Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 14

Sorry for the anti-climax, dear public, but I decided not to go into battle right away. I thought maybe it might be wise to just take a little time to explore and perhaps find a few more recruits to boost my forces. Rushing into battle certainly is fun, but rarely the most reliable strategy.

I also think to myself that there's that Pirate's Fortress I keep talking about, and if I don't go there now I'll just keep forgetting and we might miss out on something great. So, the party is adjusted to include our chum Tai Ho, and Kiki teleports us to the fortress. Incredibly, upon arrival, the pirates ask where Yam Koo is. Back we go. Change party members, add Yam Koo, confirm, and back to the fortress we teleport. Ugh! After all that, nothing. All we get is another line of dialogue, except this time addressed to the pair of brothers. Fantastic. What a great way to spend the opening fifteen minutes of today's session.

I spent fifteen minutes backtracking and all I got was this lousy line of dialogue

I then remember there was that girl Lorelai as well, she was at the Kouan inn and didn't think we were tough enough to join. Well, I hope that maybe she'll change her mind and luckily for us, she does. Our first victory of the day is attained. By the way, I'm also now moving super fast on the world map, that's another very handy feature to alleviate the pains of slogging my way all over the place. Well done developers.

A bit of aimless wondering leads me to the Fortress of Garan, that place I'm supposed to be attacking. Woops. Luckily, the guards on duty don't seem to mind my presence too much, and I even run into a recruitable old friend of Teo's named Kai. I appreciate this hasn't been the most successful diversion, but that's two people I've added to my ranks, and now it's back to the castle to fight!

Let's do this!

The battle begins! This time it's our side with the numbers, around seven thousand to their six. For the first round, we take inspiration from our earlier victory, Mathiu is called on to charge up the power and into battle run the Commander's Team. Over four thousand of their soldiers are downed, while we suffer minimal casualties of just over one thousand. A fantastic start. We might even be able to finish them with the next blow!

The thieves are sneakily sent undercover, returning with the news that the enemy plans a volley of arrows, the counter to a long-range attack is a short-range attack and the Lepant Family do their duty. Victory is achieved in two brief rounds, and we end the fight with just over four thousand remaining men.

Victoire!

After the battle, we find our party basking in victory in Garan, Viktor chuckles at the pathetic resistance the imperials posed, and Pahn suggests we continue the attack to finish them off. Mathiu, ever the wise strategist, advises that such a move might be too hasty, and it would be more sensible to order a reconnaissance mission first. After all - and remember this bit, readers - we don't want to run into any traps.

I'll let you guess who decides to screw this up. We are in fact not actually communicating since I'm writing a text alone, but I'll just hope you took a moment to shout out your own inkling at the screen there. Now I'm going to imagine you said "Flik!" and I'm going to agree with you. Yes, Flik. The impetuous little runt who wants to be in charge of everything interrupts our ruddy strategist and orders the troops to charge on. 

That's 5604 souls on your conscience Flik, well done

The Battle at Scarleticia Castle begins and the enemy outnumbers us by five thousand. That's not the problem though, the problem appears when we make an attempt to attack and "Poisonous Pollen" from the roses around the castle fills the air and wipes out nearly our whole force. Bravo, Flik, bravo. Mathiu takes control of the situation once more, ordering an imminent retreat. 

Sanchez then ponders aloud that the recon plan might actually have not been so bad after all, and Flik doesn't even have the decency to apologise, instead deciding to join my party. Personally, if the option had presented itself I would've told him what party he could go and join and where he could stick his sword while he's at it, but the developers apparently overlooked that particular moral choice opportunity.

Gremio's such a good guy

At this point, something a little strange happens. Gremio tries to join the party, as he often does, and Viktor steps in. He tells Gremio to stay; he says Akami is no longer a child in need of protection, he's an army general. Viktor also has a hunch that this mission isn't one that Gremio should be involved in, and that makes me fearful. We then have the option to allow him to come or not. I say option, but in fact the game forces us to allow Gremio to accompany us. I know this because I attempted to refuse him a dozen times and received the same stock responses. 

What I think this means, or rather what I worry this means, is that something might happen to Gremio. This wasn't a choice, and yet the fact that the game made it out to be, and made such a point of Viktor's suggestion that Gremio stay, makes me feel that there's a real reason behind it and I am now very concerned about our friend.

One of the more badass party combinations I've used so far

Shortly after the fortress we reach the village of Teien. I don't actually know where I'm meant to be headed here, so I decide to check this place out since it's the first landmark I've found. An amusing fellow at the entrance tells us that this town has been renamed 'Lac Virginite', it is north of 'Premier L'Amour' and to the west lies 'Bier Blanche'. As someone who speaks a bit of French, I can tell you there are some problems with those names but perhaps that's intentional. Apparently it was the General Milich himself who created these lovely names. We also vitally learn from another villager that a man who lives nearby can create a potion to make the poisonous pollen harmless. Sounds like that's the fellow we're after.

The town turns out to be home to some potential recruits as well, there's a fellow named Eikei, a super tough-looking martial arts master who says we're "about 11 levels" too weak for him. Akami is level 29 so I suppose we'll have to remember to call back here at level 40 then. We also meet an old dame named Hellion who says she owns a rune as well, and would like the chance to look into our future. She offers to join us as payment to have such a luxury. Fine by me. 

