Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 23

This is it, people, we're closing in on the end. I have to say, for as much as I love the JRPG genre, it's rare that I really end up finishing them all that often. I tend to adore the openings of these games, and when I get attached to the world and characters, I'll go on to spend so much time wandering around, finding ultimate weapons and visiting every last location, that I'm usually a little burnt out by the finish and move on to other things. 

I don't like saying goodbye to these stories; I must have at least half a dozen separate saves of Final Fantasy X wherein I've restarted the game, gone around nabbing every last secret, and left the thing unfinished just before the finale. The endings of these sort of games are also often immensely emotional; not only are you massively attached to these characters and having to finish their tales, but often some of those you love best end up dying. And in Suikoden, with nigh on 108 individuals that could potentially kick the bucket, I'm not holding out much hope for dry eyes when the credits roll.

Let's rock

Here we go, walking the green mile towards the meeting room. Ah, a sweet moment of relief, there's nobody in the meeting room! I guess they must be outside. I can at least spend a few more minutes walking slowly down the stairs. Unfortunately, I have to go out eventually, and there awaits a group. Along with boats. Well, boats that seem to be made of ice. Tons of them. Apparently Mathiu had yet another stroke of genius, deciding to use Thrash's breath to freeze parts of the water around our castle to create a small fleet of ships with which we can commence our attack on Shasarazade. He said he'd get us boats, he got us boats. 

We give the order to move out, and the battle at Shasarazade begins! Things kick off with our first viewing of Sonya Shulen, a young, blonde Valkyrie-type. She yells out some valiant battle cry that Tai Ho instantly belittles by saying she's cute. However, Sonya didn't come here looking for compliments and instantly retorts that she'll take Tai Ho's head. Damn. Not to be trifled with, this general.

Marvel at our icy fleet

The battle begins, as is often the case, with one of my cheeky ninja scouts. Kage reports that the enemy is plotting a magical blast so we counter with our elven archers. Sonya loses 3,000 of her 17,000 strong force. Meanwhile, our 15k remains untouched. In goes Kasumi who reveals she's preparing a charge so Crowley, Luc, and Lotte smash her with some magic for a big hit. The pattern repeats with the final ninja and then I send in the thieves to continuously counter everything she prepares. Her forces are wiped out and we don't lost a single man. Fantastic.

Now it's time to explore Shasarazade itself. Mathiu plans to burn the place down with oil, but we need to head inside first and close their floodgates in order for our act of arson to succeed. Viktor joins the squad by force, but I would have chosen him anyway. I decide to go a bit mad with the party selection here; Krin, Hellion, Fukien, and Kage make up the rest of our team. Kage is a given recently, he's got that lovely double exp rune and I'd like to see how high I can level him. Fukien has resurrection abilities which have got to to be useful. Hellion has something called a Mother Earth Rune which at least sounds impressive, and then Krin... well, I just sort of wanted to use Krin.

Lovely numbers

We battle our way through a few rooms and eventually come across a giant clam blocking our path. Guess we'd better fight that thing. Oh my days, Hellion, where have you been all my life? It turns out her rune is unbelievably good! She's got a fantastic spell called Earthquake that smashes this clam for nearly 2,000 damage! (that's a lot, by the way) She's also got some nice spells that give our men some kind of armour/bonus defence which is greatly appreciated as this clam hits to kill.

Fukien has to use his resurrection a couple of times, it's nice to finally have such an ability since I'm yet to find an item in the whole game that can bring anyone back to life. However, he's not too great at looking after himself, the monk, and eventually falls to one of the clam's big attacks. As usual, we tear through our medicine supply and use nearly all of our spells but finally the thing falls. Our reward is 100,000 bits. Not bad at all.

This is Akami's uber spell "Judgement", first the enemy is surrounded by blinding white light, then these evil angels appear and summon a rain of blue lasers on the unfortunate victim. I like it.

With that out of the way (quite literally), the path is clear and Viktor takes it upon himself to run along and use his phenomenal strength to shut the enormous floodgates. Back we head towards the entrance, ready to set this place alight. But oh dear, we forgot about someone. Sonya Shulen awaits us at the exit. She asks why we betrayed the empire and our own father, she's mentioned Teo a lot actually, perhaps they were close.

