Suikoden Tierkreis, Part 1
Hey peeps! This is Lady Nighteyes, presenting "Let's Play Suikoden Tierkreis!" ST is a side-game for the Suikoden series of RPGs, keeping the basic premise of recruiting 108 Stars of Destiny as you build an army to fight an evil empire, but it otherwise plays pretty differently, especially in how it handles weapons and skills. It's on the DS, so once again the emulator is DeSmuME. Like with RH, I've played this game through more than once, though I don't get nearly as, uh, emotional over this one. Anyway, shall we take a look?
The game opens with an anime cutscene. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any videos with the individual scenes on YouTube, but it's from 0:03-1:11 in this video. In less-than-great quality, but I'll take what I can get. And I am SO sorry about the voice-acting.
Once the scene is over, it's time to name the hero!
I'm going with his official name at the moment, but if anyone has any other ideas, feel free to sound off in the comments.
The game begins with a green-haired guy looking around all confused-like in the top half of a room, while the hero looks on.
Blue text. Must mean he's an important character.
Unusually for Suikoden, Sieg has a fair amount of dialogue other than what the player chooses. And, especially near the beginning, it's usually spoken about twice as fast as you'd hear from any human being short of maybe a six-year-old hyped up on chocolate-covered coffee beans. (The voice-acting in this game, while not completely terrible, is far from stellar.)
Oh, and by the way: any time his name appears in voice-acted dialogue, it just skips over it. Which gets a bit odd when the line is just, "Sieg...!"
Sieg: Huh?
You look way too smug about that.
I think it's pretty funny that the game starts on the one day of his life when it would NOT result in a 'getting woken up' scene.
Sieg: I'm the one who said we oughtta go! You think I'd just lie in bed all day instead?
Marica: Good point. So, it was Liu who overslept?
Liu: Yeah, that's right. Because SOMEBODY didn't have the common decency to wake me up.
Mostly just screencapped this line because this is Marica's default pose.
I guess with the ridiculously elaborate outfits everyone wears in this game, getting dressed is probably a job and a half...
Many RPGs with a bunch of playable characters have the main character jump in the air/fistpump when somebody joins the party. Sieg goes above and beyond on this by doing a freaking BACKFLIP.
Marica: I don't know what you're so cheerful about. It's not like we're going on a picnic or anything.
Liu: I know, right?
He's not in the actual party? Liu is a slacker.
And now we're in control. First off, let's take a look at Sieg and Marica's stats.
Sieg is basically a rock-solid physical attacker. (What else is new. JRPG protagonists always seem to be fighters, hybrids who are pretty good at everything, or occasionally the party healer, if the game is unusually smart about it. Except Final Fantasy IX, he was the thief.) As soon as reasonably possible, I'm going to replace his quarterstaff with two swords, because unlike in most Suikoden games, you can do that.
This is Marica. She's got lower strength and higher magic than Sieg and one of the highest luck stats in the game at high levels. Pretty good at a lot of stuff, if not necessarily exceptional at most of them, and you'll see her in my party a lot. She starts out with a bow, but I tend to give her either a staff or a spear later, depending on what I'm using her for.
Anyway, let's get going.
Whoops, more cutscenes first.
Marica: Probably at my house. My father wanted us all to stop by before we left.
Um, Liu, I think she knows who her dad is...
A mystery voice! :O
Liu: Hey, that's Dirk!
Marica: He must be in the town square.
This game decided to get around the issue of "every city is tiny in video games" by not letting you walk around towns except in designated areas. So let's go to the town square.
Why, hello, mysterious blue person. You have a player-character-y look about you.
I guess now we know where Sieg got the idea to only wear armor on one arm.
Not that we know WHY yet, except that it's not for a picnic.
Oh, okay, I guess that's why.
Dirk: Hey, I just want to see how good you guys have gotten. Don't think you can slack off just because I'm around too!
It doesn't really matter what you choose for this, so I decide to be obnoxious.
Dirk: Hey, don't be like that. You know the Elder wouldn't let you guys go all by yourselves.
Marica: Yeah, you're probably right. My father worries too much.
This is Sieg's favorite phrase. Be prepared to see it a LOT.
Catchphrase Count: 1
As you can see, Marica already HAS seen it a lot.
So has Liu.
Sieg: Can't know how something's gonna turn out until you try. That's the whole point of tryin'!
Dirk: That's what I like about you, kid. Remember, if you let a bunch of Laggarts kick you around today, no more lessons for any of you.
Sieg: We'll give it our best!
