Wow Suikoden, where do I even being with this game. If you want my opinion, if you could only play one game from the era of Playstation choose Suikoden, The first one or the second one, but this review is for the first one. This game is truly legendary, I don't even think my words can even come close to saying how good this game is, and giving it justice. Surprisingly, yet sadly enough, I wasn't even aware of this game, when it was out, I had to be shown this awesome game sadly. This ranks as my favorite game of not only on Playstation, but ever. I promise you if this is the only part of my review that you read, then just play this game, I promise you will not ever regret it. Now on to my review of this
awesome game.

The Premise: The Hero (which is originally unnamed, basically you can call him whatever, I really don't think there is an official name for him, forgive me if there is though). Has a father named Teo McDohl who is the General of the Scarlet Moon Empire the father is called away to fight a battle for his empire in the North lands, upon leaving he entrusts his son under the care of several family, and friends to begin his career in the Imperial Army. The Hero of the story upon entering the Army, realizes that the upper class, and military head are corrupted, while there people are enslaved, and miserable. Which he found out earlier through missions that were assigned to him. Later on in the story the hero receives a rune that is the Rune of Life and Death, also known as the "Soul Eater."  From his friend named Ted. This rune is one of the 27 Runes that control, and make up the world. The corrupted leaders who yearned and searched for this rune hunted after this rune, which brought the Hero, and his friends in direct confrontation, with the corrupted officials, and made them flee the capital city called Gregminster. After this event the hero, and his companions meet up with a rebel group, where they hide him from the officials that are after him, and his friends. At first he had no want nor need, to fight against the Empire, it was only when his eventual hide out, was attacked by them, that the hero decided the Empire needed to be destroyed. Eventually receiving the help of Mathiu SIlverberg, who was a former Imperialist Strategist, start uniting fellow rebel factions within Scarlet Moon, which their army becomes known as the Hero's Liberation Army. Eventually there forces become large, and strong enough, to go head to head with the
Empire.

Overall: I rated this game a 10/10 in overall, I gave this game a score of ten out of ten, because this game literally has it all. An amazing story, that can really make you believe you are there, and drops you right in the middle of the whole thing. The story is intriguing, and wonderful, the story alone could and would sell this game itself. The Character's whether it be the antagonists, or the protagonists either set of character's are not only memorable, but they are funny, while being able to see their personalities shine through. You can really feel, and get behind each , and every character in this game. The controls are amazing, their simple, and the regular RPG turn based controls, but that is no fault. And the graphics, and color scheme are beautiful in this game. The graphics may be dated  when compared to more recent games, but don't let that be the deciding factor, because if it is for you, you have truly missed out on such an amazing game. For the time period  this game was created in this game was amazing looking, so you have to keep that factor into account here.

Graphics: I rated this game a 10/10 in graphics, I gave this game a score of ten out of ten, because this game has such a beautiful color scheme, and the characters, and environment are so well  created. By today's standards you can see that there are better graphically made games out there, but you have to keep in mind the date this game was produced in. The time period this game was created in, this game was seen as amazing graphics. If you were around the generation of PS1, Nintendo 64, and the Sega Saturn you would understand what I am talking about here. But if you are a graphics lover, you may not necessarily like the graphics on this game. But I implore you to at least give this game a chance, I promise you, with graphics aside you will absolutely love this game. That's why I rated this game a 10, because I kept the time period in my head while saying this score, I couldn't bring myself to rank this game anything lower. It would be an insult to this amazing game.

Sound: I rated this game a 10/10 in sound, I gave this game a ten out of ten, because the music, oh the music in this game is amazing, it truly is a delight to the ears. I found myself to just going to different towns just to hear the amazing, music that town offered, or that field you had to explore, I stayed there a bit longer to fight enemies, just because the music in this game is that good. If you a fan of good music, and gaming music, I would surely suggest this game to you. It's a masterpiece. I don't think to the best of my knowledge that there is one place in this game, that I ever got sick of the music in this game where I had to mute it.

