Immediately noticeable is the fairly big difference between how the original Suikodens look compared to their newly announced remaster treatment. The overworld’s been given some particular attention, and now has lovely clouds hovering above. Konami say they’ve zhuzhed up the sprites and environments with new effects such as lighting, flickering flames, smoke effects, moving flora and fauna, and animated shadows.
All of the games’ character portraits have been given HD makeovers, with the first game’s portraits redrawn by original character designer Junko Kawano. Konami insist it’ll sound better on your ears as well, thanks to a bunch more environmental noises ranging from running water to insects making whatever sounds insects make. They’ve also added more realistic battle sounds. The devs seem to have learned from Square’s rereleases of their older RPGs too, as the Suikoden HD Remaster features a conversation log, auto-battling, and double-speed battles.
Suikoden was originally released on PlayStation back in 1995 and never made it to PC in the West. It’s based on the Chinese novel Water Margin, following the son of a general as he searches for 108 Stars of Destiny and allies to strike back against an evil empire. While definitely a JRPG, Suikoden also featured base management and army battles to manage. Suikoden II turned up in 1998, and carried on developing its predecessor’s systems and story. That’s the one JRPG fans seem to really, really like.
