The cover is atrocious, but this is one of the best RPGs ever, and deserves to be among the top 100 games ever.
Suikoden begins with an admittedly fairly cliche story (by today's standards especially) and setting of a young character who is "chosen" and must fight an "Evil Empire" in a vaguely medieval setting. But the differences in this story is that you actually have a deep personal connection to this Empire and the Rune that chooses your character is basically destined to ruin his life. The majority of the 108 characters you recruit are surprisingly unique and developed for the short time given. Its easy to become sympathetic with the gravity of events that take place in this game and the characters that are affected. The only other game I can think of that tells such a simple story so well and deeply in a short period of time is Ace Combat 4.
Suikoden was definitely a groundbreaking game. The most obvious evidence for broken ground comes in the character recruitment and castle building aspects of the game. The only similarities between this game and others of the time are that the party battles are turn based and enemies give you exp and money when you kill them. Otherwise this game has ZERO similarity to FF VII, although the menu is vaguely similar to Beyond the Beyond.
This is a game that used to be $60 - $90 on ebay until recently made available for download and I would encourage anyone who is even a remote RPG fan to pay the $5.99 and get this game. Maybe then they'll make Suikoden II available so we won't have to pay $140+ on ebay to get a copy. Not many games rated in the 6's and 7's command those kinds of prices from the market and they are a reflection of how wrong Gamespot got it on this game. To add further insult to this injury, Gamespot turned around and gave the massively inferior sequel a better rating. Calling this game mediocre is border lining a compliment.
Take it from someone who has played every major RPG of the mid to late 90's and is a fan of FF VII: do not let this game get overshadowed by something which is longer and polygonal.