Yes! Yes! Oh I could kiss you, old woman!

Hellion then treats us to an item that I will savour with glee for the rest of the game: the Blinking Mirror. It's a delicious little object that teleports us back to The Castle whenever we want! Hot dog! So basically now we have fast travel via Kiki to any location, and fast travel all the way back home via the Blinking Mirror. I love the amount of time-savers they crammed into this game!

There's also a fellow named Gen in the area who appears recruitable and likes boats, but I can't get more than a line of dialogue out of him for now. Next door an alchemist named Kamandol is locked away experimenting. I feel like there's more to come from this place, but for now I can't really do much else and we know of two other towns in the vicinity so it's time to head to Premier L'Amour, especially after we hear word of a pharmacist named Liukan who lives there and makes potions.

Hmm.. I get the feeling we'll be coming back here

We head south and arrive at Premier L'Amour, originally named Rikon. It's a small town, home to an expert appraiser named Jabba who claims he can appraise anything. If we find something he can't find the value of, he'll join our struggle, and I hear word outside that he once couldn't appraise a "Nameless Urn" so we'll have to keep an eye out for one of those. A girl named Lotte searching for her cat inhabits the inn nearby, but other than that Rikon is rather empty. Off to Bier Blanche we go!

Originally named Antei, Bier Blanche is full of villagers who, just like in the previous towns, seem rather cheesed off about this French renaming business. At the inn some men are watching a dancer named Mina who'll join us if we boogie with her. Unfortunately, we have the wrong shoes. Upstairs a girl named Esmeralda is recruitable if I offer her an "Opal Ring". Antei might as well be renamed "Village of Recruits" as an armourer named Chapman joins our forces, and a girl named Jeane in the rune shop nearby says she'll head to our castle once we have a few more recruits.

I've seen Dirty Dancing, let's do this girl!

I have to say, Jeane interests me the most. So far in the game I've collected an awful lot of runes and crystals (which are more or less the same thing) but not had too many opportunities to really organise them and test them out. It'd be fantastic to have someone at The Castle who could provide me with that service, I'd finally be able to test out some rune combinations that, up until this point, the game has dissuaded me from.

We also meet a woman named Kimberly who knows Mathiu, asking us to pass on her regards. So all-in-all, I make that five recruits in Antei/Bier Blanche. However, that seems like all there is in this town, and now I'm wondering where to go next. I expected a scene to trigger or to run into this pharmacist Liukan by now. Where next, I wonder?

"Gee, thanks" always sounds sarcastic, but I'm happy to have my own personal armourer

I recall that this is supposed to be a reconnaissance mission, and perhaps I should make my way to the castle we attempted to attack before. Some brief wandering around the world map later leads us to what I think is the castle, but turns out to be a prison named Soniere. I can do nothing here either but talk to the guards. I find a place called the Northern Checkpoint with identical results.

I really am a bit lost, unfortunately, and I'm sorry dear readers but the post has to end there because I've walked around this place for a good amount of time and can't for the life of me find this castle. In fact, I can't find anything else on this little patch of the map. The only locations it seems I can visit are those that I've already mentioned. Hopefully I won't keep you waiting too long for the next post, but I'll figure this out no matter how long it takes.

I've killed about fifty of these guards in battles but these two are untouchable

Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 13

Off into the castle we go, it's time for Kwanda to pay the piper. The castle has quite a few levels and rooms hidden all over the place so our exploration takes a little time. Normally, of course, one wouldn't wander around opening chests in a situation like this but hey, I like items. Don't worry, we'll get to him soon enough. I'm just as eager for vengeance as everyone else in fact, I didn't particularly like the elves but a guy like Kirkis proves they can't be all that bad, and it's not like the other races have shown much compassion for one another either.

Enemies in the castle are pretty tough but fortunately a girl just near the entrance to the castle offers a free inn service that I take repeated advantage of. The party levels up to around 27, and that leads me onto a slight side discussion of the levelling system that I've been meaning to mention for some time. The levelling in this game is done very, very well and fits perfectly with the rest of the game's apparent philosophy to streamline some of the more traditionally grey areas of the genre.

The connotations of such a question do not warrant discussion

Basically, you have a lot of playable dudes in this game, as you all know. And of course, sometimes you'll leave them behind while you go out questing and suddenly find yourself ten levels ahead of other characters next time you choose a party. For instance, Viktor has been missing for some time and joined me here a good six or seven levels lower than Akami. But what's great about the game is that your exp rewards from battles are massively affected by your current level. So, after literally two fights, Viktor, too, is right up there at level 25, and a battle or two later matches Akami once more on 27! Clever, huh?

Of course, it's a simple system that you see used in all sorts of games these days but for a JRPG of that era, I'm surprised at the inclusion of the feature. The developers seem a decent way ahead of their time. The levelling system is also very simple to follow, you always need 1000 exp to get to the next level, and the game basically seems to rule out grinding by forcing your party to be at the level it decides throughout. For instance, once my guys had reached level 27 in this area, they were earning about 10 or 15 exp per battle, making it more or less impossible to go any further. This is something I've witnessed throughout the game; you'll reach a new area, boost up a few levels, and then reach the cut-off point and have to finish the zone at the level the game wants.

Voilà, the level system in all its glory, I like it. And Viktor, I like him too.

