Part 64: The Broken Battle Book
Chapter 4: The Broken Battle BookToday, we're going to follow up on a lead we got on Elza in Forest Village.
"Yeah, she just suddenly kicked us down, then whipped out this magic object and blew off my beautiful mustache! No way I'd forget that!"
"Yeah, I remember, I remember! Let's see...
Uh, I think it was..."
jesus christ clive you're a goddamn asshole, just chillax dude
I--wait--the--
Astute readers will note that there is no longer a bowl on this table. If you come by here earlier, L.C. Chan is stuffing his face. If you bring Wakaba, he'll have disappeared. My only guess is that he either disappears when if you bring Wakaba along, or his scene is supposed to trigger if you have her but bringing Clive overrides it and it doesn't play, then gets flagged as if it had and you'd failed your chance to recruit L.C. Chan here.
I dunno, Suikoden 2 is a mess of things that really makes it look like a lot of its story was shuffled around at the last minute. There's just so much evidence for it (Tessai's spawn flag in spite of how early you get your first smith's hammers, to cite one that we haven't seen yet (and won't in this part of the LP)).
Anyways, to Radat
"Do you know a woman named Elza? She's tall with blonde hair."
"Well we have a hooker who comes around here who's tall with blonde hair but she calls herself 'Synergy,' not 'Elza'"
"Here? You'll hit the customers. The Guild won't like their reputation being damaged like that, y'know."
And the place conveniently clears out. Aren't gunslingers supposed to take this sort of thing outside?
"For the murder of my fellow Gunner and Guild member, Kelley.... In the name of my gun, Storm, I sentence you to death."
"Tsk... laws mean nothing.
Do you really believe in anything besides the weight of your guns?"
But Storm won't fire, and Clive gets shot.
"e'm" sounds like something out of final fantasy 13
"Just a few more inches and... If she was really aiming, then she's an incredible shot...."
•••
Oh yeah,
you can't actually execute Kiba and Klaus.
•••
While pumping up very certain stats on Viktor, I decided to demonstrate the best way of getting yourself into super-critical HP so enemies can one-shot you more easily. Let yourself take enough damage that the Blue Gate rune's fourth-level spell would kill your party, drop it, and even though you'll die and nobody in your party will gain EXP, you'll still be considered victorious. You'll start the next encounter with everyone at 1 HP.
It gets even easier if you have more than 1 fourth-level MP slot because that's less and less damage the enemies have to wear you down by before you can start throwing it around. At 255 Magic/255 MDF, it does exactly what it says on the tin and will do 89-90 damage to you, plus roughly however much the difference between your Magic and any given party member's MDF is.
•••
Kind of a pain in the ass to save Ridley, but I do it every time I play so I'm used to it.
There is pretty much no difference between this and the alternative exchange, but it saves a couple minutes. As in, one or two minutes.
But I guess Ridley does say something very minorly different in the strategy battle against Luca Blight. Which is, by the way, completely bullshit.
•••
If you "win" each encounter by reducing Luca Blight's HP to 0, he complains about it every time. Otherwise I think it keeps track of how much damage he's done to you and terminates the encounter once he's done 3/4 of your party's HP? It might actually be a turn-based timer.
•••
Hoi joins us here. Why level 99? I have no fucking clue, but I have a theory.
•••
On the other hand, if you ask for money, Simone gives you
60,000 of the most glitched potch you can imagine.
•••
•••
Uhhhhh, no we don't, Gremio. You goddamn retard.
Incidentally this is pretty much impossible to see without 'sharking it because the S2 Hero's name string needs to match Suikoden 2's perceived name string of the S1 Hero. Meaning that it'll have to be some kind of permutation of McDohl with the capitols, punctuation, and spaces you had in your S1 Hero's name.
Otherwise you can just make their names different but turn on the flag that makes the game think that they're the same using a Gameshark. This has the unfortunate side-effect of glitching the hell out of S1 Hero's name and
it will display as (_)cDohl where (_) is a garbage character that constantly changes before your very eyes. It's mildly disconcerting.
•••
•••
Oh and I noticed I was kind of ahead on time so I bit the bullet and did the story path where Ridley dies and Theodor gets pimp-slapped by Shu.
"There's the Scarlet Moon Empire, that's now become Toran, or there are various island countries to the south.
To the west is the Grasslands and to the north is the holy land of Harmonia, but I don't recommend going there.
If you're taking a ship, there's the Farena Queendom. If you want, you can go anywhere in this wide world.
You know, I'm still very much of the mind that the creator of this series really, really didn't think in terms of a long play or a rich history. He had the game in front of him, a general idea of the different countries in the world, and maybe a piece or two of trivia about them bouncing around on a sketchbook somewhere, but I really don't get the impression that the world of Suikoden was nearly as well thought-out from day one as most people seem to think. That's just not how storytelling works, unless you're a fucking nutjob.
•••
Oh, there's more to Ridley dying than Boris just showing up and shit.
"If you're going to shed tears for Ridley, you have to cry for all the soldiers who have died so far.
Right now you have to look toward the future. If you're going to cry, save it for later.
The fact that you escaped should only be known by me, Klaus, Shu, Flick (sic), and Apple.
I found the message you left. I asked Shu to convince you.
We haven't said anything to anyone else, so don't you say anything, either. You're the leader of the Bahamut Army."
