Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 8

Today's journey involves new playable characters, the thievery of a sword, and a whole lot of sailing. Let's jump in when we dropped off, Leknaat has arrived! And she comes bearing gifts! Two gifts, one of which is her little buddy Luc! He arrives to help out our war effort and I'm glad to see the small chap return, he seems to be an excellent magic-user and I'm sure he'll come in handy.

The second gift has a name that implies such power and standing I feel it deserve its own accompanying theme tune or spin-off iOS title. I give you The Stone Tablet of Promise! The Stone Tablet of Promise (yes I'm writing that out in full every time) is where all the names of the friends we recruit will be carved for eternity; an everlasting monument to the sacrifices and struggles of every individual in the New Liberation Army. No, it's not just a rock with a list on it.

Thanks for putting that into "other words" for me Mathiu, I was lost

Her gifts delivered, Leknaat mysteriously teleports away once more, leaving all those in the castle super hyped and ready to go to war! Mathiu says that now we've got the castle, the next step is to fill it up with an army, and the first ideal recruit is a guy named Lepant in the town of Kouan. Please note well that he did not give me any directions to this town, or even the slightest indication as to its location. Just bear that in mind as you continue to read.

Anyway we went for a rest and woke up in the morning refreshed and ready to commence our recruitment drive. First however, I and Gremio headed over to chat to Luc; I was glad to see him here and wanted to see what he brings to the team. It turns out he guards The Stone Tablet of Promise, and offered us a closer inspection of its greatness. The Stone Tablet of Promise indeed features a list of names of all those we have recruited so far, along with all the empty spaces of those still to find. And there are a lot. 7 "pages" of 14 names each, that makes 98 in total maths fans. Each name is accompanied by a "Star" as well, but I'm not too sure what that indicates.

Behold!

After our brief examination of The Stone Tablet of Promise, we go and talk to Mathiu to learn more about this Lepant. Mathiu lets us know that if we tell Lepant he sent us, we'll have no problems. Mathiu has essentially gone from the moodiest, most depressive character in the game, to this hotshot "Tell 'em Mathiu sent you!" wise guy. Now that's character development.

Viktor and Cleo arrive to join the party and then we are given the wonderful opportunity to choose the final two members of our team! Our old friends Camille and Tai Ho are in the pool of potential players of course, but they're joined now by Yam Koo and Luc! This makes me wonder how the party will progress, do I always have to stick with Cleo, Viktor, and Gremio? I don't necessarily have a problem with that, but choosing only two characters from a group that looks set to rise exponentially will become more and more difficult. 

I reckon I'll spend quite a lot of time selecting characters in this game

I decide to go with Luc and Yam Koo, the former because I feel like he'll become one of the best magicians in the game (if he's not already) and the latter just to try him out. Having a look at their stats reveals Yam Koo is a bit of an all-rounder, while Luc does indeed have an exceptionally high magic ability, but bears a short-range weapon meaning he can't directly attack unless I put him in the front row (did I mention there's formation in this game? You have a front and back row of three guys each, front takes the bulk of the damage so it's wise to stick the magicians in the back, however some characters can only attack from the front row). 

We then went on to explore our new digs a little, went over a pretty bridge with some lovely parallax scrolling of the landscape beyond, explored a rather nicely-decorated tower and finally visited the dungeons. The castle is certainly vast and I feel like we'll see it change more as its population increases. Finally, we jumped in the boat with me at the helm and set off for Kouan. Unfortunately, as you might remember, we don't know where the #@!% Kouan is.

My house has its own bridge

At first I was all excited to be controlling the boat. "Water, thou art my mistress!" I cried as the bow cut through the depths. Very soon however, I came to realise I had no idea where to go. As far as I'm aware (I hope I'm not being an idiot here) there's no map in the game, at least not one that pops up with any button press I've tried. The world is pretty darn big though, and these two facts combine to cause some problems of navigation to say the least. 

I'm not going to bore you by recounting the thirty or so minutes I spent sailing around in circles, I'll just give you the more interesting highlights. I discovered two towns named Teien and Shasarazade, both of which were guarded by Imperials denying us entry, and I also found a Pirate's Fortress. This was interesting as I entered and spoke to some pirates who recognised Yam Koo, asking where his brother was; perhaps if I return here with Tai Ho in the party an event might occur? We'll find out at some point. 

Excuse me, swirling vortex of water, could you direct me to Kouan?

After a silly amount of time had been wasted on these maritime escapades, I decided to go to the only town I could, Kaku, and travel by foot from there to see if perhaps Kouan was, in fact, not a port town. Turned out Kouan is literally 5 seconds walk south of Kaku, just to make me feel that much more stupid about my "diversion". I miss the earlier stages of the game when everyone would literally tell you for instance "Hey, for your next mission, head to that place directly east of here". Nowadays they expect me to just divine locations by their names apparently. Although I'm probably just being ignorant, there's probably people you can talk to who give you some indication but I just ran past everyone in my hurry to try out the boat.

Anyway, we made it to Kouan and do indeed have a chat to some people. We hear word that Lepant is a good guy, but is currently hiding out in his home since the new military commander arrived in town. We ask to meet him but his servant Giovanni confirms the townsfolk's chatter; Lepant will see no one, and Giovanni has no idea when that will change. There's another home guarded nearby, presumably that of the military commander, and we can't get in there either.

