Best JRPG ever made.
Amazing
im giving this a 9/10 for the fishing minigame, i dont even want to talk about the game
most beloved game of my childhood could never talk shit about it
Completely deserves its reputation as one of the greatest RPGs ever made.
This game does not waste your time. Battles load almost immediately, and are quick and fluid. It doesn't have a particularly long running time (~40ish hours), but there is almost always a sense of riveting urgency to the story, and it just feels like more things 'happen' in this game than some that are twice as long.
Visually, it has not aged a day. It looked fantastic 25 years ago, looks fantastic today, and will look fantastic 25 years from now.
Recruiting characters and growing your castle is an absolute joy. Some will be fighters for your party, some will run shops or minigames, some don't do much of anything but add humor or backstory to other characters. It's hard to make 108 different characters distinct, memorable and useful, and this game does an exceptional job at it. Add in one of the best antagonists from any game ever, and you have a truly special cast.
While entirely playable on its own, play Suikoden 1 first for some extra emotional oomph, as much of the cast returns for this game.
Absolute 10/10.
This game does not waste your time. Battles load almost immediately, and are quick and fluid. It doesn't have a particularly long running time (~40ish hours), but there is almost always a sense of riveting urgency to the story, and it just feels like more things 'happen' in this game than some that are twice as long.
Visually, it has not aged a day. It looked fantastic 25 years ago, looks fantastic today, and will look fantastic 25 years from now.
Recruiting characters and growing your castle is an absolute joy. Some will be fighters for your party, some will run shops or minigames, some don't do much of anything but add humor or backstory to other characters. It's hard to make 108 different characters distinct, memorable and useful, and this game does an exceptional job at it. Add in one of the best antagonists from any game ever, and you have a truly special cast.
While entirely playable on its own, play Suikoden 1 first for some extra emotional oomph, as much of the cast returns for this game.
Absolute 10/10.
A huge improvement to the first one, the overall plot is way better and less simplistic, the plot was almost consistently really engaging, two of the antagonists are really excellent. Some flaws regardless, the fights and battles were not really exciting except some of them, and some little parts of the game felt a bit like filler. The casting was overall very charming since the chara design is top-notch, and they all had their distictive personnality, even though it was also frustrating since I wanted to see more of a lot of them. The continuity with the first game was also a very nice touch, it was a pleasure to see again some characters of the first game and to see the prolonging of their stories. The last quarter of the game was less exciting but the endings managed to wrap-up the game in a very beautiful way emotionnally and thematically. It's a flawed game but it was really excellent and my current favorite JRPG if we don't count From Software games.
A general improvement over 1.The story and characters were more solid.
Very few games are able to build a world the way Suikoden does, and Suikoden II manages to skirt the line of having it all, while losing nothing in the process. From emotional beats, to showcasing characters, connecting with the previous game, managing to make a great villain, and a battle system that keeps up the entertainment; Suikoden II isn't just a classic, it's a master piece.
Suikoden II starts out with a clear focus on three characters, Joey, Naomi, and the player. Throughout the course of the story their bonds with each other, the hopes they have, and will to fight are constantly pushed to the brink. In a lot of ways, Suikoden II is just about this trio, and it's what helps set a focal point for newcomers that only played this game. As the trio go along their village and witness their lands getting into war, they realize they have to flee, and end up becoming apart of a new band of revolutionaries. This new bunch of revolutionaries not only consistent of characters from the previous game, but help structure their growth from Suikoden 1 to 2. It really is amazing how subtle the story deals with Suikoden 1 references, but they are abundant yet never distracting.
Luca Blight, is easily one of the best villains ever to grace gaming, and his reign of tier is showcased throughout the game; never satisfied with just telling how much of a monster he is. As the game comes to a head, more interesting developments happen, and largely they are all because of him.
This is a Suikoden game after all, and on top of the story, we have a great cast of characters, roughly 108, as we build the army to defeat Luca Blight. Due to having a large cast, not everyone gets the chance to shine, but we do get plenty of chances to see a lot of characters have a moment. Heck, there is even an entire mini-game based on Iron Chef that cook for the army does, with a full plot. The main problem with a lot of these moments tho is how they are timed and limited. If you aren't falling along with a guide or don't know a thing or two before hand, you will likely miss a lot during your playthrough of Suikoden II. And even if you do everything right, there is still a whole other side story that is completely timed, although I'd suggest you be looking around alleyways as much as you can when you are in Muse.
From turn based combat, to war rock paper scissors, Suikoden II's combat is a nice way to showcase the armies might. Largely, like any Suikoden game, you are given roughly 6 slots to use for a party, and each character will often have a special weapon or magic they can help use. On top of this, Suikoden II gives you unity attacks that act as a special of sorts when you have 2 or more characters that work well together. Suikoden II's battles are a very basic and bare bones map turn based tactics game where you engage in a sort of rock paper scissors style match that lowers both teams amount of units, although sometimes nothing happens to either side. Either way, you are always given a nice scale of how the army is growing, and just where exactly you are at in this game.
