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Review by: Blue
Dragon-sy
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Reviewers Score:
9 / 10
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Posted: December 21, 2005
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Genso
Suikoden 2
System: Playstation
Genre: Role-playing Game
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Rating: 9/10
This is the first in the Suikoden series that I've played, and even
though it's a little old (it was released in 1998) I still like it. In
fact, it's my favourite one among the Suikoden series. Why though? Here
are the reasons:
Graphics (8/10)
-Taken from www.rpgfan.com
(click on the images to view the larger version)
Picture 1: A
random encounter (note that Rudo is the Hero here).
Picture 2: A
glimpse of Flik's Lightning spell.
Picture 3: The
evil Luca Blight in action.
Picture 4: A
one-on-one duel with Flik.
Picture 5: The
first army-versus-army battle (note that units facing right are allies,
units facing left are enemies).
The game still looks good even if it's 2D. The towns and villages look
like they came from olden Japanese times, which isn't bad at all, and at
least the sprite aren't miniature little things that remind you of
Bomberman. The 2D graphics are well done, though not the best for a PS1
2D game, and unfortunately I can't say the same for the 3D movie
graphics. In the movie cut scenes, you'd never see anyone close up (the
furthest they've gone is shadows in the distance) except for the opening
movie, which has 2D unmoving artwork of the 108 characters. I can't say
the 3D graphics are the best, though the silver wolf is kind of cool.
Good 2D graphics, but not-so-good 3D graphics. Fortunately, there aren't
many 3D cut scenes in this game.
Sound (9/10)
The music in Suikoden 2 fits the mood perfectly, and some of them have
different styles depending on the situation and place - peaceful songs
in villages, happy and prosperous in large cities, fast-paced for the
battles, nostalgic for the flashback part, fast-paced yet gothic during
the battle against the great vampire. The best song, in my opinion, is
the army-versus-army battle theme, played only after you get the
headquarters. Unfortunately I can't seem to find it anywhere on the
internet, so... but it's really a good song, and I found myself enjoying
the music while battling the enemy army. It has choir singing (is that
what you call it?) similar to Final Fantasy 7's One Winged Angel and is
quite fast-paced too.
Of course, a lot of other songs are nice too, like the Gothic Neclord
song, the opening theme, the Radat Village theme... the songs are good
to the point that I recommend that you get the soundtrack (download
online!).
Storyline (10/10)
This is where the game shines. As with every Suikoden game, you get to
name your protagonist, which I'll name Hero for now. Hero and his best
friend Jowy are soldiers in the Unicorn Brigade of the Highland Kingdom.
It is the night before the day they would return to Kyaro, their home
town, and they have nothing to fear because Highland and the United
States have just forged a peace treaty several days before. However,
during the night, the Unicorn Brigade was attacked by the United States,
and everyone except for Hero and Jowy was killed. Both of them had
returned to camp instead of escaping with the rest, and saw the Highland
Prince Luca Blight laughing at the way the soldiers had run. As soon as
they were discovered, the remaining soldiers were sent after them, and
they ran to the top of a cliff hanging over a huge river. There they
made a mark on a stone, to promise that they would meet there if they
were to be separated, and jumped into the river below.
As soon as Hero awakens, he finds out that he is captured by mercenaries
in the United States territory and meets with Victor and Flik, who are
the leaders of the mercenaries. There, he finds out that the United
States never moved since the day the peace treaty was made. About two or
so days after that, Jowy broke into the mercenary fort to rescue him,
but in the end both of them are captured again. When night arrives,
however, they managed to escape successfully and crossed the mountain
paths to go to Kyaro. Once there, they separated to go their own houses.
Hero is greeted by his every enthusiastic sister, Nanami, but later
several soldiers came to their house. The soldiers said that Hero and
Jowy are now deemed as traitors and are responsible for the deaths of
the Unicorn Brigade soldiers. So both of them are caught once again and
are to be killed by repeated beatings. However, Victor and Flik (the
leaders of the mercenaries, remember?) came to rescue them and once they
got Nanami, they returned to the mercenary fort.
Later on, the mercenary fort was attacked and they escaped to Muse, the
capital of the United States. On the way, Hero and Jowy found a shrine
in a destroyed village, and found a message left by Genkaku and Han, the
old heroes of the United States and Highland Kingdom. And the strange
thing was, Genkaku was the adopted father of Hero and Nanami, who had
died a year ago. They then met with a mysterious woman called Leknaat,
who gave them two of the 27 True Runes, the Bright Shield (Hero got
this) and the Black Sword (Jowy got this).
