Let's Play Suikoden 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Valeria: I'm Valeria, captain of the Toran Republic's local forces. President Lepant has ordered me to assist you to the best of my ability. I hope I'll be of use.
Viktor: We're gonna depend on you.
Flik: I'm grateful. We've got a real chance to win now.
Apple: Don't be so sure. According to my information, most of the Highland Army has already left Muse and is headed this way. Luca Blight's 1st Company and Jowy Atreides' 3rd Company... Plus the 4th Company, made up of General Kiba's former troops and reinforcements from Harmonia. That's a force of 50,000 troops.
Viktor: 50,000........
Kiba: Calling for reinforcements from Harmonia... it looks like Luca is planning on finishing this in one decisive stroke.
Klaus: They may be friendly nations, but that help from Harmonia will come at a high price.......
Apple: And as for our side, even if you add General Kiba's soldiers and the reinforcements from Toran, we've only got 20,000 soldiers.
Viktor: More than twice our numbers.....
Shu: Lord Muteiu, you still look tired. Get some rest. We'll finish this conversation tomorrow.
Viktor: Worrying won't help things anyway.


You can't go straight to bed.


You'd better listen to Nanami pontificate over the nature of the war that's tearing your trio of friends apart some more. After she's done, you're free to explore the central part of the castle, as the soldiers won't let you outside after hours, but there's really nothing to do.


...Nanami? How did you get down here so fast?

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Leon: Our best strategy would be to capture Radat, then South Window and then finally Vania Castle.
Luca: No. First we strike at their heart. Destroy their headquarters and the war will be over.
Leon: Lord Luca is King of Highland. The King has his own ideas about how best to proceed.

Everyone in the room has apparently forgotten that Highland already occupies Radat, South Window, and Kuskus. Vania Castle is the only place left in the region they haven't already beaten.


And here's the general on loan from Harmonia. It might just be the art style, but he looks kinda familiar, don't you think?

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It's not like I wanna do this either, ya know.


Flik: The odds have been against us in almost every battle, but this one will be the toughest.
Apple: If we lose here, Two River will also fall to the Highland Army. If that happens, the fate of the City-State is sealed....
Viktor: I don't want to think about that. That Prince Luca Blight, no, I mean King..........


"Boy this is gonna be tough" "Well then I have some great news about what a grand start we're off to!"


After a moment's shock, we deploy to rescue Ridley.


Yeah, he's in trouble.




Hey, yeah, I'm probably due another cooking contest pretty soon.


Ridley tries to fight his way into an opening...


But there are so many attackers he can't help but take casualties.

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Oh yeah, that's it. Sasarai looks a little bit like Luc. Crazy, huh?








And Ridley's gone. This isn't one of your tricks again, is it Shu?

I seem to remember that if you manage to reach the kobold unit with one of your own, you can actually win this fight -- inasfar as "get out of the ambush without dying" counts as a win -- and the game proceeds slightly differently. The odds are stacked heavily against you, though. It would take a leader with a natural cavalry ability like Flik or Kiba to have even a chance of getting close to Ridley, plus Chaco to give them the extra movement to make it plausible, and probably Huan to keep Ridley from getting too hurt until the reinforcements can get to him. It wouldn't hurt for Ridley to proc his own Critical once or twice in the meantime to keep the Highlands off his back.

On the other hand, I've played this game so many times it may have only been achieved while dicking around with a Gameshark. I forget. It's been a long time.

[Classic]

R^2, remember that time you had the drive to claim the ultimate poke-title with a magikarp?
Those were good times.

[Metal Slime]

It took a lot of reloading and a lot of luck but I actually saved them in that battle without using any cheats.

[Blossom]

So, wait, is Ridley ... dead?

[Esperath]

I've done it with not *too* much trouble.

IIRC, if you're using save states, you can save directly before each attack and it rolls differently each time.

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R^2, remember that time you had the drive to claim the ultimate poke-title with a magikarp?
Those were good times.

You can call me Ness's Dad, because I'm just phoning it in here.

