I want to add some context for the title. I am writing this review on Christmas Day. I probably should have taken a break, but that’s when I beat the game, and I wanted to write this review while the details were fresh on my mind. I wasted no time starting the second game after finishing the first. Where we saw the war ending in the first game, I was very curious as to how a sequel could be made. Additionally, where you had 108 characters, my biggest question was how many of the original cast would return for the sequel, and how many new faces we would see.

Story-wise, I was surprised, as it’s pretty much the same story. You play a character who was betrayed by his home country, only to find out they are actually the villains anyway, and now leads an opposing force against them. I’m now convinced that Suikoden only knows how to tell the one story, but how they do it is significantly different this time around. More time is allocated for each part of the story, allowing for a deeper exploration of the characters. So as the story progresses, we get to see more character depth, making me get attached to more characters than I did in the first game. This also adds a lot more emotional depth when the story decides to unleash its twists and turns. While it’s very predictable, it’s also done really well. In the first game, the story isn’t a driving force behind playing the game; it’s entirely different this time around. I was absolutely invested and enjoyed what the story had to offer, even if the progression took almost the same path as the first game.

Furthermore, this story wasn’t afraid to go much darker than the previous game. Where the overall conflict didn’t seem like an immediate concern in the first title, it’s looming over you the entire time here. There are multiple places on the world map that are flat-out destroyed as a result of the conflict, which was a massive and much-needed departure from the first game. Plus, this game wasn’t afraid to kill off many lovable characters.

The game features several different endings. It’s not just a matter of recruiting everyone, but also making the right decisions if you want the best ending. You have four different endings, so there’s plenty of reason to keep playing the game. I ended up saving files before key moments, so I can go back and look at all of the endings, and they are all really good.

You’re once again hunting down over 100 characters to recruit, which includes a mixture of new and returning faces. I was excited every time a character from the first game returned, and the new characters made very lasting first impressions. Where the story takes more time to do everything, the biggest advantage of that is giving the characters more time to shine. I had a much harder time finding my ideal party as I ended up liking a greater percentage of the cast in this go-around. Most of the recruitment is more fleshed out too. Some of them require full-on quests that allow the characters you’re recruiting to be in the spotlight to find out if you like them or not. I’ll admit, I hated the recruiting process for a handful of characters as it relied heavily on luck or traveling to rather tedious areas of the world map. Thankfully, this was a small portion of the entire cast.

Gameplay is pretty much the same as the first. Most of my complaints from the first game were resolved as everything is much easier. The game features many quality-of-life improvements. Notably, you can add and remove party members a lot faster, and you’re prompted to change your formation every time you do so. One big change is that the war battles are entirely different. Instead of a rock, paper, scissors type format, you now have a mini game that is reminiscent of Fire Emblem. For the most part, I love this. You have turn-based combat where you move your units on the map, but it has one massive flaw. Outside of a special ability, you can’t see your percentage change of hitting. So I would have two or three units attack the same enemy just for nothing to happen. It was very frustrating, and I’ve had to walk away a couple of times. I didn’t realize how much one aspect of the Fire Emblem franchise was so important to me till I tried something similar without it.

Overall, if you loved the first gam,e then you’ll enjoy this one. It has the same gameplay but adds quality-of-life improvements. It takes what is fundamentally the same story as the first, but adds a lot more emotional depth to it. This fleshes out the overall tale as well as the over 100 characters within it. So it’s quite literally the first game, but improved in every way. I had a hard time putting it down.