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I finished Gensou Suikoden 1 for the second time right before the end of September 2000 and finally
got all 108 characters intact. Well, Suikoden players will know that means I managed to resurrect Gremio. ^_^*Leknaat raises her hand, a flash of light blinds everyone for a second! And then....someone familiar
appears in the hall!*Gremio: *dazed, mumbling to himself* I can't die yet...I haven't finished the laundry...there's a new
stew I want to try out...
Kurama: Is that all you can think of before you died? @_@
Gremio: Oh, and I need to patch that hole I spotted in Young Master's pants while I was doing laundry......
Kurama: How domesticated...you're a man every woman wants, I bet! ^_^
Does anyone notice the similarity between Gremio and Kenshin (from Rurouni Kenshin) ?
Hint: Cross-scar, laundry, good culinary skills, able to fight well....It's a good thing Gremio fights with an axe and not a long range weapon; makes him as interesting as Kenshin. :Þ
Anyway, enough about Gremio. ^-^;; Onto the my take on Gensou Suikoden!!
Personally, I believe that the Suikoden series truely brings out the theme of War as a tragedy, as Mcdohl and Genkaku are victims of it, even if they are leaders of the Liberation Army and winning victories in the end.
Mcdohl loses his best friend Ted and his 'nanny' Gremio, followed by a big possibility of losing Pahn, and soon after, kills his own father. He even faces the wrath of Sonya Shulen, his father's lover (and potential step-mother) in the battle at Shazarade. Such is his fate as a leader and the bearer of the Soul Eater Rune....
The Soul Eater is quite a cool rune, great for attacking multiple bosses (like the final fight with Emporer Barbarosa!) The fact that the Soul Eater is a powerful but cursed rune catches my attention. Somehow there is a feeling that Ted passes the curse of the Soul Eater to Mcdohl, and Mcdohl brings sadness to himself as the Soul Eater feeds on the loss of his close friends and family.
There are people who think that Mcdohl is the most tragic out of the 2 main characters of Suikoden, but I think Genkaku is worse off. (in a normal ending) Maybe because I played Suiko 2 before Suiko 1...^.^
Well, for a point, Ted is established as Mcdohl's good friend, but is not well developed since he does not get much appearances in the game. (Ted disappears quite early in the game). Jowy and Genkaku, on the other hand, spends quite some time together before Jowy leaves.
Official illustration; Left to right: Young Genkaku, Jowy and Nanami. Click for larger image. (36k) Genkaku's closest family is Jowy and Nanami. Perhaps Viktor and Flik (and Ellie too?) included, but Jowy and Nanami are his peers and of his generation.
I compare the level of loneliness of the main characters of Suiko 1 and 2 and came to this conclusion that in a normal game, Genkaku is the worst off of the lot.In an average ending, Jowy betrays him, and Nanami gets killed. Both characters stays with Genkaku for quite some time, especially Nanami, who time and again, established herself as a very responsible and loving older sister to Genkaku.
In a 'normal' ending, even Jowy dies, passing his Black Sword rune to Genkaku, thus combining the Black Sword Rune with the Bright Shield rune, as they belonged together in the first place.
Jowy himself also arouses much sympathy since he's just about as tragic as Genkaku. To become the king of Highland, he marries Jillia Blight and even takes after her surname, and when the main baddie Luca Blight dies, he takes over as king. (Just when you though you finally got rid of such a difficult Luca Blight....another one comes up, but luckily Jowy isn't as difficult to deal with)
Jowy loses Nanami right before his eyes just like Genkaku. He offers his wife (a doll only, if it were real, I'd label Jowy as most tragic character of the year) as a sacrifice to raise the morale of his army and in the end, dies in Genkaku's arms as Genkaku's best friend. (if you keep defending and not attack Jowy during the last one-to-one fight in that place you marked a cross on the stone, Jowy will still die anyway)
And the thing is, Jowy and Genkaku are after the same aim, but only on different sides...
So who says good friends have to agree (even in politics) all the time? ^_^ (oh, no one did? I'm sorry. ^.^;)
(okay, so Nanami can be ressurected and Jowy can have a happy ending..thanks for the info, people who sent mail!^_^)
Gensui 2 is better than Gensui 1 in many aspects, but Gensui 1 is still very much worth playing. So Konami is quite successful IMHO since the 2nd Gensui series is quite an eye-opener (and can be played and understood without knowing anything from gensui 1), not disappointing players of the 1st Gensui game. ^-^
The worst part of Suikoden 1 was that I couldn't load the saved data in my Suikoden 2 game! I so wanted to get Mcdohl and Gremio in my Suiko 2 game...-_-;;;
So blame me memory cardoooo....
The ending of Gensui 1 was really sweet.^_^
Mcdohl and Gremio (Mcdohl only if you didn't get the 'happy ending') leaves the castle (I think) in the ending sequence and, adding a little mystery. The ending picture is of Mcdohl and Gremio walking off, with their backs facing us. It look so nice that I just gotta write this down. :PGensui 1's art is a little rough compared to Gensui 2, but it has a charm of it's own after some time. Oh, the castle is nicer in Suiko 2....
Friendship is a recurring theme in the Suikoden series. In Suikoden 2, it's a main theme. In Gensou 1, it's not as much emphasized by the main character, but by the side characters. Some prominant ones in both series are Viktor and Flik (in which their friendship seems to be establishing in Gensou 1), Yam Koo and Tai Ho (I thought they were brothers or family at first) etc. Can't remember much offhand.
Official illustration; Left: Viktor; Right: Flik Click for larger image. (53k) I found the love Flik has for Odessa very interesting too, which soon reasons for why his sword is called Odessa.^_^ He's from the Warrior's Village, where men name their sword after their loved ones...
It's also sweet that he manages to get a 'girlfriend' (Nina) in Suiko 2.... I kinda like Nina. :P
Overall, Gensou has given me a whole new experiance in RPG games, and there are so many times where I start going 'Darn! They killed off my best character'...but still, it makes you realise how close you can be to an RPG character. ^-^ Not to mention that you can name your main character and instill your personality through him by his speech.
Well.....my fingers are a little tired from typing and drawing, so I'll stop here.
So, liked this section?
Comments, anything, want to share something Suikodenish? Go to the Message Board and leave something there! When this page gets big enough, I'll get a proper msg board......
