Suikoden II

"Games should not cost this much on Ebay..."

Seriously. I bought this game for $40 new a little while after it came out. Now it's selling for over $60. Konami, if you're going to create a good game, at least make sure there's enough copies of it to go around!

But that's neither here nor there. The original Suikoden was an RPG based on warring states and sported a cast of characters that totaled at 108, but was unfortunately short, little more than 15-20 hours from beginning to end. Suikoden 2 continues the basic theme of war, adds in a dash of betrayal, one of the most badass villains I've ever seen in any game, more mini-games, more everything, and still manages to support a recruitable cast of 108 characters.

I should mention right off the bat that this is no game to play if you believe RPGs have inexorably evolved past 2D graphics and should be like FFX. Suikoden 2 is, like its predecessor, completely 2D and sprite-based. While the battle system takes place on a 3D plane, it's still populated by 2D sprites. Then again, if you're reading reviews of a Playstation game in this day and age, you're probably not that hung up on appearances.

This game's major theme is war. It takes place in the city-state of Jowston, which is currently at war with the Highland kingdom. For anyone who's played the first game, this is actually just a hop, skip and a jump away from Toran Republic, the setting of the first game. There are actually a number of connections to the first game, but I'll get to those later.

The game begins with war, or more to the point, the impending end of a conflict between Jowston and Highland. The hero (who has no name but that which you give to him) and his friend Jowy are both in the Unicorn Brigade, and as you sleep, things go wrong. Highland attacks, bad things happen, and the war kicks off anew. Bad luck for our plucky hero, huh?

Things start off a little slow, with you just doing some odd jobs and a couple fetch quests, but as the first village burns and you're thrown into your first full-scale campaign, things kick off with a bang and don't let up till you're facing off against the final boss. War remains the central point of the game, but along the way you'll come face-to-face with betrayal, death, makeshift alliances and even the undead.

One of the game's major features is the full-scale army battles. The first game used a system of rock-paper-scissors to decide matters, but this is more like a full-fledged strategy game. You and the enemy are given a certain number of units and must move them along a 2D grid. Each of your units is made up of the people you've recruited over the course of the game. These characters can empower your units, either in terms of pure stats or with special abilities, like being able to move through forests with no movement penalty, or being able to use a magic spell to wipe out an enemy unit's numbers. The only real downside is the first few battles are more or less tutorials, in which the game holds your hand through the events. Others end without a real resolution, or the game forces you to retreat, even if you happen to be winning. There are very few army battles where you can actually command a sizeable force and really conquer the other side. It's a real shame, because the army battles really give you a sense you're the leader of a resistance force.

The regular battle system is no slouch, either. Up to six of your combatants can take place in any given fight. As with most games, those in the front row take and give more damage, and act as your tanks, while those in the back row are either long-range attackers or magic-users. A very nice aspect, held over from the first Suikoden and, I suspect, lifted from Chrono Trigger, is the way certain party members can join with others to perform combination attacks. As the name may suggest, these attacks combine both (or three or more) characters' strengths to deal extra damage to an enemy (or a row, or a line, or all of them). And of course, you can deliver powerful magic attacks, should any of your characters be equipped with a rune.

Those runes don't just allow the traditional fire, lightning and water spells, but give special attacks or healing and defensive moves, or serve no purpose but to power up your weapons. The game's story also loosely revolves around two True Runes, the Bright Shield and Black Sword. The True Runes, if you're not a veteran of the first Suikoden game, are the 27 runes which basically have greater power than normal runes and have the power to shape the world around them. If that doesn't quite make sense, don't worry. It doesn't have to.

As I said, this game does have a greater length than the original Suikoden. This is helped in part by the sheer number of mini-games provided. It all takes place at a castle you will eventually capture and use as a headquarters (like in the original). There's fishing, rock climbing for fun and profit, and a cooking game that's more akin to Iron Chef. Hell, the whole thing is a parody of that show. There's also a number of collectables to be found around the game that can be catelogued and archived at your castle. Books, recipes, statues, you name it, you can store it and display it. And as the number of recruits grows, so does your headquarters, from a run-down glorified stronghold to a palace with all the trimmings.

Now, the cast of 108 Stars is once again prominent. 108 people to recruit may seem like a lot, and you're right, it is. The thing is, only a small fraction of those 108 will see any use in the game. Some of the 108 recruits are noncombatants, like the cook, the shopkeepers, the blacksmith, etc. Of those that can be sent into combat, only a few are good enough to be used. The rest have underwhelming stats and abilities, so the majority of those 108 won't see the light of day after you've picked them up, unless you happen to like that particular character.

Now then, for those of you who have enjoyed the first Suikoden, this paragraph's for you. Returning from the first game are the loveable duo, Flik and Viktor, along with several supporting cast members, a particular gunman and knight, and if you played your cards right in Suikoden 1, a certain hero. It's a veritable treat to be able to see these characters again, and especially to take advantage of their strengths in this new war. There's more, of course. If you played the original, you're able to transfer over data from the first game that will influence the sequel. Returning characters will have different equipment and better stats than if you hadn't transferred data. It's a nice bonus for those who beat the original.

My only real complaint is the lack of good army battles, quite frankly. The game is a good 40 hours from end to end, longer if you want to collect everything, less if you know where everything is. You can, in fact, beat the game in fifteen hours, which is more of an in-game challenge, as there's a certain cutscene that can only be seen if you rush through the game and make it to a particular village in under fifteen hours. Otherwise, there's a lot there to enjoy. You can spend your time hanging around your castle climbing rock walls and fishing, or go out into the world and stop an evil plot from culminating in the deaths of the entire city-state of Jowston. While the game's plot progresses along a fairly linear path, there are several opportunities where you can go around the country and recruit, and indeed must, if you hope to get all 108 Stars. As a final note: Luca Blight. That is one scary, scary guy.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/25/04