#19

Suikoden (Originally released in 1996 on the PS1)

Yeah, so let me tell you a story of how one chance encounter led me to discover my favorite rpg series of all time.

High school was a strange time for me. I wanted to get out more and become more outgoing. I was in sports and I wanted to get in shape to impress the local girls at my school. Still, I had as much passion for rpgs as I did when I was younger and fatter. I had to find a center to fill both needs.

So, for some strange reason I have another fetish when it comes to rpgs. I love to collect their strategy guides. I don't know why. Now, I can find all the same material and then some online, but there is something about them that draws me in. Well this could be the main reason why I am attracted to them.

One day, while I was at the local Borders, I was in the strategy guide section section just browsing the same books I usually sift through when I go to those types of stores. It's usually the same books that are in stock. Mainstream games and tons of DnD and Pokemon crap. Well maybe the Pokemon stuff isn't crap, I kinda do own some of those games and guides. But it still floods the market.

Then something caught my eye. I don't know why, because the cover was pretty bland. I grab the jet black book and see some gibberish on the cover, but above it reads, "Suikoden" in red writing. Hmmm I think to myself. I had never heard of this game. I first wondered if the book was out of place, because I was pretty into the rpg scene and I had never heard of the game. So I take a peak inside.

The book was plain all the way through. It was not in color, but it was full of story. Immediately I was hooked. The game spoke of magic and love and war and betrayal and of 108 characters that join your party. One hundred and eight people! The book did a very good job of presenting the game even if it looked less then impressive to the naked eye. I bought that guide that day, like I usually do. I sometimes buy strategy guide to games I do not own...

Yeah, I don't know either.

So now the hunt was on. I'm not sure when I found this book and learned about Suikoden, but I could not find it in stores. It had to be before Suikoden 2 came out because I bought that game on its release date. I finally found the game at one of the less-then-local blockbusters in Tampa. I raced over there as fast as I could and picked up the only copy of the game I could find in my city.

The game was all scratched up, but dammit it worked so who was I to complain. Now, I don't remember why, but I didn't have a memory card at this point in time. At one point I had a PlayStation. Then I sold it to buy a Nintendo 64, which I kept, and then just bought another PlayStation at a later time. I don't remember if this was before or after those events, but I did not have a memory card yet.

So....

I had to play the game from start to finish in one sitting. That game took over my life for that one weekend. I beat the game, but not to perfection because even though I owned the strategy guide I do not look through them for help until I complete the game at least once. It makes for the replay value to be more appealing that way. All that mattered was that the game was amazing.

From that point on, I was a Suikofreak.