Suikoden Marathon

[Pumpkin]

Oh sorry xD Yeah that arm thing was pretty darn ridiculous.

Suikoden IV with Snowe as protagonist:

"BUT MY ARM WOULDN'T MOVE"

Fin

On a side note, I was thinking about it and I find the True Runes a really interesting take on kind of Gods in this world. It's interesting to me that religion is not a huge thing in the Suikoverse despite the Gods being out and about and people having concrete proof they exist. Maybe that's why religion isn't an issue? Either way it's a pretty interesting take on things. The Gods are the things your magic runes are based on and they choose their owner and each have their positive and negative effects and people seek them a great deal for their power. I wish there would be more Suikoden games so we could see more of them but it sadly looks like the series is dead

[Wolf Kanno]

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.

Not completely true, S1 and S5 are probably the only entries where most fans don't have a general consensus of the best final party. the first game because beyond specialty runes and weapon setups, everyone is the same and S5 because they're too many broken character builds.

Yes Snowe is irritating, but I kind of liked his arc as a character and I enjoyed rubbing his face in his failures only to finally break his selfishness by end game. Snowe's saving grace is his Unite with the Hero but also his equipment setup allows him to use things like the Hero Armor set and a few other broken Armor sets that offset his average stats. Now in Suikoden Tactics, he's mostly useless.

[Pumpkin]

Below average stats Although his PDF and spf are lose to the lower average.

I think he's a well done character though. They wanted to make a character you'd dislike and they certainly succeeded for me. It made it tempting to off him when he was being an arrogant jerk. Now he's just all depressed and he is better but I just don't like him as a person so I don't like using him.

My main party is:
Lazlo - because they make me
Gretchen - Because she's pretty
Mizuki - Because she's a decent healer and also quick, which means quick healing
Rita - Because she's very good with a Lightning Rune and a bit better physically than most of the other mages

And I can't recall exactly, but I *think* they make you take a second party in here soon so I have it set up with
Ted - Because good healing and Soul Eater Rune
Jeane - Because magic
Mitsuba - Just because she's strong and I had her set up anyway since I used her before I got Gretchen
Kika - Because Kika

So I just need to finish sharpening their weapons (short on funds after sharpening the weapons of 56ish characters) and I'm off to progress the game

[Pumpkin]

July 28th

*Finished preparations. Made second team of Mitsuba, Jeane, Ted, and Kika.

*Completed ship battle with two ships remaining.

*Defeated Cray like it was nothing

*Got to the final boss and lost hard. Took a fit. Was having a terrible day and I prepared and prepared and the final boss was a mega pain and I took a fit and had to start over.

*Finished preparations. Trained more. Made FIRST TEAM Jeane, Ted, and Kika. Made second team Mizuki, Rita, Gretchen, and Mitsuba.

*Lost ship battle

*Started wanting to break game which before this had been very easy. Was happier when it was very easy.

*Won thanks to sharky's help. Lost no ships.

*Beat Cray still pretty easily.

*Lost boss battle due to not paying attention to when he turns white

*Fought boss again. Lost 3 characters to stupid white attack. Made a miraculous recovery. Noticed next time he turned white and used Rush. Won just as I was giving up hope.

*Watched credits. They went by very quickly, wish they had gone by more slowly

*FINISHED THE GAME SO HAPPY OH MY GOSH THAT BOSS

*Total time was 37 hours and 11 minutes.

So I liked it more than I remembered although I still say it's my least favourite. It certainly has its faults and sadly the characters are not super memorable as a whole. But it was still a lot of fun.

I wish they had spread the info a bit more over the game instead of a big info dump at the end. I hadn't remembered about Helmut being the son of whatshisname and Lazlo being Flare's long lost brother. That was kind of sweet, actually. Helmut has good hair. But yeah, there was a lot of free time they could have added some story instead of keeping it all to the end. I also miss the detective investigations.

Overall still a great game and I had a lot of fun Will add more in journal entry.

**********************
*Started Suikoden V

*Already getting a headache at the Stars of Destiny checklist. WHY SUIKODEN V, WHY?!?!?

*Misspelled Freyjadour's name. Will just call him Frey here.

*Am now in Lordlake.

