Quote Originally Posted by Del Murder View Post
Just beat Suikoden 2 this weekend. Overall it was really fun, but not one of the best RPGs I've ever played. It was fun collecting the 108 stars and all the other collectibles like recipes and garden items and etc., but I didn't feel like any of it had any impact on what I was doing. I know I could have used any variety of parties but I tended to stick with the characters with story impact. Also, the unites and runes were cool but very limited and in the end you are just left with a traditional turn-based battle system with standard experience levels. Also most of the runes were useless and it sucked that only a few characters had 3 rune slots.
It does depend on what you care about. The gameplay overall is nothing special, though a lot of the sidequests and minigames are fun (SIII and V do get more innovative). And it's paced really well, too, so that you never really feel like you're slogging through anything (at least not until your second trip through the Tinto mines to get smurfing Mazus). It's the story and characters that really sets SII apart for me. It's an epic adventure where you can really feel and believe the impact that events are having on the characters, the world, and even individual cities.

The inconsistent amount of rune slots for each player is the series' attempt to have some sort of balance, with limited success. Viktor, for instance, would be absolutely unstoppable very early on with 3 rune slots. Of course, if you get enough Double-Beat and Fury runes, whoever you have in your party is already going to be unstoppable, but different amounts of rune slots does force you to organize and balance your party.