Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars review for PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC

The original PlayStation had some of the absolute best JRPGs out there. Breath of Fire III and IV, Final Fantasy VII through IX, Xenogears (one of my personal favorites), Chrono Cross, Lunar 1 and 2, Wild Arms, Legend of Dragoon and this is barely scratching the surface. Konami had some break out hits on the PlayStation too, such as Metal Gear Solid and Castlevania Symphony of the Night. They also had a JRPG series called Suikoden that spawned five mainline games spanning the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, as well as several spin off games. The original, came almost 30 years ago, and Konami has finally updated the first two games and have released them in a collection known as Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars. The Suikoden games, especially the second one, are some of the best RPGs to come out of the era. Do the HD remasters do them justice, or is it just fresh paint on classic RPGs that are showing their age?

When the first Suikoden title came out in 1996, it set itself apart from other RPGs for a couple reasons. Early on in both games, the main character finds a location, like a cave or castle, and uses it as a base of operations. The game had 108 characters to collect and join you. Many characters serve a purpose at the castle, blacksmith, item shop, item vault, etc. Does that mean they could all be members of your party? Not quite, but a majority of them can. It was also one of the very few games where the main character wasn’t trying to save the world, just his part of it. This makes Suikoden a rather unique animal, as most major RPGs features a world-saving quest.

Most of the systems of the first two games are the same. There can be up to six characters in the party at any time, two rows of three. Each character has a range, short, medium or long. Depending on the characters range and placement in the party would determine which monsters can be hit, as monsters are arranged in the same manner. Short range characters can only hit if they and the monster are in the front row, whereas a long range character can attack any monster on the field.

The magic system is quite a bit different than most RPGs of its time. The games lore has 28 true runes, each of these runes are extremely powerful but come at a heavy cost. Each game is centered around at least one of these runes. Offshoots of these runes are orbs. Orbs can be equipped at a magic shop to allow characters to use magic. Each orb does something different, and not all are magical in nature. For example, there is the counter orb which drastically increases the counter attack rate, but there is the a flame orb which allows a character to use fire magic.

If a character has a magic orb equipped, each orb/rune has four levels of magic. As characters level up they gain access to the later levels. However, there are no magic points, instead, you are limited to a number of uses per level of magic. So a character could have access to cast a level one spell 6 times, a level 2 spell 3 times, so on and so forth. These counters are reset whenever a character rests.

When it comes to equipping characters in Suikoden, weapons are very easy. New weapons aren’t purchased, instead, all weapons are improved at the blacksmith. Character inventory is kept track of on an individual basis, each character can carry a certain number of items. Inventory management is something that could have used a drastic improvement. No changes have been made to the inventory management system in the remaster and moving items between characters is very clunky. Placing items in the vault for characters that are not in your party is even worse. While interacting with the vault, players will see a list of all characters in their party, and a list of all characters. An individual character must be selected and then can have their pockets emptied. Also keep in mind that characters that are in the party are also in the list of all characters, so it’s easy to accidentally strip characters in the party of their gear.

When pulling gear out of the vault, the game doesn’t tell you if a particular piece of equipment is better than what is equipped on anyone in the party. Pulling equipment out of the vault onto a character, then exiting the vault and attempting to equip it is the only way to find out if that character can use the item you gave them. It can be extremely frustrating. The majority of the time I found myself dumping everything into the vault, pulling out usable items, potions and such, and then buying a fresh set of armor for my party.

What is new to the games are a few different things, first, updated character portraits, drawn by Suikoden veteran Junko Kawano, they look amazing! Updated backgrounds and spell effects. Characters and enemies are still 2d sprites, but almost everything else has been updated to high resolution 3d backgrounds and spell effects. Sound effects have been improved on, but somewhat disappointing is the music hasn’t been upgraded. This is a bit of a miss as many HD remasters include updated soundtracks with the option of using the original.

Both games stories involve war, a running theme in the games. In the first, the main character is the son of a General of the empire. Early on in the game we find that the Emperor’s court magician Wendy, is a corrupt witch out for power and has manipulated the emperor into doing her bidding. The main character eventually flees the capital, joins and leads the liberation army to topple the emperor and Wendy. The second game involves the City States of Jowston and the Kingdom of Highland. The main character and his best friend are part of the youth brigade in Highland and the Prince has decided to murder the youth brigade and blame the City States of Jowston.

Both games involve army battles, while the first is uses a paper, rock, scissors method (magic beats charge attack, ranged beats magic, and charge beats ranged), the second game uses a tactical map with armies being led by the main characters 108 recruits. Both games also have 1 on 1 duals between characters, again using a paper, rock, scissors battle system. Overall, the Suikoden 2 war system is by far more fun, and is a great upgrade from the first game.

The Suikoden series has its good games and bad, but Suikoden 1 and 2 are my two favorites in the series. For those looking to scratch the itch of a classic JRPG, these games will do it. I hope that other companies take notes, as they kept the core game play and didn’t make any major changes to the battle system — I’m looking at you Final Fantasy VII Remake. The Suikoden 1 and 2 HD Remaster isn’t perfect though, and Konami should have made a few more quality of life improvements, specifically to the inventory system. The story to both games is there in all of its glory, the second game’s story especially. Overall, Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars is a solid update to some classically good JRPGs!

Note: Konami provided us with a Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars PS5 code for review purposes.