Suikoden II/Gameplay

In this game you will control a character destined to become the leader of a great army and to fight against a powerful kingdom that has betrayed him and a ruthless prince hungry for power, who kills anyone who opposes him. During the adventure you will have the opportunity to recruit as many as 108 characters, who are scattered throughout the game world. Recruiting them all isn't mandatory, but having more characters will help you have a more varied and efficient army. During the various missions you can take a maximum of 6 characters with you, including the main character. To change your party, just talk to Leona. Furthermore, in some missions, there are some characters that you cannot exclude from the group and who will join you automatically. Other characters may temporarily join you only as a convoy, in which case you will not be able to use them in battles. During the adventure, you will have to face three different types of battles.

Normal Battle System
It is the most common type of battle. While on the world map or in dungeons with your party, you may run into random encounters with enemies, which you will need to defeat. At the start of each battle, the main menu will open. You will always have four options:


 * FIGHT: Start the fight and open the battle menu (see below)
 * RUN: By selecting this option you will be able to try to escape from the battle (it doesn't always work)
 * BRIBE: You can try to bribe the enemies by offering them money; you still need to have enough cash
 * AUTO: Your characters will all automatically perform physical attacks against enemies

If you choose the FIGHT option, the battle menu will open, where you will have to select the moves of each of your characters:


 * ATTACK: the character will use a physical attack against the selected enemy
 * DEFEND: the character will defend himself, reducing the damage received from enemies
 * RUNE: the character will be able to use a spell or a special move based on the runes in his possession
 * ITEM: the character will use an item in his possession
 * UNITE: some characters, when used together in battle, can perform combined attacks (see relevant page)
 * SHIFT: the character will change position with the one in front or behind him.

Next to each character's name is his current Hit Point value and its maximum value. Whenever a character is attacked by an enemy, his HP value will be reduced. You can restore his HP during battle, or even when you are not fighting, with special items or spells. If his HP value drops to 0, the character will be KO’d and you won't be able to use him for the rest of the battle, unless you heal him with the appropriate item/spell. If at the end of the battle the character is still KO'd, his HP will automatically be reset to 1. Once the moves have been selected for all characters, the battle will begin. Each character and each enemy will make their move, in an order determined by their speed. If there are still enemies on the battlefield when the last character has made his move, the main menu will still open and you will have to select moves again for everyone. A new round of battle will then begin. The process will repeat until all enemies have been defeated or all your characters are KO'd (in which case of course, it will be game over). You also need to be very careful how you place your six characters in the lineup. They will always be arranged in two rows of three characters each, one in front and one behind. It is therefore necessary to verify the type of weapon of each character, which can be short-range (S), medium-range (M) or long-range (L). Based on the type of weapon, you can decide whether to place a particular character in the first or second row:


 * Short-range weapon: the character can only use his physical attack if he is in the front row and can only attack enemies in the front row
 * Medium-range weapon: the character can use his physical attack both in the first and second rows, but can only attack enemies in the front row
 * Long range weapon: the character can use his physical attack in both front and back rows and can attack all enemies, both in front and behind

All the remaining commands instead, can be performed both in the first and in the second row, regardless of the weapon.

Major Battles
At certain points in the story you will have to face major battles, leading your army against rival troops. These battles are strategic in nature. Your troops and enemy troops will be located on the world map, which forms a kind of chessboard. These battles take place in turns. You will have to move all your troops to the desired position and attack the enemies whenever possible (if you want). Once you have moved all your units, your turn will end and it will be the enemy's turn, who will do the same. You can also interrupt your turn whenever you want by pressing START. There are four different types of troops:


 * INFANTRY: Strong in hand-to-hand attacks. Weak against archers and magical attacks.
 * ARCHERS: Can attack from a distance, but is weak against hand-to-hand attacks.
 * SPELLCASTERS: Can attack from great distances. Weak against hand-to-hand attacks.

