A look back at: Suikogaiden

Might as well wrap this one up.

Another visual novel thing, unlike Radical Dreamers, this one is fully visual novel and you will get through the story completely. The only things that change are affection points and hidden value points that the two games never even bothers to mention. Did I mention there were two games? Because there are two games. And did you know that completed Suikoden 2 data can be used? Because it can be used for Volume 1, then transfer THAT over to Volume 2. Heck, you can even transfer completed Suikogaiden Volume 2 data to Suikoden 3 as well. Minor, minor details. Unfortunately, almost no one really picked up on this, since this particular visual novel never made it out of Japan.

But looking back on it, I'm glad I got glimpses of story and backstory, as that tends to be quite ingenious. 4 chapters each volume, and yes, there are characters, both old and new, in Nash's sub-story. I of course remember running through it multiple times, as it did have multiple branching paths, but not necessarily multiple endings. Yep, wanted to see everything yet again. The luck meter is the only visible one onscreen, but there are hidden ones for such things as "bonus" or "companion" which may affect character cameos. A full luck meter will allow access to an alternate path in Chapter 3 (of both volumes) both of which are loaded with character cameos and are a lot sillier and more detracting of the original plot.

Like anything within the Suikoden series, Suikogaiden is pretty much plot-driven and character-driven. The ones that Nash meets do more than just make cameo appearances, as most of them are directly involved in the plot. The entire Greenhill segment in Chapter 4 in Volume 1 is my favorite, mostly because we find out a whole lot of the first conflict with Highland then, which of course the main hero of Suikoden 2 will eventually find out about. It's nice how two protagonists have intertwining stories, while not necessarily recognizing one another all that much. Little details are always fun.