Let's Play Suikoden 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Thad]

Suikoden 1 is one of those games where everything starts out slowly, with stew and minor fetch quests and the comforts of home, until everything goes horribly wrong.

Suikoden 2 is one of those games that starts out with the murder of a bunch of teenagers. Everything goes horribly wrong right out the gate.

Suikoden 3 is one of those games where nothing happens for the first 30 hours. It's where everything starts to go horribly wrong for the Suikoden series.

Suikoden 4 is horrible and wrong.

That's Luca Blight, bearer of one of those names you learn to run away from really fast. Get used to this, folks, Suikoden 2 has a pretty crummy translation and localization.

And a total lack of subtlety.

If I were to pick a game quote for the thread title, it would be "Luca Blight is a blight on this land!"

EDIT TO ADD: And it's not just that the translation is bad (though it is -- not only bad but in some places actually literally nonexistent). It's the lack of continuity and the clear absence of a series bible. It's not just that the game can't keep the new characters' names straight, it can't keep the old ones straight either. Hope you like seeing "Silverberg" spelled with a "u", because this is the only game in the series that does that.

...Since I think about it, it's almost odd that there hasn't been a fan retranslation project on this game. Almost, except that there are still several spinoff games that don't have English translations at all, I can see how those would be higher priorities. And this is one of those games that holds up exceptionally well despite the laundry list of mistakes in its localization.

(Speaking of: any plans on doing a playthrough of the fan translation of Swordsman of Harmonia?)

[nosimpleway]

H-hey! It's that guy!

I mean add on a few years and switch the art style, but still!

????: Hey you! Wake up already! I'll throw ya in the river again!




Not willing to break with tradition quite yet, there's a text box here that gives you a meaningless decision.

Muteiu: I'm Muteiu.
????: So you can talk, huh. What the hell were you doing in the river? Did you slip?
Muteiu: We were ambushed by the State Army...
????: State Army? What are you talking about? We just signed a peace agreement. I can't believe it... huh? Are you a Highlander?

The only options are to admit that it was a State ambush or admit that it was a State attack. Despite that no matter how the scene plays out, Rowd makes it quite clear that Prince-Regent Luca Blight set the whole thing up as a false-flag operation, you can't come out and say so here. Anyway, the totally mysterious bear-like man just asked about Muteiu's nationality, might as well fess up.

????: I see. So you and I are enemies. I'm Viktor, leader of the Mercenary Army and friend of the The City-State of Jowston.

the The?


Hey, it's that other guy!

Viktor: What are you talking about, Flik? I wouldn't do that... I'm a nice guy. But anyway, what happened to the other one?
Flik: It's no good. We lost sight of him. I hope he made it...
Viktor: Too bad... Okay, listen up. Whoever you are, you're gonna be my personal guest for a while. You may not find the accomodations too comfortable, though. Don't look so worried. We're not going to eat you or anything. Okay, let's go back to the fort.








That's... thoughtful.

[nosimpleway]

Music: Those Who Work Must Eat
There apparently isn't any sort of official translation for the song names on the soundtrack, because each piece seems to have a few different variations on its name. This one is alternately "Those Who Don't Work Don't Deserve to Eat", or "If You Don't Work, You Don't Eat", both of which better provide the thrust of the location where the music plays.


Pohl: I'm Pohl. I'm going to watch out for you. After breakfast you're going to do some work for us. After all, no work no eat.

I guess you could say that, too.


The first job is to push all the boxes up against the wall, then gather up some uncoiled rope. Surely I don't need to transcribe Pohl detailing all of this?

Music: The First Job
Slight variation of "If You Don't Work You Don't Eat".


Anyway, this is how the game introduces that some puzzles are going to involve pushing blocks. It's a mid-nineties JRPG on the Playstation, what did you expect?






All Muteiu does for the day is clean the storeroom, so it's straight on to dinner and bed afterwards.

[nosimpleway]

Pohl: Listen up and remember. Umm... go to the stockroom and get 2 pairs of 'boots'. Then get 3 flints at the blacksmith... and 2 bags of flour at the item store. I'll be waiting here, thanks.

We're free to wander around the fort.


There's a prompt here to make sure you were paying attention to Pohl's instructions.


Yabba dabba doo!


