Part 45: The End

What do you think would happen if we were to load that data we saved after beating the game?



Here's a hint: it's the same thing that usually happens when you load clear game data.

So, New Game Plus. This is the first time Suikoden does this, and it's a bit of a mixed bag.



Let's start with a positive, though. In the first playthrough, you cannot skip cutscenes. From the second on, you can do so, as the game helpfully tells you, by hitting Triangle. There is no prompt or warning if you do this; you just skip it. Also, that "skip" box never goes away and you're stuck staring at it through every cutscene for the rest of the game. Personally I prefer the skip option to come up as part of the pause menu.

As usual, NG+ lets you keep your money (I barely had any left ) and equipment... partly, but many of the items you can't bring over seem to have been chosen pretty randomly. These include:

* The Champion's Rune.

WHY

YOU ABSOLUTE FUCKERS

WHY

* The Hero, Guardian and Pirate King equipment sets.

Again, why? They are pretty nice, but anything you can craft does carry over and Ogre sets are better anyway. There's just no reason why you couldn't have multiple copies of these, especially considering some of the parts are an absolute pain to get.

* Certain other unique equipment, like the wooden amulet Lazlo gets on the final night, or Rita's Star Earrings.

There are some nice items here, but none of it is nearly as broken as three power rings on a character with Ogre gear, all of which can be carried over. Not letting you keep the amulet is a good thing, though.

* Anything equipped on someone by the time you make your final save.

This is sort of dumb - would it have killed them to unequip everyone before loading the data? This means if you used your Thunder Rune against the final boss, you won't have it on your second run. However, you do get the chance to unequip Lazlo's party after the final boss, so you can at least salvage their regular equipment.

* Weapon and character levels, and equipped rune fragments.

I like this! It lets you adjust the brokenness of your second cycle to your liking.

* Window sets, books, hammers, furniture, Ocean Rune pieces, and Snowe's clothes.

(However, you will start with the window you used when you made your clear save.)

* And your plot important key items.

I don't think anyone was really expecting to keep that ruin entry permit, so yeah.

What this really lacks, however, and which I would have valued much higher than getting to keep my broken endgame equipment, is something like what Chrono Cross did - the ability to use characters you recruited in your previous playthrough. I'm not saying they should start us off with all 108 recruited, but they could have marked them somehow on the list so you know you don't "officially" have them yet, but still let you use them in battle. There are so many characters in these games, and so many you probably won't ever care to use because they join at a point where they're completely pointless. I would have liked the opportunity to actually use these people instead of getting them right before the final dungeon and ignoring them because I'd have to spend millions to upgrade their gear to make them viable.



Curiously, while it takes away a lot of them, it actually gives you an item, too. This is a decorative item for the bath, basically a miniature replica of Laser Jesus. I think it comes with glowy effects, too, but no way in hell am I playing this all the way up to the part where I can check that out.



Anyway, let's do this properly this time.



Suck it, Glen



Look how happy he is! Hard to believe what a failure this guy is going to turn out to be, huh...?

Like I said before, though, the rest of this scene plays out the same regardless. This is definitely not a case of Actual Effort.



Oh, you want to duel me. Let me just change my clothes real quick.





Glen goes down in one hit.



SKIP
Suikoden IV

This is good advice!



Oh, and here's another interesting thing you can do on a second cycle. Let's move these guys around a bit and...



...suddenly we're Snowe! From now on, you will be running around as the character in the first slot in the party. No mechanical advantage, but at least you don't have to look at Lazlo's behind all the time. Sadly, they've taken away our super-charged dash, so no matter who you play as, they feel sluggish coming off the endgame where you do have the super-dash.



Yup, that's me!



Oh, and let's give him some pirate gear! You know, for... no real reason at all.



It still forces us to be Lazlo here, though.



Hey, is that a smile? Clearly that mango is highly enjoyable.



Let's see some more Actual Effort.



After I horribly murder these dudes.



Well, time for a little workout.

Team Sausagefest, GO!



...and it's back to the fucking ocean and I'm regretting this already. Yet another little bonus is that the fog is gone; we can see the entire map from the moment we can access it.



Also I don't think we really got a good idea of where El-Eal was in the main run, but it's up here.



Let's shuffle the party a little.



Each character has their own animation and stance. It's pretty cool.



Bye for now. Good luck!

