Suikoden 2 was heavily flawed and this game was way better.
I can't get over calling Suikoden II "highly flawed" (
) while defending Chrono Cross, a game with a cast of 45 characters and only 5 of them have development or relevance, whose character recruitment faculties - for the most part - are literally "talk to character, recruit character" while holding the premise of being a "game", with a plot so convoluted it makes Xenogears look like baby food.
Cross' flaws eclipse any flaw Suikoden II has that you made up in your mind.
Suikoden II's fucking terrible horrible totally fucking bad translation eclipses any possible goodwill the game has to make up for its shit-salad soundtrack (which has only a few gems and a lot of really, really terrible synth work in comparison to Suikoden I's authentic instrumentals), an absolute and utter lack of difficulty, glitches everywhere, and a plot so up and down in tone that its only saving grace is a bad ending that is better than any of the other endings.
Chrono Cross has beautiful graphics, beautiful music, interesting ties to Chrono Trigger, and really solid gameplay. Its story is hit or miss but really not that bad in comparison to other games in the genre in the PSX era.
Suikoden II has beautiful graphics, beautiful music, connects the game to I and builds a larger world making it a highly ambitious world with large scope that separates it from almost every other rpg, the difficulty of battles is low but the puzzle nature of star recruitment makes up for it, and despite not ever being that difficult is never not involving and fun. Its story is a fantastic adaptation of Chinese history and the Water Margin. It has been widely praised and lacks any of the drama tied to Chrono Cross for disrespecting its prequel. Compare, Suikoden II helped spring board an entire world of culture and lore, 1000 years long. Chrono Cross sets out to undo everything you accomplished in Trigger, while simultaneously somehow making the world the game takes place in smaller. Suikoden II has far more scope, and is difficulty aside, a perfect traditional rpg. But then what traditional rpgs ARE difficult? So very few.
Suikoden 1 has a better soundtrack, but II's soundtrack is fine and still extremely well made.
Zephyr, consider this: you're the only person I've ever seen have issue with Suikoden II's music. Maybe you should ponder this.
presents an interesting conundrum
suikoden 2's english version had a crap localization that introduced a bunch of bugs and left whole chunks of text untranslated, but should the game itself be judged by that bad version?
That's the only version I have to judge it by. It was an ok game, but I think the fact that it was rare/hard to find/expensive gives it a false sense of mystique... let's call it "Panzer Dragoon Saga" syndrome, shall we?
Bullshit. People said this about Final Fantasy Tactics, and Vagrant Story. It's a tactic used by people to entirely discredit a games popularity, and it's a bullshit argument.
