Suikoden II: Konami Offers Up A New Form Of Brilliance
Written: Jun 12 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Rich And Detailed History And Story, Likeable Characters, Long Quest, Multiple Endings, 108 Characters
Cons: Somewhat Dull Colors
The Bottom Line: Suikoden II = Great Game.
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| jeremy1456's Full Review: Suikoden II for PlayStation 1 |
I believe it was the Summer of 2001 when I got my first job; I was 16 and was forced to flip pizzas both day and night, in short, I hated my job. I wasn't working for my health though, as I forgot all about all of the slave work when I got my first pay check, it was for about $200. Naturally I went down to Wal-Mart and spent it all in one hour. Everything I bought came in the form of video games, sadly enough, but the really bad thing about this is that I picked all of the wrong ones. With that magical first pay check I picked up a couple Army Men games, a game called Koudelka, and of course the subject of this review, Suikoden II. I hated all of these games, especially Suikoden II at the time, but then again I didn't really give it a chance, and it did only cost me 30 bucks, so it wasn't a really big waste. This game sat and collected dust for almost a year when I finally gave it another chance, but only after watching my brother play the game. After giving Suikoden II the chance that it deserved I can honestly say that there was an error in my judgement; Suikoden II is one of the greatest RPGs ever created.
Flashy cinematic games sell well, Squaresoft proved this to us with the releases of three Final Fantasy games on the PlayStation. Suikoden II is not one of these FMV heavy flashy type games though, but this is half of the game's charm. Suikoden II is very simplistic at first glance, and unfortunately for many, this is what turned most people away at the game's release, and a lot of these people are the same ones who are spending hundreds of dollars on ebay buying used copies because they enjoyed part III on the PS2. Man I'm glad that I picked up my copy back when it only costed $30!
The strange thing about my experiences with the Suikoden series is that I have yet to play the original, even though I've been keeping my eye out for it. The series of Suikoden games are direct sequels, and unlike the Final Fantasy games, there are recurring plots, characters, and even a couple villains. If you are planning on playing any of the Suikoden games than I highly recommend playing them in order, trust me, it will heighten the experience to no end.
Suikoden II is a slightly simplistic looking 2-dimensional, random encounter, turn based RPG. When I say turn based I'm referring to the style in which the battles play out, as turn based requires players to input commands for their characters, these attacks range from the standard attack, united attack, and the usage of runes (more on that later). The battle system implemented into Suikoden II may appear similar to many 16-bit RPGs, but it is rather complex, and in some ways works better than the battle system used in all of the modern Final Fantasy games.
Storyline
Our young (and nameless) hero (son of an old hero, Genkaku) and his best friend Jowy are members of the Highland army Youth Brigade. Highland is currently at peace, that is until the youth brigade is surprise attacked by those wretches from the City-State, which breaks the two countries peace treaty. As Jowy and the Hero make a break for it, they learn that maybe the attack isn't really a surprise, and that Highland really just faked the attack so that they would have a good excuse to take down the City-State. The hero and Jowy end up jumping into a roaring river only after promising that they will return to this spot. Thus begins the huge adventure for the two of them.
You can guess pretty easily that the two survive the fall, but they are separated. The hero ends up encountering a couple familiar faces to fans of the original Suikoden; Victor and Flik, who make the main character join their resistance to Highland. Of course this is only the very beginning of the game, and even though Highland is considered the main enemy throughout almost all of the game, the story manages to stay interesting all the way to the end, with a huge and interesting plot twist that takes place very early on in the adventure.
Unlike most RPGs, the military aspects of the story are probably the main elements in the game. Eventually the characters on your side will create a base; a place where characters that have joined you, and troops you have acquired through the storyline hang out. Your resistance force will gain power, but throughout the game it will seem as if Highland should be able to crush your resistance at any second, as characters will often mention how little of troops you have compared to Highland, and this really helps move along the story, as the story uses many militaristic elements.