Well I'm glad you find it so funny

At the inn, creepy Krin (we have actually met him before, I posted a picture of his face back in part 4) has a plan for us to see Lepant, who apparently has taken to his solitary lifestyle through his wish to not get involved with the Empire. Lepant supposedly has two loves in his life: his wife Eileen and his sword Kirinji. We're going to steal the latter, which will force Lepant out of hiding and into conversation with us. Krin's got a plan and asks us to meet him outside.

Before leaving, we chat to another man/woman (I genuinely can't tell, he/she is too androgynous to be sure) named Lorelai (so you'd think that's a woman, right?) who we are given the option to recruit! However, she (yes, I'm going with she) refused, saying she won't hang around with "weaklings". So I suppose this means not every single one of these 98 names on The Stone Tablet of Promise is necessarily going to involve a mission of their own; seems like we'll just bump into certain people and can ask them to join, perhaps having to fulfil certain conditions to attract them. I suppose I'll come back at a higher level or with a tougher party for Lorelai in the future.

Oh I didn't realise this was the "Only Jerks Allowed" inn

Anyway we head out where Krin instigates his contribution to proceedings; throwing a rope over the tree alongside Lepant's house; now we can climb up and break in through the roof. Gee, thanks Krin, couldn't have managed that without you. Anyway we break into into this guy's house, which begs the question: why not just go and talk to him from here? Breaking into someone's house to steal something to break out out of the house to wait for him to find out to come and find you and then to give the object you stole back and finally talk to him seems a little more complex than breaking into his house and talking to him, but maybe that's just me.

So, yes, broken into his house which is apparently populated by robot samurai that I have to battle through a small army of. On the way we meet a slightly bizarre fellow named Rock who we recruit! We recruit him simply by clicking the recruit button, so it does indeed seem as I suspected that not every recruit will involve their own specific quest. I don't know whether Rock will be a fine fighter or what he'll bring to the table, but I'm already in that "Gotta catch 'em all!" mood as far as recruitment is concerned. 

I'll just put that into context for you: he wants to build a vault in our castle

Lepant's house is basically a dungeon, there's enemies, chests, a little puzzle where we have to sneak past the line of sight of robots in order to reach a special treasure (a counter crystal). There were some tough fights but, as with the other dungeons in the game, it was over reasonably quickly. I ran into a fellow named Juppo the Trickster, another thief who claimed to have created something, but to be honest his dialogue was a little too confusing/badly translated for me so I didn't quite understand but I felt like he was warning us about a large enemy in the next room. I presumed it would be a boss, it turned out to be a giant roulette wheel.

Yes, indeed, that giant roulette wheel there. We stood upon it, it span, and we enjoyed the trick or treat upon which it landed. At first it landed on the same treasure spot three times in a row so I got some free medicine, and then I had a few more goes, realising I needed it to land directly upwards in order for me to cross the room. It didn't take too long, a few battles and bits of free experience later I made it over. Through the next doorway was Kirinji, which I nabbed and bolted for my rooftop exit.

Weird thing to have in your house, ain't it? Good burglar protection system I suppose though

Back at the inn, Krin congratulated us on a successful mission by offering... some tea. Oh no, no, no, not falling for that one again buddy! Viktor suggested Krin try the tea first and we quickly saw through his plan. He was planning to use the Robber's Tea and take the sword from us, he also alerted Lepant as to our location, and right on cue in bursts the victim of our thievery.

Lepant looks a little like a Village People He-Man, if I'm honest, but he's obviously a tough guy. He charges us to the inn demanding the burglars return his sword, we fess up but quickly mention Mathiu which changes Lepant's tune. He says he'd like to help us and we return his sword, and then boom again! In runs Giovanni (the servant, for those who forgot) to make his master's day even worse with the announcement of a second robbery! This time it's Eileen! Lepant's wife has been taken by the new military commander. 

See what I mean?

Here comes today's big cliffhanger announcement so hold on to your hats and other items of clothing that have a chance to fly away with excitement. We head outside, following a very angry Lepant as he heads to the military commander's house where the guards reveal that Commander Kraze isn't in the mood to see anyone. Yep, that guy's back! We'll see him next time.

Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 7

Hello once more loyal Suikoden followers, oh how this game is becoming more and more addictive! This'll be a shorter instalment than usual but only because my last playing session involved a lot of combat; there's still some huge story developments to bring you up to speed on! Yes, we got a castle! And here's how...

First we arrived at the village of Kaku, exploring a little, chatting to a girl named Meg, chasing an amusing-looking cat, and hearing word that the only guy brave enough to brave the monster-ridden castle went by the name of Tai Ho. In our quest to find the reckless maverick we stumble upon a girl named Camille (this game seems to like French names, no?). Camille is a debt-collector, and she's more than a little eager to collect... from Gremio.

Some might accuse her of taking her job a little too seriously

Yes indeed it turns out our sage servant has chalked up a bit of a tab and the feisty Camille reckons it's about time he paid-up. Unfortunately, we're a little short on cash but tall on guys who can smooth-talk their way out of any situation; Viktor sorts it all out. He suggests that Camille hold off for a short while until we meet up with Tai Ho, we'll get her money after our business with him is concluded. The debt-collector goes along with the idea, goes along very literally in fact since she decides to join our party.

Soon afterwards, we meet up with Tai Ho; he's got a bit of a samurai air about him and turns out to be something of a gambler too. He'll be risking his life to sail us to the castle, so he'd like us to tempt fate ourselves with a game of dice. We enter into his gamble, playing a game with rules that Tai Ho takes an age to explain, but it turns out to be rather simple. Essentially we throw three dice into a cup (yes, cups again, Suikoden loves 'em) and the highest number wins. It is more complicated than that but explaining the rules would be dull so I'll just let you use your imagination.

