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!