic of features such as being able to save anywhere and anytime you want, more graphical options, including special features and screen ratios, along with rewind and bonus material, but that is not the case with Suikoden I & II HD Remaster. You get prettied up versions of the two and that’s about it.
That’s not to say that these inclusions are in any way bad. For starters, before even diving into these details, it’s worth mentioning that both were and still are incredible examples of sprite-based graphical presentations, boasting some of the most beautiful character art from their generation. The collection smartly builds upon that notion but gussying up backgrounds and elemental effects in a similar way that was done with the more recent “HD-2D” packages by Square Enix, such as both Octopath Traveller titles.
I would go as far to say that the results are even better now, as the HD manages to be as colorful as the 2D while retaining a more lo-fi visual style that doesn’t contrast with the old graphical elements, instead falling into place in a way that’s pleasing to the eye. At no point do they scream out “hey, look how pretty this looks!”, a show in restraint that few others have managed in these remasters to be quite honest. The end result is graphics that pop off the screen and don’t betray their age in the slightest.
What might do just that is the basic gameplay out of these games. There’s no escaping the fact that they were released nearly 30 years ago. Combat is simple and to the point, with little to nothing of the depth that RPGs would eventually get to, demanding that you focus and pay attention to stats and weaknesses in order to come out on top. Here, you get to attack, maybe throw a spell, use items, or run away. Heck, you can even auto battle, because why not? These fights can get repetitive after all!
Then again, everything else about both Suikoden I and Suikoden II screams excellence. Starting with the story: although their first few hours can be very predictable, thanks to some revolutionary concepts, they quickly elevate into the upper stratum of PS1-era RPGs. I’m talking about the 108, the number of allies you are able to recruit all throughout these games, each working towards radically changing the paths that you take and the overall result of your actions during each games’ runtime.
What’s best, you can continue on from one to the other if you play these in order, so some of these elements carry over from an adventure to the next, an inventive concept that was later aped on by other games and had its inception here. Suikoden II in particular, an otherwise incredible role-playing game in its own right is catapulted onto its place in gaming history by this feature, boosting its tear-jerker of a story ever further by giving you ample reason to play through it more than once.
Regardless of your history with Suikoden, do yourself a favor and at least play the first two. Whether you do so by means of this remaster or not, these are examples of some of the best that their era had to offer, period. What Suikoden I & II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification have in store for you are some very pretty representations of these games for sure, but the lack of features I touched upon at the beginning of the review really takes away from what would otherwise be an easy recommendation.
As it is, though, this remaster is the most approachable way to replaying both games as they are not available digitally outside of the soon-to-be deactivated PS3 store. With its release on just about every modern platform, this is, obviously, the readiest form to play these games. So if you don’t have a PS3 at the ready with both games in its hard-drive or were lucky enough to hold onto their original PS1 discs from back in the day, there’s only one legal avenue left to go. Even if it’s not the ideal one, at least it exists, right?
