u/Distinct_Front_4336

Translation of https://dengekionline.com/article/202608/81813#google\_vignette

Contains spoilers.

When gamers hear "live-service RPG for smartphones," the first concern many of them have is this: won't a stamina system chop up my play sessions and restrict them? Particularly in a work like Suikoden, where you want to soak yourself in a weighty story and a vast world, running out of stamina at a good moment and having to wait until the next day could easily become a major source of stress.

With this game, that worry turned out to be completely unnecessary. Advancing the main story consumes no stamina. The stamina-like system is mainly limited to character development, gathering materials for weapon upgrades, and grinding certain sub-content. At your own pace, you can absolutely play in the "I'm not sleeping until I see how this chapter ends" style, just like a console RPG.

Frankly, I ended up doing something I hadn't done in ages: staying up late because I was too curious about what came next. That sensation really is console-game-like.

And even though I'd braced myself for it, the sheer volume of content still surprised me. For this advance playthrough I kept side content and grinding to a minimum and prioritized story progression above all. Even so, it took me over 20 hours to clear the very first chapter alone. That by itself is a play time equivalent to a full ordinary RPG.

Pushing further, by the time I had cleared all the way through the newest story line implemented at launch, my total play time had comfortably exceeded 50 hours. And that's not 50 hours of tapping the screen and reading text like a slideshow. It's 50 hours of exploring towns on my own two feet, talking with people, tackling dungeons, and fighting desperate battles with bosses.

If your play style is to thoroughly savor town exploration, small conversations with NPCs, minigames at the various facilities, and the individual episodes that dig into the characters' backgrounds, the game has the potential to give you 100 hours or more. Despite being on smartphones, I can flatly declare that it's a colossal, volume-packed work that doesn't fall the slightest bit short of a big-budget home-console RPG.

A supplementary note: skip systems for the development-related content are fully in place (the material-gathering minigames can also be run automatically), so it left a good impression that you can advance that side of things while doing something else. As for speed-up options, battles can be set to 2x speed and story staging up to 3x. In my case, I used 2x battle staging as my baseline and still got the play time above.

One more note: I wrote 50 hours, but in truth it took about 5 hours more. Some of the main story's bosses have quite a high wall. I won't name names, but there's a boss that appears as a trio of three at once, and the trial and error of leveling and party composition needed to beat them sucked up my time. That, too, really felt like a console RPG.

Also, even the small conversational variations that come from dialogue choices are almost entirely voiced. The story replay function makes it easy to try the other options, so by all means enjoy the reactions across various choices. As for me, I got carried away and enthusiastically picked the goofy options.

Being able to enjoy reactions like this properly voiced is genuinely amazing.

The music level is too high. The boss theme "For One Person Alone" is a confirmed god-tier track

An absolutely essential element when discussing Suikoden is its music. Its distinctive sound, incorporating flavors of Celtic and folk music, has produced many famous tracks across the series. The sound team for this game has splendidly inherited that tradition while also blowing in a fresh wind.

First of all, I'd like you to listen to the Suikoden series 30th anniversary orchestra concert that's been made freely available on YouTube. Alongside the series' popular tracks, some of the music from STAR LEAP is performed, including field and battle themes, so you can get a taste of the game's atmosphere.

(As an aside, I personally love "Mighty Foe," the boss battle BGM from Suikoden V. Hearing it live at that concert gave me goosebumps. Someday I want to hear the god-tier battle track "Life or Death" performed too.)

The arranged tracks from past titles are of course wonderful, but what I especially want to highlight is the quality of this game's original music. Take even a single town BGM: the arrangement changes between day and night. In the daytime, a bright, lively melody expresses the bustle of the town; at night, the same main melody shifts into a mellow acoustic arrangement, colouring the quiet townscape beneath the starry sky. This fine-grained staging multiplies the sense that the world is alive.

And what I want to say most loudly is how tremendous the battle music is. In particular, "For One Person Alone," which plays in what could be called the climactic final-boss scene of Chapter 1, is unmistakably a god-tier song. The moment the intro started, I got goosebumps. That sensation, the kind you get maybe once every few years. Instinctive love at first listen.

In a sense, this song has aspects that don't feel like the Suikoden of old: it's a high-tension, orthodox medieval fantasy battle track. But at key moments, the Chinese-flavoured, oriental melody lines distinctive to Suikoden clearly show their face.