I like that system I must say, it removes tedious grinding, it allows you to freely use all of your characters without concern, even those you've left behind for extended periods, and most importantly it allows combat to retain a challenge. I'm only overpowered in areas I've been to, never those I'm yet to explore. I'm sure plenty of us have enjoyed grinding away in an RPG to godly levels and crushing all beneath your feet, but we'd admit it does take the difficulty out of the game; here in Suikoden, that's not an issue.

Back to the action. Eventually, we work our way up to the throne room of the castle where a dragon of all things is waiting to greet us. Fortunately, this turns out to be another of those boss fights that isn't too much of a boss fight. Maybe this'll change later in the game but so far I'm seeing a pattern of battles a little like this. My lack of runes and magic attacks sort of restricts most battles to a repetition of physical attacks and medicines from time to time. The lack of versatility in combat for now seems to consequentially lead to enemies who aren't incredibly tough, if you see what I mean. I'm confident this will change later in the game as I discover more magic and have more options at my disposal, hopefully I'll be proven right.

His bark is a lot worse than his fire-breath

We reach the roof of the castle where Kwanda is moping over his broken mirror. He recognises us as the son of Teo and invites us to see the strength of the Black Rune he was gifted by Windy. Oh deary me. Suddenly, we fade to yet another screen, it's Akami vs Kwanda one-on-one, but it's not a traditional battle, no, we've got health bars! It's like Tekken or something! Yep, yet another new system the game surprises me with, some sort of duel mechanic. Similarly to the big-scale battles, we're presented with a few options of attack and have to make our choice in what I assume is, again, a rock, paper, scissors sort of affair.

I can choose from Attack, Defend, or Desperate Attack. That's as deep as it goes and I won't go in-depth on the choices I made since it's not quite as tactical as the large fights. Essentially I went for the strategy of "Don't stop attacking" and it all worked out all right. Kwanda falls, I think it might be all over, he's clearly beaten, but maybe the end of this story has one last surprise for us.

Round 1! Fight!

Kuromimi gets himself involved, asking Kwanda to fix those he has "messed up". Kwanda appears bewildered that a Kobold is "still sane" which leads me to imagine he has used his powers to drive the Kobold race mad, leading to those stories of illness that Kuromimi initially told us about. Kwanda's arm then begins to glow and throb with pain through the power of his Black Rune.

He collapses. We awaken him moments later and appear to have risen a completely different man. He seems surprised to see us all there, and invites Kirkis and Kuromimi to take their vengeance on him for it's all he deserves. Suddenly we begin to wonder if he hasn't been under a spell. He asks Akami to take his head, a soldier's death his last request. I'm given the choice to kill him, or express my thoughts that something might be wrong.

Am I a blood-hungry loon or a rational mind?

I'll admit, this was one of the easier choices so far. It's true, he could be faking it all but it just doesn't seem like that. He'd have no reason too either, he asked us to kill him so he's obviously not plotting an escape or begging for mercy. He genuinely appears confused and amnesic. Of course, he killed the Elves and cursed the Kobolds, but we all know the sort of magic Windy wields, and it's far from the realms of impossibility that she has had her part to play in Kwanda's actions. The runes have a dark power that we just witnessed evidence of, and executing a man when we're so unsure cannot possibly be the right course of action.

We voice our opinion, and others agree. Kwanda seems strange. He explains the rune was given to him by Windy, granting him power over monsters, but that it also sucked away at his willpower. He is suddenly alarmed at the thought of Windy being untrustworthy and worries for the safety of the Emperor Barbarosa. He is clearly a loyal servant to the crown.

Pretty much, how 'bout it?

We are then granted the option once more of finishing him, or recruiting him, and again the choice is easily made. He's obviously as innocent as Pahn was, doing nothing more than serving the Empire he trusted and lived by his whole life. Windy is the true villain here. We ask him to join, a proposal he first finds humorous, why would a 10-year long servant to the Emperor join the Liberation Army after all, but after some persuasion from Viktor and the others, Kwanda comes to the conclusion that the Emperor might not be the same man he once was.

He finally agrees to join our cause, pledging his eternal allegiance to the Emperor, but not the man who currently wears his skin. We then head triumphantly back outside where Mathiu congratulates our success and some Kobolds (Kumomimi's mother and brother, in fact) arrive, revealing the spell over their people is broken. Happy days all around. Kuromimi, Valeria, Kirkis, Sylvina, and Stallion all offer their allegiance to the army. Back to The Castle we go!

Check out Akami's sweet pot collection

Inside the castle we go and suddenly "Three Months Later" appears on-screen. Oooh! Always exciting when we see something like that. The castle has changed! We fade back in on Akami in a very nice new bedroom. Taking a wander around our freshly-decorated digs, we stumble onto Flik! He's finally managed to find us, bringing the remnants of the old army with him, along with Humphrey and Sanchez, but is very angry not to find Odessa here. It's about to kick off, I feel.

Mathiu arrives, introducing himself as Odessa's brother and lead strategist of the new army. We assume he's about to lie and cover up his sister's death once more, but apparently not as he reveals the truth. Flik is immediately distraught and reacts with anger, asking how on Earth we can all follow a leader like Akami, who could never replace Odessa. Humphrey and Sanchez leap to our defence, saying we've done a pretty good job so far, but Flik reacts in exactly the sort of petulant child manner you might imagine, storming out in a "You guys are stupid!" way.

