What's so great about Suikoden II?

[Valkyrie-Favor]

Yes, I've been playing Suikoden II. I'm a few hours in and I'm just not enjoying it. Maybe it's the rarity, but I've been told it's one of the best, like Super Metroid is to adventure games or Gran Turismo is to driving games. I kind of regret the time spent.

My main complaint is the gameplay - so far there's nothing to it. I win every battle in one turn, two if it's "hard." If it's a tough boss it takes about six. It's impossible to lose the "tactical" battles. Maybe I've been spoiled by Sting games, but it's incredibly boring. There's a whole lot of "just go find the random plot thing," and the plot is a regular story about the horrible atrocities of war (right?) The only thing i really like about it is its sense of humor.

Anyone who's played the whole thing: What makes this game awesome?

[Jmustang1968]

I like the most mature story and characters. The world is nice as well. It is very traditional in a combat sense. You also have the draw of collecting all 108 characters and the castle build up feature.

Everything is just well done and polished in my opinion. I think the difficulty ramps up as you progress.

[ZenErik]

What doesn't make the game awesome? The vastly inferior FFVII must bow before Suikoden II.

[Menegrothx]

I don't think few hours are enough to make a judgement of a game (not talking 2600/NES/C64 here ), especially if the said game is a jrpg. I could personally ask the same question about Valkyrie Profile

What doesn't make the game awesome? The vastly inferior FFVII must bow before Suikoden II.

The vastly inferioir Suidoken II must bow before Fallout 2

[dunpeal2064]

Final Fantasy VII: So awesome that even those that hate it absolutely MUST mention it in any ps1 rpg thread

I thought Suikoden was awesome, and thought the 2nd one did improve a bit on the formula, but it just didn't have the same magic to it. Perhaps because I was spoiled by the FF series making every game so vastly different.

Also, giving me 108 characters that you won't develop as well as most games develop 7 characters is just not my cup of tea. I thought Chrono Cross was lame too, partially because they gave you so many characters that you could give a shit less about.

I actually thought 3 was better, as they at least tried something new. IV was total crap, and thus I never played V. Heard it was pretty solid though.

The hype definitely had a hand in ruining the 2nd game for me. After looking for a copy for a few years and finally finding it, I thought it was pretty average. I enjoyed Legend of Dragoon much more, and paid $12 for it.

[ZenErik]

Final Fantasy VII: So awesome that even those that hate it absolutely MUST mention it in any ps1 rpg thread

I thought Suikoden was awesome, and thought the 2nd one did improve a bit on the formula, but it just didn't have the same magic to it. Perhaps because I was spoiled by the FF series making every game so vastly different.

Also, giving me 108 characters that you won't develop as well as most games develop 7 characters is just not my cup of tea. I thought Chrono Cross was lame too, partially because they gave you so many characters that you could give a shit less about.

I actually thought 3 was better, as they at least tried something new. IV was total crap, and thus I never played V. Heard it was pretty solid though.

The hype definitely had a hand in ruining the 2nd game for me. After looking for a copy for a few years and finally finding it, I thought it was pretty average. I enjoyed Legend of Dragoon much more, and paid $12 for it.

What we have here is an opinion that is legitimately WRONG.

[dunpeal2064]

Says the Triggerheart fan

[MrPopo]

Says the Triggerheart fan

Agreed. Crueltear is much better.

[pierrot]

<---- 1. Look at my avatar
2. Get very familiar with the idea of using this character
3. ????
4. Profit

Seriously, though, I understand what you mean about the encounters being a bit easy, and at face value it seems almost overly simplistic. However, if you really pay attention to the rune system, there's an extreme level of customization; especially if you consider the number of characters you have at your disposal. There's some challenge in the last dungeon and the final boss gauntlet, if you go through on a normal playthrough. The more time you invest into building your characters with complimentary runes and equipment, though, the more you become an unstoppable wrecking crew. I guess that was sort of a missed opportunity in not including endgame side quests with some more challenging opponents, but that's not really the major focus of the suikoden series, in my opinion.

If you haven't played the original, I think you're doing yourself a disservice. The first three games are so closely interconnected in terms of story, I really can't recommend playing them out of order. Particularly the first two. For me, the original Suikoden was a marvelous re-imagining of Water Margin. It's a story of flight from and rebellion against your PC's home country, and the ensuing struggle against a morally degenerating empire. (Admittedly some other games may do a slightly better job of telling this style of story: Yasumi Matsuno's works, for instance.) Though, for me, Suikoden's greatest strength is the exposition of interpersonal relationships, and character development. You may have noticed that it's a character driven story, what with 108 or so of them.

I think for Suikoden 1-3 you pretty much get out of them only as much as you invest in them. There's a depth to these three that goes well beyond what meets the eye. I don't believe that I've ever felt that there was a character (in the first three at least) that was a throw-away character. Every one of them has felt very carefully crafted, to me, and each one has his or her own story. There's an extraordinary amount of history built into the Suikoden universe. It's all about how much you want to find it. I think there's more than enough in the games to entice you to do so, though.

I hated 3 when I first played it for many reasons (the biggest of which probably being youth) but I've since come to appreciate it as my favorite, and you might enjoy it more than 2 also, as there's much more work put into the battle system to make battle more customizable and tactical. It's a bit more difficult also.

If I were to give you any advice, though, I'd say to go ahead and put away Suikoden II for now and play the original first, if you haven't already.


Edit: FFVII only needs to be mentioned with Suikoden II as a preemptive measure against FFVII fans. In other words, FFVII is the premature ejaculation of video games.

[elmagicochrisg]

Still have to play the second one, but loved the first game. Had to get used to the graphics at first though. The very Renaissance looking start of the first game put me off at first. But once I started to get to know the characters, get into the story, the side quests, the big battles, the music, it was awesome. I really like FF VII, but I like Suikoden more...

And yes, start with Suikoden I before you play Suikoden II.

Tip: You can use your save file (completed game) from Suikoden I to start a new game in Suikoden II...