I'm not well versed in music theory, so this is strictly the intuition of someone who loves game music. But it's a track that heightens the tragic pathos and heat of battle to the absolute limit, and it sends your excitement through the roof. (I'll stay vague to avoid spoilers, but the title "For One Person Alone" is also so, so good.)

I'm convinced this is a track that absolutely must be performed at the orchestra concert on September 19: Symphonic Poem from Suikoden Voyage, at Kawaguchi Lilia Main Hall.

Furthermore, there's a huge variety of battle tracks suited to different situations, such as the fight with the formidable enemy Ranrinten who blocks your path from the middle of the story onward. Every time you face a powerful foe, you get excited wondering what kind of hot track is coming next. It's a work worth playing for the music alone.

For newcomers: the fun of gathering 108 companions, and a cast with a pleasant brightness

Since Suikoden has a long history, some people may worry that you can't enjoy it unless you're a devoted fan who's played every numbered entry. That's absolutely not the case. If anything, it's precisely newcomers who should taste the fun of Suikoden's greatest appeal, gathering 108 companions, through this game.

To pitch it using past entries: as you journey across the world, people who at first glance are just ordinary villagers or craftsmen, or even characters who were once hostile to you, gather at your home base and become allies. This catharsis of your forces growing like a rolling snowball is a unique experience you can't easily get in other RPGs. Watching your home base grow richer and livelier as your companions increase is the greatest joy, no matter how many times you experience it. (In past titles, gathering all 108 has traditionally unlocked hidden elements as well.)

That fun carries over here. Separate from the dream-team fun of recruiting past series characters and enemy characters via gacha, the 108 Stars who are deeply involved in the main story can be recruited without spending money. (You can't recruit all of them immediately at launch, though.)

Some become allies just by advancing the story, but others require specific conditions such as talking to them in town and completing a quest, or rebuilding your home base, so you get a play feel similar to past titles. That's why I especially want people new to the series to enjoy this combination of "fun of increasing your companions" and the Water Margin-style ensemble experience where tons of distinctive characters appear.

At the tavern, you can also enjoy side stories that dig into the appeal of your companions.

The original characters introduced in STAR LEAP are all very appealing and have a pleasant brightness to them. Because of how the story develops, there are plenty of serious, heavy, painful scenes: your hometown gets attacked, you're unreasonably oppressed by mighty enemies. But at times like those, what saves the player's heart is the companions around the protagonist.

Hisui, who is wrapped in mysteries; the boundlessly energetic childhood friend Sheeleen; the nonchalant yet dependable Shapur; the shrewdly commercial but warm-hearted Fara. The comical banter they weave and their positive attitudes neutralise the heaviness of the story and give the player hope, the sense that with these companions you could get through any hardship. (The companions and rivals in the academy arc that starts in Chapter 2 are also a lineup of strongly quirky characters, and they're wonderful.)

Chapter 2 unfolds as academy life in the Queendom of Falena. With one-on-one training duels, exams, and more, it's packed with heated developments. It's also great for series fans to reunite with nostalgic members like the former Queen's Knights Galleon and Kyle.

Ms. Sheridan, who is very popular with the male students. So. Cute.

Even first-time players should be able to empathise right away with their life-sized appeal and the depiction of bonds that gradually deepen. Each character, starting with the 108 Stars, has unique episodes and background firmly established, so the more you learn about them, the deeper your attachment to the whole world grows.

A slight spoiler: in past entries there's been a convention that important characters close to the protagonist often go through crucial life-or-death events or branching points. Here, I personally felt Master Shapur was the most precarious, like he might die or betray you, and I played the whole time with my heart pounding. Beyond that, I'm curious how the pained-looking General Shapur from Aki Shimizu's Suikoden III comic adaptation goes through various things to become the disciple-loving idiot butler of the game version.

Hisui, Sheeleen, and the others each have heavy pasts and mysteries of their own, but precisely because Master Shapur is my top pick, I ended up playing the main story on edge about what would happen to him. As for the result, please play it yourself and find out.

The new characters are all a crafty bunch. I won't go into detail on purpose, but Gon'ou-chan and others have all sorts of gaps in their personalities that make them cute.

Ranrinten, the trio of Ranran, Rinrin, and Tenten whom you fight over and over, are also great characters. Including their origins, they have unexpected relationships with certain characters, and they're actually important figures.

Reunions with series characters, and the feeling that threads like the Sindar and Viki are about to pay off

For series fans, the greatest reward is reunions with characters from past titles and approaches to the mysteries of the setting that have been passed down for years.

This game is set in Solar Year 453, a little before the original Suikoden I (Solar Year 457) and a little after Suikoden V (Solar Year 450).