Liu: Getting rid of a few Laggarts oughtta be a piece of cake! Uh, hopefully a small piece.
Liu is not exactly a master of manly bravado.
Dirk: Ha ha ha. Right. Now, go see Elder Rajim before you leave. I bet Jale's already there.
Sieg: Gotcha!
Okay, let's go.
The voice-acting pronounces that sorta like "Sishka." Sometimes I wonder if the VAs got handed the same Romanizations of the names that made it into the game.
Liu: Morning, Sisuca!
Oh dear.
As is fairly obvious from the fact that she only looks a couple years older than you, yes.
The absolute oldest I can see her being is a very young-looking 25, so daaang.
This is Rajim. He has a fez. Fezzes are cool.
Well, YES. Otherwise, where would the plot be?
Sieg: Of course!
Rajim: I see...
Sisuca: Well, be careful, okay? Don't do anything reckless and make Mommy worry, you hear?
Sieg: Listen, we've done this already. You ain't my mom.
JESUS CHRIST, WOMAN.
Sisuca: So you'd better stay out of trouble!
Liu: Is that a threat?!
Rajim: I feel the same way. To be honest, I'd rather you didn't go at all. Marica is my daughter, but I think of all of you-- Sieg, Jale, and Liu, too-- as my children.
Sisuca: Same here! Each and every one of you is my special little baby!
Marica: But I'm your sister!
Sieg: And Jale has his own mom.
That reminds me, where the hell is Marica and Sisuca's mom?
Liu: Speaking of Jale, where is he? Isn't he here yet?
Rajim: Oh, he already left. Said he was going to stop by the general store first. Why don't you guys go get him and bring him back to the town square? I want to talk to you before you go.
Sieg: Okay, gotcha!
Let's go find Jale.
The fact that you made us run all over town to find you?
That too, I guess.
Liu: Yeah, yeah. It's all MY fault. Anyway, what're you doing here, Jale?
Jale: Here you go.
Sieg: Huh?
Jale: You didn't bring any medicine with you, right? I know what you're like.
Sieg: You bought this for us?
Heh.
Marica: You're incorrigible.
Liu: I've lived in this village for three years now, but sometimes I still don't get you, Jale.
Marica: We'll take good care of it!
Liu: Hope we don't have to use it, though.
Oh, shush, Liu. You're not even going to be fighting anything.
Shopkeeper: No need to thank me. That's about the only thing I can do to help you kids out. Be careful out there, okay?
Sieg: No need to worry about us!
Jale: Okay, let's go.
Liu: Elder Rajim told us to go to the town square, right?
Marica: I hope he isn't planning on giving us one of his endless lectures.
This is Jale. He's another physical fighter. His best stat is skill, which means he gets a lot of multi-attacks and critical hits, plus he has pretty good defense. Not my favorite character, but if you need something punched, he's a decent choice. Anyway, on to the town square.
Um. Yes?
Sieg: Like I said, we won't know unless we try!
Catchphrase Count: 2
Rajim: That again! Why do you always...?
Jale: That's his mantra, Elder.
Liu: You'll never get any other answer outta him.
I think that depends on the question, actually.
Marica: You ought to be used to it by now, Dad.
Sieg: That's right!
Rajim: Dear me... I don't know whether to think you kids are very brave or just very reckless. It worries me that you do not seem to comprehend how serious today will be.
I think that with critters that resemble nothing so much as rabbits, "vicious" is a relative term.
Yes, that's what random encounter monsters do.
Sieg: Elder, ya told us all that a million times already.
Marica: Maybe you're getting old, Dad. You say the same things over and over and--
Squint of raaage!
Dirk: Now, now, Elder. These guys are pretty good. You don't have to worry about them so much. Besides, I'll be with them.
Rajim: Well... if you say so, Dirk... Very well. I won't say another word. I leave the matter of the Laggarts in your hands! Just don't be foolhardy. If it proves to be too much to handle, get yourselves out of there!
Like hell we will, but I'll lie to make you feel better. :P
Liu: Don't worry about that! You think we want to get hurt?
Marica: Hey, Liu, didn't you say that the Laggarts would be a piece of cake?
Brilliant riposte, there.
Rajim: All right, I suppose you should leave now, if you're going. Please be careful.
He then proceeds to give a brief tutorial about how missions work, which basically amounts to, "jobs are missions, and they're under the quest tab on the menu." I figure you guys don't need to hear it.
Anyway, before I end this, Dirk's stats. Dirk is the very definition of a crutch character- he's at a higher level than any of the kids and has better equipment than them. However, Suikoden scales XP by character level, it's not going to take very long for them to catch up to him, stat-wise.
