[HN Gopher] Suikoden creator Yoshitaka Murayama has died
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       Suikoden creator Yoshitaka Murayama has died
        
       Author : leshokunin
       Score  : 77 points
       Date   : 2024-02-14 16:23 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.ign.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.ign.com)
        
       | leshokunin wrote:
       | Yoshitaka Murayama, creator of the Suikoden and Eiyuden
       | Chronicles, has passed away. He was a creative, daring,
       | passionate man.
       | 
       | Thank you for the wonderful games, Murayama san. You made a lot
       | of people happy.
        
       | toomuchtodo wrote:
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshitaka_Murayama
        
       | batmansmk wrote:
       | What a terrible news. Suikoden is one of those incredibly
       | creative game. Rip.
        
       | JimiofEden wrote:
       | Was bummed to see it in the Eiyuden newsletter this morning.
       | Suikoden and its sequel were formative for me and my immediate
       | friend group growing up. His creative vision definitely left an
       | impact on me. (Or at least as much as made it through the
       | localization.)
       | 
       | It was always such a delight to get random notes from him in the
       | updates. It'll definitely be sad to not get those anymore.
        
       | coolbreezetft24 wrote:
       | Have never played this game but always wanted to given it's
       | legendary reputation (copies are really expensive). I plan to get
       | the remaster that was announced a while but haven't heard much on
       | it since
        
         | AdmiralAsshat wrote:
         | From collecting retro games (particularly of the PS1 era) I can
         | tell you from experience that price is not always commensurate
         | with quality. More often, it's tied to _rarity_ , which in turn
         | then raises the perception of quality because, frankly, there
         | often aren't enough copies to dispute it.
         | 
         | Modern ports and especially Emulation has helped knock down
         | some of those artificial barriers and let people more honestly
         | assess how good the games are.
         | 
         | For example: Panzer Dragoon Saga. I managed to play it on a
         | Saturn emulator. Great game? Honestly, yes. Is it a _$500_
         | great game? Eh...
        
           | JohnBooty wrote:
           | I think PDS is special partly (mostly?) because of its part
           | in gaming history. It was symbolic of the end of "peak Sega",
           | a beautiful and ambitious RPG better (or at least more
           | ambitious) than Final Fantasy 7 in many ways, released to
           | virtually zero sales as Sega sunsetted the Saturn.
           | 
           | (In retrospect, the failure of the Saturn was really the last
           | nail in the console of Sega's console business, and the
           | Dreamcast just couldn't overcome that inertia.)
           | 
           | Or at least that's what Panzer Dragoon Saga represents to
           | _me_ anyway...
        
         | desas wrote:
         | They announced last October that it wouldn't be released in
         | 2023 but there's been no further details released.
         | 
         | https://www.konami.com/games/genso/rem/1_2/us/en-us/
        
         | molticrystal wrote:
         | The only thing I heard was the Suikoden I&II remaster was
         | coming out this year. Considering it is Konami of disown
         | legendary developers and loot nostalgia to pay for our work on
         | video gambling devices, I can only hope for the best.
        
         | honkycat wrote:
         | You can find the ISO with a 10 minute search, and run the game
         | on most modern phones.
         | 
         | Buying on the secondary market does nothing to enrich the
         | original creators, or even the corporation that owns the
         | property.
         | 
         | Especially with games like this, where the only option is to
         | download it, I don't see any ethical issues.
        
       | amyjess wrote:
       | Suikoden II has been on my bucket list for years. Maybe I'll
       | finally get around to playing it now, in his memory.
       | 
       | Rest in peace.
        
         | lizardking wrote:
         | It really is one of the all-time greats. In my opinion,
         | Suikoden II holds up better than any JRPG from that era. It has
         | fast combat (unlike most RPGS of the era), 3 different battle
         | systems (traditional, 1v1, and army battles), a top-notch
         | story, and one of the best soundtracks to be found on the
         | system.
        
           | jncfhnb wrote:
           | Oh shit! I forgot about the 1v1 battles. Those were really
           | fun
        
         | megmogandog wrote:
         | It's a fantastic game, I had a blast playing through it twice,
         | first 'unspoiled', then following a guide to get all the
         | characters.
         | 
         | I wish there were more JRPGs that took such a maximalist
         | approach to how many playable characters you get
        
         | favorited wrote:
         | I expect there will be a bit of a Suikoden renaissance, since
         | they're working on an HD remaster of Suikoden I & II.
        
