2021 GAMING DIARY

I was curious to see if there was a keyboard setup I could use with relative comfort. My first attempt was okay-ish, but my second attempt was better by far, and will probably be the one I keep for this game. Even if it might still take some getting used to. I'll still want to do something with the controller, when the opportunity arises.

As far as actual game progress is concerned, the game had dropped the party in Balfonheim, with the game pointing the player to the Feywood. The game's instructions were to enter the Feywood by way of Golmore Jungle. So, one could teleport to Eruyt Village, and hoof it the rest of the way. I went on a bit of an exploration run, going north of Balfonhiem, into Cerobi Steppe, which lead to Tchita Uplands, parts of which I had already explored.

Of course, once I reached the Gate Crystal of Tchita Uplands, I make a quick stop to Rabinastre to sell whatever loot the party's picked up, then proceed with the game, teleporting to Eruyt Village, and what-not.

So, remember that there was only one time I ever used a summon in this game? The Feywood is where this happens, and even then, it's just to open the door to Giruvegan. While I might find Giruvegan a bit of a chore to go through, the area after that is even more so, as it doesn't have a proper map. First thing is first, though, and that's navigating Giruvegan. Later. Later is good.

The recruiting rounds are done for the moment, and Reinhold's service is still not available, the guy complaining that there aren't enough people to train with. I don't pretend to know how many people he needs. I will note that I should have 41 recruits, but, of course, not all of them are able to fight, and therefore unable to participate in Reinhold's service.

As an aside, I really liked that Reinhold provides training. It's best described as a fighting tournament, where there are up to five back-to-back fights against various recruits, each round with harder opponents than the last, with the final round including Reinhold, himself in the opposing ranks. There's two things that annoy me about this implementation. One is, of course, the fact that it requires a number of recruits that can fight, taking into consideration that the player can have up to three parties of four people, and that the opposing forces can have different recruits appearing for each round. My greatest beef, though, is that Reinhold, himself, cannot be in the main party to access his service. It's possible he can't be in any of the other parties either. I dunno, I barely use the other parties, outside of the four-member Unite. So, while your other party-able members can easily hit levels in their 40's, 50's, or maybe even 60's (which is insane for a Suikoden game) by using Reinhold's service, Reinhold, himself, is stuck at, like, maybe around level 30-ish.

The implementation of this concept I did in Baclyea Revolution wasn't exactly how Suikoden 4 rolled out, but, my two main annoyances with Suikoden 4's service were effectively eliminated. The service being available in Baclyea Revolution only required having access to HQ and to have recruited Oharu. There was also a training facility in Wal Pinnacle.

Back to Suikoden 4, the next story-point, located at the Nest of Pirates, is in the southwest region of the map, and the closest teleport point I figure would be Deserted Island, which is in the central region. Which, of course, means more putzing sailing. Two separate events are of note here. One is Kika and her crew joining Lazlo and Lino to stand against Kooluk, and Cray Trading Company. The other is Katarina washing ashore, having drifted quite a ways from Razril. She'll need some time to recover more fully, but, she's well enough to relay what news there is of Razril.

So, what the hell has been going on in Razril since Lazlo left? According to Katarina, it had been overrun by Kooluk, as aid from Gaien never came. However, she's not aware of any casualties. It seems Snowe brokered an agreement with Kooluk, and they gave him an assignment as part of Kooluk's anti-pirate corps as a reward. Keep in mind that Snowe was placed in charge as the Commander of the Knights after Glen's death. I don't pretend to know how much force Kooluk presented when they came to Razril. Whatever the case, Snowe probably figured that capitulation and surrender would be preferable to fending off a (probably) persistent Kooluk siege.

The thing is, if there really were no indications that Razril was going to be reinforced from the Gaien mainland, one can't exactly blame Snowe's thought process. Nor can one exactly blame Katerina for her role in executing Lazlo's punishment, since she's ultimately just a soldier that's bound to follow the orders of those above her rank. Even if Snowe's rank is mostly undeserved.