Some quick rearrangement to put Sieg and Marica in the back row, and we're ready to go.
Next time: Laggart hunting, and the beginnings of the actual plot. See you then! Nighteyes out.
The game opens with an anime cutscene. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any videos with the individual scenes on YouTube, but it's from 0:03-1:11 in this video. In less-than-great quality, but I'll take what I can get. And I am SO sorry about the voice-acting.
Once the scene is over, it's time to name the hero!
I'm going with his official name at the moment, but if anyone has any other ideas, feel free to sound off in the comments.
The game begins with a green-haired guy looking around all confused-like in the top half of a room, while the hero looks on.
Blue text. Must mean he's an important character.
Unusually for Suikoden, Sieg has a fair amount of dialogue other than what the player chooses. And, especially near the beginning, it's usually spoken about twice as fast as you'd hear from any human being short of maybe a six-year-old hyped up on chocolate-covered coffee beans. (The voice-acting in this game, while not completely terrible, is far from stellar.)
Oh, and by the way: any time his name appears in voice-acted dialogue, it just skips over it. Which gets a bit odd when the line is just, "Sieg...!"
Sieg: Huh?
You look way too smug about that.
I think it's pretty funny that the game starts on the one day of his life when it would NOT result in a 'getting woken up' scene.
Sieg: I'm the one who said we oughtta go! You think I'd just lie in bed all day instead?
Marica: Good point. So, it was Liu who overslept?
Liu: Yeah, that's right. Because SOMEBODY didn't have the common decency to wake me up.
Mostly just screencapped this line because this is Marica's default pose.
I guess with the ridiculously elaborate outfits everyone wears in this game, getting dressed is probably a job and a half...
Many RPGs with a bunch of playable characters have the main character jump in the air/fistpump when somebody joins the party. Sieg goes above and beyond on this by doing a freaking BACKFLIP.
Marica: I don't know what you're so cheerful about. It's not like we're going on a picnic or anything.
Liu: I know, right?
He's not in the actual party? Liu is a slacker.
And now we're in control. First off, let's take a look at Sieg and Marica's stats.
Sieg is basically a rock-solid physical attacker. (What else is new. JRPG protagonists always seem to be fighters, hybrids who are pretty good at everything, or occasionally the party healer, if the game is unusually smart about it. Except Final Fantasy IX, he was the thief.) As soon as reasonably possible, I'm going to replace his quarterstaff with two swords, because unlike in most Suikoden games, you can do that.
This is Marica. She's got lower strength and higher magic than Sieg and one of the highest luck stats in the game at high levels. Pretty good at a lot of stuff, if not necessarily exceptional at most of them, and you'll see her in my party a lot. She starts out with a bow, but I tend to give her either a staff or a spear later, depending on what I'm using her for.
Anyway, let's get going.
Whoops, more cutscenes first.
Marica: Probably at my house. My father wanted us all to stop by before we left.
Um, Liu, I think she knows who her dad is...
A mystery voice! :O
Liu: Hey, that's Dirk!
Marica: He must be in the town square.
This game decided to get around the issue of "every city is tiny in video games" by not letting you walk around towns except in designated areas. So let's go to the town square.
Why, hello, mysterious blue person. You have a player-character-y look about you.
I guess now we know where Sieg got the idea to only wear armor on one arm.
Not that we know WHY yet, except that it's not for a picnic.
Oh, okay, I guess that's why.
Dirk: Hey, I just want to see how good you guys have gotten. Don't think you can slack off just because I'm around too!
It doesn't really matter what you choose for this, so I decide to be obnoxious.
Dirk: Hey, don't be like that. You know the Elder wouldn't let you guys go all by yourselves.
Marica: Yeah, you're probably right. My father worries too much.
This is Sieg's favorite phrase. Be prepared to see it a LOT.
Catchphrase Count: 1
As you can see, Marica already HAS seen it a lot.
So has Liu.
Sieg: Can't know how something's gonna turn out until you try. That's the whole point of tryin'!
Dirk: That's what I like about you, kid. Remember, if you let a bunch of Laggarts kick you around today, no more lessons for any of you.
Sieg: We'll give it our best!
Liu: Getting rid of a few Laggarts oughtta be a piece of cake! Uh, hopefully a small piece.
Liu is not exactly a master of manly bravado.
Dirk: Ha ha ha. Right. Now, go see Elder Rajim before you leave. I bet Jale's already there.
Sieg: Gotcha!
