Konami released Suikoden I & II HD Remaster yesterday for modern consoles, but it’s apparently based on the PlayStation and PSP versions, lacking additions made exclusively to the 1998 Saturn port.
In a review of the RPG collection for GameSpot, Heidi Kemps wrote, “Where’s all the extra content from the Suikoden I release on the Japanese Sega Saturn? The whole package just has an aura of missed opportunity, which is especially disappointing to me given its years of delay.”
The remaster was announced two and a half years ago and set for a 2023 release at the time.
Konami ported the first Suikoden, named Gensou Suikoden, to the Sega Saturn in September 1998 about three years after making the game for the PlayStation. The port added quite a few exclusive features.
According to fan website Suikosource, those Saturn-exclusive additions included new items (Silver Armor and Darkness Rune) that are obtained in a new area (Eikei’s Arena), two new story events (having a pet cat and getting attacked by pirates), an expanded story event (Gremio’s resurrection) and three new minigames that replace the ones Marco, Tai Ho/Gaspar and Georges play.
The Saturn version was never localized outside Japan, but the PS1 original was brought to North America in 1996 and Europe in 1997. The second Suikoden game was never ported to the Saturn, although the Silver Armor and Darkness Rune items did appear in the sequel when it released for the PS1 in December 1998.
Both games were first remastered in a Japan-only compilation on the Sony PSP in 2006.
The remaster’s various store pages tout several features:
- All background illustrations have been upgraded to HD.
- Updated effects breathe new life into the pixel art animation.
- New environmental sounds effects to immerse yourself in this fantasy world.
- Battle SFX are also now HD and add a new level of realism.
- Newly added auto-save.
- Battle fast forward.
- Conversation log.
While those features are new to yesterday’s remaster, there are other changes from the original Suikoden present, such as the ability to move diagonally and view an in-game artwork gallery — improvements present in the 2006 PSP release, Heidi Kemps pointed out in her GameSpot review.
Screenshots from Suikoden I & II HD Remaster.
Perhaps the only change made to the Saturn port of Suikoden that’s survived to the new remaster is the introductory cinematic that differs from the PS1 version — but even that was originally reused for the PSP collection.
Konami even had access to developers who worked on Suikoden in the ’90s. In an interview Tuesday with Japanese website Dengeki Online, series IP and game director Takahiro Sakiyama said the remaster team consulted with staff members who worked on the original games and still are at Konami to this day.
Perhaps those staff members didn’t work on or remember the Saturn version’s additional content. Maybe the remaster team didn’t know how to port the Saturn’s exclusive areas, events and minigames — or thought they were unimportant. Konami hasn’t yet addressed it.
Nonetheless, the new remaster provides a way to play something resembling the Saturn RPG with localizations into seven other languages — English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and simplified and traditional Chinese — on modern platforms, even if it lacks much of what made the Saturn port special.
Suikoden I & II HD Remaster is available for Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series, and PC via Windows Store, Steam and the Epic Games Store.
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