Every day it seems like the Suikoden series will never see another numbered entry. That's exceptionally for the fans who have emotionally invested themselves in the series, myself included. And why not? It's a fantastic series, interconnected by themes of war, history, camaraderie, love, and so forth. So, it's up to the fans to decide what Suikoden 6 would be like. Today, I share my take on what Suikoden 6 should have been.
The story of my Suikoden 6 starts off in a tiny, nameless village. A young girl named Claudia gathers water for her sick father, an old man named Barbarossa. As she pours him a drink, she asks for the umpteenth time about her mother, whom she's never met. Barbarossa, however, had long since lost the ability to talk, and remains unresponsive. Claudia goes outside their small hut. She lives in a small village just a little ways south of Toran, on what used to be called Kooluk. Thirty years have passed since the Toran Liberation War (the events of Suikoden 1); Claudia herself is fifteen.
One fateful day, soldiers dressed as the Toran Army attack the village Claudia lives in. Claudia attempts to save her father, but finds herself too weak to carry him. Barbarossa, for the first time in years, gets up, picks up his sword, and tells Claudia his last word: "Run."
Claudia ran from her home, tears in her eyes. She took one last look at her home village and saw it in flames. She keeps running and trips, falling unconscious. In a dream, Leknaat appears to her, delivering a dire warning.
"Harmonia seeks the True Runes, and have now gotten their hands on the Sovereign Rune," she says. "But you can stop their ambitions. You MUST recover the Sovereign Rune."
"How can I do that?" Claudia asks.
"You must wield your mother's Rune..." Leknaat says as she disappears. Claudia wakes up and finds herself in front of a tomb. She enters it and finds a pedestal with the Front Gate Run attached, The Runes glows, a bright light engulfs the entire crypt, and Claudia finds herself attached with the Rune on her forehead.
News of the attack reaches the capital of the new El-Eal Republic, the heir state to the Kooluk Empire. They believe Toran was responsible, and so are now preparing for war against their northern neighbor, They enlist the aid of the Island Nations Federation, their southern allies, for this upcoming war.
Toran, meanwhile, sees this as aggression by El-Eal, and thus prepare to defend themselves. Enlisting the aid of Tinto, their new allies, Toran prepares for war.
Between all this, a sole woman carries with her the sword the old Emperor of Scarlet Moon, Barbarossa Rugner. With it, she also carries the Sovereign Rune, one of the 27 True Runes that Hikusaak, ruler of Harmonia, seeks. However, she has her own plans for the Rune...
Claudia finds herself with a True Rune, meaning she is now a target for Harmonia. She likewise finds herself in the middle of a conflict that could determine the fate of the world. Toran wants her gone, as she is the heir to the old overthrown emperor. El-Eal wants to use her to win the war, reclaim their stolen lands, and turn southern Toran into a buffer state between the two nations. There are those in the shadows that want to overthrow the Toran government and reinstate the Scarlet Moon throne, with Claudia as a puppet heiress. And Claudia? She just wants peace.
But as the Tenkai Star, she must assemble an army to bring that peace. Aided by Caesar Silverberg, heir to the noble Silverberg house of military strategists, Claudia must lead the 101 Stars of Destiny in an epic war that will change the political landscape of the Suikoden world forever...
Now we talk gameplay.
As is typical of Suikoden, the player controls a party of up to six characters. The player can recruit 101 characters to his/her army, with only forty of those being story characters. Of the 101 characters the player can recruit, 80 are playable in battle. The player can freely choose five other characters to join Claudia in battle.
Like previous Suikoden protagonists, Claudia is a balanced character, good at both physical as well as magical capabilities. She wields the Front Gate Rune, a powerful rune with spells that deal tons of damage. However, like in Suikoden 1, these spells are unlocked via special circumstances; two by story, and two by side quests. Her magic point growth is kept low specifically to keep her from being over powered; She gets one point for the first rank of magic on every level divisible by four, a point on the second rank on every level divisible by five, a point for the third rank on every level divisible by 10, and a point on the final rank on every level divisible by 20.
The Front Gate Rune has four spells. The first is obtained during the main story, called Pale Palace. It deals 600 damage to every enemy,while also imbalancing Claudia (rendering her unable to attack) for three turns. You get this spell after the first army battle in the game, around eight hours into the game.
The second spell is Empty World. It deals 900 damage to all enemies, while also dealing a third of that damage to your allies. In early levels this spell is extremely dangerous, as you are unlikely to have any characters that have over 300 HP. To get this spell you need to pass a side quest involving a kidnapped child, a ghost, and a demon inside your castle. Though you can start the quest as soon as you get your castle, the boss is much too difficult to beat at low levels; wait until you are around level 25 or so to beat it.
