Suikoden 1 best party guide

With Suikoden’s 108 recruitable characters, most of whom can be added to your active party in combat, it means that players have an abundance of choice when it comes to who takes with you. While any combination will work (and can be fun to mess around with to experiment), what is most important to take into account is to be sure you have your bases covered - have someone who excels in physical damage, someone who is good with magic, and someone who can keep your party alive. We found the following list worked best for us, and we recommend it if you are running into some troublesome encounters. This guide will give you a breakdown of a great team that we recommend for your playthrough (check out our complete step-by-step walkthrough if you get stuck) that you can always fall back on if needed. 

Recommended Party:

Viktor

Position: Front Row
Rune: Double-Jab (aka Double-Beat)

Viktor is an absolute beast when it comes to dishing out straight physical damage in the front row. Luckily, he is frequently a required member of your party anyway! Putting him in the front row with his most up-to-date weapons and the Double-Jab (aka Double-Beat) Rune to really pump up his damage output. 

Flick

Position: Front Row
Rune: Lightning Rune / Thunder Rune

Flik, like Viktor, can be a powerful physical fighter, but thanks to his Lightning Rune, he is a bit more of a balanced inclusion. The attacks learned from the Lightning Rune can prove to be a great help against bosses or against large mobs with its AOE options, but be sure to swap it out for the Thunder Rune (the upgraded form of Lightning) as soon as you get it. Plus, Flik is just really cool, and the ‘Rule of Cool’ helps his case, too.

Valeria

Position: Front Row
Rune: Falcon Rune

Valeria is a good choice, rounding out the front row, thanks largely to her Falcon Rune, which is unique to her (and only equippable by her). Her rune, which works either from the front or back row, will allow her to dish out 3x the damage every turn without any sort of penalty. She is an easy recommendation to include.

The Hero

Position: Back Row
Rune: Soul Eater

The main character, or the hero of Suikoden, is a required member of your party for the entirety of the game, and is also pretty flexible in terms of what role you need him to fill, whether that's as a physical or magical attacker. His best role for much of the game is as a cleanup machine, as his fixed rune, Soul Eater, has a variety of instant death spells that do not work on boss enemies. Use Finger of Death to immediately delete a troublesome normal for, or exploit his powerful all-hitting Unite Attack with his martial arts teacher Kai to immediately clear the field.

Simply by virtue of always being in the party, the Hero will have some of the best stats in the game overall, so feel free to rely on him to cover any damage-dealing role needed.

Cleo

Position: Back Row
Rune: Flowing Rune or Rage/Fire Rune or Earth/Mother Earth Rune

Cleo's long-range physical, the ability to equip medium armor, and a decent magic stat make her a good choice to have as support in your back row. Equipped with a rune like the Flowing Rune, she can serve as the party's healer while being able to take a couple of hits herself and dish them out as well. If you want her to be more of a magic damage dealer, swap out healing for either the Rage/Fire Rune or the Earth/Mother Earth Runes to be able to trigger the unite magic synergy with Flik and luc.She has the added benefit of being able to take a hit in place of the main character if they are targeted while in critical health. 

Luc

Position: Back Row
Rune: Wind Rune

With his set, Wind Rune (and later Cyclone Rune) makes him a good combo-caster, allowing him to both heal and deal damage with his spells. He is a bit squishy, so be sure to keep him in the back row. However, his versatility makes him a great inclusion on the team.