As Lazlo attempts to depart the Den of Pirates and seek out Elenor Silverburg, who happens upon the Den of Pirates, but Snowe! A war-battle ensues, with Lazlo, and his gang, coming out on top. Snowe retreats to Razril, and the game points the player in that direction. To push players to not sequence-break, Viki's teleport service is unavailable, the Glowing Hand Mirror cannot be used. Well then. I guess I'll be bee-lining to Razril, like the game clearly wants me to.

Navigating Giruvegan can be a bit tricky, as there are sometimes hidden paths that also happen to be the paths that the party needs to traverse to continue with the game. That, or closed-off areas where the lock to open said areas are on the other side of the map, or some-such.

As mentioned before, the area after Giruvegan doesn't even have a map associated with it. Well, it has one, but, there are no details about where you've been, or where you can go. I think the game tries to hand-wave it by the area being something of a teleport maze, which, by it's nature, can be annoying to traverse even under normal circumstances.

The area in question is none other than the Great Crystal. While I don't pretend to know exactly how big the Great Crystal is in this game, it's clearly big enough to be it's own dungeon.

At the end is a meeting with beings that call themselves the Occuria. They consider themselves the Judges of History, and have found one of their number, Venat, guilty of treason. Venat is the spirit that's been working with Cid, and probably gave some inspiration to the process of manufacturing nethicite. However, the very existence of manufactured nethicite is the treasonous offense that the Occuria are lodging against Vanat.

Thus, they give Ashe the Treaty-Blade so that she might use it to cleave her own nethicite from the very source, the Sun-Cryst, and wield it against Vanat, and who the Occuria have labeled to be their supporters, the Archadian Empire.

After this, Baltheir comes to a realization. Cid never intended to come here. He merely said he was coming here as a lure for Ashe. To sit back and watch to see what happens when two a nethicite-users collide in battle.

As for what the party will actually do, this is in question. While Bashe might believe the Empire must pay for it's misdeeds, he does not believe it should be destroyed. While Vaan more or less agrees, he's more about not wanting the Occuria dictate what they're going to do. Ashe's only response is that she will seek out the Sun-Cryst, not saying what she indents to do when she finds it.

The problem is, of course, where the hell the Sun-Cryst is. The Ocurria said something about a distant shore. Which narrows the field of investigation slightly, but not by much. Vaan wants to consult Reddas, while Baltheir would rather not. Since an alternative isn't forthcoming, to Redass the party will go.

In the party's absence, Reddas has sent a fleet of ships to the Ridorana Cataract, in an effort to scout the Pharos Lighthouse that was mentioned in notes he found during his visit to Draklor. The place is in one of those no-fly zones, so the only other way to get there would be by sea. Except even his fleet went afoul, and was nearly torn asunder before the order to withdraw came down.

Still, there may be a chance that the party can get there. Reddas acquired/stole a Skystone during his visit to Draklor, but it doesn't interface properly with anything he's got. However, it does fit the Strahl, and might allow it to reach the place. It also doesn't hurt that Reddas, himself, joins as a guest.

It seems Snowe's dealings with the Kooluk aren't viewed in a positive light by the people of Razril. They call him traitor, and bombard his ship with flaming arrows. Snowe is justifiably frustrated, but, with no other viable options, he turns around, only to be captured by Lazlo.

Lalzo briefly considers allowing Snowe an opportunity to join with him, but, ultimately, allows the sea to determine his fate. I'm certain the two will meet again, but, under what circumstances?

While Viki's service becomes available again, the recruitment list seems to suggest going to Hermitage Island, and meeting Elenor, first. Thankfully, because Viki is available again, it's not too bad. Hermitage Island is practically right next door to the Nest of Pirates.

Sigurd, Hervey, and Dario decide to tag along with Lazlo in search of Elenor. They find her pupil, Agnes, instead, who invites them for food and drink while they wait for the host to arrive. Of course, said food and drink was drugged, with the three pirates out like a light, and Lazlo feeling a bit woozy, himself.

Elenor is reluctant, but, after doing a bit of a favor, she relents. While there are characters to recruit on Hermitage, as far as I can tell, aren't available until after the next story-event.

