Suikoden II

"Something actually worth a 10... No, that's not a mistake."

So you start the game and the Konami logo goes by. Soon enough, a fiery image emerges and you hear the sounds of something fading in. It's a wonderful vocal performance of an orchestra. Soon, two figures appear on the screen in perfect sync with the music as their faces show pain and tread. They vanish from the screen, two symbols replace them and they soon clash into each other causing a violent outbreak with the music.

Welcome to the world of Suikoden. Konami has really done a number on my tingly emotions with their second try at the series. A game filled with awesome characters, amazing music, perfect 2D graphics, beautiful scenery, detailed character art, a wonderful story, etc. etc. The only reason this game is constantly overlooked is because people barely scratch the surface with it. They don't pay attention to the things important to the game's purpose.

Sure, the game has a couple minuscule flaws that are easily looked over by the sheer awesomeness of everything else the game has to offer, which most other games don't. Those other games, by the way, are usually the ones rated way higher than this game and it's absolutely absurd.

Gameplay:

Let's start by saying every main Suikoden game has three major modes of fighting. That's a lot more than most RPGs offer and it's enough to keep you busy throughout the game. You should never get bored with a Suikoden game that's done properly because it's more than your standard RPG.

The first form of battles is your everyday turn-based RPG battle system. You can have up to 6 members for your battle party and it plays like most JRPGs play. You wander around until you get a random encounter and you're faced with an enemy. You then enter the commands for all of your party members and watch the battle unfold. The order the characters attack is mostly based on their speed attribute and the speed of the enemies.

You also get various runes(magic) to add fun to the battles. You have your basic magic elements like Lightning, fire, water, etc. and you also have some special skill runes that are used for the various weapons in the game. The magic runes are based on how much of the magic attribute the character has and it levels up along with the character.

A big upgrade from Suikoden I is that you can equip up to 3 runes on one character if their stats allow it. Some characters will only be able to equip one rune, some two, some three. Of course, the more magic oriented the character is the more runes they'll be able to equip. Don't expect a character with massive physical attack damage to be able to equip three runes, for example.

On top of the various runes and special abilities they give your characters, you can also perform unite magic attacks. These are when two characters combine rune magic powers to pull off an even more powerful spell. Only certain runes can be combined with other runes and only level 4 spells can combine together.

Also, you can perform regular unite attacks with some characters. That's when two of your characters can perform physical unite attacks with each other. Only certain characters can do this and it basically depends on their relationship. You'll usually be able to tell easily who would have an unite attack with who due to their story references.

The second form of battle is the one-on-one duels. These haven't really changed at all from the first Suikoden. You get three commands here: Attack, Defend, and Wild Attack. It's a lot like rock-paper-scissors in that Attack beats Defend, Defend beats Wild Attack, and Wild Attack beats Attack. It's turn-based and you just enter your choice and watch the fight play out.

The third and final form of battle is the war battles. These are a lot like a SRPG game. You move your characters around in one direction or another and attack the enemies. This is totally different from the first Suikoden and most otherSuikodens because it isn't based on a rock-paper-scissors system at all. It's more based on actual stats and special abilities. Archers are still going to charge melee units if they are prompted to attack them at close range.

Your groups are entirely customizable and this is one of the best parts about Suikoden II. You can adjust the total str and def of a unit by which three members of your army you put into the group. Some members also carry unique abilities like Cavalry(allows for more movement while riding horses) and Barrage which is like a regular archer attack but you get a lot more range.

Of course, you get to recruit 108 allies just like every main Suikoden game. About 60 of these characters will be usable in your standard random encounter battles and the rest will either be shop owners in your headquarters or they'll just walk around without a purpose other than storyline. Your headquarters this time around is very unique in that it isn't just a castle, but an entire town.

You'll get tons of minigames in Suikoden II that are both fun and enjoyable. They range from mountain climbing to fishing to cooking, my personal favorite. The cooking minigame is absolutely awesome and addicting. You'll find yourself running into the kitchen every chance you get to try and trigger the next cook off. Doing this will net you more recipes and also reveal much story about the main chef and the history of the cooking ways of the Suikoden world. ^_^

Cosmetics:

What can I say? It's a 2D game, but it's absolutely beautiful. It's an amazing world filled with wonderful colors and delightful characters. Suikoden II is a huge upgrade from the previous game in that all the backgrounds are much more detailed and expansive.

