Walkthrough for Suikoden V --by Twenty-Nine Rooks Contact -- twentyninerooks@yahoo.com ============================================================================= [Legal] Copyright R.K. Hughes This document may not be reproduced in whole or part without the expressed consent of the author. You may not host this file without the consent of the author. Websites authorized to host this file are: GameFaqs.com, SuikoSource.com, and their direct, individual subsidiaries. This document represents the author's experience. The author and this document are not affiliated with nor endorsed in any way by Konami Entertainment. Suikoden and all related characters are copyright Konami Entertainment (Tokyo) inc. ============================================================================== This Guide was created using OpenOffice.org word processor, and is best Viewed with Mozilla FireFox. The Author strongly supports open-source programs. Please support these great organizations. And remember, just because it is free, does not mean that it is open-source. ========== Table of Contents ========== Section 0: Introduction 0.1----------Using this Guide / Formatting Notes: section 0.1 0.2----------FAQ: section 0.2 0.3----------Skills / Statistics primer section 0.3 Section 1: Walkthrough 1.1----------Chapter 1 1.2----------Chapter 2 1.3----------Chapter 3 1.4----------Chapter 4 1.5----------Chapter 5 Section 2: Guides 1.1----------Character Recruitment and Evaluation 1.2----------Rune Acquisition and Evaluation 1.3----------Skills, Epic Skills, and Statistics 1.4----------Money Making and Trade 1.5----------Bath Sequences Section 3: Closing 3.1----------Essay: The Silent Protagonist and Enchantment 3.2----------Looking to the Future of Suikoden 3.3----------Acknowledgments **Additional Thanks To: TrueWater Dex KFCrispy SuikoSource.com -- Version History -- Version 1.2 -- Initial Release Version 1.3 -- Added comunity input, corrected minor errors. ========================================================================== ========================================================================== Section 0 ========================================================================== ========================================================================== ----------- Using this Guide / Formatting Notes ---------- section 0.1 Like all other Walkthroughs, use the Ctrl + F function to find anything. I have formatted this guide very carefully though, to allow for easier access to a number of its features. The individual chapters are very long, so to find where you left off in the walkthrough, hit Ctrl + F, then use the name of the place where you are currently, typed all in CAPS, then select the "Match Case" box and hit the "Find" button. You will jump to that particular area as your character reach in the main storyline. For example: Hit Ctrl +F, enter "STORMFIST," make sure the "Match Case" box is checked, then press the "Find" Button. Alternatively, use the name of the Character you last recruited, preceded by a hyphen: Ctrl + F "-Kyle" and you will find the entry for that character inside the Walkthrough. If you want information on a specific Character or Rune, then type in the name preceded by a backslash "/Rage Rune" or "/Georg" etc. If you want to find where an item appears in a treasure chest in the game, then enter the name of the item in CAPS and brackets: [LEATHER ARMOR]. You will scroll through every instance where that item appears in a chest in the game. If you want to find an item dropped by enemies, either in Party Battles or Major Battles, just enter the name of the item normally, and turn the "Match Case" on: "Flowing Rune Piece" The Match Case function should always be on. It may seem that I have somewhat random capitalization, but this is to help you find things easily using the Ctrl + F function. ---------- Frequently Asked Questions ---------- section 0.2 Q: Are you just making these questions up? A: Yes Q: Suikoden V was released in 2006, why write a guide for it now? A: Well, first off, I have been a fan of Suikoden ever since I happened on Suikoden I back in '97. Suikoden V is great game, albeit with many problems, but I was unhappy with the Guides currently available. Either they were hammered out in the weeks and moths following the game's release, or, they were simply juvenile. So, I decided to write a more extensive and definitive guide for the game. Q: Honestly, I don't like your guide, can you recommend another? A: Sure. Cyril's walkthrough on GameFaqs / Suikosource is a good walkthrough. Blazefeeler's LV 60 character stats guide is also very helpful. Other than that, I honestly cannot recommend some of the guides, though. Q: What will be different in this guide as compared to others? A: First, I want to strike a balance between giving you advice and letting you do things on your own, which makes the game much more fun. Second, this game -like all the Suikodens- has a massive cast of characters. Mostly, people