The Glorious Storytelling of Suikoden

I am frequently crippled by indecision. I will stare at the overwhelming horde of videogames that is my backlog, and after several minutes, find myself not gaming but sleeping on the couch. The pain of choosing a game to play overwhelms my desire to play the damn thing. Likewise, I’m pretty lazy. If I don’t have to do something immediately, I probably won’t do it. Example: I’m supposed to post this in about 8 hours, and I’ve just started writing it.

These two traits can be pretty meddlesome in real life, but they can be equally so in a videogame. Well, some videogames.

Let me elaborate.

We’ll start with the mother of all indecisive-person-nightmare-games: Skyrim. Skyrim is the equivalent of your stoner friend who won’t say anything but, “I dunno, man, whatever you want to do.” And, like all good stoners, he’s got a myriad of random shit to do. Wanna play bongos? Wanna see my dead butterfly collection? I have this bomb-ass jalapeno popper recipe!

There’s just too much. Skyrim feels like reading 8 different chapters from 8 different books. Everything loses its focus and urgency because you can always just wander off to wherever. I understand this freedom to roam is liberating for the player – but that doesn’t mean it makes for a very good story.

Which leads to a strange sensation when booting up the game: apathy. I have a quest log that overflows with things to do, but I don’t have to do any one thing. The main story arc of the game is buried and overwhelmed by so much other stuff – the infinitely more interesting sidequests and gorgeous environments – that it fails to work as any kind of narrative tentpole. Compounding this problem is that the sidequests don’t, generally, manage to tie-in or enhance the game’s principle narrative. They exist, primarily, in a vacuum.  (Note: I admittedly haven’t played all, or probably even a majority, of the quests in the game, so feel free to let me know if I’m wrong.)

So what do I do, then, with an infinite of things-that-I-can-do-if-I-wanna? Nothing. I get bored. There is no end-point, no singularity where everything is heading. The nebulous goal of ‘100% completion’ isn’t enough to spur me into completing the game’s innumerable branches.  Burdened by its own bloat and lacking focus, Skyrim fails to propel the player in any direction, let alone make them ooze through its entire seemingly endless maze of content.

Don’t worry. I wouldn’t talk this much shit without having a game that is an example of “decisive and urgent” – which is, you must understand, the opposite of Skyrim, of “indecisive and apathetic.”

That game is a 16 year old Japanese roleplaying game, originally released for the PlayStation: Suikoden.

Suikoden’s story, and its translation, are nothing special. The main character is silent, and the son of one of the Empire’s Five Great Generals. The plot, basically, is that you find out that the Empire is a not really a very good organization, join up with some rebels, end up leading the rebels and assembling an army, and taking down the Empire.

It has some twists along the way. The hero fights his father and the game kills off main characters coldly, barely blinking an eye. But one of the things that make Suikoden so brilliant is its pacing  and the way the story is told. It moves along at a breakneck speed, and the main story, while basic, is economical and tight. The player flies through the game’s main story line effortlessly, compelled on from one story beat to the next. No distractions; even the sidequests tie into the main Empire-ending plot-line, but more on that in a second.

It’s a pretty linear affair – nothing on par with the glorified hallway that is Final Fantasy XIII, but definitely not as open as Skyrim, either. But there is stuff you can do. As with most JRPGs of the era, you can explore the world map and visit a lot of places, interacting with NPCs and frequenting shops. Not to the degree of Skyrim, of course, but Suikoden does provide enough freedom and places to explore to make you feel like you’re visiting a world, not a game.

And then there’s the 108 Stars of Destiny. You see, there are 107 characters who join your army in Suikoden (the missing one being the protagonist). Some of these characters join you in battle, while others bring upgrades – functional and cosmetic – to your stronghold. A good chunk of these character will join over the course of the story, but many require you to go and seek them out. You don’t have to, though, which plants this firmly in sidequest territory.

The 108 Stars of Destiny manage to heap a lot of extra time and content into the game. Again, not as much as Skyrim – but given the technical capabilities of the original PlayStation and a 16 year gap in between, it’s impressive. Where the Stars succeed is linking the extraneous flourishes to the main story arc. You might be running around from shop to shop trying to give some lady some soap, but you’re doing it so she’ll join your army and help you achieve your ultimate, Emperor-slaughtering goal. Compare this with the Winterhold College or Companion’s quest-line in Skyrim, where the NPCs don’t even mention this whole Alduin-returning-to-end-everything business.

For someone like me, Suikoden’s approach makes sidequests a lot easier to process. “What should I do?” I’ll ask myself, sitting down to play Suikoden. “Why, defeat the bloody Empire!” I’ll reply. And that’s the beauty of it. Any sidequest I partake in still serves the ultimate, overaching story of the game. There’s really only one “thing to do” – beat the Empire – and the entire game serves this purpose; indecision – narrative indecision, even – is not a factor here. I don’t have to deal with the strange dissonance of “The world is about to end but I’m messing around with a blacksmithing hobby.” Plus, with that magnificent, crispy-clean pacing, I’m pushed along through the story quickly enough to maintain urgency and not be consumed by laziness.

I guess what really matters here is that I couldn’t stop playing Suikoden, while trying “take in” all of Skyrim felt more like a responsibility – lest I “not be doing it right.” Why? Because Skyrim lacks the focus that Suikoden has. Suikoden constantly answers “What should I be doing?” for me, and it has the streamlined, concentrated storytelling that makes me care and want to keep going.  Sure, the gorgeous, snow-soaked vistas aren’t there, and there’s no voice acting – and I think that’s what makes it so great. Skyrim is too eager to please, too busy trying to hit all the marks of what popular games critic opinion says games should be like. The end result is flawed. Suikoden, on the other hand, screams ‘dated’ – but it’s elegant, tightly-tuned narrative approach – that spans from main story to sidequest! – provides a valuable lesson on how to make a game feel urgent, focused and singular in story, while still giving the player a feeling of immersion and freedom.

So carry on with your endless Skyrim questing. Have at it. I’ll be biding my time until Suikoden II appears on the PSN. I think I’ll find that game more rewarding, anyway.

About the Author

Adam Harshberger Adam Harshberger likes cats and burritos, believes that a cutscene can not possibly be too long, generally hates voice acting, and sleeps too much. He founded Pixels or Death in the cold harsh winter of 2011, and now generally just stumbles around its (non-existent) offices, doing things like screaming people’s last names and pointing. He can be reached via email at adam@pixelsordeath.com and can be followed on Twitter here.