This Game Leaves Me Begging for a 3rd!
Written: Aug 08 '00 (Updated Aug 08 '00)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Great storyline, improved HQ system, 108 stars of destiny, fairly good music
Cons: many speling erors that made the gam vey hard two reed, also 2D graphics very pixellated
|
|
|
| MelliAngel's Full Review: Suikoden II for PlayStation 1 |
The Storyline
The following opinion reveals major details about the game!
For those of you that have played Suikoden I, this game takes place in the same world, although the only connection you have with the Toran Republic is the town of Gregminster, McDohl's hometown in the original game. 3 years have passed since the Liberation Army's victory.
You, the Hero, are part of the Unicorn Brigade of the Highland Army. Your brigade is at its camp, when it is massacred by what is believed to be soldiers from the City-State of Jowston, who Highland has a peace treaty with at the time. You and your best friend Jowy are told to run for your lives, which you do, only to return and hear your commander reveal the truth. Your entire brigade has been slaughtered by soldiers from your own army, posing as soldiers from Jowston. This is all done to make Jowston seem like they went against the peace treaty.
You and Jowy run from the pursuing soldiers, only to reach a waterfall. Here, a pact is made, where you agree to meet Jowy at this exact place should you two become separated. Jowy carves an "X" with his sword on a rock, and then you two jump into the water below. You are pulled out of the water by Viktor and Flik from Suikoden I. You team up with your sister and 106 others to lead the City-State of Jowston to victory against the Highland army.
The Graphics and Music
The graphics of this game are not up amongst the ranks of the last two Final Fantasies. However, the exceptional gameplay rapidly makes up for this. Everything is 2D. However, each of the 108 characters has his own facial characteristics that can be seen when talking to them, adding them to your party, or changing your formation for battle. Also, there are many movie scenes which are breathtaking, including the introduction. The music is quite good, although some seem to disagree with me. It is similar to Suikoden I, in the aspects that it relies heavily on orchestral sounds and Middle Eastern sounding vocals.
The Battle System
As in Suikoden I, there are 3 types of battles. The most common is combat against monsters or enemies (the traditional type in an RPG). Your team encounters a group of enemies and defeats them by fighting, running or letting the enemies go, or bribing them.
The second most common type of battle is The State versus Highland in traditional army type battle. This battle is presented in the form of Shining Force (Sega Genesis). Each unit is represented by one square, and you control each squares actions. A couple of times in this game, your army is supposed to lose, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about this. Also, many times, your reinforcements will arrive and the enemy army will retreat before you get a chance to finish them off, which is rather annoying.
The 3rd type of battle, and the least common, is one-on-one, such as the final battle with Jowy at the end of the game. This type of battle was also featured in Suikoden I. It is executed with the commands Defend, Attack, and Wild-Attack. Your next course of action can be easily determined by what your opponent says.
What is rare about Suikoden II?
The castle (or headquarters-HQ) is presented a bit differently from that of Suikoden I. For those of you who haven't played the 1st game, the HQ is where your army lives. In the 1st game you only had a castle, and only the 108 stars of destiny could live in it. In this game, you have a town outside of your castle (which you win from Neclord-remember him?), and the residents of the castle include regular townspeople and soldiers in addition to the 108 stars.
Also, magic is acquired from runes, rather than in most traditional RPGs where you just learn magic as you go up in level. There are 27 true runes which hold the most power, as well as elemental type crystals. you can also equip crystals to your weapon to give them magical qualities. Mind you, this is only a brief description of the rune system. It is really very intricate depending on the types you acquire.
You can make money at trading posts as well as in battle. This is done in a buy low, sell high type fashion. For example, it is a good idea to buy a Crystal Ball in South Window fir 200 potch (the monetary unit) and sell it in Kobold Village for 2500 potch. Prices do fluctuate, however.
There are many sidequests that you, the Hero, can partake in during Suikoden II. For example, the recipes you collect for the army chef Hai-Yo can be used in a cook off to gain more recipes. Also, if you loaded your game data from Suikoden I before you started Suikoden II, you can recruit McDohl, the Hero from the original game, into you party.
In Closing...
I am leaving out so much, and probably forgetting so much more. This is such a well thought out, complete, wonderful game. I cried at the end (I'm a baby, I admit), because I was so sad to see it end (not to mention the end was kinda sad itself). I really enjoyed this game. I became addicted to rectuiting all 108 stars. For being on only one disc, this game was very satisfying. Konami didn't overload us with music or movies that took up 3 discs. They actually concentrated on the gameplay itself.
The only drawback was the language editting. There were so many grammatical mistakes and spelling errors in this game, it was almost comical. Anyone who has played this knows what I'm talking about. I mean, c'mon guys, did you actually check this game after you finished translating it? This game would have a 5 star rating if it wasn't for this aspect.
All that aside, this game is great for any of you die-hard RPG fans out there. It is a must have, for I guarantee you it will go down as a classic in RPG history. I'm crossing my fingers for a sequel to the sequel!
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
MelliAngel
|
|
Member: Melli Murder
Location: Troy, NY
Reviews written: 31
Trusted by: 39 members
About Me:
www.playnit.com Social Music Network for Gamers
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.