have played about 5 hours of Suikoden II before. I bought it for the PSX because it was when I was 15 with my first job buying any RPG released for the system. However, I played it right after Suikoden 1, and thought it was far too similar, and basically because of that super boring.
Fast forward about 15 years where I have a Vita, and where I bought Suikoden 1 and 2 (JP) for PSP many years ago, only to be untouched (see above reason).
I beat Suikoden about a week ago, and while it was fun to play, the game reeked of mediocrity. The only reason I got through it was sprite based RPGs do a little something, and the battles were fast paced, making it a fairly fun game to play (compared to the PSX FF games where a Suikoden battle can be finished in the time one loads).
Now replaying Suikoden II, I'm about 8 hours in, and it's probably one of the best I've ever played.
Whenever people in the past have said such things, I've said "why?" and have never been satisfied with the answers. I'd like to go over a few seemingly small things that really make the game great:
1) Sprite animations
Seems so small, but the amount of special sprite animations in different scenes really makes the game and characters come alive. The scene near the beginning where you're walking by a moving carriage impressed me in 2014. It makes you really sad that 2D RPGs haven't been improved upon, and everything moved to 3D.
2) Landscape dialogue scenes
Two characters sitting outside a castle with the sunset, having a serious chat about live and whatnot. The beauty of the scene really makes a huge impact.
3) Music
The music isn't God tier like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI, but it sets the scenes really good in this pseudo Chinese world.
4) Mature Dialogue/Story
I'm playing it in Japanese, so I'm really not sure if the English version is this good (I imagine it must be), but the drinking scenes, the suggestive jokes of the dancer, the pure evilness of the villain, the story of the small child with you, it does not feel like a game aimed at pre-teens like Final Fantasy VI or Chrono Trigger, nor does it feel like a game aimed at teenagers like the PSX Final Fantasies.
I've just got past the part where I gave up 15 years ago, around the Neclord (7-8 hours in?), and it feels like a game I want to savour, and play only an hour or so a day to really let it all sink in.
I'm hoping the quality continues throughout, and that I haven't missed any of the 108 characters yet! (Haven't been using a guide, although it feels like I wouldn't mind playing it again).
Only one complaint is in the PSP version the frame rate skips quite often in a few places. Usually it's not very noticeable though.
As a bonus, I have a bit of a lame hobby of taking pics of games I'm playing and Instagramming them. One is a little blurry (I'm on the train playing games), but I thought I would share some.
Fast forward about 15 years where I have a Vita, and where I bought Suikoden 1 and 2 (JP) for PSP many years ago, only to be untouched (see above reason).
I beat Suikoden about a week ago, and while it was fun to play, the game reeked of mediocrity. The only reason I got through it was sprite based RPGs do a little something, and the battles were fast paced, making it a fairly fun game to play (compared to the PSX FF games where a Suikoden battle can be finished in the time one loads).
Now replaying Suikoden II, I'm about 8 hours in, and it's probably one of the best I've ever played.
Whenever people in the past have said such things, I've said "why?" and have never been satisfied with the answers. I'd like to go over a few seemingly small things that really make the game great:
1) Sprite animations
Seems so small, but the amount of special sprite animations in different scenes really makes the game and characters come alive. The scene near the beginning where you're walking by a moving carriage impressed me in 2014. It makes you really sad that 2D RPGs haven't been improved upon, and everything moved to 3D.
2) Landscape dialogue scenes
Two characters sitting outside a castle with the sunset, having a serious chat about live and whatnot. The beauty of the scene really makes a huge impact.
3) Music
The music isn't God tier like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI, but it sets the scenes really good in this pseudo Chinese world.
4) Mature Dialogue/Story
I'm playing it in Japanese, so I'm really not sure if the English version is this good (I imagine it must be), but the drinking scenes, the suggestive jokes of the dancer, the pure evilness of the villain, the story of the small child with you, it does not feel like a game aimed at pre-teens like Final Fantasy VI or Chrono Trigger, nor does it feel like a game aimed at teenagers like the PSX Final Fantasies.
I've just got past the part where I gave up 15 years ago, around the Neclord (7-8 hours in?), and it feels like a game I want to savour, and play only an hour or so a day to really let it all sink in.
I'm hoping the quality continues throughout, and that I haven't missed any of the 108 characters yet! (Haven't been using a guide, although it feels like I wouldn't mind playing it again).
Only one complaint is in the PSP version the frame rate skips quite often in a few places. Usually it's not very noticeable though.
As a bonus, I have a bit of a lame hobby of taking pics of games I'm playing and Instagramming them. One is a little blurry (I'm on the train playing games), but I thought I would share some.