Really Suikoden II just packs way too much content that it's hard to explain why it's as loved as it is, but I feel like everyone has different reasons for it. To building your army, to emotional story beats, to even the iron chef mini game; Suikoden II gives you a lot while never letting you down.
Suikoden II starts out with a clear focus on three characters, Joey, Naomi, and the player. Throughout the course of the story their bonds with each other, the hopes they have, and will to fight are constantly pushed to the brink. In a lot of ways, Suikoden II is just about this trio, and it's what helps set a focal point for newcomers that only played this game. As the trio go along their village and witness their lands getting into war, they realize they have to flee, and end up becoming apart of a new band of revolutionaries. This new bunch of revolutionaries not only consistent of characters from the previous game, but help structure their growth from Suikoden 1 to 2. It really is amazing how subtle the story deals with Suikoden 1 references, but they are abundant yet never distracting.
Luca Blight, is easily one of the best villains ever to grace gaming, and his reign of tier is showcased throughout the game; never satisfied with just telling how much of a monster he is. As the game comes to a head, more interesting developments happen, and largely they are all because of him.
This is a Suikoden game after all, and on top of the story, we have a great cast of characters, roughly 108, as we build the army to defeat Luca Blight. Due to having a large cast, not everyone gets the chance to shine, but we do get plenty of chances to see a lot of characters have a moment. Heck, there is even an entire mini-game based on Iron Chef that cook for the army does, with a full plot. The main problem with a lot of these moments tho is how they are timed and limited. If you aren't falling along with a guide or don't know a thing or two before hand, you will likely miss a lot during your playthrough of Suikoden II. And even if you do everything right, there is still a whole other side story that is completely timed, although I'd suggest you be looking around alleyways as much as you can when you are in Muse.
From turn based combat, to war rock paper scissors, Suikoden II's combat is a nice way to showcase the armies might. Largely, like any Suikoden game, you are given roughly 6 slots to use for a party, and each character will often have a special weapon or magic they can help use. On top of this, Suikoden II gives you unity attacks that act as a special of sorts when you have 2 or more characters that work well together. Suikoden II's battles are a very basic and bare bones map turn based tactics game where you engage in a sort of rock paper scissors style match that lowers both teams amount of units, although sometimes nothing happens to either side. Either way, you are always given a nice scale of how the army is growing, and just where exactly you are at in this game.
Really Suikoden II just packs way too much content that it's hard to explain why it's as loved as it is, but I feel like everyone has different reasons for it. To building your army, to emotional story beats, to even the iron chef mini game; Suikoden II gives you a lot while never letting you down.
So much more compelling than most other JRPGs, stands on its own two legs and likely to put future generations to shame, the characters have yolo and the lore has swag. Beautiful...
This review contains spoilers
The flaws are obvious: 108 characters is just too many for one game to handle without feeling overstuffed, though I appreciate the efforts to make them all distinct, even if some end up as one-dimensional comic relief. I wasn't convinced by the best friend's betrayal, with the subsequent parallel narrative only glimpsed in occasional, underwritten cutscenes. The endings are curiously unsatisfying, too - perhaps all a result of a clumsy translation. And yet the game's appeal still shines through. It's uncommonly direct about politics and the devastation of war, and constantly ties it into the gameplay - hearing e.g. a village you regularly visit for items has been destroyed lends the story an extra degree of weight. The evolving home castle is a marvellous location, too. It's full of asides that deepen our relationship to the characters and the ideology of the main mission, culminating in the moving moment where "reinforcements" in a major battle are simply the vendors and NPCs coming to your aid. Not exactly a challenging game, and not quite as emotionally magnificent as something like Final Fantasy VI, but it shares with that one a precision in its 16-bit cutscene direction, revealing all manner of human detail with the smallest changes to its sprites.
Easily one of the best jrpg's ever made.
La historia esta mejor llevada (la mayoría del tiempo) y el gameplay está más pulido, reclutar a algunos personajes es un coñazo y la guarrada para el mejor final es un patadón en la cabeza
Often praised as the best game in the Suikoden series and it's plain to see why. An already solid game improved in near every aspect made with tons of attention, care, and love.
