Let's Blog Suikoden - Part 24: The End

Foreword: Huge apologies for the tardiness of this post, ladies and gents. A ludicrous assortment of factors that I won't delve into contributed to this, but quite simply I'm sorry. To make it up to you, this is indeed the end of the game, and is indeed, by far the longest post I have written during the playthrough. You want to know how it all ends? Read on.

Here we go!... but first, just a few paragraphs of recruitment

Before chatting to Mathiu and undoubtedly initiating the final push, I take a gander at the dozen or so blank spaces on my Stone Tablet of Promise and decide to go on one last big recruitment drive. Remember those bloody pirates? The guys I went to see by my own, then with Tai Ho, with Yam Koo, with the pair of them, and always a new line of dialogue but no option to recruit? Well, I decide to try them again, this time with Tai Ho, Yam Koo, and Kimberley who associates with the fishermen brothers and seems to count as one of their group.

Ho-ho! My plan is successful. The pirates want a fight, and we dutifully oblige, wiping the floor with them rather easily. Not a good sales pitch if they want to be part of my team for the upcoming battle. Regardless, after being bested, the three pirates Anji, Leonardo, and Kanak join our forces. 3 Stars of Destiny down, still a fair few to nab.

Oh well, we'd best let you by!

I'd like that Zeus look-a-like to join up but I visit him once more and he says we're still not big enough for his talents. Maybe I should visit with his friends Maas and Meese, but we'll try that later on. I begin to go through the list of locations, teleporting to each and collecting anyone I find. There's a hunter named Quincy at Garan who joins up. At the Northern Checkpoint, the humorous duo of Max and his servant Sancho come charging through, spouting some battle cry in support of the Liberation Army. The funny part is when they then bump into Akami and Max doesn't even recognise him. When Sancho eventually reveals our identity to his master, the pair leap at the chance to join our team.

Over at the Warriors Village I chat to the fellow named Window again but he's still not interested in me, however a guy named Moose (yep, another one of the blacksmiths) is very interested if we bring Mose to chat to him. I do just that and now I have Maas, Meese, Moose, and Mose in my squad. I take all four of them to see Mace and it works; the four are former students of Master Mace and persuade their old sensei to join up. Back at The Castle, Mace can upgrade our weapons to level 16 which is very nice (and expensive) indeed.

I'm very glad to see this screen

I go to consult the Stone Tablet of Promise to have a gander at how many recruits I'm yet to find: 13 blank spaces remain. I know one of them must be Window, another must be that appraiser in Rikon, and there's that Melodye at Kirov who needs a special rune to join. We continue our random searching and find a rather tough-looking dude named Kirke at Lorimar, he's standing aside the graveyard and is a self-professed "head-chopper". He tells us that head-chopping is all he's good at, but that'll do nicely, sir. 12 to go.

Back at HQ, I go and talk to Rock and take a look through my inventories, spying a Window Crystal! I'd forgotten all about it, it must be for Window! I also have a Sound Crystal that nobody in my party can equip so wonder if perhaps it's the key for Melodye! Both of my suspicions are accurate and the two new recruits are added to our ranks. 10 left.

I refuse! No, just kidding, here you go

All of this took far longer than it might appear in writing, by the way. I don't want to give the impression that I'm either a genius or a buffoon but I have to be honest, it took a lot of random searching and flashes of common sense for me to reach the conclusions that led to some of these recruits. For instance, I eventually then decided to go and read my old books in the library in search of info on potential recruits. I read of a cook named Lester who works in Moravia, Clive at the inn in Rikon, a stray elf named Rubi, a fellow in a tiger mask called Fu Su Lu, and finally Pesmerga who is apparently on the hunt for Yuber.

I head to Moravia first to find this cook, but also remember that Vincent de Boule was trapped here too and I never got a chance to free him, he must surely be another Star of Destiny! I make my way through the castle, always on the lookout for a kitchen or servant quarters but encounter no such luck. Lester is nowhere to be found but on the top floor, still behind bars, awaits our humorous bourgeois chum Vincent de Boule.

I could never leave you behind, Vince

I continue looking here and there, eventually realising I've never recruited anybody at Neclord's castle so perhaps that's worth another look. Right at the top, in the very room the vampire prepared to wed Tengaar and was slain by Viktor, awaits a ridiculously tough-looking knight. It's Pesmerga, he came here hoping Yuber would be close by.

Soon after this, I stumble onto Lester but nowhere near Moravia. He's at the inn in Rikon, and seems pleased that I've gone around "tasting his stews". I don't really remember doing anything of the sort but there you go. I then pause for a moment and wonder if, like Pesmerga, certain recruits are waiting at the end of previously-cleared dungeons. So I then spend (/waste) quite a lot of time walking all the way through the Dwarven Vault, Soniere prison, Scarleticia, and a couple of other places, but find absolutely nobody. So much for that theory.

Suikoden - Rated R for Dark Humour

One place I haven't visited at all springs to mind; the Kobold village! I've literally only been there once so it might be worth a shot. I stick Kirkis in the party in order to traverse the Great Forest (without him in the team, I realise it's impossible to get through) and add Kuromimi too, in case we bump into any of his Kobold friends. The village turns out to be a gold mine for recruiting. First of all we meet Gon, Kuromimi's little brother, who joins up instantly at the sight of his bro. Afterwards the mega-muscled Fu Su Lu with his tiger head is recruited for the price of 10,000 bits. 

