by
Evan Norris
, posted 3 hours ago / 337 Views
It wasn’t all that long ago that Suikoden II, first released in North America in 1999 and generally considered one of the all-time great role-playing video games, wasn’t easily available for international audiences. Up until 2014, when the game finally arrived on the PlayStation 3 as a PSone Classic, fans outside of Japan had to purchase prohibitively expensive second-hand copies on sites like eBay if they wanted to enjoy the Konami classic. Now, roughly 11 years later, there’s an even easier (and far superior) way to experience the legendary RPG, along with its predecessor Suikoden — a great game in its own right. It’s Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars, a celebration and refinement of the original titles.
Based on the 2006 Japan-exclusive PSP collection Suikoden I & II, which already added some enhancements to the base games, this new HD remaster goes several steps further, producing in the process the definitive versions of Suikoden and Suikoden II. If you’re coming to this modern compilation straight from your PlayStation discs or PS3 digital copies, there are multiple amenities to look forward to.
For starters, you can now move your character diagonally inside locations and around the world map. You can also dash from the very start of the game, without the need to add anyone special to your party (the base movement speed for the hero in Suikoden seems a little slower in response to this added dash functionality, but I might just be imagining things). There’s also an option to fast-forward through battles. And of course the auto-battle functionality remains.
The user interface for both games has received a much-needed refresh as well. It’s now far easier to check your characters’ stats, change equipment, and navigate menus. And on the formation screen, your party shows up as it would in the field, instead of as static portraits. Now, not everything is perfect; Konami missed a golden opportunity to fix, once and for all, the restrictive, tedious inventory system in Suikoden, for example. But in general everything is much cleaner and more approachable.
There are also lots of little improvements scattered about that elevate the two games. For instance, when your party levels up at the end of a battle, you see all six portraits at once, instead of one at a time. There’s also a (limited) auto-save feature and three different difficulty settings, each of which changes the amount of HP enemies have.
The most significant change, however, is the comprehensive visual overhaul. It’s stunning at times. Not only does the HD remaster provide support for widescreen, but also redrawn portraits in Suikoden — drawn by Junko Kawano, no less — enhanced backgrounds, world maps completely recreated in 3D, and lots of new details and flourishes. I went back and forth between the HD versions on my PS5 and the PSOne Classics on my PS3 as I played, and I can say with confidence the visual upgrade is significant, across both titles.
Overall, the premier Suikoden arguably benefits the most from the overhaul — it’s a blurrier, older game in urgent need of refined portraits — but that’s not to say that Suikoden II doesn’t get a significant glow-up. In fact, its opening scenes are staggeringly beautiful in Suikoden I&II HD Remaster. In the original’s opening, during a sneak attack on an unsuspecting base, there are a few small fires to signify danger. In the HD version’s opening, raging fires, tiny floating embers, and radiating heat fill the screen. It’s like night and day.
If there’s a downside to the graphical refresh, it’s in the cities and building interiors, particularly in Suikoden. Some of the more realistic assets, like houses, dishes, books, and tables, look just the slightest bit off. They’re a little too crisp and a touch too incongruous with the pixelated models, as if they belong in different games. The more natural elements, including forests, caves, and cliffs, come off much better.
In addition to all the visual changes, Konami added HD sound effects and new translations for each game, designed to hew closer to the original Japanese scripts. In general, the company did a splendid job bringing two classic RPGs from the fifth generation into the future, while also being respectful of their core mechanics, themes, and aesthetics.
Indeed, everything you loved about Suikoden and Suikoden II, in 1996 and 1999 respectively, is retained here. Suikoden remains a great game, thanks to its storyline (a potent mix of political intrigue and interpersonal conflict); a turn-based battle system oriented around formations made up of front and back row fighters; over 100 collectible characters; and an endlessly entertaining home base system, where inactive characters reside at your headquarters, which expands gradually as you recruit more allies. The game can be too easy and tedious at times, but the added difficulty options and fast-forward functionality alleviate these flaws to a degree.
Suikoden II, meanwhile, remains one of the great RPGs of its era. It takes everything that worked in Suikoden and makes it bigger and better. The campaign is longer and more substantial, the rune system is deeper and more flexible, the inventory system is improved, the sprites and animations are superior, and the character interactions are more meaningful. Moreover, the game’s narrative — which thoroughly explores the horrors of war and manages to tell a story that’s simultaneously epic in scope and deeply personal — is simply one of the best in the genre.
Could the remaster have gone the extra mile and refined some game systems, for example the grid-based large-scale army battles that still seem to rely too much on luck? For sure. But it’s clear the development team wanted to remain as faithful to the original gameplay loop as possible.
In addition to the two remastered games, Suikoden I&II HD Remaster comes with a few bonus features. Inside a gallery on the home menu, you’ll find a music player, cut-scene and cinematic viewers, a list of unlocked endings, and credits. Note that you can also carry over your completed save file from the first game into Suikoden II, for some special perks.
If you’ve been waiting to dive into the Suikoden series, wait no longer. Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars represents the perfect entry point. It retains the epic stories, tactical battles, and addictive character-collecting & base-expanding mechanics of the two PlayStation-era games and buttresses them with new quality-of-life features, a refreshed UI, and a significant visual overhaul. Some of the warts from the originals remain, but they don’t detract significantly from the overall experience. If you’re even the slightest bit serious about 90s-era role-playing games, you need to add this package to your collection.
This review is based on a digital copy of Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars for the PS5, provided by the publisher.
