We're playing Suikoden II? Hooray!

Fun fact about the translation in this game: It was done by Jeremy Blaustein, and he had about a month to work on it. Which is not nearly enough time for a thorough, quality-assured localization for an RPG this big. Thanks, Konami!

holy shit. I implore you, Parish, get him on for a suiko 2 podcast and call me in so i can pepper him with questions about it.

I never realized he was in charge of the translation. It makes sense though, I make fun of it but it definitely feels more like a lack of time than a lack of talent. It seems like the translator had little context to work with and had to take a stab in the dark about the place in the story for some of the lines. I think the game suffered in a lot of ways from a rushed localization, from what I understand the PAL version is a lot more stable.

Edit: If you can ever get him to talk about Suikoden I have some questions I'd love to ask.

Well, that would be a sure way to make sure he never wants to talk to us again.

ach, parish, you wound me.

Futch please.

Well, speaking for myself, being badgered about a project that was a frustrating rush-job really wouldn't be my preferred way to spend an evening.

Shiro, Gengen, and Shiro.

Well, i'd hope that i'd come off a little more professional than that =)
Translation and localisation are passions of mine, and suikoden is one of my favorite games ever, so really i'd be more interested in how he did his job, and what sorts of challenges and obstacles he ran into, and what liberties he took, and really, the nature of creating. We all know what the end result is, but learning how we got there is utterly fascinating.

Let's voting!
Millie, Kennison, Futch

Also, I hate to nag someone who's already doing tons of work, but that Stars reference post is really gonna start needing pictures if we're gonna keep track of who we're trying to vote for once there's a couple dozen people to pick from...

Yes, that's a temporary solution. I severely lack photo editing skills so I'll need to figure something out.

Shiro. anyone else is extraneous.

A starting point, at least. I can probably update it as this progresses, though it'd be a day or so behind actual updates. I'll add the non-combat characters once there are a few more of them... some can participate in the army battles as I recall so it'll matter more then.

I was just trying to figure out how many characters can end up in the army (to decide how many characters per row) and it's pretty ridiculous. About 120, I think?

ZOMG SPOILERS...come to think of it did Brick ever include Odessa in the character compilation things?

Nope - he only [added the characters that are stars], as far as I remember.

Yep, stars only. I kept expecting someone to point out how I forgot Sanchez but nobody did.

I just put the ones on Nobuyuki's list. I considered adding the others...

Eh, why not. SPOILERS: I added Pilika!!!

That's beautiful, thanks so much for the work. It'll make my job a lot easier.

Now I want Suikoden VI to have a star named Rusty who plays the trombone. Or a star named Karl who's proficient with the flame rune.

I think this might be the best quote in the game.

That said, Futch/Humphrey/Anita. Also, note that for 99% of the game, my vote for party members is going to have Futch/Humphrey in it.

I like Futch. He has a funny name. I also like "potch".

But I want to carry on the tradition of suffering through shitty party members.

I used Tuta one of the times I played through the game. He... really does suck. I think I put together a party of all the asian-looking characters. Tomo and Yoshino were the winners of that experiment. ^_^

Is this dead or just on a hiatus?

Sorry, not dead! Working on a new update that should go up before the weekend. I had three pretty important papers due today, so that's dominated my life lately, but the semester is quieting down for me so hopefully updates will start coming quicker.

Good. I wouldn't have to make good on my threat to drive my car over you.

(Gas prices being what they are, and all.)

Alright, by popular demand our heroes are joined by Humphrey, Futch and Shiro. This setup’s actually only two spots away from being my usual Suiko II party.


I take Shiro through a few fights in Matilda to bring him up to speed. He’s actually a good fighter with decent stats. His magic is low, but really, what does a dog need to cast magic for anyway?


That taken care of we make it to the Muse-Highland border to finally take care of Jess’s reconnaissance mission.


A quick trip through the woods and a few fights let go we reach the edge of the camp. Hiro and Jowy go on alone, presumably because Shiro can’t fit in the uniform and nobody would believe Humphrey is in the youth brigade.


Inside the camp Hirowy finds the tent with the provisions, but it’s being guarded. While Jowy tries to figure out a way inside, another guard catches them.

The guard instantly recognizes the Unicorn uniforms. Jowy says that they’re surviving members from the State ambush. Looking good so far Jowy, now what’s your plan for getting into the tent?


Really, butter? That’s it? The guard’s a little perplexed too, but he lets us in. So, uh, mission accomplished?


Hiro and Jowy have a look around and conclude that they have about two weeks worth of provisions on hand, meaning that Highland is preparing for a quick, decisive attack. That’s all they need to know, so now it’s time to go.


Dammit Jowy, did you have to add the “before we get caught” bit? Of course nothing in Hiro’s life is so simple, so outside they run into Rowd.


The irony of the situation isn’t lost on Rowd. He runs off to get reinforcements, so we need to find a place to hide!

The entrance is blocked so they decide to hide in one of the tents. Well, why not the most elaborate one, right in the middle of the camp? Nobody will think to check there!


Inside the tent they run across Jillia Blight again. She hides Hiro and Jowy and blocks Rowd’s effort to search the tent.


While waiting for things to quiet down outside they have a talk with Jillia. She came here to try to stop her brother from doing something terrible to the people of Muse, but there’s nothing she can do to help. Things finally quiet down outside long enough for Hirowy to leave.


On their way out though they’re stopped again by Rowd, who’s been watching Jillia’s tent. He summons troops to capture them…


…but this time they’re not having it.

While Rowd summons more guards Jowy decides to stay behind long enough for Hiro to escape.


Hiro makes it back to the others and escapes the woods, but Jowy doesn’t catch up.


Hiro and the others get to Muse but there’s still no sign of Jowy. They try to see Jess, but he’s being held up in a meeting. Guess we should just go back to the tavern.


Hmm, it’s hard to tell if Flik is being sarcastic here or not.


Either way Viktor gets angry when he hears what happened to Jowy. Flik tries to calm him down by saying they should go see Jess.

Again, that just sounds ominous.



By saying he’ll show us a good trick what he meant to say is he’ll knock the guard out of the fucking way.


By this point Flik should just expect it.