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Teresa: All we can do is pray he'll be safe....
Apple: The Highland Army has already occupied Radat, and now they're approaching South Window. The enemy isn't just the Highland Army, it's also made up of soldiers from another country.


Man Leknaat are we glad to see you, we could use some encouragement right about now (or failing that some cryptic comments about fate and destiny and how hard this is)


That's not Leknaat at all! But yeah, he looks a lot like that Sasarai guy...

Flik: What do you mean you 'know him'?
Luc: I don't have to tell you that.
Flik: What did you say!!!
Viktor: Hey hey! Don't fight with a kid.
Luc: That's right. You should be embarrassed losing your temper like that.


Klaus: If he's aiming for South Window, he'll probably attack by the book. He's got 3 times our numbers, so he doesn't need to be tricky. So in that case, our strategy will be........
Shu: If it's a strategy you're looking for, I've already got one. I'll explain tomorrow. For now, rest the soldiers.


You know what that means. The plot ain't movin' anywhere until you go nap in your own bed.

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Tsai: I left some tools at my house. As a craftsman, it's hurts me to part with my tools. I know that it's selfish, but would you mind going back to the house with me? That's all I came to say. I'm so embarrassed.

Well, sure Tsai. It's not like we've got pressing plot events until tomorrow.




Tsai: T...Tomo? What are you doing here?
Tomo: I never hear from you, so I got worried and decided to come visit.
Tsai: Oh. I'm sorry, Tomo-chan.

Yep. Japanese honorific preserved in the English translation. That's a thing that happened.

Tomo: When are you and mom going to make up?
Tsai: I don't really know, princess.
Tomo: Daddy. You need to get your life together. What are you doing with yourself now?
Tsai: Well Tomo-chan, the truth is I joined up with the KISS Army. I thought maybe my spear could be useful in the war.
Tomo: Oh daddy..... Well in that case, I'm going to join the KISS Army, too.
Tsai: What are you talking about?
Tomo: What's the problem? I can help the KISS Army, too. Or maybe I should tell Mom what you're up to.... using your spear again and all.
Tsai: Tomo, wait.
Tomo: Your name is Muteiu, isn't it? I know. You're famous. I've decided that I'm going to fight alongside my father. Please let me join.
Tsai: Tomo, why won't you listen to your father?


Tomo's an odd case of recruitment. The game gives you a choice of getting Valeria or Kasumi, and the last game established that Valeria is the Tensyo Star on your Tablet and Kasumi is the Chikyu Star. Whichever star you didn't get in Gregminster, that's the one Tomo was born under. So in this game she's the Chikyu Star, but had things gone differently she'd retroactively have always been the Tensyo star instead.

Most Stars carry a similar theme throughout the game: the Tenkai star is the one who unites the rest (Mute/Muteiu), the Tenki star is your primary strategist (Mathiu/Shu), the Tenyu star is an earlygame spear-wielding soldier (Camille, Tsai), the Chimou and Chibun stars are a prettyboy knight duo (Alen/Grenseal and Camus/Miklotov). But that can't always be the case, especially with fluid star assignments, such as here either a star for a swordfighter or a ninja is suddenly a rebellious young pike-carrier.

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So with Tomo on the Tablet -- wherever she goes -- we return to the castle for some shut-eye. Which, yes...


...prompts a cutscene.

Ridley: If you weigh my life against the survival of the KISS Army, it was the logical choice.
Luca: No matter. Sooner or later, I'll see the KISS Army crushed before my very eyes. Muteiu will bow down before me like the lowly mongrel he is.
Ridley: The KISS Army won't be defeated!!! Lord Muteiu will never be beaten by the likes of you!!!!
Luca: Bah!!! Take him away! I'll see his head lined up next to the head of Muteiu!!!


Ridley is escorted away, but for whatever reason the character sprites don't vanish offscreen. Throughout the next conversation it's as though the soldiers are just letting Ridley stand around, eavesdropping. I'm pretty sure that's unintentional.