Suddenly, fire! Flames rapidly surround us, lighting up the inside of the castle like a Christmas tree. You know, a Christmas tree on fire. Sonya looks around and asks if this is what we want, to kill everyone and burn the world down. She won't let us escape without a fight, and into another boss battle we go.

Oh alright, Sonya, since it's you

That's a bit of problem for me since, as previously mentioned, I used quite a lot of medicine and spells in that last boss battle, and was wholly unprepared for this one. Almost every turn Sonya smashes us with a devastating attack that reduces our entire party's HP by about half. We're in a real pickle, but a combination of luck, smart use of our remaining health items, and wise old Hellion with her armour spells, I eventually make it through alive. Only Kage and Akami survive the fight, and I don't think they would've managed if both hadn't landed some incredibly lucky critical hits in the last couple of turns.

Sonya isn't surprised she can't defeat us after we were strong enough to stop Teo, but says she won't let us defile her. She says "I'm Teo's..." before trailing off and walking towards the fire, presumably preparing to jump in. It seems like perhaps her and Teo were together. Anyway, Viktor can't let a pretty lady die, in his words, and snatches her away from the flames.

Sonya and Teo were indeed sitting in a tree, it seems

We get outside and - brace yourselves for a shock - Mathiu is down! Liukan is attempting to wake him up but he's not responding. Then we find out - brace yourselves for shock number two - Sanchez was the one who lit the oil ahead of time. Sanchez was the spy! He says he has always been loyal to the Emperor and can't stop now. I find that a bit ridiculous frankly, when even the most stalwart of the Emperor's generals has seen sense and joined our merry band, why is this idiot still serving him, especially after everything he's seen? Besides, we're not even after the Emperor really. Windy is the villain of the piece and she's controlling Barbarosa, we just want to restore a bit of order!

Flik asks if Sanchez was the reason the old liberation army base was attacked and Odessa killed. The old man confirms it. Apparently, after spending this time with us, he began to question what was right and wrong, and even swayed towards switching allegiances to our cause for good, but he's "too old" to change sides. Jerk.

Flik means business

He says he's genuinely sorry for Odessa, and that he does like us all. Then why did you just try and kill us? Oh well, Flik's getting ready to take care of business anyway. Our young hothead draws his sword and prepares to cleave Sanchez's head from his shoulders, when suddenly our strategist awakes. Mathiu climbs to his feet and asks Flik to stand down, saying that the execution of Sanchez and his unveiling as a spy would be a hammer-blow to the troops' morale. For now, we act like nothing happened. Victory is too close now, it can't be put into jeopardy.

It's time to attack Gregminster. This may very well be the end. We head back to the castle and I take the time to roam the place a little, deciding what to do next before chatting to Mathiu and presumably commencing the finale. Down in the basement, our prison finally has a prisoner. Sonya is being held there, and we eavesdrop as she talks to Cleo, asking how someone so loyal to Teo could betray him. Cleo says she knows about Sonya and Teo's relationship, but that she, personally, never betrayed Teo and always remained by his side. She asks Sonya if she believes Teo really hated Akami, before telling her that when the general died, he spoke only of his pride and happiness with the way his son turned out.

Sonya doesn't appear to believe much, but goes silent at the end. Cleo then leaves and I head in to chat to Sonya, which in fact gives me the option to recruit her. She, once again, professes her hatred towards me but I say that I don't mind, I want her fighting by my side. She remains combative, speaking aloud her desire to watch me die. What a lovely lass. Regardless, she's in. Guess it's time to march on Gregminster, huh?

Ivanov finished his painting, gotta say I think it's a masterpiece

Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 22

Here we go again...

The battle begins, well, I say 'battle', it's more a measly attempt at buying the Imperials some time as Griffith sends out a force barely numbering 3,000 to our comparatively colossal 13,000. Griffith says that they wish to surrender if we can just give him a bit of time to speak to his men. Mathiu sees through this rather obvious ploy and orders our immediate attack.

I now have the Dragon Knights as one of my 'Others' options. I'd love to use it but the description says it will yield to bows, so first I send in a speedy Ninja recon to figure out what Griffith is planning. He's preparing a magic strike so I'm good to go, we send in the dragons to unleash all manner of hell. In actual fact, they don't do a world of damage but the attack is lovely to watch as the herd of beasts rain in from the sky. A thousand of Griffith's men fall.

