We're playing Suikoden II? Hooray!

Along his path Hiro finds the Bright Shield rune, and Jowy finds the Black Sword Rune. The two runes are two halves of the Rune of Beginning. This ties in with the Suikoden creation story, that the universe was created by the fighting between a sword and a shield, and the 27 True Runes are fragments of the two.


Shiny new runes in hand Hirowy are transported back into the cave. Rikimaru is there to, er, greet them? I’m not sure why he’s saying ow, though it could be because he’s a filthy vagabond.



Here’s a look at the two new runes. Hiro’s Bright Shield rune is defensive oriented, with some of the best healing magic in the game, while Jowy’s Black Sword rune is offensive oriented with some great attack spells.


Hiro and company arrive at Muse, only to be denied by the guard. With the Highland Army approaching the city gates have been shut, to protect against Highland spies.

Having picked up some ideas from Rina, Nanami has an idea for getting inside.


Unfortunately, she’s not an effective hoe-bag.

God I love Nanami (I have like 15 more screens from this scene that I’m not using).

Having no way to prove their identity Hiro has to try to come up with another plan. While they try to find another way in, he decides to stop in a secluded inn to the east of the city.



As soon as we arrive we’re greeted by the inn keeper. Before she can show us to the rooms she’s interrupted by her husband, talking about a treasure. He’s obsessed with treasure hunting, but Hilda worries about his safety.


The next day the group heads back out…


…but are interrupted again by Alex. He tried to get help locating the treasure in Muse, but nobody believes him.

Nanami’s interest is piqued by his story and she asks if he has an entrance pass. When he says yes, she asks to borrow it. Alex will agree to lend it to them if they help him with his treasure hunting. Conveniently, the treasure seems to be in some ruins in the back of the inn. What luck!




Before entering the ruins, Hiro wants to take a look at the area around Muse. There’s not much to see, other than borders to other states. He stops in at the Muse-Matilda border. The guards say it’s sealed up due to some suspicious activity lately, but Hiro isn’t convinced.


There’s just something strange about this checkpoint, but he can’t put his finger on it. Say, does that gate look weak to anyone?

Hiro wants to see how well secured the gate is, so he pushes on it a little. Much to his surprise, it’s not actually connected to anything! The guards don’t seem to mind that he’s just pushed his way, literally, into their knightdom, possibly because if they complain they’ll lose their job for forgetting to screw the doors on.

Coming up next: What will Hiro find in this strange, poorly guarded new land?

Oh god I know the answer to this question and it makes me all like =D!!

Wow, I totally never actually did that trick! I thought for sure I had. @_@ It's a shame you can't empty everybody out of your party and go squirrel hunting yet.

Man, this line just sounds like a bad romance novel to me.
On the cover of the novel, the part of the future will be played by Fabio

I would like to point out that White Deer Inn's music is wonderful.
I wil probably be posting about the music in several areas in Suikoden II as they come up because Man, guys, the music!

This actually applies to everyone in Suikoden 1's cast.

Clare and Lucky? Also I did not know you could do this now I thought it had to be before Pilika's village burned down. Having the Runes would have made it so, so much easier. So would Humphrey having Windspun Armor whoops

Yeah, I tried doing it during the first trip to Muse this time through, but everything killed me pretty easily.

Next Post Preview: Everything still kills me pretty easily.

Yeah, this LP inspired me to replay through SII and I used the glitch for the first time, much later on, because I got kicked out of Rockaxe before remembering to do the Mt. Rakutei quest. Whenever you have access to Muse, you can just go back to the border and push the gate.

Seeing the Matilda Gate trick cracks me up every time. I always forget I get stuck with a randomly assigned party after fleeing the fort and I end up with people with sucky equipment and no items.

You pretty much have to wait until you run into those pink birds and hope at least one of your crappy level characters survive the battle. I think you can buy Sacrificial Jizos at Rockaxe, which helps.

You can also recruit Humphrey and Futch to fight for you, then die to get them out of the party.

Wow, that would've been a good idea. Eventually one of my retarted characters survived a battle and things picked up.

Future post preview: I sequence break the hell out of the Humphrey/Futch quest.