We also discover Rubi, a rather gothic-looking elf who chats to Kirkis, but says he's too much of a weakling for her to fight alongside. I've been in this situation before with Lorelai and Eikei. Guess it's time to level up Kirkis. Luckily the game is very kind with levelling. Kirkis begins at only level 23 but swiftly attains level 50 after just a few battles. Surely that must be enough? Back to the village we go to find out and Rubi is indeed satisfied.

Have I? ... oh yeah... yeah, I remember... stews, yeah

There are only 4 spots left on the tablet. The appraiser Jabba must be one, this mysterious Clive fellow is another. I wonder if one might be Ain Gide, the Imperial commander we met once before. Another could be Leon Silverberg perhaps, I'll have to go and chat to him. In the meantime, Clive is the only guy who I've got a real lead on. They say he hangs around the inn in Rikon from time to time, and I've already looked there but try teleporting in and out again a few times and eventually he appears. He looks pretty tough and I'm already imagining a dream team of my most recent acquisitions involving Clive, Pesmerga, Rubi, and Fu Su Lu.

Further investigation of the table reveals I'm looking for a Chikai star, a Chisei star and a Chimei star. I look at these names and compare them to others, I check the order of people on the tablet to see if that's any help, but all-in-all I'm left rather clueless. I know the appraiser Jabba needs a nameless urn but I just don't know what that is or where to get it. It could've been in some chest I missed or just a random drop, maybe I accidentally sold it. 

Well, you look it, Sir! Join me!

I remember Leon Silverberg at Kalekka and decide to go chat to him, see if there's any chance he's a last-minute acquisition. He wants me to tell Mathiu how impressive our army is, but if I go and chat to Mathiu it just instigates the next battle and I'm forced to quit and load my game.

I decide to go around all over the place again and ludicrously I managed to miss someone in the very first place on the list! At the inn in Seika I spot a guy I hadn't seen before, a dude by the name of Sheena. He's trying to chat up a girl by saying his family is rich before revealing he's the son of Lepant! I then decide the natural course of action is to bring the lad's parents to see him. Lepant gives the boy a good talking-to and he joins us.

If you want to pick up girls, I'd lose that earring, Sheena

Now we have only 2 spots on the tablet to fill and it'll be immensely frustrating not to get them all. I feel like Leon might be one, and the other is the appraiser Jabba. There is still Ain Gide too but I can't find him, I go to Kwaba but there's nothing going on there. I go around a bunch of other places one more time to see if there's some random star who just appears now and then like Clive did, and I re-read the books for any info I hadn't previously uncovered, all to no avail. I wish I could find a nameless urn. I'm tempted to look online but so far I've got all but two of these stars on my own and am super proud so I don't think I want to tarnish that feat now. 

Then follows a typically embarrassing and stupid revelation. I'd got a bloody Nameless Urn all along. I go and look through everyone's inventories just to be sure I don't have any special items. Juppo, of all people, has got a nameless urn just sitting there! I don't know when or how or why he has that but he does. Since I rarely bother checking everyone's inventory with Rock and I barely ever bothered using Juppo, I must have just cast him from my party and never looked back. Oh my days. Jabba is mine.

Behold my uber team

I've got all but one of these stars.It's taken a LONG time and I know every location in this game off by heart now but I've got all but one. My money has to be on either Ain Gide or Leon. Maybe there's someone still to meet but those are tall odds. Unfortunately, the only thing I can do for Leon is talk to Mathiu, but that doesn't work because he's in "I want to fight!" mode and won't listen. And I've searched everywhere else too darn thoroughly now to really want to spend any more time on this.

I'm going for it. The final battle. Let's do this. First I go through the character list and make myself an uber party. I'm sure super pro Suikoden players would disagree and know far better combos and maybe I'm making some rookie mistakes with this team but I like them, I love how cool they appear in battle and I think they have a fantastic balance of magic and offensive power. I have a front-line of what have got to be three of the heaviest hitters in the game: Viktor, Fu Su Lu and Pesmerga. Vik is equipped with a killer rune, adding to his already great luck stat giving him a big chance of critical hits, Fu Su Lu and Pesmerga have been given hazy runes to boost their evasion. 

Wouldn't want to run into these guys down a dark alley

Riding in the back I've got Akami obviously with his level 4 Soul Eater, then there's Rubi, who it turns out is way higher level than the rest of us at 60 and has ridiculously good stats in every category. All of my other characters have at least one obvious weakness but she's strong, defensive, skilled and a great magic user! By the way, it's worth mentioning that now, at the end of the game, I finally figured out the rune system. The magic stat, it's all about that. It's very simple in fact. People with high magic stats have more spells available. 

Anyway, I've got Rubi equipped with a Mother Earth rune (the same thing Hellion uses, I found another one), then Crowley who I wish I'd been using before because he seems to be the best magic-user I've got. He has a cyclone rune which gives him some healing as well as offensive spells. So we've got muscle up front and plenty of magic for support, defence, and big damage at the back. I think it's a great team but you could really play this game again and again and use all sorts of combos. I imagine there's tons of cool little challenges one could invent; try and finish the game with Antoine the chef for instance, or using a wholly female/male party, or using only the blacksmiths, etc. 

Then I imagine it's time to roll out

I feel a bit bad just sticking in all the super strong dudes who I've only just met as opposed to bringing people like old Cleo, Camille, Luc, or even the likes of Flik along for the ride, but I do enjoy having a team that looks so darn destructive. Maybe I'll end up with some forced party members anyway. We'll see.

Right, it's time to chat to Mat, he says now we have to march on the capital. He asks for the order to attack, but before we can grant his wish, Liukan interrupts with his doctor's opinion that Mathiu should not go to battle. Our valiant strategist says he must; he gave Odessa his word and will stop at nothing after all. I'm instantly wary that this is a bloody prophecy of his death, it'll be torturous if Mathiu dies. Unfortunately, I can't stop him. This is as much his fight as my own.

