Suikoden II

To preface this, I will say that I first played this game a year or two after its sequel Suikoden III, which was my first trip to the Suikoden universe. I then of course played the first Suikoden before jumping into II. So this review is from the point of view of not having played it when it first came out and it not being the second game in the series I played.

I will start with the bad so that we can end on a good note. The Suikoden series is, somewhat deservedly, notorious for shoddy translation work and Suikoden II is no exception. I have however read and heard interviews with those in charge of the localization effort and Konami gave them little time, little money, and had no clue about the game. They were simply told to take the Japanese and make it English, which explains away inconsistencies with the previous title.  Also noticeable, but rather unexplainable, are the awkward translations such as "Jowy" replacing the ubiquitous real-world spelling of "Joey" for one of the main characters.  Basically if someone says something that makes no sense in context or raises questions within the lore, it's due to the translation (either in this game or another in the series).  That said, it is not the worst translation job ever, but you will notice it from time to time.
 

Story & Plot

 
Now for the good parts.  Suikoden II focuses on two boys who are in the Highland Kingdom's youth army.  In order to start up a war with the neighboring City-states of Jowston, Prince Luca Blight conspires with your commanding officer to massacre the youth brigade and blame it on Jowston.  You and your friend escape however and to Jowston, no less.  This is just the very start of the plot and it gets better.  The game explores friendship, allegiances, obligations, power, and politics throughout.  It covers a lot of bases and leaves some questions in the moral grey zone where they belong.  Several events in the game and their consequences are enough to spark many a heated debate among fans.  
 
Telling a story is a major selling point of JRPGs and Suikoden II lives up to that point.  It does fall short on keeping tension though.  You'll be riding high with some immediate threat ever approaching, but then suddenly have the time to make a scripted side trip across the map to do something almost entirely unrelated.  The lulls in the main action are enjoyable in themselves and have some (unrelated) action of their own, but kind of undercut the seriousness of the main plot.

There are few side quests, but they are of decent quality.  You can participate in Iron Chef-style cook-offs with NPC chefs and there is even one that spans the entire game by making you reach certain places within a time limit on your game clock.  
 

Recruiting NPCs

Probably the biggest and most well-known component of Suikoden games is recruiting various people and sometimes sentient animals to your cause; 108 of them, to be precise.  Some will fight alongside you in battle, some perform services such as running an inn or shop, and others do nothing practical and are simply there for story purposes.  The recruitment requirements of most of the Stars of Destiny, as they are called, range from incredibly simple to slightly difficult or time-consuming.  There are no real brainteasers though.  
 
The only problem with this mechanic is the same problem every Suikoden game has: some Stars are recruited so late in the game as to be useless.  Why use someone you recruited in the last hour of the game when you have a properly equipped and leveled core group already?  Few characters in any game are cool enough or have enough substance to pull this off.  Some in Suikoden II definitely seem like they were meant to be recruited earlier, based on their level when they join you, and triggers were simply moved to later in the game.  Still, the array of characters overall is colorful and some are very memorable, despite the daunting task of writing 108 recruitable ones plus all the extra NPCs.  

During war battles or certain optional story events, some Stars can die and be removed from the game permanently from that point on.  The game's "best" endings are based on getting all 108 and making sure they survive.  If you fail at either those, you get "worse" endings.  And of course I mean "best" and "worse" mostly in terms of completionism and the novelized / canonical ending.  Maybe you'll really like the ending where you recruit only those you have to.  Who am I to judge?
 

Combat

 
The battles in Suikoden II are in the series' usual 3 types: party battles, war battles, and duels. The first is your typical JRPG turn-based battle. Six people, arranged in two rows, with long-, short-, and mid-ranged weapons take turns attacking using weapons, runes (Suikoden's brand of magic and special moves), items, and combo attacks.  Most regular battles will not hinder a well-equipped party for long, but there are a few boss fights that can go horribly wrong if one is not careful.  

The second most common battle type are the strategic war battles.  These occur at specific plot moments and involve moving units across a grid system and initiating attacks or special moves on nearby units until mission goals are met.  After a few tutorial ones through the beginning portions of the game, you eventually gain the ability to make up your own army.  People you recruit are either leaders or can be added to unit leaders to provide stat boosts or special moves.  No matter how you arrange the units, there does seem to be a bit of randomness involved in the battles so even if your stats are twice those of your opponent's, you may still get defeated.  On the other hand, it also means that it would not be a guaranteed loss for you if the situation were reversed.  

Duels appear rarely and are one-on-one rock-paper-scissors battles.  Wild Attack beats Attack beats Defend beats Wild Attack.  Choosing the same ones will result in either both characters staring at each other (Defend) or both taking damage.  Your opponents have certain pre-turn comments that are indicative of their move, so if you can intuit their intention (or just look it up), then duels are too easy.
 

Presentation

 
The music in this game is top notch.  There are many memorable tunes and even years later when I hear one, I can remember where it was or what kind of situation I was in at the time.  They quite accurately portray the mood and few, if any, have the potential to get boring.  As for graphics, they're 2D sprites and nothing to write home about, but they're not bad either.  When compared to its predecessor though, the graphics in Suikoden II are markedly improved.  Sprite animations are more fluid and less stiff, character artwork is cleaner and no longer cropped water color concept art, and even the UI is better.  There are a few pre-rendered scenes scattered about and they're about what you'd expect from the PS1.
 

Conclusion

 
Overall, Suikoden II's strong points far outshine its weaknesses.  In a time when JRPG plots are too fantastical and contrived, going back to a older game like this where the plot is complicated, but not labyrinthine, and tells an engaging, personal story can be a breath of fresh air.  The combat systems are simple enough in practice that it shows a JRPG need not have several different "points" to spend and complex battle mechanics to be fun to play.