Suikoden 2
Reviewed by CB007
Graphics
The graphics of Suikoden II are 2D. That is pretty
interesting on it's own, since this is a new game, and not a
remake of an older one. Games with this graphical style are
harder and harder to come by these days. But while things
are in the basic style of a SNES game, there are also many
features that could never have been possible on that system.
It seems to me that the towns and other areas are actually a
little similar to Illusion of Gaia, but the level of detail
is MUCH higher. There are lots of things to see, and the
different towns each have a fairly distinct look. Unlike
some RPG's, the characters are fairly large on the screen.
They aren't just tiny figures without much detail, like in
Final Fantasy 4. Interiors of buildings and castles are
really well done, and just make you want to take time to
look around at everything.
When you enter your first battle, things are seen from the
perspective similar to Breath Of Fire 2. Bascially, your
characters are on the right portion of the screen, and the
enemies are on the left. But when an enemy, or what of your
party members attacks, things get pretty interesting. The
first thing I noticed is that there is a lot of camera
movement. Comparable, but not as frequent as in FF7. It
serves to keep the battles from getting boring, and to make
things easier to see. Spell effects are the best thing about
the game, in terms of graphics. If you've played Final
Fantasy Tactics, you have a pretty good idea what to expect.
However, in my opinion, many of the spell effects in this
game are actually much better. And considering that there
are so many spells, and that they are all so different, that
really makes things seem more impressive.
Map battles have relatively poor graphics compared to the
rest of the game. However, these don't come up all that
often in the first place, and they're still not that bad.
Like most of this game's minor faults, you just don't pay
attention, anymore. Perhaps it's because I like 2D games,
but things like this have no effect on me.
The overworld graphics take a little getting used to. They
aren't as detailed or as colorful as in most SNES games, or
as most RPGs in general, for that matter. When I first
started the game, I was a little bit dissapointed. But as I
progressed with the game and got into the story, I became
adjusted to, and began to like the style. It fits the mood
of the game better than something really cartoony.
Game Play
First of all, like in the first Suikoden, this game has an
extremely large number of characters. 108, actually. Not all
of these are playable, and at this point, I don't know how
many are and how many aren't. But basically, you always have
a large number of characters to choose from. Far more than
in FF6. Now, in battles, each of these characters is
surprisingly different. Certain characters can 'Unite'
with eachother to do special attacks. These attacks do not
use any magic, and are particularly useful for beating
random enemies. This may help you determine which characters
you would like to have in your party, and which you will
leave behind. The main character must remain with you at all
times, however.
Regular battles are setup like most other RPGs. You can have
up to 6 characters at your party at one time. There is a
back row and a front row. You have the choice of attacking,
defending, using magic, using items, or uniting with another
character to do a special attack. There is also an auto
battle feature which makes all of your characters attack for
one round. It saves a lot of time, though I wish you could
have the auto battle on throughout the entire fight without
having to select it, again. There are also Map Battles.
These aren't very frequent, and are done in major points in
the story. They are setup much like FF Tactics, but they are
MUCH simpler. You can basically move around, attack enemies,
and use some spells. Most are not very difficuly, but they
are still fun to play. Finally, there are one-on-one duels,
in which your main character fights with someone. You can
pick from Attack, Defend, and Wild Attack. There's a bit of
luck involved, but you can often figure out what the
opponent will do by what he says, and then act accordingly.
These are even less frequent than the Map Battles.
Magic is slightly similar to the Materia system in FF7, but
is also quite different. Throughout the course of the game,
you can buy and find 'Runes'. These are stones that grant
magical power. Sounds like FF7, right? In order to make use
of these, you need to go to a Rune Master, and have the
Runes attatched to a piece of armor. For example, if you get
the 'Fire' rune attatched to your main character, you will
give him access to three or four kinds of fire spells. You
can use the weakest magic more times than the stronger
magic, before having to recover at an inn. There are many
kinds of runes, each granting the user different kinds of
spells. Runes can also be attatched to a weapon, changing
the way a character attacks.
In this game, you don't buy any weapons. That's surprising,
but I guess it would get confusing if you had to buy
different weapons for so many characters. You do, however,
get your weapons Sharpened at the Blacksmith. Your weapons
start at around level one, and each time you get them
sharpened, they go up one level and become more powerful.
Each upgrade costs more than the last, and there are limits
as to how much you can sharpen the weapon. Most of the early
towns Blacksmiths will only be able to sharpen your weapon
to level 5 out of 16. As you advance, the Blacksmiths will
be more skilled, and can increase your levels further.
Story
The game has a really good story, despite several
translation problems. The game centers around a war behind
Highland and the State. It's difficult to go into much
detail without spoling things, so I'll just leave it at that
for now. There are lots of towns, with many townspeople, as
well. Unlike Lunar, the Townspeople don't have conversations
with your party, but there are still lots of people to talk
to, and they say some interesting things. Most RPG fans
should really enjoy it, overall, especially since it's a
good change of pace from the typical RPG Story. There are
noticeable grammatical problems with the dialogue that are
worse than most other games, though. However, it's really
not that bad or noticeable, unless you're actually looking
for it. Besides, it's occasionally good for a laugh.
Music
The Music is definitely one of the game's best features. To
be honest, I really didn't like it initially. But as I
played through the game, and heard more songs, I began to
really love the music. This is one of the few games that I
would actually be interested in buying a soundtrack for. I
don't even know if one is available, but you get the idea.
There are some problems however. In some map battles, the
music simply does not play. I am fairly confident that this
is a glitch, since I think I recall reading something about
it. It's annoying, because the music in those battles is
really good, and because of this, you only get to hear it in
a handful of the battles. But other than that problem, the
music is remarkable, perhaps as good as some of the classics
we so often talk about, here.
Final Thoughts
I've made it pretty obvious that I love the game. If you
have a PSX, and you like RPGs, I see no reason why you
shouldn't give this game a try. There are so many things to
see and do. And if you like 2D RPGs in particlar, this might
be the one you've been waiting for.
Overall: 9 out of 10
