Part 56: Hai Yo and the Tyrano Kitchen Nightmares

Gordon Ramsay not included

This update focuses almost entirely on Hai Yo's cooking sidequest. Not only does it flesh out Hai Yo's background, but it has a story and purpose all on its own. He's secretly the game's best character. I'll link to videos of chefs that have unique animations.

Round 1: Yu Kum



Wow that is an unfortunate name.

: What the... who are you anyway?



Yu Kum: Hai Yo, I challenge you to a cooking contest!! If you win, I'll give you my closely-guarded family recipe!! Do you accept!!!!





Suikoden 2 Tunes – Bright Curtain ~ Cooking Duel Theme





Our panel of judges affects what we should prepare, by the way. The judges are randomly selected from your 108 characters, which is why this minigame can involve luck but still has some broken combinations. Each dish has a base preference ratio modified by each judge's preferences.

I will be your host today, my name is Fu Tan Chen.





Nina is a neutral judge.

: Why you... that's none of your business!!



The game doesn't tell you what every character likes, or how they judge, but sometimes Fu Tan Chen gives you hints.



He has quotes for all the possible judges, which aren't all the characters you have in your army, too. Many are left out.



seriously unfortunate



Aw yeah, Hai Yo. Wait wtf why are there spotlights in my medieval RPG



Because I haven't gotten the chance to give Hai Yo recipes, he's a bit low. I bet I can still pull off a win. Anyway, Hai Yo can turn on flags for enemy-based Recipes if you don't give him all of them in one go, which is why some Recipes are bugged. However, if you have the items in your inventory, Hai Yo will have them available in his repertoire. You also want to have Sugar, Salt, Mayonnaise, Red Pepper, and Soy Sauce bought from trading posts because each dish has five different ways of being made.



We start off with a sweet salad as an appetizer. Salad + sugar. For our main course, we want something that's Japanese and made with fish, but Hai Yo doesn't come with those stock. Our best bet would be to make our main course a fish dish. Fried Fish Balls + salt makes crab cakes. Don't ask how.

usually they're made by combining crab meat with mayo, milk, eggs, bread crumbs, etc.



We'll finish with a tamago-yaki as dessert. Tamago-yaki is an egg-based dish. It is a type of Japanese omelette, which is made by rolling together several layers of cooked egg. 







It basically plays like Iron Chef.





Some of the later chefs have unique animations, all hilarious. Hai Yo has some of his own, but he does pretty much the same thing every time. You'll have different animations depending on what you're cooking, however.





The bars show how fast it's being cooked versus how long the round is, and you can't affect it so it's just there for fluff. There are of course combinations that will generally always win, such as island salad and pudding for appetizer/dessert then a different main course.



They liked his tomato soup. We got similar scores with our salad, but Nina loved it. For the main dish, our opponent made spinach cake, which was not received well.



Our crab cakes were a hit. Our opponent then chose spinach salad for desert, which was again not received well.



But we didn't do much better with tamago-yaki.



We win by not much, but that's okay.



He gives us the recipe for Tomato Soup.



When we return with recipes, we can make our own fucking menu. This will allow you to order food so you can take it with you into battle. I'll try and show off the ones that actually can be used as offensive items. The bottom right shows what we currently have for ingredients. Yes, you have to farm for ingredients such as fishing with Yam Koo. Each dish shows you what you need to make it. The spices, however, become unlimited after providing him with one of each.

Unfortunately, it takes about 30 minutes between each cooking challenge, in game-time. If you're doing this now, with no story left, it's a bit more annoying. Hai Yo will have a new challenge available after each new story beat, but you don't want to get to the tenth challenge before taking on the McDohl sidequest. That sidequest is key to getting the second-to-last Recipe, and you have to do it before Challenger #10.

<there was an image of Annallee, Pico, and Alberto playing here but it disappeared, sorry>

Suikoden 2 Tunes – Due Fiumi ~ Two Rivers

Lyrics, from Italian:
“I speak with the river
The river that flows in the first afternoon
The shining of the water
Becomes perpetual movement
Time never stops
The river changes endlessly and it lives

I speak with the river
The river that flows in the first afternoon
Where does it come from and where does it go
Where does the water traveler come and go?
People go from country to country
The wind blows on dry land”

While we're waiting, we head back to the theater. Karen and Annallee alternate between sharing stage time, among other potential performers. Due Fiumi, along with Orrizonte from when we first met her, play interchangeably when she goes on stage. There's a third song that takes a bit of work to get.

Round 2: Goetsu



: 'Famous'? Oh come on, I'm not that famous!

Goetsu: Don't be modest... please, please let Goetsu face you in a cooking contest.



He's a fair judge, he won't be too harsh to either side. Sid giggles in response.





Gadget is a harsh judge, be wary of him.



