Suikoden II

Suikoden II improved on most of the things the first game laid out on the table, but it still fell in a few traps that I hated about the original. I'll start with the good side of things. For one, the graphics are alot sharper, more detailed characters, better looking towns and world map. The story has alot more depth to it, although I really hated the wooden main character. This is very story driven game, and I don't think Silent Protagonists really work that well overall. Although, this is a direct sequel to the original, and I LOVE how they intertwine both stories with all the returning characters and inside jokes.

On the disappointing parts, while the Unite and Rune system is slightly better but overall the battle system and dungeons haven't improved at all since the original. The One-on-One battles are still lame. The Turn Based Strategy elements to game wasn't exactly a step forward either.

Overall, it's a little better than the original, but not by much.


----------Battle System----------
Suikoden II is a turnbased RPG. Each turn is presented in rounds, so at the start of a randomly encountered battle, you'll enter in all of your commands and watch the round unfold before you do it again. The character or enemy with the best speed will go first.

You gain levels and experience after each battle like most RPGs, but it's a little more similar to Strategy RPGs. At each 1,000 experience points your character will gain a level, once you go over 1,000 the experience ticker will go back to zero. This is similar to Final Fantasy Tactics or any of those, except they only have 100 experience points per-level. The higher the level of your character the harder to gain experience though.

You don't equip weapons in Suikoden II but rather upgrade your existing ones from blacksmiths. You can also embed Runes to your weapons to give them extra effects. You can equip 1 Helmet, 1 piece of Armor, and some characters can equip 1 Shield. A big improvement over the original is the item system. This time your party has one big bag of items, with another bag separate for special items. You can't use these items in battle though, but rather you can equip items you want to use in battle per character. Each character can equip 3 item slots, but you can also use these slots for accessories to broaden your defense.

The Unite system is back with the same basic concept. If you have relating characters, either friends or family, then they can perform a unique attack in battle, but you have to have them in your party to perform that attack. There's more attacks in this game and more characters that relate to one-another, so that's about the only improvement.

The Rune system is a little easier than the original. This time around you can equip up to 3 Runes. One on your Head, Left Arm or Right Arm. Some Runes will boost your weapon attributes, but most Runes give you spells. The Spell Runes will give you up to 4 Spells per Rune. You won't gain access to all the spells until you get enough levels though, you can't even equip all three Runes until you gained enough levels too. This gives you a little carrot to level up. The magic system is basically the same as the original. You get a certain amount of points per level of magic, let's say 9 points for Level 1 magic. If you have 3 Runes that use level 1 magic, then you can only use those magics up to 9 times among all three Runes. You can't recharge your magic until you sleep at an Inn.

The dungeons just haven't improved over the original at all. They're still maze-like dungeons, and there's not much variety among the destinations. Probably half of the dungeons take place in the forest. There's a couple puzzles in the game, but they're so easy and forgettable that it ultimately doesn't matter.

Suikoden II brings back the 108 Stars of Destiny. This allows you to recruit a ton of characters for your party, and to recruit people for your town. Recruit people for your town makes the town bigger, and they open shops, library's, stock rooms, and loads of other interesting things. The town building is the same basic set up as the original, since you really have no control over it, but the town is ALOT bigger and alot more interesting to walk around and do stuff.

The biggest change from the original is the war battles. In the first game it was just a flat screen, one army on one side and the other on another. You pick between 4 options and then watch for results, it was a basic Rock Paper Scissors game that had no real strategy. In Suikoden II it's a top-down Turn-Based Strategy game, similar to Fire Emblem, but not as fun or tactful. There might be a little over 10 battles overall in the game, you can't pick how many characters you have on the field at once, that's always pre-determined, but before a battle you can change up the characters that will team together. You can have up to 3 characters per team, some characters have special attributes, for example one character might have a Chivalry ability, which allows you to move more spaces, some characters might have magic spells you can use in battle too. You can mix and match how your team will ultimately will be.

The battles lose the Rock-Paper-Scissor element from the last game. You can have three types on a field, a magic user, archer and warrior. You can attack at distances with the archer and magic users but they're usally weak. The whole point of the "strategy" is to use the team with the highest attack rate to attack the team with the lowest defense rate, that's about it. Once you attack, it shows an animation of your army running after the other army, similar to the last game.

With that said, I think Turn Based Strategy elements to this game is a wasted gimmick that wasn't fully realized. The first 5 or so battles in the game you can only control the Heros team, so you have to watch the enemy move, and your team mates move, then all you can do is move 1 freaking space, and ultimately do nothing. These first few battles were mostly played out for storyline purposes. Later in the game you get to control everyone, but by then the outcome is usually predetermined after a couple moves and really has no impact on how tactful you are in the game, only a couple battles really matter overall.

----------Characters / Story----------
You play as a soulless puppet/ nameless silent protagonists, but let's call him "Hero". Hero and his best friend Jowry are rookie recruits in the Highland Army, on a routine stake out they get ambushed, Hero and Jowry are the only survivors, but they later find out the attack wasn't by their rivals "City-State", but rather their own army to create a war. Hero and Jowry get separated in the chaos, Hero ends up captured by the rebel army that's been fighting against the Highland army. As time goes on, Hero learns of the conspiracy to overthrow the City-State and decides to fight back.

The story has alot more depth than the original, but that's not saying much honestly. I think Suikoden II took alot of risks with the storyline, mostly with the Luca Blight character, who is probably the most sadist bad guy I've seen in an RPG for ages. Theres alot of on screen deaths and massacres in the game, although no blood. There are some huge plot twists at the end of the game that shocked me a little.

With that said, I had some problems with the storyline. You play as a Hero, leader of a rebel army of misfits that are the ONLY viable army to complete against the Highland army, every high-up character within the Highland army knows who you are. When the Highland army takes over a town or a fort, sometimes they have men guarding the front from keeping you from entering the area. Other times they have guards roaming around town, and you can freely walk among them, talk to them, do whatever without consequence. There's a TON of moments in the game where you have to sneak behind enemy lines. This is another huge problem with me too. You are the LEADER of an Army, yet you never give orders, all the orders are given by the Strategist character (Apple or Shu). All you do is conform (Yes or No). Why would the leader of the biggest rebel army need to be the one to sneak behind enemy lines just to find out something? It's stupid, but it takes me out of it and bugs me.


----------Graphics----------
The graphics are improved on every front which is expected. The enemies and characters show alot more animation in battle, the special attacks are really fun to watch, I think I can compare them to Final Fantasy Tactics but everything is BIGGER and crazier. The world map looks alot better, the sprites are bigger and the world is about 3 times the size as the original. The towns have alot more detail to them.

The game is full of CGI cutscenes, but none are voiced over and all generally look like a few years behind the curve. Final Fantasy 8 clearly trumps Suikoden II, but that's expected.

----------Sound----------
The sound effects are improved over the original, but I don't think the music was. There was easily more tunes in the game but they weren't as simple and rememberable.

----------World Map----------
The world map is basically the same as the original game but bigger. The world map is similar to an overhead view 2D Final Fantasy title. The world is sectioned off, so you can't walk, fly or sail across the entire world without walking through barriers. You have to travel by foot 90% of the game, but towards the end you get to meet a character that can warp you to previously visited towns. You do get a boat, but it can only take you to 1 place.

There's many more towns and places to visit in this game compared to the first one, other than that it's basically the same with little changes other than graphics.

----------Time to Complete Game----------
35:36:30

Suikoden II was much longer than the first game by about 10 hours. After you fight the final boss you can save your game before the credits and real ending starts to roll.