Suikoden II has 108 characters, yes you heard me right, one hundred and eight. Most of these characters have very little to do with the storyline, and have very few scripted events, but a good portion of them do contribute to the dialogue in the game. Since you won't really need all of them, why should you track down all of these characters? Well, Konami thought of this, and on top of giving you more generals during army battles, if you collect all 108 characters you can get the good ending. Now how good is this ending? I've gotten it, and let me say, it was the only ending I was happy with.
One thing I dislike about this game is the fact that the main character has no set dialogue; the only time he speaks is when you are given a choice of an answer. After thinking about it though, I can't really imagine what kind of personality the main character would have, and really what he would say, so I guess that it's a good thing that Konami didn't give him any real dialogue.
One fairly noticeable screw up in Suikoden II is in the form of spelling errors. Did the people who translated this game not look through all of the text a second time to make sure that they did it right or something? This doesn't really take anything away from the game, but it really just shows me how unprofessional Konami really is, especially since this isn't the first Konami game that has had spelling errors in it.
Gameplay
Suikoden II plays out like your standard RPG, you travel across a world map from town to town while engaging in battles, but after playing it for a while you will realize that gameplay in this game isn't quite so standard. For one thing, you spend the whole quest collecting characters to add to your base, some of these characters even offer you special services. What really sets Suikoden II apart from the rest though are the three different varieties of battling; there are your standard turn based battles, one on one duels, and my personal favorite, Army Battles.
The normal battles play out exactly as you would expect them to in an RPG, only there is more going on during these battles. In other RPGs each character would wait until the other has completely finished their attack before they make their attack, but in Suikoden II the characters don't seem to wait for each other, and will often attack while the other is in mid strike. Something else unique about Suikoden II are the "unite" attacks, which are very similar to the combination attacks in the fact that certain characters can combine their special moves to create more powerful attacks. Runes are basically magical spells in this game, as you equip them to your characters they will learn spells. There are however, special runes in the world of Suikoden, these are known as True Runes, but you'll have to find out their significance for yourself.
Dueling is probably my least favorite method of battle, as it's sometimes just a game of chance. During the duels you are given only three different commands, and they are played out in a similar fashion to rock paper scissors, only the opponent sometimes gives you clues as to what they are going to do.
Army battles keep things interesting in this game. Suikoden II transforms into an all out strategy game once an army battle unfolds, as you and your opponent move troops across a battlefield. Destroying all enemies isn't always the best way to win though, as sometimes you simply have to inhabit a city or hold out for a set number of turns to win, and not all defeats mean game over.
Graphics, Sound, and Control
As I mentioned earlier, Suikoden II is a fairly decent looking 2-dimensional RPG, although the battles are played out in 3 dimensions. Everything is sprite based, and so you shouldn't expect any especially flashy graphics. While Suikoden II does not scream "look at me!", the graphics work well enough with the game.
The music in Suikoden II is definitely a step above average. The music works well in setting the mood, from the militaristic music from the army, or "strategy battles", to the sad melody of reflection that plays whenever another character bites the dust or something else sad happens, Suikoden II's soundtrack does not fail to deliver the goods, even though a couple of the songs in the game are underwhelming, namely the battle theme. The best song in the game is Luca Blight's battle theme.
Controls are easy, but not quite overly simplistic. The most difficult part of this game (control-wise) is navigating through the menus, but this becomes very easy once you mess around with them for a couple of minutes. Really though, there's nothing major to mention about the controls in Suikoden II.
Final Recommendation
Suikoden II is, without a doubt, my second favorite RPG available on the Playstation. Realistically though, if you did want to buy this rare game it will cost you a pretty penny nowadays, but if you find it for less than $60 I recommend you pick it up, just don't end up spending over a hundred on this game. I also recommend that you play the original Suikoden before part II, as this game will likely be more enjoyable after having played the first.
Overall Rating: 9.6
Recommended:
Yes
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Catching Up On Retro Game Reviews In the Near Future.
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