Suikoden II

"A RPG with a excellent Storyline, but hurt by its terrible pacing and mixed Music."

Suikoden II is the second game of the Suikoden RPG series made by Konami. As of now, the Suikoden series has five games in it. This is the most popular entry in the series mostly due to its Storyline. After hearing what a improvement it was over the first I was quite excited. I really liked the first one due to its very fun Gameplay, but I did acknowledge the first had a poor Storyline. So, when I heard Suikoden II had a better Storyline and one of the best in a RPG I was quite excited. Unfortunately in some ways it was a major disappointment...

Graphics:10/10:While the Graphics are still 2D sprite based the amount of work that went into these sprites is amazing. The sprites themselves look very good and have a amazing amount of detail to them. Enemy and boss sprites are amazingly well done and especially the boss sprites. Some of them were just flat out incredible and left me in awe. Area designs in the game were very good too. So, overall the Graphics get a 10/10. Very good sprite based Graphics and very good area designs. Now, for the Gameplay which is what ruins Suikoden II...

Gameplay:5/10:Suikoden II was just a incredibly boring game for me to play. From start to finish I was bored out of my mind. The basics of the Gameplay are mostly typical RPG fare. You go from town to dungeon. Upgrading equipment in town and resting at Inns. Upgrading weapons is done the same way as in the first Suikoden. You go to a smith and choose to have the weapon upgraded for a certain amount of Potch(currency in Suikoden II). Once your done in town you proceed to the next dungeon. A World Map is in Suikoden II like most older RPG's. You'll travel across the World Map and eventually gain vehicles for travel too. At the next dungeon you simply make your way from start to finish. Battles are randomly initiated and at the end of the dungeon you obviously fight a boss. Exploration and battles are done with a six man party in Suikoden II. Now, that I've covered the basics allow me to go over the difficulty of Suikoden II.

The difficulty is in some ways unbalanced, but not in a bad way! Just mostly that every random battle in the game is a utter joke. However, the boss fights do put up quite the good challenge. If you don't use a lot of strategy in boss fights prepare to most likely get Game Over. With difficulty covered allow me to discuss customization in Suikoden II.

Customization in Suikoden II is a lot better then the first. You can give characters multiple runes which adds more strategy and customization to the game. With the right setups some characters can be extremely powerful and people have even managed to kill the final boss in one turn using smart setups. Overall the Gameplay for Suikoden II gets a 5/10. The game no doubt improved in terms of customization and challenge compared to the first, but it was just very boring to play through. Time to go over the Storyline.

Storyline:10/10:The Storyline in Suikoden II is one of the best ever in a RPG. It's not too cliche and the game has quite a few interesting plot twists as you go along. Most of the dialogue is very good too and the scenes have good directing. A great thing about the Storyline is the antagonist too. Luca Blight who is a lot like Kefka from Final Fantasy VI. Both are quite similar due to being nihilistic. Over the course of the Storyline Luca Blight does quite a lot of insane interesting things. However, while he is one of my favorite antagonists I still think Kefka from Final Fantasy VI was the better nihilistic antagonist. With that covered the Storyline in Suikoden II gets a 10/10. Let's review the final category Music.

Music:6/10:The Music is a completely mixed bag. It has a few amazing tunes and some downright awful tunes. The awful ones were so bad it actually physically hurt my ears to hurt those songs and I had to mute the volume. As for the amazing tunes they are extremely well done. Fortunately the battle Music is one of the better songs in the game. Overall Music gets a 6/10. With the game fully reviewed how is it overall?

Overall:6/10:Suikoden II has a extremely good Storyline. However, the most important part of a game the Gameplay is terrible in Suikoden II. I was bored out of my mind from the moment I began the game to the very end. As for the Graphics they are outstanding and very well done 2D sprite based Graphics. Last the Music is a mixed bag. The songs are either extremely good or downright awful. So, overall Suikoden II gets a 6/10.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/01/08

Game Release: Suikoden II (US, 08/31/99)