Fly my pretties

It feels almost unfair to send in another Ninja but I have to protect my forces; Kasumi reports back that they're planning a charge so I quickly unleash a magic blast to wipe him out. The battle was a perfect victory, but that was to be expected. There's surely far more difficult fights still to come.

We're now at the Northern Checkpoint where Griffith surrenders. He hardly seems like a beacon of virtuosity but when I'm presented with the option to either recruit him or take his head, I feel that I can hardly execute the guy. As has been my standpoint throughout the game: Windy is the villain and she is the one I'm coming to stop. Everyone else isn't really 'on her side', so to speak, they're just doing their jobs and serving the Empire as they always have. Thus, Griffith joins up and asks that we spare his troops; he seems like a fine guy actually. His men then offer to join us too, lovely stuff.

Actually, he seems like a decent guy, Griffith

Mathiu now plans a further charge north before the Imperials know what hit them. He places Lepant and Humphrey in charge of separate battalions and orders them to attack two forts, these battles will serve as distractions whilst we sneak in and rescue Viktor and Warren. Mathiu has even apparently organised some special reinforcements, should they be needed. Another spectacular plan from our tactical mastermind.

We then pick a party and head to the castle, Krin and Kasumi are forced members so I bring along Kage as I've enjoyed working with him recently. I also stick in the deadly duo of Alen and Grenseal. Mathiu has yet another scheme worked out for our entry into Moravia; Griffith shall act as though he has captured our strategist and wishes to hand him over to Kasim Hazil. Whilst the occupants of the castle are preoccupied dealing with this, we'll sneak around the place and find the prisoners.

Classic Krin

Inside the castle, Griffith and Mathiu head off to commence their performance and our sneaking mission kicks off. We have to make it to the top floor. What sort of castle decides to keep their prison on the top floor? I have no idea, but I suppose it does make sense. If you stick your prisoners in the dungeons there's always a chance of them tunnelling out or quickly escaping via the front door. Put them on the top and their only way out is via a descent through the entirety of your castle. 

Anyway, the dungeon goes rather quickly and smoothly; the battles are simple enough and the path is quite linear up to the top. Upon arrival, we spot Viktor and Warren held in a cell, along with Vincent de Boule! We save the two targets but before we can get to Vincent, the scene shifts to Mathiu. He's talking to Kasim Hazil, who asks that he switch sides since it would be a shame to execute such a brilliant strategic mind. Mathiu says he doesn't need to worry about any execution, and in runs a guard reporting that the castle is surrounded by the Liberation Army. Ho-ho-ho! Nice one Mathiu.

To be totally frank and true, I mostly came for Viktor, but nice to meet you, all the same

Kasim attempts to laugh off his predicament, saying that the armies currently fighting Lepant and Humphrey will soon return victorious and crush our forces here. "Wrong again" says Mathiu as another guard enters, bringing news that all the troops they sent out have been defeated by our forces combined with the army of Jowston. Jowston is apparently a City-State that Mathiu doesn't really want to ally with, however he let them know ahead of time that the Empire had some rather unpleasant intentions for them and so they sent their army to help us out.

Lepant and Humphrey arrive revealing they've taken care of their ends of the plan, and Viktor and Akami enter afterwards. Mathiu asks Kasim to surrender, and Milich arrives to help persuade his fellow general. Milich says they have all been stubborn to support an Emperor who is not the man he was and an Empire that no longer stands for what it once did. Their duty now must surely be to restore what they once defended, and open their Emperor's eyes. Kasim ultimately agrees and joins our team. With that, as usual, it's back to The Castle before the Jowston army decide to attack us too.

It's true, you're living in the past Kasim!

Back in the meeting room, Mathiu says we've liberated much of this Empire and solely the capital remains. I begin to realise I'm getting near the end of this wonderful game, and the pressure starts to build. Sanchez tells us that our army is reaching a level where it can finally match the core of the Imperial forces, and Viktor suggests that surely their HQ is our next target. However, to get there, Mathiu advises, we must pass through either Ain Gide's fortress of Kwaba or the floating fortress of Shasarazade (NB: I apologise if I have alternatively spelt this word 'Shazarazade' in previous posts, however the game seems to be in two minds as to the spelling, so I'm just following its lead. I'll stick with 'Shasarazade' from now on).

