The story of the Suikoden series, part 2 – a masterpiece remaining in the shadow of Final Fantasy

Here is damn it. The second part of the Konami Jrpg series is very close to me, t.To. I started acquaintance with the series back in 2014 with it. But not only for this reason I am so scary to unite. Suikoden II – This is a very big game. Run through it with a gallop – a crime, tell in general about everything that is in it – violence against readers. In search of balance, this text was born.

But first, we will go through briefly on history Suikoden Once again. The first major Konami swim in the territory of serial role -playing games took place in 1995 by the efforts of the then newcomer in the industry Yoshigiygi Murayama. Initially settled in the company as a specialist in quality assurance, he quickly climbed the career ladder and joined the team that worked on a mega-secret project-a portable console with a 3D graphic apparatus-where he met a novice artist Dzyunko Cavano. But the bosses from Konami in time realized that maintaining their own gaming system would fly into a penny, and the development of the portable was canceled at a certain moment, and all the achievements were forgotten. Well, then in the world there was a phenomenon called “PlayStation”, which could not remain unnoticed for manufacturers of games. As a result, Murayama and Cavanah found themselves at the forefront of 32-bit pioneers and got the opportunity to develop one game for a new console from Sony to choose from: a race, a baseball simulator or RPG. The rest, as they say, is a story.

. Who definitely decided to repeat herself, because the creation of the second part turned for the developers into a nightmare, from which even the Schraer would stand on end. Even with the assistance of an individual artist and designer of the characters in the person of Fumi Ishikawa, “Mighty Pile” was put in almost impossible time frames without a chance to draw out at least a few more employees to develop at least several employees. What caused such a brutal attitude of Konami to your people (except that Konami Being Konami Again) is difficult to say, but even localizers were affected by their actions, who, instead of the finished text for the translation, received a scattered mock from the lines of code and script without any indication, who belongs to which remarks belong. With the consequences of this carelessness of Konami, multiplied by its indifference, we will still encounter more than once or twice, but so far we will return to the channel of the narrative.

Even despite the commitment to some classic genre stamps, whether it is random battles and an inventory system taken straight from Dragon Quest, Suikoden I He remained in many ways noteworthy, starting with a story inspired by the classic Chinese novel “River Tagging” and real military conflicts, and ending with how the plot and gameplay mechanics mixed together in the game. Magic runes affecting historical processes, the concept of 108 stars of fate, giving the plot the atmosphere of epic legends, the clashes of the armies showing the globalness of the events that are going on – everything participated in the creation of a single structure that could only function together only together. Whether the developers were able to keep in the second part all the achievements of the progenitor and improve them? This is what we will try to find out.

At the beginning of all the beginning there was only darkness.
Many and many Godns were nobody next to her,
Why did she become more and more lonely.

From despair and longing, the darkness sprinkled a tear.
And that tear gave rise to two brothers: a shield and a sword.

The sword said that he can cut everything that.
And the shield said that it was not imperious to break through it.

So the enmity was born – truly cruel enmity,
And the battle went seven days and seven nights.

And at the end the sword struck the shield,
And the shield split the sword.
Fragments of the sword showered down – and so the sky appeared.
Shield fragments showered down – and so the earth appeared.
And from the sparks carved in that battle, stars were born.

Twenty -seven precious stones that decorated the sword and shield,
turned out to the twenty family with great runes.

And so the world was revealed, known to all of us.

History of Creation (translated by the last dreamer)

The plot of the second part did not continue the history of the empire of the scarlet moon, which died at the end of the previous game and reborn to the Republic of thatran, and transferred events to the north to the Dunan region, where already a very long and sluggish war with regular border skirmishes and momentary peace agreements are waged by two countries: the Highland kingdom located on the north-eastPlastry, and the Union of Cities-States of Jouston, which occupies the main territory of the region. It would seem that the conflict was exhausted a decade ago when Jouston lost a decent piece of his eastern territories, but he soon flares up with renewed vigor after the Heyland Prince Luke Blyite gives a secret order to exterminate the cadet corps of his own country and publicly accuses the neighbors of this atrocities of the neighbors.

Only two childhood friends are experiencing a terrible night massacre, jumping into the waterfall. The next morning, one of them is caught from the Jouston mercenaries from the river, already puzzled by strange activity at the border, and put it under the castle until the circumstances clarified. Thus begins the story of the protagonist named Ryo, the former cadet, devoted and abandoned by his homeland, who in the future will have to take over the unprecedented burden of responsibility, accept the curse of the Great rune of the source and change the course of the war, the flame of which will soon cover the whole Jouston. And as for his comrade Joya, he will not stand aside and support the emaciated era of change. In the end, the rune of the source is a paired rune consisting of a sword and shield, and it chooses only those whose fates are closely intertwined.

It is this approach to the narrative that favorably distinguishes games Suikoden from colleagues in genre. Where another author would create an epic fantasy with a mandatory climax over the forces of evil, Murayama paints a magical, but surprisingly mundane world, in which the positive and negative aspects of the conflict are determined only by those who will eventually write a story. Suikoden II continues this glorious tradition, but we will still get to the plot.

