Part 4: Adult Conversations

Update early to change topic and say Happy Thanksgiving.

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I mean, we could totally take on two battle-hardened war vets



HAH. Nope!



:Jowy... Jowy Atreides.

: Jowy, okay. Since you came here to rescue Azure, I assume you're a Highlander?

: That's right.

: I see... you're the other one... the one we lost in the river.



: Well that's...

: Azure said something about a 'surprise attack by the State', but the State Army hasn't moved since the peace treaty was signed. So what the hell happened?



If you can't tell, there's a boatload more talking from the protagonist in this game compared to the first one. Black screen of recanting the plot returns...



: Anyway, what were you planning to do after you rescued Azure?

: After I rescued him, I was planning to go back to Kyaro Town with him.

: So are you still planning to escape?

: Yes.



It's pretty obvious these two do not know what to do with escaped kid soldiers.



: I'd been found by a little girl who brought me back to her home where they mended my wounds. I heard a young man was being held prisoner here and so I came to save you... sorry.



Suikoden 2 Tunes – Are You Gonna Eat That Carrot (oh my god my ears aggghhh)

: Azure, I don't blame you for trying to escape, but please don't do it again. The boss will have you out of here soon enough.

: Excuse me, could I please have a spoon?

: A spoon? For your soup? Aren't we the fine gentleman. Wait a minute. I'll get you one.





There was a reason Jowy asked for the spoon, and not because he's prissy.



He looks over what we have thanks to the jobs we took under Pohl, and they all kind of amount to an escape plan.



Suikoden 2 Tunes – Escape

First, Jowy jimmies the lock with the spoon. Clever kid.



Thankfully, these soldiers head upstairs, but will rush back down soon enough...







Which he uses to set part of the fort on fire. It might just be me but that looks like a really, really fat and delicious blunt.



Another translation error: He means balcony. Verandas are roofed platforms along the outside of a house on the ground floor.





The mercenary fort's logo is so cute, it's like Viktor himself drew it.



Jowy remarks that Nanami is waiting for us back in Kyaro (she's the main character's sister, and is equivalent to Chuthulhu or Poshushushushul in terms of annoying characterization most of the time).



It feels good to nuke random encounters immediately again.



Suikoden 2 Tunes – The Great Street Performers

Back in Ryube Town, the three performers are now showing off their wares. Eilie can juggle knives, Bolgan can breathe fire, and Rina does card tricks. This, interestingly enough, pertains to their gameplay usage as well.





Out of the crowd, Eilie picks us for the next performance.



: H... hey! That's not how I told you to say it!!



: Feast your eyes on her magnificent face and form!



If you haven't figured it out yet, she's going to try and throw a dagger at fruit resting on Azure's head.

: But don't worry too much, I've got some good medicine.





Since I don't trust her, I'm going to choose to move...



Yeah, she stabbed the main character on accident. I didn't capture a shot of this because it happens really, really fast and the screen cuts away miles before it hits Azure in the chest or something.



: I'm Eilie, we're sisters and this is our big brother, Bolgan.

: Bolgan!!

Bolgan is basically the Hodor of Suikoden II except that he can, at times, form sentences that don't involve his name.



Rina mentions that they're heading to Kyaro Town themselves. Eilie points out the Mist Monster that we heard a rumor about in one of the houses around here.



: But we've heard rumors about a horrible Mist Monster that lives up there. If you guys are going to Highland, maybe we should go together?



In a but thou must situation, we need them to come with us.

: You're a smooth talker.

: ...



Bolgan is your typical front-line fist-fighter. He comes with a unique Fire Breath Rune, which we can assume might have come as a child from the Fire Rune family. It is never seen outside of this game. What it does is that it causes 2x damage to an enemy, along with some added Fire damage, but also causes Unbalance afterward. The problem with this Rune is that Bolgan never gets any other Rune slots, so he can't fix the Unbalance issue. However, you'd probably never use Bolgan without Eilie or Rina, as we'll see shortly.



Eilie and Rina are two solid long-range magicians. Rina is slightly better at magic, Eilie is slightly better at attacking; both are solid choices for Rune usage, though. Rina even comes with a Fire Rune, as well as the Angry Blow scroll. Bolgan comes with a Sacrificial Jizo, which is the same as the Sacrificial Buddha in the first game – it takes your place if you die, bringing you back to life at minimal HP.



