Konami Surprise – Announces Suikoden 1 and 2 Remasters for 2023

Suikoden footage shows the gang fighting a skeleton dragon. — screenshot: konami

The long silence about the Suikoden games has confused us, you, all, for over a decade. But Konami is moving in mysterious ways, and last night at the Tokyo Game Show, the company blew everyone away by surprisingly announcing remasters of the first two games due out next year.

It’s been ten years since the last time there was one Suikoden game, and that was Genso Suikoden: Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Tokion the PSP, released in Japanese only. A fan-made English translation was released last year

but understandably, people assumed the series had been abandoned.

A shot from Suikoden's trailer showing two characters jumping off a cliff into the night. — screenshot: konami

This was further made through the case Crowd-funded success of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroesa spiritual successor to Suikoden Series created by the original developers. By June of last year, it had raised a staggering $4.5 million, and looks very impressive.

This certainly had to be a motivating factor for Konami, who might finally realize they were sitting on an abandoned gold mine. Still, they remained silent, ignoring the endless wailing. Until now.

konami

While these remakes are obviously not edited by designers and writers like Yoshitaka Murayama who work on them Eiyuden Chronicle

, they brought back the original character artist Junko Kawano. Which is interesting since it’s listed as a work in progress Eiyuden Chronicle to.

IGN I got some in-game footage from the remakes where you can see the improved sprites, new sound, updated UI, and even the rewritten English translation – something that was sorely lacking in the original 90’s releases. this is a big deal Suikoden fans!

IGN

Oh boy the sprite art in the battle sequence is just so good!

At least one former Konami employee was shocked by the announcement. Yuichi tweeted, “While I was still working for Konami at E3 2015, I was told to my face there will never be another Suikoden Game because it just doesn’t sell in the US and Europe.”

He added: “For those who don’t know there are 27 True Runes in the lore Suikoden and only 18 were revealed.” He says he’s been trying to keep the series alive at Konami for eight years with no success, but he believes there’s hope a sixth game will be made if these remasters prove to be prove successful.

That means barring any major slip-ups, 2023 should see the release of both Suikoden 1 and 2along with Eiyuden Chronicle. They are like buses.