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