However, through inside help, the great city Muse is attacked and the
mayor was killed. Now that the United States are in shambles, Hero and
Nanami (Jowy disappeared during the siege) escaped to another continent,
which is part of the United States. Once they meet with Victor and Flik
again, they plan to form a new army, independent of the United States,
using an empty castle that used to be inhabited by a vampire as their
headquarters. Because of the Bright Shield Rune that used to be worn by
the United States hero Genkaku, Hero was chosen to be the leader of the
army (you get to name it and the headquarters), and from there, he will
lead the army in a war against Highland and the evil prince Luca Blight.
Gameplay (10/10)
Now this is also where the game shines. Most games only have one type of
battle system, the one where you control a group of characters against
the enemies. Suikoden 2, however, has THREE types of battles - one is
your usual battle system where you will be using most of the game, one
is where you duel with a person one-on-one, and one where you control
your army as units and fight against the Highland army.
Suikoden 2's usual battle system is turn-based, with a maximum of six
characters (out of 108 characters) with the Hero, where you enter the
commands at the beginning of the turn and they will be executed
according to the characters' speed. Magic is possible by using
"Runes" which can only be put on or removed from a character
through a Runemaster in town. Hero, of course, has the Bright Shield
Rune, but each character could hold up to three Runes. Also, in this
game, certain characters are able to do united attacks. For example,
Hero and Nanami are siblings, hence they are able to do a united attack
against one enemy with double damage. Each united attack is different
and has different effects, and since there are 108 characters in the
game, there are lots of united attacks.
In the one-on-one turn-based battle, you'll always be controlling the
hero. You have three choice to choose from:
Attack - which causes
half damage if the opponent defends and deals normal damage but receives
double damage if s/he chooses desperate attack
Defend - receives half
damage from attack and counters wild attack while receiving no damage
Desperate Attack -
causes double damage, receives normal damage if opponent chooses attack,
receives double damage if s/he chooses desperate attack, fails and
countered against defend
In this mode of battle, before every turn the opponent would say
something, and you have to guess what move the opponent is going to
take. For example, if Flik says "C'mon, take a swing at me"
while you're dueling him, he's defending. Also, your level and your
weapon level could make a difference in this battle mode.
In the army-versus-army battle, it's just as its name says. There you
get to arrange all of the characters you get into groups of three
characters with some characters fixed as the group leaders. Hero will
always be the group leader who holds the flag (meaning he's the head of
the army). Calvary units get to move two spaces (except in forests),
archer units can attack anyone within a range of two spaces, and
magician can attack anyone within a range of five spaces. Every unit has
2 HP, except for certain units who have 3 HP, and all of them have
different attack and defense points. The higher the attack, the higher
the chance of the unit's attack hits, while the higher the defense, the
higher the chance of the enemy unit's attack misses.
Replayability (9/10)
In Suikoden 2, there are lots of side quests, although most of the side quests
involve getting some of the optional characters among the 108. Sure, you
may not be using all 108 of them, so what's the point? Well, the more
characters you recruit, the higher your castle level is. Yes, you have a
castle level too. Once you see new upgrades like a new restaurant, or
something, it means your castle level increased and with each castle
level ups, you Hero sleeps in a better room. Also, with more characters,
you have more units to use in your army-versus-army battles. Once you
hit 108 characters, you have access to the best ending. Yes, Suikoden 2
has different endings - the bad one (happens somewhere in the middle of
the game if you made the wrong choice), the normal one (I'd prefer to
call it bad actually...) and the best one (done by completing specific
requirements). You can also get Richmond, your private investigator, to
investigate each character's secrets. Each one of them have several
secrets, and you're able to find them all by paying Richmond a small fee
each time.
Also, there are a lot of side quests and mini-games in this game (I've
mentioned that some side quests are for recruiting optional characters).
There's a dice game, card game, dancing game, fishing game, and many
others that'll be possible when you recruit more characters. And the
best mini-game I like is... the cooking contest! It's possible after you
recruit Hai Yo the chef and open a restaurant, and sometimes there will
be people challenging "the great Hai Yo" to a cooking
competition, and your character will be helping him to prepare the
dishes. The judges are actually randomly chosen from your 108
characters, you get to choose the dishes to be cooked out of the recipes
that you have and the music are quite fast-paced and funny. Too bad the
other Suikoden games doesn't have this hilarious cooking mini-game.
Lots of things to do, but not all of them are required. This game is
capable of making you addicted to it for quite a long time.
Overall (9/10)
This is a really good game, with good storyline, fun battle system, good
music and addictive mini-games. I suggest that you give it a try, and if
you like it, you'd be playing for several days at once. I know I did. |
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