How much do you think a copy of Suikoden II costs on Amazon? $US60? $US150? $US300? If you guessed $US699.99, congratulations: you win the prize for Ability To Guess Obscene Internet Price Gouging. The prize is sadness.
Suikoden II, a PS1 role-playing game developed and published by Konami, is generally considered to be one of the best games out there, but there’s no way to play it today without A) already owning a copy, B) spending a fortune, or C) pirating. It’s without a doubt my favourite video game, yet there’s no affordable or legal way I can recommend it to anyone. It makes me really sad.
Biggest problem is, there should be another option: D) buying it on Sony’s PlayStation Classics store, which sells tons and tons of old PS1 games including the first Suikoden, an excellent albeit significantly inferior game. Suikoden II is not there.
For quite some time now, I’ve been trying to figure out what the deal is. Some think Konami might not understand just how many people would like to play the game. Others suspect technical issues or a licensing snafu — Japanese contracts are notoriously convoluted. (If you’re reading this and you have any idea why Suikoden II has yet to see any re-release in the U.S., let me know.)
So let this be a petition. Let’s get this done, Konami. Suikoden II to the PlayStation Network. Make it happen. Here are three compelling reasons:
1) It’s one of the greatest role-playing games ever. And more people should get a chance to discover that. It’s a sweeping-yet-personal story about two best friends trying to fight against their destinies, steering armies in a massive war that will change the world as they know it. Also there’s a mini-game where you get to pretend to be an Iron Chef.
2) It will make lots and lots of money. I’ll buy a copy. Kirk says he will, too. That’s at least a solid two sales.
Plus all those tens of thousands of people who would love to play (or re-play) Suikoden II but don’t want to spend $US699.99 to make it happen. A $US6-10 Suikoden II would hit that sweet spot, and word of mouth will do the rest.
3) Fans will love you. Especially the ones who have been silently cursing the name “Konami” for all but ignoring Suikoden in North America over the past few years. (Even Konami UK gave Suikoden Day a shoutout, but their US division? Nothing.)
So spread the word. Let’s get Konami to listen, and either publish the game themselves or find a way to pass it along to a third party like MonkeyPaw Games (whose frequent collaborator Vic Ireland says he’d love to help re-release Suikoden II).
Suikoden II on PSN. Let’s do this.
Random Encounters is a weekly column dedicated to all things JRPG.
Comments
13 responses to “It’s Time For Konami To Bring Suikoden II To PSN”
If this goes on the PS online store that guys asking price of $699.99 is going to go WAY down…they must be the reason we have no suikoden II
It’s probably Konami selling it for that price, and that’s why they won’t release it on PSN.
My brother owns the first and second game on PS1.
Yeah. I own both games on PS1 (Plus 3,4 & 5 on PS2… And Tierkreis on DS). Totally worth the $700 😉
Although I bought them at release.
I’d buy a PS Vita just to play 1 & 2 again if they released them as a pack or something.
Just a curious query, if anyone sees this.
How would you react to a 3rd party Suikoden clone being developed?
Make that 3 sales. I have only ever owned a burnt PS2 version of Suikoden 1 & 2. Would love to get these digitally.
I’ve never played any of the Suikoden games but always wanted to. I’d definitely buy this, provided that it’s Vita compatible as well (IIRC original Suikoden is on PSN at the moment but isn’t listed as PSV compatible 🙁 )
It works on vita as well as ps3. I’m playing right now ^^.
Doesn’t come up on PSN for Vita, at least not on US PSN (I don’t use an AU account on my Vita)
Picked up Suikoden I & II in outstanding condition at a Revolution CD store for $70 (both). Best deal ever.
Not going to lie, I do feel special for owning all the Suikoden games… well, besides IV. No one feels anything but sadness for owning IV. I would actually buy II on the PSN store, and badger anyone with a PS3 that has not played the game.
Also my favourite of all time.
guys don’t panic and dont moan! just get a USA PSN account and get Suikoden 2 digital download for PS3/PSP for less than US$10!!
…. just in addition to my previous post… I’ve got Xenogears, Legend of Mana, Breath of Fire IV from the USA PSN store as well!! Great games there for PSone and PS2!! so guys get a USA PSN account!! The thing is for you to load money in it you might need to buy a PSN USA card from a third party site!! Then you’re all good to roll once you’ve loadedmoney to your PSN USA account!! It’s easy!!
I am pretty sure it’s not on the US PS Store. Isn’t that what this article is all about?
All five, and Tactics, on PSN, Vita compatible, with the save transfer function, absolute heaven, I’d buy all of them without a 2nd thought.
Heck, throw in a translation/port of Genso Suikoden: Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki, more the merrier.
In AU we don’t even have the first one on PSN yet 🙁
Same here in Europe.
My reply is about a year later 😛 sorry just found that my profile gave notifications purely by accident :P. The discussion was about suikoden on vita. You like myself are using us account and the game only shows up on ps3. It does however transfer from ps3 to vita no worries. Now all we need is to pressure sega to get suikoden II on psn. The only way to get that now is by visiting wololos site and forgoing online until you beat it (might be worth a look now if you havent upgraded to 3.10 yet; 3.01 still has plenty of ways to play this game.) If you want to discuss anything my handle on the wololo.net /talk forums is cruorsitis so feel free to pm me or start a thread and I’ll offer any assistance I can.