Lepant recommends we attack Kwaba, it's location on the ground is far more accessible to our troops and it's doubtful we could possibly summon the required number of boats to even transport our army to Shasarazade. However, that's exactly what the enemy will be thinking as well. They'll be expecting us to attack Kwaba, thus we'll do the opposite! The element of surprise has often been our friend and we'll need it here. But what of the boats? "Don't worry, I'll have 500 by morning." says Mathiu. Well, alright. Mathiu is pretty much Superman now.

... you know, after everything you've done Mathiu, this doesn't even seem that far-fetched. Fine, you take care of the boats, I'm going to sleep

Right, off to bed we go, safe with our faith that Mat will sort it all out. As we rest, we see a few scenes of various characters throughout the castle, and it's a moment I really love. First there's Mathiu and Humphrey sharing their respective war stories. Humphrey talks of how he never wishes to attack someone in rage, like he once did during the Kalekka incident many years ago. I'll just interrupt for a moment to tell you about that incident actually, as it's rather important.

Basically, from what I've read in my Old Books, understood through talking to others, and gleaned from visiting the decrepit remains of Kalekka itself, the town was perhaps the greatest casualty of the war between the Empire and the City-State of Jowston. It was decided that the Imperial forces, in order to drum up support for the war, would slay the entire population of Kalekka, every innocent man, woman, and child, and then claim that it was the City-State's doing.

Our written account of the incident is scribed from the perspective of the Empire, it talks of how the cruel City-State orchestrated the whole vicious attack, and how the noble imperial forces found their courage renewed by the desire to avenge such a heartless crime. "History is written by the winners" in full effect here.

Humphrey was involved in this incident, ordered to murder civilians he turned in rage and killed his own commander before joining the old Liberation Army. Mathiu was around at the time of the incident too, indeed it was that that triggered his own abandoning of the Empire and his position in the Imperial army.

We then move on to see Gen chatting to Kamandol; they toss insults back in forth in typical fashion before Gen reveals his fear that they might die tomorrow, and he wanted to be sure to see Kamandol's face one last time. The alchemist then offers him some tea, and they presumably go on to spend the evening with one another. It's a nice moment.

The back-and-forth between Gen and Kamandol has been one of my favourite recurring features of the game's dialogue

We then have Cleo, alone, asking Pahn to protect her in the battle. Tai Ho, Yam Koo, and Kimberley are down in their little home at the dock of the castle. Tai Ho seems preoccupied, and Kimberley tells him to relax and let them enjoy this night together. She seems to insinuate that she'd like to spend the night just the two of them, but Yam Koo makes his presence known in order to "protect" his brother.

Hix and Tengaar sit outside beside a fire. It's a rather romantic moment but Hix is being a little ignorant. Tengaar sulks a moment before they quickly make up. Flik is gazing out of a window thinking of Odessa as Sanchez comes to see him, offering a cup of tea. Meanwhile, Krin snores in the dungeon, dreaming of treasure. Then we see Fukien and Liukan, the old timers of the group, pondering if victory is possible. Fukien says that of course we can win, but many young lives will be lost, and the pair of them sigh sadly at the thought. 

The fishermen share a few pre-battle drinks

Finally, and perhaps most touchingly of all, we see Akami in bed. Viktor arrives at the door and enters, claiming to have something to give us. "Obtained steel hatched" appears on the screen; it's Gremio's weapon. Viktor went back at the prison to retrieve this for us, keeping it hidden so as not to upset a soul until now, since it might be his final chance to hand it over. Viktor talks of how many of our men may die in this battle, but that we have to push on for everyone who believes in a better future, everyone like Gremio. "Akami, let's win tomorrow." he says quite simply, before taking his leave. We then try to get some rest.

I have to say, all of that was one of the best sequences I've ever seen. By far one of the most touching and emotional little clips I'm yet to see in almost two decades of all this video game nonsense. Simple, yet wonderfully effective. I can't believe how attached I have become to this world and these characters. Before kicking off the game I had my favourite JRPGs, I had the worlds and personalities I adored and entered this one with a huge fear I'd be unable to recreate even half the emotion I have for, say, Lost Odyssey, here with Suikoden. I'm so glad to say I was mistaken. 

