Suikoden character deaths: ranked

Ooh, this is gonna be a biggun. I'm running out of awesome ideas, so I thought of this on the fly. Might as well rank each death I found in the Suikoden games, because believe me, they have all been quite memorable. Note that because I haven't played Suikoden 5, or Tierkreis if you want to count that as a Suikoden game, I am not gonna include it, not yet at least. In the future I will play that game and probably edit this post, but well, here we go, the deaths from the first four games and Tactics ranked.

There's a bit of ambiguity to all this, so be warned. I will only include characters who die in the plotline. I will not include characters that have the chance to die in war battles, or in Suikoden Tactics, as these are characters whose deaths may be permanent, but can be preventable with good play. I will also not include characters that you have the choice to execute, like Milich or Kwanda in Suikoden 1 or Snowe in Suikoden 4. There's also the matter of plotline deaths that can be either reversible (Gremio) or preventable (Nanami). I will actually include these, because of potential circumstances involved. There's 34 character deaths mentioned here (updated this post on 9/28/2018, adding three Suikoden Tactics deaths I missed).

34. Han (Suikoden 2)

Well, there's not much to say about Han. He was a friend of Genkaku, again despite being on opposite sides, and in the ensuing duel Genkaku decides NOT to kill him, obviously because Genkaku knew that his master had poisoned his blade. In the end, Genkaku passed away a broken man while Han continued to work for Highland, this time dueling Genkaku's young protagonist and dying in the ensuing duel. Not much to say about it, he was just a boss to get past.

33. Heinz (Suikoden Tactics)

Heinz dies rather unceremoniously near the end of Suikoden Tactics. He's never a particularly likeable character either, since he shows up to Kyril's group as someone watching them, tags along, but is still in the mood of what Walter was originally employed to do, with no idea why Walter was after the rune cannons himself. He hatches two awful plans to ruin Kyril's conquest of the rune cannons, one to take them back to Scarlet Moon, and to kidnap Corselia. Neither of which are democratically approved in any case. Heinz then leaves before being killed offscreen by enemy soldiers. We don't get to see it happen, but we do get to read his thoughts. Still, he's not a rather likeable character.

32. Ralph (Suikoden Tactics)

Good lord is this a terrible death. I'm surprised it was even shown in this game, all in a scene that almost feels like a sidequest but is still part of the game as a whole. So the story is Ralph and Nohl are employed to do some work and they screw it up. The merchant boss berates the boys, but then kills Ralph in front of a crowd. Seriously? I can't really explain just how terrible an unnamed side character turned out to be, by killing a kid with an audience watching him.

31. Nohl (Suikoden Tactics)

And yes, Nohl does die as well, but it's much later. Apparently he gets an offer from a new merchant (another unnamed guy, but presumably working for Iskas), but his fate is sealed after that. We then see a group of fish monsters in a future scenario, where Corselia finds out that it was the boy she gave the handkerchief to. It's a sad fate, but Nohl never really got the chance.

30. Yun (Suikoden 3)

I still hate this death. It's very sad how the clairvoyant one decides to be the sacrificial lamb just to break the seal on the True Water Rune. I'm not one for sacrifices, and hell, Chris in this chapter isn't one for it either. It really was a waste of space, even if the ritual was briefly interrupted by Luc's group.

29. Solon Jhee (Suikoden 2)

Unfortunately for Jhee he's only made to be a one-off general, without a whole lot of substance to him apart from his hairstyle and his gung ho attitude for being a general. He's executed by Luca obviously for his failures. There could have been a lot to his character. He at least managed to execute Granmeyer and win against Muse beforehand, though.

28. Granmeyer (Suikoden 2)

And speaking of Granmeyer, his death wasn't much, especially since it's another offscreen kill. But him being beheaded and his head placed on city hall was enough to put him ahead of Jhee, even if we don't see it at all.

27. Neclord (Suikoden 2)

This is an interesting case of a character. For whatever reason, after being presumably defeated by the Star Dragon Sword in the first game, apparently Kahn Marley reveals that it was just a clone. His whole goal in his afterlife is to kidnap young girls, make an army of zombies, and just generally being villainy. It's not amazing at all. The fact that he made enemies of Viktor, Kahn, and ANOTHER vampire (Sierra) was pretty much his death knell. Even if it had an epic conclusion, I still hold the belief that there really was no point to the quest to take him out.

26. Agares (Suikoden 2)

Oh man, a one-scene wonder. Agares never had much of a chance to show his worth as king. He's apparently that bad in-story according to his son Luca that his wife's death after bearing his daughter was enough to be extremely despised by his son. The orchestrated plan to kill him was quite the kicker, and also the main reason why Kiba and Klaus would eventually switch sides.

25. Steele (Suikoden Tactics)

What can I say, defeating Steele is certainly satisfying, but he manages to take out Edgar with him, and Walter beforehand as well. Like what Brandeau and Glen would do in Suikoden 4, he would naturally use his life-ending rune to completely blow everyone out of the water, although he wasn't completely successful, the impact it had by killing Edgar and then transferring the rune to Brandeau was more than enough.

24. Culgan and Seed (Suikoden 2)

And here's two more bosses the party just gets past. Except they are a bit more tragic, since unlike Han who dies shortly before them, they have been with us since near the start of the game. They're not even villainous in any way, they love their country, right or wrong, but obviously aren't completely allied to the madness of Luca or the Beast Rune. Naturally, they die for their country when fighting our party, but in the end they actually had fun, the fact that they say this puts them well above other characters on this list.

23. Walter (Suikoden Tactics)

Walter is an example of a man in pursuit of something that eventually kills him. His search for the rune cannons proved fatal when he reached one himself, then getting turned into a fishman, with no human control over himself. He was practically mercy killed in order to save his son Kyril, who would continue the search after his death. The whole scene was just tragic, since he's not the only one to die by then.

