Before achievements. Before trophies. Before games tracked every collectible for you.
There was Suikoden.
I traded a buddy a copy of Beyond the Beyond on the original Playstation for a copy of Suikoden. Our reasons for the trade may have been different, but I feel it was my Destiny to get this game. A game and a series that has stuck with me for 30+ years.
I still remember sitting with a piece of paper next to me, carefully checking names off a list and trying to make sure I didn’t miss anyone. Some characters practically joined your army on their own. Others felt like they were hidden behind a hundred different requirements. Sometimes I would hear about a recruit from the only other friend I knew who played this and wonder how I missed them entirely.
And somehow, that was part of the fun.
Most RPGs at the time gave you a handful of party members. Maybe six. Maybe eight. If you were lucky, a few more than that. Then Suikoden showed up and casually handed you 108 Stars of Destiny. As a kid, that number felt like infinity. 108?! How am I supposed to find all of those? Challenge accepted.
More Than Just Party Members
The thing that made the Stars of Destiny special wasn’t simply the number. It was the feeling that every character mattered. Sure, some characters were stronger than others. Everyone had their favorites (Fu Su Lu, anyone?). But even the characters that never saw combat still felt important because they had a place in your growing army.
Every new recruit felt like progress. You weren’t just building a party. You were building something much bigger.
Recruit a blacksmith? Your weapons could get stronger. Recruit a merchant? Your castle became more useful with an item shop. Recruit a cook? Suddenly your headquarters felt a little more alive with a cooking mini game!
Every character brought something to the table.
The more people you recruited, the more the world seemed to grow alongside you.
A Castle That Felt Like Home
I think this is the real reason the Stars of Destiny have stuck with me all these years later: The headquarters.
When you first arrive, it’s just another location. A base of operations. A place to save your game and move on. But by the end? It feels like home.
Rooms that were once empty are suddenly occupied with the people from your travels. Shops begin to appear. New services become available. Characters wander the halls. The place starts feeling busy. Alive, even.
Every time I recruited someone new, I would immediately run back through the castle just to see where they ended up. Did they open a shop? Were they standing somewhere new? Did they have new dialogue? I wanted to see it all.
The castle wasn’t just a menu screen between adventures. It became one of the most rewarding parts of the game. In Suikoden 1, watching your castle grow in the middle of Lake Toran became something I looked forward to just as much as crushing the Empire.
Everyone Had Their Favorites
One of my favorite things about Suikoden was how differently everyone played it. Ask ten fans who their favorite characters were and you’ll probably get ten different answers. As previously cheekily mentioned, Fu Su Lu was my favorite in Suikoden 1. My friend’s? Gremio.
Some people built their parties around the strongest characters. Some picked whoever looked the coolest. I would spend hours leveling characters I knew I wasn’t going to use in the final battle but did so anyway because I didn’t want them to feel left out.
Did I need to get every character stronger? Absolutely not. Did I do it anyway? Absolutely.
There was something comforting about it. The same way I talked about grinding levels during Summer of RPGs. I liked seeing characters improve. I liked experimenting with different party combinations. I liked knowing everyone was ready, even if they were never leaving the castle.
Before Wikis And YouTube
Part of the magic came from the fact that information wasn’t always easy to find. Today, if you miss a recruit, you can pull up a guide in seconds. Back then, things worked a little differently.
You borrowed strategy guides. You read magazines. You traded information with friends (singular, for me) at school.
Someone would tell you there was a character hidden in a random cave and suddenly your entire weekend was dedicated to finding them. Trying to get Crowley in Suikoden 1 or even Clive in Suikoden 2 became an actual mission.
Sometimes the information was right. Sometimes it wasn’t. Either way, you went looking.
Recruiting all 108 Stars of Destiny felt like a genuine accomplishment because it wasn’t always obvious how to do it. Who knew there was a time limit for that Clive recruitment (Thank goodness for the remake and being able to turn that off)? Or that Crowley was actually tucked away in a cave, and you needed certain criteria to get him?
You had to explore. You had to pay attention. And occasionally, you had to get lucky.
Why It Still Works Today
A lot of RPGs have tried to create massive casts of characters since Suikoden first released but very few have managed to capture the same feeling. I think that’s because the Stars of Destiny were never about collecting characters for the sake of collecting them.
Every recruit contributed to something larger. Your army. Your castle. The story felt bigger. The rebellion felt stronger.
Each new recruit was another reminder that you weren’t fighting alone. Recruiting a party of animals made you feel like you could FINALLY take on the world.
By the end of the game, you could look around your headquarters and see the result of everything you had accomplished.
One More Character To Find
Looking back, I don’t think I loved the Stars of Destiny because there were 108 of them. I loved them because there was always one more character to discover. At any given time,. I could have a new favorite. And I did. Often.
No one can tell me Mukumuku isn’t the best character of all time. He is my Vivi from Final Fantasy IX.
For a kid spending summer nights lost in RPG worlds, that feeling was impossible to resist. Maybe that’s why I still remember recruiting them all these years later and had such an absolute blast doing so again in the remasters.
Or maybe it’s because Suikoden made something simple feel important. You were in control of your destiny. You had 108 Stars to make it a good one.
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