Genso Suikoden I & II

Genso Suikoden I & II
Developer(s)	Konami
Publisher(s)	Konami
Designer(s)	Yoshitaka Murayama
Artist(s)	Junko Kawano (I) Fumi Ishikawa (II)
Series	Suikoden
Platform(s)	PlayStation Portable (PSP)
Release date(s)	February 23, 2006 (Japan)
Genre(s)	Role-playing video game
Mode(s)	Single player
Distribution	1 UMD

Genso Suikoden I & II (Japanese: 幻想水滸伝I&II) is a re-release of the PlayStation role-playing video games Suikoden and Suikoden II, ported to the PlayStation Portable. Konami announced the game in the fourth quarter of 2005, and the compilation was released on February 23, 2006. Both games are combined in one Universal Media Disc (UMD), in which the player can choose which Suikoden game he or she wants to play, as well as a third choice which is "Gallery" (ギャラリー).

Story

Suikoden I

Suikoden II

PlayStation Portable changes

Several changes from the original PlayStation versions of Suikoden and II were done for the PSP:^[1]

• The player is now able to move their character diagonally inside places and over the world map.
• Graphics have been slightly enhanced and redone to fit widescreen. This includes an extension of some places which were designed for PAL and NTSC televisions. (Refer to Fig. 1)
  

  Fig. 1. Screenshots comparing the different versions. Left: Suikoden II on the PlayStation and Right: Suikoden II on the PSP.

Suikoden I changes

• The opening movie of Suikoden I is now the one from the Sega Saturn version.
• Some menu windows changed in orientation.

Suikoden II changes

• Rune and Unite sequences are faster.
• The Matilda "Glitch" has been removed.
• A new "power-save setting" (省電力設定) was added under the options menu which could be turned ON/OFF. If turned to ON, the screen dims for a certain time of inactivity.
• The background music for the tactical war fights vary depending on the situation of the hero's army. These tracks include the original "Battlefield Without Light" and the un-played from the original PlayStation version, "War".

Gallery

Gallery (ギャラリー) is the third option when prompted which Suikoden game to play. It has the following selections:

• Sound Mode (サウンドモード) – plays tracks from the game
• Movies (ムービー) – plays the FMV movies
• Event viewer (ィべント ビューワー) – plays various cutscenes in the game
• Ending (エンディング) – shows the epilogue of the 108 Stars of Destiny (sub-divided to I and II)
• Staff Roll (スタッフロール) – shows the credits (sub-divided to I and II)

Movies, event viewer and ending only becomes available by loading an end-game save file of each individual game.

Overseas release

The art director of the Suikoden series discussed in his blog a possible overseas release.^[2] However, the possibility was subsequently dismissed as a mistranslation and the blog has since disappeared.^[3] As of 2013, no fan translation has been completed or released for the compilation.

Reception

Genso Suikoden I & II had very low sales in Japan, selling a mere 21,707 copies despite being critically praised.^[4] The lack of success may not be entirely attributable to the games; the PlayStation Portable has seen poor sales for most RPGs released early in its history.^[4]

References