JRPGs don't get the respect they deserve from the community at large. I can see why, to an extent. Setting aside the common gameplay flaws, which are too extensive to get into here, the plot and characters of your average JRPG rely heavily on the emotions and sensitivity of the player, and less exclusively on the power fantasies which CRPGs and every other genre of video game cater to (not to say that JRPGs don't indulge in power fantasy, what with the ability to summon Gods to do your bidding and all). People, especially men, especially American men, are extremely afraid of showing or experiencing emotions. It requires weakness, letting your guard down, and complete honesty. I'll touch on this topic more in a blog post, but for now I'll submit Suikoden II for your approval. It is, by far, the best example of a JRPG I have ever played, in terms of both storytelling and gameplay. It's a game I would recommend to anyone, even JRPG skeptics, provided you're willing to leave your preconceptions ---and BS emotional barriers --- at the door and give it a fair shot.
The game begins simply enough --- your player character (which you name) is a child soldier in the Highland Army's Unicorn Brigade. Sounds like a happy enough army to be in. Shame most of the child soldier unit is horribly massacred within two minutes of game time. Worse yet, you and your best friend, Jowy, discover that it wasn't really a foreign attack, but it was staged by the Prince (more on this bastard later) as a means of getting the war started again. You and Jowy manage to escape by taking a hail-mary dive off of a cliff, and that sets into motion a series of events that places your protagonist and Jowy in very awkward positions in the midst of a large-scale war. It's an interesting twist on the classic "evil empire" JRPG cliche. For one, the Highland Empire becomes considerably less evil as things go on. For two, the supposedly "good" side is a loose association of bureaucratic morons sticking their fingers in their ears and pretending that the war is over while villages are burning and people are getting horribly killed all over the place. The intervention of your player character, and those associated with him, eventually turns the warring factions into two sides of the same coin. Just from the overarching plot of the game, you have an interesting setup for many tough moral dilemmas which you'll have to face later on.
One thing I have to note: the JRPG cliche of teenagers becoming war heroes and saviors of the people is present here, but in an interesting way. The hero's sister, Nanami, is the one who simply wants to be a kid. Throughout the game, she questions why the hero and Jowy must fight in an increasingly horrible war, when they could all just run away, be kids, and leave this up to the people that SHOULD be caring. It's an interesting moral dilemma, and at one point you can make the decision to take her advice and run away. The game ends. It's one of the ways that the overall plot of the game really plays with the morality of war. [SEMI-SPOILER] Toward the end of the game, as you have overthrown the enemy empire, you're granted the ability to explore a couple towns and talk with the citizens of your recently "liberated" land, only to find most of the citizens scared and depressed. Not to mention a few of them talking about lost loved ones that you've likely indirectly killed during the course of the game[/SPOILER]
During the course of the game, you can collect up to 108 characters that take up positions in your army and home base. Some of these characters come along during the course of the story, others need to be asked or have special requirements. Almost all of them have a special charm to them, and can be useful in a variety of ways. They can open shops, hold amazing Iron Chef-style cooking contests, act as commanders in your army and sit around drinking tea all damn day. The collection of a large cast of characters is a staple of the Suikoden series, as is the "home base" in which you collect them (which, in this game, is an abandoned town that was once overrun with zombies). The "Main Cast" of the game, so to speak, are compelling and charming. Viktor is brash, easily angered, and a bit of a rogue, but is always fighting for the right thing. His buddy Flik tries his best to be suave and cool, but he often fails and he still carries a torch for a deceased love (see: Suikoden I). Nanami is the classic Big Sister, annoying and boisterous but caring. And on the villains' side, you have guys like Captain Rowd, who's willing to lie and kill to get ahead in his career; Leon Silverburg, keeping the war machine going as an excercise of his skills as a strategist. And then there's Luca Blight, Highland's prince.
This guy deserves his own paragraph. This is the most straight-up brutal villain in any video game I've yet played, save maybe Final Fantasy VI. He's comparable to Kefka in a lot of ways, in that he's not committing atrocities to satisfy some kind of ambition, but due to complete psycopathy. Within the first few hours of the game, this guy slaughters a child army ON HIS SIDE, uses as an excuse to burn down and completely slaughter two villages and a Mercenary fort. An early and powerful scene involves him making a townswoman crawl around on her knees and squeal like a pig in order to earn her right to live. Of course, this is met with "Die pig!" and a few slices from his sword. Oh, and don't worry, he gets worse as the game goes on.
Now, from what I've described so far, you would think that this completely horror-themed. Not exactly. It deals with a lot of horrible themes and events, but the world, the art style, and the overall cast of characters are very bright and cheerful. This is a contrast you'll find in a lot of Japanese stuff, particularly the games and anime. There's always plenty of comic relief in between horrible acts of cruelty. I really like this aspect of Japanese media, because despite how over-the-top unrealisticially it is executed, it's actually more realistic than if a work of media just stuck with either the positive or the negative. Life isn't all good, life isn't all bad. Maybe you don't need to always be lamenting the ills of humanity in order to make a great story? That's all I'm saying.