*Noticed lack of Dash, was sad

*****

Does anyone else go to the HQ in each game and decide where their room would be if they were a Star of Destiny? Probably only I am that big of a dweeb, but yes. I decided in Suikoden IV that it would be Katarina's room. I wanted to be below deck but not at the bottom, thus the fourth floor. I didn't want to be right next to the doctor because if there's an emergency and they need more space, guess who's room is getting converted. I also wanted to be on the left side, but not right next to Dario because he seems like he'd be loud. So fourth door on the left. And it's close to the library!

[Pumpkin]

July 29th

Oh look, it's a week since I started! Rest assured that Suikoden V will not go anywhere near as quickly

*In Lordlake. Met Toma, Goesch (who's name I always mispronounce), Talgeyl, Silva

*Rescued Toma

*Lordlake sure is depressing. I do like the themed battle fades so far. Suikoden IV with it's water, Suikoden V with the sun. It was especially fitting in Lordlake

*First boss was a breeze with Georg Prime

*I like that they finally give you their Rune affinity ratings in this one so I don't have to look it up

*So we returned to the beautiful Sol-Falena

*Royal pajamas made me laugh

*Met the royal knights and the royal family

*Random guy who talks about the war seems forced but I've meet sharky's dad people like that so

*It was cheesy but I liked Ferrid's loyalty talk. I like the music that plays with Zahhak, they aren't showcasing that one or anything. Alenia needs to crawl out of the Godwin's butts

*I LOVE MIAKIS

*The senate is depressing. Two parties that both suck bananas. Sounds like US politics

*I like the saves that change colours and talking to Lyon who follows behind you

*Bought 1/6 needed salts for random salt guy recruitment

*Headed to Stormfist

*Met Marina, Shoon, Belcoot, Norma and Ernst, Egbert, Nikea, ummm Armes guy who's name I don't remember, dwarf blacksmith guy

*Already super paranoid about missing recruits.

*Got another salt

*Margulis/Glen has made his return

*Doing sacred games stuff with Belcoot now

*I like the little call out to Suikoden I when they mention Morgan the gladiator. This is why it's fun to play them in order! There are also some recruits with Obel style uniforms if I remember correctly

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Also everyone else is probably smarter and knew this but if you right click on the map and select view image, you can zoom in that way!

[Madame Adequate]

Consensus party in II is Wakaba and LC Chan and berserk them both and one-shot the final boss.

This is a good thread Pumpkin, keep it up

[Pumpkin]

July 30th

*Helped out Belcoot

*Did the Sacred Games stuff

*Bought salt

*Returned to Sol-Falena

*Bought more salt

*Met Jeane

*Went to East Palace and met Zerase

*Went to Lunas, met Isato, Haswar, Logg, and Lun

*Logg and Lun are quite tragic

*Went to Raftfleet and met Meroon, Sairoh, Raja, and Kisara

*Returned to Sol-Falena where stuff started to happen. Very sad stuff. Very powerful moments in the game

*I like the music after the escape

*Went to Haud Village. Oh goodness, Haud Village

*Met Bastian and Josephine

*Recruited Boz, Zegai left

*Went to Rainwall. Started stressing about recruits

*Met Alhazred, Luserina, Chuck. Recruited Luserina

*The space limit in your inventory is terrible so I'm glad I have storage now

*Bought more salt

*Remembered about the Wilhelm recruiting, already started pulling my hair out. So I looked it up and some people say you need to not lose many recruits in the war battles, others say you need a lot of Victory+'s, others say you just need Viki, others say you need an all female party, others say you need some combination of these or all of these and just GAAAHHHH (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)

*So I did the first war battle and I got Victory+ but I lost 94 people. Is that too many? Does it stack? Did I already mess up the recruit? I HATE RECRUITING IN THIS GAME IT IS SO STRESSFUL

*Met Sagiri, Shigure, and Fuyo

*Recruited Cornelio. It says "befriended" but considering he calls me Mediocrity, I don't think I did. I do like how the battle music changes when you use him.

*Met Resto and Shun Min

*So went to see about salt and the price HAD been raised when I was in Rainwall but then it plummeted by the time I reached Raftleet. So will it rise again? Did I miss my chance? WHY IS RECRUITING IN THIS GAME SO ABSURDLY HARD (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!
I am buying so much salt now it's not even funny. I will buy all of the salt in the friggin world and the price will have to go up. Every single grain of salt will be mine
I CAN'T EVEN PUT IT IN STORAGE BECAUSE BY THE TIME I FETCH IT AND COME BACK I MAY MISS MY WINDOW AGAIN

*Recruited Logg and Lun

*Went to Lordlake

*Hatred Fortress, seriously. Seriously

Stars of Destiny: 7/108

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[Raistlin]

Not completely true, S1 and S5 are probably the only entries where most fans don't have a general consensus of the best final party. the first game because beyond specialty runes and weapon setups, everyone is the same and S5 because they're too many broken character builds.

