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.