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Sorry, I shouldn't do this...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 24 / 41
Date: September 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

...but I figure it's a good time to mention a nice website. www.suikosource.com is THE place for info regarding the Suikoden games, as well as info for upcoming releases, series games not released in the US, and even the excellent novel, "Outlaws of the Marsh" (on which the games are based). No, I don't work for the website, I'm merely a satisfied customer.

It is a shame that the game has been delayed AGAIN (judging from the release date up top; I had heard that it would be here in November, then in January, and now we're up to March). The game has been out in Japan for some time; Konami is typically bad about bringing this series over (anyone who bought Suikoden II, maybe five of you , may remember the delays and the still-persisting bugs - here's hoping they get it right), but you can read about the game on the website above.

About the game, well, it is set on the Island nations (the home of Amada from Suikoden II), about 150 years before the events of the original Suikoden. You (the main character) are the inheritor of the terrible Rune of Punishment, one of the 27 true runes, but seemingly the worst of the bunch. Sure, the rune gives you power, but at the cost of sapping your life (most runes grant eternal life) until you die, at which point the rune finds another unlucky bearer. I can't say much more, since I refuse to read through the entire plot summary before I play the game, but if you must know, suikosource is the place to go.

Yes, I am culling together info from websites, so don't lambast me! Think of my scoring as a potential score - I am a fan of the Suikoden series, and the info I have found makes this game appear really good! Of course, I was a bit disappointed with the third game (as were the makers - check out some of their interviews!), but I have high hopes for this newest installment. Happy gaming (er, in March)!!

Addendum: I reviewed this game before it came out, but I still think it was quite good. Many of the reviewers here have underrated this game, in my opinion. Yes, there are flaws in the game mechanics (most notably is the insanely high encounter rate while you trudge out to sea - this is pretty much corrected once you recruit Viki and obtain the Glowing Hand (Blinking) Mirror for teleportation, but for some reason, the game designers won't let you teleport to key game destinations). However, I like the storyline (particularly after a 2nd runthrough) and the battle mechanics. I like many of the characters present in the story (indeed, Snowe Vingerhut is quite nicely developed, and the addition of Ted was a good idea as well). Suikoden has suffered immensely, graphically, from its transition to 3-D (the characters and backgrounds seem washed out and dull, and the Stars of Destiny don't differ that much from common folk). Nonetheless, I found this game much more enjoyable than the 3rd outing (the triple character system seemed to hurt the development of the storyline). I think this underrated game deserves a chance, particularly at the price that Amazon has it at!

Someone who ACTUALLY played it

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 11
Date: January 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Alright I'm gonna start off by saying I'm a huge RPG fan. I have all the Suikodens, Final Fantasies, Quest for Glories, Chronos, Legend of Dragoon, and I'm very honest with them. There's some i love (see Suikoden II) and some I wasnt too impressed with (see Legend of Legaia) and Suikoden IV is NOT as bad or mediocre as some magazines made it out to be. I hear a lot of people complain about the towns. Interestingly enough all these people are in their first or second hour. I'm in ONLY the third town and the third town was very colorful and unique. If someone hasnt played enough to reach the THIRD town their opinion on the game and the graphics of towns based on the first one where u spend the first two hours, then they should not be playing RPGs. For those who have played Baten Kaitos and stuck with it past the second town (the first two were nothing special) got treated with unique and amazing towns that were just pure eye candy and for those who played Skies of Arcadia and overcame the blocky, weird characters and two building town at the beginning of the game were treated to one of the best RPGs of that console era. My point is this, Suikoden is a respected trusted franchise for a reason, do not base your purchase on the someone's experience within the first two hours or even the first five. An RPG is a tale that develops and gets to the point were you feel for the characters. People like Snowe, Troy, and Glen are some unique powerful characters and are all within the first three hours. The beauty of what makes a suikoden unique is the castle aspect. I wont tell you where or when your base is but it is pretty cool, not as cool as previous ones but still a cool base. You cannot review a suikoden without seeing YOUR own base, where the majority if the action and development happens.
Your character doesnt seem to have much personality but in Chrono Trigger, what many consider THE best RPG ever, Chrono does not say a word, Chrono does not show emotion, but Chrono is a great character. Why is this? Because you feel for Chrono, you become Chrono, the hero is this game is not as cool looking as Chrono, but he has the same exact personality... yours. Dont buy this game because of what others say, like I said Ive seen my share of RPGs, I've played all the classic of nearly every system, and Suikoden IV's story, graphics, and battles are not the absolute best, not even in this series, II holds that distinction, but they are better than 90% of the ones out there. I was pleased with this game, and I am going to continue being pleased for another five hours when i wake up tomorrow to finish playing. Make the choice, if you love RPGs go for it, if not, everyone has their thing, just give it past the first few hours cause you might be the one missin out. You never know