True, S2 and S3 also have some consensus top characters. I guess I should rephrase in that S4 has the most easily-broken top characters with no effort on the gamer's part. S2's "top" characters are all there just because they have 3 open rune slots (e.g., Killey) for rare-but-overpowered runes. Equipping Fury, Double-Beat, and Double-Strike on anyone makes them a monster. And for S3, some of the top characters are based on skills that you may or may not want to spend all the time leveling up (e.g., Juan). For S4, you're given Kika, who for some ungodly reason has a disadvantage-free Falcon Rune, and Snowe, who comes with a ridiculous unite with Lazlo. You don't even have to do anything to them and they're all overpowered (you can also add Mizuki, who has a repeatable and disadvantage-free 2x Strike Rune, which basically makes her normal attack unnecessary). S4 is the only Suikoden game I've played where my hero was ever the weakest character in my party.

*Lost ship battle

Troy is a bitch. As I said, the ship battles go from ridiculously easy to manipulate to complete random luck.

*Bought 1/6 needed salts for random salt guy recruitment

smurf that guy.

*Remembered about the Wilhelm recruiting, already started pulling my hair out. So I looked it up and some people say you need to not lose many recruits in the war battles, others say you need a lot of Victory+'s, others say you just need Viki, others say you need an all female party, others say you need some combination of these or all of these and just GAAAHHHH (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)

*So I did the first war battle and I got Victory+ but I lost 94 people. Is that too many? Does it stack? Did I already mess up the recruit? I HATE RECRUITING IN THIS GAME IT IS SO STRESSFUL

My understanding is that it's based on losses (if you get all Victory+'s, then you're likely in good shape, absent some very bad luck), but even if you have too many losses, you can STILL recruit him with Viki in your party. He mentions something about being a good general and not wasting lives, and he also is a womanizer, so that all makes sense. I haven't had to try the latter before, though, so don't consider that absolute.

*So went to see about salt and the price HAD been raised when I was in Rainwall but then it plummeted by the time I reached Raftleet. So will it rise again? Did I miss my chance? WHY IS RECRUITING IN THIS GAME SO ABSURDLY HARD (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!
I am buying so much salt now it's not even funny. I will buy all of the salt in the friggin world and the price will have to go up. Every single grain of salt will be mine
I CAN'T EVEN PUT IT IN STORAGE BECAUSE BY THE TIME I FETCH IT AND COME BACK I MAY MISS MY WINDOW AGAIN

See above: smurf that guy.

But I think you only need 6 salt when that trade event is triggered, and I never had any luck getting it to trigger by buying salt. It is a repeatable event. My advice is just to hold 1-2 full stacks of salt in your inventory and just play through the game, talking to the traders along the way. Don't stress out trying to get him right away, because it's just a pain in the ass.

[Pumpkin]

I know he's not missable but just something about you could have recruited him..... but you didn't just stresses me out. I stress easily. I love this game to death and the story and characters and world are amazing but they've gone full on punishment in recruiting for it and I always stress that I missed something

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it

[Wolf Kanno]

It's an either or thing actually for Wilhelm, same with Oboro. To get Wilhelm you either have to convince his partner by proving your a great general with a Victory + and very few losses in the first few battles or you can simply wait to bring any of the girls used in the Cute Girl Unite Attack which is Viki, Norma, and one other I can't remember and that will be enough to convince him to join to his partner Mueller's disgust.

The Trader character will activate the event, so just hold onto the salt until he mentions the wager to see how good you are at trading which as far as I know, won't happen until you get Raftfleet on your side anyways so don't stress over it. Honestly, I love the fact the recruitment in this game is challenging because it's not like everything else in the game isn't easy. It's also cool how a few characters have multiple ways to recruit them although I screwed up with Oboro in my last playthrough, and had to get him the hard way because I forgot to help Sagiri and Shigure with the investigation.

[Pumpkin]

Way to forget gosh Terrible

thanky for advice though! Im a fan of easier things though so I prefer easier recruiting

[Pumpkin]

July 30th, Part 2

*So I went to break Lucretia out of prison. Met Gunde and Dwarfsmith

*I like the fact that you can bring an entourage with you!