choose characters for their party based on who they have used before and who they are most familiar with, this means that you can play through the game without using even half of the Stars of Destiny in battle. With this in mind, I will give you some more detailed character info, plus my own personal opinions on their strength in battle. This will help you to choose the right party, as well as use some of the characters that you would not use otherwise. Q: I think Jeane is hot. A: I'm sorry, but your question must be in the form of a question. Q: What is it about this game that makes it so great? A: Well, the graphics are horrible, and it was clearly incomplete when it was released in 2006. But the thing that makes this and the other games in this series so great is the storytelling. This is likely the most elaborate, deepest fictional universe ever created for a game series as well as one of the most compelling. All great games are about the compelling nature of their narrative, not about graphics, features, and other such tripe. Q: Is there some trick to raise your characters to Lv 99? A: Not that I know of. Besides, this game is easy enough without that. To me, the only real disappointment in this game is its lack of any major difficulty. Q: Is the Stat Stones Trick in this sequel? A: No, some new programming language made it impossible to duplicate the use of the Stat Stones, sorry. Q: What over Guides can you recommend for the other Suikoden Titles? A: For Suikoden I, both ryhxx and A.Kishan has good walkthroughs. For S II, then ryhxx just released his walkthrough for that game. Suikoden III's best walkthrough by far is by Dan Crenshaw. For IV, well. . . honestly I don't care enough about IV to rank any of the walkthroughs. Q: I strongly dissagree with you on (X) part of the walkthrough. Or, I have a correction or suggestion. How can I contact you? A: My email adress for video game guides and walkthroughs is: twentyninerooks@yahoo.com You can contact me there. Though this is a public email, so I do get a lot of Spam. Please don't be offended if it takes me some time to reply. ---------- STATISTICS, EQUIPMENT & SKILLS ---------- section 0.2 Before we begin the walkthrough, I feel I need to go over these subjects in- depth. We will start with statistics: There are several stats in Suikoden V: Hit Points (HP), Attack (ATTK), Defense (PDEF), Magic Defense (MDEF), Technique (TECH), Accuracy (ACC), Evasion (EVA) Speed (SPD), and Luck. Attack is simply the character's weapon strength added to the character's base strength. Since weapons are always equipped in the game, the status screen always shows the combined amount. A weapon can be between LV 1 and LV 16, depending on how many times you have sharpened it. A character's base strength differs from character to character, and increases along with their level. Defense is a combination of a character's Base Physical Defense and the defense provided from the equipment they are wearing. Base Defense increases with character level, but varies little from character to character, and does not contribute much to their overall defense. In this game, Defense is largely determined by equipment. Different Characters can wear different levels of equipment. There is: Tunic/Cloth equipment, Leather, Mail, Light Armor, and Heavy Armor. The heavier the armor, the more its defense, but be warned that Light and Heavy Armors can reduce a character's speed. The Magic Defense stat is based almost entirely on a character's Base Magic defense. This varies heavily from character to character, and increases with level. There are some pieces of equipment that increase magic defense, but they are few and only increase it by a small amount. Also, characters can increase their defense for different magic elements individually, but I will cover that in a bit. Technique offers a combination of different skills. It raises a character's ability to Parry direct attacks (some characters, especially Long-Range Characters, cannot parry), it increases Accuracy, and it also is a major factor in determining a character's Critical Rate. Accuracy is based on the Technique stat, but can be influenced separately through some equipment and runes. For example: Some glove items increase Accuracy, but Technique. So, they do not influence Critical Rates or Parry Rates, but they do offer a greater chance of connecting with direct attacks. Evasion is simply a rating of how adept the character is at dodging direct attacks. In battle, the attacker's Accuracy is measured against the Target's Evasion, and a percentage of successful hit is produced. A character needs to have strong Evasion before they can dodge enemy attacks with any fequency. Speed determines which characters act first every battle turn. The higher a character's speed, the more likely they are to act before the enemy, giving you a distinct advantage. However, at a certain point, characters with high speed will always act before the enemy, and then