So, how many boots do we need?


Muteiu slips on one of the pairs of boots, meaning there isn't enough in the inventory to count for Pohl's errand. The game realizes this, and allows you to talk to Barbara again to restart the prompt.


Muteiu's a bit of a boot thief. :whoops:

[nosimpleway]

On the ground floor, up from the work areas in the basement, there's a dining room, common area, and hardware quartermaster...






While the top floor of the fort has Viktor and Flik's quarters and a meeting room with a map of the eastern side of Lake Dunan.


You people have portraits, so I'm sure you're all important somehow...

Also that's pretty creepy, Leona.




Hey, you asked for three flints before. I guess I'll just hang on to the extra. No telling when flint might be handy.

Pohl: I see. We're out of flour, huh... Listen, will you go to Ryube Village for me? Don't worry, it's not far.

...That's an awful lot of freedom for someone who you're treating as a prisoner.

Pohl: But you can't go by yourself. Someone will have to take you. Go and talk to Leona. I'll go and unlock the door.


Leona: Hey, Gengen!


Leona: Gengen, sorry to ask you to baby-sit, but could you take this kid to Ryube with you?
Gengen: Gengen soldier. Gengen not baby-sitter.
Leona: Don't be like that. A fine Kobold warrior like you should honor a lady's request.
Gengen: Aaah.... you are right, my lady. Let's go, boy!! Follow Gengen.




Gengen: Gengen take this kid to Ryube.
Tuta: Oboy! Really? Take me with you too.
Leona: Tuta, are you finished doing Dr. Huan's chores?
Tuta: Yeah, I delivered the medicine. I've never been to Ryube and Dr. Huan won't mind if I'm a little bit late.
Gengen: Grrrrrrr..... Gengen must baby-sit 2 children?
Leona: Please.... kind Kobold warrior.
Gengen: ......Okay! Just leave it to Gengen!!!
Tuta: Yeah!!!!!!

Six exclamation points, a sure sign of a disturbed mind. It'll only get worse from here.

[nosimpleway]

Gengen is an average swordsman, much like Kuromimi was before.


Tuta is a useless earlygame crutch character. His Medicine rune -- yes, his, I'm sure, shut up -- often consumes his turn to administer a healing item to someone in the party, no matter what command he may have been given instead. His stats are terrible all around, and will remain so for the entire game. (He grows up into a hunk by the time Suikoden 3 rolls around, although IIRC that game wisely makes him a noncombat character.)


Pohl heavily implies that Tuta is largely deadweight.


Outside, one of the soldiers points out the mighty Bear flag that marks the Mercenary fortress. Viktor sewed it himself.


Tuta: Gengen, it's not a forest or a mountain road. There won't be that many monsters. Right, Muteiu?
Gengen: Soldier must not be overconfident. Gengen is leader of this group. So now you call me 'Captain Gengen'.
Tuta: Okay, Captain Gengen.
Muteiu: Yes, Captain Gengen.
Gengen: Okay everyone, here we go. Stay with the Captain!!!


Outside there are holly sprites and axe-wielding rabbits and bouncing fluffs of hair. No new enemy designs in this sequel so far...


One of the rabbits drops food: Cream Stew is a very lategame healing item, but available from possibly the second battle in the game. Huh.


There are a few places other than Ryube to go. North Sparrow Pass is blocked by guards who warn of a "Mist Monster", the entrance to Radat down south is blocked by workers who say they're working on the road that leads across the sluice -- or just that the sluice gate is open and no one can cross over while they're working, they can't really get their story straight -- and Toto doesn't have much of interest. It is, yes, full of kids.


There's an appraiser, but they're closed even if you happen to have something to appraise. They also mention trading posts, where the prices of goods change -- we'll get to those later.


The item store has an option for Rare Finds, but it's not available yet.


Okay, moving on.

[nosimpleway]

Music: A Peaceful Mountain Village


Tuta: When we're done getting flour at the item store, let's have some fun.

In this mountain backwater? The only reason we're here is because it's close. There aren't even any wheat fields nearby.


I mean, there are some performers here for some damn reason, but they're not set up for their show yet.


idk


There's a blacksmith in Ryube, but it's been so long since he's sharped he's out of practice. All he can do is improve Muteiu's Twin Fang tonfa from level 1 to level 2.