22. Iskas (Suikoden Tactics)

The moment I saw this guy in Suikoden Tactics I pretty much HAD to imagine him being a villain, and it turns out I was completely right. Dude was obviously a manipulative bastard, to the point where he turns people into mindless fish monsters just to achieve his goals, which of course involve having power in the Kooluk region over the family imperials. And he always seems to have plans too, while he can seduce Miranda, Kyril would be protecting Corselia so he stages that Kyril is her kidnapper instead. But even when that fails, and even after Miranda attacks him, he still has enough juice to become a massive fishmonster himself. Honestly it's sillier than it should be, but this guy's importance to Tactics' plot cannot be understated, so it's yet another death I'm proud happened in the game.

21. Gorudo (Suikoden 2)

Gorudo is the kind of member of the city-states who is the equivalent of a frat boy hoarding all the beer for himself. He's the true douchebag of them all. But what makes him more villainous is that his actions caused the (preventable) death of the main character's sister. And he quite frankly could care less if he targets either the Dunan army leader or the Highland army leader. He's that territorial, only surrendering to highland for autonomy, and his true colors were even waivered well before this event, when he decides not to let refugees on Matilda's borders. In the end, the fight with Riou and Jowy was a most deserving end for him there.

20. Windy and Barbarossa (Suikoden 1)

I put these two together since they practically die together. Or so it seems? Windy was naturally an evildoer, seeking power since it's the only way to do justice according to her. Which is why she goes after true runes as well, even manipulating Emperor Barbarossa, who takes her in due to her resemblance of his late wife. Barbarossa himself seems to be a good guy, as shown when Futch raids the garden, but his manipulation is what eventually costs him his empire. It's especially concerning when you recruit the generals and they all take notice of this. In the end, he leaps off Gregminster Palace with Windy, and in this case the bodies were surprisingly never found. So what happened?

19. Graham Cray and Elenor (Suikoden 4)

Well here we have yet another case of epilogue fever with a man and a woman seemingly perishing in something I'm pretty sure no mortal is capable of surviving, but are listed missing in action. Like Windy and Barbarossa, you are left wanting more of their history together, although this isn't a case of lovers this time, it's a case of former student and former master meeting. In the endgame, one thing you do is control a dispatch party, with Elenor as the head, and Graham Cray is the boss there. What's amazing about the final exchange after the final boss is defeated is that upon being asked his reasons for wanting the Rune of Punishment back, he decides to keep it all secret. In the end, no one really knew. Perhaps if we had known this, Cray would have been a better Suikoden villain?

18. Troy (Suikoden 4)

In contrast to Cray, Troy isn't the kind of person to do so much destruction as to achieve their goals, stuff that Luc and Luca Blight were also trying to accomplish in their games. He still goes under the "my country right or wrong" flag, alongside his pal Colton. Naturally he's been touted as one of the greatest, but even the greatest shall fall, and even if you decide to make him join to save his life, he pretty much knew his fate was sealed. A bit lame, but not too shabby.

17. Glen (Suikoden 4)

The Rune of Punishment sure catches a lot of characters, and Glen isn't an exception. I won't bother getting into the characters who got the rune before Steele, but I'll list them: some guy in Obel ruins, the Queen of Obel, Graham Cray and his son, and a guy who was married to Rikie. So yeah, not a whole lot until you see the backstories when your main character passes out during the story. Glen isn't all that amazing of a character, while he likes Lazlo, he sees Snowe as incompetent, only really allowing him a position in the military because of Snowe's father. Glen's death comes upon a pirate invasion, where he uses the rune to destroy them at the cost of his own life. It's the choices you make sometimes. On the other hand, the choices made post-mortem sure weren't pretty. Glen wouldn't have allowed it.

16. Jimba/Wyatt (Suikoden 3)

It's so weird how the seal on the True Water Rune is in one area, while the rune itself ends up being somewhere else completely. Yun obviously hints that Chris's father is obviously alive, and none other than Jimba, who's really Wyatt Lightfellow. He ends up dying at Cyndar Ruins, but not before managing to wound and also expose Luc and his plot to take the runes. In the end, he gives his soul to give the True Water Rune a new owner in Chris (or if she's the chosen Flame Champion, Hugo). Not much else to it, other than the fact that you barely ever get a chance to play as this guy since he's either doing story stuff after the paths merge or in some lucky cases if Hugo's your main character he can join the party. And of course, he was Chris's father, the one she never even had known until that moment.

15. Kiba (Suikoden 2)

In Kiba's case, he's a considerable stonewall general in Highland, defecting to the Dunan forces due to the circumstances involving Agares' death and his sworn loyalty to the former king. His death unfortunately is another offscreen death, but at least he faces it with dignity, acting as a decoy to take the old mercenary fortress from Leon Silverberg's forces, a mission that clearly was described as a suicide mission. He was a Highlander with true patriotism instead of madness.

14. Odessa (Suikoden 1)

This is one of those I both love and hate. I love the fact that Odessa dies protecting a child. I hate the fact that she was basically the face of the revolution against Scarlet Moon, as well as Flik's lover, and she dies as a woman and not a revolutionary like she basically had became because of the death of her former lover. Where did that kid even come from? Her post-mortem was considerably a lot more influential, giving Tir the leadership, as well as the fire spear plans, so that works out in her favor.