The character artwork is also very well done. Unlike the first game, Suikoden II has actually aged very well and it still looks just as amazing as it did the first time I played the game back in 1999. There are a ton of little animations and details in the way the characters move that shows a lot of attention by the creators. You can actually tell when a character is sad or when it is happy.

The camera is in an overhead view for the most part of the game, of course. The main battle screen is very nice though. The camera during battle will constantly be panning around based on the current actions that are going on. When you get a critical hit it'll zoom in to show the blow. Also, all the unite attacks are very well done. I love the spell animations in this game too. They're all unique and special looking in their own way.

The towns in this game are very well done. Each one has its own life and character. The dungeons are all decent and never upset the player either. Some of them have puzzles and some of them are just straight shooting dungeons. It varies depending on the dungeon's theme, I'd say. The reason why one dungeon is one big item gathering puzzle, for example, is because it was a dungeon created by an ancient civilization that were trying to hide a treasure.

I love the music in Suikoden II. It contains my favorite track in video game history for when you're fighting one of the bosses in the game. All the music adds to the current situation and brings everything to life. Really exceptional stuff here.

Storyline:

The story revolves around Riou and his involvement in the Dunan Unification War. You'll start out being on the side of Highland, a big kingdom trying to make peace with the City States. Soon, your group of soldiers is attacked one night and you and your best friend are forced to escape by jumping off the side of a cliff into a river.

You'll be rescued by two strange men and jailed at their fort. You'll soon come to find out your best friend has been lost and you're now in the propriety of the City State of Jowston, your enemies. Things quickly start developing and more comes to truth about the attack that faithful night. You'll come to realize that you were betrayed by your homeland and it's up to you to set everything straight.

The story develops a lot more than that, of course, but that's your job to figure the rest out. It's really an amazing story and probably my favorite in any video game ever. It contains betrayal, love, friendship, war, politics, family, monsters, demons, vampires, etc. etc. etc. It never gets stale.

The characters are also all very alive and interesting. This game contains one of the most evil and demonic villains in video game history. His name is Luca Blight, and he has killed millions and millions of people single-handedly. You'll spend a lot of time with this guy and you'll soon realize why he's so awesome.

This game will probably last you around 50 hours on your first playthrough without a strategy guide if you're trying to get everything. On the second playthrough it'll probably last you about 35 hours even with a strategy guide. Most of that is due to some of the recruiting you'll be doing. Of course, it's probably possible to go through the game in as little as 20 hours, but you won't get everything. Or at least, I wouldn't be able to.

There are multiple endings to the game depending on if you get all 108 characters, and a couple choices in the game. I wouldn't really say this adds that much to replay value because most of the time you can just save before you get the choice to get a certain ending. Of course, without a guide you might not know when that choice is. If you don't get all 108 characters, you might wanna replay it again to get the best ending. Personally, I've played this game more than 10 times through and continue replaying it about three times a year. o.o

One flaw with the N.A. version would be the translation. Sometimes you might get confused about what the characters are talking about because whoever did the English translation did a horrible job. But it's not that big of a deal and it isn't going to hinder your playing experience. I urge you to forget about this stupid thing and just enjoy the rest of the game.

Overall/Explanation/Recommendation:

There really isn't anything to say about a recommendation. If you haven't figured it out already, I love this game. If it wasn't for the game being extremely rare I'd tell you to go buy it now. But you probably won't find it for less than 90$ these days unless you can speak Japanese and import it on the PSP. If you can't buy it, then borrow it from someone, or go by sneakier means of playing the game. Don't worry, Konami won't make any money off you paying some guy 100$ anyway.

Whatever you do, you HAVE to play this game! You have to get it and you have to tell everyone about it! Suikoden II deserves so much more than it gets and it deserves to be on everyone's Top 10 list because it's THAT awesome. It's extremely underrated no matter how many reviews you read here on GameFAQs. Most casual gamers have never heard of the series and that's sad considering the series is in its 5th installment.

Most big reviewers rated this game the same exact score they rated the first Suikoden which makes absolutely 0 sense at all. This game is a huge upgrade in graphics, story telling, characters, music, presentation, etc. etc. etc. I can understand why someone would rate Suikoden I a low score because it fails at explaining some stuff but Suikoden II does offer tutorials. It does so many things right that it doesn't deserve a low score at all.

With the exception of the translation problems, I see no reason to hurt this game's score. And even with the translation problems, I STILL SEE NO REASON TO LOWER ITS SCORE. I love this game and to me it is a great example of what perfection is or at least as close as it can come. I urge you to go play it, right now. You won't be disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/28/06