       | kleiba wrote:
       | Unfortunately, I have never heard of Suikoden, somehow it passed
       | me by. But it sounds really cool.
        
       | jackmoore wrote:
       | Suikoden was released on PS1 in 1995, so he would have been just
       | 26 at that time. Amazing. When the topic comes up of changing
       | Japanese box art for western audiences, the first game I think of
       | is Suikoden.
       | 
       | US: https://u-mercari-
       | images.mercdn.net/photos/m48962020641_1.jp...
       | 
       | Japanse:
       | https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/diQAAOSwtPddKcNl/s-l1200.jpg
        
         | JimiofEden wrote:
         | I love this US box art so much it's so dreadful and left such a
         | weird impression on me initially. My friends and I had a hell
         | of a time trying to figure out who the characters were meant to
         | be.
         | 
         | I think by the end of it, our conclusions were:
         | 
         | Left Side: Barbarossa, Ted, Windy
         | 
         | Right Side: McDohl (maybe Luc?), Leknaat, Three headed skeleton
         | demon because ???
         | 
         | Flying on the dragon I always assumed to be Futch, but who
         | knows. If it's Luc in the corner, I guess it could be McDohl in
         | the center, (he is the main character after all.)
        
         | AdmiralAsshat wrote:
         | The sprite-based games of old certainly gave wide latitude for
         | how you choose to interpret the character designs. It doesn't
         | surprise me that at that time they would've chosen to
         | supplement the sprites with western-style art designs for a
         | western audience.
         | 
         | It's in the same vein (but not quite as hilarious IMO) as what
         | they did to Breath of Fire II's art.
         | 
         | JP: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/box/3/8/2/16382_front.jpg
         | 
         | ENG: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/box/3/8/3/16383_front.jpg
         | 
         | From blue-haired anime teenager to Frank Frazetta-style
         | barbarian!
        
           | lapetitejort wrote:
           | Tim Rogers made a parody of what Boku no Natsuyasumi's box
           | art would look like given a North American release.
           | 
           | JP cover art: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boku_no_Natsuyasu
           | mi#/media/Fil...
           | 
           | Hypothetical NA cover art:
           | https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Flpj2mWXwAQY_dI.jpg
           | 
           | It's a miracle that the NA cover art for Ico came out so
           | beautifully (EDIT: somehow I confused the beautiful
           | Japan/European box art with the NA box art. The NA box art is
           | horrible)
        
         | leshokunin wrote:
         | I love how the US box art feels like some obscure Nobunaga's
         | Ambition / Romance of Three Kingdoms strategy game. I can
         | understand why marketing probably thought it was! It's just
         | hilarious.
        
         | honkycat wrote:
         | I was gonna say: "What about mega man"
         | 
         | But then I looked. WOW. HILARIOUS!
        
           | JohnBooty wrote:
           | At least, compared to Mega Man, the Suikoden art is like...
           | competently executed? It's no masterpiece, and has
           | essentially zero correlation to the game, but it's at least
           | professional!
           | 
           | For those not aware of Mega Man's box art, though... gaze
           | upon this wonder
           | 
           | https://images.nintendolife.com/2281194a6f92c/na.large.jpg
        
       | jncfhnb wrote:
       | Suikoden was sort of impenetrable for me as a kid. Whereas you
       | could easily stumble through final fantasy, suikoden felt like it
       | had just enough going for it that you actually needed to
       | understand its mechanics. The vast cast was always intimidating
       | and I wouldn't ever use anyone who didn't seem obviously strong
       | immediately, and I suspect that was why it felt hard.
       | 
       | On the other hand revisiting turn based rpgs of my youth has
       | generally found them insanely easy (just use buffs) so it could
       | also just be that.
        
         | b450 wrote:
         | You must not have happened upon the master-pupil attack..
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Url changed from
       | https://rabbitandbearstudios.com/%e7%9a%86%e6%a7%98%e3%81%b8...,
       | which points to this.
        
       | dang wrote:
       | We changed the URL from
       | https://rabbitandbearstudios.com/%e7%9a%86%e6%a7%98%e3%81%b8...
       | to an article I just googled. If there's a better article in
       | English, we can change it again.
        
         | leshokunin wrote:
         | Yeah this was just the original url where they announced it. I
         | was puzzled with the route, but wanted to give the original
         | authors the traffic. They did a Kickstarter off of it and their
         | lead just died so they can use all the visibility they can get.
        
         | laborcontract wrote:
         | @dang they added an English update to this post.
        
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       (page generated 2024-02-14 23:01 UTC)