Well I've got another hour free so sure Tai Ho, break it down for me

Lady luck is on our side and we win the round (and 1000 bits), Tai Ho's impressed and runs off with his little brother Yam Koo - a man whose entire face is covered with his hair - to prepare their boat. We head out to join them and sail off to our future castle. It's not the most attractive home in the world; a tower of rock floating upon the lake, covered in an eerie mist (is mist ever not eerie though, to be honest?).

It's a spooky place but we need to clear it out, and Tai Ho decides to join our efforts (8th playable character so far, if my count is right). My 6-man team heads inside, where the mist has even penetrated every corridor and stairwell. Haunted suits of armour and spear-wielding fish roam the castle and we have our struggles dealing with them as we ascend. These are the first enemies I've met that do indeed take a few hits to go down, and hit for some nice numbers themselves. Luckily we'd stocked up on medicine and didn't have too many problems.

Looks pretty defensible, no?

After a few floors of fights and chests, we officially reach the Castle of Toran and see the large empty rooms that make up the castle proper. We follow the stairs down until eventually we meet this fellow...

Tai Ho, this is no time for one of your planking photos

"Looks like this one's the boss" wonders Viktor aloud and damn right he is. The zombie dragon is no joke whatsoever, hitting the entire party for huge damage. This was by far the toughest fight I've encountered so far in the game. Gremio was the first to fall, and quite early on as well before I'd really settled into a rhythm of battle. I soon resorted to the time-honoured tactic of "One round of attacking, one round of healing". By the way, there's no revives, tufts of phoenix down, or spells that can bring characters back to life (at least not yet) so once Gremio was down he was down and I had to be very careful to keep the rest alive.

Another thing worth noting; everyone has their own individual inventory in this game. It's a cool idea I find, and results in you doing a little bit more micro-management prior to big battles like this, making sure everyone has got a few stocks of medicines to use should the need arise. Unfortunately Camille ran out rather quickly and was stuck on constant attack, which meant one of my guys couldn't be healed. Tai Ho has a poor defence rating and so was the next to fall. As usual, thank God for Viktor, his clone super attack was hitting the dragon for nearly 200 damage, and big Vik has around 300HP so could easily survive a couple of the enemy's worst hits. 

Camille really is one angry little treat

Thus, the pattern of healing and attacking continued until eventually the dragon fell, and those who survived were rewarded with a nice couple of levels. It was a tough battle but I wouldn't describe my victory as slight or lucky; what I'm trying to say by that is that so far the game has required no grinding and long may that continue, but finally now I am beginning to experience some true challenge in the combat.

Upon the dragon's death, the mist littering the castle lifted and we were deemed the new owners! What do you do when you own something? You give it a name! Thus we had the cool opportunity to grant a title to our newfound home. Dragon Castle, White Castle and Akami Castle (Gremio's idea, typically) were suggested by our friends, but after much deliberation I went for "The Castle".

Naming complete, the screen fades to black and suddenly the whole gang is gathered together for a little celebration in our new, much brighter now the fog has lifted, castle. Mathiu calls this the founding day of the New Liberation Army, and plans for a banquet are beginning when suddenly BOOM! Or rather "Poof!" or some equally magical sound effect: out of nowhere appears Leknaat. Remember her?! I'll give you a day or two to jog your memory and let you know what she's up to next time!

Oooooh! Mystery! Suspense! Drama!

Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 6

Well, well, well, here we are again. A Christmas instalment of Suikoden - Season's Greetings by the way - and it's a big one. Remember last time? There was an injured man lying outside our base in Lenankamp. Well, turns out he was attacked by the Imperials, and they broke into the secret base! You think that's bad? Things were about to get a lot worse.

Yep, just having a lie down thanks

Odessa instantly ran off to see what was going on, with the rest of us following behind. We battled our way through the soldiers, eventually reaching the end of the base where Odessa has been injured saving a young boy. It turns out her injury is fatal. I couldn't believe it to tell you the truth, Odessa and Akami had just shared that scene at the inn where seeds of romance had been sown and the leader of the Liberation Army had opened up and shared her feelings. A brief journey later and we're forced to watch her slowly pass away.

Odessa has two last requests: the first is that we take her earring to a man named Mathiu in the village of Seika, and secondly we should throw her body into the stream running along the base. We fulfil the latter (this isn't shown on screen) and head off to grant her remaining wish. Before she passed she also advised us to keep her death a secret, as the symbol of the revolution it would be a huge hit to morale if the world found out the truth. Unfortunately, rumours spread quickly and it's not long before I hear a few villagers chatting about Odessa's mysterious "disappearance".

Even in death she remains immeasurably modest and kind-hearted

Getting to Seika involves passing through the Fortress of Kwaba, this is essentially a gate occupied by imperial guards and their commander Lord Ain Gide, who is supposedly a friend of Teo's. The game must have expected players to be downhearted at this point and so threw in its finest moment of humour thusfar as we reached the gates. 

In order to sneak through the fortress it was decided that we would invent some false names. Gremio suggested he be Roi, Cleo went for Maria, and Viktor, as usual, stole the show with his fantastic pseudonym: Schtolteheim Reinbach III. When the game then offered me the chance to invent my own alter-ego, throwing up the options of Masamune, Piisuke... or Schtolteheim Reinbach IV, I officially fell in love with Suikoden, and naturally chose the final option.

