I was first introduced to the Suikoden series with Suikoden II when it came out in the States in 1999. I enjoyed it quite a bit and it was only by a chance encounter at a Toys R’ Us that I got my hands on the first game. I learned about the transfer bonus for saves, so once I played through the first game, I did another playthrough of the second. And that was where I left the series until I came back from the Army.

Some readers may not be familiar with G4. It was a video games-based cable channel that eventually lost its way, modeling itself as a sort of Spike Jr. before finally folding and being replaced by the Esquire Channel. Well, when I first came back from the Army, the channel was at its purest, a quirky little niche channel. One of its shows was called Cinematech, which would should of game intros and such, sometimes of fairly obscure titles. It was on this show that I saw the animated intro to Suikoden III. I was hooked. The only problem was that I didn’t have a PS2. This was in 2003. Somewhere between late 2005 and early 2006, I first started to import Japanese games, in particular a number of PS2 games, Suiko3 among them. However, those games would sit untouched until I bought a Japanese PS2 before returning to the States from Japan in 2008. (I was toying with the idea of getting a PS3, but due to backwards compatibility being taken out of later models, I decided to just get a PS2 instead.) Well, one of the first things I intended to do with my new PS2 was play Suiko3, but then it asked for a save game from Suikogaiden, Vol.2. Not wanting to miss out on the save game bonus, I went back to Suikogaiden, Vol. 1. (I imported the two Suikogaiden games around the same time as Suiko3, if I recall correctly.) Well, it asked me for a Suikoden II save. Wanting the full effect, I waited rather than just start things up there. Then comes 2011, when I managed to find both Suikoden and Suikoden II at a Book Off while in Japan. I didn’t actually start playing the Japanese version of the first game until 2012, though. I beat it and started on Suiko2, but didn’t get very far. It wasn’t until late 2014, when a venture of mine foundered that I resumed the playthrough, then went through the two visual novels and finally started Suiko3. I only got a few chapters in before straying from the game once more and only this year as I was coming to a bit of a dead end with Fire Emblem if did I pick things up once more and play through to the end. So, yes, a 12-year journey all for a single game, all because of the strength of the intro movie.

I’d actually intended to end my Suikoden story with Suiko3, as I’d heard mixed things about the fourth and fifth games, but once I beat Suiko3, I decided to keep going and play the series to its conclusion. So be on the lookout next year for reviews of IV and V. Stay tuned.

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