The third spell is Army of Darkness. This spell is unique in that it fills every empty party slot in battle with Dark Soldiers, special warriors equipped with a unique rune called the Dark Blade Rune. More on that later, though. The Dark Soldiers all have 200 HP, 50 ATK, 50 DEF, and 10 SPD. If you have five of them, they can perform a Unite Attack called Drag to Darkness, which can automatically kill every non-boss enemy or deal 1100 damage to bosses. You get this spell halfway through the game's main story.
The final spell is simply called From the Void. It can deal 2000 damage to any one enemy. If this doesn't kill it, and you have an empty party slot, the spell also summons a Red Demon that has 500 HP, 200 ATK, DEF, and SPD, and possesses a Darkness Rune. This spell can only be obtained by passing a side quest near the end of the game, and it involves a demon close to the game's final dungeon.
Besides the Front Gate Rune, there's a few new runes I want to add, too. The first is the previously mentioned Dark Blade Rune. This rune has two spells. The first is Instant Killer; for two turns, every attack the wielder makes on an enemy has a chance to give them Instant Death. Naturally, this doesn't work on bosses. The second ability is Wave of Darkness. It deals half the usual basic attack damage to all enemies, then heals the caster for that same amount. The Dark Blade Rune cannot be bought or sold, and is only found either on Dark Soldiers or on a special character you can recruit, named Chiron.
There's also three new rune born of the Dragon Rune, another of the 27 True Runes. The first is the Red Dragon Rune, a rune that can be attached to a human and turns him/her into a red dragon for two turns. It can only be used once in battle. The second rune is called the Green Dragon Rune. It's a rune that passively increases its wielder's ATK and SPD by 30%, but lowers their MDF by 50%. And finally there's the White Dragon Rune, which summons a baby dragon to your party for the rest of the battle if there's an empty slot. The baby dragon has 50% of the summoner's attributes, wields no runes, and cannot be mounted. However, two of them can perform a Unite Attack called "Dragon Burp", which can deal 250 damage to all enemies.
Army battles should be done in Suikoden 2's style. You have three types of units: Archers, Infantry, and Magicians. Archers beat Magicians, Magicians beat Infantry, and Infantry beats Archers. Each unit moves in a grid map towards the enemy units, where their ATK and DEF values determine the winner. If one side loses all its units, OR if the flag wielding unit is killed, that side loses the battle. I personally found Suikoden 2's Army vs Army battle system to be the best in the series, so I would like to see it return in some capacity.
Finally, I want to talk about the castle. To be frank, I've fallen in love with Fallout 4's building mechanics, so I would love to see something similar done in Suikoden 6. If not, however, I would also enjoy seeing SOME level of control regarding how the player can help design the castle's layout. But, in all honesty, I just want a castle that FEELS like a growing castle, like in Suikoden 1 or 2. I want a castle that starts out small and empty, and at the end of the game it's big and bustling with activity. I want something like Suikoden 1, where the castle started off as two towers with three floors, a cabin, and a dock, but ended a castle with four towers, four stories high.
That's the Suikoden 6 I see in my dreams. What about you?
One fateful day, soldiers dressed as the Toran Army attack the village Claudia lives in. Claudia attempts to save her father, but finds herself too weak to carry him. Barbarossa, for the first time in years, gets up, picks up his sword, and tells Claudia his last word: "Run."
Claudia ran from her home, tears in her eyes. She took one last look at her home village and saw it in flames. She keeps running and trips, falling unconscious. In a dream, Leknaat appears to her, delivering a dire warning.
"Harmonia seeks the True Runes, and have now gotten their hands on the Sovereign Rune," she says. "But you can stop their ambitions. You MUST recover the Sovereign Rune."
"How can I do that?" Claudia asks.
"You must wield your mother's Rune..." Leknaat says as she disappears. Claudia wakes up and finds herself in front of a tomb. She enters it and finds a pedestal with the Front Gate Run attached, The Runes glows, a bright light engulfs the entire crypt, and Claudia finds herself attached with the Rune on her forehead.
News of the attack reaches the capital of the new El-Eal Republic, the heir state to the Kooluk Empire. They believe Toran was responsible, and so are now preparing for war against their northern neighbor, They enlist the aid of the Island Nations Federation, their southern allies, for this upcoming war.
Toran, meanwhile, sees this as aggression by El-Eal, and thus prepare to defend themselves. Enlisting the aid of Tinto, their new allies, Toran prepares for war.
Between all this, a sole woman carries with her the sword the old Emperor of Scarlet Moon, Barbarossa Rugner. With it, she also carries the Sovereign Rune, one of the 27 True Runes that Hikusaak, ruler of Harmonia, seeks. However, she has her own plans for the Rune...
Claudia finds herself with a True Rune, meaning she is now a target for Harmonia. She likewise finds herself in the middle of a conflict that could determine the fate of the world. Toran wants her gone, as she is the heir to the old overthrown emperor. El-Eal wants to use her to win the war, reclaim their stolen lands, and turn southern Toran into a buffer state between the two nations. There are those in the shadows that want to overthrow the Toran government and reinstate the Scarlet Moon throne, with Claudia as a puppet heiress. And Claudia? She just wants peace.
