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I was in Secondary One when Suikoden came out on the Sony Playstation. In the early days before Final Fantasy VII hit, the RPG landscape on Sony’s machine wasn’t that hot. Wild Arms and Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen were great, and so were King’s Field, King’s Field II and Tecmo’s Deception…but for those wanting a beautiful 2D RPG it was either Beyond the Beyond (which sucked), Persona (which was helluva weird) or Suikoden. Guess which one I played the most out of the three? That’s the reason I was so looking forward to playing Suikoden I & II HD Remaster.
I was super disappointed that the game wasn’t playable at last year’s Tokyo Game Show. KONAMI had just a small section dedicated to it and only trailers and some art to show off the game.
It’s no hyperbole when I say that this is my most awaited game for 2025.
Now that it’s finally in my hands, what do I think about it?
What is Suikoden I & II HD Remaster?
Suikoden I & II HD Remaster is a remaster of the first two games from KONAMI’s Suikoden series. This compilation is an enhanced version of Suikoden I & II, which was released for the PSP. Both games are 2D turn-based JRPGs from the Playstation 1 era. The remaster’s developed by KONAMI, and the company’s also handling the publishing duties.
The compilation is available right now, for every modern platform under the sun. The PC, the Playstation consoles, the Xbox Series X|S and of course, the Nintendo Switch.
Our review code was provided by the awesome folks over at KONAMI! Thanks so much!
It’s a sad fact, but the name Suikoden used to be spoken in the same reverence as Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest. KONAMI hit a home run with the series initially.
There are four games from the series available on the Playstation, the two main games, as well as the Genso Suikogaiden series, which were sidestories to the main games and never translated to English…officially.
It wasn’t until Suikoden III on the PS2 that the quality started to degrade. Though subsequent games did attempt to raise the bar (and succeeded somewhat), the damage was done. There’s not been a proper entry in the series since Suikoden V, which came out in 2006.
That’s nearly 20 years ago. Even I’m amazed it’s been that long. I sure hope that with release of Suikoden I & II HD Remaster, we’ll be seeing more Suikoden games coming.
Honestly, it’s hard not to fall in love with the Suikoden games.
There’s a genuine sense of history within the game, which helps things immensely because the first two games are directly related.
In fact, if you arrange all the games chronologically, Suikoden is actually in the middle of the timeline, like Star Wars: A New Hope was the middle of the whole Skywalker saga.
That’s why I really hope KONAMI remasters the other titles in the series so that we can enjoy them on modern platforms.
Hell, at the very least, them bring them to the PC for digital preservation!
That’s something for the future perhaps.
Truth be told, Suikoden (and by extension, Suikoden II) are both rather simplistic JRPGs. Their turn-based battle system don’t really have much depth to it. Even the army vs army fights or the mano-a-mano duels aren’t that interesting (they work on a rock-paper-scissors mechanic), at least compared to modern RPGs.
Suikoden I & II HD Remaster doesn’t change that at all, as all of the in-game content remain the same. There aren’t any new content added to the game too, just a fast forward button for battles and an auto-battle feature. Oh, you can move diagonally now too!
Those additions are great and much appreciated, but I wished KONAMI had done more.
One of the biggest issues is the inability to save anywhere. Considering this is on the Nintendo Switch (and the prevalence of handheld PCs nowadays), not being able to save anywhere is a huge deal. You can only save in inns or in certain locations, where the game autosaves.
Problem is the autosaves only happen at certain locations so it’s unreliable. You could go hours without the autosave updating, where you only option is to save at an inn.
I can’t help but bring up Square Enix’s remastered Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy VIII. Those remasters had a ton of options to tweak with other than a faster speed and auto-battle. You could control the encounter and XP rate, make your characters invincible and more!
It’s not like that’s not possible with Suikoden too.
Back in the day, I distinctly remember using the Action Replay cheat plug-in to add in a ton of cheats. From bringing a certain character back for the whole game, to faster XP gain and infinite Potch. KONAMI could’ve added them in with no problem if they wanted to.
…but they didn’t.
That makes me sad.
However, the charm in the games (and the series as a whole) isn’t the battle system. It’s not even the story. It’s the amount of characters you can recruit and the base building elements.
It’s nothing to scoff at!
The games have a total of 108 characters each.
That’s including the main character of course, so you can recruit 107 followers total. Ok, not all of them can join you in battle (they do provide upgrades or unlock new features for your base though) but the sheer volume alone is super cool.
What’s cooler is that they don’t all automatically join you as you progress.
In fact, the majority of them are optional and you can go through the game without dealing or even seeing them at all if you don’t seek them out. Even when you do find them, there’s no guarantee they will join up right away. Some will only join if you have certain people in your party. Others may only join if you best them at gambling or accomplish something that impresses them or have an item they want.
There’s a whole lot of hoops you have to jump through, which was why I had to use a guide to get all of them. I wished KONAMI had included one in the in-game manual section because recruiting everybody can be a mindboggling confusing procedure. That’s especially true for the couple of missable characters that you can’t get past certain points.
That however, doesn’t detract from the fact that it’s just just plain satisfying to keep recruiting such a huge number of comrades. You’ll explore every nook and cranny in the RPGs, chat to everybody you can! You never know, that NPC you see walking around might just be the next recruit!
Not only that, seeing your base gradually get better as you recruit essential personnel is half the fun of the game!
There’s even an epilogue at the end of the game that shows you what they do after the war is over! Some are cool, some are sad and some are plain funny.