So all we know is making some western food has to happen.



we make a course of tatsuta age, a way of prepping food with starch but it's usually a chicken recipe. The Pudding comes from Ice Cream + Sugar, and the Hamburger became a Surprise Burger with Red Pepper. Again, I don't know.



Our opponent went with gourmet sunomono (which is vegetables marinated in vinegar), which was liked by everyone but Teresa. Our tatsuta age was liked better. They then LOVED his buttered clam dish.



But our surprise burger, misrepresented by the graphics, did even better. They were then disappointed by his pizza bun dessert, whereas Pico LOVED our pudding.



We dominated. Goetsu gives us his Buttered Clams recipe.

Round 3: Shiki





We've already talked about Kasumi. Lebrante is another neutral judge.



Stallion is a fair judge and has no particular food preferences.





Gyoza is fried dumplings, and salmon meuniere is salmon with butter, salt, some parsley and lemon, all marinated together.



Son of a bitch. His cake was way better than our pudding.



GOD DAMMIT. The chance of you winning a tie is abysmally low, to the point where I don't think you can.

Restart



I swap out the gyoza for some tatsuta age and get one higher score than before. You can't savescum results by the way, so if you get judges that just absolutely love your challenger's dishes, you have a higher chance of failing.



The guy starts to sneakily laugh, then they make a move to grab him.



Shiki: He he... you can't hide there... hiding won't help you, Hai Yo... the 'Group' already... urgh...



As part of the story, Shiki poisoned himself following his defeat. We ask Hai Yo what the group is, but he refuses to answer. We attain his Cake recipe afterward.

Round 4: Ryuki



Ryuki: Ha ha ha. That was a poison extracted from 10 species of spiders found only in the nameless countries north of Zexen. If she doesn't get an antidote in 30 minutes, she will die!!! Now Hai Yo, return the 'thing' you stole!!!

: I... I won't give it to you!



: Oh, but... but... I just can't!!

Instead, Ryuki offers to do the contest anyway. If we win, we get the antidote and his special recipe.





We know just what to please him, then... and Marlowe loves fish.



Lorelai is another fair judge.





Let's try this combo of dishes. We get Marlowe's love for fish and then I forgot Tenkou hates sweets. Dammit.



yeah, cut that lettuce

anyway, this combo ended up failing. Let's switch it up. I eke out a victory by doing island salad + shortcake and then whatever as a main dish.



Ryuki gives us the antidote, and the recipe for pasta.





: I knew this would happen... I was prepared...

Round 5: Bashok



Bashok: Hai Yo...

: What's wrong? You sound depressed.

Bashok: Hai Yo... I want to have a cook-off with you... I want the recipe you stole! The Moon Bird Recipe!





Pesmerga is a harsh judge.



Tetsu loves Japanese food.



And Gordon loves spicy food.



We're gonna test out these dishes. Obento is a take-home or home-packed meal that comes with a variety of food, primarily featuring sushi.

Bashok tried Nanami Cake, which bombed because Nanami sucks shit. Our veggie stir fry won over Pesmerga. Pesmerga loved his fried rice main dish, however. Gordon enjoyed the sashimi bento more, though. Bashok then tried heavy pilaf (rice in broth) for dessert, which is gross, and we won them over with the typical pudding.



It was a slaughter.



: Why, Bashok? Why are you acting as an agent for the 'Group'.

Bashok: I... I'm sorry, Hai Yo... my daughter... Mei Li... she's terribly, terribly ill. I need money for the doctors... it's way more money than I could ever earn in my life... that's why... I had to... the Black Dragon Group said they'd give me money if I brought them the Moon Bird Recipe...





Gyokuran: Ha ha, don't be angry, Hai Yo. After all, you were once one of the 4 Lords of the Black Dragon Group.

Bashok: Y... you're... I remember...



Gyokuran leaves, threatening that next time, Hai Yo will be hers.



Bashok says he'll find another way to help his daughter, but to watch out for 'that guy', even though Gyokuran is clearly a woman. He then gives us the recipe for Fried Rice.

Round 6: Ryuko





Ryuko: Are you Hai Yo!!! I challenge you!!! I'm here to take revenge for my brother, Ryuki!!!





Simone is one of the few vegetarians, which is why we'll be going for island salad as our appetizer.



And Amada loves fish.





You'll see me using Island Salad and Pudding a lot, they tend to go over well with the judges. Let's try it out. Ryuko tried out a spicy sandwich as his appetizer, which was met with lukewarm reception. Our island salad, as expected, did much better. Ryuko's main dish is gratin, which only went over well with Jude.



Fuck Simone. But then again, I did make him eat grilled red fish.



Another slaughter.



: W... wait! That's stupid!! You can't take your own life!!!

Ryuko claims there's nowhere else to return to, he and his brother's whole lives revolved around the Group.



Man there are just weird, goofy lines all over this sidequest. Anyway, we get the recipe for Gratin.

: Shun Min, why must I still fight?!