Welcome to the final installment of The Avocado Plays Suikoden 2! Here, we will talk about the final piece of the game — from the death of Luca Blight to the ending. Of course, conversation about any and all parts of the game are fair game, so feel free to talk about whatever from the game you’d like to comment on. And as before, I’ll post some questions to kickstart conversation.

Thanks for joining me in this game club. I had a lot of fun revisiting the game, and having a chance to talk about it with others playing it again, or playing it for the first time. I’m not sure I would have done it on my own, so I appreciate the community.

Enjoyed Suikoden 2, and want to experience more of that world? Here are some places to go from here:

I want more Suikoden and that classic RPG feel: If you haven’t, play Suikoden 1 for the PS1. It’s also available on PSN for PS3, PSP, and PS Vita. It’s not as complex a game, but it still has political intrigue and compelling characters as you navigate your role in a war and come into conflict with your own father.

I want to see what happens after Suikoden 2: Suikoden 3, released for the PS2, is set 15 years following the events of 2. It takes place in the area surrounding the Grasslands. Remember Lucia, Jowy’s assassin? That’s her territory, and one of the primary protagonists is her son. Suikoden 3 uses a unique setup called the “Trinity Sight System” in which you play through the game as three separate protagonists and see the story from different angles. The move to 3D wasn’t totally smooth — gameplay is changed, and works really well in some regards, but is pretty frustrating from others. And it’s a long game with a lot of backtracking and repeating the same events three times over, but it’s really great all the same. It’s available on PSN for PS3. Its opening also recently reached the top 32 in the best video game songs, 2001-2004 tournament! Check it out here:

I want to see what happens after Suikoden 2, but don’t want to play a 60 hour RPG: Tokyopop translated the Suikoden 3 manga, which is actually a really good adaptation that probably tells the story better in some regards. No longer in print, but you can find used copies on Amazon.

I want to play the best the franchise after Suikoden 2: Suikoden 5 was released late in the PS2’s life. After experimenting a bit in 3 and 4, the franchise went back to its roots for 5 and feels more traditional. I think it did the best job of developing its entire cast in the franchise — even many of the minor recruits get pretty interesting storylines and sidequests to flesh them out. The battle system gets a new formation system that provides some bonuses based on how characters are arranged. It has a rather infamously long prologue which puts some people off the game (I loved it when I originally played), but once it gets going it’s a great right. If you recruited Georg Prime in 2 and did his investigations, you’ll know he was somehow involved in the assassination of the queen of Falena. 5 tells that story. It’s a great ride. Unfortunately, it was only released on PS2 and never got a PSN rerelease, so copies are hard to track down. You may want to explore… other means of playing it.

I want more Suikoden and I love boats: Suikoden 4 is not a great game. It drops much of what makes the franchise great and has a weird plot. Set in the Island Nations, it does have a good tropical vibe, and I think it has one of the more interesting True Runes in terms of lore. It’s not great, but it could be worth checking out. It’s also available on PSN for PS3.

I want more of the strategy battles: Suikoden Tactics is a companion game to Suikoden 4 that fleshes out that game’s plot and is actually a really fun strategy RPG. If you play 4, you should definitely play Tactics. Sadly, not available on PSN.

I want a modern game: Yoshitaka Murayama creator of the franchse who left midway Konami around the release of Suikoden 3, recently had a successful Kickstarter for the game Eiyuden Chronicle, which seems to be a spiritual successor to the Suikoden franchise. It’s currently targeting a 2022 release. Fingers crossed.

What else is there in the franchise? There are two visual novel games, Suikogaiden, for the PS1 that function as spinoffs to Suikoden 2. They received fan translations. I haven’t played, so I can’t comment much on them, but I know they have a fun main character, and feature a lot of the characters from 2. Suikoden Tierkreis was released for the DS. It breaks from the franchise and is a totally standalone entry set in an entirely different world. Aside from recruiting 108 characters and having a political plot, there’s little else in common with the franchise. It’s not a bad RPG, but doesn’t do much to stand out aside from having a terrible font choice. It did receive a US release, so you can play that if you’re looking for a DS RPG. A PSP game was also released that doesn’t even feature 108 characters and was never released in the US.

Thanks again for joining this game club!