Suikoden II improved on most of the things the first game laid out on
the table, but it still fell in a few traps that I hated about the
original. I'll start with the good side of things. For one, the
graphics are alot sharper, more detailed characters, better looking
towns and world map. The story has alot more depth to it, although I
really hated the wooden main character. This is very story driven game,
and I don't think Silent Protagonists really work that well overall.
Although, this is a direct sequel to the original, and I LOVE how they
intertwine both stories with all the returning characters and inside
jokes.
On the disappointing parts, while the Unite and Rune
system is slightly better but overall the battle system and dungeons
haven't improved at all since the original. The One-on-One battles are
still lame. The Turn Based Strategy elements to game wasn't exactly a
step forward either.
Overall, it's a little better than the original, but not by much.
----------Battle System----------
Suikoden II is a turnbased RPG. Each turn is presented in rounds, so at
the start of a randomly encountered battle, you'll enter in all of your
commands and watch the round unfold before you do it again. The
character or enemy with the best speed will go first.
You gain
levels and experience after each battle like most RPGs, but it's a
little more similar to Strategy RPGs. At each 1,000 experience points
your character will gain a level, once you go over 1,000 the experience
ticker will go back to zero. This is similar to Final Fantasy Tactics
or any of those, except they only have 100 experience points per-level.
The higher the level of your character the harder to gain experience
though.
You don't equip weapons in Suikoden II but rather
upgrade your existing ones from blacksmiths. You can also embed Runes
to your weapons to give them extra effects. You can equip 1 Helmet, 1
piece of Armor, and some characters can equip 1 Shield. A big
improvement over the original is the item system. This time your party
has one big bag of items, with another bag separate for special items.
You can't use these items in battle though, but rather you can equip
items you want to use in battle per character. Each character can equip
3 item slots, but you can also use these slots for accessories to
broaden your defense.
The Unite system is back with the same
basic concept. If you have relating characters, either friends or
family, then they can perform a unique attack in battle, but you have
to have them in your party to perform that attack. There's more attacks
in this game and more characters that relate to one-another, so that's
about the only improvement.
The Rune system is a little easier
than the original. This time around you can equip up to 3 Runes. One on
your Head, Left Arm or Right Arm. Some Runes will boost your weapon
attributes, but most Runes give you spells. The Spell Runes will give
you up to 4 Spells per Rune. You won't gain access to all the spells
until you get enough levels though, you can't even equip all three
Runes until you gained enough levels too. This gives you a little
carrot to level up. The magic system is basically the same as the
original. You get a certain amount of points per level of magic, let's
say 9 points for Level 1 magic. If you have 3 Runes that use level 1
magic, then you can only use those magics up to 9 times among all three
Runes. You can't recharge your magic until you sleep at an Inn.
The dungeons just haven't improved over the original at all. They're
still maze-like dungeons, and there's not much variety among the
destinations. Probably half of the dungeons take place in the forest.
There's a couple puzzles in the game, but they're so easy and
forgettable that it ultimately doesn't matter.
Suikoden II
brings back the 108 Stars of Destiny. This allows you to recruit a ton
of characters for your party, and to recruit people for your town.
Recruit people for your town makes the town bigger, and they open
shops, library's, stock rooms, and loads of other interesting things.
The town building is the same basic set up as the original, since you
really have no control over it, but the town is ALOT bigger and alot
more interesting to walk around and do stuff.
The biggest
change from the original is the war battles. In the first game it was
just a flat screen, one army on one side and the other on another. You
pick between 4 options and then watch for results, it was a basic Rock
Paper Scissors game that had no real strategy. In Suikoden II it's a
top-down Turn-Based Strategy game, similar to Fire Emblem, but not as
fun or tactful. There might be a little over 10 battles overall in the
game, you can't pick how many characters you have on the field at once,
that's always pre-determined, but before a battle you can change up the
characters that will team together. You can have up to 3 characters per
team, some characters have special attributes, for example one
character might have a Chivalry ability, which allows you to move more
spaces, some characters might have magic spells you can use in battle
too. You can mix and match how your team will ultimately will be.
