Part 57: Hai Yo and the Black Dragon Group

Sometimes other people show up to dance. Gabocha and Gengen are the cutest.

Round 7: Antonio



: It's no good! I just can't cook after something like that has happened!! I'm giving up cooking!!



Hey there, Antonio from the first game and your bullshit RNG recruitment flag.





: It's no good!! I don't care about any stupid 'Moon Bird Recipe'!

Antonio then slaps him off-screen.



: Think about her!! Think about why she went through the trouble to get you that recipe!!



Barbara is a fair judge.



As is Yuzu.



Eilie is a neutral judge.



Gijimu's most likely a meat lover.



We'll try this, see what happens.



I hope we win...



They were not a fan of his egg mayo roll, but kinda enjoyed our downtown pasta. His main dish is ramen, which won over the judges. We ended up losing with that combo, so I went back and just served regular pizza, and pudding once more. We won by a hair, 30-29.



: Antonio!! That was the most fun cook-off I've ever had!! I was wrong, no matter how hard life gets, I will always defend the Moon Bird Recipe!!

: Well said! That's the great chef Hai Yo I remember!!





Gyokuran: Well, he got pretty serious when I told him he would have nowhere to go home to if he lost to you. Ha ha ha, that was almost enough to get you to return the Moon Bird Recipe, eh...

: I, I won't forget this, Gyokuran!! It's between me and you now!!



Pussy.



Not that I'll ever use it.



When we re-enter, someone leaves quickly. Perhaps a thief.





you already did



We return after a short while.

Round 8: Gyokuran



: But why, Gyokuran?! If you're one of the 4 Great Lords, you should know what the 'Moon Bird Recipe' is, no?

Gyokuran: Of course, Hai Yo. And Lord Jinkai perhaps as well.

: B, but then.. why?

Gyokuran: Silence!! That's enough!! It's time for a cook-off!! That's all we have left!!



Yep, Gyokuran stole a few of our recipes. We're going in a bit nerfed.



… grand... wazoo?



Watch the Video!





So we need a course with a mixture of Chinese and Japanese foods.



I mean seriously we have nothing



This is seriously going to bomb.



Gyokuran loves to twirl her staff around instead of cook.



Whoa.. what? WHAT? Holy shit. I did not expect Eggsplosive to do that. Gyokuran follows up with her signature dish, Tonkatsu (which Templton loved), a deep-fried pork cutlet. It does better than our main course, but eggsplosive really saved us.



She bombed with some spicy dessert. Who makes... spicy foods... for dessert?





Gyokuran: Why!! Why couldn't I defeat Hai Yo... he didn't even have that recipe... wh, why!! Our techniques were identical!! But even so...

: You're wrong, Gyokuran!! Cooking is more than technique!! At first, I came here just so I could hide from you. But after I started cooking for these nice people, I realized something. I realized that I could help these good people if I served them good food... that I could ease their burdens just a little bit. Cooking isn't about technique!! It's about caring and giving!! That's why I don't need a recipe to be a great chef!!



Gyokuran has no home to go to, so she resigns herself to walking aimlessly through the lands examining her defeat. Perhaps she'll rediscover her joy for cooking. She then gives us her tonkatsu recipe.



Round 9: Retso I





Retso: No, I know the chef here. I want to see him. Tell him Retso is here.



Retso: It's been a long time, 'Seiryu'. Oh, I forgot, you call yourself Hai Yo now. I think you know the reason why I'm here...

: To challenge me... to a cook-off.

Retso: That's right, there can be no secrets between us chefs. The only truth for us is what lies on the plate... on the table.

: I knew this day would come. I knew one day you and I would cross spatulas.



Watch the Video!

Anita's a neutral judge.







Leona likes spicy food, but she's also a harsh judge.



Retso is Byakko, while Gyokuran was Suzaku and Hai Yo is Seiryu. Yes, they're named after the Four Great Guardian Beasts of Japan/China.



Let's try this out. The spicy cutlet is our main dish solely to appease Leona.



It doesn't matter, though. Retso will get perfect scores on every dish. He cheats.



Boo.



Retso takes the Moon Bird Recipe.

: W, wait a minute Retso! You can't just give the Moon Bird Recipe away to Jinkai! Listen to what I have to say!

Retso: Why should I? You killed my daughter Shun Min and stole the secrets of the Black Dragon Group! I don't need to listen to you!

: Y, you're wrong!

Retso: Liar! Don't try to fool me! Retso knows a lie when he sees one!







: Retso... Jinkai is planning to use that recipe to carry out an evil plan!! Shun Min... Shun Min knew that and tried to stop him! She gave me the recipe to hold onto. She gave her life to stop him. That's why you mustn't...



Retso: But on the other hand, I don't believe that everything you say is a lie, either. I'll give you a chance, Hai Yo. Before I go back to Lord Jinkai, I'll come back here once more. Until then, try and see if you can become a better chef than me!!

: A better chef than Retso... that's impossible.

Round 10: Lester





: Who are you? Are you from the 'Group'?

: 'Group'? No, no I'm not. Antonio asked me to come here and help you with your training. My name is Lester, I used to work with Antonio.

: My training?! You're a friend of Antonio?!

: That's right. We'd better hurry up and get started. But first, I need to see how good of a cook you are. Let's cook-off.