See, I almost didn't post that, because Humprey cannot die. I had to go up the whole damn mountain to get the boss to do the job.

You mean you were trying to level up in Matilda without him in the party first?

Oh dear.

Yeah, I've never been able to put two and two together and figure that out actually. Every time I've played this game my plan has been to put Jowy in the back and cast Twinkling Blade over and over while resetting and swearing a lot.

Having managed to carefully sneak past the border guard, Hiro finds himself in the strange new land of Matilda. Who knows what he’ll find?


Huh, these guys don’t look too friendly. Oh well, maybe they’re not as bad as they look.



OH GOD THE PAIN.


Okay, this looks better. I mean, come on. They’re pink flamingos. This’ll be easy.

Or not.


Eventually we catch a lucky break against the flamingos.


This is the primary reason the Matilda Gate trick is so useful: after one fight the survivors (all two of them) jump 10 levels.


Another successful fight, that Kinnison unfortunately doesn’t see the end to, and everyone jumps up. Jowy also learns a new trick.

Oh hell yes.



That’s gonna make the fights a little easier.


A few more fights and even Kinnison is looking useful! A quick, intentional death this time and I keep the levels without having it count against my play time (a very important bit very soon). Alright, back to those ruins!


Alex, the ruin diver, just happened to build his family’s inn in front of an ancient Sindar ruin complex. How lucky! Most of the ruins you come across in the Suikoden series are left by the Sindar, an eternally nomadic people. The leader of the Sindar carries the Rune of Change, one of the 27 True Runes, which forces them to constantly move. A number of the more memorable characters you recruit in the series wander in search of lost Sindar ruins.

Alex warns us of the monsters inside, apparently unaware of how awesome we are.


Thanks to our Matilda incursion all the fights in this area can be Let Go. Just out of curiosity let’s try a fight.


Yeah, that’s about right.


This dungeon is a little annoying, more due to it being spread out than the difficult puzzles. See if you guys can figure this one out.


The dungeon also has several sculptures of a two headed snake. Bet you can’t guess why!

After a few minutes solving super difficult crate and key puzzles we reach the treasure room.


Before we can reach the treasure, Jowy senses danger.


Surprise! It’s a two headed snake!


Unfortunately for the snake here we’re about three times stronger than normal for this point in the game. If you try this dungeon properly he can be a threat, but now…


…not so much.

Snake guardian down Alex reaches the treasure. What’s inside?


A healing herb.



Frustrated and discouraged, Alex kicks the herb to the ground before going back to the inn.


Er, I think Nanami got her lines mixed up. Or maybe she’s trying her Jedi mind trick.

Back at the inn Pete and Pilika rush to meet us.


While we were out Hilda collapsed from some unexplained illness.


Nanami orders Jowy to find a doctor while Hiro carries her to bed.


Nanami, apparently a doctor now, says Hilda isn’t looking good. The nearest doctor used to be in Toto, but now there’s nobody who can help her in time. But wait, Hiro has an idea!


Apparently nobody has Hiro’s amazing memory and forgot the healing herb they discarded mere minutes ago.

Nanami’s unsure but tries the herbs anyway, and Hilda mysteriously recovers from her mystery illness. I like how she goes ahead and spells out the subtext to the scenario, incase it’s lost on us. She’s nice like that.


Being exactly back where we were at the start Alex lets us have the entry permit. Finally, onto Muse!


We have an entry pass, but we’re still not inside yet. Since the permit is for Alex and his family, we’re gonna have to fool them. Good thing we didn’t get stuck with Shiro and Mukumuku, huh?

Nanami displays her natural acting talent.



Somehow the guard was able to see through us! Oh well, back to prison for Hiro. (Just how many times has he been held prisoner lately?)


I’m as surprised as you are Nanami.


Later in the night Hiro gets up and finds Jowy, unable to sleep. Cue the Moonlit Night Theme!

Jowy tells us the reason he’s fighting is to protect people like Pilika. He’s fighting to make the land safe again, and after that he’d like to return to Kyaro and the dojo with Hiro and Nanami.



The next morning Fliktor show up to spring Hiro from jail. Again. Viktor also wants Hiro to go to city hall later, to meet someone. Before that, though, it’s time to have a look around Muse!