A new Suikoden trademark has been filed in the WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization. A trademark coming out like this supports a recent rumor that voice actor Yuji Kaji would be representing fans of a world-beloved series title, possibly meaning that a new mainline Suikoden game is close to release.
Suikoden is a JRPG game series owned by Konami, and is regarded as one of the more classic JRPG games on Playstation. The last mainline Suikoden game, Suikoden 5, came out back in 2006. While Suikoden 1 and Suikoden 2 were able to be remastered and added to the Playstation library in 2015, there hasn’t been any news about a new game coming out since then. A spiritual successor to Suikoden, entitled “Eiyuden Chronicles”, is slated for release next year, 2023.
However, just because a trademark is being filed doesn’t mean a new game is coming, especially given Konami’s withdrawal from video game development in 2015. The trademark could just be getting renewed. While Konami has released a few small games, there have been no major announcements for games yet. If the new Suikoden trademark does mean a new game is coming though, it can be big news for the Suikoden fanbase.
Yuji Kaji is a prolific voice actor who’s become a big name in anime circles. He is best known for voicing Shoto Todoroki in My Hero Academia and Eren Yeager in Attack on Titan, and with such a prolific voice actor apparently being associated with a “world-beloved series title”, there’s a strong possibility he may end up voicing the main protagonist, if a new game comes from this.
Since the Suikoden games are also known for having a very large amount of characters (108, to be exact!), even if he doesn’t end up voicing the lead, Yuji Kaji has plenty of characters that he can voice. But, again, we’ll have to see if this trademark actually goes anywhere, or even means a new game to begin with, before anyone gets excited.