Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 17

It's time

Teo has 14,000 men. They're wearing better armour than ours, they're carrying larger weapons than ours, and they're all on horseback. I don't like the look of this. Teo calls us traitors as the battle begins, vowing that he won't stop until even his son has paid. I begin to suspect he might be wearing a black rune like the others.

To begin the battle, I notice we've got a new 'Others' option in the form of the 'Ninjas' who perform the same task as the 'Thieves' but with a 100% success rate. Lovely stuff. I send them in and Kasumi reports back that the enemy is planning "Armored Cavalry". What a terrifying message to receive. I begin to suspect that the battle might simply be a bit of a formality as I attempt a magic attack, followed by a charge, doing literally no damage whatsoever to Teo's forces as he shreds through mine like a knife through butter.

Oh no! Run, run away!

Very quickly retreat is ordered, but Teo sends some of his officers after us. At this point we see that they weren't riding horses in fact but rather some variety of beast not too dissimilar to the Tauntaun's from Star Wars. Anyway, they're chasing us down and yet again the writers decide this is time for a heroic sacrifice. Pahn steps up to the challenge, saying he'll hold them off while the rest of us escape. He maintains this isn't a suicide mission and we'll see him again, and I stupidly have to believe him.

We bid our brave buddy farewell and make good our escape, the camera however remains on Pahn as Teo and his friends Alen and Grenseal catch up with him. Our friend stands his ground, going so far as entering into a duel with Teo in order to prove that his loyalty and to amend for the first time he let us down with Ted. I have to play this duel, and it's a rather uncomfortable experience. Pahn lands a hit on Teo which barely does the tiniest fraction of damage, Akami's father responds with a blow that sends our friend falling to his knees. Pahn is then captured, and his impending execution is implied.

You'd think with biceps like that, Pahn could take him, but nope

Whether or not this actually translates to "Pahn is dead, you're not going to see him again." I'm not entirely sure. I certainly hope not, we said we'll see him again and I truly hope a rescue effort will be on the cards. Although somewhere at the back of my mind I still hope Ted is alive and yet I know that's remarkably naive so I'm probably exhibiting the same foolishness here. It would be fitting for Pahn to sacrifice himself after sort of messing everything up for us, a valiant death and all that, but to hell with fitting, valiant deaths, I like Pahn! I don't want another one of our friends to die, imagine if Cleo or Viktor are next!

Back at the castle, we don't really know what to do next and head for a rest. Leknaat arrives for a midnight rendezvous with Akami, saying that we're obviously at an incredibly low point with the death of Gremio and the battle with our father weighing heavy upon our heart. However, she says, this is not the time to cede. We have to keep going, the fate of the world depends on it. She then says it's time to talk about her sister Windy. Yep, she went and dropped the sibling bomb on us.

Alright, no need to rub it in!

She tells us they are the survivors of a Clan of the Gate. She tells us also that our rune is one of 27 True Runes, these were the original and most powerful runes from which all others have been derived. All have terrible strength and the Soul Eater is yet to reveal its true force. Windy carries a true rune, the Gate rune, she wants ours and others, but Leknaat warns they are too powerful for human use and Windy must be stopped.

Next morning, Flik's got a plan: Fire Spears. Wait, let's hear the guy out. Remember those blueprints we delivered ages ago? Well, they might just be the key to penetrating Teo's armoured cavalry. Odessa's final gift, as Flik puts it. It's our only real plan for now, so it's time to head to the secret factory. We'll be heading there in style too as Gen and Kamandol outside have built us a speedboat! Only problem is we have to take a party member along who knows about boats, so I call on our old chum Tai Ho. Cleo, Viktor, Milich and Valeria make up the numbers.

Gen is always good for a chuckle

At lightning speed we sail north, first reaching the town of Kirov: a run-down, dilapidated sort of place run be a chap named Kun To. We spy a woman outside doing her laundry, her name is Sarah and apparently she'd love to come and do laundry for the Liberation Army. First, she needs some soap. A fellow nearby says he'll give us soap if we bring him soy sauce, and another guy will give us soy sauce for a yardstick. What follows is a humorous train of simple fetch quests that ultimately leads back to Sarah, who reveals she in fact had some soap all along, and we enjoy a hearty laugh at our own expense.

We chat to someone named Melodye who would seemingly join our efforts if we can find a certain rune. An old woman nearby talks of a terrible battle up north in Kalekka, and we also hear that smuggling and piracy are rife in the area since Imperial control is somewhat lacking around here lately. At the item shop I purchase a fortune crystal which grants double experience to its wearer. Not bad at all. A fellow outside named Georges also offers his services provided we can best him in a new game. It's essentially "Pairs"; there's a board of face-down cards, we flip two at a time, if they match they're eliminated, if not they're turned back around. It takes a few attempts to beat Georges' record times but I win eventually.

Nope, 'soy sauce' isn't some sort of street name for drugs, he actually wants some

We seem to have exhausted Kirov's usefulness for now and head further north, reaching the town of Kalekka. We thought Kirov was run-down but this place takes the cake. There are even battles here! Abandoned shops, streets lined with rubble, and the cracked remnants of buildings populate what might once have been a fine little place to live.

In one of the buildings we encounter a fellow named Leon Silverberg! I can't help but feel this fellow must be Odessa and Mathiu's father but he offers little dialogue, only a piece of advise to recruit as many people as possible if we want to survive. It does make me stop and think for a moment that I might go out on another of those teleporting recruitment drives I enjoyed a short while ago. We chat to a man who claims to be the last living resident of the town, and recruit a farmer named Blackman who is attempting to grow a few seedlings amongst the debris.

I think I know you as well! You must be Odessa's dad!! 

Shortly after this, we arrive at the factory a little further north. Outside, a woman named Ronnie Bell is interrogating a couple of fellows who'd been sneaking around, we quickly realise the victims of her questioning are Ledon and Kessler! Ledon being the fellow who poisoned me quite a long time ago for those who don't remember, and Kessler was his boss. They repeatedly call Ronnie a "giant woman", which she certainly doesn't enjoy. Amusingly at this point I can interrupt the conversation with "Hey giant woman!" but I prefer to remain courteous.

The conversation quickly turns onto Odessa and Ronnie invites us inside to meet Mose, who is styled in the manner of Meese and Maas. We ask if he's got any fire spears, of course he does. If he asks if we've got a boat, of course we do. However, we'll need a few more boats to transport all this gear, so Tai Ho suggests we go and see his old friend Kun To back in Kirov. Before we leave, we spot Kage the badass ninja fellow who claims to only fight for the side with the most dosh, I hand over 20,000 bits to buy his services for the rest of the war.

Frankly, I think I'd prefer being called 'giant woman' than 'Ronnie Bell'

I decide at this point to jump back to the castle, do a bit of teleporting around and general exploration of our digs. I won't go into detail on all of that, I'll simply synthesise the important information. I learnt that Onil always tells us where to go next, that's a nice little feature. I went to Antei and recruit a young lad named Qlon along with Esmeralda (girl who wanted an Opal ring) and Jeane the rune lady. Now we have our own rune equipping service at the castle, which is a huge boost and I finally feel free to mix things up magically.

At Scarleticia I recruit the painter Ivanov and the singer Kasios, the former then proceeds to begin painting us a lovely picture at the castle provided I can bring him various colours of paint. I've got money falling out of my bursting wallet at this point by the way, so decide to go rank up my party's weapons to maximum and help myself to a bunch of the finest armour. Milich and Valeria make way for Kasumi and Kage, who both have seriously impressive stats, and with that we're just about ready to head off to Kirov!

Hehehe...