The armor shop does, indeed, have a Rare Find! It's a Brass Armor, which is pretty easily obsoleted but still ahead of where I am at the moment, so I buy it. I have to sell off some of the Boots I lifted from Barbara back at the fort, but hey, brass armor protects better than boots do.


Picking up the flour is just a matter of asking for it. The shopkeep puts it on a tab so Muteiu doesn't have to pay for it out-of-pocket. Which is good, since Pohl has been paying us in food instead of coin.


Gengen and Tuta split off and go their separate ways.


Muteiu heads back to his cell for dinner.

[nosimpleway]

Music: The Next Job




Wipe it up, like this.




This section really shows off the care and attention the game could have gotten, had it not been redesigned and replotted and rushed out the door to release way too damn fast. This is the only part of the game where Muteiu needs to carry a rag around, but every frame of his animation here includes it.

[nosimpleway]

If you call out, Jowy shows up immediately. If you keep quiet, he joins with a bit of HP damage from the struggle through a bunch of mercenaries to find you.




Great idea! The work is easy here but lordy I feel like I'll never eat real food again.


ruh roh


Come on, Jowy! We're trained soldiers from the Youth Corps of the Highland Unicorn Brigade! We can take 'em! What are they supposed to be, anyway, career soldiers with experience in a previous civil war or something? Let's go!


Flik draws his sword as quick as a bolt of lightning and knocks Muteiu the fuck right out.

[nosimpleway]

Jowy: Jowy... Jowy Atreides.
Viktor: Jowy. Okay. Since you came to rescue Muteiu, can I assume you're also a Highlander?
Jowy: That's right.

What, did you think there could be only one?

Flik: I see... you're the other one... the one we lost in the river.
Viktor: Now that you mention it, I never did hear how you managed to wind up in that mess.
Jowy: Well that's...
Viktor: Muteiu said something about a 'surprise attack by the State' but the State Army hasn't moved since the peace treaty was signed. So what the hell happened?


The screen darkens as Muteiu spills the beans.


Viktor: Anyway, what were you planning to do after you rescued Muteiu?
Jowy: After I rescued Muteiu, I was planning to go back to Kyaro Town with him.
Flik: So are you still planning on trying to escape?
Jowy: Yes.
Viktor: Hmph. Well you can just stay put in the cell for a while. We'll gie you food and a place to sleep.


Jowy: I'd been found by a little girl who brought me back to her home where they mended my wounds. I heard a rumor that a young man was being held prisoner here and so I came to save you... sorry.

[nosimpleway]

Pohl: Muteiu, I don't blame you for trying to escape, but please don't do it again. The boss will let you out of here soon enough.
Jowy: Excuse me? Could I please have a spoon.
Pohl: A spoon? For your soup? Aren't we the fine nobleman. Wait a minute. I'll get you one.


The music for the brief cutscenes where Muteiu eats in his cell is, in fact, Are You Gonna Eat That Carrot?


Jowy: Muteiu, let me see what you're holding.

Well, the idiots never bothered to take back the rope I cleaned up on the first day, the extra flint, this oily rag...

Jowy: Excellent. This will do just fine. But first we have to get out of here. Just bend the spoon like this...




Upstairs, Jowy uses the flint on the oily rag to make a smoke bomb...


...distracting the guards while we run to the top floor...


...where Jowy and Muteiu make their escape over the balcony.


Jowy: When I think about Captain Rowd and that man he was talking to.... it might be dangerous in Kyaro. But I still want to go back. Your sister Nanami is waiting for you there too. She's.... probably worried about you.
Muteiu: Let's go back to Kyaro Town.
Jowy: Yeah. That's where we grew up. We can't forget it so easily.

[Thad]

H-hey! It's that guy!

I mean add on a few years and switch the art style, but still!

Yeah, I love that, despite the shift, he's immediately recognizable. That smirk.

Indeed, the whole "stumbling across Viktor and Flik's headquarters" sequence is just delightful. First, it's a bit of levity after some serious shit, and second, it's a real reward for people who played the first game.

Flik and Viktor didn't get many scenes together in the first game but their bit in the ending was pretty meaningful. The two of them starting their own merc camp -- again, I would play a whole series of games about their adventures.

