Suikoden 1 & 2 HD Remaster Review (PS5) – Realign The Stars

Whilst Final Fantasy VII gets a lot of credit for “making JRPG’s popular”, it’s easy to forget they weren’t exactly shy little indies before that. Dragon Quest and Breath of Fire, to name two, were already established and riding quite high. However, the high fantasy trope was getting formulaic, so something needed to change. Enter Konami then, with Suikoden.

Ditching the “battle to defeat God” archetype with something more grounded and political/war-based, Suikoden also mixed fantastical elements in too. It reviewed well in 1995, prompting sequel Suikoden II in 1998. This, however, reviewed well but had a smaller print run, which inevitably meant “hard as buggery to get hold of”.

A somewhat smaller series, Suikoden still has its loyal fanbase (including me). Bar a PS3 port of the first few games in 2015, it’s all been a bit quiet… until now. Now, with modern tweaks and upgrades, the first two games are back with a blast. So, does Suikoden I & II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars (to give it its full title) hold up thirty years on? Let’s find out.

With A Rebel Yell

What makes Suikoden great, albeit a bit of a repetition by the later installments, is how level-headed their stories can be. When you look at Breath of Fire, which involves taking on gods, or FFVII which also involves taking on dead gods, and aliens, it’s nice to have a change. Suikoden, the first one, instead goes for a story about war, rebellion and camaraderie.

The protagonist, canonically known as Tir McDohl (but can be called whatever you wish), has a fairly decent life ahead of him. But events soon transpire that thrust him and his closest allies into one of war, rebellion and manipulation. Forced to run, our hero soon becomes the bearer of a rune that pushes him into rebelling against family, former comrades and the very Empire he used to trust.

The second one, whilst it’s easy to make it sound like it’s a rehash of the first one twenty years on, follows a similar beat. Not quite the same, it still nonetheless features betrayal, the rousing of an army and tackling bigger themes of values we hold dear. Both heroes fall into that “destined has befallen you” type of mantle, but the difference here is that they’re not god-chosen avatars of ruin and destruction.

What makes both of these tales endearing is that they are both, if you will, “tales of the everyman”. The people that players can recruit are, barring a few exceptions, folk from all walks of life. Traders, doctors, fishermen… all small sums that make up one larger whole. The fantastical aspect of these tales come from the runes the hero’s are imbued with, both acting as some kind of compulsion. Yet the less said on that to be experienced, the better.

The beauty of these two tales is that unlike some series’ having tangential themes, like FF’s Cid naming convention, both Suikoden I & II have links, an interwoven story that makes again one whole rather than two sums. And that’s before we get to the talking swords or thespian-sounding unicorns.

If You Ask Them, They Will Come…

Normally, team-building and finding extra characters wouldn’t merit its own section in a review. Finding Ashton in Star Ocean: The Second Story? Simple enough, follow the side quest. But in Suikoden, it’s something different, a whole new level of fetch quest. In fact, I would go as far as to say it’s the series’ USP, as it add life to a story already full of war and spectacle

For you, each Suikoden game (not just these two) revolves around the 108 Stars of Destiny. Borrowing, and I mean that word very liberally, from the novel Shui Hu Zhuan (or The Water Margin, ask your parents), Suikoden utilises a mechanic involving recruitment. Now, this isn’t some secret paywall-esque bluff where “you don’t have to but actually you do or we’ll withhold your progress” gatcha stuff. No, this is good old fashioned, only-if-you-want-to gameplay that is actually fun. I know, what a concept.

Each game features 108 recruitable characters. Most of them, if not half, are mandatory and story-related, that’ll join each hero’s cause as the adventure progresses. The rest, the aforementioned fishermen and posh horned horses, are all essentially side quests. And whilst it easy to find guides on how to recruit the trickier ones, given the near-thirty year history, the joy is finding them yourself. These games are so old school we’re talking a limited NPC style/colour palette.

