About Gensou Suikoden

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Gensou (or Genso, depending on spelling preference),
meaning fantasy, and Suikoden, meaning Water Margin is a fantasy story
based on the famous Chinese story "The Water Margin".  Pronounced as Shui2 Hu3 Juan4 in Chinese, the same kanji reads 'Suikoden' in Japanese.
First created by Konami in 1995, this game has a wonderful story and a very high replay value.
It's one of my favourites, beating Squaresoft as the story is encapturing and moves quite fast.
 
 
Click for larger pic. 
From Gensou Suikoden 
Top row: Viktor? (or someone else?), Mathiu. 
Bottom row: Cleo, Mcdohl and Pahn 

 
Click for larger pic. 
From Gensou Suikoden 2 
Top left: General um...wait, I forgot; Top right: Jowy 
Bottom left: Shu; Bottom right Ellie/Elli/Elly 
Centre: Genkaku

 The basic story of Gensou Suikoden is to gather 108 heroes to help 
rebel against an empire, whose rule has gone awry, making the people suffer. 
The main aim of the rebellion is to create a unified country without two large forces  
fighting each other.  

Each Gensou Suikoden series is a tragedy in a way or another. 
Because war is a tragedy by itself.  
And Gensou Suikoden is a story of war. 

In both Gensui 1 and 2, your main character is the bearer of a powerful rune  
that will determine part of his destiny.  
Both Mcdohl and Genkaku (the main characters of Gensui 1 and 2 respectively)  
originally do not belong to the rebel's side, but after some exposure to the world, and being one of the innocent people who are victims to the current empire ruling the country, they turn their backs on their homeland and joined the rebellion forces. 

Your main character will become the leader of the Liberation Army, the name of the group of rebels.  And the game will be a bit like 'building your own castle and army' kind of thing, just simpler.  Along the game, your main character will have a castle and have to gather people to build up the strength of the liberation army.  The more recruits, the stronger the army is.  There is a total of 108 recruits you can obtain, not all compulsory.  The main ones will be pointed out along the way and the optional characters are more of side stories.
 
Gameplay: There are 3 different types of battle systems.
1. Fighting in a Group
2. One on one
3. Battles
1. Basically, fighting in a group will resemble any other RPG games that has a group fighting the enemies.
This is the battle system that is used most of the time in the game.
You can have from 1 to 6 people in a group to fight, and the basic stuff like equiping characters
will have to be done.  What is so special about Gensui's battles is that it is fast!
More than one character can attack the enemies at the same time.  And if you've defeated
a certain number of a particular enemy/monster, you'll have an option to 'Let Go' of the enemy
instead of 'Run Away'.  This is a very useful option when you want to go back to older areas
with weak enemies that you don't want to bother fighting them.

2. The one on one fighting system is offered during very special circumstances. (above diagram)
It is more of a 'scissors paper stone' kind of fighting.  From the opponent's dialogue
between each blow, there will be indications on how he is going to attack.  There are 3 options
during a one to one fight - Attack, Wild Attack and Defend.  Attack is better than Defend, Wild Attack is better than Attack and Defend is better than Wild Attack.  I'll leave the rest for you to figure out.

3. Battles.  Big battles.  What I'm talking about is the army versus army battles in Gensou Suikoden.
There are  strategies to follow, and the 'scissors paper rock' thing somehow applies here as well.
The basic fighting options are Charge, Bow and Magic.
Charge is stronger than Bow, Bow is strong than Magic and Magic is stronger than Charge.
In Gensui 2, there is more movement of the army and a bit more tactics required, but not difficult.

I personally find these big battles quite fun to play, since you can actually hear the
little things (um...people) on the screen run about waving flags and attacking each other.
This particular battle system has other options besides the basic attacking, of course.
Other options like sending spies, consulting strategists, raising the army's attack are also available.
These battles are the ones whose strength depends on how many recruits you have.
The more recruits, the stronger your army.  And also, among your 108 characters who
commands a particular section of the army, they can also die in battle if their army is wiped out terribly.
Therefore, it's wise to save before a big battle in case you lose a character you like in the battle by accident...
 
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