At the first acquaintance with the game of a person who had previously seen only the original Suikoden, It may seem that the second part did not evolve in any way: the same pixel 2D graphics pixel, all the same lack of diagonal movement, which makes the zigzags, all the same young hero. But it is worth climbing the game under the hood, it will become clear that there is a huge abyss between both parts. This situation is slightly reminiscent of the first two parts of the Lufia series, which also looked very much on each other externally, but their detailed study was shown by unprecedented high -quality progress achieved by sequel. The animation of the characters who are now not worth the pillar during battles are prettier, and also actively actively and clown in peacetime, the hero finally learned to run by default, dynamic lighting and dynamic shadows appeared, the opportunity to push some objects and even civilians, if they managed to block the road to the player.

In the same century, a common inventory appeared, in which up to three pages of various junks can be fitted, while personal pockets of the characters became more thoughtful in terms of gamemesign and general ergonomics. The weapon, as before, is an integral attribute of each playable character, and not a physical object, and it cannot be taken or transferred, but you can give a blacksmith to improve. The armor is divided into armor itself and shields, and each character can only wear a certain class of armor, but it was in the first part. The last point “Accessories”, consisting of three cells, has become a personal pocket of the character, and you can place additional sets of armor, magic scrolls, healing potions, food, bath accessories – in general, almost everything.

Together with the inventory of the general reformation, runes were also subjected to. Now the characters, depending on their predisposition to magic, can be up to three slots for magic signs. And although it is not enough to sculpt several elements of magic at once, since the number of charges available for witchcraft does not apply to the rune, but to the character as a whole, the expanse for combinations still remains significant, because the rune does not always mean magic. For example, you can combine a rune in one character that restores health when applying critical damage, with a rune that increases the likelihood of applying this very damage, or make a character a permanent berserier.

And the rune can be soldered directly into the weapon and get the effect that is completely unique for this action. In fact, such mechanics existed in the first part, but there the accession of magical signs to swords and axes was used only to give physical attacks of spontaneous damage and in a dry residue for the player practically did not exist. Immediately you can increase damage by a quarter, add health regeneration, additionally pump protection, add a chance to reflect an enemy spell. And all of the above applies only to ordinary magic signs, and in the game, after all, there are still special runes that exist solely to be placed on weapons. In general, you can stubbornly be erased by various combinations and tactics for a long time, especially if you recall that the Suikoden series is famous for a huge number of playable characters.

As for the combat system, and specifically that part of it, where a detachment of six characters in two rows of three columns walks, boils along the locations and enters into random and not very battles, the game remained true to the traditions of the classic party jrpg and greatly changed the established formula, although it optimized it for greater convenience. For example, you can choose the “Auto-Bo” option, which gives the ward the “Beat at least someone” command, and watch Kinzo over a cup of tea, and if you need to run through the location with weak enemies, then the option “run away” will change to “let go”, and you will literally allow the opponents to give the tar already from you, thus guaranteeing a one-percent chance of avoiding the dump.

The characters themselves are divided into three categories: close battle, distant battle and mixed type. The former can only attack from the front row and only the front row of the enemy group (if one, of course, is divided into rows), the latter are equally effective from any row and reach any enemy, but are often too fragile to be put in the vanguard, and others are effective from any row, but they can only reach the nearby row of the enemy, but they are sometimes sometimes of strength and strength.comparable to some “meleearies” and can endure the beatings for a long time. In practice, this means that anyone could not get into the detachment, and you will have to think pretty much how different ligaments of the characters will be combined with each other.

This is especially true for joint attacks, which in the second part paid special attention and increased not only in quantity, but also as. What is the priority at the moment? Confrontation of hordes of the same type of blanks? Then it is worth taking the characters whose joint attack is hit in the area. Or you need to pour maximum damage to fill up a particularly tenacious boss? Then it makes sense to choose such a combination of characters and their joint techniques and runes so that they do not spray strength. However, I doubt that you will ever have to crawl into the wilds of the game mechanic-it is painful Suikoden II battles. Some paired techniques, as well as non-magic runes, however, have an annoying consequence in the form of the status of “unbalaced” (dizziness), depriving the opportunity to attack and use magic in the next move, but it can also be endured if you are able to operate wisely.

The option of using objects in battle has undergone no less curious redesign. Despite the appearance of a common hiking bag in the game, Sopartyers can use things only from their personal pockets (t.e., from accessories), and if their entire auxiliary equipment is occupied by additional armor, rings and other jewelry, then they will simply have nothing to use. In principle, it is still possible to climb into a hiking bag in the middle of the battle if an empty slot is formed in the section of accessories (for example, due to the use of the last first-aid kit or a magic scroll), but the process of moving the object from a bag to pocket eats a whole course of the hero, which poorly affects the productivity of teamwork. It is also important to monitor the relevance of things in personal pockets because the option of using objects remains accessible even if the character led to one move with dizziness.