13. Martin and Julius (Suikoden Tactics)

You cannot expect to just rush headlong into a trap alone, because that will get you more than killed. Which is what happened to Martin. Making it worse is that it directly echoes Walter's death from well before this occurs, except now it's Kyril killing the fish-Martin to keep Corselia safe. I'll put Julius in this item as well, since he dies shortly after despite having barely any role in the plot. He pretty much dies without any combat involved. It's real bad that both had to suffer a fate like Walter did, and it's even worse considering how Corselia is going to handle her whole family perishing.

12. Miranda (Suikoden Tactics)

Oh where was I? Oh right, Corselia's whole family. Miranda perishes near the end, but before that, you can only really see her as a bad mother, due to her having some affair with Iskas and always being seen with him. It really does suck though, because Iskas was taking full advantage of her just to get to Corselia, and Miranda was basically forced to stay by his side. Well, until she decides she has had enough and stabs Iskas, but in retaliation is killed by a spell. But with her death, Corselia's whole family is practically dead, and that sucks for her the most.

11. Governor of El-Eal (Suikoden 4)

Looking back at Suikoden 4, you'd be surprised at quite a few of the plot twists, while expecting some in return. Being the manipulative bastard he is, Cray puts the governor out as a pawn for his own schemes, having some successes in the first few moments of the game. Eventually due to how aging he was, he was eventually put in prison to die. In truth, it was thanks to him and a stroke of luck that Ramada, one of the spies, was there to seal the fate of Cray, as he gives away a map and a letter which ends up being delivered to the Island Nation Army eventually. What a difference it makes.

10. Anabelle (Suikoden 2)

It says something about a looming war when a major political figure in a region gets assassinated just to further create more chaos. What makes things worse is that all of Anabelle's best moments happen well before the events of Suikoden II took place, helping to prevent a war between some city-states. Here, her attempts to unite all the city-states against Highland end in failure, although this actually isn't her fault anyways due to everyone else's unwillingness. And then she would have had some talk to Riou and Nanami about Genkaku, but was murdered by the manipulated Jowy, potentially in an effort to keep his own life, I guess. The whole thing is just harrowing for all parties involved, and her last words were just to let her allies flee. How unfortunate that was.

9. Ted (Suikoden 1)

From the moment you no longer have Ted as a party member, you just knew he was going to bite it at some point. Especially considering he's the Soul Eater's bearer before Tir. For some reason, despite a nice cameo in Suikoden 4, he doesn't have much else to show besides being an amazing party member past his sidequest. In Suikoden 1, we see he's certainly not the kind of character with the mysterious and aloof demeanor, but the friendship abruptly ends upon the Scarlet Moon empire finding out about his rune. He later gives it to Tir, who doesn't see him again until at Seek Valley. Lady Windy apparently kept Ted alive, but under her control using the Conquerer Rune. What makes this a rather sad death was how Ted does in fact manage to break her rune's powers, but to command his former rune to consume his soul as well. It's real sad how it ended up like that for him.

8. Edgar (Suikoden Tactics)

Pirate King Edgar was another one of the sadder deaths during the Steele arc of Suikoden Tactics, probably the saddest of the bunch, giving Kika's reaction afterwards and of course, how it happened. Steele's usage of the Rune of Punishment manages to kill Edgar, while simultaneously transferring it to Brandeau and making him a broken man.

7. Lulu (Suikoden 3)

All of the deaths that are at least onscreen deaths of good characters pretty much show that the dying character is shown giving their last...speeches...with...ellipses...hanging...on. And in a way I actually hate it. Lulu's death isn't one of them. You might be surprised by his high ranking too, especially considering he was quite an annoying character in Hugo's first chapter of Suikoden 3. But this is because of two factors. One, is that he ends up getting killed instantly, without muttering any last words, even though his fall after being struck was done in agonizingly slow motion. The second comes from the fact that his killer is Chris, a character you also play as in the game. You get to see Lulu's death in both Hugo's perspective, watching as his close friend dies, as well as Chris's perspective, obviously she wasn't in the mood for what had been going on but had to protect herself somehow, yet obviously feels remorse for killing a child. It's quite a complex death, which is why it's so high up.

6. Brandeau and Peck (Suikoden 4)

Again, two characters who die in short order, but really, they are only here because of what happened in Suikoden Tactics, and I bet everyone who has only played Suikoden 4 will be wondering who the heck is Peck and why this is so high up. Anyways, yeah, Brandeau was another RoP bearer, before Glen, he's only seen as a rune-bearing plot device and a grizzly antagonist in Suikoden 4, dying of course after using the rune in a last-ditch attempt at perceived villainy. It's until you play one of the early chapters in Suikoden Tactics how you see how Brandeau ended up with the rune, and how his accomplice Peck got horribly disfigured. It's a price to pay with no longer going back home for fear of the accursed rune taking the lives of your fellow pirates, but Brandeau and Peck had to make do. It does really suck that you have to die a broken man and an antagonist to pretty much everyone else out there.

5. Nanami and Jowy (Suikoden 2)

Well, here's one a lot were waiting for. Two mutually inclusive preventable deaths, in other words, they can be prevented, but only under special circumstances, and one cannot really live without the other. Obviously, as described with Gorudo, his group was responsible for shooting an arrow, hitting Nanami and putting her on the brink of death. The sprite detail done in the cutscene even shows this perfectly. Later on, you have the option of not ruling the city-states at the epilogue of the game, meeting Jowy at the rock that got carved at the very beginning, where one final duel can seal his ultimate fate. That is, of course, all things assuming that Nanami had a good defense rating prior to her fall, 108 Stars of Destiny were collected prior, and to have selected *any* dialogue option during the arrow shooting (meaning that Riou will pose to fight as well), and during the duel with Jowy, just defend through until you're almost defeated, then reject his rune. Doing all these things prevents BOTH characters from dying, the first through the arrow and the second through his rune. Failing to save either of them actually gives you the sense of potential failure at an amazing conclusion to a fine game, leaving one out of three main characters alive at the end. And although sad endings are not uncommon, especially in the Suikoden series, god forbid you don't prevent these two from dying.

