Suikoden II - Review

By: CLOUDBOND007

Review Breakdown
Battle System	9
Gameplay	10
Music	9
Originality	8
Plot	9
Replay Value	10
Sound	8
Visuals	8
Difficulty	Easy
Time to Complete	20-50 hours
Overall
Criteria

A cast size bigger than Fantasia

   This game, Suikoden II, was recently released for the PlayStation. Made by Konami, it is a sequel to the original Suikoden, which was also released for the PSX years ago. This is a really elaborate game that you'll probably remember for a really long time after completion. Well, let's just get to the review.

   The battle system in suikoden II is pretty interesting. Random 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 use in battle 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.

Familiar Faces Return

   Suikoden II's Gameplay is what really makes it amazing. 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, but basically, you always have a large number of characters to choose from. Far more than in almost every other RPG on the market. 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. Simply trying to find all of the characters is a difficult, but rewarding task.

   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. 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. Even comparable to some of the all-time great game soundtracks.

   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.

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.

Combo attacks deal more damage or special effects, but most have downfalls

When you enter battles, things are seen from a perspective similar to that of 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.

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 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.

   Well, sound effects are pretty good, too. There isn't any voice acting, which can either be viewed as a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what you like. Most of the sound is really just what you would expect. If you cast a powerful spell, you'll hear what sounds like an explosion.

Simple, but beatiful, scenery

   There really isn't all that much FMV in the game, either. What there is is not that impressive, but isn't what I'd call bad, either. The overall look of the game is usually rather bright, despite the war-time story. The graphics, while 2D, are used in some really excellent ways, and are simply beautiful throughout most of the game.

   I really didn't find the game to be very challenging. There are some points during the game where you might have to do a little leveling up, but for the most part, you can just go from place to place without too much difficulty. Most of the challenge comes from the boss fights. There are a few that are rather tricky, but for most RPG Players, these will not be any problem at all.

   The length is actually fairly difficult to judge. It depends on what you decide to do when you play, and how you decide to do it. If you want to simply beat the game, and nothing else, it will probably take between 20 and 30 hours. If you want to try to find every secret without any assistance, you can probably add another 10 or 20 hours to that. This is not a short game, by any means.

   Suikoden II has a lot of replay value. Because of the fact that there are 108 characters to find, as well as sub-quests and hidden items, you might find yourself replaying the game immediately after you first finish it. that is what I found myself doing, and rather than getting tired of the game, I actually found myself enjoying it MORE the second time. That really is a good indication of how great this game really is.

   As for originality, it does a lot of things similar to the original Suikoden, but basically improves on them. The Suikoden series also shares many characterisitics with the average RPG. I wouldn't consider it to be very original, but I also wouldn't fault it for that.

   So, in conclusion, I found Suikoden II to be one of the best RPG's out there. Probably one of the best I have ever played. It excels in almost every category, despite the occasional minor flaw. I highly recommend it to any RPG fan who owns a PlayStation.