Absolutely Brilliant
Written: May 24 '02
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: see review
Cons: see above
The Bottom Line: if Jenny's a 'weet poor body, why doesn't someone give her an energy bar?
|
|
|
| xeno3998's Full Review: Suikoden II for PlayStation 1 |
I know that I tend to rate most RPGs either a 4/5 or a 5/5, but that makes sense if you think about it. There are very few mediocre RPGs coming out in this day and age, as developers start treating the genre more seriously than ever before. We've long since past the days of Dragon View and Faery Tale where an RPG is crafted with little regard for character interaction, plot development, or music. If I reviewed even half of my SNES RPG collection, there wuold be a sea of 1 Star ratings in the Just In section. However, and thankfully, there are hardly any crap RPGs nowadays, and so the ratings I hand out are normally high.
But this doesn't mean I treasure every RPG that gets a high rating. Recognizing excellence does not imply that you love the game and will quickly come back to it. This is certainly not the case with titles like Rhapsody, RoboTrek, and more recently, Final Fantasy X. However, there are those titles that I will gladly and quickly return to, such as Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, Phantasy Star 2, FF9, Valkyrie Profile, Ys 1 and 2, Suikoden, and it's sequel, which is, of course, the subject of this review. So with that in mind, here's my take on Konami's Suikoden 2. I can't do much more than give it a full score and the highest of praise, but if I could, it'd be my pleasure.
One thing that has always impressed me about part one was that it starts off right away on a high note. Instead of the usual crap ("wake up sleepyhead" followed by hours worth of cliche), part 1 began on an exciting high note with the missions given through Barbarossa's assistant general. It built up on that from there, and that, among other things, was what made Suikoden so incredible. And the sequel is even better in this regard.
Suikoden 2 opens at a Highland Youth Brigade gathering, where "City-State troops" attack the camp and murder almost all of the cadets. Jowy Antriedes and the main character (who I always call Elvis in all of the Genso Suikodens) are the only two that manage to escape, and also the only two that know that the attack was a fraud set up by Luca Blight in order to rally against the City State and, (wait for it) eventually take over the world. Of course, Elvis and Jowy must stop Luca and his new-found colleuge Rowd (who is also responsible for one of my favorite quotes of recent memory: "If not found out, a lie becomes the truth" - who would argue this?).
If this seems simplistic or even mildly so, then you really need to play this game, as it will prove you wrong only ten hours in. The plot is anything but simplistic. It is layered and at times dark, with some surprising plot twists involving genuinely cruel characters such as Luca. I tell you this much, Square could never match Luca, not even with Xenogears (although Shakan is really hateable). Konami has developed a knack for antagonists, and in no other game is this more apparent than Suikoden 2. The dark feel to it and excellent character development make this one of my favorite RPG stories yet.
Another aspect I loved about part 1 was the characters, all 108 of them. While they didn't all receive character development, more than enough did, and the extra characters provided limitless battle potential and variety, as well as some of the best replay value I have ever seen in an RPG. This returns in part 2 (thankfully), and of course, it's been improved on. You now have more than 108 characters, but paths divulge and you may have to play through more than once to say that every single one of them have been in your party at some point or another. For instance, Kasumi and Valeria return from the original, but you can only choose one of them at Gregminster. They each have their benefits (ie - other character recruitment), among other things. This isn't the only case either. There's another one involving two characters from Ryube village. And if you think 108 characters is excessive, then as I've said before, play the game and it will prove you wrong. The character collection aspect is pulled off naturally - much like a mini-game.
Certain characters you recruit will serve dual purposes - a warrior/mage, and a staff at the Army Base establishment (a Suikoden trademark). There's everything from a cook that fights with Frying Pans to a giant bird that takes two character spots, that sits perched atop the tallest incline of the Base. Besides providing some interesting dialogue, the characters serve to expand and improve your base. You'll notice new sections of the Base as you gain more characters. There still isn't much customization in this area (hopefully with Suikoden 3), however it is still fun to watch as the base develops and what role new characters play in it.
