>>3966614
I love 1 and 2, 3 is kind of a sad failure but there's some good stuff in it. 4 was terrible at the time because the combination of loading times and encounter rate was torture, but if you're emulating now you can turbo smash those things and it's finishable. 5 was a self-conscious attempt to make Suikoden 2 again and it's got pretty high craftsmanship but it needed some more soul and attempts at innovation.

>>3966614
The missable characters over multiple games scares me away from this series

>>3966670
They're generally pretty well designed for you to get them all. You mostly just do the obvious things like recruit any enemy that gives you the option.

I looked up a missable character video for Suikoden 1 just now to remind myself and it had three reasonably missable characters out of 108 if you're putting straightforward effort into recruiting every person with a portrait you see. I assume the later games do it less. If you take this advice Level up Pahn with your party and keep his weapon upgraded that leaves two.

>>3966614
I used to think S1 & 2 were really good, but after replaying them now I realize they aren't all that - they do have the niche of huge roster of characters that not many JRPGs have however.

S1 is full of literal hallway dungeons (S2 has this too, but to a slightly less extent), abrupt plot decisions, characters acting like NPCs during emotional cutscenes.. The certain character dying in the beginning didn't move me.
S2 is weirdly paced in some segments, the war minigames being literal RNGfests.. (although I liked the idea, just the execution is abysmal)
Also both games have very simplistic boss encounters..

>>3966614
>compare to other PSX era RPGs?
good story, mid combat mechanics, fun minigames. looks outdated compared the 3D polygonal trend of the PSX but it works.