Suikoden

Suikoden was one of the first RPGs that I played as a young gamer.   Although I didn't know it back then, this game would end up pretty atypical of many RPGs of the time:  Battles where playable characters can (and very often do) die, characters with a surprising amount of depth for such a massive cast, the ability to not kill major enemies, and more.  The interesting thing is that even with all these oddities the game is very very much an old-school JRPG.  The combat is turn-based, you have an inventory, you go to towns, you upgrade weapons, you level up,  the whole nine yards.   Suikoden then, is a game to be played not for the gameplay, which like many JRPGs is quite repetitive, but for the story.  Especially if the goal is to play the much better sequel, Suikoden II.  While the battle system does have a rather unique (outside of this series anyhow) magic system, the combat is nothing to write home about-- so let's start with the Story then, if that's why you are playing this in the first place.
 
--Story--
The story follows the silent protagonist main character, the son of a famous general, as he is chosen to bear a "True Rune", gathers the 108 Stars of Destiny, forms a resistance, and overthrows the Scarlet Moon Empire.  The actual details of how this all happens, while interesting are not what draws most people into this game.  The flamboyant and unique characters usually end up taking center stage and give the player ample reason to not put down the controller.  The supporting cast is quite varied and most of the 108 recruitable characters has an interesting backstory and distinct personality.  While not all of the 108 will follow you into battle, they will make upgrades to your headquarters or provide you some other boon for joining your army.   Exploring the backstory and motivations for the major story characters is what drives most of the game.  The 108 Stars of Destiny are the recruitable characters that are strewn about the game.  Aside from a few mandatory characters there is no compulsion to recruit all, or even most, of them--which can be a good thing as many are hidden very well or require strange and unexplained requirements to join and would be difficult to find without a FAQ on hand.  The game does have multiple endings and a special event if all 108 Stars of Destiny are collected before a certain point.  The rest of the gameplay is driven by war.
 
--Major Battles--
War.  War never changes.  Except in this game war will change constantly.  The major battle system puts your army (made up of the characters you have recruited thus far and your troops) against the often powerful and mysterious enemy general's troops.  The system is sort of a rock-paper-scissors situation, where one type of attack will counter another, and so forth.  The very frustrating thing is that for large portions of the game you simply must guess what actions to take and hope they are not countered.  A wrong move in a major battle might send a unit with story characters to their deaths.  This will effect the story and if one of the Stars of Destiny is killed you can be denied the best ending.  Thankfully most of these battles are tough to lose outright, but figuring out how best to proceed is often a gamble.
 
--Battle System--
Regular battles are a much simpler affair.  There are 6 characters in a party, divided into 2 rows of 3.  Characters are one of three types.  Short range (S) characters can only attack from the front row, Meduim range (M) can attack from either, while Long range (L) must be in the rear row.   The standard attack, defend and item options are available, as well as Rune (magic spells), and Unite attacks.  Runes are the unique magic system of this game.  Spells come in 4 increasingly powerful levels and each character can only cast so many spells of each level.  Once they are used up, no more spells can be cast until the party rests at an inn.  This means that magic becomes very precious and rare for most of the game.  Unite attacks are available when specific (sometimes arbitrary) party members are together and present an option that is sadly, too rare.  There are not many Unite attacks available in the game and many of them are simply not as good as simply attacking with each character separately.  They do add some spice to the random battles however.
 
 
 
Suikoden is an interesting game, for sure.  It has all the hallmarks of JRPGs of this era and adds quite a few interesting and novel things.  The game has not aged greatly, but the characters remain solid.  Players who make it through the game are advised to keep their save file for the excellent sequel as it can unlock some fun rewards there.  The repetitive random battles get old after many hours, and sometimes frustrating Major battles can cause you to reload several times, but the varied cast of characters keeps you going.  The game is well worth playing through and some of the mechanics will remain interesting to even veteran JRPG players.   I wouldn't start a new player on this game (despite having done so myself), but the game is well worth committing your hours to especially as a gateway to the rest of the excellent series.