We'd better

This game has touched me and I'm terrified of the next battle, losing even one of these characters would be gut-wrenching. There are a few I don't care as much about of course, if the likes of Kai (a character I've never even used or spoken to) were to fall, I can't see myself weeping but I can't even imagine if someone like Viktor winds up dead. I don't want to lose a single one of my men. I get the feeling I'm approaching a point of no return so might take the chance to extend my playtime and go out searching for some recruits, but there's a battle coming up and I can only run from it for so long.

Next time: we begin the final assault. For Gremio!

Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 21

Seek Valley is our next destination. We make our way along the typical corridors and branching pathways that comprise the majority of dungeons in Suikoden so far, fighting simple ivy monsters and rock golems along the way. We surprisingly stumble onto a blacksmith, heading inside to meet Mace, another of the 'Mass and Meese' band of beret-wearing, tough guys. Unfortunately he won't join us until our castle is a bit bigger, what a demanding fellow.

Sorry to bother you, Zeus

We soon find our path blocked by a large ball surrounded by floating shards of ice. Guess we'd better smash it up a bit. It's called a crystal core and, at least in the opening stages of the battle, doesn't seem to pose a significant threat. The shards of ice spinning around it are eliminated one by one as I attack, and eventually I smash through what turns out to be the outer shell of this ball, revealing a red core beneath. This is when the battle takes a turn for the worse as the core decides to start hitting a damn sight harder.

Every turn, it rains down lasers upon my entire party dealing some massive damage. As is becoming customary, I just about manage to finish him off after using a huge amount of potions and exhausting my spell lists. My reward of 70,000 bits and a Cyclone Crystal feels fitting for what was a tricky battle. Unfortunately, I've only got one mega medicine left. I know, you would think all of these boss battles recently really should've taught me to prepare my parties a little bit better.

Pretty tough fight, this one

Soon afterwards, we reach the moonlight weed. One small problem: Windy's here. Of course it wasn't ever going to be as simple as beating a boss, collecting our item, and being on our way. The evil sorceress pulls out the oldest line in the Villain Guidebook: "I'm impressed you made it this far, but I can't let you leave with this moonlight weed.". Flik doesn't even recognise her, the bloody fool. Seriously, you're a commander in army liberating the planet from the tyranny of this woman and you don't even know what she looks like? Jesus, Flik.

Anyway, she's hear for - any guesses, anyone? - my rune! And she's brought along a bargaining chip. A chip I thought I'd never see again; it's Ted! Ted's alive! Of course he is, Windy doesn't let anyone die that she can use. He's evidently under her spell, chiding us for being so cruel and leaving him before asking that we return his Soul Eater. Speak of the devil, the rune decides to spring into action. We find ourselves and Ted alone briefly in black space. Ted's real mind is still in there and his connection to the rune has enabled him to speak to us. He tells us that his body is no longer his, and Windy's spell will soon consume his soul as well. Thus, we must forgive him for what he's about to do.

Look, it's Ted!

Back to reality we go where Ted once more demands we hand over the Soul Eater. I'm not sure exactly what his plan is but he didn't mention me giving him the rune, so I refuse. Windy attempts to crush our spirit, talking of how we've killed our own father, led faithful Gremio to his death, and we're about to fight our best friend. Ted interrupts, speaking directly to the Soul Eater, and this time I think it's real Ted talking. He attacks the rune, cursing it for the suffering it has caused before commanding it to finish its work with him and take his soul. Oh no. We just got Ted back and now we have to lose him all over again.

The rune does its thing, levelling up in the process, and Ted falls to his knees, saying there was no point in keeping a body that he couldn't control anyway. Windy's angry but can't get anywhere near us thanks to the power of the Soul Eater; she flees and we're left to say farewell to Ted for the last time. He asks simply that we live our life to the fullest before fading away. We will, Ted. It was a cruel moment to have Ted dangled in front of us only to watch him sacrifice himself yet again. However, he did ask for forgiveness and that's what I'll give him. He lived a long time and seemed content with the way his life turned out in the end, and I can tell he had enormous faith in us to fix this broken world.

