WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW?

author=Corfaisus
What I think is sad is when people question or even scoff at a kingdom ruled by a queen (it'd be a queendom actually, look it up). For all that I love about Fidchell's LP of Tales from Zilmurik, this particular bit rather stung of male chauvinism. "This is kind of creepy" when there aren't any men in a position of authority. Please note how not a single word was said when he was in Vermolin about there being only men in the castle.

Yup. It's great that even in the early games of the Suikoden series (I think around 94-96?) the Queendom of Falena was mentioned. Another great aspect of the series was how it makes the world feel like it exists, even if you don't actually go outside of the countries in that particular game. So we heard about Georg Prime who used to work for the Emperor but also worked for the Queendom as a Queen's Knight, well over a decade before we finally visited the place.

Kingdoms are all well and good, but seriously, shaking things up in your made-up fantasy world is always a good thing. Another thing that the Suikoden series made clear.

In Suikoden you have the Scarlet Moon Empire. A tad cliche, yes, but they referenced a fair few other countries with different governments - from the Queendom to the City-States of Jowston to the Kingdom of Highland.

In Suikoden II the main conflict was between the Kingdom of Highland and the City-States of Jowston, but you got help from the Toran Republic, whilst your enemies got help from the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia (more a Theocracy than a kingdom) and the Karayan clan of the Grasslands. (The City-States end up becoming a Republic, though one of the states, Tinto, becomes a Republic of it's own.)

In Suikoden III you were in the area that consists of the Zexen Confederacy, the Grasslands and the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia. The Zexens have a parliament of nobles who work with the knighthood, the Grasslands is made up of clans that act as allies against the Zexens and Harmonians who keep trying to push a claim to their lands and Harmonia is run by an immortal God-King who hasn't been seen by anyone who isn't his Bishops in forever.

In Suikoden IV you are set in the Island Nations - a series of islands who are basically separated into different nations - and deal with the Kooluk Empire. By the end of the game the Island Nations have become a Federation and the Empire is no more.

In Suikoden V you are in the Queendom of Falena, bordered by the Kingdom of Armes and the Island Nations. This is actually the game where the focus is the most inwards, funnily enough, though a lot of the characters come from various areas of the world.

And that's another thing - even in the games there's books and people who are coming from different areas of the world and bring stories and information about them. Like the Dukedom of Gaien, the Kingdom of Zelant, the Theocracy of Nagarea, the Knightdom of Camaro and the Nameless Lands.

Like, seriously, don't just slap down a Kingdom in your game all the time. Shake it up a bit. There's a lot of different governments out there that might make for a more compelling world.

Halloween's comin' in mighty early this year, Mah.

What in the world kind of song is this?:

What a horrible version of memesong.

YESSSSssssss I just got my component cables for my PS2, and good god does Final Fantasy XII look so much better on my HD TV.

I mean, I can see the glorious textures! Facial expressions - these madmen put so much work into every little piece, and I can now fully appreciate it!

What font is the '2' in this logo? Or a similar free font to this?

author=Cap_H

author=Liberty
Suikoden

That was a load of information. I should give series a go. Do you think Tactics entry for Gamecube is a good start?
You pointed it right. Female characters in Suikoden do vary. The ones which are supposed to are provocative, others wear normal armor (we all know bikini armor and its criticism). And that is right. I don't have problem neither with skin being shown nor I consider it always sexist. The problem is, and it differs from the real world, in games and advertisement it almost always is.
Your second comment shows it even better. You talk about different means of rule and It shows very nicely how the diversity is important. We have a need for weak cute characters (their gender doesn't matter to be honest), for strong galant knights, sexy 33 years old mages and so on. However it is important to build and twist and not to stick with archetypes only.
I remember Gothic 3. It was a massive game and I spent over 100 hours with it. The only female character was a female rebel. She had nothing to say and was used only about two times. There was about a dozen of towns, some farms, rebel camps, Water Wizards and several other populated places.
On the wild side, Dragon Age works with this pretty well and it's beloved for it. I haven't plaid the last one yet, but I can't wait for my little qunari romance.

I probably stopped making sense three sentences before i started writing this. The message I wanted to confirm is:

author=Liberty
Diversity

The Suikoden series is odd in that each of the games are interconnected in ways to each other. So I/II/III interconnect with characters and the areas they're set in quest a bit. IV and Tactics are two sides to the same story, but are the weakest of the games due to how disconnected they are to the rest of the games. V is great because it's a bit more internal in nature, though there's still a lot of connections to I/II/III.

Personally, I'd say start at the start and make your way through (I and II are on the PSN store for pretty cheap) but if you can't get a hold of them, then playing IV and Tactics (in that order) would work. Just know that IV is the worst of the series (the only way is up from there!) but it connects with Tactics quite a bit when it comes to characters, setting and story. Tactics also takes quite a wild turn away from the usual plot of the series, though it is an interesting game.

If you don't have time to play the games, you could always watch a good series of LPs (I actually know a guy who's played through ALL of them and is just finishing up his Suikoden V run - he's done a great job).

But yeah, due to the interconnected nature of the games and how the early ones set up the later ones, I recommend starting with I and working your way through. Or if you want to go via the timeline of the series you can go VI, Tactics, V, I, II, III. Just know that graphically and system-wise it'll get not-great towards the end of that list (still pretty great, but old games tend to be a bit dated.)

author=psy_wombats

author=Kaliesto
What in the world kind of song is this?:

~~ vaporwave ~~ ?

https://soundcloud.com/marblepawns/macintosh-plus-420-c-o-v-e-r

I should have looked at the youtube description...wow this song is tripping me out.

Yeah, longer time is going to help a lot more than a shorter period. Also, different people need different amounts of time - it's no set amount for every person, after all. Some people respond well very fast, some people take a lot longer. Everyone has their own pace. It ain't a race, after all~

Just give her support and love and here's hoping she'll be okay. >.<)b

Yeah, ouch!