MCDOHL'S PROFILE

Fun fact: Nobody wanted to meet Jude at the airport, because of what I assume to be everyone being scared of him. So I had to.

He's actually the least imposing guy here, next to the crazy British guy with a top hat, monocle, and bridesmaid on each arm.

I prefer only to be active when it's the most controversial, and therefore, the most spotlight shined as humanly possible on myself.

Because, at the end of the day, it's really all about me, isn't it?

post=151754
I figured you'd bring that up. You get to make choices for the main characters dialogue, i.e. "Victory" in Suikoden 1 and 2. To be accused of murder and the only dialogue choice is "..." is terrible.

post=151720
I am unsure how people can complain about Hero 4's lack of expression/action, when Hero 2 is much more of a criminal in that regard. Whereas McDohl and Hero5 at least give the impression that they're reacting to their environment, Hero2 amounts to little more than a punching bag. From Nanami, to Jowy, to Shu, to even Viktor, Hero2 is, quite literally in some instances, dragged along for the ride. He's used and manipulated constantly by whoever wants to use him.

This is, of course, the deadly pitfall of using a silent protagonist. Rather than using the hero as its intended purpose -- that is, to draw out the qualities of the other characters with dialogue, backgrounds, and such -- he becomes an empty, shallow husk of nothing. A player fills in the blanks with what they think.

To wit: Hero 2 is rarely found without his overbearing sister. Of course, we learn how overbearing (and obnoxious) she is in her own right. Nanami being tethered to Hero 2 serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever, and contributes absolutely nothing to the character of Hero 2.

Whereas when Hero 4 gets exiled, Tal, Paula, Kenneth, or Jewel stow away on his boat for the ride. Regardless of who actually comes along, you learn, right from the getgo, that these are Hero 4's most loyal friends; that they'd be willing to exile themselves with complete uncertainty.

This is why McDohl, Hero4 and Hero5 work as protagonists, and Hero2 doesn't. The 3 bring out the character in others; whereas Hero2 doesn't.

Additionally, the "..." choice has existed through all the Suikoden games with a silent protagonist. To start selectively caring is... well, still amusing.

post=151691
We are wildly different people, then. I find IV to be the worst out of the lot. What did you find great about IV? Sailing around on a fucking boat at a blazing 5 MPH fighting flying fish or whatever for about a third of the game isn't exactly riveting. Elenor is probably the most boring tactician out of the entire Silverberg line, Troy was more or less a waste of a character, the Rune of Punishment was a wasted concept, the battle system was about the most boring out of all of them (you thought Suikoden had no variation on its battle characters? TRY SUIKODEN IV FOR THE SURPRISE OF YOUR LIFE), going from 6 to 4 characters at a time was completely unnecessary, the ship on ship battles were about as interesting and challenging as watching paint dry, and Snowe was an alright character, for the entire 3 hours that you see of him in the game.

Suikoden 4 is great because it takes the Suikoden staples and really turns them on its head.

Snowe is the betrayal character. You're not supposed to like Snowe. Snowe's a dipshit and a twit, and he's got every personality trait imaginable to make you hate him. Subsequently, that's why he's a great. You're not supposed to like people, let alone friends, who betray you. Unlike the two games before that where we're supposed to somehow like or at least empathize with the Judas character (Jowy and Luc), Snowe is completely unlikable.

And yet, when you sit in final judgment of Snowe, it becomes an amazing immersion point. You, the player, get to genuinely decide if he lives or dies (I guess some sort of actual representation of why the hero has The Rune of Punishment). Of course, by that point, if you're hunting for Snowe, you've already made up your mind anyway.

I am unsure how people can complain about Hero 4's lack of expression/action, when Hero 2 is much more of a criminal in that regard. Whereas McDohl and Hero5 at least give the impression that they're reacting to their environment, Hero2 amounts to little more than a punching bag. From Nanami, to Jowy, to Shu, to even Viktor, Hero2 is, quite literally in some instances, dragged along for the ride. He's used and manipulated constantly by whoever wants to use him.