Unfortunately, as a general, I won't let you not let Mathiu go to battle

A force of 20k awaits us. We assemble a huge assortment of commanders in the meeting room, and the troops are readied. Mathiu gives a rousing speech; the time is now to end this cruel regime! Lepant adds his own words for good measure: think of your friends and families, do it for them! Warren echoes his sentiments and Leknaat appears saying it's now time to tell us everything. Windy is apparently looking for vengeance against the whole world. Centuries ago, the "Clan of the Gate" to which Windy and Leknaat belonged were massacred. The two sisters escaped using the Rune of the Gate which is in fact two runes, a 'front' and a 'back'. Or an entrance and exit, if you like. 

Windy has the entrance and Leknaat the exit. Windy evidently became filled with rage at the slaughter of her village and began a power-hungry quest to seek her revenge. Her sister held more forgiveness than hatred in her heart, and for this, Leknaat nearly paid the price. Windy attempted to forcefully take the exit rune from her sibling, who fled and isolated herself on that island we visited at the beginning of the game. All the while she was waiting for someone like Akami to appear. 

Bit of a trippy speech, but if it gets the troops motivated then I don't mind

She then addresses everyone, saying we are stars who have assembled together for a reason, for victory. Mat then jumps in with another speech, for our fallen comrades, for the future, for Akami. We cheer for victory and are ready to fight. I'm then treated to another of those sequences of scenes from around the castle. Our brave men and women are preparing for battle. Varkas and Sydonia are with their bandit regiment, imploring them to fight hard, Gen orders his marine friends to fix whatever they can while there's time, Kuromimi rallies the mighty kobolds. 

With that, I order the attack and we roll out. The scene switches to the Imperials; countless soldiers and monsters await us, with Yuber at the head and sneaky Kanaan from way back when cowering behind him. Yuber scoffs at our army, saying it'll be no match for their 100,000 men. Oh deary me. We thought they'd only got 20k. The scene returns to our side, where Kirkis reports the enemy has indeed got a force numbering around 100k. Leknaat tells us that the majority of that colossal figure must be monsters that Windy has conjured up to fight for her. Lovely Leknaat then plans to use her own rune to send the monsters away.

It is funny, Yuber, but maybe not that funny

Once again we see Yuber and the Imperials and watch with glee as their monsters begin disappearing. Leknaat's power unfortunately does not amount to enough to rid us of all these beasts however, and Akami wonders if the Soul Eater might be of aid. No sooner has the suggestion been floated than Leknaat forbids it, saying that we must never use the Soul Eater in that way. Luckily, a saviour arrives in the form of Joshua who lends the power of his own true rune. Together, they wipe out every single one of the enemy monsters.

Yuber remains defiant, believing that the Imperials still hold the advantage, and orders the attack. It's time to begin the last battle! A force of 20k against our respectable 18k.
20k against our just over 18k. As is customary, I make full use of my three ninjas to begin the battle in destructive fashion. Within a few turns, Yuber's mighty force has been halved. The thieves then take up the mantle and land us some final crushing blows and before we know it, the fight is over. Fourteen thousand brave soldiers of the Liberation Army remain standing to see our brighter future born.

Heh. Heh heh heh heh. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! See, not so nice is it Yuber?

With that, Yuber admits defeat, saying he doesn't care as he won't miss this world much anyway. Back on our side, the leader of the dwarves has arrived, along with Zorak and even Hanzo, the mysterious ninja master. Zorak's about to begin one of his long-winded speeches before Viktor interrupts; it's time to charge to Gregminster!

This is it, we're back where it all began and ready to take Barbarosa's head. At least, that's what everyone seems to be concerned with. Personally, I think Windy is the more important target. Oh no! Oh no no no no! What fresh hell is this?! Like a poisoned blade being thrust into my bowels I hear the news that Flik wants to come with us. I just carefully selected and equipped this party and now a guy that I don't even like with poor armour, no healing items, and a low-level weapon is going to take the place of one of my warriors.

We'll do what we can Mat, don't die now

Oh well, we have to cope. Flik is at least a mixture of decent magic and a good physical offense, and since Pesmerga and Fu Su Lu fill similar roles in my team I decide he'll fill in for one of them. Examination of their stats proves Pesmerga my preference, and Fu makes way. I'm tempted to make another change and bring in Lepant's boy Sheena who seems to have some of, if not the best stats of any of my fighters, along with a lightning rune. Essentially, he's a better Flik than Flik, but I've already got one Flik so I'll stick with the team I've chosen.

Before we head inside, we're treated to a little bit more despair as Mathiu, through fits of coughing, tells us to be careful and Liukan announces his concerns over our strategist's health. All Mathiu wants is revenge for his sister. If that is to be your final wish, old friend, we'll do whatever it takes to grant it. Although I do hope and pray he pulls through, it's not looking good. 

I know, the party looks a lot less classy without Fu Su Lu's tiger head

Flik has got literally no armour on. There you go, if there's one criticism I could throw at the game, it's these forced unannounced changes right after you just spent all the time at the castle sorting out everyone's inventories and equipment. If they're going to stick someone in your party, it should at least pop up "Do you want to swap armour with the unfortunate sod you just spent half hour sorting out back at The Castle and who is now being booted home without a chance to fight?". 