Will do, man, will do

Back to the fortress with the weed we go, next we're after a black dragon orchid but oh deary me once more, it turns out Futch decided to leave by himself to get it. Not only that. The location of the weed? Gregminster Palace! Futch has gone right into the belly of the beast without an ounce of reinforcement! I imagine a rescue mission is about to take place, but suddenly the scene shifts to Futch's perspective. 

He arrives on Black at the gardens, quickly spotting the orchid but not fast enough as Emperor Barbarosa himself arrives. He asks what a dragon knight is doing around here and Futch replies honestly. The Emperor doesn't actually seem as evil as we've all heard, telling Futch to leave immediately as he's feeling generous. Futch jumps aboard Black just as Windy appears; our little friend attempts a daring escape atop his winged beast, but the evil witch has too much power, casting bolts of lightning into the sky and bringing our duo crashing to the ground.

First sighting of the Emperor

Fade to black, and time has passed. Futch awakes at the fortress, surrounded with the likes of Joshua, Akami, and Liukan. He's been rescued, and Liukan completed the antidote to wake the dragons. But it's not all good news. You remember that mysterious third ingredient? Turns out it was dragon liver, which they obtained from Black who was killed in the fall. Another painful death to accept, particularly for Futch.

The dragons awaken and we commence talks with Joshua regarding an alliance. He agrees immediately and at least a powerful ally has been gained from all this. Before we leave, Joshua calls in Futch, reminding him of the harsh truth that a dragon knight who loses his dragon must leave their domain. So he's coming with us. Milia joins up too.

Another emotional scene to endure

Back to the castle we fly and as we enter, we interrupt an argument between Kasumi and Krin, of all people. The latter seems to believe there's a spy amongst us whilst Kasumi disagrees, suggesting instead that Krin is the one to not be trusted. Without telling us more, the pair run off. I wonder what that was all about! Well, I'm about to find out.

Upstairs we inform Mathiu of our alliance and he introduces us to a strange, silent man, dressed in white and going by the name of Taggart, who Kasumi and Krin captured sneaking around outside. He finally speaks, revealing he was under orders to only talk once he saw Akami's face. He reports that Kasim Hazel has been putting extreme pressure on the northern rebels. Taggart's master, a rich fellow named Warren, decided to harbour some fugitives, resulting in Kasim sending some troops and surrounding his home. Guess who was visiting Warren at the time? Only Viktor! Both of them apparently put up a fight but got themselves captured. 

I like the "who just happened to have dropped by". No need to bother inventing some big back story explaining why Viktor was there. No, no, he just happened to drop by.

We need to organise a rescue, but Kasim has a well-trained army of 8000 men whilst ours are, according to Mathiu and others, not properly combat-ready (in spite of all those battles they've won). We need to train them up in the morning. I agree to the idea and retire to my room, but Mathiu follows in secret. He tells me there's a spy in the army. He sent Kasumi and Krin on a reconnaissance mission while we were away; they learnt that the enemy has intelligence regarding our forces that only a spy would be able to leak.

He wants to keep our training secret and so asks to sort it out himself; I grant my permission. Before he leaves, he asks if we hate him for making us lose Pahn, Gremio, and Teo. He apologises for the losses, but says he'll stop at nothing to win this war. Personally, I don't hate Mathiu at all. He's gotten us out of all sorts of sticky situations, saved our lives, and the lives of many men on countless occasions, and provided nothing but sage counsel and fine strategy from the get-go. I would never blame him for the friends we lost.

Dun, dun.... duuuuuuuuuuuun!

We head out the next morning to train up a little. Or at least that's what we thought. It turns out this was all a ruse put in place by Mathiu to trick our spy into delivering false info. We're not here to train, we're here to attack! The scene then switches to the northern checkpoint (place we're about to smash up) where a fellow named Griffith talks of how he knows our army is out training today. Guess that confirms the spy idea. Who could it be? My money's on Flik. Anyway, suddenly some alarmed soldiers arrive to inform their commander we're about to attack. Thus begins the Battle at the Northern Checkpoint!

The war has already had a hideous human, dwarf, and elf cost, but let's not forget the other beings who've paid the price as well. We'll avenge you, Black.

Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 20

Into the castle! Shortly after entering we meet a friendly zombie. So that's a good start. He offers us information for some bits, with four price boundaries selectable. I offer him the highest amount of 25k just to see what's going on (I've got hundreds of thousands of bits at this stage, and with the Gaspar mini-game back home there's virtually an endless source of money) and he tells me "Master Neclord... googly goo". Yes, well worth the price of entry. He sees we're a little ticked off with that and returns the money; a chuckle was had by all.

No creepy castle is complete with a coffin room

After that, I'm reluctant to offer him more money but give it a go. For the low prices of 100 and 300 bits he tells us pretty much nothing but 10,000 is apparently the sweet spot as he mentions paintings on the third floor; he tells us we should look at them in a certain order, and I make a little note of it. Onwards and upwards!

We're fighting some very hellish enemies in this area; flaming "hell unicorns", creepy larvae and floating skeletons comprise the bulk of our opponents, and they hit to hurt. I make huge use of Akami's Soul Eater here since it has a few new spells now which can wipe out an entire group of enemies in an instant.

"Hell Unicorn" wouldn't be a bad name for a death metal band, same goes for "Larvae" to be honest

Eventually, we reach the aforementioned gallery and investigate the paintings in the prescribed order, unlocking a secret door to progress. I would've figured out the order eventually but I'd still say it was 10,000 bits well-spent. By the way, I do have to mention there's an incredibly cool Dracula-esque theme tune playing as I make my way around this place. The Suikoden soundtrack has continued to impress as I plough on.

We reach the top of the castle in good time; Tengaar awaits in a wedding dress while Neclord plays a beautifully macabre rendition of "Here Comes the Bride". Hix calls out to his crush that he's arrived to save her whilst Viktor tells Neclord that today he dies. Our vengeance-seeking friend unveils his new sword, and Hix reinforces him, revealing the christened moniker of his blade: Tengaar. Into battle we go!

Yeah!

It's a tough fight, make no mistake. At least this time we're doing damage to the evil vampire but he's certainly dealing out his own share. I end up using every single one of my healing items (and I had a lot!) and finally going on a little 'last stand' where we just had to take his hits and deal as much damage as possible and I suppose I was very lucky to have played the battle just right because we finished him with most of our party only a round or two away from death.

Neclord's 500 years of evil are over as Viktor brings his sword crashing down upon the vamp; our friend delivering the final blow with all the strength he can muster. Afterwards, Tengaar and Hix enjoy an emotional reunion and Zorak pledges the allegiance of the warriors to our cause. Now it's time to go back to the castle, but Viktor won't be joining us; he wishes to go and deliver news of Neclord's defeat to what remains of his village, and we grant him a leave of absence.

A well-deserved bath after eliminating a vampiric menace

Back home, we take a little wander around. We hand over some fresh painter to our artist Ivanov and deliver some old books we've been collecting throughout the game to our new librarian. We can then read these books and they reveal some cool little secrets like possible recruits and where to find them! Very nice indeed.

The meeting room is filled with faces, Sanchez, Humphrey, Flik, Mathiu, and Lepant all await us, a real meeting of minds. Sanchez congratulates on liberating the Lorimar region without even the need for a battle. Kasumi has reported that the fifth general, Kasim Hazil, has been placed in charge of northern defences and is in the process of building up his forces. He's got a nice little personal army of 8,000 men, with 6,000 others stationed at the floating fortress of Shazarazade and a whopping 10,000 more back at the Imperial headquarters. 

Check out my library! 

Our forces aren't quite a match for all that yet, we need more rebels! Humphrey mentions his friendship with Joshua, commander of the Dragon Knights. They're a neutral force who never particularly fancied the empire, and old Hump says he'll come along with us to forge an alliance. Can't say I wouldn't mind having some dragons on our side, so I'm game.

Flik annoyingly forces his way into the party in that typical Flik way of his, so I make up the numbers with new recruits Eikei and Tengaar, along with Kage, who I think is undeniably badass. The party is sorted out with armour and goodies, and off we go to the Dragon's Den where Humphrey presents himself to the guard on duty, expecting to be granted passage but no, Joshua has apparently given the order not to allow a single soul through the gates.

