Suikoden I & II HD Remaster Gate Rune And Dunan Unification Wars is an unwieldy subtitle for a pair of comfy and often cheerful RPGs, but it's one you could easily see on the slipcover for a thick slab of historical fiction.
It scans. Suikoden is never so striking as when military drums sound up beneath sweet singsong flutes. When farmers and teachers and fishermen throw down rakes and books and rods to take up arms for the chance to someday farm and fish and teach again.
The mid-90s were an incredible period for the best JRPGs. Final Fantasy was on an incredible streak with FF6, FF7, and FF8, and the likes of Chrono Trigger and EarthBound remain all-time classics to this day. Alongside them, if you were really in the know, and could manage to pronounce it, were Suikoden 1 and 2. While they didn't catch on quite as hard as some of their peers at the time, the pair gradually grew an audience, earning a well-deserved reputation as beloved cult classics that remain genre icons to this day. Now, Konami is finally showing them some love, with new HD remasters available right now on PC.
Is it too early to say “Konami is SO back?” Perhaps, but lately I’ve realized that when it comes to the recent handling of my favourite IPs from the storied Tokyo-based videogame maker, Konami seems to be returning to form. As a game publisher at least, 2025 Konami bears almost no resemblance whatsoever to the company it was a decade ago, where in the aftermath of its not-so-silent breakup with legendary game designer Hideo Kojima and the cancellation of his Silent Hills project, appeared to be shifting focus away from game development and towards its pachinko business. Angered fans weathered many questionable moves by Konami in the years that followed, including forgettable releases such as Metal Gear Survive and Contra Rogue Corps.
Fast-forward back to the present however and we now have a savvier, more confident Konami that looks to have comfortably resettled into its publisher role, wisely licensing out its lucrative IPs to trusted studios with the talent to develop... Read more