I have watched a couple of your videos over the past couple days and am impressed with the depth of your analysis as well as the production value of your videos. For someone whose videos have 1K views or so, you are making excellent JRPG content and if you keep at it I think you can become one of the better known and respected channels for this type of content.
A part of the whole magic experience of Suikoden 2 is that it still has one of the most powerful intros ever made. In the day I played throughout the game 3 times just to get that very special ending. I really want to revisit it once more ^ ^
This game is criminally under appreciated. I picked it up at a pawn shop in like 1999 for $10, had never heard of it, just thought the CD jacket artwork looked cool. Then I spent the next 200 hours with my jaw on the floor. Oh man, and when I finally got to the luca fight? I could barely contain myself. I thought that was the end of the game but it just kept getting more awesome. I've probably pumped more hours into replays of this game than any other, including FF6/FF7/Chrono Trigger. I always find something new during another playthrough.
I randomly rented this game from my local video store back around 2001, immediately fell in love with it. Hadn't heard of Suikoden 1 and Suikoden 3 wasn't even out yet, but this game made a me a fan of the series for life. The intense relationship that Riou and Jowy have is absolutely stunning, and one of my favorite elements is the game really establishing that Jowy never stops being your friend - even when you are both leaders of opposing armies, he never becomes a cartoon villain doing evil for fun, he's just trying to make the world better in the only way he thinks will work. When Nanami is shot, Jowy stands by your side to strike down Gorudo because Jowy is just as hurt as you are, she was as much a sister to him as to you. Also side note, I streamed this game for a couple friends and let them name everything, it ended up being a hilarious time naming our headquarters White Castle. So many people have lines talking about how wonderful it is to finally be visiting White Castle, and it gave our group a lot of much-needed laughs throughout some of the somber story beats. "Lord Riou, now that you have killed Lord Luca Blight, I am here to deliver a message. Can you please take me to White Castle?"
I agree with all of your points and I think that is certainly what differentiates Suikoden II from the remainder of the series - It's full narrative is extremely moving and impactful and the core dynamic between Riou and Jowy is one of the best in all of gaming. Masterpiece.
Suikoden 2 could just use a remaster that maybe polishes a couple things up and possibly adds different difficulty settings (I know I'm dreaming on this one though).
There are a number of emulation options available to play Suikoden 2. Buying a physical copy is prohibitively expensive, so even though some people frown on emulation it's your best bet to play it without shelling out hundreds.
Oh... and S1 is the better still. haha. - but I think that's the nostalgia talking. I wish I could have S1 with the quality of life upgrades of S2. - Also I had Nanami's Beautiful morning as my morning alarm for a few years...
Nice video. Im just about to replay Suikoden ii but im kinda stuck trying to figure out how to download a suikoden i save file online and transfering it to the vita cause as much as I like all the other games I find Suikoden i to be pretty terrible in everything besides story and music.
@@LC356 Yeah. After already crashing my vita twice I just decided to play it without Tir which to be fair last time I played Suikoden to on the ps3 without him and I was already stuck on chasing who to be on my team so having one less slot would be even more distressful.
this is the most greatest jrpg ever created story telling wise , from bestfriends oppose 1 another from the side quest of clive, to the story of genkaku and han story,,,
While I love Suikoden II, I feel like it falls flat compared to III, IV and V simply because the translation/localization was so poor. Even back when it first came out, I realized while playing it that something was decidedly OFF about the text/story. The first game wasn't really much better in that regard, but still, I genuinely wish we could see a port (if not a remaster) with a much better translation and localization. The bugs, the grammar and spelling errors, the gross overuse of ellipsis, the occasional interchanging of certain character's English and Japanese names, and so on. For me, at least, it really hurt my overall enjoyment of the game, despite still coming out loving it to pieces.
Thanks for checking out the vid! I agree that the localization is a bit rough around the edges at times but I think the sentiment comes across cleanly enough to carry the potency of the story.
I am inclined to disagree with you about Suikoden 2 falling flat in comparison to 3, 4 , and 5. The long-windedness and absurd amount of backtracking made Suikoden 3 one of the weaker entries in the series for me. I also did not care for the unnecessary linking of characters in battle where the character in front is hard linked to the one behind so they are treated as one unit instead of two. This makes it seem like you only have three members in battle even though 6 are in the party. The move to 3D also didn't go well as the game looked...eww. Suikoden 4 had some innovative ideas too, but the uninteresting overall story and poor pacing made it less enjoyable for me. The boooring sea travel and world map really took away from the experience for me too. Suikoden 5 is the culmination of all good things in the series and my favorite. The 3D finally looks good after 3, and 4 were ugly, the music is great, the world building and setting are top notch too. Suikoden 2 is compelling in it's story, looks good, has memorable characters and emotional moments which is something 3, and 4 sorely lack. So I wouldn't say that 2 falls flat compared to the later games. Even 5 which I think did most things well doesn't make 2 look terrible. It's all a matter of opinion though.
Suikoden 1, 2, and 3 were the most memorable JRPG games I have ever played in my childhood.
Brilliant games
I have watched a couple of your videos over the past couple days and am impressed with the depth of your analysis as well as the production value of your videos. For someone whose videos have 1K views or so, you are making excellent JRPG content and if you keep at it I think you can become one of the better known and respected channels for this type of content.
This legit made my day. I really appreciate you taking the time to check out my content 👌🏿
Great review. - I did another replay last year and it held up sooo well. This game is so damn solid.
Absolutely unparalleled imo
A part of the whole magic experience of Suikoden 2 is that it still has one of the most powerful intros ever made. In the day I played throughout the game 3 times just to get that very special ending. I really want to revisit it once more ^ ^
Best intro of all time imo. The Theme + Imagery is godly
This game is criminally under appreciated. I picked it up at a pawn shop in like 1999 for $10, had never heard of it, just thought the CD jacket artwork looked cool. Then I spent the next 200 hours with my jaw on the floor. Oh man, and when I finally got to the luca fight? I could barely contain myself. I thought that was the end of the game but it just kept getting more awesome. I've probably pumped more hours into replays of this game than any other, including FF6/FF7/Chrono Trigger. I always find something new during another playthrough.
You have some good taste. Definitely a very special game forever and ever.
Dang might just have to give this a go, quite the title!
Great review 👍👍
The GOAT!
The experience is enhanced by completing the first game first, and loading your save file in
I randomly rented this game from my local video store back around 2001, immediately fell in love with it. Hadn't heard of Suikoden 1 and Suikoden 3 wasn't even out yet, but this game made a me a fan of the series for life. The intense relationship that Riou and Jowy have is absolutely stunning, and one of my favorite elements is the game really establishing that Jowy never stops being your friend - even when you are both leaders of opposing armies, he never becomes a cartoon villain doing evil for fun, he's just trying to make the world better in the only way he thinks will work. When Nanami is shot, Jowy stands by your side to strike down Gorudo because Jowy is just as hurt as you are, she was as much a sister to him as to you.
Also side note, I streamed this game for a couple friends and let them name everything, it ended up being a hilarious time naming our headquarters White Castle. So many people have lines talking about how wonderful it is to finally be visiting White Castle, and it gave our group a lot of much-needed laughs throughout some of the somber story beats. "Lord Riou, now that you have killed Lord Luca Blight, I am here to deliver a message. Can you please take me to White Castle?"
I agree with all of your points and I think that is certainly what differentiates Suikoden II from the remainder of the series - It's full narrative is extremely moving and impactful and the core dynamic between Riou and Jowy is one of the best in all of gaming. Masterpiece.
got your wish boys, konami just announced a remaster!!!
Suikoden 2 could just use a remaster that maybe polishes a couple things up and possibly adds different difficulty settings (I know I'm dreaming on this one though).
Absolutely! The whole Suikoden series deserves a HD remaster.
Hey it happened!
glad we all had fond childhood memories of this game
The answer to the question in the title is YES.
Amen!
@LordChao must be excited for elyden Chronicle
I'm literally looking for a way to play this on pc rn and stumbled upon this. I really miss this game
Check out PCSX2 I believe there is a way to play PS1 games on there now. Thanks for checking out the vid!
There are a number of emulation options available to play Suikoden 2. Buying a physical copy is prohibitively expensive, so even though some people frown on emulation it's your best bet to play it without shelling out hundreds.
It is my favorite JRPG ever with Chrono trigger being a close second.
10/10 game
no title has beaten suikoden 2 up to this day for jrpg.
Can't argue with this.
Oh... and S1 is the better still. haha. - but I think that's the nostalgia talking. I wish I could have S1 with the quality of life upgrades of S2. - Also I had Nanami's Beautiful morning as my morning alarm for a few years...
True - If it had even a bit of the QOL that S2 had S1 would have much better replayability.
Nice video. Im just about to replay Suikoden ii but im kinda stuck trying to figure out how to download a suikoden i save file online and transfering it to the vita cause as much as I like all the other games I find Suikoden i to be pretty terrible in everything besides story and music.
I ended up downloading and playing them via PSN on my PS3. There are some really good emulators though.
@@LC356 Yeah. After already crashing my vita twice I just decided to play it without Tir which to be fair last time I played Suikoden to on the ps3 without him and I was already stuck on chasing who to be on my team so having one less slot would be even more distressful.
Great video!
Thank you!
this is the most greatest jrpg ever created story telling wise , from bestfriends oppose 1 another from the side quest of clive, to the story of genkaku and han story,,,
I liked 1 more, but objectively 2 might be better
While I love Suikoden II, I feel like it falls flat compared to III, IV and V simply because the translation/localization was so poor. Even back when it first came out, I realized while playing it that something was decidedly OFF about the text/story. The first game wasn't really much better in that regard, but still, I genuinely wish we could see a port (if not a remaster) with a much better translation and localization. The bugs, the grammar and spelling errors, the gross overuse of ellipsis, the occasional interchanging of certain character's English and Japanese names, and so on. For me, at least, it really hurt my overall enjoyment of the game, despite still coming out loving it to pieces.
Thanks for checking out the vid! I agree that the localization is a bit rough around the edges at times but I think the sentiment comes across cleanly enough to carry the potency of the story.
I am inclined to disagree with you about Suikoden 2 falling flat in comparison to 3, 4 , and 5. The long-windedness and absurd amount of backtracking made Suikoden 3 one of the weaker entries in the series for me. I also did not care for the unnecessary linking of characters in battle where the character in front is hard linked to the one behind so they are treated as one unit instead of two. This makes it seem like you only have three members in battle even though 6 are in the party. The move to 3D also didn't go well as the game looked...eww. Suikoden 4 had some innovative ideas too, but the uninteresting overall story and poor pacing made it less enjoyable for me. The boooring sea travel and world map really took away from the experience for me too. Suikoden 5 is the culmination of all good things in the series and my favorite. The 3D finally looks good after 3, and 4 were ugly, the music is great, the world building and setting are top notch too. Suikoden 2 is compelling in it's story, looks good, has memorable characters and emotional moments which is something 3, and 4 sorely lack. So I wouldn't say that 2 falls flat compared to the later games. Even 5 which I think did most things well doesn't make 2 look terrible. It's all a matter of opinion though.
the game is alright but heavily influence peoples nostalgia goggles. i’ve played better jrpg’s!!