Said event is a meeting in the war room, with Elenor laying out the basis of the group's strategy. To truly stand against Kooluk, they need to rally the forces of the islands under one banner. While she recognizes Lazlo as a potential leader, there is the fact that Lino is still King of Obel, and is the one that commissioned this ship the group is on, and thus has his own weight. To resolve any potential issue of leadership going forward, Lazlo and Lino duel it out. Naturally, Lazlo comes out on top.

Lino gifts Lazlo with his golden seal of Kingship, and temporarily abdicates his position in front of everyone. This happening was something of a scheme between Lino and Elenor that Lazlo was in the dark about, but, Lino reasons that if the leadership was his, he would put Obel first, and that could antagonize any relations with the other nations the group might attempt.

Of course, now the group has a name (Motojima), and their flagship that they use as a base was also given a name (Kamiyama). I did a little research on the names the Suikoden 4 novelization gives to both the army, and the HQ. The greater Suikoden community generally regards such sources as the official names for user-defeined names, and how such names as Tir, Riou, Lazlo, and Freyjadour came about in the first place. In the case of Suikoden 4, the army's name was "Island Liberation Navy", while the HQ was called the Dauntless.

I will note that "Island Liberation Navy" certainly would not be able to fit in the name entry box. I think the name entry could contain either nine of ten characters, so, at most, you could put in "Liberation" there to be as accurate to the novelization as possible. However, if I recall correctly, the game does not automatically append "Army" to this as it has been known to do in previous titles. So, if one does use "Liberation", and the game needs to refer to the army-name, they will just say, "Liberation". I will attempt to pay attention to this detail as the game progresses, but, I will not make any promises.

Anyway, back to the game, and, as mentioned, there's a mess of recruits to get before I'll want to start the next story-arc. 14 of them, in fact, and thank goodness Viki's back to her usual functionality!

The Pharos Lighthouse is subdivided into three sections, called "ascents". Each of these areas is more or less the size of a regular dungeon, making this the largest area in the game.

There is an area to traverse before the lighthouse, proper, and there's a warp-point in the first area that has the party go through a bit of a puzzle (and a boss fight) before it becomes active, and can actually get to climbing the thing.

Even then, as the party climbs the tower, they find certain walkways won't be available. The party needs to slay specific monsters to lay down parts of the path forward. The longer the walkway is, the more monsters the party has to kill before they are allowed to cross. Of course, there is a palette-swap of that monster that can remove progress, thus requiring the player to putz around, and find other copies of the actual monster. Thankfully, the palette-swap doesn't appear until a bit later in the ascent, and there might be only one copy of them in a room with maybe two or three of the actual thing you need to slay.

I don't quite recall what is involved in the second ascent, but, that's what's comin' up.

The current bout of recruitment done, the Motojima has 64 Stars to it's name. I think it was about 50 Stars when Reinhold started allowing me to train with him.

That aside, all the islands that are required for this story have been found, and I don't really need to explore the world map. There are two islands that, like Donut Island, exist mostly for Rene's treasure-hunting mini-game. They are stashed away at the northwest and southwest corners of the map. However, unlike Donut Island, neither of these locations have recruits on them under any circumstances.

Even so, I decided to spend some amount of time on the ocean, and fill out the map a bit more. Certainly not the most exciting thing to do in this game, but, once I'm done with this bout of exploration, I'll be going right back to the story.

The second ascent has it's own puzzle/trick in that the party must make a temporary sacrifice before being allowed to proceed. There are four options to choose from, and include disabling item use, the attack action, magic use, or the mini-map. While I could get by with disabling item use, I went without a mini-map. The regular map can still be called up, and I certainly referred to it to get my bearings. Even if I did have the mini-map, I would do that, though, probably not as often.

Third ascent is something of a teleport maze. The waypoints have some sense of where they might send players to, as they have colors/labels associated with the challenges the player has previously seen. So, the first waypoint to take would be the Black Sigil, representing the collection of Night Orbs on floor 1. The next waypoint to take would be the Green Sigil, as the monsters that opened the path forward had a green flame shooting out of them. Next would be red, as the palette-swap monster that could remove the path forward were red. Then the Sigil of Sacrifice.