Sierra and Kahn are already gathered. Oh, yeah, Kahn does have a Resurrection Rune, but he's a fuckin' piece of shit because he also comes equipped with unchangeable Leather armor, which is the same exact crap he was wearing at the very beginning of the game waaaaaaaay back before we even got our castle.
The thing that I realized I like about doing this part of the game is that it shows Marlowe and Koyu trying to be all heroic an' shit. It even infers that Marlowe grew a pair from hanging out with Koyu and is able to try to bust into a place to rescue people from Neclord.
Gustav also asks him later what he's doing there, and he proclaims that he was being a brave knight.
viktor you ruined it
but
that's okay because you're apparently casting fourth-level spells like it ain't no thang
•••
•••
"My father's wish was to save Two River and the City-State. As his son, I plan to fulfill that last wish.
Please let me join the Bahamut Army and fight alongside you."
I love Boris. He looks so fuckin' derpy. And fluffy and cuddly.
•••
Yes, before you ask, that is Luc chillaxin' in the front row.
•••
What? Why the fuck are you guys level 99 too?
and
just
what
Okay, so my weird theory about these characters specifically--Hoi, Mazus, Georg, Pesmerga, and Jowy--is that they don't have a join-at level formula like you would expect. It is my guess that their whole thing is "forced to joint having a given stat X value higher than anyone else you've recruited for that awing effect." So it looks at, say, Georg's Strength and pumps his levels, giving him his usual stat increases, until his base STR is that given amount higher than your next-highest recruit (probably Viktor, I guess).
The problem is, my highest-STR characters are maxed at 255. So the game just crunched Georg and Pesmerga's levels and stat increases until it reached its cap at level 99, unable to even reach that 255 score. Magic for Mazus, probably Magic for Jowy, too.
Why Hoi? Of all characters, really now. Well, his condition is probably "higher Luck than anyone else." Of course, this doesn't make him useful, because Luck is the most nebulous and useless stat ever, but still.
Also, because MP increases at level-ups, characters who join at 99 are technically the most useless since they will never level up and they'll be permanently stuck with whatever shitty MP score they had at 99 even if you raise their Magic stat to 255, as I said before.
Which is how Viktor became a better wizard than Mazus.
•••
So now we liberate Muse,
run up to the top of Jowston Hill, and
more of this.
"Brother? You grew up in the Guild together, but 'brother?' You're a nice man, Clive.
Maybe if Kelley had been even half as nice to me, I wouldn't have done what I did.
I started to hate the Guild... hate all those people who lusted for power... That place could turn an angel into a devil.
You guys grew up in that filthy courtyard...... You got involved with those guys and those Guild rules...
But I put an end to all that, with my friends Moon and Star."
"You already took my brother away. I won't let you destroy the only thing I have left in this world.
Now is the time for me to execute your sentence."
But Storm still won't shoot.
"There's a small village west of L'Renouille, Highland's capital. You can find me there....."
•••
•••
AND NOW
THE CONCLUSION
"Clive, my old friend... How about a duel between Gunners?"
"Fine...... It looks like Storm won't shoot you."
shit is so real
"Protection and Assassination, the 2 faces of the Howling Voice Guild. Choose the one you prefer.
Stern..... I thought you'd choose that."
wait so these guns' names are suddenly in german what
aren't you guys like thirty years too old to be playing playground rhymes
"The day I shot Kelley...... It was me who should've died... Died with pride as a Gunner....
That's why, boy.... That's why I've got more regrets than I care to count......
Clive....this place... this village..... This is where I was born.....
My father, my mother, our house..... They're all gone... Nobody even remembers them...
But even so, this is the place where my heart always returns.
Poor Clive...... He was born in the Guild, raised in the Guild... Pretty sad, don't you think, boy?
And then....he lost Kelley...... Give him Storm......"
"The Guild chose Kelley to inherit this Gun, not me...
But then Storm itself chose me... The Guild could not go against the wishes of Storm, and the only way to settle it was with a duel..
Stern and Mond were the guns prepared for the day of the duel. And just like today, only Stern was loaded with bullets.
Kelley knew that...and so, he chose Mond.....
I deeply regretted it...... Shooting Kelley......
And then running away from the Guild.... Thank you....Clive.... Now, my soul can return home...."
"But for the time being, I'll stay with the Bahamut Army.
I'm not quite ready to leave this land yet......."
•••
Not bad at all, I'd say. And this is even with dicking around and getting the Japanese Stew, Sandwich, and Genghis Khan recipes.
•••
So we check out Kyaro and talk to folks who wonder where Rowd went. His sister is gone, too.
Tenzan Pass.
Some weird monsters that appear around there.
They are different from the identical-looking monsters you encounter near L'Renouille. They're a little weaker and they have separate drop tables. There's nothing too special about them, to be honest. Just more garbage code that never got cleaned up, that's all.
•••
And that, of course, is Viktor doing that.
•••
It is of worth to note that showing up to this final showdown with Jowy is a real pain in the ass if you abused the stat stone exploit and pumped up Theodor's defense. Jowy just keeps going
and going
and fucking goooooooing until he gets you down to about 1/3 of your HP. Takes for ever.
•••
And now,
different ending cards.
Hai Yo is still tied up with the Black Dragon Group (according to his weapon's name, I think he must've been the Blue Dragon).
And Clive goes home.
Also, Mexicans.
Well, I like the happiest ending best. And if that makes me soft, I don't want to be a hardass.