Actually though, it turns out I can give Flik some stuff by simply warping back to HQ. It seems a bit daft and not quite in keeping with the beat of the story to cry "Victory!" at the castle gates and then tell everyone to hang on half an hour while I just pop back to the castle to fetch Flik some trousers, but I'm thankful for the option nonetheless. 

Then this happened...

Back at the castle, things become even more detached from the story as every member of our army is just sitting around in their typical poses with their usual 'between mission' dialogue. Even Mathiu is there, no longer coughing his guts up, instead offering me a letter to take to Leon Silverberg. I guess he was the final recruit after all and I'm going to delay the climax of this game even further by going to get him. Sue me.

At Kalekka, Mathiu himself turns up at Leon's house to reluctantly ask his father for aid. Just forget the context, if you can. Suspend disbelief for a moment and imagine this all happened before the battle. It's a flashback, if you like. Anyway, there's bad blood between papa and son but old man Silverberg lends his blade. There you go, the tablet is complete and I feel mightily proud indeed.

We're home

Diversion out of the way, back to Gregminster we go where the action resumes. Ain Gide awaits us at the entrance to the castle, reminding us of our previous encounter with him where Viktor invented those amusing "Schtolteheim Reinbach III" pseudonyms to sneak through the gate. Viktor himself pleads with Ain to just let us by; his blood need not be spilt and the Empire is already crushed. Ain, however, retains his admirable loyalty. If he betrays the Emperor now then poor old Barbarosa will have nobody left. You can tell he knows this is only going to end one way, and perhaps he even agrees with our cause, but he's served his master too long to wave the white flag now.

Into battle we go where Ain is frankly beaten quite quickly and without particular incident. He dies before us and Flik curses the situation. Viktor offers condolence in the form of a sensible proverb "Things can be right and useless, but also wrong and priceless". I believe he's saying that, perhaps for Flik Ain Gide's death was pointless and wasteful, but for Ain there could be no greater honour than to die for what he had his life believing and serving. From our perspective, the guy's death was a waste, but surely for him, his whole life would feel like a waste if he suddenly decided to switch sides at the last minute. What would have been the point of his serving Barbarosa for decades if he would abandon him so cheaply?

Exactly. You die with honour Ain Gide

It was a shame to see Ain fall, I would've preferred him to follow in the footsteps of the Imperial generals, but my interpretation of what Viktor said at least makes his death appear to have been worth something. We leave him be and head inside the castle, which is, of course, a dungeon replete with enemies and treasure chests. Good old Suikoden, good old JRPGs.

We soon make it to the throne room, but it's empty. A secret passage has been opened, through which the Emperor and Windy have surely made their escape. We follow with haste, where a sequence of forced battles with guards rapidly deplete my medicine stocks. I begin to worry about our prospects for the imminent boss fight, but there's not much we can do about it now. 

That'll be my chair soon!

Faster than I expected, we arrive at the big fellow himself, Barbarosa. He thanks us for coming this far. What a polite fellow, you're very welcome Mr Barbarosa, Sir. We're in his gardens, what he calls the remnants of his realm. He doesn't have much left, he says, but he'll protect it with everything he's got. He then draws his mighty dragon king sword. I hope you were paying close attention to the name of that sword, by the way, so you'll be ready for the fact that he then turns into a giant, golden, three-headed dragon.

As you might imagine, that's our cue to start hitting him with our blades, sticks, feet, anything we can get our hands on really. The battle involves attacking the heads one at a time. I'd like to now write a few paragraphs about the epic battle that unfolded, replete with thrills, spills, danger, and excitement. Unfortunately, the fight isn't particularly much of a challenge. Big Barb doesn't hit too hard, in fact, or maybe I've just really well-chosen and prepared my team. Either way, we take out a head quite rapidly thanks to our big damage-dealing spells. He retaliates with a pretty nasty attack that wipes our Crowley, so I've lost my healer, which obviously ratchets up the pressure a little. However, the remaining two heads don't put up enough of a fight to really trouble us and the great dragon is felled surprisingly quickly.

He looks pretty tough huh? Well, the barks of his three, golden, armour-plated, massive heads are worse than their bites.

Was that it though? Does he now unveil his "true form"? Is Windy about to burst in and say "Ha! I'm the real final boss!"? Well, no, not quite. The former generals (Sonya, Kasim, Kwanda, and Milich) arrive. They tell their former master that he's changed, he's been deceived by the evil Windy. Speak of the devil, here she is. Kasim attempts to defend his Emperor but Windy brings him to his knees without breaking a sweat. Oh dear, I won't be too chuffed if we have to tangle with her.

She's angry, and she wants the Soul Eater. She walks up to Akami and the rune bursts into life yet again, transporting Windy alone into the dark abyss where suddenly our fallen friends appear! Gremio, Ted, Teo, and Odessa stand around Windy! Their power, the true power of the Soul Eater, rejects the evil sorceress. 

The power of the fallen!

We're back to the real world where Windy curses the rune and cannot understand why she cannot take it. Barbarosa tells her it's over now. She then turns on him, threatening to kill him, but he calmly reminds her that his own true rune protects him from all magic. This comes as a shock to Windy who says she'd believed him to be under the control of her Black Rune. Barbarosa then drops the biggest bombshell of the game by saying that no, he was just pretending. He reveals he loves her, not for her likeness to his late wife, but for her own merits and character, and he wanted so dearly to erase the sadness he sees in her eyes. With a glance to Akami, Barbarosa asks what sort of land we'll make with him gone. Without waiting for an answer, he grabs Windy and leaps from the balcony to their collective doom.

