Thad wrote:You know, on my first playthrough I somehow managed to miss all the shops that sold Water Runes and never put any of the characters who came with them in my party. I made it all the way to the end with only items for healing.
In-battle healing isn't quite as important in Suikoden as it is in other RPGs, partly because most of the way through the dungeon you hit the "I can stop fighting random encounters" level and start Letting every monster Go -- and late in the game, you can use the Soul Eater level 1 and 3 spells to fight most of your battles for you to hit that level quickly. There are a few bosses that have strong whole-party hits, but you fight no small number of them (the Gigantes in the Dwarf Vault, the Zombie Dragon in the Toran lake fortress) before you get any decent healing magic.
Thad wrote:Hm. Is Ted the only character in the game who gets two portraits?
I think so! I think it's not supposed to be immediately clear who the kid is, which is why the party spends so much time deliberating on it. But while the game has two Qlons and the series has at least three Sarahs, the name Ted is exclusive to that one guy who carried the Soul Eater, so :shrug:
Thad wrote:And do we ever find out what Yuber's deal is anyway? I mean, he's a bad dude, and...I think Pesmerga's chasing him? And...
You never do. I vaguely recall reading somewhere that the series director wanted the final game in the Suikoden series to involve Yuber's and Pesmerga's backstory and their final clash, but then the series never really sold well and started sliding down a slippery slope into awfulness after the second game, so it never happened.
Thad wrote:Huh. Wonder whatever happened to Sword and Shield, anyway.
They both broke apart! It says so right there. Which I guess means that Sword won the fight, on a technicality.