4. Gremio (Suikoden 1)

Now, Gremio's death is of course reversible as I had just said, but unlike others here, it's not preventable. It will happen, no way of actually stopping it. For those who play Suikoden 1 with the obvious intent of keeping all the characters alive, the fact that Gremio's name will always be grayed out on the tablet is sure to make at least one heart lurch. And let's take into account how he ends up dying, by being eaten alive by spores. That's NOT a way to go in any setting. Gremio's actually sacrificing himself, knowing the complex nature of Soniere Prison's doors and the trap that Milich sprung for his group. To make this death so much higher on the ranking, it actually is a death that gives you an incentive to execute Milich when you finally catch up with him. Which of course, as tempting as it is, is not the right answer to this all, but the game manages to entice you to try it due to Gremio being consumed and all.

3. Teo (Suikoden 1)

Yeah, I put this on the Greatest RPG deaths. It's always something you see in a JRPG, a character's parent goes missing or rogue, and the child has to fight them. And Teo's not any different. Surely, he's one of the toughest examples of a father, since his status as a general means he's got power, and he's definitely not afraid to show it off, as Armored Calvary is certified to potentially make YOU lose a Star of Destiny, most likely Pahn for first time players in the duel after the war battle. But then you not only fight him with your main character in his own duel, but actually end up killing him. How? Who knows. But the circumstances are quite evident. The son has bested the father. And the sad thing is, this is what Teo wished for. Sure, they fought on opposite sides, and even Teo offers his lieutenants Grenseal and Alen to Tir's side then. It's a death that's simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.

2. Luc and Sarah (Suikoden 3)

Obviously, for all those who achieved 108 stars, you all get to see Luc's plan, his extreme actions all start to make sense, his desire to screw the destiny that he would become. It's a very Thanos-esque plan, to balance out the world by rendering it lifeless via the usage of the runes, he would hide his true identity, start rumors of a new Fire Bringer, and get the Grasslands to go to war. It of course ended up having the opposite effect. Now Sarah ends up being taken into Luc's care at some point, unseen during the events of the first two games, and only fully supporting Luc's plans in the third. Her trickery is certainly harrowing towards getting Luc to his goals, despite not fully agreeing to see everyone die, she's doing it out of love, and sometimes, it's those kinds of things that matter. Of course, all this you will see in Luc's secret chapter, the sad story of two lovers trying to balance out things in a way that ends up failing. Who could be considered a true villain of Suikoden 3?

1. Luca (Suikoden 2)

Well, duh, of course this is gonna be the number one death in this one. Again, circumstances. Everyone wants the mad prince to die, no matter what part of the game he is currently in right now. He's quite the human being given his evil nature. Jowy, while staying close to his side, is orchestrating his eventual murder, despite sacrificing his freedom and a few other lives in the process, eventually getting Riou's army to pull in, shoot tons of arrows, fighting his group with three of the Dunan army's main groups, and then in the end he still has some juice to attempt a final duel to the death. And then he practically laughs off his last moments, claiming he's killed thousands, and he knows it too. Even in death, he's left the iconic blood trail.

So yeah, there you have it. It's most likely inaccurate, but some of these I can barely even remember apart from a small lookup. Either way though, considering how I haven't played Suikoden 5 yet, this list obviously isn't complete until I experience that. It's still a fantastic RPG series showcasing how bad character deaths can be.

A look back at: Dual Orb II

Well, looks like I'm gonna be alright after all. Didn't have a whole lot of activity for a full week, wow. But anyways, I finally got done with Dual Orb II, and even though my review of it is pretty darn neutral on the whole thing, guess what? I HATED this game. And I'll list all the reasons why. Massive spoilers, although most of you wouldn't care or something.

1. One thing I at least loved was the intro, showcasing two people as if they were pretty good scientists, just willing to send one back to avoid a potential apocalpyse. Both Alex and Serra in this case seem to be pretty decent characters on onset, except we will barely be seeing much of this intro make sense until much later in the game. Lame. And yes, one of these characters you'll know for too much, and then the other you'll barely even make of at all. We also get to see a FF6-like opening of a priest wandering in the snow with a baby. I at least came in expecting this to NOT be a ball buster, and it obviously isn't, but that intro honestly gave way to some false hope.

2. I've already said it before, but man this game has too many cliche parts to it. Just look who we got for characters, a generic mysterious girl, a generic bard, a generic thief, a generic rebellious princess, a generic demi-human companion, and a generic pirate. And that's just the secondary characters that you get later on. The two main characters you see are two fantasy-style guys, one swordsman, one spearman. Look at their styles. One is a blondie, while the other has silvery hair. Take a good guess which one turns traitor later on in the game. Not to mention there's an evil empire, with an emperor, a mad scientist who's more evil than the empire, forgettable generals, and your average everyday eldritch big bad. Oh yes, you have one orb in this game along with three jewels to use it, along with some "spirit nucleus" thing that isn't an orb. Let's also not forget, those three jewels have "guardians". And there will be castles, dungeons, jails, mountains, towns, harbors, and floating fortresses alike.

3. Aleth is a silent protagonist in a game I firmly do not believe should have a silent protagonist. I don't think I need to say much else here.

4. Well, at least the hopeless fights where you're supposed to lose are done a little bit better in that I don't HAVE to lose. But I never was a fan of them. The opening fight between you and Lagnus can actually be won, which is a nice accomplishment, while the first fights against Gilzath and Organa you can just last a few rounds before it ends. The penultimate boss of the game plays it straight though.