One minute we're mourning the death of a character, the next we're chuckling at the hilarity of another

Gremio and Cleo - oops I mean Roi and Maria - weren't too impressed with mine and Viktor's behaviour, but we were settled on our names and headed into the fort, only to spotted by guards immediately. Akami attempts to hide his face but the guards already feel they've recognised him and call Ain Gide for confirmation. Who should then leap into action but Gremio! He improvises magnificently, chiding Akami for "looking like a fugitive" and "always getting us into trouble". 

Luck, or perhaps something else, was on our side as Ain Gide arrived and allowed us passage, telling his guards that the son of Teo would never be disguised as a beggar like that. As we pass on by, he calls after us "Sonny, take care of your father." suggesting that he knew who we were all along but has a shade more autonomy and wisdom than many of his imperial colleagues. I feel like we'll see him again.

We're lucky Ain Gide was in charge of this place

The other side of the gates we meet an odd one-eyed fellow named Chandler, and Gremio offers his most sincere apologies, and his own head in payment for the manner in which he treated Akami to get through the gates. Naturally, we let him off and continue our travels to Seika.

Upon arrival we have a talk to the locals, including one man who tells us Mathiu lives up some stairs. We ascend to a large house-cum-school where a few students are discussing their 'Master Mathiu', a girl wants to marry him while a boy complains about the amount of homework he receives. We quickly realise that man outside who gave us directions was in fact Mathiu himself and head out for a chat with him.

He seems very miserable, calling Odessa foolish for getting involved with the liberation, refusing the earring, and requesting that we leave. Of course, we're a bit too persistent to give up that easily, following him to his house where he again tell us to bugger off. We head back out to the town to discuss amongst ourselves what a jerk this Mathiu is, when suddenly guards push past us on their way to the school.

We head back up the stairs to see the guards surrounding Mathiu's place, holding one of the children hostage as they demand Mathiu return to work for them. It turns out he was a war hero, a doctor in the imperial army in fact, and they need him back. He's not interested but when the guards start throwing around threats against the child, things begin to get a little darker. That's when we jump in.

There's a South Park reference here for fans

We beat up all the guards and Mathiu promptly goes to have a sulk in his house. He's not the sort of character you immediately feel attached to, but I'm still prepared to give him a chance. We go and talk to him again where he recognises Akami as the son of Teo, and reveals that Odessa was actually his sister. Long story short, he's upset because of an argument they had a long time ago where she called him a coward while he said he'd prefer to be a coward than watching others die from his actions.

So it turns out he's not such a bad guy, he just lost his way a little after a tough life. He decides that now is the time to turn that around and vows to help us. He still doesn't accept the earring however, preferring instead to give it us in the process of - big story beat coming up folks! - naming us the new leader of the Liberation Army! Woo yeah! Cheering, applause, good vibes, etc.

With that pretty huge deal out of the way, our plans for the army begin! Mathiu suggests we head out and find recruits, people who are fed up with the way the Empire is running things, victims of corruption, the dissatisfied masses basically. First, however, we need a HQ and not just any old HQ but a tough one! The sort of place that can withstand an attack from the army if it comes to it, something like a castle, perhaps. Luckily Mathiu knows just the place and our new quest to get our own damn castle begins with a trip to the village of Kaku nearby.

Look what I can do now!

p.s We got some new abilities finally! Akami is now able to use the Soul Eater's special power 'Deadly Fingertips' (bloody cool name I know) which is essentially that supermassive black hole ability that Ted used on the Ant Queen all those years ago... Meanwhile Gremio now has a water rune that gives him a cure spell, whilst Viktor has been equipped with a clone rune granting him a single heavy-damage attack that unbalances him after use, akin to the ability Pahn had with his boar rune (all those years ago). Combat's evolving!

Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 5

Monumental news my friends: I moved on from the mini-game. Oh yes, in fact I moved on quite a bit, a lot has happened that I'll share with you in this post; things are heating up in every sense, the story is moving along faster, and I'm excited to be going along for the ride.

After an excessive amount of time spent following cups, I proceeded on towards Grady's house, 40,000 bits better off than before. We arrived at the sneaky governor's gates, spotting Varkas and Sydonia tied to poles out the back. Unfortunately, a guard was blocking the entrance and wouldn't let us in. Fortunately, we have Viktor. The new hero of my party said he'd handle things, disappeared off the screen, and moments later a guard is running around like a headless chicken yelling "The governor's house is on fire!" Problem solved. Gremio typically doesn't approve but that's how Viktor does his business.

Oh that Viktor!

So we went inside, battling guards along the way to the back door. We're more than a match for everything Grady has to throw at us, and reach the exit. Varkas and Sydonia are naturally not too pleased to see us, assuming we're here to gloat or make them suffer, but we explain the misunderstanding and set Varkas free. Sydonia promptly performs this teleport-type thing where he instantly frees himself, it turns out he was able to escape the whole time but didn't want to leave on his own.

We charge our way back through the house, bumping into Grady on the way and threatening the coward into retreat. He says he'll tell Kraze about all this, more or less destroying the slimmest of hopes we might have had of returning to the Empire, surely. We head out to the edge of Rockfall, where Varky and Syd give us their thanks and bid us farewell. I do hope we'll see them again and in fact I wish they'd join the party; Sydonia's teleporting skills would come in useful I'm sure. 

You can tell Varkas had been thinking of what he'd like to do to Grady

Afterwards, by suggestion of Viktor, we head back to Lenankamp to report to Odessa and see what's going on. She's thrilled to see us and has already prepared a second mission; some blueprints for fire spears have arrived, the sort of thing that will be vital to the war effort if ever the Liberation Army raises the numbers to attempt a coup and do battle with the Imperials. What we need to ensure the blueprint is delivered to their secret factor. At this point, discussion breaks out amongst the group. Gremio is naturally all "Woah woah woah! We're respected members of the Empire, not rebels!" but Akami (me) decides that this life of resistance is more his sort of thing.

