Suikoden Day- Why It's Needed

Suikoden Day, a time of celebration for fans of the video game series Suikoden, where fan works are presented and shared, contests are held, and overall a feeling of brotherhood is felt throughout the fandom. This day, held this year on August 15, 2014, is a day for camaraderie, a day for fans to remind each other that they are not alone, that they belong to an international brotherhood united in a common bond: their love for a grossly underrated series. But, do we really NEED  a Suikoden Day?

Suikoden is an RPG series developed by Konami. In the game, you typically control a heroic teenage male who is placed in charge of a ragtag army that seeks to stop an evil empire. This series has ALL the cliches: teenagers with mystic destinies, heroes that are gifted extreme powers from a mysterious source, evil empires, wizards, dragon knights, all that jazz. You can actually make a check list of all the standard RPG cliches that you'll find in the game!

And yet, the game has thousands of fans across the world. Why? Well, like any true work of art, one needs to look deeper than the surface. One has to look deep into the games to see just what makes them so endearing. And what do we find? Well...

We find amazing, identifiable, and most importantly, human stories of love, duty, rebellion, right, and wrong. The very first game, for example, is a story on doing what is right versus doing what you're told, and at the same time it's a meditation on power and how it corrupts. It is a story of how heroes rise when they are needed most, and how easily a heroic figure can fall from grace. An analysis for that story is located here: http://vidgameanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/08/on-fall-of-scarlet-moon-empire-tale-of.html

The appeal of the first Suikoden can be attributed not just to the excellent writing, but on its technical achievements as well. The music is top notch, and here is but a sample:

The game plays like an average RPG; you have a party of characters, you walk around the world, you encounter enemies, you kill them. Rinse, repeat. On certain intervals, you're given command of an army, but it's really more of a Rock Paper Scissors type minigame with an amazing level of gravitas. It plays like a minigame, but it feels like an epic battle!

Suikoden, technologically speaking, is not the innovator that Final Fantasy is, but it still has appeal, it still has its fans, and the reason for that is because of the stories that these games tell. The appeal of the series is, when all is said and done, the stories, and yes, they are great.

The best thing about the series? Unlike many RPG franchises, like Final Fantasy or Tales, the Suikoden games are interconnected, creating a very wide, deep world with its own history, its own mythology, and even its own cosmology.

The mythology is as follows: In the beginning of time, there were two beings, named Sword and Shield. Sword bet it could cut through anything, while Shield bragged it could deflect any attack. Shield and Sword then had a fight, wherein Sword struck Shield, shattering both itself as well as Shield, scattering the jewels that held them together unto the empty world. These jewels became the True Runes, which helped shape the world as it is.

The True Runes are symbols of magic and power. Throughout six games, only 18 of the 27 True Runes have been revealed, and they are:

1- Rune of Life and Death, otherwise known as the Soul Eater. A rune that governs over life and death, it is known to absorb the souls of the people closest to whoever wields it. A cruel rune, and one of the most dangerous runes in the world.

2- The Gate Rune- A rune that connects this world to others, it has split itself into two halves: The Front Gate Rune and the Back Gate Rune. The Front Gate half is missing, but the Back Gate half is currently in the hands of the seer Leknaat, one of the few characters to appear in ALL games.

3- Sovereign Rune- A rune that represents absolute rule, it has been missing in the world since the disappearance of its previous wielder, Barbarossa Rugner, former emperor of Scarlet Moon.

4- Dragon Rune- A rune that allows dragons to exist and live on the world of Suikoden. Wielded by the chief of the Dragon Knights.

5- Rune of the Beginning- A rune that represents the natural chaos of the world, and its constant struggles. The rune splits itself into halves: The Black Sword Rune represents the original Sword, and aggression. The Bright Shield Rune represents the original Shield, and protection.

6- Beast Rune- A rune that represents passion and rage. My own interpretation of this rune is that, like an animal, what you feed it is what you get: feed it kindness and love and you get the passionate, loyal companion, but feed it hate and anger, and you get a rabid beast.

7, 8, 9, 10, 11- The True Elemental Runes- There's five of them, one for each element in Suikoden: Fire, Earth, Water, Wind, and Thunder. I clumped them together because, well, it would have been annoying to list them all.

12- Eightfold Rune- The most mysterious of the True Runes, because NO ONE has any idea what it does! This mystery is one of the biggest reasons why fans demand the series continue, but more on this in a bit...

13- Rune of Punishment- A rune that governs over both punishment and atonement, this rune is one of the cruelest in the world. It leeches off its bearer's life force, draining them away slowly, killing them once the wielder is ever forced to use its powers. However, if it reaches the Atonement stage, then the rune becomes forgiving and merciful, granting its wielder unstoppable powers without harming them.

14- Night Rune- A rune that allows vampires, zombies, skeletons, and other creatures of darkness to exist in the world.

15- Sun Rune- A rune that wields the nurturing and destructive powers of the Sun.

16- Rune of Change- A rune that governs the ever changing nature of the world. It forces its wielder to continuously travel the world, never settling anywhere.

17- Circle Rune- Represents order and stagnation. Nothing else is known about it.

18- Blue Moon Rune- Represents compassion and destruction. This rune turns its wielder into a destructive individual, uncontrollable and murderous. But if the wielder can get a hold of themselves, then the rune allows them to become a nigh indestructible, immortal vampire that does not even need to suck blood.

There are a total of 9 missing True Runes, and of the 18 I've mentioned, three are mostly unknown save for their names and what they, apparently, represent. This means that the mythology of the games is incomplete, and fans want this mythology to be explored more.

The series is incomplete, and we know it's incomplete thanks to the fact that only 18 of the 27 True Runes have been revealed, and of those 18, 3 of them have yet to be fully explored. But why do we care that it's incomplete?

Well, to answer that question, allow me to ask another question: what if JK Rowling never got to finish Harry Potter? What if she had stopped at Goblet of Fire, leaving so many plot threads hanging? What if JRR Tolkien dropped The Lord of the Rings right after Boromir died? What if Don Quixote ended sometime after his infamous battle with the giant windmills, because that's as far as Miguel de Cervantes got to write? Some of the greatest stories ever told would have been left not just incomplete, but incomplete in the most unsatisfactory manner imaginable.

Here is a video game series with a HUGE world, and we the fans have only gotten to see a portion of it. We know there are WAY more stories to be told, lots more to explore, many heroes left to meet, many villains left to defeat. The story of Suikoden is incomplete.

But why do we want it to be complete? Because we care about it. Because we love the story, and like any good story, we want to see how it ends. Do we want it to end? Yes and no. No, because like any good story we love, we want it to keep going forever. And yes, because we want to see the story pay off in some way. Suikoden is a modern day mythology, the video game version of Middle Earth, if you will. We've invested into the mythology of this world, and we really want a pay off.

That's why we need Suikoden Day, to show the world that this series, which Konami has discontinued for all intents and purposes, is still loved. Because we still love the characters, because we haven't forgotten the story, because we're still waiting for Konami to continue the story.

Actually, that's half the reason why we need Suikoden Day. The other half?

To show ourselves we're not alone. We're all part of a giant fandom that loves the same thing, a brotherhood united by a common bond: a game series. We're not all Japanese or Americans, we're also Puerto Ricans, Indonesians, French, European, Brazilians, Filipinos, Peruvians, Greeks, Indians, we're international! Our love for the game transcends borders, uniting people from all over the world! The things that unite us far surpass what separates us. Just like in the games, a hodgepodge of people with very little in common have gotten together for a common goal, and in this case, our goal is simple: express how much we love this series.

THAT is why Suikoden Day is needed. Happy Suikoden Day 2014!