Okay, let's go.
The voice-acting pronounces that sorta like "Sishka." Sometimes I wonder if the VAs got handed the same Romanizations of the names that made it into the game.
Liu: Morning, Sisuca!
Oh dear.
As is fairly obvious from the fact that she only looks a couple years older than you, yes.
The absolute oldest I can see her being is a very young-looking 25, so daaang.
This is Rajim. He has a fez. Fezzes are cool.
Well, YES. Otherwise, where would the plot be?
Sieg: Of course!
Rajim: I see...
Sisuca: Well, be careful, okay? Don't do anything reckless and make Mommy worry, you hear?
Sieg: Listen, we've done this already. You ain't my mom.
JESUS CHRIST, WOMAN.
Sisuca: So you'd better stay out of trouble!
Liu: Is that a threat?!
Rajim: I feel the same way. To be honest, I'd rather you didn't go at all. Marica is my daughter, but I think of all of you-- Sieg, Jale, and Liu, too-- as my children.
Sisuca: Same here! Each and every one of you is my special little baby!
Marica: But I'm your sister!
Sieg: And Jale has his own mom.
That reminds me, where the hell is Marica and Sisuca's mom?
Liu: Speaking of Jale, where is he? Isn't he here yet?
Rajim: Oh, he already left. Said he was going to stop by the general store first. Why don't you guys go get him and bring him back to the town square? I want to talk to you before you go.
Sieg: Okay, gotcha!
Let's go find Jale.
The fact that you made us run all over town to find you?
That too, I guess.
Liu: Yeah, yeah. It's all MY fault. Anyway, what're you doing here, Jale?
Jale: Here you go.
Sieg: Huh?
Jale: You didn't bring any medicine with you, right? I know what you're like.
Sieg: You bought this for us?
Heh.
Marica: You're incorrigible.
Liu: I've lived in this village for three years now, but sometimes I still don't get you, Jale.
Marica: We'll take good care of it!
Liu: Hope we don't have to use it, though.
Oh, shush, Liu. You're not even going to be fighting anything.
Shopkeeper: No need to thank me. That's about the only thing I can do to help you kids out. Be careful out there, okay?
Sieg: No need to worry about us!
Jale: Okay, let's go.
Liu: Elder Rajim told us to go to the town square, right?
Marica: I hope he isn't planning on giving us one of his endless lectures.
This is Jale. He's another physical fighter. His best stat is skill, which means he gets a lot of multi-attacks and critical hits, plus he has pretty good defense. Not my favorite character, but if you need something punched, he's a decent choice. Anyway, on to the town square.
Um. Yes?
Sieg: Like I said, we won't know unless we try!
Catchphrase Count: 2
Rajim: That again! Why do you always...?
Jale: That's his mantra, Elder.
Liu: You'll never get any other answer outta him.
I think that depends on the question, actually.
Marica: You ought to be used to it by now, Dad.
Sieg: That's right!
Rajim: Dear me... I don't know whether to think you kids are very brave or just very reckless. It worries me that you do not seem to comprehend how serious today will be.
I think that with critters that resemble nothing so much as rabbits, "vicious" is a relative term.
Yes, that's what random encounter monsters do.
Sieg: Elder, ya told us all that a million times already.
Marica: Maybe you're getting old, Dad. You say the same things over and over and--
Squint of raaage!
Dirk: Now, now, Elder. These guys are pretty good. You don't have to worry about them so much. Besides, I'll be with them.
Rajim: Well... if you say so, Dirk... Very well. I won't say another word. I leave the matter of the Laggarts in your hands! Just don't be foolhardy. If it proves to be too much to handle, get yourselves out of there!
Like hell we will, but I'll lie to make you feel better. :P
Liu: Don't worry about that! You think we want to get hurt?
Marica: Hey, Liu, didn't you say that the Laggarts would be a piece of cake?
Brilliant riposte, there.
Rajim: All right, I suppose you should leave now, if you're going. Please be careful.
He then proceeds to give a brief tutorial about how missions work, which basically amounts to, "jobs are missions, and they're under the quest tab on the menu." I figure you guys don't need to hear it.
Anyway, before I end this, Dirk's stats. Dirk is the very definition of a crutch character- he's at a higher level than any of the kids and has better equipment than them. However, Suikoden scales XP by character level, it's not going to take very long for them to catch up to him, stat-wise.
Some quick rearrangement to put Sieg and Marica in the back row, and we're ready to go.
Next time: Laggart hunting, and the beginnings of the actual plot. See you then! Nighteyes out.