Suikoden features young hero Tir McDohl (I called him Rohl so he sounded like a fast food mascot with a speech impediment), as he realizes the corruption of the empire he works for and goes from being the sheltered son of an imperial general to the leader of a resistance movement. It’s from here that the game’s biggest and most unique ‘hook’ comes from, in the form of recruiting 108 ‘Stars of Destiny’ to join your army. Searching the world to recruit people to your cause is a great idea and fits right in with the game’s plot – and its implementation is mixed.

I love that the 108 Stars are not just characters who join you in battle, but also people who move into your headquarters and provide a service (e.g. shopkeeper) or even something functionally meaningless but flavorful (like a painter who completes more and more of a mural as you bring him materials to work with). Being able to recruit people of all sizes, shapes, trades and ages and watch your headquarters gradually grow gives a tangible gameplay expression of the military and ideological momentum shifting towards the Liberation Army. I also loved that the game encouraged you to experiment with your party makeup by having any underlevelled characters shoot up in experience and catch up with the active party very quickly. However, I still did find that the (over 70!) playable characters started to blur together after awhile, and Suikoden had the exasperating habit of continuously throwing characters in and out of your party without warning. This, combined with the fact that each character has their own individual inventory that can't be accessed unless they are in your active party - meant a positively painful amount of backtracking and menu-hopping every single time a story event changed your party makeup.

The rest of the game can mostly be characterized as 'safely decent' - the graphics look like they could have been made on the SNES but feature some nice sprite art and zooming in/out effects, the translation is fully functional (more than can be said for many of its contemporaries), and combat is your standard round-based DQ-style affair, with a little bit of character customization thrown in via magic runes which can be equipped on characters to give them certain abilities and attributes. There are even some nice subtle QoL touches - if you ask a character to heal or revive someone, they will do it even after all enemies are defeated so you won't forget to do it later!

One thing that was much better than I thought is the music. Even in a genre in which every game seems to contain a banging soundtrack, Suikoden stands out. The score's versatility is a particular highlight, nailing a number of different musical styles very well (there's a clear Dragon Quest influence here with castle themes written in a Baroque style) - I appreciate that the more Eastern-influenced tracks didn't sound too on-the-nose either. My personal highlight of the soundtrack was when Neclord, the scenery-chewing Dracula expy who demands bridal sacrifices from the surrounding villages, welcomes you to his boss fight by sitting down at his pipe organ and hammering out Mendelssohn's Wedding March in a minor key.

Overall, Suikoden represents a really strong start to a beloved series that I’m only just starting to get into. I’ve heard the sequel does a lot of things better and I’m really excited for it!