it becomes useless to raise that character's speed any higher. Speed is a valuable stat, but raising it too high can prove a waste of time. Luck effects many things that a character does. Essentially, it effects every thing in the game that depends on a percentage. So, Luck can increase Critical Rate, it can also increase the Rate at which enemies drop treasure, and how ofter certain spells that have a percentage take effect. For example: the LV 1 Shield Magic has a 40% chance of endowing characters with the beneficial Fury status effect. Characters with high luck are more likely to be effected. --Elemental Statistics and Combinations-- Each character has a ranking -from the weakest rating E, D, C, B, A, S, the strongest- on the status screen for each Element in the game. The Elements are Sun (Su), Fire (Fi), Lightning (Li), Wind (Wi), Water (Wa), Earth (Ea), Star (St), Sound (So), Holy (Ho), Darkness (Da), Slash (Sl), Thrust (Th), Punch (Pu), and Shot (Sh). The higher a character rates in each category, the more powerful their offense and defense for that category becomes. Sun is the element of the Sun Rune, and the Twilight and Dawn Runes. Fire is for Fire Magic, etc. Sound is for use of a Unique Rune only carried by one character, and for defense it is only useful against the DoReMi Elf enemies, who as far as I know are the only enemies to use Sound Magic. Holy magic effects the use of both the Shield and Resurrection Runes, and as far as I know, there are no enemies that attack using Holy magic. Darkness effects the Condemnation Rune. Slash is not "Magic," so to speak, but effects a character's defense and offense with Swords, Axes, and other slashing weapons. Thrust effects Spear weapons, Punch Gauntlets and Fists, and Shot effects Bows, Crossbows, Throwing Weapons, etc. So, if you are up against a tough enemy that uses Fire Magic, bring characters that not only have high MDEF, but also high Fire Magic affinity. This is what I call a statistic combination. The MDEF reduces damage, while the affinity increases the likelihood of that character "Resisting" any given Fire Magic spell. If a character Resists a spell, the word "Resist" will appear above their head as they are struck, and the spell will deal roughly one half the normal damage. With an Affinity of the highest S-rank, characters will almost always resist magic from that element. Other statistical combinations have little to do with magic. As I mentioned, Luck can play a large role in many aspects of the game. A character with high Luck will seemingly outperform their other stats, with more evasion, criticals, parries, etc. A character's parry rate is determined by a combination of their DEF and TECH. Note that some characters cannot Parry at all, and others will have a similar ability called "Weapon Defense." The difference is simply that Swords and Axes Parry, while Staff, Club, and other such weapons can "Defend." If this sounds complicated, don't worry "Parry" and "Weapon Defense" are the same thing. Some Characters that have high DEF and TECH stats can greatly outperform their Defense by Parrying. There are other statistical combinations, but I will talk about these as we go, it is better just to leave the subject here before it gets too complicated. --Skills-- Skills return once again in Suikoden V, after first being introduced in Suikoden III and being left out of IV. However, the effect of skills is now much more balanced. In Suikoden III, Skills were the single greatest factor in a character's strength. Here in V, there is a nice balance between Rune, Stats and Skills. All characters have access to the "Common Skills." On the Physical side: Stamina increases HP. Attack effects ATK. Defense is self-explanatory. Technique increases Accuracy and other unseen stats that I discussed previously. Agility increases Speed, and a character's ability to hit multiple times in one attack. Vitality increases the unseen critical stat. In Magic, things are much more simple: Magic increases magic power. Magic Defense needs no commentary. And Incantation helps your characters cast spells faster in battle. Each Skill require Skill Points to level up, and each character will be more adept at using some Skills and less adept at others. For example: Sialeeds is a mage character. Her Magic Skill can rise to an S-rank, but her Stamina Skill maxes out at a C-rank. While a fighter like Georg can raise his Vitality to SS-rank, but his Magic Defense is less stellar. The general rule is that the more SP a Skills costs to level up, the Lower that Skill can max out at. Skills level up from E-D-C-B-A-S-SS. Though very few people can access any skills that rank double-S. So, a Skill that maxes out at an A-rank will actually cost more per level than a skill that Maxes out at an S-rank. It is for this reason that I suggest you use Skills that characters excel at rather than ones they are mediocre in. While this might seem obvious at first, once you start playing the game, it