The last waypoint is a four-set of Sigil of Sacrifices that probably represent each of the sacrifices the party could have made. I've already forgotten which one was the "right" one, but, I seem to recall two waypoints colored different shades of purple and a gold-colored waypoint. The other one might have been some kind of cyan, or teal? Whatever.

The question of what Ashe intends in regards to the Sun-Cryst is rendered entirely irrelevant. It wasn't enough to encounter Gabranth, and have him admit to the slaying of King Gramas, and then engage in a boss fight against him. Doctor Cid was also following the party, and is intent on using the Sun-Cryst for his own purposes. He becomes his own boss fight, and also summons an Esper when he's about half health. Geeze!

While the party manages to slay Cid and Famfrit, the Sun-Cyrst reacted to the manufactured nethicite Cid brought. A strong gale of mist surges from the Sun-Cryst, and is so overpowering, no one can come close to it. Reddas somehow manages to leap forward, and plunges the Sword of Kings into the Sun-Cryst. While his life was taken in the process, the Sun-Cryst is gone. The Age of Occuria, and their bending of history through their nethicite, is over.

For what it's worth, Cid always talked about putting the reigns of history into the hands of Man, rather than to continue to rely on the Occuria, the Sun-Cryst, and their Stones. One could suppose that the research and development of manufactured nethicite was an attempt to supplant the nethicite that the Occuria granted through the cutting of the Sun-Cryst. Though, it seems Cid's other aim of the manufactured nethicite was to attain godhood, by virtue of the manufactured nethicite. To be able to challenge the Occuria with it, and come out on top, and proving that Humanity, having obtained such a level on their own, no longer needs Occurian guidance.

So, one might ask, what is going to happen now? I might not have caught all the nuances, but, it looks like there's aiming to be a battle in Dalmascan air-space between Archadies and the resistance lead by Marquis Ondore. The Archadian fleet is headed by Vayne Solodor, himself, on board the dreadnought Bahamut. It seems the Bahamut absorbed some of the mist that the Sun-Cryst released, the game making it sound like it uses the stuff for fuel. Ashe intends to infiltrate the Bahamut, and take it, and it's master, down, before it can reach Dalmasca. This means boarding the Strahl again, but let's note that boarding the Bahamut represents the point of no return for this game.

Like the Great Crystal before it, the Bahamut has an area map, but the map grants no details. Once the party reaches the lift, they fight Gabranth again. After the lift is Vayne, who is the final boss, and has at least three phases/forms to fight through. To say nothing of the numerous cut-scenes on the Bahamut, and the aftermath of the fight against Vayne. Before the credits roll, we see a vision of Penelo walking the streets of Rabinsatre as the game dictates a letter she wrote to Larsa, with the scene shifting to Larsa/Boshe and Ashe ever so often. The credits roll after the letter is done.

My most recent hard-save records 43 hours, 41 minutes and 40 seconds. That does not include the Bahamut, and my guess is that that took about an hour and a half. Putting this game somewhere around the 45 hour mark.

That the shops in your HQ have no ability to view/manipulate Runes, sharpen weapons, or compare armor values, among characters that aren't currently in the party is annoying enough. The functionality was introduced in Suikoden 2, and was certainly among it's quality-of-life features. Both Suikoden 3 and Suikoden 5 had it as well, making me a bit more confused as to why this game doesn't. I can't speak of Tactics, Tierkreis, or any of the other spin-offs that might benefit from this feature. Maybe there's an interesting story behind this decision, I dunno. However, even if it wasn't for that, the decision to have is no "sell" option in any of the shops anywhere on the HQ is just mind-boggling to me. Why? Just... why?

Anyway, now that the bout of exploration is done, it's back to the story! The first island the Motojima will visit in an attempt to rally to their flag is Middleport's. The person to talk to is a nobleman by the name of Schtoltehiem Reinbach II. While he has his own reasons to remain neutral, his son seems willing enough to join, provided Lazlo performs a favor for him. There's a few characters that need his presence in the party to recruit, to say nothing about being among the 108 Stars of Destiny, himself.

