A war between two nations, a hundred and eight fates to recruit, and a castle that fills up as the world falls apart.

Gut choice first: Suikoden II sits ahead of 82% of games, already remarkable for a 1998 PlayStation RPG. And the detail climbs higher still. Attachment, ahead of 98% of titles. The one you would take to a desert island, ahead of 92%. The one you dream of discovering for the first time again, ahead of 92% too. Fun, ahead of 82%. Then the step drops hard. Controller feel only gets past 23% of games, art direction 42%, and the soundtrack sits mid-pack on very few votes, so hold that one loosely. There is the tension: it was never the controller that marked people, it was the characters, the betrayal, what stays with you afterwards. A late-90s turn-based system inevitably takes the weight of the years.

Against the JRPGs of its era, it never played the technical showpiece card. It played writing, politics, war seen through the people who suffer it.

So, who is it for? For you if you want a story that holds you, characters you will still be quoting ten years from now. Much less if you need a modern, snappy combat system to go the distance.