5. Gameplay-wise, there's a lot of issues. Most notably, all that grinding I do is boring. And I do it mostly for money, even though the level gains are nice, well, I'll leave that for another list item. But damn, many of these items and weapon upgrades get expensive. Sure, the prices of weapon upgrades mellow down, and one optional town is cheapest (though you gotta remember, the town is optional and you might miss it), but when enemies don't give out the big moolah until the very VERY end of the game, something's gonna be rather annoying with the grinding. It's thankfully not on the same level of Dragon Warrior though.

6. But then you realize, leveling up your characters doesn't seem to change a whole lot. You're only doing a tad bit more damage, your stats are growing just a tad. It all boils down to what equipment you can have that can allow you to disk and take more. Sure, the character's HP counts will hit the thousands, with Aleth's HP being the frontrunner, but the rest of the stats need some work. I mean, I can overlevel my characters to high, high levels (not on purpose, because I mostly grinded for money) but there will somehow still be enemies faster than me speed-wise.

7. And then we get to the matter of damage itself. You see, if the damage isn't 1 or a miss, you and your enemies will be doing triple-digit or quadruple-digits numbers usually. A character can bite it at around 4 hits, even with the best armor and level available. Your enemies also have high health but your damage output is just like theirs, so you can just storm through encounters when you need to grind.

8. But then again, when you want to get through the game, that's when the random battle system decides to just swarm you with encounters. Wonderful. Like I didn't have enough on my plate already. A full treasure room could take me minutes because I run into ten battles or so because the random encounter rate is excruciatingly high.

9. Ah, these spells are totally mixed. Just look at these healing spells. The standard Revive revives someone at ONE HP. That's not gonna help at all. The status spells are worse, as they usually are, but unless it's Earth Shake you have almost no way of telling what you just did when you use them. The buffing spells barely make any noticable difference in stat gains. The attack spells? Aleth and Serra only get ONE EACH, although they are both good ones, while Saladin and Lagnus get plenty of them. Notably though, it seems the spells gained by leveling up aren't really in accordance to the levels gained. Why is it that Darkness Arrow, a spell gained by Lagnus at level 9, so much better than every other spell he gets in the levels afterward? The same with Saladin's Stone Lance and Nova, although those two are gained at much higher levels usually, then again it seems that Saladin is always gaining new spells with each level up. But what's with all the marginally WORSE spells gained after these ones? And if you are wondering if elemental spells will take a part with weaknesses, not always the case. Sometimes, trying to exploit one isn't gonna be much of a difference.

10. Oh, and there's status effects, yes, but they are forgettable, and they will always be cured at the end of battle. What harm will Poison do if it is cured immediately after battle? And the confusion/charm spell is supposed to keep control of the person, but here it can be broken out of with a physical attack as if it was a sleep spell. Lame.

11. So the vast majority of enemies you face aren't really amazing at all. A good chunk of them are actually completely human in fact. Most of the enemies include the ghost-masked thieves that actually look well graphics-wise, the soldiers, the annoying karate girls that always go first. All of these human enemies do the same thing, physical attack. There are very few magical enemies, who can actually be a lot tougher, like the Jeldollies and their Wind Cutter attack along with a few late-game ones, but by then I am overleveled enough to beat them usually. But wait, what's with these technology based enemies in a predominantly fantasy world? What's with these weird monster trucks? Floating laptops? Large desert tanks? Weird hypodermic needles that heal enemies? There's not a whole lot of sense in enemy creation, but Dual Orb II didn't seem to have a proper sense of direction.

12. When I find a weapon, it's always gonna be unknown until you actually equip it, and then you sometimes realize it's a cursed weapon. Pretty basic, but it's mostly a hassle having to train up certain weapons with boatloads of cash to ensure you are killing the bigguns. There's a few times where you'd want to choose a best weapon for a character. Rapier or bow for Karina? The Ice Fang for Saladin is surprisingly his best choice, as the Kill Wing later on is crap at the higher levels. Meanwhile, the Dragoon spear is something that will basically never leave Lagnus once you equip it.

12. Oh Lagnus, you mischievous boy you, always getting into trouble, it's a shame that the most interesting character in the game has to save your sorry ass from stupid thieves that think you're perfect kidnapping money.

13. Really? Making Cassius leave before our first real dungeon? Way to make a crutch character there. Cassius was decent early on due to him being speedy and having a good weapon level, but making him leave is gonna make it much harder, since characters that rejoin don't seem to be trained up for later battles. I mean Final Fantasy Mystic Quest did that. Mystic Quest trained up characters that would later rejoin the party.

14. Serra's whole role is seriously easy to figure out. Amnesiac, mysterious waif, apparently being considered a goddess even though she isn't. Making things even stupider is the game lets out a fact she isn't a human. Well, she may have Sailor Moon-esque hair, but her entire personality is that of a human. And yes, expect her to get kidnapped once. She at least has a unique weapon, but the drawback is it cannot be modified better.

15. Hardwick upon first seeing Serra will immediately say "just my imagination", and then when you lose Serra later on, he's all like "don't you remember me?" Just no.

16. The boss fight against Torath is an example of why I hate this game's boss fights. Either it's just a battle of attrition like most, a hopeless boss fight that ends in a few rounds, or like this, it's a gimmick fight in which it shows Lagnus his newfound abilities. Yet, it's not made entirely obvious.

17. It amazes me that Saladin is amassing these two women like he's Glenn Quagmire as a thief, but joining the party and staying for the rest of the game puts something into perspective. What about those women, huh?

18. I'll give the Colodus arc a lot of credit, it's definitely a good plot twist. But it is pretty much ruined by the cloaked figure next to Seldam which pretty much means that the whole thing is obviously a farce. I mean, you can see it a mile away.

