IV was probably..no, it is the worse in the series. You should try II but if you don't wanna bust out the 70bucks for a copy, try out III or V

I've never played any game in the series, and I was wondering, which one should I play? I honestly don't know anything about the series, but I love RPGs and I'm always looking for a new great game.

everything about the stories in the series is about some political tyrant may it be someone scheming to take over a queendom (yes queendoms exist) or some power hungry prince lusting for blood.

every game has its own castle/fortress

what drew me in was that you are not limited to your party alone there are 108 characters i repeat 108 characters that can be recruited, many of which join automatically but a LOT that you'll have to search for they aren't limited to party characters either, they can be support or become an asset within your base.

Starting out I'd have to say V, just cause probably it'll be the easiest to find. After that play the II or III one.

when it comes to tactician guys who are your picks?
the tenki stars: mathiu, shu, caesar, elenor, lucrecia

i have to stick with shu, at one point you'd think he's crazy and the whole coin in the river thing is just ridiculous haha i loved his attack on luca

My favorite Suikoden is Suikoden IV, which seems to be everyone's least favorite. I don't get it. I loved the sailing, the music, the characters, the story..... it was great. I've played I, III, and V, which were fun as well but Suikoden IV is still the best in my opinion.

I agree with Link, IV w/o Tactics just doesn't seem to be complete like the rest of the series. Barely of the character's stories ever really pulled me in(other then Ted.. but hell it's Ted!), just to give an example Zerase from V completely intrigues me; Her knowledge of the Sun/Dawn/Twilight Runes, the rumors that she might just possibly be the "daughter" of the night rune. Idk, but none of the non-continuous characters from IV really caught my attention.

Leveling was made way too easy with the Training Hall (I kinda overdid the lvl'ing and the last boss was pretty much nothing.) Combat also died down a bit with only having a four(well, 5.)-person party, and the lack of skills(which Im like so thankful they brought back in V). IV's strategic battles also ruined the game for me, since my favorite thing about any Suikoden are the strategic battles.

Well I agree with you that Tactics does enrich Suikoden IV. Possibly one of the main reasons I like the game so much was that I bought it for 10 dollars back when it was new. I bought it from Half-price books and it was barely used. Even with its flaws, 10 dollars for Suikoden IV isn't a bad deal.

There really does need to be more Luca Blight level villains out there. Took hundreds/thousands of guys to beat him, and the only magic he had was an item he used to make his sword flamey.

"act like a pig! DIE LIKE A PIG!" - luca blight

Whichever you guys who outbidded me on Suikoden I-V on eBay (it was only $25 ALTOGETHER) is going to get a kick in the ass. Seriously, it's hard to find any copies of Suikoden I or II that's not over $50.

While I'm on the topic, does anyone know of a place that sells these for an affordable price? <.<

Do what I did for II, find friend who has older games(in my case, my cousin) who has no clue how much they're worth and offer 20bucks for it .

That or again, ebay ( )

i've been hearing stuff that suikoden would be downloadable i think via playstation network...then again coming from kotaku.com its totally different

Is there finally a reason for me to actually plug in my ps3 now?

I'm in the group of "People who liked III."
It had its faults but overall I really liked the game.
Not the best, but good.

My favorite, though is V, closely followed by II.
The game started off pretty slow, the fun kicked in a while later.
It's like hard candy with a creamy center.
II is excellent, but after Luca Blight, I didn't have too much motivation to finish the game.

My least favorite was IV.
I didn't like the length or the characters that much, even after playing tactics.
I did, however, thought that it had the best battle music.

As for the first one...
I thought it was decent, but I didn't like it as much as II, III and V.

Yeah, I came back a few weeks later and finished it.
...but, I suppose the game post-Luca Blight did have a few cool moments, like recruiting McDohl.