Thus, we offer to help out and Odessa herself decides to come along for the ride, joining the party in fully playable form. We head out of Lenankamp, over the river to the west and into Mount Tigerwolf, the treacherous mountain we're forced to cross in order to reach our destination. Here we encountered some marvellous enemies I have to say, and the names themselves are all you need to see why: Giant Snails, Killer Slimes, and Slasher Rabbits (saved the best for last, there). 

I wish people in reality greeted my arrival with such enthusiasm!

Halfway up the mountain we discover an inn (odd place for that, huh?) where a creepy little chap named Ledon offers we spend the night. Viktor and Gremio are shattered, and despite Odessa and Cleo's claims of endurance, they're pretty tired themselves, so we decide on the rest. Inside, Ledon offers us some special tea, and despite my consistent attempts of refusal, the game literally won't let you continue until you drink the obviously poisoned beverage. The guy was creepy as anything, living in an inn halfway up a mountain, and insisting we all try his "special brew", how many more indicators of poisoning do these people need!? 

Anyway we all wound up having a sip, and subsequently fell unconscious, after he's taken his typical villainous chance to let us all know that what we drank was known as "Robber's Tea". Luckily for us, Ledon's boss Kessler arrives and recognises Odessa, promptly chiding Ledon for being so foolish as to poison the head of the liberation army, of which they are evidently supporters. Kessler orders an antidote to be prepared, and we are soon back on our feet. Despite this rather hostile welcome, we wind up staying the night anyway, and uneventfully leave in the morning, pushing on through the mountain and finally reaching the village of Sarady.

No. No. No. No. No... Okay fine!

Sarady is the smallest village in the game thusfar, consisting of very little more than an item shop and an inn. I'd just like to interrupt the train of thought for a moment to mention the village music by the way, it's fantastic! If you've got a bit of spare time I would really recommend a listen to some of the Suikoden soundtrack, I'm loving it so far. Anyway since there wasn't much else to do, we went to the inn where we were supposed to meet a messenger, and settled down for another night.

In the middle of the night came a scene I certainly wasn't expecting, Akami woke up and went out onto a little balcony where Odessa was suffering similar insomnia. She instantly opened up to us, talking about all the pressure she was under to succeed, the lofty expectations she feared unable to satisfy, the comfort she felt in our presence. Apparently Akami has the sort of eyes that draw people towards him, and exudes an unparalleled compassion. Personally, I was not at all expecting that Odessa would reveal such interest in our young hero, but it was a nicely-written scene. 

Odessa: Liberation Army Leader and Love Interest apparently

The flickers of romance are interrupted by the arrival of a god damn ninja. Yeah, the messenger we were waiting for turns out to be this total badass named Kage, who has been sent by Mose, head of the secret factory. Odessa gives him a little test to ensure he's genuine, displaying her level-headedness and leadership skills, before handing over the blueprints. Kage disappears into the night, and our work is done.

In the morning we head back across Mt Tigerwolf towards Lenankamp, it was during this leg of our journey that I realised we have the ability to instantly run from any battle with no penalty! So that's a pleasant surprise, and quite ahead of its time for the genre. Random encounters thusfar have posed no problem for me, they're not frequent enough to annoy, and battles themselves barely last more than a round or two, lending a nice flow and rhythm to the gameplay. 

Suikoden is replete with fantastic translated phrases. "You can't handle that weapon son!"

I'll just mention another few random notes about combat while I'm on the subject. With the money I earnt from cups I've upgraded everyone's weapons to level 5, and equipped a few with runes, which appears to have made a nice difference, everyone is hitting for decent damage and the elemental effects are on show with their own animations. I'm still trying to figure out the rune system however. Remember I equipped Gremio with a Holy Rune? Well, he still has no rune move in battle so I wonder if perhaps there's a level limit or runes are designed for specific characters. Akami likewise has no special move despite having the "Soul Eater". Still learning.

Anyway, we arrived back at Lenankamp and headed to the inn where - get ready for the cliffhanger folks - someone is lying injured on the floor, and that's where I left it for now, but fear not, I'll be back soon and we'll find out who this poor, wounded chap is and what on Earth happened to him. I'm more eager to continue the story than anyone and can't wait to see what happens next. 

Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 4

Well it's a shorter update today folks, want to know why? Voilà:

Big Hit!

We'll get to that later, let's pick things up with the plot. The party arrived at Lenankamp (that southern village we were on our way to) and Viktor wandered off to make some arrangements. Sage, old Gremio doesn't trust him, but my confidence in Vik has remained steadfast. We had a little look around the town, found our first weapon upgrade shop and boosted some stats. It turns out you find rune pieces sometimes and these can be attached to weapons to grant elemental damage, thus my boy Akami now has a lightning staff.

Eventually we made our way to the inn and hung around a while waiting for Viktor... but Viktor doesn't show. Gremio naturally leaps onto this opportunity to slander our new-found companion, suggesting that he's just another traitor like Pahn. When guards show up at the inn looking for fugitives, we might've been tempted to believe him but then! A wildly oversized clock in our inn room moves, revealing a secret stairwell down which a girl named Odessa urges us to hurry. Guess who sent her? Viktor!