Wow. So, all along, Barbarosa was just a fool in love and wanted Windy to be happy. We'd certainly seen a hint of this before when Futch met him briefly and the Emperor showed mercy. It remains quite a revelation, however. Along with the fact that we don't actually have to fight Windy! All game long I'd been anticipating the ultimate battle against her, but as it turns out it was our old comrades who stopped her for us.

At least he granted her final wish

The palace then begins to shake, and we need to get the hell out of here! The generals wait on the balcony, all fixed in a trance-like state of what I can only assume to be disbelief, sadness, and perhaps a little relief. They say they'll be right behind us, I only hope that's true. The party begins to head down through the castle. Some soldiers block our path and Viktor offers to stall them. I call him an idiot and say no way, but he urges that he's useless now the battle is over, while Akami needs to survive in order for a brighter future. 

Worst moment of the game, this one. We have to leave Viktor behind. Nothing I can do to stop it. We have to leave my most beloved companion to what might be certain death. Gut-wrenching. He says he'll be right behind us, and once more I can only pray he's telling the truth. To add to the misery, Flik then goes and does the same! We run into more soldiers and he offers a similar self-sacrifice in order that Akami might live. I've not enjoyed Flik's company a great deal but damn! 

No. No, no, no, no, no! Fight for another fifty or sixty years then Viktor, please

Akami and the others then run on, and the camera remains behind as Flik and Viktor catch up to one another. Flik tells Viktor that Akami has made it out, and Viktor grins. "We can fight to our heart's content!" he cries, unleashing his star dragon sword, as Flik nobly unveils his own blade Odessa and they commence their stand against a huge amount of imperial soldiers who don't even have an Emperor to fight for any longer. What a waste!

I have to say this is a painful ending indeed. If Viktor was going to go out, then swinging a sword with a buddy by his side is certainly the way for it, but I hoped so much that he'd make it through. The only thing I can do to dispel my fears is grip stubbornly to a sacred principle that I apply to games, tv shows, films, and books on a regular basis: if you don't see them die, they're probably not dead. It works for AMC's The Walking Dead, why not here?

If they do die, they do it in style

Outside, many friends await in a state of celebration. Hix and Tengaar share an amusing embrace, Futch finds his solace in the avenging of Black, Gen and Kamandol enjoy a typical exchange of banter. Happy scenes. Well, prepare to have that happiness shattered like the fragile bowling pin it is as the boulder of death comes rolling towards it once again! The scene shifts to Mathiu in bed, breathing his last. He asks Liukan if we won, and then wonders aloud if he chose the right path by becoming a strategist and being responsible for so much loss of life. Liukan begins to answer him, and I watch, naturally expecting our old philosopher to talk some optimistic sense into the poor guy, so that he can at least die with a peaceful mind. But no. No, no, no. The writers must've been having a bad day or something because Mat dies before Liukan has barely said a word. The old-timer only wishes that our loyal strategist rest in peace. Roll credits.

And the misery continues...

Yep. That's it. The story ends with Mathiu's death. Well, not quite. We're in fact treated to a sort of "Epilogue Credits" sequence where every single one of the 108 stars of destiny appears, along with a brief message about what happened to them. I painstakingly scribed them all, and present the list in full, for your pleasure:

1. Mathiu rested in peace.
2. Akami became president.
3. Lepant lived in peace with his family.
4. Luc went back to Leknaat.
5. Humphrey left the republic with Futch. (I wonder why)
6. Kasim became commander-in-chief and protected the border. 
7. Kwanda too.
8. Pesmerga continued to search for Yuber beyond the borders. (that's some grudge)
9. Gremio, of course, died. (thanks for the miserable reminder)
10. Warren became a chairman of congress.
11. Kun To became the head of the merchant's guild.
12. Cleo grew tired of fighting and began living in, and protecting, Teo's old house.
13. Viktor is MIA. (knife in the heart)
14. Valeria becomes a mediator between humans and elves. 
15. Griffith starts a business.
16. Clive disappears instantly.
17. Flik is MIA. (much smaller knife in the heart)
18. Camille becomes the lancing instructor of the army.
19. Kreutz leaves the country.
20. Kage disappears. (obviously)
21. Stallion leaves to become fastest man in the world. (he already is, I'm sure)
22. Fu Su Lu left on a journey.
23. Kirkis rebuilds the elf village.
24. Milich protects the grave of Barbarosa.
25. Pahn died. (medium-sized knife)
26. Sonya is the admiral of the navy. 
27. Anji plans to go into the shipping business and make a bundle.
28. Tai Ho returns to Kaku to chill. (classic Tai Ho)
29. Kanak joins Anji.
30. Yam Koo fishes. 
31. Leonardo joins Anji. 
32. Hix is accepted as a true warrior and departs on a journey. 
33. Tengaar follows him. (that's nice)
34. Varkas is captain of the border guard.
35. Sydonia disappears.
36. Eileen stays by Lepant's side.
37. Leon lives out his life in his hometown. 
38. Georges disappears north.
39. Ivanov goes searching for the colour of freedom. (good luck)
40. Jeane returns as runemaster at Antei.
41. Max retires.
42. Eikei departs to find worthy opponents. (I don't envy anyone who gets in his way)
43. Sancho continues to serve his master.
44. Alen is a co-commander of the republican guard.
45. Grenseal is the other co-commander. 
46. Tesla becomes secretary general of republic.
47. Jabba in charge of finances.
48. Lorelai leaves to find adventure. 
49. Blackman returns to his fields.
50. Joshua returns to coach future knights.
51. Morgan continues his studies at temple.
52. Mose works rebuilding Gregminster. 
53. Esmeralda lives a comfortable life.
54. Melodye departs looking for all the world's sounds. (ambitious)
55. Chapman opens a theatre.
56. Liukan opens a clinic.
57. Fukien returns to temple.
58. Futch departs with Humphrey. (what are they up to!?)
59. Kasumi returns to Rokkaku. 
60. Maas resumes his studies.
61. Crowley returns to the caves as he despises the world. (charming)
62. Moose becomes a master blacksmith. 
63. Fuma is invited to Rokkaku.
64. Sergei becomes rich from his inventions. 
65. Meese visits the dwarves to improve his skills.
66. Sheena has a good time wandering around. 
67. Kimberley forces her way into Tai Ho's house. (ha ha!)
68. Kessler becomes captain of the republic patrol corps.
69. Gen returns to Teien to build ships.
70. Marco leads a vigorous life. (I'll bet she does)
71. Hugo is the republic's chief justice.
72. Hellion succeeds Leknaat as the new seer. 
73. Milia resumes her duties at the Dragon's Den.
74. Mina becomes popular dancer.
75. Kamandol continues his alchemy. 
76. Juppo departs to search for a bigger trick. (I think his "Magically-Appearing Nameless Urn" trick isn't too bad)
77. Kasios departs to spread liberation army songs.
78. Viki disappears.
79. Rubi is welcomed into the new Village of Elves.
80. Vincent goes home and claims his inheritance. (ha ha! x2) 
81. Meg leaves home.
82. Taggart becomes an assistant to Warren.
83. Quincy goes back to the forest.
84. Giovanni starts a business. 
85. Apple begins a biography of Mathiu. (may it become a best-seller)
86. Kai becomes a martial arts instructor.
87. Lotte lives with her cat. 
88. Mace lets Moose succeed him and retires. 
89. Onil still loves to gossip. 
90. Kuromimi becomes village chief of the Kobolds. 
91. Gon works hard to become the no.1 Kobold warrior. 
92. Antonio is the cook at Marie's inn.
93. Lester opens a stew place. 
94. Kirke becomes a farmer.
95. Rock builds a vault for the dwarves. 
96. Ledon opens an honest inn. (ha ha! x3) 
97. Sylvina marries Kirkis. (lovely news!)
98. Ronnie trains to be a homemaker.
99. Gaspar throws his dice at the inn. 
100. Marie reopens her Gregminster inn.
101. Window designs stained-glass windows. (rather fitting)
102. Sarah works as a maid at Marie's.
103. Sansuke designs new baths. (an important role in the new republic)
104. Zen tends to his flowers at castle. 
105. Qlon becomes the keeper of The Castle. 
106. Templeton departs in search of the edge of the world. 
107. Krin steals the Gregminster palace treasure and disappears. (typical) 
108. Chandler opens his own store. 

At least Gen's still around to raise our spirits

That's it, my dear friends. The credits then finally do begin their march and I'm left gaping at the screen with all manner of emotions wriggling about my mind. But wait, it's not quite over yet. The briefest post-credits scene of all time shows Akami leaving the town in the night. He looks left and right, as if to check he's not being followed or observed, and then walks off. We're then treated to a still picture of him walking out alone into the world. That's it. That's really it this time.

What does it mean? Well, I'm going to have to do a little research and I'll get back to you in another post where I'll discuss the game and it's ending a little more, but if you'd like my own hypothesis then I suppose, since Akami is left with the curse of the Soul Eater until he passes the thing on, he'll live on forever. Forced to see his friends die. Perhaps he's leaving the city as part of some plan to remove the rune once and for all, or perhaps he believes his work to be done and hopes to find a new life or further adventures elsewhere. It's left rather open, as I think you can see. Of course, Mathiu is dead, the generals survived, and the Vik/Flik combination remain missing in action. I'm going to say they survived though.

In fact, I'm going to say they were both fine. Logically, if the generals made it out of that place, then Viktor and Flik, two of the mightiest warriors in my whole army, should have survived. Similarly I'm glad to see the rest of our forces make it through, I feared that many more characters would risk losing their lives before the day was done, but we fought bravely, we saved the country from certain catastrophe, and a brighter future awaits the republic. I'll certainly play Suikoden 2 and see how much, if any, continuation there is between the games, but I greatly enjoyed reading each of our companion's brief epilogues and pondering what adventures still remained for them all. The game may be over, but the story continues.

What a game

Views: The Extinction of the Dinosaurs... in Video Games

The year was 1999. We were living in a post-Resident Evil 2 world, with Nemesis just around the corner. The trappings of survival horror had been established, the genre was already widely adored, and Shinji Mikami was the name on everyone's lips. He, and Capcom, then decided to try something a little different. Something that turned out to be a stroke of genius, and went on to become one of the most successful games the company ever produced. I am, of course, talking about Dino Crisis. 

Says it all

The idea was brilliant; essentially taking the aspects of what made the Resident Evil games special, and bringing them over into a world with an enemy far deadlier than any zombie. Capcom marketed the game as "Survival Panic" and it's easy to see why. Dinosaurs were a new, and completely different threat to the zombies we'd seen before. The game played so similarly to Resident Evil 2 and yet every combat experience was so much more intimidating and stressful. The pace of the dinosaurs, their resilience, their sudden and unpredictable movements and overwhelming strength; it all combined to create a game that did indeed instil panic. In the same way that the slow-moving, yet fearful and gruesome living corpses of Resident Evil had instilled horror. 