Woah woah woah! Woah! Is there any need for such language?... Dick.

He says he's going to an inn in Kaku and disappears. Sanchez attempts to comfort us, revealing that Flik was just very close to Odessa and must be taking the news of her passing poorly. That's basically what I'd gathered myself, I haven't liked Flik's attitude from day one, he's always seemed to think of the army as his exclusive club and rarely been welcoming to newcomers, but I understand the death of a woman like Odessa must hit him hard.

Viktor wants to go and have a talk to Flik, and Mathiu suggests it's not a bad idea at all; if we can convince him to join us and bring the rest of his army with him then we'll have a mighty fine force at our command. So it's decided, off to Kaku we shall go, but first it's time to do a little more exploring of the castle and take a look at the new changes.

Do you really need to ask , game?

The 3rd floor has been redone as a bit of a market, we've got Rock's vault, Maas and Meese as blacksmiths, and of course, Sansuke with his baths. We decide to take a bath. I fall in love with the game just that bit harder. I don't know what the point of this, if there exists a point, is, but it's brilliant. Just me and Viktor soaking in a steamy pool. Every lad's dream come true. It only gets better as a menu then pops up asking me "What you gonna do?". Options include "Placing Antiques" (I have no idea) "Exit the bath" (No way) or "Continue to View" (my personal preference). 

After a long soak, we move on. The party is formed of Akami, Viktor, Stallion, Cleo, Juppo, and Kwanda and equipment is sorted out. Last time I feel I was using a very melee heavy party, so I'd like to give this more balanced team a go. My three tough guys of Akami, Vik and Kwanda up-front while the others cast spells and fight long-range from the rear. 

Oh yeah...

So the new castle seems cool, huh? Baths, blacksmiths... well it's about to get better in the basement! We head down, seeing that girl Kiki, the sorceress who randomly appeared on our way to the Elven village. You remember how she appeared? I said at the time it seemed like teleportation, didn't I? Well guess what she can do?! Oh yeah she can teleport us! As if this game couldn't get any nicer, it throws in fast travel. We can now teleport to any area previously visited. Even places like that Pirates Fortress I found ages ago and must remember to return to with Tai Ho sometime. Cowabunga.

Anyway, off to Kaku we teleport. Luckily for us we stumble on a girl named Meg who is in fact the niece of Juppo! His presence in the party triggers a scene with her and she gets recruited! That was very cool and does indeed confirm my suspicion that certain recruits will become available depending on my party make-up. We also meet a fellow named Sergei in a bar who says he's invented an elevator that he'd be happy to show us. Guess the castle's getting a life. Just have to say I love this system of developing the castle like that, recruiting people to have your own shops and new features there, it's a really addictive sort of mini-game feature and I can only imagine how The Castle might end up.

Again, do you really need to ask?

In the basement of the same bar we meet a one-eyed chap named Gaspar who offers to join if we can beat him in a game of dice. We oblige, another recruit for the army. Time to go and see Flik now, and he's not hard to find as his men are all over the place. He's holding out in a small house, and apparently is rather upset. In we go.

Flik has calmed down a little, he doesn't have the politeness to apologise or anything, but he says he had his own responsibility for Odessa's death and can't blame us. He won't accept us as the leader just yet, but he'd like to join forces. I'm cool with that for a start, I know you'll bow to me eventually Flik *evil laugh*. Back to The Castle again! Oh boy we've got an elevator!

One more, do you really need to- okay, no this time you do need to ask

Speedily ascending to the top floor through the technical innovation of Sergei, we go and have a group discussion with Flik. He explains that after the hideout at Lenankamp was attacked, he escaped to Milich's domain in the west. Milich is one of the five great imperial generals (in which our father Teo also has a role). Flik attempted recruitment in the area, hearing word of our castle and decided to visit. His plan is for us to unite our armies and liberate Milich's domain. Mathiu is all for it and I'm presented with the option to send the troops out once more!

Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 12

Let's do this

Welcome, friends, to a very special instalment of Let's Blog Suikoden. Things are about to get mighty wild indeed. You'll remember, of course, that part 11 ended with the blaring of warhorns and the charge of horses as battle with General Kwanda Rosman was announced and the Liberation Army began their march. Little did I know what this declaration of way would actually entail in terms of gameplay.

You may remember of course that I (Akami, rather) am general of this army, and perhaps I should have realised that, as a general, I was essentially in charge of military movements. Of course, I knew that I was head of the army but could not have expected the gameplay ramifications of such a role. It turns out, I'm actually in charge of military movements. Quite literally, no sooner has the title screen introducing the battle has faded away when suddenly we're treated to a view of the two armies preparing to engage.

Conceit!

As you can see in the picture, each side has a life tally and I'm presented with a variety of options to attack. I'd originally assumed the large-scale battles would play out with traditional Suikoden combat but oh no, Konami went and snuck a bit of military strategy into this bad boy. You'll have probably noticed Kwanda has a 9000 strong force whilst we're slight underdogs with a little under 6k. This had every chance of going poorly.

Kwanda exchanges insults and manly boasts with Kirkis and Mathiu at the outset before suddenly the fate of almost six thousand warriors is placed into my hands. I'm going to give you a little summary now of every option I had available, I'm sorry if that's dull and you'd prefer not to know, but I feel it's vital to convey just how this battle sequence actually plays out and personally I find it very interesting.

