Only a few days ago, Konami mentioned that its presence at the upcoming Tokyo Games Show would involve the return of what it called was a “world-loved series.” Konami, prior to becoming the most dedicated panchinko retailer in all of Japan, was known for being the home of legendary video game franchises like Metal Gear, Bomberman, and Castlevania. Indeed, Konami made this teaser-y announcement, many assumed the game in question would be some new Bomberman game the company had up its sleeve.
However, a new trademark filing may have given the whole game away.
Eagle-eyed users on Reddit who seemingly got it from SegmentNext, and later picked up by Eurogamer, noticed that Konami had recently renewed its trademark on the long-running Suikoden series of JRPGs. Suikoden first launched on the PlayStation back in 1995 and proved popular enough to warrant four direct sequels, the last of which was Suikoden V in 2006. It also spawned six spin-off games, the most recent of which was 2012’s Gensō Suikoden: Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki (The Woven Web of a Century) for the PSP, and only ever officially released in Japan.
Suikoden appeared at a time when the Japanese games industry was transitioning from the 16-bit era of the SNES into the new 32-bit age of the PlayStation. As such, it retained the classic 2D pixel-art look of many golden-era SNES JRPGs. Suikoden III, the series’ first outing on the PlayStation 2, formally moved the series to 3D. The original game is still a fantastic one. We’ve written about it on Kotaku before: it’s one of the best JRPGs ever made, and flew under the radar when it finally arrived in PAL territories in 1997.
Like many of Konami’s older IPs, Suikoden has become the subject of much fan lamentation. With the IP lying dormant for a decade, longer if you live in the West, most fans had given up hope of its return. The sight of a trademark renewal has sparked hope and trepidation in equal measure. As much as fans would love to have the series back, some feel that it could be a monkey’s paw situation. ‘You get Suikoden back, but it’s by the 2022 version of Konami that seems to hate all its franchises.’
At this early stage, it’s hard to say what Konami’s plans for the series could be. Most diehard fans would certainly be hoping for a new game. Much more likely, Konami is looking at a remake or remaster of the original games. It could even be a candidate for a Classics drop on the new PlayStation Plus platform. For now, we wait and see.
The 2022 Tokyo Game Show kicks off on Thursday, September 15th. Hopefully, we’ll find out more then.
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