Review: Suikoden 1 and 2 HD Remaster Mark a Return of Extraordinary JRPGs

The Suikoden series went from a collection of games that fans of JRPGs revered to ones that ended up being acknowledged for their unique nature and often excellence by everyone. Unfortunately, it’s also been far too long since Konami acknowledge the IP with a new entry or revival or an old one. 2025 marks the return of the first two installments with Suikoden 1 and 2 HD Remaster: Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars. While they might not be the biggest or most impressive remasters out there, they do a great job of restoring two deserving titles. 

In a way, it’s quite fitting that both of these JRPGs are in this Suikoden 1 and 2 HD Remaster, as these two games are so closely linked. So much so that the hero of the first and many of the supporting cast returns for the sequel. All of the mainline games fit into the same timeline, and the second game takes place three years after the first. So we can see the effect of political events and decisions.

Suikoden follows Tir McDohl, a young man who is the son of Scarlet Moon Empire general Teo McDohl. The game begins with him being introduced to Emperor Barbarossa Rugner and joining his service as his father departs on a mission. However, on his very first mission, Tir gets a glimpse at the despicable behavior of the empire and finds himself inheriting the one of the 27 True Runes. This makes him a target for the army and a fugitive. As he escapes, he falls in with the Liberation Army. This leads to him joining and building it up by recruiting the 108 Stars of Destiny.

Similarly, Suikoden 2 follows Riou. He and his friend Jowy are a part of the Highland Kingdom’s Unicorn Youth Brigade. A possible peace is broken when Highland’s Prince Luca Blight works with the group’s commander to slaughter all to push a war with the City-States of Jowston. Riou and Jowy are able to escape. Both also find themselves caught up in a growing war, with Riou going on to lead and recruit for a rebel force hoping to bring peace to the region while stopping Blight. 

Each of these games tends to follow a sort of pattern. At their hearts, both games in the Suikoden 1 and 2 HD Remaster collection are traditional, turn-based RPGs. Once you get to the point at which you become leader of an army and acquire a castle, you’ll be able to head out into the world to recruit people. These folks may have certain conditions you have to meet to get them to join. In some cases, they might join automatically as the story continues or not be ready to be part until either you hit a certain plot point or your castle expands after hitting a certain milestone. At other times, you may need to follow certain steps or achieve certain goals. I feel there will always come a point at which you sort of recognize that you’ve done everything you can do for the moment and need to return to the story, at which point you can get more people on your side.

Battles are fairly typical, turn-based affairs. You have a party of up to six, with three folks in front and three in back. (There are some anomaly characters that will take up two spots.) Weapons dictate proper placement, as they have certain ranges like short, medium, or long, and short-range ones must be in the front row. Magic is tied to Runes, with Rune shards being able to be tied to weapons and Orbs being set to people. As you use characters and perform magic different tiers of Rune abilities open up. There are also occasionally more strategic affairs, though those are infrequent and pop up at specific spots in the story. 

I will say that while there are some elements you’d expect in a HD remaster, there are some features oddly absent or that aren’t exactly as helpful as you’d expect in these Suikoden games. There are three difficulty options to select at the start, which is handy! You can also dash right away, and that is incredibly helpful. When you enter battles, you can tap a button to increase the speed of the fight or turn autobattle on and off without going through the menu. It also naturally looks quite crisp and nice, what with being in HD, and the new character portraits are beautiful without feeling out of place. The conversation log is one of my favorite new additions, as I absolutely get caught up in the recruiting efforts. This means if you did a lot of backtracking, you might forget where you were supposed to meet up next. What do I do? I check the log and see where someone told me to go. I’m set. 

However, there are areas in which I feel like Konami could have done more. There’s an autosave now, but it is incredibly infrequent. For example, it doesn’t kick in when you enter a town/dungeon, which would have been smart! Instead, it will happen at odd or notable times. For those aware of the series, it isn’t helpful for the Castle of Toran autosave to happen on the screen right when you enter the room where the save point before the boss is! An adjustment to modernize the save system and not tie it to inns would have been welcome as well. So would some controller rebinding options. It’s great we can dash right away! I do wish there’d been a toggle option for that in the options, so you don’t have to constantly hold the button down. 

But the main goals here are that Suikoden 1 and 2 are back again, and this HD Remaster release revives both games in a comfortable way. It makes sure they look pretty and run well. I was especially shocked at how good both games looked, as the spritework really stands out without it feeling like some SNES games where you can see how the CRT effect benefited its appearance. I especially loved moments when there would be layered elements, like fog in a dungeon or clouds in a sky, because it’s executed so well. The new character portraits, which I mentioned earlier, are also quite a boon. It helps add more personality to these supporting cast members who could sometimes be quite personable even if they aren’t major players.

Suikoden 1 and 2 HD Remaster might not have earth-shattering additions, but the graphical updates and quality of life adjustments that are here make it a joy to return to these fantastic JRPGs. Both games are a delight to play on the Switch. There’s a charm here that I longed for when I played Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, and I’m delighted to think how much joy they’ll bring others. These are fantastic games, and I hope for further preservation efforts for other entries from Konami.

Suikoden 1 and 2 HD Remaster: Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars will come to the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam on March 6, 2025. The original games appeared on the PlayStation worldwide. They also appeared together in a collection on the PSP in Japan.

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