*Recruited Cius, Lelei, and Lucretia

*Defended Raftleet and got a Victory+

*Recruited Raja, Kisara, and Shinro

*Realized that unlike in IV, V counts the WPN level towards the attack stat, so when comparing everyone's stats I will have to make sure they are all at the same weapon level. That's going to get EXPENSIVE. You do seem to get more money in this game, but it also gets spent more easily.

*Met Oboro and Norden

*Did Oboro sidequest, hopefully correctly

*Recruited Egbert, Takamu, and Josephine

Total Stars of Destiny: 16/108

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[Pumpkin]

July 31st

*Did the whole Rainwall thing, did war battle, got Victory+ with no losses.

*Wondered if Wilhelm is the voice of Captain Matthews. I hope so. Captain Matthews from the game with another character named Wilhelm and another voice actor who does Margulis/Godwin

*Some really great scenes in Rainwall. I really think it's pretty but the first time I played I thought it would be my HQ and I was a bit disappointed since it's much more developed. But I was happy that wasn't the case.

*Relocated to Raftfleet. One of my favourite areas of the whole game.

*New outfit, named my army the Toran army.

*Recruited Oboro, Fuyo, and Shigure. Not Sagiri though and I am sad because I like her

*Recruited Nordon, Zegai, and Sorensen after doing the whole Babbage sidequest.

*EQUIPMENT IS SO EXPENSIVE

*Met Urda, Babbage, Lu, Rahal, Roog, Flail, and Lance

*RECRUITED SAIROH!!! I decided I wasn't going to just go on with the game so since I needed funds anyways, I would do some fights, come back and check. Do some more fights, come back and check. After about an hour and a half, it worked! I sold like 34 salts, finally have space in my inventory, and I can stop stressing about Sairoh now! Also got weapons sharpened and skill points used

*Saw how simple it was to calculate attack minus weapon level so that shouldn't affect stats later on

*Went to Beaverville. Met beavers. Already heard about the "Boss" a bit too soon, worried I messed up the event.

Total Stars of Destiny: 25/108

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[Pumpkin]

August 1st

*Went to the Lake Ruins, met Zweig and Lorelai. Did that whole dealio

*Did the Hatred Fortress battle. Felt a lot of pressure because of Wilhelm recruit. Actually got Victory+. It was amazing, I have never done as well as I did here in any of the more difficult war battles. I was knocking out ships left and right, I had a plan, I was organized. I'll probably never perform this well again x)

*Found it funny that I killed like 900 people to get them to evacuate to avoid killing people by flooding them

*FINALLY GOT MY SECOND FAVOURITEST HQ IN THE SERIES!! 30 hours or so in. It took me 37 hours to finish IV for reference.

*Recruited Viki, Zerase, Lorelai, Zweig, Muroon, Talgeyl, Goesch, Silva, Toma

*Successfully recruited Wilhelm and Muller with no issue! Didn't even need Viki! Speaking of Viki, yay teleporting!

*Recruited Subala, Bastan, Zunda, Belcoot, Marina, and Alhazred.

*Found it pretty funny with the Euram thing. I'd actually forgotten about that.

*I'm really excited to have a detective again, I missed that in IV. He doesn't give me the most useful info though.

*Having a hard time with enemies. I don't get much exp from them which indicates my level is close to where it should be and I've bought as much equipment as I can afford. Everything is so darn expensive though.

*I was going to recruit Richard and Genoh before the day was up but plans didn't work out. I was planning to get Richard and level up Alhazred in the meantime and come back for Genoh. But I guess because I spoke to the beaver, I got there and it was Genoh and Alhazred is 3 levels behind. So I have to go level him up some more and then get those two.

Total Stars of Destiny: 42/108

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[Pumpkin]

August 2nd

*Recruited Genoh and Richard

*Met Killey

*Went to the beavers

*Went to Lelcar

*Started the War Battle which was already intimidating enough, didn't realize I had ship troops. Took a break. Sharky won it for me with a Victory+ after much swearing and yelling.

*Laughed at the people who sided with the Godwins

*Recruited Orok, Volga, Wasil, Mohsen, Jeane, Taylor, Murad, and Nikea.

*Did two events with Linfa and was told I would find her in Raftfleet, didn't find her in Raftfleet Will try again another time

Total Stars of Destiny: 52/108

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