is tempting to - for example- give Sialeeds the Stamina Skill as a way to help her low HP stat. But this is a mistake, as you will spend a large amount of SP for a small effect. --Epic Skills-- Here is where things get a bit complex. Epic skills are skills that effect more than one stat, but you must develop all related skills in order for your character to even have access to the Epic Skill. So, In order to access the Raging Lion Epic, which gives bonuses to both Stamina and Attack, you must first have an A-rank in Stamina and Attack. Then, you will gin access to Raging Lion at an E-rank and can upgrade and equip it normally. The availability of Epics is another matter of concern. Some characters can achieve high marks in both Stamina and Attack, but simply do not have access to the Raging Lion Epic Skill. One good example of this is the dwarf, Wabon. He is one of the strongest and highest HP characters in the game, but inexplicably has no access to Raging Lion. Another example is Jeane, with one of the highest Magic, Magic Defense, and Incantation skills, you would think she would have access to Sacred Oath, the ultimate Magic Epic Skill. In fact, Jeane cannot use Sacred Oath. The Epic skills must be found in treasure chests or be acquired in another way. Don't worry, I cover all of them in the walkthrough. Epic Skills are: Armor of Gods (Defense / Magic Defense). Raging Lion (Attack / Stamina). Swift Foot (Technique / Agility). Fate Control (Attack / Technique). Karmic Effect (Defense / Technique). All-Out Strike (Incantation / Technique / Agility). Triple Harmony (Attack / Vitality / Agility). Zen Sword (Attack / Incantation). Untold Clarity (All Physical Skills except Stamina). Divine Right (Magic / Incantation). Sacred Oath (Magic / Magic Defense / Incantation). And Royal Paradise (All Skills). A few notes: Zen Sword and Sacred Oath also effect the Sword of Magic Skill, which is used in conjunction with the Elemental Sword Runes. More on that in a bit. Also, whomever translated this game made a couple of errors here: Triple Harmony and All-Out Strike's names were switched somehow, and Divine Right should be Divine "Rite". But I guess that is just semantics. Generally, an Epic has a weaker effect to each stat than its basic counterparts. The effect tends to be weakened by one full level. So, equipping Swift Foot at an A-rank will give the same bonus as equipping both Technique and Agility at a B-rank. The obvious advantage is that since every character can only equip two skills -and some have permanent skills in one slot- having the multiple effects makes the character more balanced and versatile. There seem to be some exceptions though. First, there is a huge addition to statistics when a skill becomes S-rank, and then again if that skill can become SS-rank. This gives a big advantage to any character that can achieve S-ranks in skills. Also, Royal Paradise tends to defy this as well, especially in the S and SS-ranks. While it can be difficult to tell exactly, Royal Paradise seems to give a larger bonus than other Epic Skills per statistic at the high ranks. --Equipment-- Suikoden V is much like III in that a character's equipment is the largest factor in their physical defense. When I talk about a character's Defense Stat, I am actually referring to what type of armor that they are capable of equipping. There are several levels of armor in the game, and sometimes characters can equip surprisingly "heavy" armor. For example, among Mages, Nelis can wear some nice armor that gives her a real advantage at times. Most Short-Range Fighters can wear the two heaviest types of Armor, though sometimes they can only mix and match. Hazuki can wear heavy Gauntlets and Greaves, but can only wear the lighter Body and Head armors. While Isabel can wear all of the heaviest armor in the game. Also, while most characters hover around the same PDEF with all their armor removed, some like Galleon will have a small -but noticeable- advantage in base PDEF. So, all of these things are taken into account when determining a character's Defense. When I talk about the Defense Stat though, remember that it simply reflects my own experience and there could be something that I missed, or simply ignored when I compared that character to another. I think that will do for our Primer, I will talk about these subjects more after the walkthrough. ============================================================================= ============================================================================= WALKTHROUGH. Section 1.0 ============================================================================ ============================================================================ Hello and welcome to Suikoden V. Start a new game, and you will be asked to name the main character. Name him whatever you wish. After this game was released, Konami did give him and official name: Freyjadour Falenas, (pronounced Fray-a-door) shortened to Frey. But I will