Personally, I wouldn't stand that close to this guy, especially after he said that

It was a close call, in fact we were seconds away from being discovered by the guards, so hardly the soundest plan in the world but it's the way Vik operates and I like it. He knows how to walk on the wild side. And when you're a member of the rebel army, flirting with danger is in the job description. Yes indeed, Viktor and Odessa turn out to be part of what they call the Liberation Army. Odessa's a bit of a Marianne figure, leading the way with Viktor, an androgynous youth named Flik, and a couple of other guys present in their underground base. 

Our buddy Viktor would like us to join forces, but Flik's against it since there's reports of a spy amongst the ranks, and Gremio agrees it's too dangerous. Cleo thinks the idea sounds pretty interesting, and we're given some time to think it over. Upon conclusion of our brief chat, an injured battles falls into the base; he's from that mountain we tore through earlier, and reports that his bosses Varkas and Sydonia - remember them? - have been captured and left to starve by that sneaky Governor Grady!

Under the clock! What a sneaky, sneaky place to hide your secret passage!

Odessa, who appears to be a very righteous leader, wishes to help the bandits. Out of guilt, we admit to our involvement in these events, and offer to go and save the day. With that, we head out of Lenankamp and make our way back across the map to the poverty-stricken, cemetery-centrepieced village of Rockfall to save the fellows we just got done capturing a day or two before.

That's where today's story progress will have to end unfortunately ladies and gents because, as previously alluded to, I got myself lost in this bloody "Find the coin under the cup!" mini-game that allows you to double your money. In fact, more specifically it allows you to make infinite money, as far as I can tell. You bet either 100, 1,000, or 10,000 bits, receiving double back if you pick the right cup. The movement of the cups naturally becomes way more rapid and complex the more you bet, but even at 10k level it's quite easy to follow the coin.

All my money!

The girl who gives you the chance to play this game is right at the entrance to Rockfall, so I am at the city, and once I've gotten tired of making some bits I'll move on with the story but for now I've had to take advantage of this. I blew over 10,000 bits on those wing boots for Cleo I told you about before, so this is a fine opportunity to make some money back. Then there's all the equipment I'll be able to buy, the weapon upgrades I can afford, etc. I don't want to go and cheat the game though, so I won't be sitting there making millions, just a bit to keep me going. I'm a little astonished that the developers introduced such a simple money-making mini-game so early on. I'm not kidding here or trying to boast my "Follow the Cup" skills: it really is that easy. (EDIT: Okay, I've gone back in and played the 10k one a few more times and actually, no it's really not that easy, think I had a bit of beginner's luck because now it's quite difficult indeed but the 1k one is still mighty simple! So for me this is still an infinite money trick, just a time-consuming one.)

Anyway, in terms of what's been going on I think it's fair to say I haven't made too much plot progression but what I have done has been very interesting indeed! The existence of this underground army makes for some very exciting prospects and the story is well on course to begin heating up very soon. Our father Teo's name has been mentioned once or twice as well, and perhaps we'll have to head up north and see how he's doing soon, or maybe our next step will be attaining full membership of this secret rebellion. We'll find out soon! I'll leave you with a little shot of our potential new friends the Liberation Army:

Well your parents must have cared a little bit, "Odessa"

Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 3

Hello again Suikoden followers and boy do I have some exposition to share with you. Things have gone down! They've even gone up! They've gone around, under, over, things have been moving in pretty much all directions in fact. We left off last time about to face this:

Even scarier on the battle screen, isn't it? And where did those little guys come from!

So we got into battle and at first, everything was going alright. I ordered three of my guys to take out the little ants, while the other two, Gremio and Pahn, used their special 'Unite' attack on the queen. As soon as the ants were eliminated, the queen raised her hand and another three fell down from the sky, but no enemy managed to attack me in the whole round. 'Right' I thought, 'No point focusing on the little guys, let's take out the queen!' I ordered everyone to attack her; we didn't do a lot of damage at all, but I hoped that perhaps she didn't have many hit points. Then boom! She unleashes a devastating attack on my entire party, taking out around half of everyone's health. I heal up a little, and decide to focus on the ants again; quickly realising that if I take out all the ants in a round, the queen has to use her move to bring them back and thus cannot attack me. Before I can get too cocky however, the screen fades to black and we're out of the battle.

The party attempt to strategise amongst themselves, fearing that we have reached an impasse. Out of nowhere, Ted suggests he try something. At this point, we're given the option to encourage him or try and talk him out of it - I should mention briefly here that yes, this game features dialogue choices, however I've tried saying "No" a few times and it's just one of those situations where the game asks you again until you eventually choose the option they want, so no real game-changing moral dilemmas just yet I don't think. Thus, we tell Ted to do his thing, but I couldn't possibly have predicted what would happen next. Our little friend walks up to the giant ant queen, enters into battle and unleashes a damn black hole that wipes her off the face of the planet. Turns out he's got a few secrets, that Ted.

But! There's no time for him to explain any of them because we're instantly moving onwards. We soon track down the presumed bandit leaders, Varkas and Sydonia, a couple of fellows with impressive two-tone hairstyles. We fight them in a very uneventful and straightforward battle, and capture them. However, once we bring them back to Rockland, the plot begins to thicken. Sneaky governor Grady - head of that town that has a lot of money problems, don't forget - gives us a 10,000 bit (currency name) reward. Kanaan quickly nabs this of course, as you can see in the humorous image below. What's interesting however is that Varkas is astonished at the 'tax thief' accusations, suggesting that Grady is the true villain around here. Unfortunately we don't hang around any longer to find out, quickly heading back to Gregminster (our town and the capital of the Empire, don't think I mentioned its name before).