Because of that, from early in the story, characters whose names alone make a fan's heart leap appear: a young Georg, Odessa back when she was a noble of the Scarlet Moon Empire. You get to encounter new sides of them. In Odessa's case, the story of her former fiancé is depicted as well. What thoughts did they hold in the past, and what experiences did they go through to reach the stages of those masterpieces? Just having that missing link depicted is a tear-inducing experience for series fans.

Another quietly pleasing point is that you can see the names of past protagonists in the options settings. In Suikoden the protagonist equals the player, so there are as many protagonist names as there are people playing, but with the II anime coming up, having character names that are easy to refer to when chatting is appreciated. (For III it's less the protagonist and more the name of the Flame Champion, the key figure.)

• I: Rian
• II: Riryu
• III (?): Rignis
• IV: Rizel
• V: Rishtal
• SP: Chao

Lordlake, tied to V's Sun Rune, is depicted in the midst of reconstruction, which is deeply moving. Seeing Galleon, formerly a Queen's Knight, serving as the academy's principal makes me want to meet Silva too.

The foreshadowing scattered throughout the story strongly stimulates the desire to theorise. Take the Sindar, the ancient mysterious people considered one of the greatest mysteries running through the whole series. The ruins and technology they left behind have repeatedly been keys to the story in past titles, yet the full picture remains shrouded in mystery. Here, new clues about the Sindar and depictions that touch on their legacy appear, and the excitement of "are they finally going to cut into this mystery?" doesn't stop.

The presence of Viki, the series-regular teleport user, is also important. Why does she always cross space-time with a single sneeze? Why do a child Viki and an adult Viki both exist? There were depictions that hint at new perspectives on the roots of her unusual ability and the secret she may carry.

A major spoiler: this game also includes an element of leaping through eras. That's been all but suggested by the title STAR LEAP and by the information released so far. Different Vikis appear depending on the era, and during those periods you can only have one Viki in your party.

Also intriguing is Nije, a rune master who is the spitting image of Jeane. Jeane is voiced by Yuko Kaida and Nije by Ayane Sakura, and since the voice actors differ I'm sure they're separate characters, but the names look like an anagram, and Nije has an acquaintance who seems Sindar-related, so it's hard to believe they're unrelated. (If someone like Eresh from V shows up, theorising about Jeane and the Sindar would advance all at once.) As an aside, the SSR Jeane in the gacha is affiliated with the Fire Bringers, which might mean she'll be involved in a story set in the era of III.

How will this foreshadowing, going beyond mere fan service, intertwine with the core of the main story? For fans who have followed the series for years, you can enjoy it as a superb historical tale where you can't take your eyes off even a single line of dialogue. I'm truly glad a new entry came out.

Even the small-time villain Grady gets an appearance. There's battle content where you fight the three of them together with Kraze and Canaan. All three can also be recruited via gacha.

The series-standard profile deep-dive function is alive and well: raising levels, strengthening skill levels, and clearing specific conditions opens up profiles in the character encyclopedia. I want to read Nije's profile soon.

In a certain place you get a small reveal about what happened to V's Oboro Detective Agency afterward, and things like bookshelves around town shouldn't be overlooked either, so I recommend that series fans take their time and play while wandering off the path.

Around town there are scattered topics related to past titles. In Gregminster there's the McDohl family mansion, which means you might even get to see the young master and Gremio in their younger days. Detours recommended.

It doesn't tie into the story much at the moment, but in one quest you can catch a glimpse of a certain Mr. Oppenheimer's elegant lifestyle.

Special battles and abundant minigames: a single-player RPG packed with content

The appeal doesn't stop at story and characters. The breadth of play and abundance of content as an RPG also deserve mention.

In addition to normal command battles, the war events (large-scale battles) that are the series' showpiece are alive and well. They incorporate real-time strategy elements: you command multiple units simultaneously, assess enemy movements, and issue orders on advance routes and attack timing. The sight of your recruited characters each leading a unit and racing across the battlefield is spectacular.

"Real-time strategy" might sound difficult, but it's about right to think of it as intuitively giving orders to your units. War events don't occur all that frequently in the main story, but you can enjoy something close to them at any time in content called the Nightmare War Zone.

And when you say Suikoden, you say minigames at the home base. That tradition is properly carried on, and developing your base unlocks various diversions. There's a cooking system reminiscent of cooking contests, Chinchirorin that gets you so absorbed you forget the time, fishing, and small action-based material gathering. That beloved fun of detours, the feeling of "I'm in the middle of a journey to save the world, but I noticed I'd been playing at the home base for hours," is completely reproduced.