Mathiu remains calm even in the face of this awesome new part of the game

At the initial menu I'm presented with four options: Charge, Bow, Magic, and Others. Others sounds the most exciting, right? So I check that one out first. This takes me to a sub menu where I select which "Others" I would like to use. Here, I see faces of those I have recruited and am able to use their talents. Krin and Giovanni appear as "Thieves" with the ability to sneakily check the enemy's strategy. Our only other "Others" option for now is Mathiu the "Strategist" who can charge out attack power.

Moving onto "Magic", we have Luc under the banner "Children of the Runes" and Kiki representing "Magicians", each of them have a particular attack strength and naturally it appears that as I recruit more people, each of their teams will fill-up. "Bow" fall naturally on Cleo and Camille below the heading "Soldier Beauties", Kirkis as one of the "Forest Protectors" and Kumomi my first "Kobold". "Charge" is where I have the largest variety of options for now, and my strongest attack with the trio of Akami, Gremio, and Pahn, the "Commander's Team". We're also got the "Lepant Family" of Eileen and her husband, and I won't list them all but basically everyone else (Tai Ho, Viktor, Valeria, etc). 

Here's an example of a Charge team, the Black Golds, made up of Maas and Meese with an attack power of 11, simple enough? Good.

I hope that explanation combined with the pictures gives you some idea of this whole new game system of which I was previously completely unaware. Having obviously completed the battle, I can tell you that it runs on a sort of rock, paper, scissors format. I choose one of my many teams to take action, the enemy does the same, and we watch the results of the round play out. Each team can only be used once per battle, so we have to choose wisely!

I'm a bit of an indecisive strategy fan and took my time over the opening gambit. Akami's charge group is the strongest offensive option at my disposal, but I wondered if I should save that particular ace up my sleeve. In a conflict like this, the classical opening play is a volley of arrows and I considered ordering the Soldier Beauties to rain down fire on my enemies, and I equally wondered if my Thieves might be able to find out some valuable tactical info for me. 

Do please note the little halo-wearing souls floating away there

Decisions, decisions, but ultimately I decided to start the battle with my strategist. Mathiu boosted our attack power, and offered a recommendation as to my next action, suggesting I utilise Akami, Humphrey, or Lepant. Luckily for me, Mathiu's action doesn't even use a turn so I then follow his advice and send in the big guns early. The Commander's Team charge headfirst into battle with a boosted attack power. We watch the battle play out as dozens of miniature soldiers hack away at one another, sending the souls of their victims floating to the heavens.

Success! Well, more or less. The enemy forces are reduced by a staggering four thousand men, whilst we suffer the still substantial loss of around two thousand. Onto round two for which I call on my finest archery team of Camille and Cleo. The enemy was preparing a magic attack but we catch them off guard and unleash a torrent of arrows. Kwanda's army loses another two thousand men and I chuckle as our numbers remain unscathed. Genuine success that time. The fact that we did such damage without taking a hit makes me believe in a roshambo system behind the battles, or perhaps I just got a lucky hit.

Here's an example of a bow attack

After two decent attacks, we're in a fine position. Our approximate count of three thousand outnumbers the enemy's tally for the first time in the battle, and I sense we're on the cusp of victory. Battles can change in a heartbeat however, so we have to choose carefully. I remember a vital piece of information; I still have my Thieves! Krin, don't fail me now! I send them in to gather intel and they report that the enemy is preparing a bow attack. If there's any sort of counter for that, it has to be a charge, right? The Lepant family gather their courage and steam in.

Victory! The enemy were far too busy preparing their bows to expect such a direct attack, we take a loss of around one thousand brave souls but wipe the battlefield clean of Kwanda Rosman's forces. Our army has unfortunately been reduced to just under two thousand, but considering the numbers each side started with, this has to go down as a triumph. The elves are very nearly avenged, but now it's time for Kwanda. Unfortunately for us, Mr. Rosman has one last trick up his sleeve.

Oh bugger, how could we forget about his evil doom mirror that incinerates entire forests?

The Burning Mirror! The scene cuts to Kwanda who prepares his ultimate weapon. Mathiu urges everyone to disperse to reduce our potential casualties, but it's too late. Kwanda prepares to strike, his destructive device primed to obliterate all in its path when suddenly, the mirror is shattered! Guess who's come to the rescue? The dwarves! Along with their Windfire Cannon (wasn't it Firewind, last time? Guess they felt a renaming was in order). 

Regardless of the name, the combined forces of wind and fire have been unleashed and Kwanda is helpless. A party of Akami, Gremio, Viktor, Valeria, Kirkis, and Kuromimi head inside the castle to take his head. 

Viktor, I'd follow you into the bowels of hell

The progression segment of today's post ends there, but I'd like to take this occasion to give a little retrospective on Suikoden so far and talk more about my feelings towards it. The idea of the Let's Blog was not just to chronicle the events of the game but to add my own personal touch to proceedings and I feel that's been lacking thusfar. I'll attempt to insert more of my opinions as we continue, beginning here with a brief overview of my opinion on the game.

First, I have to comment on what I've recounted here in this post. This battle sequence was very unexpected and I really enjoyed the surprise. I look forward to future battles and can only begin to imagine the scale increasing as my army grows. Sure, it's not the most in-depth strategy sim of them all, but I've only played one clash and each decision felt important. And that's something I've felt throughout my time with Suikoden, choices you make have weight to them, and there are an awful lot of choices in this game!