Also, a duel and full -scale military clashes moved from the first part, and the former did not change at all over the past time and only a little pretty much prettier. As before, the “one-on-one” battles are a variation of the game “Stone-Little Fighting Foam”, in which you need to predict the opponent’s action by his replica and choose the right opposition. The only thing that distinguishes duels in the first two Suikoden‘Ah – in the sequel there was a little more, but not so that they began to be perceived as a full -fledged element of gameplay, and not as a superstructure working to strengthen impressions from key plot scenes. Yes, this is a seasoning, but who said that seasonings are not needed?

A completely different thing is the battles of the armies, which now began to resemble tactical RPGs like some kind of Fire Emblem or something else. The organization of their own troops, the unique talents of the generals, active and passive skills, and even the likelihood of the final and irrevocable death of the character in case of loss of unit – all tells us that this regime is obliged to stand on an equal footing with the main gameplay. And exactly at this moment Suikoden II, Before that seemed impeccable, begins to stumble over and over again.

Tactical battles here are half of the scripted scenes, in which the scriptwriters have already decided everything for you, and half of the uncontrolled and unpredictable mess, in which any attempts to think with their heads are defeated before the all -determining case. The same unit can be a few moves in a row, the attacks of superior enemy forces, then bend in the first combat clash, and there is no indicator or hint of what should be expected.

Yes, “technically” various troops have different indicators of power and protection that will depend on how you organize your army and “technically” they really affect the efficiency in battle, but this influence, coupled with the player’s ability to meaningfully rearrange the figures on my feelings according to my sensations, is about 20% of success, while the rest of the 80% depends exclusively on luck. And with such a random there is a possibility of losing a character forever and losing the opportunity to get a good ending. Beauty!

The praised plot, for which the game almost on the podium of the 32-bit Olympus was seated, was also not without quirks. One of those I would call some kind of offensive amount of humor, in places appropriate, in some places-not very. I understand that in the first part there were their funny moments (well, in fact, who did not pull the ears and did not tickle Gremio, while he corked over the stove?), but in Suikoden IIMurayama and the company lost every sense of proportion. In one scene, the main character breaks through the stone wall, as in the cartoons of “Funny Melodies”, in the other, a schoolgirl begins to rush and demand love to the coffin, Victor, Victor covers the villain with such a selected multi -page abuse that the latter has a short closure.

Wherever you look, some inappropriate game is happening everywhere, very poorly combined with the atmosphere of the “man in the war”, which the script tries to build at the moments of his own enlightenment. Looking ahead, I’ll say that in the third part of the series, the scriptwriters will still find a balance between the drama and humor and put most of the comedy to the mission to collect all the off -line stars of fate, and then you have to have a “pleasure” to see a terribly inconsistent presentation.

But back to the topic. Among the script problems can also include strange subsidiaries, in their mood and form poorly fit into the general narrative. I can still accept the fact that in one of the plot arches, the heroes reincarnate for schoolchildren for several days to penetrate the occupied city, but the whole will hide about the vampires as a whole and Neklord, with which we had to end in the first part, in particular, is generally knocked out of the style. Some Castlevania stretched over another game;Vampire hunters are attached.

The picture is complemented by a disgusting English translation, even if the localizers suffered by the team with such difficulty. Due to the inadequate number of unnecessary exclamation signs, multi-house and small jambs, the text looks like it was found at the bottom of the ficbook, from the second half of the game it begins to clearly suffer, and from the third, unexplored remarks begin to come across, albeit only in non-granular characters.

Funny fact: at first I raised my head for a long time why the girl Pilika constantly spoke about herself in the third person. In addition to her, Kobolds spoke about herself in the third person, but they at least looked logical – however they just have a hard man’s speech – but the person said so. The answer, as usual, was found in Japan, where the use of children and girls of their own name as a pronoun is an absolutely normal business, and a translator Suikoden II either he did not know this, or wanted to spit on the stylistic adaptation of the text.

But God forbid me to say that the game script was mediocre or even more bad! Suikoden II It does not exchange along the little things and lets Ryo and Joui through all the circles of hell, forcing them to fight not only with the external enemy, but also with the internal discord;The war was war, but some officials also do not intend to forget about their ambitions, and on both sides of the conflict.

Although the protagonist remained dumb, and all his replicas are either implied or directly selected by the player from the proposed options, Murayama masterfully showed how the burden of responsibility from the need to be ideological inspirer and a living embodiment of the combat spirit of the whole army gradually crushes the hero. In the second half of the game, Ryo increasingly begins to lose consciousness from physical and psychological exhaustion, and the characters note that the hero’s gaze was heavier and began to remind the old man’s gaze. At a certain moment, Ryo may even in the present way break and, having abandoned all his colleagues, try to flee with his sister from the country, for which he naturally receives a sonorous shameful slap in the face of his adviser, but the final decision to end the game ahead of schedule or continue to fight in the war still with the player.