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Konami spent five years remastering Suikoden 1 and 2 because the devs knew their attempts to revive the iconic JRPG series "would be over" before they began if they "were to release a half-baked product."
Speaking to Dengeki Online, producer Rui Naito reveals that planning for the remasters began in 2020 before an announcement came in September 2022. While an initial release window of the following year was missed, Naito says it was for a good reason. Even with a remaster, you only get one chance to make a first impression.
"With Suikoden I & II HD Remaster, I told [Director Takahiro] Sakiyama and his team to 'make something solid' because it is the starting point for the IP’s revival," Naito says (thanks, Automaton). "If we were to release a half-baked product, then [our attempt to revive the series] would be over."
As for what took so long, it's partly down to the old data the team was working with – Suikoden was released in 1995, after all – and a desire to get it right. As Naito says, get it wrong, and we're done.
"At the time, Murayama (Yoshihito Murayama, Suikoden series’ original creator) and the other game designers who came before me put significant thought into how to express these games' stories in a limited number of bits," Naito explains. "Even the number of exclamation marks in their original dialogue is an expression of their thoughts and feelings. Therefore, I knew we must not lose these aspects of the games."
Sakiyama adds that much of the development process involved deciding what needed improving and what needed to be left alone. The art style was one such thing to fall in the former's camp. Alongside the backgrounds, you've got 107 recruitable characters that join the protagonist to make the 108 stars of destiny.
To tackle such a task, Sakiyama asked Suikoden's original character designer, Junko Kawano, to redraw the lot of 'em for their combat and dialogue screens. "I am very grateful to her for doing not only these portraits, but also the illustrations for the opening and various illustrations for the games’ release," Sakiyama adds. I bet.
Aside from that, the devs added other quality-of-life features like autosave but decided to keep the difficulty as is to respect the original's vibe. As for how Konami is likely to fair in the task, we don't have long to wait as the HD remasters are due to release on March 6. Hopefully, it'll be worth the wait.
