Suikoden II

Suikoden II is, as its name suggests, the sequel to Suikoden. Taking place a mere two years after the original, it features many of the same characters and settings, refines the gameplay, and introduces a particularly vicious and intriguing plot. Considered by many fans to be the highlight of the series.

Jowy
Jowy is something of an enigma, both story-wise and gameplay-wise. There are actually two versions of him, treated as separate entities by the game: The normal "best friend" that tags along with you for much of the early game, and "King" Jowy, who joins you for a single battle near the end. And there are oddities surrounding both.

"Best Friend" Jowy normally leaves the team permanently long before you gain access to later blacksmiths; as such, his weapon, the Star Staff, caps at level 5... yet despite this, it still changes names when it should, to the "Heaven Staff" at level 6, and again to the "Heavenly Star Staff" at level 13. "King" Jowy, on the other hand, uses a nameless sword that's always at level 16. This can only be viewed by hacking him into the team, as you're never able to view his stats in-game. The weapon's "range" is different, however, with his staff being M-range, and his sword being S-range, although this is largely irrelevant in normal gameplay.

Functionally, however, the two characters are identical, barring some minor differences. Riou can use the "Buddy ATK" combo with either of them; the effect is the same (barring some animation differences), but the descriptions are slightly different: "1 x damage to all Es" for "Best Friend" Jowy's, and "1 x damage vs. all Es" for "King" Jowy's. A minor difference, but a difference nevertheless.

If hacked into the game, neither Jowy appears in the HQ anywhere, although they can be added to/removed from the team at Leona's bar, as usual. Both actually have unique (and different) join/part lines, despite that you can never remove either version from the team. Also, "Best Friend" Jowy can be awarded the "strongest character" statue, despite not being in the team at any point when you get your castle. There is no such statue for "King" Jowy, however.

Hidden Weapon Titles
As per series tradition, characters' weapons will undergo occasional name changes as they are upgraded from level 1 to 16. Suikoden 2 features three names per weapon. However, many characters join with a weapon "pre-upgraded" into the second or third name change group, preventing you from ever seeing their initial weapon title. The hidden weapon names are as follows:

* Viktor's second and third level "initial" swords are unobtainable before he upgrades to the Star Dragon Sword. Once Viktor gets the SDS, its name does not change.

Of further note, the list of weapon titles is consistent across other Suikoden games, even though these weapon names do not appear during regular gameplay (for example, Kasumi's Sakura, Humphrey's Masamune, both of Tir's earlier weapons, and Lorelai's Tower, which was wielded by Kirke in the prequel). This consistency holds up for weapons that re-appear in Suikoden 3 (the Masamune again being an example) and even Georg Prime's trilogy of swords in Suikoden 5 - Wind, Moon, Cloud - match the hidden Suikoden 2 names when rendered in their original Japanese.

Unused Music
Due to a glitch in the North American release of Suikoden 2, certain songs in the streamed XA format are unable to be played, resulting in periods of awkward silence. These songs are still on the disc, however, and can be accessed via any XA player. All omitted songs are known to be fixed in the PAL release.


 * War:

This song should have been played during minor war battles, which due to the aforementioned glitch, are conspicuously silent.


 * Decisive Battle:

Unlike "War", this song isn't on the OST, and has no official title. This song was intended to play twice: fighting Luca Blight and Sasarai outside your castle, and the automated penultimate war battle where Shu faces off against Leon. Yes, there were actually supposed to be three war battle themes, but due to this glitch, only "Battlefield Without Light" is actually heard in-game.


 * Orizzonte:

It was intended for Annallee to sing a clipped version of this song when she's recruited in South Window. Instead, there's an awkward minute or so of her sprite's singing animation set to silence.


 * Chant:

One of the more unfortunate casualties, this solemn piece is left out of the climactic duel with Jowy, where it should have triggered the moment the first of the two one-on-one battle sequences ended.


 * '''La passione commuove la storia

This soaring, hopeful lyrical piece also got the accidental axe. In the "full" PAL ending, as the "Fates of the 108" are shown, the orchestral ending theme - "We Will Always Be" - fades out during the reprise of "Avertuneiro Antes Lance Mao" from the first game, and "La passione" kicks in for the duration of the Stars' fates.