be referring to him as "The Prince" or the "Hero." ============================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ===CHAPTER 1=== section 1.1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================================================= "Listen awhile and throughout hear the psalm Of victories sung from creatures past thy seeing And from far battlefields there comes the neighing Of dreadful onset, though the air is balm." From the poem "My Two Geniuses" -By George MacDonald ----------------------------------- You will be introduced to the Queendom of Falena and several of the game's main characters in the opening cutscene. When your party enters the palace's main hall, you will be given a choice of dialogue options. Choose either one this time around. When important dialogue options come up I will alert you to them and their individual consequences. However, if I don't alert you, just assume you are free to choose as you see fit. The long opening scene will continue. ============================================================================= LORDLAKE ============================================================================= When you gain control of your characters, go ahead and talk to some of the people in the town. They paint a dismal picture, not only of the town, but of the Queen --your mother-- as well. Throughout the walkthrough, I will be giving you detailed character information as you recruit the 108 stars of destiny. At this point your party consists of the Prince, Lyon, Sialeeds, and Georg. Though Sialeeds and Georg will be in and out of your party, Lyon is officially the prince's bodyguard, and rarely leaves his side --much like how Nanami rarely left the hero's side in Suikoden II. So, I will just introduce the Prince and Lyon for now. I will rank all the characters in what I feel is their usefulness to any particular party. Weaker characters will rank lower and stronger ones higher. Though in this game, they did well in balancing out the characters --there are no real duds, and anyone can be useful under the right circumstances-- but some are stronger than others. I will rank them like this: D-C-B-A-S, "D" being the lowest, and "A" being strong, while "S" represents the strongest character in the game for his or her particular class. Keep in mind that my letter rankings for characters is just my opinion, please play with the characters that you like the best, because that way the game is the most fun. Actually, one challenging and fun thing to do might be to try to play through the game with only "D" rank characters. Also, I suggest you stay away from the "S" rank characters when you can, as they are so over-powered that they can make the game a bit too easy in my opinion. I will also invent a Class system for this walkthrough, though this is just to simplify things a bit so I do not have to order you to take specific characters with you at certain times (i.e. "Take George and Sialleeds"). Instead, I will suggest you take certain classes with you, so that leaves you the freedom to decide which characters you like best (i.e. "Take a short-range fighter and a long-range mage.) I've found that people choose characters for one of two reasons: They think that character is strong. Or, they like that character's personality. As such, I'll give an overview of the character's stats and strengths, as well as their personality. If you don't care about how I rank the characters, skip to the next divider. So, now that is cleared up, here's the Hero: --------------Prince Falenas Star #1 of 108 Rank: S Auto-Recruit. Class: Mid-Range Fighter/ Mid-Range Mage. Notes: The most versatile character in the game. He can do pretty much anything, except heavy tanking. He is the Hero, so he will be in your active battle party at all times. Though he is not quite as strong as some of the previous heroes, like Tir McDohl from SI, this is due to the fact that his main rune is just not as good as, say, the Soul Eater worn by McDohl. But he is very powerful, and can be relied on to fulfill many different roles in your party effectively. He is a silent protagonist, so his personality reflects the player's personality. If you want to hear more about this, read my essay on literary theory and Allegorical Projection at the end of this walkthrough. ---------------Lyon Star #2 of 108 Overall Rank: A Auto-Recruit. Class: Mid-Range Fighter Notes: Almost always by the Prince's side, she is a required party member most of the time. Though, unlike the prince she can be moved into the party's "entourage," effectively taking her out of battles, while still allowing access to her non-battle magic. She is fast and strong, with good defense and at least decent magic and HP scores, so, I would probably use her most of the time, even if she was not required. Like the Prince, she can fulfill multiple roles, and this versatility is her best quality. I give her an "A" rank because she is just not as strong as the