I have a problem with Suiko 2's translation. For one thing, it appears someone forgot to run through it and edit it one last time, as there are several noticeable errors throughout the 40-50 hours it will take on average to complete the game. But the worst problem is with the Rune descriptions, which are incomprehendible. I couldn't understand any of the descriptions for the Runes - it was like Engrish cut in half (almost literally). Konami could easily solve this by decreasing the font for them or by trying to say less in their descriptions.
Getting to the gameplay, Suikoden 2 uses the same small party battle engines as the first, however Konami opted to replace the war system from the original with a more strategy-RPG influenced system. This time, you move units on a grid rather than fighting on screens where each army takes a side. It's a lot like Tactics Ogre or Final Fantasy Tactics, only in typical Suikoden fashion, the camera is positioned in an entirely top-down perspective rather than 3/4th isometric as seen in FFT. The battles are much more fun this time, and thankfully you have far less a chance of losing characters.
The regular party battle systems have stayed the same, however. You can still manage a team of 6 and take them through dungeons and towns, customizing and levelling them up along the way, and you can still level up their weaponry and buy new equipment at any of the various shops. Standard RPG stuff, for the most part. Over the original, Konami has added more magic Runes, stronger magical items and a plethora of new accessories and equipment. It's a welcome change, although you will need a sea of cash to afford it all.
Konami has also improved the towns/cities a bit. They're still mostly the same stuff as before, but now most of them feature a 'Stock Market' where you can buy stocks for one price and sell them for more somewhere else. You even gain a character (Gordon) by doing this. A very interesting mini-game. My only problem here is with the stocks. They take far up too much room in your inventory. Overall, though, it's nice to see Konami being inventive in this field.
I'm not sure exactly what to say about the controls.... you get four directional movement, and pretty much the same everywhere. The interface has always been simple and easy to figure out. I had no problems here.
Graphics
People might think I'm crazy for saying this, but I actually prefer 2D over 3D, and further I prefer the simpler 2D visuals of Suikoden 2 over the watercolor stuff in Legend of Mana, Saga Frontier 2. Things are simply more viewable in Suikoden 2. The world map graphics are still simple, but at the same time eloquent because of it. I also prefer the newer world map over the old one, for two reasons. One is that Templton joins you sooner, and another that "Elvis" is better animated this time around.
Speaking of the characters, they retain the impeccable detail given to them in part 1. You still have very well animated sprites with varied and proper coloring, but apart from that, the text window animations of them have also evolved. Not sure if that's for better or worse though. The new characters definitely look impressive, but the personalities from the previous game, at only 3 years maturity, seem to have degenerated far too much. Flik now looks like he should change his name to "Mike Smith" and move into a house with three kids and a mini van, Viktor is slightly less hideous than before but has a fixated smile that irritates me, Valeria looks like my mother, Varkas doesn't even have a text avatar, and Tai Ho appears to be a whole new person. I could continue, but I feel this is putting too much negative energy as it is into what I hope to be a strictly positive review. But if anything, I think it says great things about Suiko 2 that I am relegated to nitpicking rather than pointing out any serious or even minor flaws, which it is devoid of.
Getting back to the visuals, after that pleasant little tangent, the game now features FMVs and an extremely impressive intro as well. The FMVs are Computer Generated, not anime, but are no less impressive. The Muse scene in which Luca summons those blue wolves rivals any non-FF9 FMVs by Square.
Sound/Music
By far, the music is one of part 2's stronger points. The soundtrack boasts the some of the coolest tracks I have heard from Konami game since Metal Warriors 2. The music gives every battle, especially the war ones, a distinct and dark feel that I can't quite explain. You really have to hear it to fully appreciate it. There are no voice actors, but let's face it folks, that IS a good thing.
Overall - 9.7 / 10
Is it better than Suikoden 1? This is an impossible call to make, so I'll leave that one to the comment section. One thing that's for certain is you must buy this game. There are few titles I give as high a recommendation to. I would place this one up there with Xenogears and Grandia as the three must buy RPGs for the system. It would be better if yuo played part 1 first, however, as you can transfer your characters from 1 over to 2, and the story and references makes more sense in part 2, but either way, you will love it.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
xeno3998
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Location: A Cardboard Box
Reviews written: 298
Trusted by: 267 members
About Me:
I'm back! new site: www.jebuslives.com
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.