Mastodawn

the system menu can only be accessed on planets. literally OPTIONS menu, only at planets. WHY? so bizarre.

@buru5 This is what makes it Suikoden-y!

@suikoversum

i've never actually played Suikoden, which is surprising as I've played most jrpg series, just never got around to it. I know S2 is highly rated, but would you recommend playing the series in-order?

@buru5 I'd always recommend playing the first before the second, only because it only takes ~15h to complete (the second is more around 30), and you'll see lots of nice cameos in 2! There's also a feature which allows you to import a save if the first game into the second for even more cameos and some extra content and dialogue

@buru5 otherwise, IV and V are pretty much standalone. IV is very short for a PS2 JRPG (around 20h), but suffers on many fronts (empty world, story and characters not really fleshed out). V is great and a reuses many of II's plot points, but has horrible pacing and takes roughly 50h

@suikoversum what are your thoughts on 3? some have described it as the best or most underrated

@buru5 there's also Suikoden Tactics which I'd only recommend if you played IV and love solid tactical JRPGs - the games are connected in some ways storywise. There's also Tierkreis for DS, which was a pretty good JRPG for the system, but takes place in a different setting, and another for the PSP, which was never released outside Japan, but I helped in doing an English fantranslation last year. But I'd not really recommend it

@buru5 Suikoden III is also more or less standalone, but some of the major plot points revolve around a minor character from the first two games and you'll have lits of cameos and namedropping which you'd appreciate more if you know at least II. But IMO it's the best in the series with lovable characters and a great story (and some very bad gameplay decisions)

@suikoversum thanks -- seems like it's best to do 1, 2, 3 at the very least, in that order.

Excited for Eiyuden Chronicles?