It's a game I played again recently, and it brought to mind that question we all asked as a child: what happened to the dinosaurs? Zombies have certainly gone from strength to strength to saturation as the years have gone by, but dinosaurs glimmered briefly before disappearing off the face of the Earth (no pun intended). Are the games themselves to blame? Well, zombies can nowadays rely on titles like Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising to cement their mainstream status; these games have built on the incredibly solid foundations left by Resident Evil, House of the Dead, Evil Dead and even Half-Life. Dinosaurs on the other hand had to bank most of their money on the remarkably mixed bag of Jurassic Park titles, a few odd lightgun games, and the Turok series - which enjoyed a brief moment in the sun but never really reached its potential, and these days the dinos have very little representation in the market. They show up from time to time of course, but mostly in guest appearances than starring roles.

Perhaps its telling that "Zombie Video Games" has its own Wikipedia page featuring well over 100 titles in an incomplete list while our Triceratops and Velociraptor friends enjoy no such online encyclopaedia recognition. It's clear that zombies have a far greater catalogue of games to support them, but I'm not trying to start a war here between the flesh-eating living dead and the bone-crunching theropods. It's clear that both of these perfect video game villains could have co-existed, with the popularity and success of zombies only going to show what might have been had developers taken more of a chance on the dino. 

This is why dinosaurs should be at the forefront of gaming

With the right support, we can imagine just how rich the dinosaur game catalogue could be, with the beasts offering an incredibly amount of flexibility in terms of gameplay. There are a few brave souls out there still trying to keep the idea alive, but mostly on the modding scene: a far cry from global powerhouses like Capcom. Dino D-Day, a humorous "What If?" WW2 multiplayer-only shooter featuring Dinosaur vs Soldier combat, was released a few years ago. It wasn't the finest game on the market by any stretch but I had some fun little moments with it. There are also some very impressive Left 4 Dead mods that replace the zombies with raptors, etc. Apart from that, pickings are mighty slim, and it's a shame. 

Dinosaurs present us with so many options, and for the video game industry to continually fail to take notice of that fact is a cause of grief for all of us 'saurus fans. The open world genre could be hugely-enriched by the presence of dinosaurs; imagine a Far Cry 3 or Dead Island style survival game for instance. First and third-person action games, survival horror, hunting, the adventure genre, there are so many ways to incorporate these prehistoric creatures into our games that it boggles the mind that there are so few examples out there. 

These creatures offer the sort of experience that normally we'd have to delve into the world of fantasy to find. They are, essentially, real monsters. Whether or not that counts for many people, I don't know, but it certainly seems like a big deal to me. Knowing that these creatures truly existed rather than the orcs, goblins and dragons we plough through in our D&D titles just adds a little something. They're terrifying, they're something we would have such little chance against in unarmed or melee combat, they're predators above the level of man, with heightened senses, more impressive speed, and impressive force. Couple all of this with the fact that there are so many species with such variation, and you've got some pretty decent video game opportunities, right?

So what was it that led to the downfall of the dino? Well the unfortunate decline in quality of the Dino Crisis series, especially when compared to the success of RE, certainly helped. Just take a look at RE4; it turned out to be one of the biggest and arguably finest games ever made. It was a winner of numerous GotY awards for 2005, forging the way for the future of the third-person action genre, and was so successful it earnt a release on almost every available device, plus a HD re-release on 360 and PS3. Compare that to the "equivalent" release in the Dino Crisis series: 2003's Dino Crisis 3. A game almost universally critically panned, with a whole bunch of gameplay issues of which the star performer was the camera; a camera that, to this day, might be the worst I've ever seen in a high profile video game. By the way, DC3 was set in space. Oh and the dinosaurs? Well, they were more genetic experimental mutants rather than the traditional species we all know and love. Apparently the developers decided classic dinos - you know, the countless species of clawed, winged, sharp-toothed, ferocious, man-eating monsters of innumerable shapes and sizes - were just a bit too dull, they needed to jazz them up a bit.

Capcom development meeting: Any ideas for Dino Crisis 3 guys? DINOSAURS! Yeah but we've sort of already done that. People probably want more, no? MUTANT DINOSAURS! I like where this is going... can we take it further? MUTANT DINOSAURS IN SPACE! Sold.

Thus, when you've got a GotY groundbreaking trend-setter in the blue corner and a the gaming equivalent of a poorly mashed potato in the corner, there can only be one winner. Dino Crisis 3 was the last we'd see of the series, while Resident Evil hasn't exactly gone from strength to strength in too many people's views but it's at least still going. It is, of course, unfair and untrue to say that zombies and dinosaurs have relied exclusively on Resident Evil and Dino Crisis, but the parallels between the paths of these series and their respective choice of enemy serve as a good example. Another, more modern illustration can be seen in the Telltale adventure games Jurassic Park and The Walking Dead. The latter, a hugely successful GotY winner whose second season will imminently commence, the former a disappointment to almost all who played it. 

A number of other bizarre factors has led to the current state of dinosaur affairs. For example, the fact that one of the biggest publishers in the business had a great little dino game on their hands, and chose not to bother supporting it with their immense marketing powers. I'm talking about Jurassic: The Hunted, a very under-the-radar Activision 2009 release. I challenge you to go and try finding a copy of that thing in any shop near you. Go on.. I'll wait. Weirdly, almost as if they were ashamed or scared or just didn't give enough of a damn, Activision kept the project as secret as the nuclear launch codes, sending out a minimal press release just before the game was announced, and choosing not to bother selling most versions of the game throughout Europe and elsewhere.