Who saw that coming?

Upon arrival at Gregminster, things begin to take even more unnerving turns as Ted is suspiciously taken away by Kanaan. We do a little shopping, where I bought Cleo some 'Wing Boots' which cost almost all the bits I had obtained thusfar, but give her +14 defence and a speed boost, which is all very good indeed, trust me. Speaking of Cleo, remember that fire rune she had equipped? Well, it must have levelled up or something because now she has a new one-use spell 'Firestorm' which obliterates entire groups of enemies in no time. Still learning how this all works but it seems like perhaps runes upgrade and level up with use or experience or at least something like that.

Anyway, enough about that, back to the story. So we head home and await Ted's return, but he's certainly taking his time. Our hero is just about to head out looking for him when there's a knock at the door and in falls Ted. He's quite severely injured, but we manage to get him into bed where he's able to briefly tell us what happened. He was taken to the palace where he met with Windy, the court magician. The pair apparently know each other from 300 years ago (!) and Ted is evidently fearful of Windy, whom he calls a witch. That black hole Ted summoned? It turns out it was from a rune he'd been keeping secret, but not just any rune, this is one of the 27 True Runes, which obviously sound rather important. More specifically, Ted is the holder of the 'Soul Eater' rune, which Windy has wanted for a very long time. Rather than handing it over, Ted used its powers to escape and that's how he wound up in such a state. His story over, our friend loses consciousness.

At this point, the party have no idea what to think. Pahn wonders aloud if we should turn Ted over to the guards, while Gremio immediately jumps to his friend's defence. Cleo, often the voice of reason, suggests we wait to make any decision until after Ted has awoken. Pahn then leaves to 'get medicine' (can you imagine where this is going?). Ted eventually wakes up once more, discussing a little more about his rune, and that Windy has been searching for it for years. He's hidden all over the world for 300 years to avoid giving up the rune, but now it's time for the Soul Eater to change hands; Ted gives it to our hero, warning that it might bring us harm, but we're the only one to whom he can entrust it. Immediately afterwards, we hear commotion downstairs and I'm sure you don't need a hint to guess what's happened.

You might do a fine imitation of a certain Street Fighter, Pahn, but you're not a good liar!

Yes, Pahn has alerted the guards and arrives with a small troupe, along with that jerk Kraze. They want Ted and they won't leave without him, naturally believing him still in possession of the precious rune. Our poor, unfortunate Ted hands himself over as bait, telling us to escape while we can. The hero, Gremio, and Cleo head out through a secret exit in the kitchen, into the rainy night where guards block every exit from Gregminster. Our only option is to hide it out in the local inn. We spend the night up in the attic, and head down in the morning only to bump into a couple of guards, who recognise us as the wanted fugitives. Luckily, a friendly intervener named Viktor, who was dining at a table nearby, jumps to our aid and talks the guards out of their suspicions before smuggling us out of the inn. 

It turns out Viktor isn't an entirely noble good Samaritan, he actually only interfered to get out of paying the bill for his meal, which obviously only endears him to my heart. I originally really liked Pahn, he was a badass in and out of battles but he's already been forgotten and replaced with the witty Viktor. The previous of course spoils the fact that he does indeed join our party; after escaping the inn, he offers to smuggle us one step further - out of the city - in exchange for meeting 'someone'. Fair deal, I thought, and Viktor joined our entourage. His crafty plan to escape from the city is in fact rather simple, he bribes one of the guards to leave his post for a few moments; the craftiest part of all is revealed afterwards as he admits the bribe was in fact stolen from Gremio. We all enjoy a chuckle at these events - apart from the unfortunate Gremio, of course - and head south to fulfil our side of the deal!

What a loveable rogue

And that's where we leave things for today. A lot has happened, Ted's fate remains unknown but I'm not holding out a great deal of hope, Pahn has betrayed us but I doubt it's the last we'll see of him, and the most amusing character thusfar has joined the team. On top of all that, we're wanted fugitives and our job with the imperial guard has gone out the window. This appears to be where the real Suikoden starts - to borrow half a Dark Souls expression. Who are we going to meet in the southern village of Lenankamp? What will become of our party? Is the Emperor in on all of this? Until next time mes amis. 

Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 2

Welcome back folks, today's update will be rather brief in terms of progression but long on impression, I wanted to talk a little about the characters I've met so far and how I'm finding the game in general, but first let's continue the story. Oh and I've taken the time to nab a few screenshots to decorate these articles and hopefully give you a better impression of the game. Enjoy!

That explains the crystal ball and blue fire

So we left off having beaten that rock elemental 'boss' outside at the end of the forest. We were then invited into the castle to meet Leknaat, the astrological magician we had been sent to talk to for our first little quest. She had some interesting prophecies for the hero, perhaps a subtle warning of things to come. She handed over the 'Astral Conclusions' we had been sent to collect, along with a Fire Crystal that granted us our first bit of magic, and her little minion buddy Luc used his own magical powers to teleport us back to the beginning of the forest, where we jumped on the dragon once more and returned to the castle.

We reported to Commander Kraze who responded in typical jerk fashion that he'd been "sick of waiting" for us, but commended our heroes for being "not totally useless". He was accompanied by the amusing and portly Kanaan, a man whose exaggerated features wouldn't look out of place in the latest Professor Layton village. Kanaan then joined our party (although not in playable fashion) for our second quest; to head to the nearby town of Rockland and inquire about their overdue taxes. Here we get our first taste of the world map, which is... well it's a JRPG world map. It's exactly what you expect. A rather oversized avatar moving across a mass of fields and forests. It's worth noting though that random encounters, at least from what I experienced so far, appear very limited when exploring the world. I even ran around a little while just to test it out and could easily run around in circles for at least twenty seconds before a battle. 

