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On December 15th, 1995, Konami released one of the Playstation’s first RPGs, Genso Suikoden. Like many of the other RPGs at the time, it was initially treated as fodder to feed gamers while they waited for Square’s next behemoth, Final Fantasy VII. Still, there was a certain charm to Genso Suikoden that most of its peers didn’t impart. Its plot was more mature and political, its world was well developed and rife with elements of Western High Fantasy, its music was unique and memorable, and its recruitable cast consisted of an unheard of one hundred and eight characters. As the series developed over the years, Genso Suikoden became increasingly cited as one of the greatest RPG franchises of all time with the praise often directed at its massive and diverse setting (which was built upon with each installment) as well as its healthy respect for the consequences of war.
However, after five numbered installments, Konami chose to do something drastic: a reboot. Abusing the concept of The Infinity (an idea in the series lore that there are millions of different worlds out there), the exciting setting that had made Genso Suikoden so unique in the first place was left behind along with numerous lingering plot threads. Released in 2009, Genso Suikoden Tierkreis was poorly received by series fans for its black-and-white plot, unlikeable characters, and unbalanced gameplay. While the reboot has left an unsavory taste in the mouths of longtime fans, the reason for it is clear: Genso Suikoden has always been a niche series. However, this has been due to a lack of awareness and availability of the titles and Konami’s attempt to attract new fans by rebooting it is only doing more harm than good.
With the scalability and convenience of digital distribution, there is a lot of new potential for this franchise to reach a new generation of gamers in its classic form on a variety of platforms. While the franchise’s first entry is available on the Japanese and American Playstation Networks as a Playstation Classic, this is not sufficient. Too many potential fans are still cut off and there are also still a number of quality entries in the series that are completely unavailable to anyone.
And this is where we want to act. We want to show Konami that this classic franchise can be profitable again while giving the fans what they want. We want to show Konami a united fan-base that is active and full with love for these great games. We want to encourage Konami to give Westerners an opportunity to purchase more of the series merchandise that has never been released outside of Japan before. Moreover, we want to show Konami how willing Genso Suikoden fans are to give them their money.
We are the Suikoden Revival Movement and we want gamers everywhere to experience this classic franchise the way it was meant to be.