Yak yak Ramada yak special mission yak cloudy with a chance of pirates yak.



Yeah, about that...



Brandeau also goes down in one shot.



Character-specific dialogue!



Effort!



Even more effort!

Please, you must be careful.

When he's ready, please escort him to the harbor.

...



And that's the last we'll see of them.



Instead, we get this!


Come on. We should start heading towards land.

That sounds like a good plan.



Everyone knows Chiepoo. From there on, everything is mostly the same, but I've left a bunch of stuff in the video, so take a look if you're interested.



This time, it's Tal who gives us away.



Troy and Colton still make short work of the party with endgame equipment. Our levels are just too shitty.



Troy... That's the Troy the Commander spoke about.

So you were listening! I thought you slept through the entire speech.



Slept through other lectures, too, it seems.



Chiepoo! Don't just stand there! Collect the rain water. It's precious drinking water.

He's not standing, though?

All right, fast forward a bit. Ocean, boss, waves, island. You've seen it before.



The island scenes are rather different. I recommend watching this, especially the second night (Tal ) and the last scene with Lilin.



I really like seeing them bring up things like Jewel's interest in Snowe and Tal's fishing. Presumably Keneth and Paula would find another subject to talk about, but I'm not quite obsessed enough to go through the intro again to find out what it is.



But all good things must come to an end.



Keneth's VA totally steals this scene.



And that's about as far as I'm willing to take this.



(I'll freely admit that getting these two portraits was a large contributing factor in my decision to rush up to the island scenes. Different background colour most likely due to the different window set being used, but whatever, it works.)

And that's more or less everything there is. I do have one last thing to show off, however...



...and I certainly hope you didn't think I had forgotten about this!


The Mushroom Army... is invading. At this rate, Nao's Mint will be wiped out. But relax... It'll be all right... Because we have the 108 Mint that have worked so hard together with Sir Lazlo... Heh.

It's the Suikoden 1 battle system! Again! And this time with a full crew!



It is considerably easier this way.



Holy shit, Kika!

Anyway, let's have a look at the full Liberation Armint. Kika is the best fighter in the game, and it's only fitting that she leads the best charge unit. These are the most numerous of your units, and are strong against arrow attacks but weak against magic.


Swordsman of Razril - 16


Royal House of Obel - 18


Knights of Gaien - 15


Wild Geese - 14


Warriors of Light - 14


Swordsman - 15


Spearman - 13


Pirates - 22


Faithful - 15


Veterans - 16


Defenseman - 20


Daredevils - 15


Fisherman - 17


Young Pirates - 13


Happy Go Lucky - 9


Artisans - 12


Carpenters - 12


High Spirits - 18


Clever Crew - 17

Phew!



But no battle is complete without mermaids, so!



Damn it. Oh well, let's shoot the enemy full of arrows. This is effective against magic, but weak against charge attacks.


Archers - 24


Forest Defenders - 21


Experts - 15


Cooks - 13


Engineers - 15



Ted doesn't leave anything for the mages to do. Either way, these units are weak against arrows, but strong against charge attacks.


Children of Runes - 15


Magicians - 28


Special Talents Team - 15


Narcissists - 18


Musicians - 15



'course, there's also the others who do various more or less useful things.


Tacticians - "Raises Charge Level" (attack power up, seems somewhat random)


Mermaids - "Something may happen..." (randomly lowers one side's attack power)


Merchants - "Merchant attack" (bribes enemies to go away)


Ninjas - "Spy on enemy" (reveals their next move)


Thieves - "Try to spy..." (reveals enemy's next move, may fail? Never seen it happen, though.)



With a full 108 stars recruited, these battles are a joke - victory comes about as easily now as defeat did the first time I tried it. For beating it, we get some Mixed Herbs, which still completely refill a character's MP.

Still, we won a little too quickly. Let's give it another go.



This is the most amazing thing.



I can think of nothing more fitting to cap this off with than the sight of Snowe leading an army against a single little mushroom dude and getting almost a thousand men killed in the process.

In closing, I will share the memory card I used during this playthrough. It's a PCSX2 card but can probably be converted to other formats. Suikoden IV makes tiny save files, so this has saves through pretty much the entire game, between most major events, as well as the clear save.


_{Click for huge}

And that, once more, was Suikoden IV. For real this time. No, seriously. It's over.



Permanently.

See also the direct sequel, Suikoden Tactics