An Analysis of Suikoden 2

It's no secret that Suikoden is one of my all time favorite video game series, and that it disappoints me greatly that Konami has all but canceled the series. Still, every now and then it is a good idea to revisit the series. It is in my opinion that every RPG has a main theme, an element that drives the story. Suikoden is no different. And today, I analyze the element that drives the story behind the one entry that is generally regarded to be the best in the series, Suikoden 2.

Available on Ebay for about $130 because Konami can't be arsed to put this title on the PSN Store. Also available for the PSP in Japan because Konami can't be arsed to translate the game and ship it anywhere else.

To summarise the story of Suikoden 2 would take a long time, but let me try to give you the abridged version. You have two countries, City State of Jowston and Kingdom of Highland. They always been at war, and they are at the moment during a ceasefire. And then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked Prince Luca of Highland ordered a massacre on the Highland Unicorn Brigade (pretty much the Highland version of the Boy Scouts), in order to blame Jowston for the deaths of hundreds of young boys, which will then rile up the nation to go to war with Jowston. For the most part, the plan works, except for one little detail: Two survivors. One is the player character, hereby referred to as Riou, and the other is his best friend Jowy. Both characters manage to escape the massacre, flee Highland, and make their way to Jowston.

Sadly for them, war was beginning. Luca's plan succeeds, and Highland is ready and willing to go to war. Luca leads the charge, attacking the town of Ryube, a little hamlet in Jowston that is almost entirely inconsequential. He leaves zero survivors. He then attacks the village of Toto, leaving only one survivor: a little girl named Pilika. 

This little girl has seen some serious shit.

Pilika survived because her parents hid her, but she was not left intact. She heard the massacre, and when she came out of her hiding place, saw her mother and father laying on the ground, cut and bloodied. Horrified, Jowy and Riou take in Pilika, to protect her from any further carnage. They take her towards this Mercenary's fortress where Riou was, for all intents and purposes, a prisoner. And then Luca Blight and the Highland Army attacked, and the mercenaries got beaten. And by that, I mean that everyone that was not important to the plot was brutally murdered by the Highland Army. Pilika herself witnessed first hand the mad prince himself kill a man, right in front of her. Luca would have killed her too, but Jowy and Riou managed to save her in the nick of time.

Fuck you, Luca.

After that, Jowy and Riou, on the run from Highland, are taken to the shrine of the Rune of Beginning, one of the 27 True Runes that form and shape the world. The rune is split into two halves: the defensive Bright Shield Rune, and the offensive Black Sword Rune. One half to destroy, the other to protect. Riou is given the Bright Shield rune, while Jowy is given the Black Sword rune.

 

The rulers of Jowston convene to decide what to do, but animosity among them prevents any course of action to be taken. Jowston is divided into six states: Muse, Matilda, Greenhill, Two River, South Window, and Tinto. Muse is the state under direct attack, but Matilda refuses to send aid due to the fact that there was no 'hard' evidence that Highland was attacking. Tinto refuses to cooperate because of the fact that their territory is safe, and due to previous disagreements with South Window. South Window seeks a diplomatic end to the conflict and does not commit to the war. And Greenhill is accused by Matilda of being moochers due to the fact that their economy is not as strong.

Seeing the powerlessness of Jowston, Jowy joins the Highland army with two motives: kill Luca Blight, and end the war. Likewise, Riou founds a new armed force, one to protect Jowston from Highland: the Dunan Unification Army (the region that Jowston occupies was once called Dunan). Riou seeks to protect the innocent from Highland's war, while Jowy seeks to save Highland and Jowston not just from Luca, but from its own leaders.

With time, Riou's army comes face to face with Luca Blight himself. During a surprise night raid, with a force of hundreds of archers, accompanied by his best soldiers, and after a one on one duel, Luca Blight is finally killed. Just like Jowy secretly planned it.

Hooray! War's over! The game has ended! We beat the final boss! And if you're like me, it only took you fifteen tries.

Ehh....

No. See, Jowy had married Jillia, Luca's younger sister, in a bid to get to the throne and become King of Highland. He sees the conflict's true nature: It's not about Luca, it's about Highland and Jowston.

This is not the first time Highland and Jowston have been at war. Twenty years before the game, the leader of Muse, Daryll, instigated a war between both countries in order to gain more land. This war was lost by Jowston, so Daryll had sent some of his soldiers to kidnap the visiting Queen of Highland and her son, Luca Blight. The Queen was brutally raped, right in front of the young prince, and from that rape came Jillia, the princess of Highland. Any peace Jowy could gain with Jowston would be little more than an armistice that lasted a decade or two at best, until another conflict arose. And yes, there was plenty of fuel for future conflict. Matilda was isolated, Muse had most of its population massacred, and Greenhill was under direct occupation. Furthermore, South Window got attacked and occupied thrice during the course of the game, and Two River was also attacked. Jowy also never forgot how fractured Jowston's leadership truly was. He knew a future conflict was unavoidable, so he came up with a new idea. 