prince, especially late in the game. Keep in mind though, that she and the Prince have a useful unite attack. Recommended Runes: Shield Rune, Earth Rune --------------------------------------------------------------------- If you ever want to skip past my long-winded opinions and introductions, you can always skip to the next divider and you will never miss any of the important information in the walkthrough. I use the "dash" to denote the end of a commentary and the einsatz of the actual walkthrough, and I use the "Equal Sign" to denote a change in location. Now, back to the walkthrough. The screen perspective in this game is horizontally offset, meaning that "South" is actually a little closer to "South-Southwest." Keep that in mind when I give you directions, they are not exact, so if I say head "South" I mean head in a general southern direction. I'm sure you get the idea. It would make this walkthrough much easier to write if this game had a mini- map, but we will get through, don't worry. Save you game at the glowing Save Point (I'll call them Jouneyman's Crystals.) and head south-ish down the main street of Lordlake. To the east there is a dried-up fountain. Nearby there is the entrance to the clinic. Step inside for a scene. Again, the dialogue choice here has no impact on the future events of the game. After the cutscene, follow the main street south past the desiccated channel. On the southern end of the map, there will be a short cutscene. Head south and east for a chest containing [ESCAPE SCROLL]. Approach the mansion in the southwest corner of the town, where you will be presented with a Dialogue choice. I will present you with Dialogue Choices when I feel like it, as I said, if I do not cover a choice, then it is unimportant. What I will also do is this: *****Dialogue***** (Choose either without consequence) ----Choose the first dialogue option to continue on. ----Choose the second to get scolded by auntie Sialeeds and continue on anyway. Note how what I wrote is not what appears on-screen. Rather it is a summary of the consequences -if any- of your choices, that removes potential spoilers from reprinting on-screen dialogue here in the walkthrough. So, if it says on-screen "Fight" or "Don't Fight," I'll represent that here as "Act like a violent maniac" or "Act like a Chicken," or something to that effect. Sorry, but I can't help but make jokes from time to time, this is something like my 7th time playing through the game, after all. Back to the walkthrough. Go inside and head through the door to the west. In the next room grab the [MEDICINE] from the chest, then continue outside to the pier, when another scene will play. Walk South then east to the end of the pier for a chest containing [SACRIFICIAL JIZO]. I suggest giving it to the Prince for now. Head back through the mansion, then northward to a small alley, walk east down the alley and out onto the pier to meet up with Talgeyl and Goesch. *****Dialogue*****(Choose either without consequence) -----Choose the first option to have Sialeeds drag everyone along together. -----Choose the second option to make yourself sound vainly heroic. Go south to the Withered Forest. ==================================== Withered Forest ==================================== Ok, here is the game's first "dungeon," so to speak. Don't worry, with Georg along, you have nothing to worry about. He alone can obliterate every battle you get into here. The game is taking it easy on you here in this first level, so take your time to get used to the battle system. We will talk in- depth about tactics (or formations) later on, but for now you are stuck in the standard formation that should be familiar if you played SI or SII. Walk along the switchback path to a Journeyman's Crystal. I won't remind you to save unless it is vital that you do so --when you either are up against a very tough battle or might wish to reset later-- I trust you are smart enough to know to save as often as you can. Walk in a direction that is of the general "Southwestern" persuasion to a fork in the path. Go left if you want to experience the game's first dead- end, go right to continue on to another fork. This time go west to continue on. At the third fork, go south-southwest for a chest with [MEDICINE]. Return to the 3-way fork that you approach from the south, and head east, then south and curve back round to the east to find the third and final chest in this area, [MEGA MEDICINE]. Retrace your steps to the last fork and continue northeast for a scene and the game's first boss. *****Dialogue*****(Choose either option with no consequence) -----Choose the first option to have the Prince act heroic -----Choose the second to have Georg save the day. ---------------------------------- *Boss: Ulse X 3 Really, with Georg here there is nothing to worry about. Sialeed's Wind magic is pretty useless here. Just have everyone attack, and if you take a bit of damage, on your next turn use you formation skill to