Addictive: I rated this game a 10/10 in addictive behavior, I gave this game a ten out of ten, because the addictive nature of this game is purely amazing. There are countless replay ability options to this game, Different ways you can end this game, and different ways to recruit characters to be in your army. And trying to recruit everyone alone, could take days for you to do. Especially if there was no guide or any prior help or knowledge, this game could take you weeks. The bosses are quite hard in this game, and can really drag you in wanting to beat this particular boss, I had to start over countless times, because some of these bosses are very hard. The last boss, is very well done nice difficulty, as well as wonderful design. All in all I will guarantee you, if you choose to play this game, you will be glued to your television, wondering what you should do next.

Story: I rated this game a 10/10 in story, I gave this game a ten out of ten, because the story...oh the story is legendary among the history of games. You can seriously get behind each and every character in this game, especially the hero, and there are quite a lot of characters in this game, since you can recruit up to 108 people within this game.This game will  bring you countless memories to come young or old players will love this story. You will find yourself laughing, crying, and in disgust as well as anger with certain insane crazy bosses. The story is simplistic, but yet so complex, that you will fall in love with this classic.

Depth: I rated this game a 10/10 in depth, I gave this game a ten out of ten, because the depth in this game is just simply amazing, you can really tell the creators of this game truly cherished this game. because it really came out int eh characters, enemies, the story, sound, and just plain everything with in this game. The depth is amazing as I stated before, you can really see where each and every character is coming from, which I didn't think possible especially with having over a hundred protagonists. All in all if you want a deep game look no further than this gem.

Difficulty: I rated this game a 8/10 in difficulty, I gave this game an eight out of ten, because some of the bosses in this game can be insanely hard, especially if you don't correctly level up your character, and give them the proper gear. Sometimes you might even have to start fully over, which is rare in games, especially in today's world. Now I do not know if this was just me or not, but I did find this game really hard at some point's in the game, while at other point's somewhat easy, so it could just be me, though I do seriously know you have to properly level, and such, and do know a bit of strategy, because if you don't you can easily find yourself flinging the controller at the wall, out of anger, of the super hard enemy in front of you.

Controls: this is not in the review section, but I thought it would be important to talk about, I rate the controls a 10/10 in controls. I gave this game a ten out of ten, because the control scheme is quite good, Suikoden plays like a traditional role playing game, with moving characters across a landscape, while advancing the plot by doing tasks and talking with others. The battle system features a six person party while your in combat, and you can control each individual character. Combat is triggered through random encounters, and is largely turn based, (basically both the player, and the enemy select their actions before the turn goes forward, and once the turn begins, carries out their actions in sequence of their speed). The character can attack at three leveled ranges, which range from short, medium, and long range. With this type of character placement, brings quite the air of strategy to it, by deciding on where to place an individual character. Then there are two other battle types in this particular game as well called duel battles, and war battles, in duels battles there are three commands, attack, defend, and special. While the other battle called strategic war battles, which consists of four major attacks, charge attacks, bow attacks, magic attacks, and others. The controls in this game are very complex, as well as the same time very simplistic. And the control scheme is yet another masterpiece in this game, that makes this game even more better, than what it is. All in all given it's
time, these are some of the best controls I have ever seen in a game.

Character Development: This is another important aspect of this game that is not on the review list, but I thought was important to discuss, I rate the character development a 10/10, I gave this game a ten out of ten, because the story for each and ever character in this game, was so well crafted, and so well done, you can really tell the game creators loved this game. I promise you, you will love every character you come across in this game.

In Conclusion, as I stated before if you could play only one game for the Playstation, then play this game, I promise you, you won't be disappointed, the game is a true gem in all aspects, and not only will stand the tests of time, but is a real contributor to the history of video games. This game is not really violent, so if you have kids they would love it as well, it is pretty deep, so really young may not understand this game. So I would not really suggest this to kids like under 12, as they may not under stand some concepts of this game. But whether you are a hardcore gamer, or a casual gamer, or new to games entirely if you pick this game up, and play it I promise you, you will not only enjoy the experience, but the memories as well.