Choices galore

With such a large amount of characters, choosing a party is a regularly taxing affair requiring a great deal of consideration, taking into account that certain members might trigger certain scenes only adds to the gravity of the choice. The moral decisions have thus far been brilliant, with each requiring reflection. Even the equipment menu has choices galore as we decide who should be given the power of each rune, what element should I use to power up this weapon, and how on earth should I spend what little money I have on improving my dozens of characters?

I love choices in games and that doesn't just refer to life or death, Mass Effect-style morality issues. No, I mean choices in general. Character selections, inventory management, variety of attacks, dialogue options, etc. Suikoden is full to the brim with choices like these and I think that's a big part of what keeps it fresh. The fact that every time so far I've left the castle I've taken a whole new group of characters with me is something I can't commend enough. Indeed, the thought of returning to a standard JRPG with only six or seven party members seems somewhat bizarre to me for now. 

Old friend...

Overall, I'm impressed by pretty much every aspect of the game. Despite its simplicity, I find the plot gripping and I'm attached to an incredible amount of well-developed characters. I feel the combat of the game is handled very well, along with the levelling system that appears to have been designed with minimal grinding in mind. In fact, a great deal of the game appears tailor-made to remove a lot of the issues people tend to have with the genre. The next step of the quest is (nearly) always made clear, backtracking has so far been kept to a minimum, and the presence of guys like Rock help to make party management a smooth process.

Thus, so far I'm loving Suikoden and remain eager to pursue its adventure. I already enormously enjoy the JRPG genre, warts and all but here I feel a lot of intelligent design has been employed to clear up a few of those blemishes. The story and world are top-notch, there's plenty of humour, drama, and even romance to keep us moving, and I'm yet to find a genuine complaint I can throw Suikoden's way. All of these compliments, and I haven't even mentioned The Stone Tablet of Promise! In brief, the game is a quality product and I hope I continue to be just as impressed as I play on.

Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 11

The Village of the Dwarves! Simple name for a place with a cool look and more of an industrial air than what we've been used to seeing so far. Arriving at a new village means repeating the ritual of entering every building and chatting to every chappy, so that's just what we do. We encounter racism amongst the dwarves just like the elves, albeit a little more of the light-hearted variety. Dwarves seem more obsessed with talking about how badass they are rather than focusing on the flaws of the other races. 

We even encounter a bit of a dwarven Dr. King who observes "We hate the elves and the elves hate us, it's always been like that but nobody even remembers why." We also learn that Kobolds are known to be lackeys to the Empire (or at least that's the way the prejudice swings) and that they have attacked the dwarves in the past, much to the victims' bewilderment.

'So-called "humans"'? I really don't know whether that's an insult or not.

We hear word of a blacksmith who has come to learn from the dwarves and head to locate him. He's a fellow named Meese, wearing similar attire to the similarly-named, previously recruited Maas. They are, in fact, good buddies and Meese decides to join our cause upon hearing of his friend's alliance. If this means I now have a couple of fellows back at the base to help me sharpen weapons and attach rune fragments, I'm very pleased indeed.

As is tradition, one I've finished scouring a new village, we head to the big house at the top, presumably containing the head of the town and the next story beat. Lo and behold, this is the home of the chief of the dwarves. He's surprised to see humans and elves arriving hand-in-hand, and even more surprised to hear a "proud elf asking a lowly dwarf for a favour". 

Can we borrow your sweet hat?

He's heard of the Burning Mirror, he might well have done for it's actually a dwarven invention! He doesn't believe that Kwanda could have stolen the blueprints, for the dwarven vault is too-well guarded. Valeria at this point reveals that a man named Kage stole the plans (remember him!? Ninja-looking fellow we met shortly before Odessa's death, he took our blueprints as well). Chief still isn't interested, saying if we want to prove that their vault is insecure, we should try and break into it ourselves. Maybe he'll believe us if we can nab a "Running Water Root" from the depths of the vault. 

Okay. Great plan. Now at this point I feel Akami should be ready to smash some heads and stop taking everyone's crap but we do really need these dwarves on our side so let's go and steal from them. The vault is just north of the village, we head inside and go down, down, down some stairs. Eventually we reach a room with three levers. Uh-oh, puzzle! At least that's what I thought, but no, actually, I just pulled all of the levers in some random order which opened the way out. Maybe I got lucky, maybe that was the easiest puzzle in video games. We'll never know.

Super Secret Solution Guide: ... pull all the levers.

Down, down, down we continue. Another big room greets us, this time it's a maze. We explore the whole thing to find some cool chests, a crystal that replenishes HP, and eventually the way out, and down even further. Another puzzle-looking room awaits us with floating platforms. We have to stand on the right ones in order to be transported across a chasm to the far side. It's all rather simple though, you can tell this place was designed by dwarves, not the best thinkers.

Down and down we go once more, must be miles below ground by now. Another maze greets us, but it's simple enough to navigate. We then come to a genuine puzzle, albeit still a basic one. A large rune sits in the middle of the room, "fiddle dee diddle dee piddle dee doo" carved upon it. Not quite the Oscar Wilde level of poetry one might hope for when examining an ancient stone monolith miles below ground in a treasure-filled vault, but again, these are dwarves.