Unused L.C. Chan Recruitment
Thanks to a strange and well-known glitch, it's possible to "push" the gate at the pass between Muse and Matilda right off the hinges and access some locations earlier than you should. The most famous consequences of this glitch include recruiting Futch and Humphrey, grinding to level 35+, and raiding the Matilda shops as early as the Mercenary Fort, but it's also possible to witness a full, completely translated recruitment scene that was left entirely out of the finished game.

L.C. Chan is supposed to be recruited in Crom by bringing Wakaba. He can be seen early in the Matilda inn, but if you bring Wakaba, he'll have vanished. However, this only applies during the Camus-and-Miklotov sequence. Use the aforementioned glitch when you've headed to Muse to sign the peace treaty, and voila, Wakaba initiates a brand new L.C. Chan recruitment scene.

The scene unfolds much as it does in Crom - L.C. Chan dines and dashes, and has to be spoken to a second time, out back behind the inn. After hiding from the waiter and briefly "testing" Riou, he will permanently join.

Unused Join/Part Lines
A few characters (such as the two Jowys above) have dialogue when added to/removed from the team at Leona's bar, despite that they never can be parted with.

"Best Friend" Jowy: Let's go, (Hero)!!! Be careful, (Hero)!

"King" Jowy: Let's do it, (Hero)!!! Be careful, (Hero)!

Untranslated Gibberish Text
There are several instances in which text was not translated from Japanese... however, the Japanese font was removed, rendering the dialogue complete gibberish.



The first instance of this, and probably the most well-known, is in Forest Village, where a shady man in a secluded spot in the southeast part of town offers, periodically, to let you in on a "tasty rumor" for a small price. He seems to have multiple pieces of "information" to sell, but unfortunately none of it was translated.



The second instance is the item and armor merchants in Rockaxe, but only if spoken to from behind the counter, which is possible via a secret passage. They both appear to say the same thing.



Mayor Gustav and his daughter Lilly get in on the act if you visit them in Tinto after defeating Neclord. Gustav mentions the hero's name, but that's the only thing legible.



Finally, the enemies in Tenzan Pass. Oddly enough, these enemies both show up at L'Renouille, the final dungeon, where their names are not gibberish, and are revealed to be "Magus" and "Minotaurus". Why they're glitched in one area and not another is a mystery.

Solitude Rune


There exists a single unused rune (and corresponding crystal) within Suikoden 2's code. The Solitude Rune can be attached to a weapon, and raises the user's attack power based on how few characters there are in the current team, and by a fairly significant margin; it was probably scrapped because, despite the power boost, it's not generally a good idea to field less than a full party in this game.

Bath Set
There are a handful of odd accessories whose only purpose is for some fun little decoration when equipped and brought into the bath at your HQ. One such item, the simply-named "Bath Set", however, can't be obtained without cheating. It looks oddly like a toy apple.

Kazah Village?


An unused warp point, leading to a non-existent "Kazah Village", can be enabled on Viki's teleportation menu. If you attempt to teleport to it, the game glitches briefly, then sends you to the intro cutscene with Riou and Jowy at the Highland Base Camp at Tenzan Pass. In all likelihood, this was supposed to send you to Sajah Village (northwest of L'Renouille), which can't otherwise be warped to. Alternately, its position in the list, between two Matilda locations, suggests it may have been intended to send you to Highway Village.

Blockoffs
There are three places in Kyaro that are blocked off by a gate or other barrier, and cannot be reached normally. The first is the elaborate gate in the southern part of town... Absolutely nothing is beyond it; the road simply stops, and there are no exit events. This is undoubtedly the site of a mansion shown in a flashback, but it cannot be reached normally.

The northern gate blocks off Jowy's house, as seen in another early-game cutscene. There's nothing of note here, however, as while the house can be seen, it cannot be entered.

Finally, the barricade in the northeast part of town just blocks off another immediate dead-end. It's unknown what purpose this serves, but there may have been an area beyond this at one point in development.

A rose-covered gate blocks the way into Milich Oppenheimer's house in Gregminster. This can be entered in the first game, but is inaccessible here. Attempting to walk past the gate with cheats will reveal that... there's literally nothing more to see. Not only can the house not be entered, it isn't even finished. Only what you can actually see was included; the rest is just black nothingness. The cat milling around the right side of his house cannot be spoken with, either.