Leon: With this many troops, we don't need a strategy. The next battle will be the decisive one. We've a new bright, young general, so there's no need to worry.
Luca: Who is that man? He's strong, but where did you find him?
Leon: I knew him from ago and thought his strength might prove useful to Lord Luca, so I summoned him.
Luca: I don't care about breeding. A sword doesn't need a fine lineage, it just needs to be sharp.

Who could this mysterious general possibly be?


Anyway, Muteiu hits the jackpot in the random-female-comes-to-wake-him-up lottery.


Shu: Lord Muteiu, let me explain our strategy.
Kiba: Yeah, I'd like to hear it too. This strategy for success.
Shu: We can't defeat 50,000 Highland soldiers with just our army of 20,000.
Viktor: Hey hey! That can't be true.....
Shu: Take it easy. We can win without defeating them. Our only goal is to take the head of Luca Blight.
Klaus: If we can kill Luca, Princess Jillian will become successor to the throne of Highland. Then we could forge a peace treaty.
Shu: Here's the plan. Muteiu, Teresa, Flik, Viktor, Valeria and Luc will wait with their troops in their designated ambush positions. Lord Muteiu and Lord Kiba will aim for Highland's main unit, free Lord Ridley and then face Luca Blight in personal combat.
Kiba: I don't know if I can defeat Lord Luca by myself.....
Shu: You don't have to. When Luca shows up, I want you to pretend to retreat and draw them into our ambush. We can't defeat 50,000 soldiers, but if we can surround their general with our force of 20,000, victory is ours.
Flik: I get it. You figure Luca Blight will chase Luca like a bat out of hell, eh.

Sure, provoking their murderous, bad-tempered king out of the ranks shouldn't be too hard. Then you isolate him and outnumber him 20,000 to 1. That oughta work!








Kiba's doing his job so far, fleeing from the small contingent of Luca's White Wolf royal guard. For whatever reason, his AI decides to blow Heal Self on the first turn, despite not being hurt at all. Even after the ambush springs, Kiba remains AI-controlled, and generally makes himself a bigger asset to the Highland Army than he does to us.

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Hah haaa! Suck it, Luca!


Characters with some measure of developed personality get a little line to announce they're attacking Luca Bight's unit.


Oh, did I mention Luca's personal entourage is attack 18 and defense 17? It's almost impossible to do any meaningful damage to him...


...and he hits hard.




Things have really gone south when the rest of the Highland army catches up to their impulsive leader.

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We fight with all our might!


...Luca is unimpressed.

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"Buy the sequel. Oh, and by the way..."




Sasarai teleports out, just before...


The remaining Highland army is blasted by tornado-force winds.


It's super-effective!


And Luc teleports back out. And that's a problem, since I'd forgotten he doesn't actually help fight in this battle, since he has CUTSCENE POWERS, and I gave him my best attack-boosting support characters.


Because despite all our pithy pre-encounter quotes, we still can't actually hurt Luca Blight.

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gj


If only I had some weapon that was particularly effective against shock-trooper cavalry with impenetrably heavy armor!


Oh wait, I do.


Hah! We managed to do some damage!




Whatever he did, it damages everybody.

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Shu: .....................
Viktor: ................it's rough.
Apple: Luc, your magic inflicted a lot of damage on the Harmonia troops. Why don't you do the same thing in the next battle....
Luc: I can't do that. That particular magic really exhausts me, so I can't do it again for a while. Besides, I hate breaking a sweat.
Apple: C'mon..........
Luc: I did my duty. Also, if he weren't here, it would be futile.

So the thing with Luc and Sasarai is detailed in the sequel. Since I'm not gonna LP it, and wouldn't inflict the "play for 30 hours before interesting things happen to the plot" storyline on anyone, here's the deal: The ruler of Harmonia, Hikusaak, is the holder of the Circle Rune. And to maintain his power, he is collecting other True Runes. But Windy is the only person in the world who can have two True Runes at once, which is a problem for someone who wants to collect them! So Hikusaak, through means never elaborated upon, has created several clones of himself as vessels to hold True Runes. Sasarai is the clone who holds the True Earth Rune, Luc is the clone who holds the True Wind Rune. There are probably others, but I don't think there's a canon explanation of who they are or what Runes they hold. Leknaat, for reasons also unclear, took Luc from Harmonia and hid him on Magician's Island.

Anyway, we have no hints for what to do next, and our grand idea for isolating and killing Luca failed. So we're left to wander the castle for a little while.




Ridley: With his help, we were able to somehow escape.
Chaco: Hey hey!! I saved the day!! I'll bet you're glad I joined up with you, eh?

...I will... begrudgingly... admit you were useful this one time, Chaco.

Ridley: Lord Muteiu, forgive me. It was careless of me to fall into the enemy's trap.
Nanami: I'm so glad you're okay, Ridley.
Ridley: Lord Muteiu, is Lord Shu in the great hall? I have a message for him?

Well sure let's go see him.


Come on, he's a Star of Destiny. He can't die a plotline death until I get the endgame reward for collecting all of you guys, and he's immune from random "oh crap my unit got wrecked" death because he's still plot-important. He'll be fine!

Ridley: Lord Shu sent help for me. I was able to get away from the bustle of war. I also had the help of another person.....
Klaus: Another person?
Ridley: Lord Shu, I have a message from Leon Silverburg, strategist of the Highland Army.

Yep, that's right. From the trap sprung on Ridley, to his imprisonment rather than execution, to his escape and return to Vania Castle, was orchestrated by Leon to deliver this message. What's the message?


It's tipping his army's hand. What's that guy planning?

Shu: Deploy all troops. Lay an ambush for Luca Blight and kill him.
Kiba: A night raid!!! But why would the enemy strategist.... Maybe it's a trap.....
Shu: It could be. This plan is risky, but the rewards could be big.... But on the other hand....

So you get the choice to go level up and sharpen weapons, or proceed with the ambush. It's an elaborate plan, so there's a bit of party-building to be done.


Here goes... everything!

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Apparently Leon did not fill Luca in on whatever he's got planning.

A Scout: I have a report!!!! The advance forces are under attack by the KISS Army!
A Vanguard: Lord Luca!!! The KISS Army has appeared behind us!!!!!!

That's right, we rock and roll all night.

Luca: What!!!...... Hiding in the woods!!!! You can't do anything right, you worthless fools!!!!!
Soldiers: L,,,Lord Luca!!!!

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Music: The Chase

That's right, it's down to a fight with Luca himself. But I'm not just going to beat him. I'm going to humiliate him. Beating the Champion with a Magikarp is one thing, but this'll top it for sure when I stop this bloodthirsty, genocidal war-prince...


WITH A FIVE SQUIRREL...


SENTAI TEAM!!!


Get 'em, boys!


The Five Squirrel attack is instant-death against one enemy, as the group hoists their target aloft and removes them from the battle. It has a chance of working even against enemies immune to instant death!


Alas, it doesn't work this time.








Oh god this was a terrible idea what was I thinking




Losing one part of this multi-step battle doesn't end the game, but does make things a bit harder for the rest of the fight.

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Of course, there's the standard way of beating Luca, that works pretty well regardless of your party setup.


He's the only target in the battle that matters, so blast him with high-powered Lightning magic from your strongest casters. You can stockpile scrolls for exactly this purpose, too.


It's still tough, though, even with your strongest magicians blasting and your toughest tanks soaking all the damage they can (although if I were a bit smarter I'd have leveled Oulan for this fight instead of bringing Humphrey, as Oulan's magic defense is higher against Luca's fiery sword strikes).


Luca doesn't have any innate sorcery. He doesn't carry a rune; there's no rune in the game you can use to power up your sword to set people on fire. He's just that damn good, somehow. He gets three attacks per turn, and three different attacks to choose from. He can stab through one column of your party, swipe crosswise to hit everyone in the front row, or do a three-slash combo for lots of damage to one target.

The column hit and row hit are both fire-elemental, so a Fire Sealing Rune in the front-center guy can save you a bit of healing.




Eventually Tengaar has to switch to healing duty with a Water Rune, but Meg and Luc keep up the electric blasts and occasionally Viktor or Camus will get a decent sword swipe in.


That's a victorious second step.