19. Najiri is easily the least popular character for the party due to his NPC-controlled tactics. And it's not in a potentially fun way like FF6's Umaro either. It's just straight up boring. You can knock him out and it wouldn't make much of a difference. But you know what I really hate? The fact that I wasted a LOT of money to buy one Guriguard, an item only he can equip, only to find out it's not only NOT his ultimate armor, but the Shell Armor, which is his best armor, is the armor I get in the dungeon JUST BEFORE reaching Najiri. Yeah, what a complete fluke that was. I know it's a black market and all, but still, come on.

20. Gilzath's main entry comes with a semi-hopeless boss fight, then Saladin shows off his cool spells at this point, which he never did up until that point. Good job there, preventing me from using such awesome spells until now. Now he's gonna grow those spells like crazy. I'm actually not mad at this per se, but I AM mad that Gilzath still gets away with Serra despite being stopped.

21. While it's nice that Cassius comes back around this time and gives his actually interesting backstory on being a spy and why he hates Kardosa, remember what I said earlier. And hell, he's not gonna be in the party that long anyways either. His king is also a huge idiot when siding with Kardosa and it obviously becomes apparent later on.

22. The whole prayer scene in Claydon made no sense. How come neither Cassius nor Lagnus were transported with Serra, Saladin, and Aleth? All I can think of is to make room for more party members but that's a lame excuse. Let's also not forget to mention Hardwick's hatred of Aleth by looking at his eyes. God, I hate it when that trope is used.

23. The middle arc is thankfully not so bad. Sure, more royals in danger of being kidnapped, more characters join, the drunken guy in the harbor tavern seems like he could actually be of nominal importance, and we get to see an actually interesting evil general. Not to mention Bargan is gonna be our token good pirate. Of course, he's yet another crutch character due to how short of a time he's in the party, but he was okay at the very least. Still though, that horn thing seemed like a weird way to avert a hopeless outcome from Organa, and to make things more blatant, the story of Bargan's daughter is just clear as day exactly who Lina really is.

24. The bickering comic relief between Saladin and Karina ends up being pretty textbook. And of course, they will hook up at the end as you can EASILY expect. Guh. I would like Saladin more if he was actually a thief for crying out loud. Despite showing shades of it with a few lockpicking scenes, he's used for comic relief way too much. At least Karina gets a family, wait, when exactly did her brother end up being a scientific prodigy again? That came out of the blue. So did the Cadmus island being a mobile sea turtle. I guess the kicker here is that it actually cannot be controlled.

25. It was worth it in the end, but again the grinding for the money was just so boring. I had found out that the fight against Gilzath was gonna be 100% magic-based, so I had to buy three Guard Talismans (one is in the Time Ruins, making four for each). Unfortunately, those aren't really useful anywhere else due to having zero physical power. And even then, Gilzath uses Nova which still does thousands of damage, it's a good thing he falls quick due to my high levels of grinding. Hey, I also grinded so I could get five Magic Chains (one for each of my party members and for Bargan later on), and a Body Suit (for Cassius later on). All in all, over 300000 gold which took me days. I don't feel like grinding for THAT long again.

26. Of course the mage society is gonna be reluctant to join. They at least can be credible because they KNOW their power is so great it can be used for evil. Too bad that the evil empire IS gonna force them to do that later on.

27. The whole family moment involving Marilyn, Saladin, Elena, and Gilzath honestly made me cringe more than I honestly would. So exactly how did Saladin wind up away from Gassa, from his sister Marilyn and mother Elena? Well, he got teleported by Gilzath, Marilyn's teacher, who's obviously stupid dream of immortality was never gonna come. Naturally, we also get Elena coming in at this point to help, along with those three jewels, the last just picked up. Not to mention more and more exposition dumps. Poor Elena at least had an interesting backstory centered around her forbidden spell usage as well as Gilzath's stupid ambitions.

28. That mountain village arc is just stupid. I hate everything about it. The initial greeting was creepy enough, the rest of the NPCs just tell Aleth he isn't somehow the high priests son and that they created him. The tower is almost as bad, all of a sudden, our silent main swordsman is the clone of Alex, a guy who's clearly from the future. The only good thing about him is that he was a good guy anyways. So if civilization was actually destroyed and saved by Alex's use of the Orb, how the heck are we in more primitive times? I always like to ask this particular question.

29. Oh yeah, and it looks like the people of the village have fulfilled what they needed to do, which is merely to "guide Aleth to find the truth", they pretty much cease to function, and then they turn into dirt. Not stone, but dirt. It's a worse implication, honestly. Why doesn't the dirt blow away in the wind I wonder? Why do I get the dirty thought that these people have literally turned into what could actually be considered poop? Guh, this is just unbelievable.

30. Oh yeah, and we finally get an airship, only that it just so happened to be where it all began. It's not entirely clear where to advance the plot next, but apparently it's back in Hilandia, where a deus ex machina occurs just to get the Hilandia king and princess out of commission, the latter only temporarily. Not to mention the romance blossoming, the eventual takeover of Lagnus's body by Chandler, wait, Chandler? That's the main villain's name? And I thought Carltron from Secret of Evermore was a lame villain name.

31. Kaliban should have had more character to him, but alas, he's just another political figure that runs away after you defeat his mooks. But he's never even seen again afterwards.

32. Okay, it's a heartwarming reunion that eventually leads to the final act for both Bargan and Lina/Organa, but what happens afterwards. What is Claydon doing here all of a sudden if its reactor malfunctioned by Kardosa's hands? It sure wasn't there before!