I couldn't help but to notice that both of Na-Nal's locations are off of Viki's teleport list. Which means that island is next on the Motojima's hit-list, even if the game has not expressly said so yet. As it happens, Na-Nal was the only location where I could actually sell stuff. However, Middleport's shops are now available for that purpose. Funny how that worked out.

The Motojima finds a small troop of Kooluk soldiers at the beach, and proceed to trounce them. While one can initiate the fight by merely talking to one of the guards, trying to get past them also triggers it, so, it's kinda impossible to not fight them. Either way, it seems Troy came to the island earlier and made his own offer. The Na-Nal considers the Motojima's offer as a belligerent one with their demands for cooperation, and beating up their "guests" (ie: Kooluk soldiers) as nothing short of barbaric.

The subject eventually turns to Lazlo doing a favor for the Na-Nal chief. Apparently, he wants him to "borrow" the Elven Remedy. Apparently, this is a peace gesture to the Kooluk, to help mend the wounds Lazlo's party inflicted. This backfires pretty hard, since the Elves decided to poison the stuff. This gives the Kooluk an excuse to assault the citizens of Na-Nal, with the Motojima being the only people who can stand a chance against them. There certainly was carnage and pillaging, but, how much more would there have been if it were not for the Motojima?

What's worse is that the Na-Nal cheif was at least somewhat suspicious about the Kooluk, and that they were merely using the poisoned remedy as an excuse for their attack. That the attack would come sooner, or later, the flow of events making it on the "sooner" side of that equation. Axel joins the cause of the Motojima as a representative of Na-Nal, and opens up a few recruits on the island.

The next point of interest is right next door, at Nay. The chief here ALSO seems to prefer being neutral, but, the couple that washed up on Nay's shore from Iiluya forever-and-a-half ago seem willing enough to join. There's a few more recruits opened up after this, and one might require more time to elapse before he's ready. Not 100% sure about the other one, but, if I have to putz around on the ocean for the other one regardless, I'm not terribly worried. Perhaps mildly annoyed, but, eh, what can ya do?

I might want to change up the button set-up. Otherwise, Slogta and Gaibon have found their match. Which isn't saying much, as they are the first boss fight, but, eh, what can ya do?

Went onward to the first meeting with Maria, then to battle Doppleganger10. A meeting with the Master Librarian later, and an encounter with a Scylla wurm, then Scylla, proper. Charybdis isn't in this game, though, it kinda seems like it should, given how they are a pair in Homer's Oddessy. It wouldn't be the first instance of there being two bosses in a single room, as the aforementioned Slogta and Gaibon fight exemplifies this.

Anyway, the Ferryman takes Alucard across the lake to obtain the Merman Statue, allowing him to be summoned elsewhere in the castle. That will be a matter for later. For now, Alucard find himself back at the castle entrance. He makes his way to the Royal Chapel, where he encounters Maria again before fighting a Hyppogyryph. He meets Maria again, and promises to tell her if he gains any intelligence about Richter.

The Castle Keep lies ahead, and with it, the Jump Stone. A number of locations can be visited with this, but, among the first will be a return to the Entryway. The aim is to visit the clock room in the Marble Gallery and get into Orlox's Quarters, and from there, into the Colosseum. There, he meets with Richter, who claims lordship of the castle, then proceeds to fight Werewolf and Minotaurus.

Mist form lies slightly beyond them, and with that, back to the Long Library to get Bat form, and the Faerie familiar. A quick back-track to the clock room to grab Gravity Boots, which is something of a quality-of-life Relic. While Alucard can fly due to bat form, the time to transform is it's own cost. I kinda feel bat form is maybe slightly slower than Alucard's regular speed, but, it might just be the same. Regardless, Gravity Boots can climb vertically with great speed, and would certainly be quicker that trying to climb the same distance under bat form!