Favorite series of all time...trashed... yes?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 10
Date: January 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Some people seem to think that Suikoden 4 is the best game ever, yet can't even write a decent review concerning it. Most people here seem to be too loyal to the original Suikodens to admit that this game is terrible. Suikoden 1 is my favorite game of all time so I actually know what im talking about.

The graphics are horrid. The towns don't get better. There are literally 2 dungeons in the whole game that are absolutely terrible. The character models are bland and disproportional. The main character has eyes the size of grapefruits while other have regular eyes. What's worst, the enemy badguys are so incredibly unoriginal and boring to look at. There's some grass with mist floating over it. Grass is one of your monsters... These monsters aren't interesting like those leaves seen in previous Suikodens. All the monsters look stupid.

The story has been done before. It deals with the Runes a little more, but doesn't really have much else to do with the previous Suikodens. Considering it takes place 300 years before the first, they can't put many original characters in(clive, flik, viktor). One of your first missions is to go to Middleport. When you arrive there, a man asks you to kill a monster in the sea. Apparently, it was just a black pot with the ability to call upon the water god. That was stupid and pointless.

The battles quickly become repetitive, as they are constant. Random battles occur way too often. Breath of Fire for the GBA had this problem, but those battles you could deal with. This game has way too many easy battles. Upgrade at a blacksmith and buy some armor and you'll be unstoppable. The water battles would be fun if they weren't so strategically easy. If your enemies have lightning boats, get an earth rune cannon and he's dead. It's as simple as that. The duels don't occur enough. When they do, they are so easy as you just listen to what the opponents say and you win.

The worst thing about this game are the little technical issues that Konami decided not to fix. For example, autopilot doesn't work ever. What they did for the islands was make large invisible barriers around them. When you first have to go to Middleport, cruise around the island it's on. You will realize that the collision size of the land is too big, and when you hit it, it will cause you to spin off into some weird direction. Another stupid thing is the way your character walks. He looks like he's sprinting but he doesn't move fast at all. Even worse, Konami made the characters swing their swords like idiots. When you hit an enemy, your character will walk up and lightly swing their sword. The sound of the sword hitting and the impact point are different. That sounds weird, but play it and you'll see what I mean.

So how are the characters exactly? They must be good, considering there are 108. Well, some of them are. However, you quickly learn that Konami didn't know what to do with most characters. Snowe is constantly changing personalities. At first he's a brave fighter, than he falls on his arm and breaks it apparently. He then complains about it and runs away. 5 minutes later you see him rowing a boat. He then gets out and complains about how he cant move his arm. The commander believes him. How was he rowing that boat just now if he couldn't move is arm? Why is Snowe all of a sudden scared of battle. About 20 minutes earlier you got attacked and he was fine. And why did those guards let that one dude raise his hand up and summon his rune? Why didn't they just kill him? Things like this make the characters seem stupid and uneven.

I would love to give this game a good review. I truly would. I loved the original Suikodens and Konami is better than this. One person said that the graphics were the best they have ever been in the series. No they aren't. They aren't the best in the series, and anyone can clearly tell you that. GMR reviewed the game and only gave it a 5 out of 10. This is a horrible score to recieve from them. The graphics are so bad to support the higher poly character models. Everything runs smooth, but it looks like crap. That leaves only one real question.

Why do you think Konami is only selling this game for 40 bucks. Why won't they just sell it for 50? Maybe they know that it isn't that great, considering the screenshots released a year ago look exactly like the game now.

Give it a chance

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 7
Date: January 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I love Suikoden I & II and I really enjoyed 3. So far, IMHO Suikoden IV is shaping to be one of, if not the best, chapters in this series. Even though we're only about 3 hours into the game, the story is very compelling. The characters that we've encountered so far are very well rounded and developed.