recover about 35 HP per character. Select [Formation] from the battle menu, then choose [Form Skill]. Note that you can only use the formation skill once per battle, and the skill changes depending on your current formation. Georg can kill an Ulse with one hit, and the Lyon/Prince Co-op attack works well too, so this battle should be over in 2 or 3 rounds. Rewards: 750 Potch, 12 party SP Medicine, Violence Piece, Boost Piece ---------------------------------- Watch the scene. You will be back in the Sun Palace by the time you have a dialogue option. ============================================================================= Sun Palace ============================================================================= You'll finish telling your mother the story. *****Dialogue***** (choose either with no consequence) -----First Option: Stand up for what's right. -----Second Option: Act intimidated. And again *****Dialogue***** (choose either with no consequence) -----First: Act intimidated and rely on Sialeeds for Moral Pontification. -----Second: Act like a decent human being. And a third time, after we drop into a text-only cutscene. *****Dialogue***** (choose either with no consequence) -----First: Go find your sister, princess Lymsleia. -----Second: Decline, get scolded by Lyon, and then agree to find her. Georg and Sialeeds leave the party. Finding Lym requires that you scour the Palace. First head south and go up the stairs, then enter the opening (really an transparent doorway) on the right side. This is the Prince's hall. You'll find a save point inside his room, and to the far left, a treasure room with a [Dress] and [Refined Clothes]. Keep these in your bag so you can sell them later. Go back out to the Upper-Level Foyer. Go South and West to the spiral stairs and take them up to the sealed room. You will receive a lecture on Runes, most of it review if you have played a Suikoden game before, though the information about the Sun Rune --one of the 27 True Runes-- is new. Head back down to the upper-foyer and walk west to the big double-doors to find the hall of Sialeeds and the Princess. Talk to the attendant standing outside Sialeed's room for a funny scene, then go into the western most room to find that Lym has gone to look for you. Walk to the north end of the hall and go down the stairs, this is the Kitchen/ Guard hall. Chat with the people around here if you wish. At the west end, there are stairs leading to the prison cells, but there is nothing to do there yet. To continue with the story, go back out to the Foyer and cut across to enter into the Queen's Knights Hall, located beneath the Prince's hall. A rather funny scene will ensue when you walk south, and you will meet Kyle, one of the Queen's Knights. Your dialogue option has no consequence. Kyle joins your party temporarily, and I suggest taking the opportunity to trade all of his armor with the Prince. (Hey, you're the Prince so it is not stealing.) Go into the large room on the left for another scene. After the scene, talk to the Knights gathered round the room if you want. To continue, head for the exit for another scene. --IMPORTANT-- So, this is where some of your dialogue choices start to have consequences. To avoid spoilers, I wont tell you why per-say, just to say that how you treat your little sister and Lyon can effect things down the line. Overall, I recommend being attentive and slightly over-protective of Lym. And to treat Lyon with respect. It is your choice whether or not to follow my recommendations, mostly each choice makes very little difference, so you can change things up a bit if you want. If there is a choice that had major, drastic consequences, I will let you know ahead of time. *****Dialogue*****(option #1 recommended) -----First: Apologize. -----Second: Tell her to pipe down. The scene continues and you meet Miakis *****Dialogue*****(option #1 recommended) -----First: Greet Miakis. -----Second: Ask for help, and she will refuse. The scene drops to text-only dialogue and you are presented with another choice: *****Dialogue*****(option #1 recommended) -----First: Act like a normal adult -----Second: Sound kinda creepy, because you are not opposed to little girls getting engaged. This is a rather large number of dialogue choices here in a row: *****Dialogue*****(option #2 recommended) -----First: Seem disinterested but get dragged along regardless. -----Second: Act protective of Lym. Kyle, Miakis, and Lym will join. Lym is stationed in one of the entourage slots, but Kyle and Miakis are in the battle party. Not to give away a big spoiler or anything, but we are not going to be in any tough battles with any of them. Go ahead and give Miakis' gear to Lyon if you really want, but I refrain from doing that, it doesn't matter at all at this point. Leave the Knight's room to have Sialeeds show up, and give you yet another choice: *****Dialogue*****(option #1 recommended) -----First: Make fun of Sialeeds. -----Second: Make fun of Lym. