Suikoden Marathon

[Pumpkin]

With all of the Suikoden talk, I decided to start my Suikoden marathon that I have had planned forever. Also note that by marathon I mean playing them all in a row, one right after the other, and not playing them quickly. Especially with school and stuff coming up, these won't get done quickly.

So after asking my boyfriend we decided I would play them in order of events instead of in order of game. Which means IV - V - I - II - III. I'll keep a journal here of my progress and discussions and whatever and people can talk about them with me if they want to! I have played all games before so no worry about spoilers. On that note, I will have spoilers if you haven't played the games. I'll also keep a map detailing where I've been from the nifty map I've found online! Areas I have visited will be circled. Enlargeable full map can be found here http://images.ngamexp.com/6/0000006093.jpg

***

Okay so first day, July 22nd/23rd

*Started playing Suikoden IV. It's been the longest since I've played this game and I was amazed at how much I've forgotten. I printed out a Star guide and I forgot who most of the characters were! It's a shame so many of them were forgettable. Named hero Lazlo

*Noticed that Snowe looks like a woman. Especially on one portrait where his earlobes look like earrings.

*Did my first naval engagement. Skipped tutorial thinking I didn't need it. Lost

*Realized I needed the tutorial and reset.

*Won the battle. Scene seems to proceed the same way. Won the duel. Wondered if Commander Glen has the same voice as Margulis. Looked it up just now and learned that he's been in literally everything in existence. And he is the same voice. He also does Papa Godwin in SV.

*Went to Razril and met Funghi and Chiepoo.

*Remembered this was the point I had trouble with the first time I played because they're a bit vague on what to do next.

*Chose Kennith and Jewel to accompany me on my first mission. I *think* this is where you choose who will stay with you a while. Last time I chose Kennith and Paula and I was debating Jewel and Paula this time but as much as I like the Wind Rune, I really don't use it much.

*Chose to deliver a document and went to Middleport. Bought some cheap trade goods and some flower seeds. Met Adrienne, Deborah, Oskar, and Gunter.

Went to bed as it was late, played more while waiting for Internet dude

*Forgot how terribly awkward the ship is and how they don't really give you an explanation. Went much faster once I figured it out. Also forgot the ridiculously high encounter rate.

*Pretty water though!

*Defeated evil hairball

*Returned to Razril and met Basil and Konrad. Forgot how many recruits are in Razril. Noticed how many characters look rather gender ambiguous.

*Ramada is creepy lookin

*Glen reminds me of Malik from Graces f now

*Snow is a terrible Captain. It's easy to Captain when things are going good

*Debated killing Snowe later in the game.

*Despite intimidating naval battle, I won without issue, and also won the duel.

*Have returned to Razril, people are rightfully being assish to Snowe

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[Pumpkin]

July 23rd

*Pirates attacked

*Glen died, received the Rune of Punishment

*Was exiled. Very sad.

*Recruited Jewel, Kennith , and Chiepoo

*How the heck did Snowe get made new Commander?

*Lots of ship time and battles

*Boss fights

*Arrived at Obel

*Met Nabokov and Yu

*Traded sugar for a good price

*Received HQ

*Recruited Desmond, Tov, Louise, Chadli, and Ornan

*Traveled to Nay-Nal, recruited Rita, Mitsuba, and Reinhold

Total stars of destiny: 12/108

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[Pumpkin]

July 24th

I was sick today so we have a big update!

*Recruited Perrault

*Went to the Obel ruins

*Recruited Rakgi, Rikie, Lilin, and Cedric

*Remembered you can press R1 to dash. Makes ridiculous encounter rate a bit more barable since I can actually go distance

*Met Ema, Noah, and Gary

*Changed party and learned that Rita is a good Lightning Rune mage and Mitsuba is a good hitter

*Realized Kika is an attractive pirate lady. Also very thin. Felt jealous while eating kit kat bar

*Recruited Oleg, Akaghi, Mizuki, Ramada, Yu, and Adrienne

*HQ became a ship, very excited about comment box

*Recruited Haruto, Lino, Nico, and Pablo automatically

*Recruited Mao, Nao, Bang, Bartholomew, Viki, Jeane, Manu, Shiramine, Lilan, Izak, Kate, Nataly, Taisuke, Lilen, Rene, and Phil

*Remembered how adorable Nataly is, changed avatar to Nataly avatar. Was sad I had no window sets

*Went to Pirate's Nest

*Recruited Kika, Dario, Nalleo, Sigurd, Hervey, Lilon, and Liloon

*Almost lost ship battle because stupid sick brain, agonized over which option to pick for Snowe. Went with second option. Snowe is still a jackass.

Total Stars of Destiny: 51/108

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[Pumpkin]

July 25th

*Went to Hermitage Island and got Elenor as my tactician, as well as Agnes. Named my ship and army 'Toran' as that's what I name all my stuff since Suikoden I.

*Recruited Jango, Brec, Aldo, Gau, Katarina, Lo Fong, Lo Hak, Lo Seng, Igor, Nalkul and Champo

*Went to Middleport and defeated the horrible octomammoth thing

*Recruited Reinbach III, Micky, Gareth, Deborah, Oskar, Etienne, Helga, Charlemagne, and Keen

*Realized how many people I needed Reinbach for, wondered why he isn't the leader of the army

*Had a ridiculous amount of fun with the confessionals

*Went to the Ghost Ship, got game over. Tried again and won. Recruited Ted.

*Went to Na-Nal, wanted to punch Mayor in the face

*Recruited Axel and Selma. Tried to recruit Eugene but was never there. Grew increasingly worried.

*Went to Nay. Recruited Kevin, Pam, Millay.

*After recruiting Millay, Eugene was finally there. Was also amazed at how Reinbach and Millay handled their affairs like mature adults. Noted that I once again needed Reinbach.

*Took back Razril.

*Recruited Helmut, Paula, Tal, Ameria, Basil, Frederica, Funghi, Karl, Konrad, Jeremy, Maxine (who nearly kicked my butt on the second fight with her stupid wind rune), and Gretchen. Super excited about Gretchen.

*Went to recruit Warlock, did dungeon, recruited Warlock. Went back to recruit Pecola, was not there. Finally talked to Deborah and returned and she was there.

*Ship is very lively now!

Total Stars of Destiny: 94/108

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[Pumpkin]

July 26th

*Went to Pirate's Nest, and finally took back Obel after several suspiciously too easy ship battles.

*Recruited Tanya, Flare, Setsu, Carrie, Ema, Gary, Gunter, Nabokov, Noah, Trishtan, Wendel, Rachel.

*Went to recruit Travis through the rather annoying Obel Ruins. Rage quit during tough boss. Realized I could walk around boss, recruited Travis.

*Recruited Snowe and got all 108 Stars of Destiny!!!

*Am now getting all characters up to level 50 before proceeding. So far my strategy for this has been:
-For characters below level 25, I build them up in the Obel path leading to the former HQ
-For characters level 25 to 40, I build them up in the town square of Na-Nal
-For characters level 40 and above, I build them up in the Obel Ruins, now chock full of stronger monsters

Doing this method it takes about 20 minutes to get someone up to level 50, doing 3 characters at a time. I'm also picking my parties so as to get their combo attacks as well!

When all characters are at level 50, I will post stats here so anyone who plays can plan their party accordingly if they so choose!

*For anyone who needs a guide to recruit the 108 stars, suikosource has an excellent guide here. However, there are a few changes I would like to add as a heads up:
-Eugene seems to appear randomly
-To recruit Carrie, you need Yu in your party
-Travis needs an Escape Scroll (marked here as Scroll of Return)
-Noah is BEHIND the throne in the throne room.

Other than that, the guide is excellent and even shows in what order you can recruit each character. The only one who needs advanced events before they are listed for recruitment is Gunter. You need to speak to him in Middleport near the beginning of the game and in Na Nal just after you liberate it.

Total Stars of Destiny: 108/108
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[setsua25]

It`s been so long since i`ve played these games. If i still had my ps1 and ps2 i would play them again.

[Raistlin]

The ship battles are ridiculously easy until the last one, when it becomes ridiculously luck-based.

Despite considering Suikoden IV the weakest of the series, I must say that it is notably easy and efficient to play. The Obel Ruins is probably the longest dungeon in the game, and it's a quick 2-minute run (and except for the ocean/world map, the encounter rate is fairly low). Travis is still an asshole.

[Pumpkin]

I do think it's the weakest one, but for me it's still a very enjoyable game. I've been having a lot of fun and I can hardly put it down! I am excited to finish soon though as V is my favourite/tied for my favourite in the series. I am NOT however looking forward to how much more difficult it is to recruit everyone in V. I'm going to be pulling my hair out the whole game worrying I've missed something. V is not forgiving with the recruitment.

Today I've mostly been grinding. I have 15 characters to go I think, should be finished up tomorrow

[Raistlin]

15 characters?!? Are you trying to level up everyone just for kicks? Or are you going for the boarding option for the ship battles?

[Pumpkin]

Im gettng them all to level 50 to compare their stats. Mostly curiosity. I used to have notes but they died with my old laptop

[Wolf Kanno]

Come now, we all know the best team in Suikoden IV is Lazlo (S4 Hero), Kika, Snowe and Ted.

[Pumpkin]

Screw Snowe, he's a terrible character

Everyone is up to level 50. Here are their stats with all equipment removed. Not including stats affected by weapons. The number in regular colour means it's in the average range, red means below average range, and green means above average range. Alphabetical order.

To avoid having to rewrite the same stat name over and over, this is the order
Character Name
Strength - Skill - Magic - Evasion
Physical Defense - Magical Defense - Speed - Luck

(SPOILER)
Akaghi
117 - 95 - 88 - 161
94 - 115 - 135 - 96

Aldo
111 - 111 - 79 - 115
114 - 148 - 141 - 63

Ameria
114 - 128 - 111 - 95
83 - 62 - 127 - 110

Axel
127 - 80 - 76 - 94
109 - 85 - 104 - 101

Bartholomew
164 - 67 - 65 - 101
127 - 47 - 37 - 66

Champo
85 - 128 - 78 - 129
83 - 130 - 134 - 84

Charlemagne
115 - 129 - 72 - 80
68 - 83 - 64 - 84

Chiepoo
93 - 126 - 94 - 146
84 - 83 - 140 - 160

Dario
143 - 67 - 75 - 66
115 - 110 - 57 - 62

Eugene
86 - 115 - 114 - 92
125 - 95 - 54 - 39

Flare
79 - 139 - 113 - 130
70 - 114 - 144 - 116

Frederica
101 - 117 - 113 - 93
66 - 69 - 151 - 114

Gau
167 - 81 - 39 - 60
144 - 40 - 119 - 67

Gretchen
126 - 100 - 98 - 81
126 - 89 - 91 - 78

Helga
161 - 83 - 62 - 70
113 - 59 - 49 - 114

Helmut
117 - 162 - 111 - 73
83 - 68 - 115 - 69

Hervey
144 - 100 - 67 - 132
104 - 76 - 148 - 116

Izak
142 - 69 - 65 - 83
126 - 65 - 67 - 105

Jeane
64 - 144 - 164 - 65
97 - 162 - 64 - 100

Jeremy
126 - 115 - 54 - 96
114 - 61 - 114 - 97

Jewel
115 - 115 - 80 - 129
81 - 101 - 130 - 99

Karl
138 - 78 - 63 - 84
160 - 66 - 94 - 53

Katarina
83 - 99 - 130 - 112
48 - 129 - 80 - 45

Kate
84 - 115 - 132 - 141
97 - 85 - 147 - 97

Kennith
96 - 146 - 102 - 113
101 - 96 - 112 - 83

Kika
84 - 164 - 65 - 147
104 - 97 - 126 - 84

Konrad
50 - 93 - 146 - 112
52 - 126 - 67 - 103

Lazlo
113 - 115 - 111 - 129
94 - 79 - 108 - 66

Lino
144 - 96 - 66 - 64
130 - 83 - 79 - 103

Lo Fong
75 - 111 - 116 - 98
98 - 110 - 160 - 144

Lo Hak
98 - 129 - 102 - 113
97 - 72 - 142 - 64

Lo Seng
112 - 83 - 66 - 100
84 - 72 - 127 - 60

Maxine
59 - 163 - 160 - 67
52 - 143 - 98 - 124

Millay
114 - 130 - 115 - 99
103 - 64 - 142 - 125

Mitsuba
138 - 68 - 69 - 65
79 - 98 - 63 - 144

Mizuki
82 - 113 - 116 - 142
115 - 97 - 155 - 85

Nalkul
117 - 99 - 102 - 147
95 - 99 - 141 - 98

Ornan
95 - 108 - 99 - 67
97 - 114 - 128 - 131

Pablo
54 - 126 - 124 - 64
54 - 102 - 116 - 145

Paula
82 - 112 - 125 - 98
63 - 117 - 114 - 99

Rachel
104 - 132 - 78 - 113
103 - 63 - 130 - 96

Reinbach
86 - 141 - 80 - 132
98 - 94 - 102 - 157

Reinhold
129 - 94 - 82 - 113
64 - 85 - 65 - 68

Rita
81 - 129 - 113 - 145
81 - 95 - 106 - 157

Selma
104 - 141 - 114 - 85
105 - 67 - 102 - 100

Shiramine
129 - 82 - 49 - 61
143 - 64 - 85 - 83

Sigurd
116 - 147 - 92 - 112
116 - 96 - 131 - 77

Snowe
135 - 95 - 64 - 115
81 - 67 - 96 - 40

Tal
146 - 80 - 71 - 96
116 - 67 - 96 - 114

Ted
83 - 126 - 163 - 112
52 - 141 - 124 - 83

Travis
115 - 86 - 66 - 110
113 - 95 - 125 - 104

Trishtan
69 - 144 - 51 - 66
145- 139 - 113 - 69

Ugetsu
109 - 64 - 85 - 62
87 - 65 - 53 - 72

Viki
65 - 143 - 142 - 129
45 - 134 - 60 - 51

Warlock
37 - 40 - 162 - 161
55 - 139 - 51 - 55

Wendel
83 - 100 - 144 - 159
64 - 68 - 126 - 97

There you go! You now have a quick reference guide without having to grind and write this up for hours ._.

[Raistlin]

I agree with shion; Snowe is an awful person and I refuse to use him on principal, even if he is part of the consensus-best party. SIV is pretty much alone in the fact that it even has one of those.

And that list is pretty cool. I am amused that Snowe is below-average in most stat categories. His unite with Lazlo is really the only reason he's notable. What number is the stat for arm strength?

[Pumpkin]

The strength stat? The average is 100-110. Unless you mean weapon strength, in which case I don't know xD

[Raistlin]

Oh haha, that was just a facetious reference to Snowe's infamous arm pain. Not a serious question, though the real answer is that it's obviously permanently set at 0.