My strategy guide for Suikoden 2 lists Rious age as “unknown.” Is this still official, or does he have a birthday now?
His age is still officially unknown. All of the heros (except possibly for Geddoe, for whom we know little of his past) for the Suikoden games have either been orphans or have lost one of their parents. Is there some kind of tradition in Japanese culture that great heros come from such circumstances, and is that one reason why the Suikoden heros all fit that mode? Heroes who don’t have living parents is common in Japanese folklore, but the same can also be said in many other folklores, myths, and other stories elsewhere. Harry Potter, Conan the Barbarian, Anakin/Luke Skywalker are all examples of heroes without parents in recently created stories. In older legends, we can look at Oedipus from Greek mythology, Chu Chulainn from Irish mythology, and I am sure there are many more. This isn’t an archetype peculiar to the Japanese culture.