The core gameplay here is addicting. A lot of this game still holds up. I still have some hangups about the menuing and how annoying it is to rearrange your party/items, but this game is a gem
i collect all star of destiny and even then i didn't have the golden ending because of a bug they didn't lie about the betrayal part lol
Solid JRPG experience with some emotional highs, but not THE gReAtEsT RPG on the Playstation. I played around 35 hours to do all that I needed to do to get the best ending, recruit 180 Stars, etc. I'm glad I got a filled out file from the first Suikoden to do this, as the rewards and cameo as well as the depth of the returning main cast made for a really satisfying experience here that wouldn't have been as strong otherwise. It really is the returning characters as well as the main trio who drive this experience to stand on it's own. With that said, I encountered a lot of bugs and freezes, partly because I played this on OG hardware but pirated through POPS which is buggy as hell on its own, but I've heard of others encountering this too now matter how they play. Just some audio stuff and setbacks that happened a few time. The one thing I won't forgive though is to have a "timed-out" sidequest such as the Clive thing when the whole selling point of this game is so expansive and broad. So while I didn't do that minor sidequest I completed the whole thing at my own pace and had fun with it. The war combat was cool to be in a more strat RPG style but it was still noticably shallow overall with how much of what happens relies on plot, making your input feel somewhat pointless.
Still, HOW expansive this game is does manage to impress to this day. Although many of the "108 Stars of Destiny" characters don't develop outside of their recruitment quests and become somwhat of collectable items, it is interesting to touch upon each of them as well as the NPCs inhabiting both your castle and the towns as the plot progresses and the world changes around them. If I was younger and had the time I could easily see myself wandering around for at least 10 more hours doing nothing but exploring and talking to the locals, tracking how they move along with the world. And yes, the main points of the story that involve the twists and friendship fallout do make this game's story stand out from other traditional JRPG fare. For me, I'd put it up with Chrono Trigger for pushing the envelope in terms of what this sort of presentation and storytelling medium could do at the time, even if it doesn't particularly hit me with the full effect now.
I also don't think I'll ever get around to "complete" another Suikoden with it's many many characters and tales of war across the 5 entries, but I do plan to mess around on the ps2 entries a bit if I ever happen to cross their paths.
Still, HOW expansive this game is does manage to impress to this day. Although many of the "108 Stars of Destiny" characters don't develop outside of their recruitment quests and become somwhat of collectable items, it is interesting to touch upon each of them as well as the NPCs inhabiting both your castle and the towns as the plot progresses and the world changes around them. If I was younger and had the time I could easily see myself wandering around for at least 10 more hours doing nothing but exploring and talking to the locals, tracking how they move along with the world. And yes, the main points of the story that involve the twists and friendship fallout do make this game's story stand out from other traditional JRPG fare. For me, I'd put it up with Chrono Trigger for pushing the envelope in terms of what this sort of presentation and storytelling medium could do at the time, even if it doesn't particularly hit me with the full effect now.
I also don't think I'll ever get around to "complete" another Suikoden with it's many many characters and tales of war across the 5 entries, but I do plan to mess around on the ps2 entries a bit if I ever happen to cross their paths.
Taking the hint from the previous game, Suikoden II portrays an darker side to the original's theme of wartime cruelty. Here, the tragedy of war is pronounced to terrible extremes, with cutscenes that are almost uncomfortable to sit through, due to in large part the actions of Luca Blight, one of the most effective RPG villains of all time.
Besides presenting the horrors of a genocidal madman in all its twisted glory, Suikoden II is in many ways the emotional journey of two soldiers. The two major characters experience lives full of incredible hardship, one that brutally and unfairly tests their resolve, courage, and ultimately their friendship as their ideals slowly drift apart. The moments between the player character, Jowy, and Nanami constitute some of the most emotionally excruciating scenes in video game history. The maturity found within its morbid vision of war allows the game to confidently implement some more disturbing themes in its narrative, without fully engorging in its own bloodlust, that once again revolutionizes JRPG story. The game also succeeds in the narrative details, with 'microstories' revolving around the various towns and cities in the world effectively turning each one into meaningful locations of their own, not just spaces to buy equipment and restore HP. All-in-all, it was a crucial point in the evolution of political JRPG story. Whereas Yasumi Matsuno's brand always held a chilling, detached (yet paradoxically in-your-face) philosophy, Yoshitaka Murayama presented a humane, warmer, ideal outlook. However - unlike the naive enthusiasm of their peers, this was idealism tempered and fueled by sheer grief, remaining hopeful despite all the trauma.
While the combat system remains lacking, the base building of the original is expanded to include several more minigames and more inventive means of recruiting allies. While being a strong visual and mechanical upgrade over their predecessor. the gameplay of Suikoden II remains cast in the shadow of its plot, lost in the story's gripping emotional wasteland.
Suikoden II is a grand achievement, one that - in its cascades of tragedy, effectively represents a hyper-realist take on human conflict.