At the donation box, where you can receive a present every day, you can sometimes get comments from your companions. A thankful word from Luc.

I also love Champo from IV. Lines like these, and impressions during meals, are often voiced too. The love for the characters is really something.

Companions support you in the minigames, and auto and speed-up functions are provided, so they're easy to enjoy casually. If you're thinking about efficiency it's better to play manually, but being able to leave genres you're bad at to auto is appreciated.

"Hunting," where whittling the enemy's HP down to exactly zero matters, can be enjoyed with a card game feel.

Personally I love the "rice harvest" action game. Meeting spirits levels you up and raises your speed and cutting range, which is fun.

One thing I'm slightly concerned about is that at present there's no bath or hot spring, a series staple. But that seems likely to appear in a future story, so I'm relieved: the setting of Chapter 3 should be exactly a hot-spring-related location.

The battle-related grind elements are directly tied to the development systems, but once you clear something you can skip it, so you can level up quite briskly. In games like this there are cases where you can't skip unless you win flawlessly, but here you can skip after winning once, even if it was a close fight. Much appreciated.

The in-game reverse-lookup and search functions for development materials are well developed, so gathering needed materials is easy to follow. If I'm being greedy, it would be even more convenient if you could return to the development screen after obtaining a material via reverse lookup, but that's within acceptable range.

It's also nice that there are ways to obtain SSR characters and limit-break materials without spending money. Limit-break materials come from the exchange shop as well as idle elements, so it takes patience, but they help when you're just a little short. For free SSRs, the SSR Hisui from the beginner missions is excellent and can be limit-broken for free, and with reward coins from the Nightmare War Zone you can recruit boss characters. The 108 Stars obtainable outside the gacha let you earn limit-break materials by meeting conditions, so a 108-Stars-only challenge run looks viable.

Feeling how carefully these elements have been designed as content for a single player to savour the world at their own pace, despite the live-service mobile framework, I sense the developers' extraordinary dedication. There's no need to compete with anyone, and no need to be chased by time. You simply become the protagonist, journey through this world, gather companions, and stand against mighty enemies.

Suikoden STAR LEAP is optimised for the smartphone (though the Steam version can be played with a controller, which I'm looking forward to as well) while perfectly inheriting the soul of an orthodox single-player RPG, and it's an unquestionable god-tier game. As one fan who has played every numbered entry, I declare it a 10 out of 10, the highest recommendation.

Series fans and first-timers alike, please at least play until you've cleared Chapter 1 and heard "For One Person Alone." I promise RPG lovers will not regret it.

The story properly begins after the opening animation. The home base facilities are all in place around the latter half of the initially implemented story, so I'd recommend playing straight through to that point. Though it took me over 50 hours, so playing at your own pace is probably best.

Character panel:

• 戦気 612 → Battle Spirit: 612
• ☆ビッキー → ☆ Viki
• 瞬きの魔法少女 → "Magical Girl of the Blink" (title/subclass)

Stats:

• HP → 62
• 物攻 (Physical Attack) → 13
• 魔攻 (Magic Attack) → 28
• 物防 (Physical Defense) → 17
• 魔防 (Magic Defense) → 27
• 速 (Speed) → D+
• 命中 (Accuracy) → D
• 回避 (Evasion) → C

Skill: そーれ！("There you go!")

• 【計5回WEAK属性攻撃でダメージを与えると】→ [After dealing damage with WEAK-attribute attacks a total of 5 times]
• ・魔攻が80%上昇 → Magic Attack rises by 80%

Attached Skill: 連携自動参加 → Auto-Join Combo

• 【連携を発動するたび】※最大2回 → [Each time a Combo/Rush is triggered] (Max 2 times)
• 連携外にいても自動参加 → Automatically joins the combo even when not part of it

The first event for Star Leap was unveiled, titled "Under the Flag of the Liberation Army", content tied to the Liberation Army from Suikoden I. Since Liberation Army members appear early in the main story, this theme was chosen for the debut event to make it accessible for newcomers to the series.

The event features Odessa, now with dramatically shorter hair, along with Flick. Each event has its own separate protagonist that players control as the story progresses, different from the main story's protagonist. According to the broadcast, this offers players "a separate, smaller RPG to enjoy," covering parts of the story not fully explored in the main narrative or in previous entries in the series, while shining a spotlight on various characters.