Konami did deliver as the legendary Japanese studio is trying to do some AAA gaming comeback after refocusing on mobile and Pro Evolution Soccer franchise after the release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and a direct effect of the troubled exit of Hideo Kojima.

So, at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, Konami promised to speak about a “beloved franchise” and that happened to be classic jRPG Suikoden.

Konami will be releasing remastered versions of Suikoden and Suikoden II as a one-package title called Suikoden 1 & 2 HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars, slated to be released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch.

Interestingly, next-gen platforms were not mentioned which probably can get me to speculate on the status of Konami in general, but I don't want to spoil this article this time.

The remastered visuals feature new lighting and atmospheric effects, shadow animations, and updated character portraits redrawn by original artist Junko Kawano. Sound has been enriched, and the games will feature some quality-of-life improvements common to JRPGs of this vintage, including auto-battle and fast forward, along with a retranslating to be more related as originally conversations were scripted.

Expect Suikoden 1 & 2 HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars in 2023.

Suikoden is a role-playing video game series created by Yoshitaka Murayama. The game series is loosely based on the classical Chinese novel Water Margin, whose title is rendered as Suikoden in Japanese.

The game originally launched for Playstation in 1996 for our market, its sequel arrived in the West by 1999.