...That's an awful lot of freedom for someone who you're treating as a prisoner.

I love that, too. They're really not very convincing with this whole kidnapping thing.

Jowy: When I think about Captain Rowd and that man he was talking to.... it might be dangerous in Kyaro. But I still want to go back. Your sister Nanami is waiting for you there too. She's.... probably worried about you.
Muteiu: Let's go back to Kyaro Town.
Jowy: Yeah. That's where we grew up. We can't forget it so easily.

This, on the other hand? Fucking excruciating. You don't need crate-pushing minigames to know you're in a mid-1990's JRPG when you've got clunky exposition like this.

And it would be SO EASY to have gotten it right. Just drop Nanami's name -- "Your sister is waiting for you" sounds perfectly natural -- and substitute "That's where we grew up with just "Home..."

[nosimpleway]

If you're looking for subtlety and nuance, this really isn't the game/translation for you. Maybe something along the lines of Tactics Ogre?

[nosimpleway]

Well, I'm sick again. Now it's a good thing this isn't a video-hybrid LP! *sniff, hack, cough, clear throat, sniff*


Jowy proves himself to be a better party member than Gengen and Tuta combined.




Oh, that's helpful. One of the Cut Rabbits drops a Technique Rune, another new item addition to the game. In Suikoden 1, you got Rune Pieces aligned with the elements that gave stat bonuses. In this game, you can slap elemental runes themselves onto your weapon to change physical hits to that element of damage instead. This game also introduces runes that exist specifically to be put on weapons, like the Technique Rune here. When performing a normal physical attack, there's a 40% chance to swipe some money from the enemy in addition to doing damage. The money stolen seems to be about as much as the enemy would have dropped upon its defeat, but upon its defeat you get that too.

Music: The Great Street Performers


The circus sideshow has finished setting up and started their performance. On the right, a knife juggler. On the left, someone reads fortune from tarot cards. And in the center, a burly fire-breather.




Eilie: Okay. You're the right height, and you've got a cute face too. Come here. Hurry, hurry!
Jowy: Hey... hey... Muteiu....

[nosimpleway]

Eilie: Hey! That's not how I told you to say it!
Bolgan: Umm. Here she is!! The beautiful and famous knife-thrower Eilie! Feast your eyes on her magnificent face and form!


Whoa wait what I am not okay with this


NOT AS HELPFUL AS YOU THINK IT IS




Each time a new target is placed on Muteiu's head, you're given the option to either stay still or move a little.






If you don't move, Eilie hits the target spot-on.


After hitting a watermelon, a gourd, and a bunch of bananas, the last target is an apple. The audience is much perturbed by this; Jowy nearly jumps out of his pants.




Ack!

[nosimpleway]

It's almost impossible to have someone walking around with 0 HP. After each battle, anyone who dropped to 0 is restored to 1, making it clear that it's possible to heal them back up. (In Suikoden 1, Medicine and Water/Wind rune healing magic would work on a person at 0 HP only out of battle. No one ever bothers to tell you their in-battle uselessness is mitigated.)

If Muteiu is at low HP when entering this cutscene, then getting hit with Eilie's knife will do enough damage to knock him to 0. It's about the only way to have a dead man walking -- not a useful or exploitable bug, but there you go.

Jowy: Whew. Thanks goodness you're okay, Muteiu.

(sic) as usual. I normally fix minor spelling problems or the overuse of punctuation when they crop up in a game script, like an ellipsis that only prints two or as many as four dots. But I'm leaving this script intact, I think it's part of the game experience.

Bolgan: I'm glad you're all right.
Rina: Thanks for helping us out. We're traveling performers. I'm Rina.....
Eilie: I'm Eilie. We're sisters and this is our big brother.
Bolgan: Bolgan!!!

Rina and Eilie are biological sisters with the RPG standard-issue dead parents. Bolgan is their adopted brother; they met him in a circus in the Zexen confederacy out west.

Jowy: I'm Jowy. This is my friend, Muteiu. We're on our way to Kyaro Town in Highland...
Rina: Hey, so are we. We've been to all the villages around here. It's time for somewhere new. The only problem is...
Eilie: I told you it would be okay. Don't worry about the Mist Monster. After all, I'm here.
Jowy: The Mist Monster?
Rina: To enter Highland, you have to take North Swallow Pass. But we've heard rumors that a horrible Mist Monster lives up there. If you guys are going to Highland too, maybe we go together?
Jowy: Yeah. It's okay with me. How about you, Muteiu?