Just to prove I wasn't making that up

Behind the rune are two buttons, each of which produce a simple tone and, when pressed in the correct order, illuminate a sequence of lights which will open the exit. You know the drill, if you hit the wrong button, all the lights go out, you just have to memorise the order and it's simple enough. With that, I'm onto the next room, around a few corners and OH LORDY WHAT IS THAT?!

A huge monster takes us by surprise, it's name: Gigantes. It has the appearance of two bodies sewn together, one-half a Zeus-type of character, the other half a purple, demonic creation. From time to time Gigantes will flip upside down allowing the demon to unleash fire-based attacks, otherwise Zeus will hit us with the physical. Now, I admit I was terrified at the beginning of the fight and this enemy certainly is an imposing presence. But he's really not that tough. My level 25 party, and recent investment in a ton of dwarven armour for everyone results in a very manageable battle. 

Tough look, tough name, but he's a pussycat really

After a battle that had the look of a boss fight but never really played like one, we head further down the corridor and through another door to finally receive the Running Water Root. No, I don't know what it is either. Who cares though, we've robbed the dwarves! Unfortunately, they never thought to install some convenient secret elevator for any thieves hardy enough to make it this far, so now we have to walk all the way back. Fleeing from every battle makes the process a little faster but backtracking is rarely fun.

Eventually we make our triumphant return to the chief, who maintains his end of the bargain and believes our story. He says the Burning Mirror is indeed dangerous, but can be easily destroyed with another dwarven weapon: the Firewind Cannon. Nice guy that he is, the chief commissions the building of such a cannon immediately. We decide to start back for the elven village to report the news, this time they must believe us!

Someone forgot to use sun cream

Just when we think the tide has turned and things are looking up, reality brings us crashing brutally back to Earth. On the dwarven trail, heading back to see the elves, we catch sight of the forest in the distance. The forest is ablaze. We're too late. We hurry back as quickly as we can, but are greeted by nothing but ashes and the charred remains of the trees we had climbed only hours before. 

Kirkis is devastated, he produces a ring from his pocket and reveals he had planned to marry Sylvina. He tosses the ring to the ground in frustration, realising all of his efforts have been in vain. Gremio attempts to raise the spirits of our new friend, handing him back his ring as a symbol of hope that must never be abandoned. Kirkis accepts and appreciates his gesture, but the mood remains melancholy.

Always the voice of reason, our Gremio, or is it naivety?

The only choice we have for now is to return to the castle, with an eye to building a strategy and taking revenge against Kwanda Rosman and his army. We must avenge the elves and destroy the Burning Mirror before Kwanda can cause any more trouble. Arriving at the Kobold village however, another unexpected scene awaits us. Kuromimi is there, surrounded by guards on all sides. We're very quickly surrounded with him. 

Valeria attempts a bargain, offering herself as prisoner in exchange for our freedom. Despite our attempts to stop her, she believes it to be the only choice we have. Of course, these slimy guards have no intention of keeping their side of the deal, and no sooner have they taken Valeria away than they're ordering our death. Kuromimi joins the party and we fend off an initial wave, but will clearly struggle to survive against overwhelming odds. There are too many guards and it's been too long since we had a chance to rest.

Kuromimi is one tough mother

Just when all appears lost, our saviours arrive. Mathiu and some recruits of the Liberation Army burst onto the scene to save our bacon! He reveals that, soon after we left the castle, some of the old army guys like Humphrey and Sanchez (we met them at our first encounter with Odessa and our introduction to the rebels) arrived to inform Mathiu about Kwanda and the mirror. Joyfully, Sylvina runs into the scene, embracing her love Kirkis and recounting the way that Stallion (speedy elf) saved her. 

Thanks to the additional manpower provided by the old Liberation Army, Mathiu reveals we have enough strength to challenge Kwanda Rosman's army and suggests we take the battle to him right away. He asks for the order to move out. What do I say? Hell yeah Mathiu! The Battle of Pannu Yakuta Castle is about to begin!

What kind of yellow-belly would ever choose the second option!? Screw strategy, forget rest, let's fight!

Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 10

We've got an elf in our bed named Kirkis, it looks like he swam the whole way here to The Castle. By the way, yeah, elves are in this game. I didn't quite see that coming, of course it's a fantasy RPG and all, the sudden appearance of the genre's most popular pointy-eared race shouldn't be all that surprising but I was slightly taken aback. Anyway, as you might expect, he brings news!

Kirkis asks to speak to Odessa, he's redirected to me and asks for our aid. It turns out the evil Imperial General Kwanda Rosman has plans to exterminate the elves. I offer our aid but Mathiu believes our army isn't quite large enough yet, instead he suggests we send a small reconnaissance party out to see what's going on, and then decide on some appropriate action. I concur with our strategist and Kirkis joins the party, pushing Juppo out (I'll use him eventually, promise!). 

With a name like that I can't blame him for being angry

What happens next is a true gift from the heavens; Kirkis gives us directions! Woo! His village is on the far side of the Great Forest, which is located southeast of Kouan. I realise relaying the specific instructions to you is useless, you're not playing the game and don't need to know the literal direction I'm heading in, but I'm so damn pleased to finally have a bit of navigational help that I'm telling you anyway.