Moving on, the Suikoden world is one of my favorite fantasy worlds in any piece of media, perhaps because I'm a bit of a fanboy of the series. Not everything consistently makes sense (enemies include chipmunks wearing capes, singing elves, and phantom playing cards), but it's still a large and "detailed enough" world which each game shows only a fraction of (thus far, in five games, I believe the series has only covered one continent, maybe one and a half plus some island nations). Every fantasy world has to have its magic, and in Suikoden it comes in the form of runes, which can be extracted from crystals and grafted into the hands and head of the user. There are tons of those, and they figure into both the gameplay and the meta-story of the series as a whole (there are 27 "true runes", which are extremely powerful, and figure into the creation and the continuing wars of this land). It looks like the series is at a bit of a halt right now, but hopefully there are future stories involving this world and some of the more mysterious common characters.
On to the real meat-and-potatoes: the gameplay. For a while there, I thought I was reviewing a fantasy novel. At the heart of the gameplay you have "dungeons" (caves, forests, enemy castles, mountains, etc.), and random menu-driven battles. Are you cowering in fear yet? There's good news, though. The random battles are the least obtrusive of any JRPG I have ever played. They load instantly, and you're two button-presses away from just having everyone do their default attack. Okay, so it's just a slightly more streamlined way to repetitively grind, right? Not exactly. As soon as you enter an area with more powerful enemies, it simply takes a few battles in order to get your characters up to the level they need to be at to beat the boss. If you're levels are too high to be dealing with weaker enemies, you're given a "let go" option on the battle screen sends your foes scurrying off. YOU WILL NEVER HAVE TO GRIND, and it's important I put that in all-caps, because it's a removal of the single most common frustration in these types of games. If you fight every enemy you run into as you traverse and explore a new dungeon, you should enough levels and money to make it through another chunk of the game. You won't even have to grind for money, as there are other, more interesting ways to earn it (gambling, trading posts, etc.). Seriously, I cannot tell you how much JRPG developers need to remember that the less BS you stick in the way of your melodramatic plots, the better.
And there's plenty else to do as well. As the game goes on, you're gameplay options are opened up to include more character recruiting, the aforementioned trading (buy low - sell high to make some extra cash for weapon upgrades), a variety of minigames and things to collect, the aforementioned Iron Chef-style cooking contests (which actually have a pretty neat subplot and conclusion to them, complete with their own credits roll). I will fault the game for having somewhat of a slow start, because at first it takes a long time for you to get from point A to point B, and your only vehicle to speak of is a boat. Occasionally you'll have to cross dungeons multiple times, not often in the course of the main plot, but often in the course of sidequests and character colleciton. A good chunk of it can be put off until you gain teleportation, though in the meantime you might struggle a bit to make money or fill your combat party and army.
Speaking of, the standard battle system isn't the only one available in this game. There are two other battle systems which are prompted during the course of the story. There is a one-on-one duel system, which is a basic rock-paper-scissors game, in which you can glean hints of your opponent's next move by reading their trash talk. These are simple, but quite thrilling and accent certain moments of the game very nicely (trust me, the outcome of a particular duel will make you very happy). There's also a full-scale war system, which works like a strategy RPG (think Final Fantasy Tactics). You have your units, and you move them a set number of spaces and attack enemies using a standard charge or a variety of other abilities (decided by the characters you place in each unit). It's simple, and it's somewhat flawed (a bit too random, and some battles can take way too long) but it's serviceable.
So you have one of the best video game stories and worlds in existence, wrapped around a very nice, fun, extensive and unobtrusive gameplay system. Graphically, the game is your typical top-down 2D, with a very nice semi-Anime art style to it. Each location has its own unique look, and the graphics are effective if not technically advanced. The sound effects are pretty basic, but the music really knocks the game into the stratosphere. Miki Higashino has crafted a soundtrack with the sensibilities of Western orchestration, but rich with Eastern and Celtic instrumentation. It's one of the overall best game soundtracks ever produced. It's somewhat of a middle-ground between Nobuo Uematsu's very Western theme-based music and Yasunori Mitsuda's rich culturally influenced compositions. It fits perfectly within, and completely enriches, this world.
The English version of this game is not without its flaws. The translation and dialogue are pretty bad at times, and rife with grammatical errors. It's an unfortunate distraction from the rich characterization and plot that underlie the whole game. Additionally, some music was cut for some unknown reason. Many "war" battles happen with no music when there was originally a tune in place there, and the tracks with Japanese vocals have been cut entirely (a character, Annallee, sings a song in complete silence, and one powerful section of the music that plays over the Character Endings is entirely missing). Why these were cut, I have no idea.
But those are, really, the only flaws I can attribute to the game. If you're not a fan of JRPGs at all, I'd recommend giving this one an open-minded look if you can. It's extremely hard to find in the united states, and the PSP and PSN re-releases are Japan-only for some reason. The game didn't sell well when it was released, due to competition from Final Fantasy VIII. Either way, if you have the opportunity to play it, I highly recommend sitting through the game's 30 hours. Who knows? Perhaps it will give you newfound respect for the genre (despite its flaws) and the uniquely imaginative worlds within.
