Suikoden I & II HD Remaster: Gate Rune & Dunan Unification Wars is set to release on March 6 for Nintendo Switch, PS4/PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam). In a recent interview with Dengeki Online, the developers behind the remaster discussed why it has taken so long to bring these two classic RPGs to modern consoles, and revealed that, if all goes well, Suikoden fans can expect this to be the start of the series’ revival.
Planning for Suikoden I & II HD Remaster started back in 2020. After its announcement in September 2022, it was slated for global release the following year. However, it was ultimately postponed until March 6, 2025. Why has a remaster, not a remake, of two old-school Konami RPGs taken this long?
As the developers explain, this has to do with the difficulties of working with old data and the team’s commitment to creating a truly high-quality remaster that was faithful to the originals. Producer Rui Naito reveals that this was his main directive to director Takahiro Sakiyama and the dev team: “With Suikoden I & II HD Remaster, I told Sakiyama and his team to ‘make something solid’ because it is the starting point for the IP’s revival. If we were to release a half-baked product, then [our attempt to revive the series] would be over.” Naito explains.
Naito also clarifies why he was determined to release a remaster and not a remake. It seems this decision was made out of respect for what the creators of the original games achieved so well in the 90s, despite the limits of technology. “At the time, Murayama (Yoshihito Murayama, Suikoden series’ original creator) and the other game designers who came before me put significant thought into how to express these games’ stories in a limited number of bits,” Naito explains. “Even the number of exclamation marks in their original dialogue is an expression of their thoughts and feelings. Therefore, I knew we must not lose these aspects of the games.” Sakiyama adds that “At the very beginning of the development process, we worked out what we should improve, and what we should leave untouched.”
Most of the changes made relate to the game’s visuals, and appear to have been made with the aim of being as faithful to the original games as possible. This was still a huge undertaking, however. Each main Suikoden game has a protagonist and 107 recruitable characters that can aid you in your quest, known collectively as the 108 stars of destiny. For the remaster, Sakiyama explains that they asked Suikoden I’s character designer Junko Kawano to redraw all 108 character portraits for the combat and dialogue screens. “I am very grateful to her for doing not only these portraits, but also the illustrations for the opening and various illustrations for the games’ release.” Sakiyama adds.
Another big undertaking was Suikoden I & II’s backgrounds, which got completely redone for the remaster. The original’s pixel art backgrounds looked fine on the curved screens of a CRT TV back in the day, but for the game to look good on modern HD TVs, it was decided to redraw all the backgrounds as HD illustrations. Other tweaks include a clearer user interface and HD sound.
Although the remaster will include QoL improvements like autosave and the option to speed up the game’s turn-based battles, combat difficulty was ultimately kept the same as the originals, which lean towards the easier side compared to other 90s RPGs.
Sakiyama mentioned that the dev team were able to consult with staff from the original about the remasters. “Fortunately, some of the staff that worked on the original games are still at Konami, so we were able to discuss things with them. In this sense, this was likely our last chance to remaster the games [with their input].” Sadly, Suikoden’s original creator Murayama (who left Konami in 2002) passed away last year, and will not get to see the remaster’s release nor the series’ revival plans come into fruition.
Suikoden I & II HD Remaster: Gate Rune & Dunan Unification Wars is scheduled to be released on Nintendo Switch, PS4/PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam) on March 6, 2025.