Both Power of Wolf and Skill of Wolf, while in different places in the castle, are of note, and provide better/easier horizontal mobility option than Bat form's Wing Smash. The speed of this combination of Relics is probably about the same as Alucard's back-dash move, only executed for a further distance, depending on how far you can go before ramming into a wall, or if you run out of MP by smashing into enemies.

With Razril's alliance in the bag, the only thing left to secure enogh force to stand against Kulook is to liberate Obel from their grasp. Which means another navel battle. You know, for a series that has large-scale battles, where the strategists have been known to pull some crazy-ass stunts, the navel battles of this game are really simple, and don't really involve too much strategy.

That aside, the Rune of Punishment's 4th-level spell, Everlasting Mercy, is finally unlocked. That, and there's a mess of recruits that are now available. In fact, this is the final batch of recruits in the game. This includes Snowe.

Now, perhaps Snowe is guilty of being a self-serving and self-centered bastard. However, if it wasn't for him, Lazlo would not have been exiled. While Lazlo did not have an easy time at first, he managed to be found by Flare, which got him to Obel, work for Lino, then move on to become the leader of the Motojima in his own right.

Let's say Lazlo wasn't exiled, and try to suppose what might have happened instead. We can safely assume Snowe would still get a promotion to Commander, and still sell out Razril to the Kooluk. As for Obel, Lino would still escape, but, there would not be a person to name as leader of the anti-Kooluk forces other than Lino.

One must wonder how would the other islands react to Lino's presence, in his capacity as King of Obel, rather than as a member of the Motojima. The alliances with the island leaders were sometimes tenuous at best with Lazlo at the lead. However, with Lino brokering the alliance, they would probalby refuse. They might know Kulook's presence is a threat, but, they would also have to second-guess Lino's intent as well. How would such an allience benefit Obel, and how much does it benefit them? What's going to happen after the thread from Kulook is removed? Would Obel merely supplant their ambitions? Stuff like this.

That aside, with the 108 Stars of Destiny convened, the time has come for the Motojima to make it's stand against Kulook. After the big Rune Cannon is taken out, a final boss is fought, Graham Cray disappears, and with him, the threat from Kulook.

The Island Nation Federation forms under the leadership of Lino en Kuldes, though, I'm sure the island cheifs from the other nations would have preferred Lazlo to lead it. Alas, he fell unconscious again from using the Rune of Punishment to fend of against the shock waves emanating from Fort El-Eal from the destruction of the Giant Rune Cannon. Perhaps the final boss too.

Either way, he could not be confirmed alive or dead, so they had to err on the side of caution, and send him out to sea so that the Rune of Punishment would not repeat it's deadly cycle. However, the Rune had moved into it's "forgiveness" phase, and Lazlo is still very much alive, and is within visual range of the Kamiyama. It's presumed he's picked up, but, what happens after that is largely unknown. He could technically still be alive as of the next Suikoden game in the timeline (which would be 5). I mean, somehow Ted was able to live with Soul Eater for another 150-ish years (ie, when Suikoden occurs in the time-line), and that's also a cursed Rune that might be inclined towards having multiple bearers.

Wherever the Rune of Punishment is, it's never referred to again in the series. Which isn't saying much, as Suikoden 5 represents the last of the main-line entries of the series. As for time spent on this run, it was a surprising 26 hours, 52 minutes and 31 seconds according to my clear game save.

With Richter released from Shaft's grasp, it's time to visit the Inverted Castle. The deal with this place is to collect the five Relics of Vlad to open up a path in this castle's clock room, where Shaft lies.

Defeating the Darkwing Bat in the Clock Tower, The Frankenstien Monster Creature in the Outer Wall, Akmodan II in Olrox's Chamber, Medusa in the Royal Chapel, and Death in the Abandoned Mine will get him those relics. They need not be in this order, this is just the order I ended up doing them in.

Aside from those Relics is Poison Cloud (which is an upgrade to Mist form), and Force of Bat (which is an upgrade to Bat form). Then, the confrontation against Shaft, followed by Dracula. A 200.6% map-rate with my clear game save having recorded with 6 hours, 50 minutes, and 29 seconds. Definitely not bad!