33. And speaking of which, I actually found a way to completely break the game. If you park the Lindblum airship behind Nisa, meaning above it, you cannot reach it and are stuck forever between Hardos and Nisa. See, when you leave a place, you're always under it, and there's only one spot above Nisa, so by entering Nisa (also you cannot immediately reenter the Lindblum while standing in it, to my knowledge), you effectively doom yourself from completing the game.

34. Dammit, Dual Orb II, level Cassius up. I have been toting three level 70 characters due to grinding for the best weaponry and he's still around level 15 in comparison. He's completely useless to the party by this point. Even if I were to train his weapon up, what's the use?

35. This game sure has its annoying bosses, especially Organa's second fight considering how people have developed strategies for it. But there should have been strategies for Sindra too. This guy hits physically for about 3000 HP which is certainly a lot, while he also can hit everyone with spells too. The real reason he's annoying is he has a healing spell that heals him for 9999 HP, and subsequently made him the most annoying boss in the game.

36. Okay so I do beat him, and his desperate backup plan? Nuke the reactor he's next to, which is on a slow control platform above some crazy void. First of all, you're not just killing your enemies, Sindra, but also the mages that are powering the floating fortress you are trying to get into the sky. Not to mention Hardwick, Odorath, and Chandler, who are also encountered after Sindra, are in the castle as well. Nuking everyone is gonna screw up their evil plan. Cassius sacrifices himself to kill Sindra, which I don't like either, but you know what? Cassius practically saved Sindra from his own stupidity by killing him that way.

37. Yeah, would've loved a nice buildup to fighting emperor Odorath considering how he's pretty much a cool-looking bearded emperor. But not only is the endgame focused on Hardwick and Chandler more, but Odorath just HAS to act like he's not human anymore. All that buildup to fighting a big bad emperor and he turns out to be practically automated. Come on.

38. Their showmanship of the power of the floating fortress is obviously not gonna sit well politically. Yeah, let's cleanse the earth by killing every human down there and endangering the species for more evolved humans, which are obviously gonna be way worse.

39. The ending battles are at least okay in the sense, one becoming hopeless, brought to light with the utilization of the orb, and a cliche but not too terribly done wish to bring Serra back. Also Lagnus dying as himself, mumbling as if he was still in the openings of the game.

40. Well, I'm not a fan of the epilogue. How did Bargan and Lina/Organa survive their cave-in? When exactly did Aleth and Serra decide not only to fall in love, but be the new king and queen? Where's the love between Saladin and Karina, and the subsequent rebuilding of Hardos and Hilandia? Sure, at least some characters are happy, but unanswered questions are unanswered questions.

And that pretty much summarizes why Dual Orb II is not a good game. I think #36 is my favorite marker here, considering how much I thought it would just really make the whole plot feel so much worse.

RPGs: The classic case of major characters related to heroes

Well I don't know what's gonna go on in the next few days. I've heard that a hurricane is gonna come by soon in two days along with something involving the EU, you know, real life stuff, that will prevent me from doing this blog or other things I'd rather be doing. Anyways, let's (at least try) look at some more of these things you see in every RPG ever, or not.

So the single parent rule, often in effect because of the whole "Good Morning Crono" also tying into it. Hey look, both Serge and Crono have a mother, how enticing. Usually, this means there's only one parent, and they decide to generalize it by giving a male lead only a mother and a female lead only a father, with the missing parent either dead before the story begins, or just not being mentioned at all. And to add more salt into the equation, the surviving parent may meet a rather grizzly end.

Of course, such generalizations aren't always present, but most examples tend to have one parent in their games. Vahn only has his father in Legend of Legaia, and I already mentioned the two mothers in the Crono games. It seems like Odin in Odin Sphere has two daughters, but doesn't seem to have a wife with him. Valery in Breath of Fire 2 is incapacitated (won't say dead because she is after all, the sealer of Infinity) before Ryu even knows of it, leaving Ganer, his father, as the eventual parent. Grandia's Justin seems to have only a mother, while Suikoden's Tir had his mother die apparently leaving him with only his father Teo. Both Chris and Hugo in Suikoden 3 have surviving parents, with Chris having her father Wyatt and Hugo having his mother Lucia, and due to the coincidences in Suikoden 4, Lino, who of course lost his wife to the Rune of Punishment, is this to Lazlo, along with Flare.

In some cases, the parent is only a grandparent, like Cornet has in Rhapsody (her mother's dead), Nanami and Riou in Suikoden 2 (although like others, Genkaku is another dead one by the story start), or Hiro has in Lunar 2. In other cases, the character in question is likely an orphan raised without the birth parents, like the protagonists in Final Fantasy 8, or just simply doesn't seem to have visible parents, like Platina in Valkyrie Profile, although it's likely she just snuck off at night instead.

And then you have those with BOTH parents, although usually something bad happens to them. This is true for Tales of Phantasia's Cless, Soul Nomad & The World Eaters' Danette, Final Fantasy IV's Edge, and to a very SMALL extent Dart from the Legend of Dragoon*. In that latter case, it's more like one parent was presumed dead but turned out to be evil. This lends in to the case of actually fighting potentially corrupted family members, and Legend of Dragoon obviously isn't the only case of this happening. This happens in Shining in the Darkness, Final Fantasy IV (in Edge's case), Odin Sphere (for Gwendolyn and Velvet, both of whom fight Odin as a boss), Suikoden I (Tir fighting Teo), Suikoden III (Chris fighting Jimba/Wyatt), and oh well I'm pretty sure there's more.

The other cases of surviving parents pretty much leave them alone. Alex's parents in Lunar 1 are usually alive and well, although they do get kidnapped along with the rest of Burg in the original game, they are okay at the end, and the remake practically leaves them alone. You don't see Usagi's father in Sailor Moon: Another Story but it's pretty much obvious that he's not dead or anything, especially since he's in the anime anyways. And Gen-3 Pokemon games do something interesting by not only giving your character a father, but make him a gym leader. One who you battle, yes, but it's a worthy challenge moreso than a death battle of sorts, because hey, it's Pokemon.