Right idea, wrong publisher

Jurassic: The Hunted was not fantastic by any means but it was certainly solid, just the sort of solid the dinos will need if they're ever to come back. It played exceptionally similarly to CoD and included some ludicrous characters and dialogue, a nutty story, and a fantastic ability where you develop temporary X-Ray vision in order to target your shots at specific dinosaur organs! It was fun, and if you get a chance to pick it up cheaply sometime I'd recommend it. What Activision did to it, and consequently Slovakian developer Cauldron, was a travesty that has continued to set the dinos back even further. 

With the new generation of consoles about to begin their journey, could this be the time for the comeback the dinosaurs richly deserve? We can only hope. The face of a T-Rex or Spinosaurus has never had the potential to look better in full HD and 60FPS, and with zombies perhaps slowly reaching the end of their time in the sun, the stage is set for the dinos to have their moment. All it'll take to start a trend is one developer brave enough to successfully tackle a full-on dinosaur game. And with all the potential these beasts offer us, I can't even imagine it being such a hard task, especially in the right hands. 

Perhaps the forthcoming release of Jurassic Park 4 (or Jurassic World as it is now presumed to be known) might get the train rolling and spark a few ideas in some clever developer's heads. Perhaps the rough ride endured by Resident Evil recently could inspire Capcom to reboot their once world-beating Dino Crisis brand. Whether these sort of things will happen remains to be seen but I, for one, will live in hope of the return of the dinosaurs.

Views: HD Collections and You!

There's a growing trend in the game industry. It began around March 2010 and has spread like a virus. A virus that gives not-so-old games slightly better graphics. Yes, I'm obviously talking about the inevitable uprising of the HD collection. A couple of last-gen games bundled on a disc, dolled up to look a little better than you remember, and sold for a little less than a new game. God of War, Prince of Persia, Metal Gear Solid, the list is growing and growing as more publishers realise they can make a pretty easy buck for throwing one of these things together and getting it on shelves.

Witness the terror... again... with slightly better graphics and party chat. 

Personally, as you may have gathered, I am not a fan. I'm not someone who is blind to the positive aspects, I can certainly appreciate the merit to re-releasing some of these games, all of them are, arguably and in their own right, fantastic games, and great examples of the best that last-gen has to offer. Metal Gear Solid 3, Resident Evil 4, Shadow of the Colossus, Beyond Good and Evil, they're all 'classics' in a certain sense of the word, so clearly the choice of games is reasonable so far, and it's definitely fun to revisit some of them, particularly for those of us who misplaced our copies or no longer use the older consoles. Similarly, for new gamers out there who only have current-gen hardware and never had a chance to check these games out, the collections provide them with an opportunity to see what all the fuss is about and witness some of the finest experiences to ever grace consoles.


That's all well and good, but the fact remains that some of these games are barely half a decade old. In gaming, that's really not a long time, or rather what I mean to say is that you can go back and play games from five or six years ago pretty easily. I very recently bought into this trend and downloaded Resident Evil 4 HD on my 360 to see how good it looked. I played through the game within two days and remembered every little bit of it, that's because I only bought the original game in 2006 and played through it about five times back then, not to mention that it had already been remastered and re-released on Wii. Nothing had been added to the package aside from a simple set of achievements. It certainly looked better than before but overall I had just spent money on the same experience I could've had by booting up my PS2. If this is the intention of the product, then the developers have succeeded, but then I have to ask what is the point?

As different as apples and... a slightly different brand of apples

These are not remakes, nothing substantial is ever really added, it's not as if the old versions of the games are unplayable or unattainable, and the graphical upgrades are rarely impressive, so why do companies insist on using their own development time to release these collections? Well, the obvious answer is money so my question is somewhat pointless. 


It's just that, personally, I feel the gaming industry has more potential than any other media form on the planet, look how far we've come in just a few decades. Pong to Starcraft. Galaga to Halo. It's an ever-growing, fast-changing industry with limitless possibilities, and developers should realise that they are part of that, part of something truly special. All of them are pioneers, taking this media format/art form/whatever you want to call it, to brand new heights. I love how quickly the industry progresses, that's one of the things that attracts me most to gaming. Yet it seems that for every step forward, like for example, the release of a God of War or a Metal Gear Solid, the industry always has to take one step back with these tedious moneymaking exercises that do nothing to help, merely serving as reminders that above all else, this is a business.


People have been clamouring for remakes for as long as I can remember. Final Fantasy VII is a good enough example, die-hard fans have been begging Square Enix to re-release that game for years. The PS3 teaser from a few years back showed us all that, should anyone at S-E ever say "Hey let's finally do it!", then the current generation of hardware would allow for some astonishing graphical upgrades and make that game much more playable to a modern audience. I wish they wouldn't do it at all, in my mind the idea of remaking games like that would be the equivalent of Gerard Butler playing the lead in a 2012 release of Casablanca, but if developers insist on resurrecting their famous games, that is how they should do it in my opinion. Not by lazily updating textures that are only five or six years old, but by taking much older games, games that younger fans weren't even born for, classics that deserve to be seen again, titles that some people would call 'unplayable' in their current form due to graphical or technical limitations, if you must dredge up your best-sellers, take games like these and give them a full and real remake that can be enjoyed by new and old fans alike. 

What I'm really saying is they need to remake FFVII. No, wait...

Either do a full remake of an old classic so that it makes a real difference and can be enjoyed by a new audience, or leave it be, and above all else, have respect for your own franchises. Cashing in on games from 05 by bundling them together on a disc and upressing the textures a little is a pretty poor way of treating these great franchises and serves no real purpose other than making some easy money, which obviously means it's not going to stop. Developers should be trying to push the industry forward, these re-releases do nothing towards that. That's my view, and were this article being read by a lot more people I'd love to know yours.