History VideoGame / SuikodenI

[[HelloInsertNameHere The young son]] of Imperial General Teo [=McDohl=] lives a comfortable, happy life in the [[TheEmpire Scarlet Moon Empire]] with his famous father, house full of [[BattleButler personal bodyguards]], and best friend Ted. However, everything gets turned upside down when he winds up with the [[EmpathicWeapon Soul Eater]], one of the 27 True Runes, [[ClingyMacGuffin stuck on his right hand]]. Turns out the empire's ''really'' interested in said True Rune, and young [=McDohl=] finds himself roped into the [[LaResistance Liberation Army]] and forced to face off against his father and his country. An HD remaster of ''Suikoden I'' and ''II'' was announced September 16, 2022 for a release date sometime in 2023.

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Gremio has poor stat growth until level 60, and the lag will really become noticeable around the midgame - [[spoiler:the point at which he openly wonders if Tir still needs to be watched over]].

* HiddenElfVillage: Subverted, in that it's out in the open and rather easy to find. They're not very hospitable toward humans, though.

* CaptainErsatz: Maximilian, for ''Literature/DonQuixote,'' Stallion, bizarrely, for VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog and Fu Su Lu for Guin from ''LightNovel/GuinSaga''.

[[HelloInsertNameHere The young son]] of Imperial General Teo [=McDohl=] lives a comfortable, happy life in the [[TheEmpire Scarlet Moon Empire]] with his famous father, house full of [[BattleButler personal bodyguards]], and best friend Ted. However, everything gets turned upside down when he winds up with the [[EmpathicWeapon Soul Eater]], one of the 27 True Runes, [[ClingyMacGuffin stuck on his right hand]]. Turns out the empire's ''really'' interested in said True Rune, and young [=McDohl=] finds himself roped into the [[LaResistance Liberation Army]] and forced to face off against his father and his country. An HD remaster of ''Suikoden I'' and ''II'' was announced September 16, 2022 for a release date in March 2023.

[[HelloInsertNameHere The young son]] of Imperial General Teo [=McDohl=] lives a comfortable, happy life in the [[TheEmpire Scarlet Moon Empire]] with his famous father, house full of [[BattleButler personal bodyguards]], and best friend Ted. However, everything gets turned upside down when he winds up with the [[EmpathicWeapon Soul Eater]], one of the 27 True Runes, [[ClingyMacGuffin stuck on his right hand]]. Turns out the empire's ''really'' interested in said True Rune, and young [=McDohl=] finds himself roped into the [[LaResistance Liberation Army]] and forced to face off against his father and his country. A HD remaster of ''Suikoden I'' and ''II'' was announced September 16, 2022 for a release date sometime in 2023.

* CoversAlwaysLie: The original [[https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/198843-suikoden/boxes/28033 US boxart]] made the characters look less anime and more out of a Western fantasy novel. While this was common practice during the third and fourth generations of video gaming, by the time the fifth gen gained traction, anime became more accepted among the US market, which is why the practice was dropped from the second game onward.

** The fight against the Queen Ant before [spoiler: Ted takes her on solo and banishes her to hell.]

* HopelessBossFight: The first fight against Neclord, nothing you do will have any effect against him.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler:Sanchez]]'s name isn't inscribed on Luc's tablet of the 108 Stars of Destiny.

* AluminumChristmasTrees:
** Fire spears were a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_lance real thing]].
** To mount a naval assault, the rebels need to acquire five hundred boats impossibly fast, so they use a dragon's breath to freeze up a flotilla of skiffs from solid ice. With the apparently temperate climate around Lake Toran, this would be as far-fetched and temporary as it sounds, but it's not without a real-world counterpart: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete Pykrete]]. This mixture of water ice and sawdust was experimented with as a serious possibility for large ship hulls during WWII. The {{Series/Mythbusters}} made a small boat hull using a modified recipe, and it worked rather well--for less than an hour.

[[HelloInsertNameHere The young son]] of imperial General Teo [=McDohl=] lives a comfortable, happy life in the [[TheEmpire Scarlet Moon Empire]] with his famous father, house full of [[BattleButler personal bodyguards]], and best friend Ted. However, everything gets turned upside down when he winds up with the [[EmpathicWeapon Soul Eater]], one of the 27 True Runes, [[ClingyMacGuffin stuck on his right hand]]. Turns out the empire's ''really'' interested in said True Rune, and young [=McDohl=] finds himself roped into the [[LaResistance Liberation Army]] and forced to face off against his father and his country. A HD remaster of ''Suikoden I'' and ''II'' was announced September 16 for a release date sometime in 2023.

[[HelloInsertNameHere The young son]] of imperial General Teo [=McDohl=] lives a comfortable, happy life in the [[TheEmpire Scarlet Moon Empire]] with his famous father, house full of [[BattleButler personal bodyguards]], and best friend Ted. However, everything gets turned upside down when he winds up with the [[EmpathicWeapon Soul Eater]], one of the 27 True Runes, [[ClingyMacGuffin stuck on his right hand]]. Turns out the empire's ''really'' interested in said True Rune, and young [=McDohl=] finds himself roped into the [[LaResistance Liberation Army]] and forced to face off against his father and his country.

* NiceHat: The Narcissists wear very nice hats.

* ActionGirlfriend: Tengaar.

* BlindSeer: Leknaat.

* BoisterousBruiser: Viktor.

* CelibateHero: Flik.

* ColdSniper: Clive.

* DarkIsNotEvil[=/=]EvenEvilHasStandards: The Soul Eater is described as "the most wicked of the True Runes", but at the end, [[spoiler:it rejects Windy]].

* EvilSorcerer: Windy.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Stallion the elf has blue hair.

* CanonName: The protagonist does not have an official name, but the Japanese novelization and drama [=CDs=] gave him the name of "Tir", which has become a FanNickname. The name "Ryui" has also been used in a manga.

* StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: The tea. After just hearing rumors that people who visited a certain inn end up drugged and robbed, the group visits and inn and are [[ASpotOfTea immediately offered tea]]. Everyone else drinks up and waits for Tir to do the same. He can refuse, technically, as many times as he wants. But if you want to advance the plot, you ''have'' to drink the tea.

** There's a bit of FridgeBrilliance about that, as you can read [[{{Fridge/Suikoden}} here]].

* PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling: The Great Forest can act as this after you pass through the Fortress of Kwaba near the start of the game. While you can't get past the first screen of it yet, the enemies in that screen, like the Kobolds, will be enough to propel your characters a good six or seven levels in a single battle and are easily dispatched with area effect magic, like the Fire Rune Cleo normally has at this point. It's a good idea too, since the next dungeon is Toran Castle, which has an annoying ThatOneBoss, and the extra levels can really help.

* SomethingAboutARose: Milich Oppenheimer ''really'' likes roses.

* NeverFoundTheBody: Odessa Silverberg suffers lethal wounds during an Imperial attack. Before she dies, she asks Tir [=McDohl=] to weigh her body down and throw it in an underground river, so that friend and foe alike do not learn of her death. He does so, and keeps the secret for the better part of a year, revealing the ruse only when LaResistance is fully established.

* SuckMyRose: Milich Oppenheimer ''really'' likes roses.

* DegradedBoss: The Queen Ant is the invincible boss in the early game that [[SmallRoleBigImpact ended up forcing the reveal of Ted's Soul Eater and then caused lasting trouble for Tir and friends and the whole continent.]] You can encounter a lot of defeatable versions as normal enemies later.

** The only installment that don't play Jeane up as the MsFanservice or Viki being an utter [[TheDitz ditz]].