Suikoden Remasters: Indicative of Konami’s Sloppy Comeback

Months ago, I wrote of a potential Capcom-like comeback for Konami. The previews for the then-unreleased Silent Hill 2 remake were sounding positive. And here we are today, months after release; and I can safely say I absolutely adored the game! In fact, it was my second favorite game of 2024. To follow up the well received game, Konami and Bloober Team have announced a sort of partnership. I wouldn’t be surprised if they just jump to a Silent Hill 3 remake because its probably the second most iconic game in the franchise. But my personal hope is they remake Silent Hill 1 first. For two reasons actually. The first is, Silent Hill 1 is deeply connected to Silent Hill 3 in terms of plot. The other reason is, Bloober Team can probably rework a lot of assets they made for Silent Hill 2’s remake and pump out a Silent Hill 1 remake fairly fast. And with the increasingly promising Metal Gear Solid 3 Delta coming out later this year, Konami is…almost back.

Why almost?

On March 6th, Konami finally released the remasters of Suikoden 1 and 2. These remasters were announced two and half years ago! Fans were starting to speculate its cancellation. Luckily, that never happened and we just got them earlier this week.

Overall, I’m happy that these games are much more accessible. The only way to play them prior to these remasters were buying original copies for the PlayStation (which easily go for around $200). You could also buy the digital versions available on the PlayStation 3 store. Both of those options aren’t very feasible or easy in 2025.

I’ve sunk about three hours into the first Suikoden game, and they definitely did a serviceable job at bringing these classics to a modern market. One aspect of the remasters I’m really appreciative of is retaining the old looking menus and old sound effects for things such as text boxes. The Suikoden games always had a sort of “dusty” or “old school” feeling to them, especially when you compare them to their more forward-thinking competitors such as Final Fantasy VII. Instead of chasing the high of new and fancy 3D graphics at the time, Suikoden 1 and 2 stayed 2D. The series never felt like it was trying hard to impress its audience. Instead, Suikoden 1 and 2 felt like its creators were doubling down on 2D JRPG design. And I can say the same about these remasters. Except this time, I’m not sure if being unimpressive is a good thing.

These remasters come with some of the accoutrements you would expect such as a fast-forward for battles and auto-saving. There’s also some nice and shiny new character portraits. Unfortunately, that’s really all I can say in terms of positives. The games function properly and I should be satisfied by that. But it hit me immediately once I started the game; the landscapes look like a mobile game. It feels like there’s absolutely no art direction going on with the environments. It’s almost like they opened the most generic batch of assets and dumped them into the game. One of my favorite aspects of the first two games in the series was its sense of nature. You’re often exploring forests, caves, marshes and valleys. And instead of having grand background music like Final Fantasy IV’s cave music, Suikoden usually opts for quieter music and atmospheric background noises. It gives this sense of really being out in nature. And in the PS1 originals, having that nature-filled feeling being contrasted with pixel art background was really special. But when the games look so bland like they do in these remasters…some of the magic is gone.

Bland landscapes aside, when you compare these remasters to similar products such as the Pixel Remasters for Final Fantasy I-VI, these Suikoden remasters feel ever more shallow. In the Pixel Remaster, you have options to customize the amount of experience points and money you get from battles. You can also shut off battles as well which makes backtracking much smoother. I haven’t even mentioned the amazing libraries of music, maps, and bestiarys. These Suikoden remasters somehow feel like the bare minimum. They didn’t even address one of the biggest complaints of these first two games- the inventory system.

I expect a bit more from a product that took almost three years to finish.

As I’m writing this, Konami just had another Silent Hill Transmission yesterday entirely focusing on Silent Hill f. It looks quite promising so far! Overall, I still believe that Konami is heading towards a Capcom-like comeback. But I do think it’s important to examine these Suikoden remasters and remember that: Konami is still Konami. They still make dumb decisions; like how they handled the recent Metal Gear Solid ports. I truly hope they don’t start slipping up now. As the holder of many of IP I love, I’m still rooting for Konami.