Watch the Video!





Miklotov LOVES meat.



While Tony is a vegetarian. We are at odds with our judges here.



We'll use the salad to win over Tony, and the Japanese steak for Miklotov and perhaps Tai Ho. Shortcake because most judges love it.



Our salad was well liked compared to Lester's fried gyoza. We were toe to toe with him on the main dish, as Lester's signature dish is sushi, which the judges loved. They still loved our steak, even Tony!



Destroyed.



: Oh no, not at all!! You were holding back.

: Oh really? Why?

: Just watch how Lester moves and you'll understand.

holy oh my god this translation is shitty as fuck



Hai Yo figures out that Retso cheated.

: You finally understand. Your eyes may be open, but if your heart is closed, you cannot see the truth.You are already strong enough. You can defeat Retso if you try.



To get Gremio's Special Stew, Recipe #39, we have to have completed the McDohl sidequest before facing Lester. We'll go acquire that now. He also gives us the recipe for sushi.





I love the fact that we get to do what we did in the first game.





He then hands over the recipe. Gremio's stew allows you to make some of the best restorative items in the game.

Round 11: Retso II



Watch the Video!

: Retso, I can't fight you!!

Retso: Coward!! Have you chickened out!!!

: I saw the way you use your wok and cleaver and I figured it out! 'Hypnosis'! How could you use such a trick!





: But why, Retso, why do you have to use a dirty trick like that? You should know what Jinkai is planning to do!

Retso: Yes, I should know... it was myself and Jinkai who conceived of the 'Dragon Plan'. We had a dream... a dream that people would learn the true beauty of cooking... nothing could make a chef happier. But when Shun Min learned that the plan was just to fulfill Jinkai's lust for power, she... she died for it. Please Hai Yo. Face me in a cook-off. I promise I won't use any tricks. Help me figure out the truth.







So we face Retso once more, this time he can't cheat.



We'll go for the usual, but using Gremio's Special Stew as the main dish.



The stew that Gremio makes will win over most any judge in the competition. The petite girls like Jeane and Tengaar tend to hate rich foods for dessert, so they'll bash Shortcake or Pudding.





He gives us the Moon Bird Recipe back, figuring that Shun Min was right all along. He also gives us the Sashimi Combo recipe.



The lord asshole makes his grand appearance.



Jinkai: But, in my hands, it's a powerful tool! I can make all the chefs in the world happy with it!!

: Jinkai! I don't want to hear any more of your lies!!



We go straight into the next match with Jinkai.

Round 12: Jinkai







So we've got a wide range of tastes – vegetarian, fish-lover, and Japanese-food-lover.



Watch the Video!



Let's pray.



Jinkai goes SSJ during the duel. He starts out with a potato pie which fails to impress, but our island salad, like usual, wins all.



Jinkai has a Kaiseki Dinner as his main dish. It's the last recipe in the game. It will also kick ass no matter what. A kaiseki dinner is a multi-course dinner where each plate of food is small and arranged artistically.



Dominated.



: I... I didn't do it alone. Antonio, Lester, Bashok, Resto, Azure... they were all behind me, cheering for me... but most of all, most of all it was Shun Min who gave me the power, the courage to defeat you!!





Hai Yo angrily tears up the recipe, because he just doesn't care now.



: Cooking should be fun!! I don't need something like that to make food that brings happiness to people!!



Retso: Let's start again. This time we won't rely on secret recipes... this time we'll walk the true path of the chef...

Jinkai: … Hai Yo, the victory is yours. I was fighting to make the world of chefs happy, but I was wrong. A true chef can never be happy unless the people who eat his food are happy first...







: Oh!! Sorry about that!! I'm on my way!!





Yep, he gets his own credit roll.



Who the hell is “Anne Nereid”?





The Kaiseki Dinner simply requires a ton of ingredients, but it's worthwhile to make. One of the issues with the better dishes is that they heal so much HP that only your big animals will take advantage of it or your glitched level 99 characters. There's simply no reason to carry around restoratives for 950 HP when your health doesn't even get close to that.

Also, all the dishes you put on the menu accrue profit in the kitchen, so you can make money off of Hai Yo.

Thus completes the Cooking Sidequest. Normally, you'd probably be doing this throughout the game, but I held off to just do it all in one go. Frameskip helped a lot. I had more fun with the cooking sidequest than I did the main game, because it's its own self-contained story arc, and it's fun as hell.

There's one last thing to do after finishing it, though.



you are such a perv

Since I still can't seem to get Annallee back on stage and I'm sick of going in and out of HQ to make it happen, here's the third song she sings:

Suikoden 2 Tunes – La Mia Tristezza

It is sung in the same tempo as the Theme of Sadness from Suikoden I. To hear this song, you need to have McDohl in your party with you, and have beaten Hai Yo's sidequest.

Is one potential way, but honestly it doesn't seem like anyone's gotten it to work. So here it is just 'cause.

Lyrics, translated from Italian:

“Even if I shout to the infinite one he does not return
Drying the tears I begin to walk
From the beginning man is alone, but if he is afraid
If he is afraid, it is of goodbyes and the dead will be able to do nothing

Destiny is whimsical, sometimes malicious
I want to become stronger
With your hands to embrace happiness”