The perfect console rpg
I was exited when S2 was being announced, but then disappointed when it was said that it not was to be released in Europe. Even though I really wanted to play this game I was not so sure about to pay money to either chip my Playstation or buy a chipped console. And after that have to buy an imported game. BTW, a lot of ps-games (especially RPG's) never made it to Europe and our PAL-system. It was expensive to be a console RPG fan in the 90's.
So when the 90's became the 00's I gave up on console gaming and concentrated on that on my PC instead.
It wasn't until about 2005 when I decided to get me an ps2 that I finally found out that Suikoden 2 in fact had been released for the european market. 5 years to late. But now it was about bloody time to play it, me thought. So I bought it for a hefty sum of money (old Suikoden games costs LOTS, even used ones), played through the original again to have an optional savefile with date to transfer over to S2.
And it was definitely worth the wait. Even though the game graphically never was anything to write home about it had conserved all the amazing feeling and gameplay from the original.
You are still the silent protagonist. This time you start out at an army camp who soon get ambushed and you are forced to flee together with your comrade in arms and childhood friend Jowy. The two of you get separated and so the story starts with the different destines of the two main characters.
As in the first game you will, after a while, come to have your own castle to serve as your army's HQ. As the game progress and your army grows, the castle will upgrade and get even bigger. You grow and cook your own food, have your own blacksmith and so on. This place is even home to some mini-games such as fishing and the famous Cook-off.
For those like me who played the original will be pleased with the fact that you run into a couple of old favourites from the first game. You will even be able to recruit your own character from S1 if you have a save-file that is. But the main batch of the 108 characters you can recruit to your guerrilla army is new. All are not playable and have other functions as to maintain your ever growing castle.
The major antagonist of the game and leader of the invasion army is Luca Blight - a rather "over the top" disturbed individual who kills everyone and everything in his path with a HAHAHAHAHA. And that is the one your friend Jowy is fighting under. You and your friend will be united from time to time during the game and of course drama occurs.
Fighting is this game is good old turn-based. The Suikoden series teached me to love this kind of battle. It may not be everyones cup of tea though.
But at times you will also have big armies doing a form of strategical battles on a map. They are not my favourite moments of the game because many of the battles are scripted for you to either win or loose.
Well there are so much I could write about this game and everything that is good and the small things that maybe are not so good, but I really must stop somewhere.
This is one of the best games I have ever played and that I can say even if I was 5 years late picking it up. If you are into this kind of 90's console RPG's and have, for some reason, missed out on this - Holy cow, Just get it.