The battles lose the Rock-Paper-Scissor element from the last game. You
can have three types on a field, a magic user, archer and warrior. You
can attack at distances with the archer and magic users but they're
usally weak. The whole point of the "strategy" is to use the team with
the highest attack rate to attack the team with the lowest defense
rate, that's about it. Once you attack, it shows an animation of your
army running after the other army, similar to the last game.
With that said, I think Turn Based Strategy elements to this game is a
wasted gimmick that wasn't fully realized. The first 5 or so battles in
the game you can only control the Heros team, so you have to watch the
enemy move, and your team mates move, then all you can do is move 1
freaking space, and ultimately do nothing. These first few battles were
mostly played out for storyline purposes. Later in the game you get to
control everyone, but by then the outcome is usually predetermined
after a couple moves and really has no impact on how tactful you are in
the game, only a couple battles really matter overall.
----------Characters / Story----------
You play as a soulless puppet/ nameless silent protagonists, but let's
call him "Hero". Hero and his best friend Jowry are rookie recruits in
the Highland Army, on a routine stake out they get ambushed, Hero and
Jowry are the only survivors, but they later find out the attack wasn't
by their rivals "City-State", but rather their own army to create a
war. Hero and Jowry get separated in the chaos, Hero ends up captured
by the rebel army that's been fighting against the Highland army. As
time goes on, Hero learns of the conspiracy to overthrow the City-State
and decides to fight back.
The story has alot more depth than
the original, but that's not saying much honestly. I think Suikoden II
took alot of risks with the storyline, mostly with the Luca Blight
character, who is probably the most sadist bad guy I've seen in an RPG
for ages. Theres alot of on screen deaths and massacres in the game,
although no blood. There are some huge plot twists at the end of the
game that shocked me a little.
With that said, I had some
problems with the storyline. You play as a Hero, leader of a rebel army
of misfits that are the ONLY viable army to complete against the
Highland army, every high-up character within the Highland army knows
who you are. When the Highland army takes over a town or a fort,
sometimes they have men guarding the front from keeping you from
entering the area. Other times they have guards roaming around town,
and you can freely walk among them, talk to them, do whatever without
consequence. There's a TON of moments in the game where you have to
sneak behind enemy lines. This is another huge problem with me too. You
are the LEADER of an Army, yet you never give orders, all the orders
are given by the Strategist character (Apple or Shu). All you do is
conform (Yes or No). Why would the leader of the biggest rebel army
need to be the one to sneak behind enemy lines just to find out
something? It's stupid, but it takes me out of it and bugs me.
----------Graphics----------
The graphics are improved on every front which is expected. The enemies
and characters show alot more animation in battle, the special attacks
are really fun to watch, I think I can compare them to Final Fantasy
Tactics but everything is BIGGER and crazier. The world map looks alot
better, the sprites are bigger and the world is about 3 times the size
as the original. The towns have alot more detail to them.
The
game is full of CGI cutscenes, but none are voiced over and all
generally look like a few years behind the curve. Final Fantasy 8
clearly trumps Suikoden II, but that's expected.
----------Sound----------
The sound effects are improved over the original, but I don't think the
music was. There was easily more tunes in the game but they weren't as
simple and rememberable.
----------World Map----------
The
world map is basically the same as the original game but bigger. The
world map is similar to an overhead view 2D Final Fantasy title. The
world is sectioned off, so you can't walk, fly or sail across the
entire world without walking through barriers. You have to travel by
foot 90% of the game, but towards the end you get to meet a character
that can warp you to previously visited towns. You do get a boat, but
it can only take you to 1 place.
There's many more towns and
places to visit in this game compared to the first one, other than that
it's basically the same with little changes other than graphics.
----------Time to Complete Game----------
35:36:30
Suikoden II was much longer than the first game by about 10 hours.
After you fight the final boss you can save your game before the
credits and real ending starts to roll.