But as the Tenkai Star, she must assemble an army to bring that peace. Aided by Caesar Silverberg, heir to the noble Silverberg house of military strategists, Claudia must lead the 101 Stars of Destiny in an epic war that will change the political landscape of the Suikoden world forever...
Now we talk gameplay.
As is typical of Suikoden, the player controls a party of up to six characters. The player can recruit 101 characters to his/her army, with only forty of those being story characters. Of the 101 characters the player can recruit, 80 are playable in battle. The player can freely choose five other characters to join Claudia in battle.
Like previous Suikoden protagonists, Claudia is a balanced character, good at both physical as well as magical capabilities. She wields the Front Gate Rune, a powerful rune with spells that deal tons of damage. However, like in Suikoden 1, these spells are unlocked via special circumstances; two by story, and two by side quests. Her magic point growth is kept low specifically to keep her from being over powered; She gets one point for the first rank of magic on every level divisible by four, a point on the second rank on every level divisible by five, a point for the third rank on every level divisible by 10, and a point on the final rank on every level divisible by 20.
The Front Gate Rune has four spells. The first is obtained during the main story, called Pale Palace. It deals 600 damage to every enemy,while also imbalancing Claudia (rendering her unable to attack) for three turns. You get this spell after the first army battle in the game, around eight hours into the game.
The second spell is Empty World. It deals 900 damage to all enemies, while also dealing a third of that damage to your allies. In early levels this spell is extremely dangerous, as you are unlikely to have any characters that have over 300 HP. To get this spell you need to pass a side quest involving a kidnapped child, a ghost, and a demon inside your castle. Though you can start the quest as soon as you get your castle, the boss is much too difficult to beat at low levels; wait until you are around level 25 or so to beat it.
The third spell is Army of Darkness. This spell is unique in that it fills every empty party slot in battle with Dark Soldiers, special warriors equipped with a unique rune called the Dark Blade Rune. More on that later, though. The Dark Soldiers all have 200 HP, 50 ATK, 50 DEF, and 10 SPD. If you have five of them, they can perform a Unite Attack called Drag to Darkness, which can automatically kill every non-boss enemy or deal 1100 damage to bosses. You get this spell halfway through the game's main story.
The final spell is simply called From the Void. It can deal 2000 damage to any one enemy. If this doesn't kill it, and you have an empty party slot, the spell also summons a Red Demon that has 500 HP, 200 ATK, DEF, and SPD, and possesses a Darkness Rune. This spell can only be obtained by passing a side quest near the end of the game, and it involves a demon close to the game's final dungeon.
Besides the Front Gate Rune, there's a few new runes I want to add, too. The first is the previously mentioned Dark Blade Rune. This rune has two spells. The first is Instant Killer; for two turns, every attack the wielder makes on an enemy has a chance to give them Instant Death. Naturally, this doesn't work on bosses. The second ability is Wave of Darkness. It deals half the usual basic attack damage to all enemies, then heals the caster for that same amount. The Dark Blade Rune cannot be bought or sold, and is only found either on Dark Soldiers or on a special character you can recruit, named Chiron.
There's also three new rune born of the Dragon Rune, another of the 27 True Runes. The first is the Red Dragon Rune, a rune that can be attached to a human and turns him/her into a red dragon for two turns. It can only be used once in battle. The second rune is called the Green Dragon Rune. It's a rune that passively increases its wielder's ATK and SPD by 30%, but lowers their MDF by 50%. And finally there's the White Dragon Rune, which summons a baby dragon to your party for the rest of the battle if there's an empty slot. The baby dragon has 50% of the summoner's attributes, wields no runes, and cannot be mounted. However, two of them can perform a Unite Attack called "Dragon Burp", which can deal 250 damage to all enemies.
Army battles should be done in Suikoden 2's style. You have three types of units: Archers, Infantry, and Magicians. Archers beat Magicians, Magicians beat Infantry, and Infantry beats Archers. Each unit moves in a grid map towards the enemy units, where their ATK and DEF values determine the winner. If one side loses all its units, OR if the flag wielding unit is killed, that side loses the battle. I personally found Suikoden 2's Army vs Army battle system to be the best in the series, so I would like to see it return in some capacity.
Finally, I want to talk about the castle. To be frank, I've fallen in love with Fallout 4's building mechanics, so I would love to see something similar done in Suikoden 6. If not, however, I would also enjoy seeing SOME level of control regarding how the player can help design the castle's layout. But, in all honesty, I just want a castle that FEELS like a growing castle, like in Suikoden 1 or 2. I want a castle that starts out small and empty, and at the end of the game it's big and bustling with activity. I want something like Suikoden 1, where the castle started off as two towers with three floors, a cabin, and a dock, but ended a castle with four towers, four stories high.
That's the Suikoden 6 I see in my dreams. What about you?
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