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.