Suikoden 2 also has a feature that made it one of the most memorable RPGs for me.
It allowed you to load up a Suikoden save (one made after the accessing the final dungeon) for certain in-game benefits. The most beneficial one is of course the return of Suikoden’s protagonist, McDohl.
McDohl’s one of the strongest characters in the sequel, so it’s pretty much imperative you play Suikoden first (and get the Good ending if possible, because that unlocks another hidden feature), and finishing it before you jump into its sequel.
Back in the day, this was a super cool feature. Scratch that, even now, it’s a super cool feature.
Sure, some games unlock special items with save data import (the latest one being the materia and items from Final Fantasy VII Remake to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth) but how many games brings in the protagonist of the previous one as an unlockable?!
I rest my case.
With so many characters in play, one of the most rewarding aspects of sticking with the series is seeing familiar faces pop up in other games. Being directly connected, playing Suikoden 2 is incredibly satisfying in that regard. Not only do you get to recruit some of the old gang, but you also get to see what most of them have been up to since the events of the first game.
Another high point for the series (especially in the first two games) is the tunes.
I really feel that the music for the series deserves a lot more recognition than it’s gotten.
When people talk about great PS1 RPG music, it’s always Xenogears, the Final Fantasy series or the Wild Arms games that get brought up. Those games deserve the acclaim but there are also a ton of other games like the Suikoden series (and the Lunar series) that deserve their place on the lists too.
When I first heard the Main Theme – Guitar Arrangement playing during the supper with Teo McDohl, I felt goosebumps on my arm. Moonlit Night (which also has a Suikoden II version!) and Passacaglia hit me similarly hard.
Nostalgia kicked in and memories long forgotten came flooding back. Memories of me sitting in my room gaming the night away playing Suikoden. Memories about me feeling bummed because a certain character died. Memories of scouring EGM2 to gather all the 108 Stars of Destiny.
Treasured memories all of them.
Some of the more melancholic and wistful tracks hit hard, and I can’t help but be brought back to 1997, when I first played Suikoden.
Not many games’ music can bring up such powerful emotions. It really takes something special. That is what the score for the games mean for me. Only a handful of games can make me sit back and reminisce about the past and this is one of them.
That’s why I really have to applaud KONAMI for including all the songs from both games as an Extra.
Of course, if this is your first time playing the game, you probably won’t think of it that way. Give it time though…and I guarantee if you replay this collection somewhere down the years, you’ll know what I mean.
Speaking of the past, the sprite art in the game is really well done. The new visuals update the style of the game without changing the look. The character sprites still look great, and I’m honestly blown away by the redone environments.
Some, like Leknaat’s tower, look spectacular and go above and beyond the original. The world map looks great too, though the weird look for the flat 2D trees are a bit off putting. Everything, including the battle visuals are nicely done.
I was blown away (as I was back in the 90s) when I saw the Soul Eater rune back in action. The visuals aren’t impressive by modern standards, but back in the 90s, as a kid coming from the 16-Bit Mega Drive, the black sphere effect was phenomenal.
Hell, I still think it’s one of the coolest spell effects from an RPG.
I’m not a 100% down with the new character portraits though. To be honest, I feel like they’re a mixed bag. Some are marked improvements over the originals, but there are those that feel like a downgrade. Viktor (one of my favourites) went from looking like a swarthy, lovably thuggish scoundrel to a chubby dude with unkempt hair.
On the flip side, Gremio now looks supremely dashing. He’s like a blonde Kenshin Himura, especially with the cross-shaped scar on his cheek now featuring so prominently. Compared to his original portrait, it’s a major improvement.
Things are better on the Suikoden II front for portraits. Since Suikoden II’s art style was rather bright and anime-ish, the new portraits fit in much better. Viktor’s still sucked, but at least he doesn’t look like a chubster no more.
Suikoden I & II HD Remaster plays just fine on the ROG Ally X. There’s really no reason for it not to. Even on the 11W setting, things ran without a hitch. If you’re thinking of hunting for the 108 Stars of Destiny on the go, you can do it without fear!
One weird note right at the end the review though; the game doesn’t have an exit button. It’s so freaking weird! You can’t close the game in any way normally. You have to ALT + TAB, then shut down the program manually on the taskbar or close it via Steam. How could anybody forget such an important detail?
Was KONAMI hoping everybody would play the games for infinity and never stopping?
The Bottom Line.
Without a doubt, the two games in the Suikoden I & II HD Remaster are classics. While Suikoden is a bit basic, Suikoden II still holds up decades later.
Do I wish KONAMI had done more to spruce up the games? Definitely. They both need more settings to tweak (XP multipliers and save anywhere capability especially) and the Extras in the game (apart from the soundtracks) don’t really cut it.
Hell, you don’t even get concept art to browse through!
Despite that, the new visuals (the backgrounds especially) and the updated sprites do go a long way to salve any irritations one might feel. The music is still as incredible as it was too, and that definitely helps as well!
While KONAMI does stumble on a few fronts for the Suikoden I & II HD Remaster, the bottom line is that the improvements make great games even better, even if the quality of life features are lacking.
TLDR:
Great remasters of incredible RPGs, but needs more quality of life improvements.
The Good:
- Redone visuals are superb.
- The music.
- Getting all 108 stars in the games is fun.
- No problems running on handheld PCs.
The Bad:
- Underwhelming extras.
- Need more QoL improvements.
- No way to exit the games normally.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
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