I suggest that the last reviewer play more than an hour of the game before making such negative comments

Quit Hatin

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: January 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

People have been bashing this game. Just becuase someone gave it a bad review doesn't mean you have to go into the game looking for promblems. You'll set yourself up for disappointment. I chose to completely ignore the reviews and judge the game by my own standards. Let me start by saying that I own all the Suikodens and the IV plays like a Suikoden should. The game has its flaws {the main character looks and moves stupid} but it isn't to the degree that people make it out to be. Someone said the graphics suck. I take it that person didn't really pay attention to the first three. If he had, he'd of realized that these graphics {though not stunning} are better than any Suikoden's ever had. Not saying this is the best Suikoden, but if you truely consider yourself a fan, then you shouldn't be dissapointed. I've seen reviews as low as 1 star. ..... C'mon people, just cause it didn't knock your socks off doesn't mean you have to hate like that. Don't call the game BAD because it didn't meet YOUR expectations. I'm not far enough to say where this game fits in compared to the other three. But I am far enough to defend it against 1 star rating HATERS. If you call yourself a fan, you can get the game {which is $39 instead of $49} and judge it for yourself. You owe Konami that.

Disappointed!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 12
Date: January 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I am a fan of Suikoden series I, II, and III but IV is a completely different game. Sure the name and the idea of 108 Stars of Destiny is there but the main character walks weird, the dialogue is too long, and is rather confusing going from room to room. Suikoden III was excellent but I'm sad to even writing a negative review to one of my favorite series of all times. Rent it first before forking over $40

Not the best, but definately not Suikoden III

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: January 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I am a huge HUGE fan of the Suikoden series and I've been singing its praises from the beginning. Suikoden I and II were magnificent, but with the third installment bringing it into the new era of 3D rpg gaming, it suffered massive flaws. You can tell the developers felt the same way because the fighting system has been restored to it's original I/II style with some tweaking and the Duel system is thankfully back, which was always fun. The army battles from the first three are not included, but they changed drastically with every game anyway, so it's not to be missed considering a new style of war: Ship battles. Since the game is set at sea, ships do battle with rune cannons a la Sid Meier's Pirates! styled scenes where some strategy goes a long way, but it's more important you have fun in the battles. This game is not too hard at all. In fact, it's not hard, period, but it's fun. The music is nostalgic and sounds like a PS2 enhanced greatest hits soundtrack from the first two Suikoden games. Also, voice acting is now included, which is very new to the series. The story's not Xenogears and it is indeed geared towards younger audiences, but that's not to say this game isn't something worth following. The graphics might... not be up to par, but fans of Suikoden won't mind that. True, you might expect more, but you give it credit because it's still pretty. The eyes and hands look a tad creepy but, really, it doesn't matter too much. It looks like Suikoden III and plays kind of similarly but isn't nearly as slow as III. The gameplay is paced well and the story never bores. I find the game a lot of fun, but it's not the prettiest around. If you're into the look, get Star Ocean 'Til The End Of Time (also a very good game), and if you want your stories gritty and mature, you're probably looking for Shin Megami Tensei, but fans of this series will not want to pass this up. Especially if you loved I and II more than III.

great game and prequel

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

the game was good and had some very good characters the only major problem i had with it is that the main character seem to be like the silent heros from the old days of rpgs meaning that he had no soul or character and didn't seem to have no character. i mean even hugo, chris, and geddoe have a character but other then the game was pretty good. the voices wasn't too bad either and the naval battle system was great.

cool game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 4
Date: January 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The playing experience is cool.I like duel which was a little improved.The part on traveling in the ocean was kind of boring.
I say it is good to play it and have some fun. The hero in the game is pretty quiet. Only you can tell him what to say.

(It is still a good game!!!)

A waste of time and energy...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 10
Date: January 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

What happend!? Suikodan 3 was probably one of the most inventive RPGs I've ever played, but Suikodan 4 stinks.

The characters are boring, the story is dull and without any plot twists or inspiring hardships. The music is quiet, non-existent or boring. The gameplay lack challenges and the enemies constist of roughly 13 or so models in the whole game colored in different variations. Traveling from one island to another is slower than mud (literally hours if you want to explore the sea chart). Plus while getting most the 108 characters was optional in Suikoden 3. In Suikoden 4 it's practically required to continue the boring story. Basically it's: find people, watch a scene, find some more people, watch a scene.

I would rather watch pait dry, it's faster paced.

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