Here’s How Long It Takes To Beat Suikoden I & II HD Remaster And Get The Golden Ending
A pair of PS1 classics get a fresh coat of paint.
The original Suikoden games are some of the most beloved RPGs on the original PlayStation. Now, thanks to a new remastered collection, players can play a version of both games that keep the full games intact while adding a handful of upgrades. Whether you’re new to the series or a returning fan from the PlayStation originals, Suikoden I & II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars may be the best way to experience these classic games — and the easiest to do without lugging an old console out of storage. Here’s how long it will take to beat Suikoden I&II HD Remaster and what else to expect from the new release.
How Long Is Suikoden I & II HD Remaster?
Suikoden I & II HD Remaster is a fairly quick adventure by RPG standards.
Like with the original games, how long it takes to beat the remastered versions of Suikoden I and II can vary a lot based on how much effort you put into its unique army building mechanics. Both games in the collection feature 108 central characters for the protagonist to recruit throughout their adventure, but finding most of them is entirely optional. That means that you can potentially rush through the game with a skeleton crew taking care of your castle, but for the best experience, you’ll want to spend a good amount of time on recruitment.
Suikoden I alone can be beaten in around 20 hours if you’re sticking to the critical path, and finding all 108 characters will bring the total to about 25 hours. Suikoden II is longer no matter how you play it, coming in at about 30 hours for a speedy playthrough. Going for full recruitment and completing all of the game’s side quests could bring the total to 40 hours or more. To finish the whole Suikoden I & II HD Remaster collection, you should expect to spend 50 to 60 hours on average.
How Do You Get The Best Ending In Suikoden I & II HD Remaster?
Recruiting every party member in the Suikoden games is optional, but it has its rewards.
Both Suikoden I and II have an unlockable better ending known as the Golden Ending. Unlocking it isn’t particularly complicated, but it can be time consuming and sometimes tricky. To reach the Golden Ending in each game, you need to recruit its entire 108-character cast. The biggest difficulty here is tracking down all the characters and meeting their unlock requirements.
Does Suikoden I & II HD Remaster Add Any New Features?
Suikoden I & II HD Remaster’s biggest updates come to the games’ battles and graphics.
As its name implies, the big difference for Suikoden I & II HD Remaster is that it upgrades the game’s graphics to high definition while mostly keeping the character of the original pixel art intact. It also gives each major character a new, much-improved portrait that appears in menus and dialogue scenes, and battles now have more spectacular effects accompanying special attacks. Sound effects are also improved for the collection.
Like many repackaged collections of this kind, Suikoden I & II HD Remaster features a gallery mode that lets you listen to music from both games as well as view cutscenes and endings you’ve already unlocked from the menu.
The bigger additions are changes the collection makes to the games themselves. Both games in the collection now feature Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulty modes. Suikoden I and II aren’t very challenging games in their original versions, so the Hard mode is a welcome addition to returning players. A newly added conversation log also lets you view a record of dialogue you’ve had with other characters at any time, which can be a big help in getting your bearings since neither game includes a quest log.
Along with adjustable difficulty, Suikoden I & II HD Remaster adds the ability to speed up its turn-based battles, which can shave some time off your playthrough. There’s also an auto-battle mode if you don’t want to select commands individually for easy battles, though characters won’t use their most powerful moves if you choose to let them attack automatically, so it can be a dangerous option for trickier fights.