Besides presenting the horrors of a genocidal madman in all its twisted glory, Suikoden II is in many ways the emotional journey of two soldiers. The two major characters experience lives full of incredible hardship, one that brutally and unfairly tests their resolve, courage, and ultimately their friendship as their ideals slowly drift apart. The moments between the player character, Jowy, and Nanami constitute some of the most emotionally excruciating scenes in video game history. The maturity found within its morbid vision of war allows the game to confidently implement some more disturbing themes in its narrative, without fully engorging in its own bloodlust, that once again revolutionizes JRPG story. The game also succeeds in the narrative details, with 'microstories' revolving around the various towns and cities in the world effectively turning each one into meaningful locations of their own, not just spaces to buy equipment and restore HP. All-in-all, it was a crucial point in the evolution of political JRPG story. Whereas Yasumi Matsuno's brand always held a chilling, detached (yet paradoxically in-your-face) philosophy, Yoshitaka Murayama presented a humane, warmer, ideal outlook. However - unlike the naive enthusiasm of their peers, this was idealism tempered and fueled by sheer grief, remaining hopeful despite all the trauma.
While the combat system remains lacking, the base building of the original is expanded to include several more minigames and more inventive means of recruiting allies. While being a strong visual and mechanical upgrade over their predecessor. the gameplay of Suikoden II remains cast in the shadow of its plot, lost in the story's gripping emotional wasteland.
Suikoden II is a grand achievement, one that - in its cascades of tragedy, effectively represents a hyper-realist take on human conflict.
This improved on the first one which already was really good.
Buenisima secuela con graficazos.
btw, Hix + Tengaar y te pasas el juego volando
btw, Hix + Tengaar y te pasas el juego volando
One of my personal favorites and a critically-acclaimed all-time great game, this game improved on the first game by expanding the world-building and increasing the depth of the storylines. The first game was a classic 10/10 RPG, but this game is an absolute masterpiece.
Outstanding game. Great story and sidequests. A full range of emotions are experienced. One of those games where you enjoy equipping things in the menu for several minutes.
Possibly the most underrated game of all time! Great story, great character, and a great soundtrack! I’ll never forget the oink like a pig part. I still remember being a kid and going oh my God when that happened. Too bad so few got to experience this amazing game.
i completely understand why someone would pay $300 for a copy of this game
This review contains spoilers
Great game. The struggle between the stars army and Highland was very enjoyable to follow and collecting the 108 stars of destiny was a satisfying experience (aside from Gordon who I would like to personally fire spear through the gut). Luca Blight was delightfully evil and the final duel with Jowy was pretty kino. I really liked being able to recruit my Suikoden 1 hero and having a neat little section act like an epilogue for the first game but having to go to gregminster to recruit him EVERY TIME when the game likes to clear your party between plot events was a huge pain. It also sucked having a large chunk of the cities unavailable due to plot reasons when I'm just trying to collect stars but I understand why they did it. The strategy battles are also kinda lame with the damage being so inconsistent but I appreciate the novel concept. For the most part though, the game was a step up from its predecessor in how the story manages to come together so well despite the increase in scope as well as the more interesting cast and polished gameplay.
Fuck FF7, all my homies love Suikoden 2.
this game is just a rollercoaster
Luca Blight still haunts my dreams
One of my favorite games of all time. The story, the gameplay, and characters they're all so amazing. Words cannot describe how much this game means to me, its just so good.
Um dos melhores JRPG da era do Play 1.
O sistema de combate é bem interessante, deixando você customizar como desejar através do sistemas de runas e um número gigante de personagens.
O jogo tem 108 personagens desbloqueáveis, e vários deles são jogáveis. Isso pode ser algo tanto positivo por deixar você escolher o que melhor te agrada, mas também pode ser negativo porque a história de vários desses personagens são bem superficiais.
A direção de arte e trilha sonora do jogo são as melhores coisas do jogo, junto com a história.
Falando em história, o enredo é muito bom, contendo bons conflitos, motivações realistas para alguns personagens e um plot que te deixa interessado em continuar jogando.
Vale muito a pena jogar se você se interessa por JRPG antigos com combate de turno.
O sistema de combate é bem interessante, deixando você customizar como desejar através do sistemas de runas e um número gigante de personagens.
O jogo tem 108 personagens desbloqueáveis, e vários deles são jogáveis. Isso pode ser algo tanto positivo por deixar você escolher o que melhor te agrada, mas também pode ser negativo porque a história de vários desses personagens são bem superficiais.
A direção de arte e trilha sonora do jogo são as melhores coisas do jogo, junto com a história.
Falando em história, o enredo é muito bom, contendo bons conflitos, motivações realistas para alguns personagens e um plot que te deixa interessado em continuar jogando.
Vale muito a pena jogar se você se interessa por JRPG antigos com combate de turno.