All in all though, the diversity of the heroes having parents is quite charming and nothing really overly cliche. You have your single parents, your both parents alive, your both parents dead, your no parent orphans, your parents you have to fight, and your parents you have to protect. How intriguing.

*Dart even has a surviving grandfather who actually ends up being one of his party members, yet neither knows about it.

Cursed Weapons, and why they're lame

Yay, another crappy rant on something that's prevalent in a lot of RPGs yet may not actually be in the grand list of RPG cliches. This time, we talk cursed weapons, which are prevalent in a number of titles yet are absolutely the opposite of exciting in any way.

As of this writing, I'm playing Dual Orb 2, which apparently does have the cursed items. These things are usually equipment, usually weapons too, and equipping them will usually have adverse effects on the character who equips them. Most of the time, it will do stuff like have a persisting status effect or health or stat drainage, and usually, the cursed item isn't possible to be removed normally. The Cursed Shield in Final Fantasy VI is a nice example of what I'm talking about, since it offers a lot of status effects. Now, the reward for THIS cursed item is actually worth it, unlike some.

And the way to get a cursed item uncursed can vary. Usually, just go to a church, like in the Lufia games or Dual Orb 2, and they will uncurse it. That is of course, assuming the game itself has such a building. And then there's the matter of the cursed item losing whatever advantage it may actually have when it was cursed. Again, the Cursed Shield above is an aversion, as it is uncursed upon fighting 255 battles and becomes the Paladin, allowing the wielder to actually learn Ultima. Players in FF6 will likely go to the easiest possible place to fight, waste 255 battles, bam, Paladin shield.

So apart from the Cursed Shield, why don't I like them and why do I think they are lame? Because they are not actually the ultimate kind of equipment the game has to offer. Yeah, they may have their advantages, as I've said, usually they are always stronger with power at a cost, but even an RPG's ultimate weapons will not only be stronger, but never be cursed as well. Take the Lufia games, which have numerous kinds of cursed equipment. None of these are better than any of the ultimate equipment. The series staple Dual Blade is never cursed in the series, and it's better than any of the other weapons you could find, especially in Lufia 1 (unless you get a Might Sword, also never cursed, but that's a rare drop and screw rare drops in general). Bottom line, better weapons exist instead of trying to torture yourself using a cursed weapon in any case whatsoever.

The other issue is that not a whole lot of games really make use of cursed equipment as well. Most of the RPGs I've played don't even use cursed equipment at all. You see any cursed equipment in Phantasy Star? Legend of Dragoon? And even if the RPG in question does have a cursed item, it's never really something memorable. So yeah, there you have it, cursed weapons are crap and not a single one is really worthwhile in whatever way. Maybe there are a few such cursed items that are actually worth it, like Garr's Beast Spear in Breath of Fire 3, which isn't that bad*, or the Cursed Shield as before, but there are barely a few gameplay-wise that are really good for what they offer. I guess there are some good storyline examples of cursed weapons (like Soul Nomad & The World Eaters' Onyx Blade), but the adverse effects are not really shown in-game and it's not really considered cursed to me.

*This is mostly due to the fact that this is a cursed weapon that actually is the ultimate weapon for the character. It saps his health, but it's got more damage output than any other weapon bar perhaps Ryu's ultimate weapons. But then again, how many people use Garr in the endgame anyways?

RPG Maker for Playstation: A quick review

Well well well, I knew I would get to this at some point but here it is folks, my review of the very first RPG maker for the Playstation. An exclusive to this blog for the record.

Okay I lied, this is the third RPG Maker game, but it is the first as far as a console version goes, and quite frankly, there's not a lot of it to go by. I went with it for two reasons. One, since I'm a classic fan at heart, I would naturally go by making something that doesn't have way too much to offer, and what better to try than a console version? Second, and this pertains to something that has happened in real life, I actually LOST my internet connection for a few days, yeah it totally sucks. Therefore, having to NOT use something that requires an internet connection was pretty beneficial for the time being.

Anyways, RPG Maker is split into two parts, the obvious RPG Maker, and Anime Maker, which is really just some MS Paint thing to integrate your very own graphics and animations into the RPG Maker stuff. I have so far not really utilized this much, but given that this exists for a console version it's actually a nice little feat.

Now for RPG Maker. You can create your world field, dungeons, your playable characters, your magic and items, your parameter names (if you wanna get creative), and your general info. It's a time consuming process, but it's pretty quick and dirty here. You don't have an unlimited amount of character models, magic spell animations, and field and dungeon objects at your disposal, nor do you have a whole lot of monster models, although you do have some palette-swapping abilities. Perhaps the big issue with this game is that it will of course take up quite a lot of space on the memory card, so having an empty one beforehand is a good idea. That's probably the main criticism I have for this game. This is to be expected though, after all, this is a console game.

So far I have decided to work on one for my own play, but it's not finished yet. There's still some clunky things this offers, with some actual translation goofs. For one, Critical Hit in terms of a monster action actually is an instakill attack. Also the Town function when working on the field is used for EVERYTHING on the field, which is pretty strange. I have just started on the Dungeon part of my RPG, and again, it works for the towns, caves, actual dungeons, etc. And apart from that the only other thing to deal with are scenarios, which sort of interest me in a way because it just reminds me of Romancing Saga, and if that were the case, I could have multiple different storylines like those games. So far though, I don't really think this is that bad overall. It's RPG Maker at its least complex (console-wise of course), and is a good way to start small as they would say.