The first in a great RPG series and with a epic storyline and a great battle system it is quite an amazing and fun game.

User Rating: 10 | Genso Suikoden (PlayStation the Best) PS
You begin in a castle with your father a famour general of the Scarlet Moon Empire. You are Tir Mcdohl, today you are beginning your role following your fathers footsteps in the Scarlet Moon Empire's military. You and your father go before Emperor Barbarossa and he asks your father to go on a northern campaign and he tells you he has high hopes for you that one day you might become like your father. You then go home to rest and have dinner with your father before he leaves and you begin your imperial service. You and your entourage consisting of your best friend Ted and your other close friends Gremio, Pahn, and Cleo after sleeping you set off on your first mission to retrieve some predictions from a sorceress on a far off tower.

You ride a dragon there and meet with the sorceress Leknat who tells you that soon you will have some very hard choices in life but you must follow your heart. After returning with the predictions you are sent on another mission to quell some bandits that are troubling a town. After venturing into the mountains where the bandits are you find yourself in trouble with a most dangerous enemy too powerful for you to defeat. Suddenly Ted asks everyone to stand back and as he raises his hand he unleashes a terrifying power that quickly destroys you foe, with the introduction of this mysterious and destructive power your adventure begins and quickly spirals into a conquest for peace and good over evil.

It is hard for me to describe the storyline of the Suikoden series due to the fact that they are very in depth storys and it is hard to describe such a story without ruining any of it. Suikoden is filled with war, drama, tragedy, and revenge many elements that can make a great story come together. Possibly my favorite storyline of any game I cannot see how you couldn't like this amazing story of liberation and sacrifice. With a possible 108 stars of destiny that can be collected to fill your castle with either fighters to be used in battle or members to do various tasks like sell armor or gamble there is a lot to accomplish while traversing the world or Suikoden.

The battles in Suikoden are composed of groups of 6, 3 people in the fromnt row and 3 people in the back row. Many of the combat capable 108 stars have unique traits suck as short of long range so they can only attack from the front or back, some even have unique runes that no other people can use that can perform destructive magic. Runes are the form of magic in Suikoden games you equip them to give yourself either certain physical or magical traits or the ability to use magic spells. The leveling system of the series is also unique every level takes 1000 experience to gain but it changes per enemy/level. This system is set up so even though you have a large cast of characters it is very easy to catch up lower level characters for use on par with your others. This makes switching characters frequently a lot more fun and makes the large cast of characters stand out a lot more.

This is a very old game now it came out in the early PS1 era. Due to this the graphic quality is quite rusty but it still looks good, the animations for attacks, character, and magic look smooth and great. The music of this game is filled with tons of little songs that you will be stuck with and you find yourself playing them back in your head. With a large variety of different music used for battles, bosses, wars, and towns you quickly find yourself enjoying the background music.

Suikoden is and was an epic start to an epic series, unlike many series every Suikoden is linked to the previous one. They do not progress in a straight line but instead are all linked to a timeline and all connected by many returning characters who with the immortality that comes from possessing a true rune can sometimes surprise you that they are still around. I love the fact that the story is this way it makes every Suikoden story that much knowing the previous actions of characters and playing out some of them in previous games. Due to the amazing and original storyline and the fantastic and fun combat system I would rate Suikoden 9.8 out of 10. This game is simply put fantastic I would suggest anyone to play it and enjoy it I don't see how you couldn't. If you are an RPG fan and have yet to touch the Suikoden series I would put it on top of your list cause it is a must play series.

This review will show up as a 10.0 due to Gamespot unfortunately not allowing a 9.8 to be selected.