Suikoden IV PS2/PS4 Review: Why It’s So Divisive

Even if it has some visually distinct ideas and a handful of honest supporting characters, Suikoden IV remains the series’ most divisive entry—less for any single “missing” talent, and more for a chain of design and pacing choices that make the game feel fragmented and unfinished. Released on PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 4, the title is also notable for arriving without the original creative leadership behind the first three games.

Why Suikoden changed after the original creator left

Yoshitaka Murayama, the key mind behind the first three Suikoden titles, left Konami in July 2002—only a month before Suikoden III released. In a 2009 interview with the Swedish magazine Level, he said he’d left to go independent after spending a decade inside the company’s major machine that helped power the earlier successes, and that he felt he had “seen it all.”

Konami, now without its original creator, still didn’t want to put Suikoden on the shelf. The next project was handed to Junko Kawano, who previously worked on the first two games as a designer.

Prequel structure, simplified party, and the problems with pacing

For many players, Suikoden IV feels like it pulls back on the momentum set by Suikoden III. The game largely returns to earlier conventions: you control a single silent protagonist and a more traditional combat setup. While the series does evolve the active party composition, Suikoden IV takes it in a different direction—reducing active fighters from six to four.

Biggest narrative break: the timeline

The game’s chronology is one of its most controversial aspects. Instead of continuing the established series continuity, Suikoden IV is set 150 years before the events of the first Suikoden. That makes it a prequel, and it removes two of the franchise’s signature strengths: the sense of continuity between entries and the return of recurring characters across eras.

The story’s “already known” world effect weakens the long-running sense of expansion that fans associate with Suikoden.

Distribution and recruitment: where the experience stalls

The issue isn’t framed as “the narrative is bad” so much as “how it’s delivered.” The pacing is described as poor, and the first half of the game is said to be incredibly short. Throughout the adventure, the player is repeatedly given the feeling of something left incomplete. Even the recruitment of characters—considered a core identity feature of the series—arrives unusually late.

Players are left stuck with the same companions for long stretches.
Those companions don’t receive standout personality development.

The ocean problem: slow travel, repetitive battles, and combat that’s too simplified

Then there’s the ship. The overwhelming majority of Suikoden IV takes place on the ocean, giving it a distinctive swashbuckling atmosphere in theory. In practice, the game world is portrayed as enormous yet empty, and the ship’s movement is criticized as painfully slow—even when using the fast-forward function, which is itself described as a quiet admission of weak level design.

On top of that, the game is criticized for quasi-permanent random encounters and for a combat system that is simplified to the point of feeling stripped down.

The setting becomes repetitive because “nearly everything” is water.
Ship travel is slow even with fast-forward.
Random battles occur too frequently.
Combat is simplified excessively.

Still, the article notes there is some material worth liking: secondary characters that remain sincere and a few welcome ideas. But the overall package is described as underused, leaving the title unable to overcome its major, lasting shortcomings. As a result, Suikoden IV is ultimately framed as the series’ “black sheep.”

So, is the blame only on Murayama’s absence? The case of Suikoden V

When asked whether the game’s flaws are necessarily tied to Murayama no longer being involved, the answer is “no.” The entry Suikoden V, released two years after Suikoden IV, is cited as proof that an excellent Suikoden can be made without the original architect.