Looking back at Suikoden II (1998) from a modern dev/gamer perspective. Great story and QoL buffs, but the RNG and awful UX will make you rage quit.
1998 was wildly OP for the gaming industry. Whatever the devs were smoking back then, it birthed absolute monsters like Ocarina of Time, Half-Life, and Resident Evil 2. But today, we’re digging up a PS1 fossil that r/patientgamers is still fiercely debating: Suikoden II. Often hailed as the holy grail of retro JRPGs, does it actually hold up in 2024, or is it just a masterclass in torturing completionists?
Picking up after the events of the first game, you play as Riou, alongside his childhood buddy Jowy and adopted sister Nanami. After your camp gets ambushed, the crew scatters, eventually linking up with old favorites Viktor and Flik.
Let’s talk about the big bad: Luca Blight. This guy isn't your standard "I want to rule the world for reasons" anime villain. He is a straight-up psychopath who thrives on slaughter and psychological abuse. The game doesn't pull punches; it dives deep into the horrific realities of war, betrayal, and massive PTSD. It’s emotionally heavy, which is rare for pixel-art games of that era.
The core loop remains: recruit the 108 Stars of Destiny to build out your base. The castle building is sick—you get elevators, shops, and even a mini-farm.
Compared to Suikoden 1, the devs pushed some much-needed QoL (Quality of Life) updates. The UI is cleaner, inventory management isn't total trash, and thank god, you can finally run without wasting a Rune slot. Combat is your standard Dragon Quest-style turn-based affair, mixed with some SRPG (Fire Emblem style) army battles. Honestly though, the SRPG sections feel like completely unbaked filler.
But here’s where the game goes full toxic: Permanent Missables. The game relies heavily on cryptic hints and invisible point-of-no-return triggers. Mid-game, I missed recruiting Humphrey and Futch simply because I advanced the main story without knowing it would permanently lock their side quest. Bro, why? In a 40-hour game, hiding essential characters behind zero context feels less like game design and more like a ploy to sell physical strategy guides.
The Reddit thread is basically a support group for players traumatized by the grind. User burntoutpopstar shared their PTSD of farming random encounters just to get a specific RNG item (the Nameless Urn for Jabba). The drop rates were garbage, and there was zero indication of where to farm it.
Another user, TailzPrower, chimed in: "Exactly! I had to use a Reddit hack/mod just to bypass that cryptic nonsense." Back in the day, without modern internet or ai tools to auto-generate a walkthrough, you were basically flying blind into a wall of frustration.
To all the nostalgia purists saying, "That's just how old games were, it made them deep"—no, it didn't. Speaking as a dev, locking the True Ending behind untracked RNG drops and invisible fail-states isn't hardcore; it’s just bad UX. If your player needs a dual-monitor setup with a wiki hosted on a dedicated vps just to finish the game properly, your core flow is busted.
The TL;DR: 8.5/10. Suikoden II is still a monumental achievement in storytelling and sprite animation (even if the soundtrack got slightly nerfed compared to S1). The narrative alone is worth the 40-hour investment. But a massive pro-tip for modern gamers: Do not play this blind. Grab a spoiler-free guide, check off those 108 Stars, and save yourself from a 3 AM rage quit.
Sauce: Reddit - patientgamers