We head off across the world map, battling through hordes of those cute squirrels you saw last time. It turns out Varkas and Sydonia do indeed have a fine unite attack, and Kirkis is a decent archer. We arrive at a village on the edge of the forests where people are all up in arms at the sight of an elf. Kirkis wants to avoid any fuss and suggests we take the secret elfin trail up ahead as quickly as possible.

I'd prefer if you just straightened out our weapons, to be honest

However, I'm in a new village and can't help but explore a little first. I quickly check out the local establishments, recruiting a fellow named Maas in the weapon sharpening shop and a guy named Sansuke, a self-proclaimed "expert on baths" in a house nearby. I recruited him based on this knowledge alone, if there's one thing we need back at The Castle it's a bath expert.

Pretty quickly we find ourselves on the trail, encountering peculiar little enemies named Holly Boys that mostly tend to flee from battle, along with Kobold warriors, a race that appears to be a cross between raccoons and dogs. Halfway along whilst minding our own business a girl teleports in out of nowhere, her name is Kiki and she doesn't know where she is: recruited! I have to say our recruitment policy may be a little ridiculous at this point, any expert on baths or random teleporting potential psycho gets in without the minor interview process, but whatever, we need the numbers.

Hey, random, confused, teleporting girl! Join my army! 

We eventually pass through the forest, reaching a village at the edge of the trees that turns out to be the home of the Kobolds! They're not around, except one named Kuromimi who arrives and angrily appears to blame us for the disappearance of his brethren. He speaks in a rather cutesy way, mentioning an illness and his friends being taken away, it's not entirely clear what happened but we'll find out in due course I'm sure.

We proceed to the Village of the Elves, a village amongst the very treetops themselves. Our entrance is immediately soured as we witness a human woman named Valeria being insulted and taken prisoner by the elves. She appears to have good intentions, warning them of a potential attack by the General Kwanda, but the elves are too proud to accept the help of a human. The forest is her home as well, she doesn't want to lose it but her attempt to appeal to the elves is in vain.

They don't exactly bring out the red carpet and cigars for humans in this village

We're then given a chance to talk to the locals and witness some classic fantasy racism. That little show of prejudice we were treated on our arrival wasn't a unique occurrence; elves really hate humans and they're not afraid to show it. An innkeeper requests we don't soil her rooms and the owner of the item shop refuses to sell to humans, for instance. Kirkis seems friendly though, it's a shame he's in the minority.

After looking around and chatting to everyone, something that has gone from an act of mild interest to a veritable necessity in my quest to ensure I don't miss a single recruit, I head to the big house at the top of the village where the woman Valeria was taken to be imprisoned. Inside we meet a girl named Sylvina, who I'm assuming is the girlfriend of Kirkis from the way they interact, and also the granddaughter of the village chief. I don't have the best feeling about talking to him, but we give it a try.

Sorry, this picture sort of spoils the events of the conversation, but what did you expect?

Kirkis relays his journey to recruit the assistance of the Liberation Army, explaining that we, too, fight against the Empire and can help to protect the village. As expected, the old fellow gets angry, responding that elves don't need any human help and the lot of us should be locked up in the dungeons as well. Not wanting to cause trouble, we submit to arrest.

We're placed in a cell with Stallion, an elf who runs exceptionally fast, and Valeria, who reveals she was an imperial soldier but betrayed her superiors to warn the elves. Her efforts, as we saw, were in vain. She explains that Kwanda Rosman has developed a destructive weapon known as the Burning Mirror, wielding the power to incinerate entire forests with ease. 

Pessimist

Luckily for us, Kirkis has some contacts and the youthful Sylvina arrives to talk to him. She asks why he cares so much about humans, to which he replies that all this hatred between Elves, Dwarves, and Humans is bizarre to him; he doesn't understand why we all can't just get along. Sylvina struggles to understand, but says she wants to believe the same as him. To that end, she reveals the key to our cell and lets us out. Kirkis, seeming more and more like an elven John Lennon, decides the best next course of action is to head to the village of the Dwarves, that other race that hates us all, and ask for their help.

Our escape from the village goes off without a hitch, and just before entering the world map Valeria joins the party, sending Varkas home for now. I didn't want to break up his award-winning combination with Sydonia but Gremio is immovable and I like Lepant too much to drop him. Sylvina bids her love farewell, asking him to promise he'll return, which he does as they share a kiss.

Those are the Kobolds, a name which has its roots in Germanic folklore, I don't think they were sword-wielding raccoons in said folklore but I'm no expert

We head across the map to the dwarven trail, a mini-dungeon with some tough fights! The game seems to have really stepped it up with the enemies recently, they often hit me for a good 30% chunk of life. Luckily Valeria turns out to be a fine fighter, she has a Falcon Rune equipped that gives her a super powerful attack which appears to have no penalties whatsoever. It has unlimited uses and no visible side effects, so she has the advantage of being able to take out an enemy in a single blow most of the time. Two random battle notes: this game has same sound effect for using a healing item as Persona's 3 and 4, and I earn so many thousands of bits for each fight that those cup-game days seem like child's play.

We eventually run into the Kobold Kuromimi again, who appears to have just visited the dwarven village seeking a cure for the illness affecting his people, but was turned away. He says he won't give up, and still seems angry at our group for some reason, there's a bit of a mystery there that I'm sure we'll uncover soon. A short while after this encounter, we reach the Village of the Dwarves.

See, there the Kobold looks (and sounds) more like a dog so I don't know what to believe