Muteiu has the chance to just agree, or to tip his fedora and be as creepy as possible in an attempt to be charming.

Rina: Thank you. Now we cross the mountain with no worries.
Eilie: Great. Thanks a lot Muteiu and Jowy.
Bolgan: Bolgan happy.


Eilie is a long-ranged high-accuracy fighter, as befits her station as knife thrower. Rina is a long-ranged magician, throwing tarot cards into battle when asked to fight. Bolgan is a strongman, so he just stands up front and punches dudes when he's not using his unique rune to breathe fire at them.


State Soldier: There's also a rumor that a MIst Monster lives in there. No one is permitted to enter by order of Mayor Annabelle of Muse. Please go back the way you came.
Jowy: We have to get back... I mean we have to go to Highland.
State Soldier: Sorry, we'e got our orders.
Eilie: C'mon can't you just bend the rules this once?
State Soldier: Sorry. I can't do that...
Bolgan: Pleeeeaaase.

Music: Theme of Seduction, Asian Mix




The screen goes dark while Rina and the Captain are offscreen.


Rina: But of course.
Eilie: ....Rina.... you didn't....
Rina: If this nice captain says we can go, then we should take him up on his kind offer.
Jowy: ???


Well, now we know why she misspoke earlier. This is North Sparrow Pass, but in a Freudian slip-up earlier Rina called it North Swallow Pass...

[nosimpleway]

Standard-issue earlygame dungeon. Wait, didn't Tuta say something about how mountain paths were dangerous...?




They are! North Blowjob Pass is populated by killer rabbits, giant hornets, wolves, and bandits.


If Eilie and Rina brace him, Bolgan can exhale a bigger blast of fire than usual. The Circus Attack doubles damage to one target, but Bolgan loses his next turn from the effort.




What's the problem? There's nothing here but the fog...

[nosimpleway]

The M-m-m-m-Mist Monster!


Hah! Take that! You're the first boss, it's not like you're dangerous or anything!


Oh, um... huh.

The Mist Monster hits three times, for about half the HP anyone has at the moment. Rina is particularly fragile, being the party's squishy wizard. So when Jowy, already a bit wounded from the climb up the mountain, gets KOed, Rina hops into the front row just in time to take the next hit and gets KOed as well.


When the Mist Monster changes forms, it stops hitting three times and blasts everyone with weak magic instead. When I'm down to three party members, it might as well not shift forms and keep pummeling me, but I appreciate the break. It's a good chance to throw Medicine around.


Whew! We had nothing to worry about with Eilie there! No really, her boast earlier proved true; almost all she did was stand on the back row and administer medicine. Without her doing that, I'd have had five KOs instead of three. Sharing the experience with each other, Eilie and Muteiu both shoot up two levels.






The Technique Rune doesn't always steal the same amount of money an enemy drops -- this boss drops 2000 potch and I only steal 600 -- but a nice long fight gives it plenty of chances to activate.

[nosimpleway]

Jowy: It sure was.... Muteiu and I couldn't have handled it alone either.
Bolgan: I'm hungry.
Rina: Ha ha. Let's get going. I think we're just about there.

Wait, hold on. Before we leave the Pass, why don't we run back and forth through it a few more times and beat a bunch of rabbits to death?


Yeah, that's the stuff. Item drops are only slightly more generous in this game than the last, with the Double-Beat Rune having somewhere around one-and-a-half percent chance of dropping off of a Cut Rabbit. But while the last game strapped the only Double-Beat Rune onto a mediocre martial artist, in this one you can put it on anyone to give them two basic attacks per turn.

I get three. It takes me over an hour.

[nosimpleway]

Coming up in an update or two I'll have the chance to sneak into a late-midgame area and do a scenario there. I'll pick up two recruits we're not supposed to see in a while, and my party will shoot up to around level 40. The overall narrative of the game doesn't change, so it's not really a sequence break... just a sidequest that gives me a bloody goddamn lot of experience and money for where I'm at. Should I do it? Voting is up!