Here's the image our painter is currently beautifully bringing to life by the way, I've been meaning to show you for a while now; it's clearly going to be a delight when complete

Something's up, and we decide to head to Antei to catch the gossip. At the entrance of the town we spot the local innkeeper embroiled in a dispute with a young fellow who seems to have attempted a little "dine and run" at the former's establishment. The suspect is, by appearance and dialogue, a rather posh fellow by the name of Vincent de Boule. He tries smooth-talking his way out of his predicament, claiming to have given his money away to starving children. I like him already.

He then comes over and introduces himself to us, asking to lend a few coins before taking off as he's in a hurry to meet Joshua. Hmm, interesting. We're left to sort out his bill, but it's a small price to pay for the lead we've found! We head back to the Dragon's Den, catching Vincent attempting to persuade the guard to allow his passage.

 "You must be knew here if you don't know me, I'm a friend of Joshua's!" claims Vincent. 

The gatekeeper comes back, "I've worked her for five years." 

Vincent pauses a moment before unleashing his humorously improvised retort, "Ah.. well, yes, it was just over five years ago that I last visited!" 

I'd love to Vincent

I really do like this fellow. And I like him even more when he promptly shows us a secret entrance to the den that he used to use as a child. That brings me onto a little side point though that I wouldn't mind mentioning; I really like an awful lot of the characters in this game. Firstly, that's fantastic because it shows how well these people are written, despite having very little relative screen-time compared to the cast of a majority of JRPGs. Secondly, it's super tough because, as you'll have noticed, I only ever get to choose five companions for each journey, and even then I usually have a couple of 'forced' choices. 

There's such a lot of guys I like and many I haven't even seen in my party for ages! Lepant was a character I really appreciated but I haven't been able to find space for him in my team, Pahn never even got a look-in when he was recruited. Luc, Camille, Kuromimi (!), Valeria, Kirkis, Gen, Varkas and Sydonia! There's even tons I've not used a single time and wouldn't mind checking out like Mose, Fukien, Kai, Hellion, or Lotte. Even very recent acquisitions like Hix, I really enjoyed his story and like him, yet he's already out of my party! I love the game and I love this system of having such a wide variety of characters to choose from but it can be tough sometimes.

And still so many characters to find!

Anyway, back to business. We make our way through a cave system, fighting a few enemies along the way. Eikei has a lovely 'Double-Beat Rune' that means he attacks twice, and I gave Tengaar an Earth rune with a whole bundle of spells to choose from. Suddenly, we start hearing dinosaur-esque sounds (after vampires and everything else, I wouldn't be all that surprised if the game decided to delve into some Jurassic Park nonsense), but as you might imagine, it turns out to be the dragons.

We fall down a slope and find ourselves surrounded by the beasts, luckily for us though they're all asleep. They're being guarded by a woman named Milia and a fellow named Futch who we in fact met right back at the beginning of the game! He flew us to Leknaat's place on his dragon Black. After a little chat, we realise these sleeping dragons might have some problems. A short trip to the Dragon Knight's Fortress and a chat with Joshua confirms our suspicions; the dragons will not wake up. Joshua says he'd love to help us but without the dragons, the knights aren't all that useful. 

Falling deeper in love with this game with every dialogue choice it offers me

He asks us if we could bring Liukan to help, as he has heard word that our alchemist might be their only hope. I agree to his demand, taking a moment to search the fortress first where I learn that Joshua possesses one of the True Runes, the Dragon Rune (fitting, huh?) which prevents him from ageing, as the True Runes do. Humphrey persuades an old friend named Kreutz to join our forces, and we spot a guy named Fuma hiding at the side of the fortress. He's a ninja and appears astonished at our "visual powers" to have found him. I feel like saying "You weren't hidden that well, chum." but the prompt doesn't appear. Anyway he joins up.

We then 'port back to the castle and stick him into our party for Tengaar, along with Liukan for Eikei. Back to Joshua we go where Liukan has a look at the sleeping dragons, quickly diagnosing their state as the result of poisoning. He needs three ingredients for an antidote, some moonlight weed, a certain type of orchid, and something secret that he won't reveal just yet. I wonder what that might be. Milia joins up with the party and offers to fly us to Seek Valley on her dragon Thrash (one of only two dragons still awake) to find the first of the ingredients: moonlight weed. Let's do this!

Well if "obliterating your very presence and becoming a shadow" means "standing slightly sneakily behind a wall with your head poking out" then sure, I've got the eyes of a hawk