The Shrine

Ok, well after I read a topic here about Suikoden 3, it informed me that Suikoden 4 has been out since January. I must have become a fucking hermit, because Ive never missed a game release like this before (I love the series).

Anyways, ordered it from Amazon, and I've finished it by now. It was... good. Thing is, if I remember correctly, Suikoden 3 took me like 60-70 hours to beat (I dunno if I was just slow or fucked around doing mini games or what), but Suikoden 4 was done in around 35 hours (and thats including getting all 108 stars of destiny).

Like I said, it was good, but I enjoyed #2 and #3 better. I said I love the series, but my dirty little secret is Ive never beaten #1. I have a burned copy for the PSX, and all I did was get to the first town and make a fuckton of money in a gambling game then never played it again. I might have to give it a second chance sometime soon.

Overall, if you like the series, you'll like the game. IF you're new to the series, it probably wont appeal to you as much. I could not see this being the game in the series that would get you hooked.

I really liked it myself. However keep in mind that 3 was the only game in the series that was that long. The rest of the games in the series have all been 25-35 hours long. What did you think of the whole learned buddy attacks?

I've only played the demo that comes with MGS3. I don't like the battle system (why go from 6 in your party to 4, especially when you pick from 50-60 characters?), and the main character looks retarded. I also don't like how they ditched the trinity option from 3 where you could play three heroes stories however you wanted to (one of the best things about that game).

...but I'll probably still rent it and beat it at some point.

Questions!
Any returning characters? As I understand it, this one takes place far before or far after the events of the other ones so it seems to me only immortal characters (Jeane) would appear.

How's the intro? Is it done with anime clips like S2 and S3? S3 still has one of the best intros of any game I've seen. It's a shame they only animated certain points of the game and never actually made a movie.

The intro is georgus and is kinda a combination of old and new. There are only 3 repeat characters. Two of them are Viki and Jeane, surprise surprise. The third, I refuse to say ^_^

Timeline wise this one falls 150 years before 1