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martes, 2 de marzo de 2010

Suikoden Production Items

Hello again!
We have some interesting items to share with you today. These items are a little bit different in the fact that they were never released to the public. In fact these were all used "during" the production of their respective game. The first thing's are from Suikoden III, they are 2 discs that were used from the production team at Konami before the game was released. They are the actual game of Suikoden III, however they are not the finished versions that were released, they have some things different. I haven't had a chance to play through them completely comparing them to the original Suikoden III game, as I just received them, but I will one day! I'll show you just some early pictures I took.

The gold one is dated 2002/07/15 and the white one is dated 08/09/02. The actual game was released on October 24th, 2002, which shows these versions are earlier betas. The gold one I tested about 10 minutes of Hugos first chapter, but I couldn't see any noticeable difference. I will have to look into it further and play more. The white disc is the more interesting one so far. Loading it up is obvious its different from the retail version, there are a lot of coding and programming on the screen, showing how the game is working. I think there is a chance there could even be some "debug" options, which means there could be cool things like adding items, changing my strength and levels, and some other cool things. That is unsure yet though. Here are some screenshots of the white disc in-game.














The other rare thing that I purchased was a demo version of Suikoden IV. It is dated November, the release of Suikoden IV in the US was January 11th, 2005. Which means this demo was released some months before it. This was a demo given to Embargo press, though i'm unsure of what that is.










There are also some noticeable differences in this demo. It is a short demo starting when you are on your ship fighting the Water Dragon, then you crash at the shore and have to fight the Crab boss to save Chiepoo. This part is very condensed compared to the original, as you don't have to go around collecting wood or spend days there. The mermaid comes to you right away and asks you to beat up the crab. It's been a while since I played Suikoden IV but in this version a random 4th character is in your party instead of Chiepoo, first I had Jeane then I had Mizuki, both as playable characters. Also all your runes are powered up 100%, with level 4 magic already available, and 9 attacks of each. Also, as the game obviously wasn't finished yet, the translation is still a little unfinished as you can see in these pics.













The last item that I got was used by Konami of Japan while making Suikoden Tierkreis. They are 72 colour pages of Suikoden character art. These were actually used in the production of Tierkreis, but I don't know much else about them other than they're so cool!! Take a look ^^


I'm not sure about the character art, but the discs are quite a rare find as they were never supposed to leave the offices of Konami. The seller told me that an employee had taken these during the production, but today there is a lot more security for things like this and it's almost impossible to get away with things like that. Besides their rarity, another reason I love them is that they give us a look into the making and history of our beloved games :) It makes me feel like I was there during the production!

I hope you enjoyed these!
Adios! ^^

6 comentarios:

  1. ¡Hola, Winds! Oh, goodness, where did you get such great stuff? Thanks for sharing, I loved the pictures! It's really interesting to have a peek in the preproduction of the games themselves. The picture book is very pretty, I can see, even though I still haven't played Tierkreis (I will , I will soon, hopefully).

    Could it be that Embargo is a magazine or press or something like that? I remember that some very obscure fanzines would have more pages about Suikoden than any of the other. The only magazine that I can recall to have a Suiko game in the cover was from Spain, by the way; they included a cd with demos, but I think they had only some music.

    If I ever get my hands on any Suikoden game for the PC (had no idea they existed until you guys posted pictures of them here), it will be for you. Promise! =>

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  2. Hello Aisling!!
    Glad to hear from you! ^^
    Haha I think I was very lucky to be able to get these. All 3 of the discs I found quite randomly by doing a search on google. It led me to a guy who was showing off his collection of unique unreleased stuff like this of all different games and series'. His post was very old but I messaged him on the rare chance he still had some suikoden stuff like this. He told me he was sure he did and that he'd take a look. Finally he messaged me back with these 3 treasures and told me he'd gladly sell them to me :D.
    I just found out a cool thing about the white Suikoden III disc as well, by plugging in a second controller and pressing the start button on it, it brings you into a "debug" mode and even lets me control the camera! I can zoom all the way out and view the entire village/map. I will take some pictures of these for you guys in the future too! The Tierkreis pictures were a lucky find on japan auctions :D.
    I think you're right about Embargo, I have a feeling they were a magazine or press in the united states, however it's hard to find information on them. Maybe they're out of business? For the fact the disc is ntsc-u format and in english, leads me to believe they were in the US.
    Do you remember the name of the magazine with the Suikoden music on there? That sounds like something i'd love to own :D haha. I have been searching for some magazine game demos of Suikoden but haven't had any luck. Either they didn't exist or my luck is bad :(.

    Oh also, if you found a Suikoden 2 PC version and gave that to me, I think I would love you forever and ever :D haha.

    PD. You definitely must play Suikoden Tierkreis when you have the chance! Although admittedly it is very different in some regards to the Suikoden series, I still think it is a fantastic game. I'm actually thinking about playing it again soon!

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  3. i came across your blog while searching for suikoden merchandise. u have amazing collections of suikoden.!! i am a 18 years old girl from Singapore. i have been in love with suikoden since my brother let me play it when i was 8. i still find suikoden amazing especially all the things u have!!! Your blog is cool!!

    from
    yanshanny@hotmail.com

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  4. Hello, Joseph!
    Welcome to our little blog.
    Im so happy we have visitors from all the world! : )Singapore wow, thats so far!!!
    Thats great youre a suikoden fan since you were only a little girl! Im glad that you like our collection and blog too : )
    Keep visiting us and thanks for your nice words! ^_^

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  5. Hiya Joseph!
    I'm glad you found us! I always love hearing from fans commenting on suikoden merchandise :D. I hope we can hear more from you!

    Wow Nan, we're getting readers from all around the world eh? Suikoden is such a fantastic series that it unites us all from all different countries!

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  6. Can't forget your unforgetable post as well, 馬甲! Thanks :D haha

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