His idea was so simple, yet so brilliant, it was almost guaranteed to succeed. He lured Riou and the one Jowston leader who had officially allied with him, Teresa Wisemail, into the territory Highland had occupied under the false pretense of signing a peace treaty. What it really was, however, was a trap, to get Riou to surrender to Highland. Jowy knew what cards he held. Even with Muse and Greenhill under direct occupation, Matilda isolated from the rest of the States, and with Two River and South Window open to any attack, Jowy knew that Jowston could still put up a fight. So, by getting Riou to surrender to him, Highland would be able to keep Muse and Greenhill, and the war would end, putting Jowston into a position where it could not possibly start a conflict with any hope of winning. Unfortunately for Jowy, Pilika had been taken to this signing (she had stayed with Riou due to circumstances), and Jowy, unable to expose Pilika to any more violence, allowed Riou to escape, prolonging the war.

Some time later, Riou manages to retake Muse and Greenhill, unite Jowston, and invade Highland and conquer Highland. Ironic. Highland is annexed into Jowston, forming a new country: the Dunan Republic. Also Tinto declares itself independent and becomes a communist state.  

However, Riou leaves, looking for Jowy. Jowy wants to fight Riou, to put an end to the conflict between the two. Riou, however, is done fighting. He never attacks Jowy, never fights back, instead allowing Jowy to pummel him. Reduced to tears, Jowy begs Riou to let him die, as penance for the war. Unable to kill his friend, Riou instead chooses to spare his life. That is when the two runes fuse together, healing Jowy, and forming the Rune of Beginning.

The main theme of Suikoden 2 is conflict. Suikoden 2 is, when you get right down to it, a meditation on the meaning, and consequences, of conflict. This is most clearly seen with the overall war between Highland and Jowston. But it's also seen in smaller instances. Conflict is, when you get down to it, the main reason why Jowston was nearly destroyed by Highland. The inability of the states to find any common ground and aid each other when Highland was attacking is what, essentially, destroyed the union in the first place. Also again, conflict is highlighted further during the party's visit to the state of Two River. This state is divided into three social-racial classes: the very privileged humans, the less privileged Kobolds, and the Wingers who live in squalor. Two River would have easily fallen to Highland had this conflict kept going, but when the three races pulled together, they managed to drive Highland off their land. Notably, this is the only state to have driven off Highland without the help of the Dunan Unification Army, and one could argue is when the war started to turn away from Highland's favor.

Conflict is also presented as something that needs to be addressed appropriately. The leader of South Window, Granmeyer, tried diplomacy with Highland. For his trouble, Highland executed him, took over his state, and mounted his head on a pike for all to see. The game is as subtle as a brick to the balls with its message. Sometimes, especially when dealing with someone with no regards to human life and who seeks to destroy you, there is no nonviolent solution. Non violence and diplomacy only work when both sides see the value of peaceful resolution and the folly of killing. But someone like Luca Blight, who delights in killing? Guys like him only understand violence and will not hesitate to kill those who will try to appease him or appeal to his inexistent humanity. To stop someone like Luca, you need to use violence.

Another very important topic that Suikoden 2 presents us is the importance of solidarity. This is most obvious with the scene where the Knights of Matilda, under orders from their leader, Gorudo, stand by and watch as the Highland Army slaughtered several refugees that were trying to get away from Muse. This moment absolutely disgusted about two thirds of the entire Matilda armed forces, prompting them to quit their positions and join the Dunan Unification Army. When you see evil being performed, you do not stand by and watch it happen. You don't wait for the enemy to cross some fictional 'red line', you don't scratch your ass while you watch innocents die. You fucking do something. 

Perhaps the most important theme to Suikoden 2 is the real victims of conflict. It's always the innocent bystanders, the civilians, the people caught in the middle. Children, parents, the elderly. These are the people that spill their blood, unwillingly, for the ambitions of the powerful, the corrupt, the insane. And no amount of flag waving, political, nationalistic brew ha ha is going to bring them back to life.

The absolute worst part of conflict is how the instigators are never the ones to pay the highest price. Yeah Luca Blight died, after killing thousands. Luca Blight had his death coming, but did those civilians did? Did the kids that made up the Unicorn Brigade deserve death? No! They were little more than pawns in Luca's sick game! Nameless background characters! That's what they were to that monster. But the player can't look at them like that, because his victims did have names. Pilika is a victim of this war; even if she lived, she is still scarred forever. Her parents are dead, and they are never coming back.

Even now, our world is in conflict. In times like this, we need to remember two stories. The story of Suikoden 2 is one of them. The other is Suikoden 3, but that's for another blog.