2 hours into this, I just saved those two dudes from getting executed

suikoden 2 on steam when

>not posting the superior boxart

i played suikoden 2 but i didnt know where to go and moving around the map was so slow so i stopped playing. felt like some bottom of the barrel weeb game just with a nicer artstyle

You're missing something in your life if you haven't played Suikoden 2.

Actually just recruit Stallion when he's available if you need to go somewhere on the map fast.

not really

title screen

No, you're really not.
Boring story with a psycho villain who just wants to kill everyone and a dumbass friend who joins bad side for stupid reasons. Combat becomes absolutely mindless once you get a few runes but even without them most the game you can just hit auto battle. Shear number of characters is cool but they have no depth and only a few are worth using cause of more slots.
Countless better ps1 rpgs and games

>but i didnt know where to go and moving around the map was so slow

Legit reasons, bro.

Why? S2 is more of the same except longer. If you don't like S1, you won't like S2.

if you're having trouble with the combat, recruit the sensei

you'll find him on a bridge

he has a combo attack with the protag that hits all enemies for lots of damage

so much so that it just trivializes random encounters and bosses

I like Suikoden 1 because it's an RPG with barely any filler.

It's like 12 hours long.

Also the dragons make fucking elephant noises and that's hilarious.

I like this thing where you're literally backed into a corner with everyone on your ass and then you start taking niggas down and getting friends until you're the one doing the thing.

>It's like 12 hours long.

That's because they originally wanted to make what is now knows as Suikoden 2 but Konami wouldn't trust them with enough money so they made Suikoden 1 as smaller project first to show they know what they're doing.

Valeria, no contest.

>not choosing Valeria every time

Valeria has such a weird portrait ilustration. I prefer Kirkis who I swear I though was a girl for the longest time

they both let you easily recruit other character(s).

>valeria + anita
you can potentially already have anita at that point, depending on whether you ran into her in taverns, and she IS a decent character

>kasumi + two ninja characters
you get early access into the hidden ninja village and recruit those two guys, but they're not that great.

See, OP. The thing about the Suikoden series is that it focuses on world-building. Unlike other RPG's which usually take place in different universes from game to game or thousands of years apart.

For that reason it can be unattractive to people who don't play games for story. There's lots of tiny details hidden about characters all over the game, and it takes a lot of exploration and research to come and appreciate those details and how they weave together across games to form a bigger cohesive picture.

For instance, this dumbass here-

>friend joins the bad side for no reason
>psycho villain who just wants to kill everyone

I suppose they do come off that way if you have no further desire to research the characters and their motivations. There are clear reasons why Luca hates the City-States and has the nihilistic world view that he does. There are (arguable) reasons for why Jowy does what he does aside from the fact that your rivalry is symbolic of the theme of the game.

S2 is an amazing game on by itself. You could play it alone and still get a solid story, fun battle system, and interesting characters. But it's a huge bonus to you as a gamer to play them all and appreciate the scope of the story they were trying to tell.

I'm getting a bit paranoid with the shit of the 108 stars in this game. I'm after you kill your father, I managed to win the Pahn battle, are there any characters that will only stay in a determinate part of the story for you to talk with?

Name these characters.

From topleft down: Barbarossa, Ted with black hair?, Wendy

From topright down: McDohl?, Leknaat, Neclord boss? Don't remember.

Valeria + Anita are superior to the ninjas unless you're a weeb. Falcon runes + their Unite make them super high damage and durable as well.

The ninja village is a cool gimmick your first run through the game but for subsequent runs it's just an annoying isolated village you run to a few times for gold, a piglet, a blinking rune, and one other thing I can't recall.

That spooky thing is just a basic enemy iirc

I will give you one tip because I always miss it on every other run I do. Bring Humphrey with you when you go to the Dragon's Den and talk to everyone there.

Otherwise you'll miss a character that you won't be able to get later because Humphrey is not able to be placed in your party for the rest of the game there afterward.

Humphrey is a locked character in that part iirc. Thanks for the tip!

1 is not that good, 2 is better in every way

yup, he appeared along with the unicorn and the ghosts on neclords castle

img.gamefaqs.net/screens/c/2/1/gfs_28033_2_289.jpg

2 is better in so many ways it's insane. It's just a big expansion and improvement of everything from the first.

I remember the first time I figured out I could switch everyone's runes/armor and sharpen everyone's weapons without having to swap them in like I did in the first one. It blew my mind.

There's also the hidden level 5 rune spells, the Clive and Elza story, the cook side-story, count-less other things to do in the game.

>When ted uses the rune on that insect boss
I've always loved that scene as a kid and it still gives me shivers.

My Suikoden story:
>two hours in, wondering when it would get gud
>friend said it would get really really good eventually, so kept playing
>ten hour mark: half way point
>fuck this is boring, but friend keeps promising greatness
>not fun but benign so keep going
>eventually finished, completely let down
Don't make the same mistake I did op, quit now and cut your losses. Play an old Fire Emblem or Dragon Quest or something instead.

Go play your call of duty shit kid, these games arent for you.

You haven't said a single goddamn useful thing. WHY did you dislike the game?

Oh god. Ok.

In general there's three modes of gameplay. The main battle engine is what you'll be spending most time with, and its uses a somewhat clever back-row mechanic. That's the best I can say about it. Otherwise it’s stale with very few options.

The second gameplay mode is you defending the castle with your army. Get those images of Dragon Force way the fuck out of your head, this is Suikoden. Imagine a game of rock-paper-scissors. Now imagine you know what your opponent is going to do ahead of time. Sound like fun? Too bad because Suikoden fans think it does. Tho honestly for me gaming this system was the most fun I had with the game. Was never able to get 0 casualties, but pretty close.

The other mode is a type of ‘dynamic’ battle. Imagine the final one-on-one battle between Cloud and Sephiroth, except with a little more gameplay and a shitton uglier. At the time it reminded me of the old MD Shining Force games(pic related), but again uglier.

People make a big deal over the castle a lot. You might be thinking it’ll be something like Dark Cloud where you can design things, or has some kinda economy to manage. Nope.
Instead think of it more like the airship in FFVI. You walk in it, see the characters you collected and not much else. One big difference is that the more characters you get the bigger the castle gets. But beyond finding the characters, you don’t control how the castle grows.

With so many playable characters to choose from, you might be wondering how the personnel micromanagement is. In short it’s shit, but happily there’s never much of a reason to switch teammates and experiment with new characters, so it doesn’t matter.

Forgive me if I got a few details wrong, its been over 15 years.

>with barely any filler
That encounter rate says otherwise

>Suikoden world map
>encounter rate
Holy fuck don't remind me.

>Run away 50 times.

Remember Suikoden IV's ship OW encounter rate?

Still gives me PTSD

>never used him because I can't stand his fucking jew nose

Why fuck up the best utility character?