The scheduled Konami occasion at subsequent week’s Tokyo Sport Present has change into a type of online game Rorschach check. Everybody it sees one thing totally different: absolutely it should be about Steel Gear remasters (opens in new tab), or Silent Hill remakes (opens in new tab), or possibly they’re going to simply dedicate your entire factor to saying they’re lastly porting Symphony Of The Evening to PC (it will not be this, however it must be)?
However a slowly rising assortment of circumstantial proof has one uncared for group excited that they may lastly get a brand new entry in a collection that is been silent for a decade. Suikoden hasn’t seen a brand new recreation since Suikoden: Woven Net Of The Centuries launched on PSP in 2012, however followers are daring to dream that the “world-loved collection” that may get a brand new recreation at TGS would possibly truly be the fondly remembered JRPG cult traditional.
The explanations are a number of. First, the Konami present is ready to be hosted by Yuki Kaji, a prolific voice actor who Konami “invited as a visitor to characterize the followers of a collection which is beloved everywhere in the world”. Kaji has only starred in three Konami titles (opens in new tab), two of which have been Suikoden video games (and the third of which isn’t “well-loved world wide”). Second, VGC stories (opens in new tab) that its sources say the announcement might be a few “smaller undertaking” than the revivals of video games like Steel Gear and Silent Hill.
The exceptional success of Eiyuden Chronicle’s Kickstarter marketing campaign (opens in new tab), a non secular successor to Suikoden made by authentic workforce members, may additionally have prompted Konami to recollect it nonetheless holds the sport’s licence. Eiyuden Chronicle ultimately pulled in $4.5 million in funding, 9 occasions its authentic $500,000 aim. It is anticipated to launch a while subsequent 12 months.
None of it’s a smoking gun. Simply because rumours say the announcement will not be about Steel Gear does not imply that it will likely be about Suikoden. The Eiyuden Kickstarter was profitable largely due to the presence of authentic workforce members like Yoshitaka Murayama and Junko Kawano. Yuki Kaji is there to “characterize followers,” which may imply he has nothing to do with the sport being introduced. Latest stories that the collection has had its trademark renewed do not actually inform us a lot both, and solely pertain to very particular merchandising in Mexico (opens in new tab).
However it’s the brightest spark of hope the Suikoden group has had for a while, and the subreddits are already abuzz (opens in new tab) with arguments about what this might imply. I hope they’re proper to be excited, each as a result of I’ve needed to play Suikoden for years and since the potential for heartbreak at this level is an excessive amount of to bear. Remakes and remasters of Konami’s most well-known franchises seem to be a matter of time, however extra area of interest classics like Suikoden really feel like they run a danger of being left within the dustbin of historical past if they do not get some love. Let’s simply hope a finger on the monkey’s paw does not curl and ship us a microtransaction-filled and enormously profitable (opens in new tab) new Suikoden recreation for iOS and Android subsequent week.
We’ll discover out quickly sufficient. Tokyo Sport Present will run from September 15 to 18, and Konami’s announcement is anticipated on the sixteenth.