What? Don't you grow as tall as a sequoia whenever you leave a city or landmark?

So, turns out the unfortunate Rockfallians (alright, I made that up) are living in pretty awful conditions. I arrived at the city and talked to the townsfolk, hearing nothing but misery. The centrepiece of the town is a graveyard, which more or less smothers subtlety in its crib. The town is obviously going through a rough time, and a brief conversation with the fellow in charge leads us to discover that a villainous troupe of bandits, hiding out in a mountain nearby, are the source of the trouble and consequently the overdue taxes. The smooth-talking town governor Grady suggests that since we, a band of imperial warriors, have showed-up, we can easily pop over to the mountain and take these bandits out. We agree and head right off to settle the matter.

Our little team of fighters reach the mountain and head into its labyrinth of caverns. We open some chests, we fight some enemies, we indulge in a traditional JRPG dungeon until eventually we reach the traditional large boss room. In the centre of the room is, well, this:

Sorry, we must have taken a wrong turn somewhere!

That's where I stopped for the day. I'm sure that thing isn't as tough as it looks, at least I hope not because I haven't particularly been grinding yet. We'll find out in the next instalment that will hopefully consist of more than "Oh God that boss was actually really difficult, I've done nothing but die repeatedly!"

With the storytelling out of the way, I'd like to talk about how I'm finding the game so far. Put simply I'm enjoying it a lot, the ride has barely begun but I feel like Suikoden hasn't fallen into the classic trap of having an immensely slow, dialogue-heavy opening. They've set the scene, and continue to do so, but the narrative exposition is balanced very nicely with proper gameplay. There are plenty of games in this genre that would've barely granted you the autonomy to tilt the analog stick and walk across a room after this length of play, that doesn't make them any worse and indeed some of my favourite role-playing games begin at a snail's pace, but it's refreshing to see one that breaks the mould a little. To be able to say after such a short amount of playtime that I've already had the freedom to battle, shop, explore the world map, and encounter a couple of bosses is a pleasure.

The characters have already been nicely established too, they're all a little cliché - there's the tough guy who uses his fists in battle and always seems pissed off, the level-headed respectful girl, the demonstrably naive adoring fan of our hero - yet their personalities have already begun to come across through a minimal amount of dialogue. Now and then the party share a bit of banter and personalities clash, and so far it's made for some humorous little moments. This is the very early stages of course, but you can see where the game is heading and I look forward to seeing a little behind the visage of each of my party members. For now we're all excited, starting our new work and heading out on quests, but maybe when things get a little more serious (which I have a hunch they might) it'll be interesting to see how these people react. Will Ted, the boyish bow-user who seems over-the-moon just to be in the same room as the hero, suffer under the pressure of what's to come or will his loyalty hold firm? Will Gremio, our timid and prudent guardian maintain his promise to Teo that he'll protect us, or will his sensibilities get the better of him? I'm already excited to find out.

I had to include an image of Kanaan's face, for obvious reasons

Combat has already begun to evolve as well, I've learnt a little more about how things work through talking to villagers. I've vowed to avoid all online tutorials and faqs and help of any kind during my playthrough, I'm going to figure out the way this game works by myself so it might take a little time before I understand everything. So far I'm of the understanding that runes and crystals allow us to use magic or advanced abilities, once equipped to a party member. I'm not entirely sure how this works and what the limitations are however. I equipped Cleo, one of my long-range fighters, with the fire crystal I obtained. This allowed her to use the spell 'Flaming Arrows', but only twice. She still has the crystal equipped but can no longer use the spell in battle, which makes me wonder if perhaps there's some sort of recharge system, since there appears to be no mana or MP in the game (at least so far). My characters have hit points and hit points only. 

Pahn, my other character who has a rune, is able to use a completely badass super attack where he jumps up to an enemy and unleashes the sort of punch-kick combo that you might have seen Chris Redfield employ on a boulder or Ryu on a car. However, after he's unleashed his fisticuff fury, he becomes "Unbalanced" and unable to attack. The conclusion I logically draw is that, since the game chooses not to employ an MP system, they need to limit the use of special abilities and magic in some other way and so each of these super moves comes with a price to pay. As I continue to point out however, I really have barely begun the game and have a very small pool of knowledge from which to surmise such theories. I'll learn more as I go and I'm confident that Suikoden has a lot more to show me.

Seems a little bit of a mismatch, no?

The lack of an active time battle system is also a comfort to my remarkably methodical (read: slow) mind. It's nice to simply plan out a round of actions and watch it unfold, I think this sort of system acts as the ideal complement to the way JRPGs play, and while the ATB of FFVII was certainly a fine innovation it's nice to go back to a time when turn-based combat was even slower than that. I liken it to the way in which we appreciate games like XCOM and Shadowrun Returns these days, we're not at all looking at the same sort of depth and tactical nuance of course, a battle in XCOM is miles ahead in terms of strategic-planning than what I'm experiencing so far in Suikoden, but the idea of having your little group of guys and taking the time to plan out each of their moves has always been appealing in a very different way to real-time combat.

I've not spent much time on it yet but I'm having a good time with Suikoden, it's keeping my attention and I'm eager to push on. Indeed I want to get back to it so much that I'll have to end this here and go fight that big bug thing. Wish me luck and I'll see you in the next post!