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.