Rina, like Jowy, comes with a spell scroll. Spell scrolls are new to the series in this game, and we can actually make them ourselves with other materials later on. Basically, it allows a character who does not have the Rune equipped to use spells they do not have access to. In this case, Rina has a Fire Rune but has two casts of the Lightning Rune spell Angry Blow. The damage from these scrolls runs off a character's Magic stat, so this can be very worthwhile.



Rina, like her tricks suggest, throws cards. Her sister, however, throws knives. I like that continuity. Another cool thing is the difference between how these two throw their weapons – Rina throws her cards in a wide, curving arc, while Eilie throws her daggers straight and true. Also, Rina's weapons are named after Tarot cards; she starts off with the Chariot.



This is the Fire Breath Rune. You'll never really use this Rune again because these three performers have a Unite attack together that we'll see soon.



This is the reason we needed the three performers – we have no way past these guards... yet.



: Pleeeeasee...

Suikoden 2 Tunes – Theme of Temptation ~ Asian Dub Mix (worth listening to if you liked Theme of Perversion from the first game, and I consider it to be good)



Rina works her slut magic on the guards.



I bet she gives great blowjobs.



“She made me do things I've never done before, I feel dirty, tainted, used”

: Rina... you didn't...

: If this nice captain says we can go, then we should take him up on his kind offer.



: Nothing, we just had an adult conversation, that's all. C'mon, let's go.

I will refer to all sexual relations I have with my boyfriend as “adult conversations” henceforth. Thank you, Suikoden II.

Suikoden 2 Tunes – Labyrinth (Penpe 2) ~ Dungeon Theme



North Sparrow Pass is the game's introductory dungeon, much like Magician's Island in the first game.



It has hornets, which buzz so much I want them dead immediately. They also can attack the back row, which is new because that mechanic was not introduced so early in the first game.



Bolgan is also another of those multi-hit characters. However, he has shit for accuracy.



The first chest we find gives us Fire Wall. Another new addition to Suikoden II is enemy rows. Many attacks will target either enemy rows or enemy columns (i.e., front row, or middle column, etc.) and the same can happen to our characters as well. Fire Wall, the renamed second-level Fire spell, attacks either the front row or back row of enemies.



That's handy.

…

I truly have award-winning commentary.



Like I said before, CutRabbits here can drop the Double-Beat Rune. It's actually somewhat useful to farm these right now, as they work well on the main character and other multi-hit characters.



The Journeyman's Crystal returns in this game, though somewhat less visually interesting than the first game.







Suikoden 2 Tunes – A Worthy Foe Appears ~ Boss Battle Theme

The Mist Shade can be difficult for newcomers, especially since you don't really bother to level. I try and go into this battle at like level 6 on the main character and 5 for everyone else and it tends to be a bit more difficult. A significant change from the first game is that bosses get multiple attacks per round now, which makes things more difficult; on the flipside, they give you fifty million ways to break this game open to make up for any perceived difficulty spike.



That's Flaming Arrows, from Jowy's equipped scroll.



And Fire Wall, the next level up.



His attacks can really hurt, so make sure to keep healing.



Another neat addition is that when a character runs out of an item, you can equip them with an item from your bag (such as more healing, or a spell scroll) so you are rarely screwed in battle. Also, like the first game, Unbalanced characters can use items while they are unable to fight.



After a bit of damage, the boss shifts to a different form. This one is nastier, and uses both a group-based Lightning spell and a mist spell that seems to do non-elemental damage.



When that happens, though, one use of the Bolgan-Rina-Eilie Unite, Circus Attack, will slay the boss, doing about 170 damage. This attack does 2x the damage of their combined Strength, and leaves Bolgan Unbalanced thanks to the use of his Fire Breath Rune in the attack. The boss drops a spell scroll for Kindness Drops, so we can heal with the Water Rune now.





Yeah, like Gengen and Tuta before, these characters are temporary. We haven't actually acquired any Stars of Destiny at this point.





Next time: The translation abomination of Nanami.