Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 18

We find ourselves at Kirov chatting to Kun To. "Who the hell are you people?" he inquires politely, before recognising his old friend Tai Ho. A brief conversation later results in Mr To lending us ten boats in order to transport our fire spears back to the castle. Ronnie and Mose arrive to lend a hand with the loading of the vessels, in fact it's the former who rather unfairly winds up lumbered performing the task herself. They then join our army and we sale off home.

A brief rest later and suddenly Mathiu is recommending we order the attack on Teo immediately, the spears are good enough to beat him apparently. I'll trust my strategist and off we go for 'The Battle with Teo 2: Armoured Cavalry vs Flame Spears'. Our old man certainly wasn't expecting a second attack so soon, taunting us at the outset of battle and asking that we cease wasting time and lives. Oh but we've got a surprise for you Teo!

Yes! We've got you this time Teo

A quick strategist-boosted charge smashes through Teo's forces for casualties of over 5000. The flame spears act as almost flame-throwers, roasting his cavalry to a crackly crisp. I continue to charge, no screwing around with bows or magic here, we charge, we charge, we charge again and very soon Teo's forces are elminated. The general can't believe his eyes.

After the battle Mathiu asks our father to surrender but he has other plans in mind, stepping forward and challenging his own son to a duel. Viktor and Mathiu attempt to hold us back, with Mathiu even going so far as to ask Viktor to "cut off that man's head", which is by far the most violent thing I've ever heard our teacher-cum-strategist say, but this is our tragic destiny and we must face it. The duel is far more even than the unfortunate affair Pahn found himself on the losing side of, and we eventually manage to bring down Teo.

Come on Teo, light my fire

Perhaps we did a little more damage than intended however, as Teo now lays dying at our feet. He tells us we've grown strong, that we've become a man who will fight and die for his beliefs, just like our old man. He has one last surprise for us, asking his commanders Alen and Grenseal to join our army and help us achieve our dreams. He tells Akami that there is no finer joy for a father than to see his own son surpass him. With that, he drifts away.

I have to say I'm quite shocked. For one, Teo is dead, and for two, it seems like he didn't have one of Windy's black runes screwing with his brain after all. He genuinely was blindly loyal to the Empire, going so far as challenging his own son in a fight to the death, never even asking why. I guess the game never really introduced us too much to Teo, save for telling us he was an Imperial hero, it's normal I suppose that he'd react the way he did, but I felt that such extremism surely had a black rune at the root of it.

Woah! Woah Mathiu! ...Woah! Calm down!

That now makes Gremio, Pahn, and Teo who have died in a very short span of time, two best friends and a father. Akami can't be doing too well and I do feel for our mostly-silent hero. I only hope this is the end of his sequence of cruel losses, but I can't help feel it's going to get worse before it gets better. One positive does appear though as Akami kneels over his father's body, a light bears down upon us and the words "Soul Eater Level 3" appear on-screen. I guess my rune just levelled up in a moment of strong emotion. 

Back at the castle we hear news that insurgencies are breaking out all across the land as word of Teo's defeat spreads. Along with Kwanda and Milich, three of the mightiest generals of the Imperial army have now fallen and the people are starting to believe in our Liberation. In order to quell the rebellion and protect themselves, the Empire is calling many of their rural troops back to the big cities, leaving several areas nicely unguarded for us to take advantage. Lepant suggests we leap on this opportunity to unite the various rebellious factions and gain a few more allies.

Heartbreaking moment, but at least Teo died proud

We begin with a place called Lorimar, but something isn't right. We arrive at the fortress expecting some sort of battle but the place appears abandoned. We send in Kasumi who can use her ninja abilities (or ninjabilities, if you like) to scale the walls with lightning speed and quickly scout the area. She reports back that the fortress is indeed empty, and Mathiu suggests a scouting party be sent ahead since something is clearly wrong. Vik and Cleo join up while Kage, Kasumi, and Alen complete the team. 

We begin to explore the local area, arriving first at the Warrior's Village where we see a man and a woman, named Hix and Tengaar, in some sort of dispute. Tengaar wants to leave the village to go to a castle but Hix is trying to stop her, saying she'll be eaten if she goes there. She asks what he plans to do about it since his sword doesn't even have a name. Suddenly, her father Zorak appears and urges her inside, mentioning the name 'Neclord' which stirs something in Viktor.

This is Hix, the 'bear-like man' he refers to is Viktor

We'll follow them shortly, but first I explore the town a little. A guy named Window can't be recruited just yet, but I'm sure he will be, he fittingly wants to make stained-glass windows. We buy a Champion's Crystal for 200,000 bits (yeah!) which gives us "no more feeble enemies", which I feel could be a great rune to have equipped. We then stumble onto Marco, the girl who introduced us to the cup game so long ago! She says she'll join us if we win a little more money from her: an offer I can't refuse.

Afterwards, we make our way to Zorak's house where we learn that Neclord is an imperial general who arrived a few months ago. He has the magical ability to turn his men into zombies and skeletons, and used them to threaten local villages into delivering him their women (that's where Tengaar was headed to protect her people). Other villages ceded but the warriors had stayed strong up until this point. Zorak is a bit of a talker, so much so that the screen fades to black to skip the length of his monologue, with Cleo noting that they've been there so long the sun has set, and everyone heads to rest.

Here's Tengaar, she seems to have taken an interest in Cleo

The new characters we've met here seem interesting, before going to bed we spotted Hix chatting to Cleo, asking why a woman like her is fighting. She replies she does it for the same reason as everyone else, to protect the people and things that she loves. Hix says he's too weak for that, and Cleo tells him if he continues to say things like that, then he'll never be strong enough. Hix is obviously severely lacking in confidence and I look forward to seeing his progression. Meanwhile Zorak's ramblings have provided amusement and Tengaar seems to have more to show us as well.

Before sleeping we chat to Viktor to find out what's going on. It turns out that Neclord destroyed our friend's village; he had to watch his own family turned into zombies and devour one another. I don't think I've heard of anything so gruesome, it's no wonder he wants revenge so desperately. Well, he's about to get his chance because we wake up the next morn and Necord is waiting outside.

Well good morning to you too! What a polite man

He's here for Tengaar. Zorak and some warriors attempt to attack him but are sent flying, then it's Viktor's turn and we reinforce our buddy. I have a really strong team here, Kasumi and Kage have fantastic speed, Alen and Cleo both have fire runes with plenty of casts, then of course there's Akami and Viktor providing the muscle in the front row. However, it all counts for nothing as Neclord dodges every single one of our attacks, turning into a cloud of bats to escape every sword swing or flame arrow we throw his way. Soon enough, he's brought us all down.

After that humiliation, the jeering Neclord asks Tengaar to become his 70th bride. Hix boldly steps up to defend her, he's stammering and terrified but holds his ground until Tengaar tells him it's not worth any more hurt. She goes with Neclord on the condition that he leave her village alone. Hix promises a rescue and Tengaar says she'll wait for him. I'm glad to see our new underdog warrior standing up for those he cares about. We all awake later and realise we'll need a special weapon to beat Neclord. Zorak recommends we visit the temple Qlon out west, and it's the only idea we've got. Let's go!

There better be some bat repellent in this temple...