So when players walk into a town, dungeon or forest and talk to someone different looking, chances are that they’ll join you. Some are easy enough; ask them to join the war effort and they’ll go, “Alright then, nothing else going on”. Yet some are fetch quests, others need players/teams of certain strengths. There’s some right obscure ones, such as walking certain streets with an all-female party, or that rely on RNG-based gambling. It’s an absolute party bag of fun and frustration, but trust me, it’s absolutely worth it. There are some bonuses in doing so too, but I’m not telling you what.

Your Go

The phrase “old school” does get bandied around a lot these days. Retro-inspired graphics? Old school. Crippling difficulty evoking NES-era Battletoads? Old school, definitely. But in the case of the Suikoden remasters, it’s both apt and completely accurate. As I said at the start, these games came out amidst a sea of turn-based battles, open world exploration and battles taking place in 3D environments whilst everything else was 2D pixelated, not-quite-3D world building. Yet it’s not damning with fine praise or anything to call them old school, instead revel in it.

Both games play pretty much the same (more on that in a bit): the hero has to go from town to dungeon, to the next, in typical JRPG fare. This is done through a mostly-top-down perspective, all lovely rendered pixel characters on nicely jazzed up backgrounds. Battles, as you can see above, fall into that pocket dimension thing: random encounters that whisk your team into 3D backdrops.

It’s turn based, too. Players will choose who’s doing what; be it attacking, using magic or items, runes or Unite attacks, and then queue them up. Then it becomes pretty standard stats-based fighting, whoever’s is quicker will go, in that order. Yes, that does apply to enemies too, so the tactical element of healing or trying to unbalance them to miss a go comes into play too.

As with all of my reviews, this isn’t a guide on the best teams or anything. I’m just telling you how it plays; in essence, a lovely throwback to every JRPG that graced the PlayStation before 2000. Then there are the actual skirmishes to look at…

Don’t Kill My Units, They Look Adorable

When I said that Suikoden games often feature war as a framing device, it’s not just as a backdrop. Conflict on a grand scale is a major theme throughout both, with it determining the outcome of certain story events. Yet unlike say, FFVIII’s Garden invasion moments, players are actually responsible in the whole battle in these. In the first game, battles are a rock-paper-scissors affair, as shown above.

You’ve got your basic Charge attacks, Magic and Archery. One beats one, whilst is weaker to the other, which can seriously turn a battle at any moment. The trick is to watch out for little text clues as to what the enemy might do next. Or, if you’ve recruited them, there are special units that can find out what’ll happen. There are some that will even convert enemy units to your sound, but there are limitations to that too.

It’s a need little aside, as well as pretty adorable when players watch their units like two friends rushing Subbuteo players across the table. But as joyful as it sounds, you will need to be careful. Some characters can and will die for realsies, locking out that 108 character completion quest. Yeah, I was shocked the first time too.

Suikoden II’s are a different system, mixing it up a little. Rather than the above, it becomes… well, akin to FF Tactics or Vandal Hearts, to use a retro analogy. Played instead on a grid, players will move pre-made units of fighters into range to attack. There are still archery and magic units too, all based on range and mobility to get into the scrum. Instead of being RPS-based, it’s down to the strength and defence stats, so more thought is needed than luck/guessing. Again, be mindful of your units as some will snuff it if you’re not careful.

Any Which Way You Want

So far, I’ve covered this as if it were a new game, describing it as if you’ve never heard of it. But what about those returning after all these years? Those that know their Pilika’s from their Pesmerga’s, you lot want to know what’s new to come back to, right? Well, this is the section for you to invest in.

It would be fair to say that whilst pixel-styled games do age better than early 3D games (looking at you, Castlevania 64), Suikoden is pushing thirty and needed some razzle and/or dazzle. Fortunately, Konami listened, and have given both games the full makeover. From backgrounds to character animations, everything looks like a darling indie game made in homage that its slightly fuzzier original. The most noticeable difference for me is in the first game, with all the character portraits redrawn and looking more realistic, or at least realistic in an anime sense.

Background graphics absolutely shine through, with running water and fire being fully animated and relative to its environment. Watching the water gulleys flow in Gregminster or the Elven village burn brightly were enough to make me stop and admire them. The audio has also been HD-ified, with music sounding less tinny and more a modern score. Attention has been made to sounds, too, with character footsteps now reactive to whatever surface they’re on.

