Video Game Review: Suikoden II

Okay, this was totally supposed to be a review of Gone Home (made possible thanks to a new computer capable of running modern games), but nostalgia beats novelty. Especially when it comes to the Suikoden series, which is officially my favourite game series of all time.

Speaking of which? PLEASE KONAMI MAKE SUIKODEN VI. I WILL PAY ALL THE MONEYDOLLARS FOR IT.

Anyway, when I heard Konami was finally re-releasing Suikoden II on the Play Station Network–its long, depressing absence made all the crueler by the longstanding release of the original Suikoden on the same platform–I was happy I’d have a chance to replay it. Legally! With a copy I own (or, I guess, license from Sony…but let’s not pick nits). I was so delighted because, well, let’s get serious: pretty much the whole fanbase for this game was forced into piracy due to the game’s absurdly small production run and subsequent abandonment by Konami. Original copies cost literally hundreds of dollars. And no, great as Suikoden II is, it is not worth hundreds of dollars for someone’s scratched-up disc on eBay.

JRPG Review: Suikoden Tierkreis

[Note: I recently found this review that I wrote of Suikoden Tierkreis a few years ago, but never posted. So here you go!]

Several months ago I finally relented and purchased my first ever portable system: a shiny blue Nintendo DS XL. Naturally, the first card to grace its virgin slot–that is, after the brief but obligatory primae noctis obeisance afforded to Chrono Trigger–was Suikoden Tierkreis, the most recent addition to Konami’s somewhat uneven but vastly under-appreciated console RPG series.