Infantry and archers can be mounted or on foot. Mounted units have an increased movement range. Each of your units consists of up to 3 characters from those you have recruited. However, only some of them can be used in major battles. You can change the members of your units at any time by talking to Apple. Some of your characters are in fact generals and have their own unit in the army, with a certain attack and defense value, as well as any special abilities. Each general can then be joined by two support characters, choosing them from the remaining recruits (not all of them can be used in major battles though). Support characters can slightly increase the unit's attack or defense value or add more special abilities. So better choose them carefully, to create an effective army.

To move one of your units on the battlefield when it's your turn, you must select it with the cursor. The zone into which this unit can move will then light up. Select the desired square with the cursor to make it move. After moving the unit, you will have three options available:


 * ATTACK: Physically attack an enemy unit. This option is only available if there are enemy troops within range of your unit (in the case of infantry, the two troops must be adjacent).
 * WAIT: Wait without doing anything
 * RUNES: Some characters have runes that allow you to perform special moves. Use this option to use them. Some special moves are instead used directly during the fight.

Of course, you can directly access these three options without moving your unit if you want. The battle will continue until the conditions for the victory or defeat of your army are met. If you want, you can also fight these battles automatically, by pressing START and selecting the "Trust Apple" option.

Note: in the first major battles you will only control a small number of allied units, while the rest will move automatically. Continuing in the game then, you will be able to control an increasing number of units, until you take command of the entire army.

One-on-one fights
On some occasions you will have to face one-on-one fights. In these cases you will only be able to select three options: Attack, Defense and Wild Attack. Once the action is selected, each of the two characters will make his move and the one with the higher speed value will act first.


 * Attack: the character attacks the opponent, dealing damage proportionate to the power of his weapon.
 * Defense: the character defends himself, decreasing the damage received from the enemy attack.
 * Wild Attack: deals double damage as normal attack.

The key thing is that if one of the two fighters performs a Wild Attack while the other is defending himself, the one who launched the attack will instead suffer the damage. You will therefore have to try to predict the opponent's moves. Before each turn, your opponent will tell you something, letting you guess what his next move might be. So act accordingly. These duels basically work like the Rock-Paper-Scissors game. When the opponent attacks, you should use a Wild Attack, to do more damage than he will. When defending, it's best to use a normal attack, which will still do some damage. When he finally uses a Wild Attack, it is best to defend yourself, so that he takes the damage. It is also important to heal yourself before these fights, in order to have your life energy to the maximum at the beginning.

The Castle
At some point, about a quarter of your way through your adventure, you'll take up residence in an abandoned castle, which will become your headquarters. From now on, all the characters you have recruited and those you will recruit later will settle here. Talking to some of them you will be able to access mini-games, change your party members or reorganize your army. Some will even open shops in your castle. As you recruit new characters, your castle will change and be automatically expanded. That is, it will level up:


 * Level 1: You must have recruited 30 or fewer characters and/or have not yet faced the battle of Two River.
 * Level 2: You must have recruited more than 30 characters and have already won the battle of Two River.
 * Level 3: You must have recruited more than 60 characters and have already defeated Kiba and Klaus in combat.
 * Level 4: You must have recruited more than 100 characters.

Shops
In the cities you will come across different types of shops, in particular:


 * INNS: Here you can rest by restoring the energy of the entire group, for a sum of money that depends on the number of characters you have with you.
 * ITEM SHOPS: Here you can buy or sell healing or attack items.
 * ARMOR SHOPS: Here you can buy or sell defensive equipment.
 * RUNE SHOPS: Here you can buy magical runes or assign/remove a rune to a specific character
 * BLACKSMITH'S SHOP: Here you can have your characters' weapons sharpened, increasing their attack power, or attach/remove a rune to a character's weapon, to use special abilities. Each blacksmith can only upgrade weapons up to a certain level.
 * APPRAISER SHOPS: During battles with enemies, you may get unidentified items, marked with a ?. To find out what they are, you'll need to have them examined by an appraiser.
 * TRADING POSTS: In these trading points you can buy various types of goods, which you can then resell to other trading points for a higher value. If you can remember which goods are the most in demand at a certain trading point, you can earn large sums of money.

Note: The Rare Finds option is sometimes present in the item shops and armor shops. That is, it may happen to find rare and precious objects for sale, which will not always be available.