In terms of gameplay, all the UI’s and general interfaces have been polished, accomodating for more modern screens and resolutions. Auto-battle is now one quick button prompt, for those that want to quicken battles. But that’s not all: battle speed can be sped up too. Yet weirdly, in Suikoden it can be pushed to 3x speed, but only double in Suikoden II. Slight oversight, perhaps?

But the biggest change of all? Running… diagonally. Yes, that’s right, it’s as dramatically massive as I make it sound. Not only that, but Tir can run independently of an equipped rune or specific character in his party. But yes, before it was a case of having to run up-left-up-left (for example) to navigate, but not anymore. All eight directions are there, be it in a town, dungeon or even the world map. Honestly, it sounds like a big deal over nothing, but if you’ve played the originals you’ll be so happy at this. We never got the PSP ports over here where that was introduced, so this is a first for us.

The Stars Get Clouded At Times

Now, whilst this all sounds fantastic, we do have to bear in mind the age of the master being jazzed up. Naturally with something released several generations ago, there will be some telltale signs of age that can’t be buffered out. On the whole, it’s a very well-respected package with few changes that affect the original, but some concessions could have been made.

The most egregious is the inventory management in the first Suikoden. It is a very arduous system trying to kit out a six-man squad, and that’s putting it politely without swearwords. For example, if you want to buy a nice shiny piece of armour for Cleo, you can’t just equip it directly. No, instead it has be purchased, added to the character’s already limited inventory space, and that’s only half of it. You then have to exit the shop menu, faff around and equip it, before selling back to the shop.

It sounds like a petty gripe, but weirdly, it’s much easier in Suikoden II. Items can be bought, equipped and the older one traded in on one screen. Why this couldn’t be implemented, who knows. Perhaps it would offend the more precious conservationists, but I personally would have welcomed it.

On the whole, the package didn’t cause any issues. The autosave system is a bit of an odd one, mind. Rather than save at key moments, like battles or bosses, it’ll save when players enter the same room as a save point. So you could save ten times in a row if you’re backtracking, then lose hours of progress if you haven’t been near one.

Although I will concede that these are games from the manual saving memory card era, so if players forget that then it falls on them. Undo all that recruitment then lose to Luca Blight? Yeah, don’t rely on autosaving.

…But They Always Shine Through

You may have gathered at the start that this was going to be a positive review, when I said I was a fan. If you hadn’t noticed that, maybe classic text-based JRPG’s aren’t for you. Anyway, as a fan, I was always going to be excited about the Suikoden I & II Remasters. The problem is, what a fan wants and what a fan gets is often two different things.

Fortunately, as one might infer from all my above praise, Konami has treated both of these titles with reverence for those that are excited for them. Rather than just slap a HD filter over it, the attention to the graphical and audio chances make them feel like new titles. The battle systems haven’t been messed around with, only polish on the magical attacks and whatnot.

Yes, there are a few warts that couldn’t be blasted off. As you’d expect, the first Suikoden is the lesser of the two. It’s not bad, and strongly recommended to play through first, but it’s very much proto-Suikoden: the template for improvement. But that doesn’t mean it should be rushed through, instead a starter for the main course of the sequel.

In terms of extra content, there isn’t really much to shout about. Galleries, cutscene viewers and an audio playback feature… that’s your lot. Whilst we weren’t expecting a £300 collector’s edition with a bust (that’s being saved for MGS3’s remake), more content might have been nicer. There’s a hard mode, which means tougher enemies, but that’s about it. But hey, you know what they say about gift horses. We should just be grateful that after thirty years that Suikoden’s back and it’s been polished to a gorgeous looking state of nostalgia.

Anyway, that’s enough reminiscing, get out there and recruit those 108 Stars of Destiny.

Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars is available from 6th March 2025 on PlayStation 4 & 5 (reviewed on latter), Xbox One and Series S|X, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam. Physical editions are also available from certain retailers.

Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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