Suikoden 2 – A hidden gem
In a sea of JRPGs it is easy to miss a few that didn't rise to
popularity in the prime of the genre, this happens to be one of them.
The sequel to Suikoden 1 (which we already covered, you can check that
out here), tells the story of love, betrayal, politics, war and so on.
What makes this game stand out compared to others of its kind is, among
other things, the roster of over a 100 characters. Some are there to help
you fight, others to support you, but everyone has a part to play in this
epic story. Based on the Chinese Taoist concept of every person’s destiny
being tied to a Star of Destiny, this game draws the player in with its
captivating story.
This epic tale stars with your character Riou and his
childhood friend Jowy camping with their brigade on a mountain pass.
You are attacked and get separated, but not before marking a rock and
promising to each other that should your paths diverge you will always
return to each other here. Upon waking up you see two familiar faces.
Our friends Victor and Flik from the previous game. They take you to
their fort and see that they’re up to their old tricks again, leading
mercenary armies and what not. So, you naturally try to escape, almost
get yourself killed returning to your village and end up getting saved
by your captors. Return to the fort, go on a fetch quest or two and
realize that your almost killers are razing villages and your new, humble
little home is next on the chopping block. You attempt a defense but to no
avail, the enemy is stronger. You retreat to an allied capital, a few quests
here and there and that same capital falls. You are forced to retreat
once more, only this time you are separated again from your childhood
friend Jowy. In typical Suikoden fashion, you get yourself a fortress as an
HQ, start expanding your army and become the leader of an army opposing the
current tyrannical ruler. You go region by region allying yourself with their
leaders/kings and all that. About 3/4 into the game, you slay the enemy that
has been plaguing you the entire time. Your victory is cut short by a new
revelation. The enemy army has a new king, Jowy. Now, at this point in the
game you’ve unlocked Banner Village and the sole reason I tried this game.
Tir Mcdohl, the protagonist from the previous game. An amazing character
you can have join your party. The only downside is that every time the
game kicks him from your party, for whatever reason, you have to go all
the way to Gregminster(the capital from the previous game) to recruit him,
a small price to pay for such a character. After allying yourself with a
few more kingdoms and armies, you win the fight and that’s pretty much it.
The ending is far more exciting than that but I don’t want to spoil a lot
in case you’ve never played it.
The combat of the game has two different
mechanics. The first is the party fights. Up to six characters on both
sides and you get to choose which character does what on your side. The
boss battles are done in this fashion as well. The second mechanic is used
for large scale battles, you have a grid based terrain and you move your units.
Similarly to Fire Emblem, each unit features up to three named characters,
each adding something to the unit. The runes are implemented in both
mechanics, in the epic battles but they are in no way as overpowered as
they might sound. In the team fights, they remain pretty much the same as
in the first game, only this time around you can add more than one to a
character. Each character has 3 slots for runes, not every character unlocks
all slots. Like in the previous installment you can combine elemental
runes for more powerful attacks. When you consider all of this along with
the fact that there are 108 characters to recruit, some familiar faces and
some new ones. This game really offers something fresh for all of you JRPG
fans out there who’ve never played it and it’s also a good game for someone
new to the genre to get into it.So, what happens when you take a fantasy
setting and magical runes, add politics drama and a 108 characters to recruit?
You get hours and hours of fun. I really recommend this to both RPG fans
and non-RPG fans, it’s an amazing experience and I can’t wait to play
through it again. Little advice before getting into it, playing the first
Suikoden and porting the save is much more fun than just playing the
second. Don’t get me wrong, it stands on its own, but going into it knowing
what happened before it and knowing some of the characters is an amazing
feeling. So, in retrospect it’s good fun and I recommend it to everyone.
Good luck and have fun ^.^