This is, of course, the deadly pitfall of using a silent protagonist. Rather than using the hero as its intended purpose -- that is, to draw out the qualities of the other characters with dialogue, backgrounds, and such -- he becomes an empty, shallow husk of nothing. A player fills in the blanks with what they think.

To wit: Hero 2 is rarely found without his overbearing sister. Of course, we learn how overbearing (and obnoxious) she is in her own right. Nanami being tethered to Hero 2 serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever, and contributes absolutely nothing to the character of Hero 2.

Whereas when Hero 4 gets exiled, Tal, Paula, Kenneth, or Jewel stow away on his boat for the ride. Regardless of who actually comes along, you learn, right from the getgo, that these are Hero 4's most loyal friends; that they'd be willing to exile themselves with complete uncertainty.

This is why McDohl, Hero4 and Hero5 work as protagonists, and Hero2 doesn't. The 3 bring out the character in others; whereas Hero2 doesn't.

Graham Cray made sense to me, even if his motivations are simplistic. He wants the Rune of Punishment to remember his child, and will do anything to get it; even manipulating an entire empire. The empire wants to be an imperial power and desires to expands its borders conquering small island nations even though Troy is not on board with the whole idea. Got it. Actually beats out whatever excuse fans can come up with Luc's randomly wanting to destroy the world.

Elenor is a tactician with, by far, the most character, even if her plans don't amount to more than "Fire a rune cannon at that." Her past is quite complicated (as most tacticians seem to be), but she never resolves herself to being sober. Unlike every other tactician (except maybe Caesar, I'm not quite sure, he's amazingly forgettable) who somehow resolves overcoming their past and their hangups with being the best tactician ever, Elenor wallows in her sorrows, even through to the end of the game.

Yeah, the most common complaints I hear are "Sailing is too slow" and "zomg 4 characters instead of 6 in battle wtf!", to which I reply: Use Viki if you hate it that much (or push R2 to sail faster), and complaining about the reduction of usable characters in party means that you actually want to use more characters than allotted, which in turn means that you like a decent number of characters. I find neither of these to be valid arguments.

My personal assumption is that, fans hate Suikoden 4 because it really mocks what they love about the other games. Suikoden 4 is hardly a serious story even with subject matter like war and revolution, and all of its characters are very easily definable and likable, right down to the silly Hawaiian shirt king Lino en Kuldes. Lines are drawn, war breaks out, allies are made, and at the end of the day, the good guys win. Simplicity is hardly a vice.

So when I say, "Suikoden 4 almost captures the magic of the original", that's what I mean. Characters and motivations are very clearly defined and consistent. The original game wasn't complicated, and neither was 4.

Suikoden 2 expands on the core principles from the original in terms of gameplay, and it really does work to the game's advantage. Nonetheless, outside of Luca Blight, the game completely flops.

All three of the protagonists are completely and utterly unlikable; I illustrated why earlier, and the entire game is dominated by these three people. This completely ruins the the entire game in of itself. Jowy in particular is one of the most inconsistent, ridiculous, and flimsy characters in videogamedom, further adding insult to injury. Moreover, I don't like being forced to feel a certain way about a character. I'm supposed to like Jowy, Nanami, and the hero, because the game tells me to? Fuck that shit.

The story tries to be much more in depth than its predecessor, and it winds up failing miserably. While I empathized with the rebellion army, I have no idea what the fuck Viktor and Flik are doing in Jowston or why they even care. North Window is empty and Warrior's Village is in the Toran Republic.

It's not all bad though, as Luca Blight is still one of the best villains I've ever encountered in a video game, and the battle versus Luca Blight is an amazing apex. The problem is, the game doesn't know what to do after Luca's death. Both sides conspired against him to bring him down, but continuing that would resolve conflict and thus end the game. Instead, the game continues to be drawn out with a flimsy Jowy at the head of Highland, with motivations that still elude me to this day.

So, tl;dr, S4 is great, S2 is not.

post=151674
Lol. Bizarro Superman.

De gustibus non est disputandum.