It’s kinda funny. I kept buying these games and promised myself “I’ll get to them later”, and yet here I am with all six on the table and haven’t even seen the start screen in any of them.
So as I’m about to go into the first one, I’d like to know: Are there any one-time-only missables? And any general advice you can give?
Recruit every ally before the final strategy meeting if you want to ressurect a VERY powerful character that dies.
Don’t presume that the one-on-one between Teo and Pahn isn’t winnable. Pahn doesn’t have to die, and if you’re smart you won’t let him. He’s monstrously powerful at the end of the game and you’ll want to keep him around, especially if you revive the character mentioned above.
When you defeat the enemy generals don’t execute them. You can recruit them, and some are very useful.
Other than that, there’s nothing too huge you can miss.
Use a strategy guide. These games are awful if you’re the type who gets discouraged when you learned you missed something.
<small>It took me four tries to get through Suiko II, and that’s without doing Clive’s stuff</small>
When you get to Suiko 5, be warned. There are like 20 stars with a severely narrow timeframe to recruit them.
I’ll have all that in mind.
That’s precisely me, so I’ll hit GameFAQs as soon as possible.
By the way, one last question: Tactics goes between 4 and 5, or at the very end?
Between 4 and 5. I’ve never played it (due to hatred for 4), but it first takes place about 5 years before 4 then 5 years after 4. If you have a complete data save, you can transfer a couple of 4 characters over to Tactics.
Yeah, Tactics goes around 4, before and after.
Also, 5 had so many people on a tight time frame? I could only think of two, the ones you get in the Sable inn.
The mercenaries and Mr. Doctor Man have pretty tight time frames too. The snake could be considered as a tight timeframe also since you have only two chances to get her. Don’t forget the two from Hershville either. Then there’s the Maximillian Knights… There’s just a shitton of missable charactetrs,
The mercenaries’ time frame is like half the game though. And the doctor’s isn’t so much tight as awkward. Hersheville yeah, but that’s cause it’s so close to the cutoff point anyway.
I mean, there’s a lot of flat out missable ones, but not many that are too tight.
The second game has one timed subquest that gives you some information about one of the characters. But I wouldn’t do that on first play, it’ll kill your enjoyment of the game when you have to rush through everything. Just beat it normally the first time.
I dislike replaying for the sake of only one sidequest. So unless the game has a NewGame+ mode or something of the sort, I might just ask you guys what that is when I finish the game.
I’m about half an hour into the first game and I already discovered a pretty severe exploit for getting unlimited cash 
First in-game question: My Dragon Fang Staff says that it’s Lv. 5/20. I get what the 5 stands for, it’s the number of times I had it sharpened, but what’s the 20?
Is Suikoden 4 any good compared to the rest? I was considering buying it, but I wasn’t sure if I heard 5 or 4 was pure shit.
Probably the weapon’s current attack stat.
4 is considered by far the worst of the series. I guess if you can find it for real cheap it would be worth it. 5 is highly regarded as on the same level as 2.
I found it for 20$, but I got Atelier Iris instead. Perhaps I made a mistake.
$20 Canadian? I’d say 4 is worth that much.
What kind of RPG is it? Traditional, or tactical?
Yeah, a 5/20 weapon means it’s a level 5 weapon, with 20 attack power.
4 is a traditional RPG, but it’s not a traditional Suikoden. The gameplay is changed enough to give it a not-Suikoden vibe.
Suikoden is a non-traditional Suikoden in that instead of the “get the 108 stars together in our castle to kill the bad guy”, it’s “let’s get the 108 stars aboard the our pirate ship and kill the bad guy”. The whole world map is a bunch of islands that you have to sail to, instead of the traditional walking with periodic sailing.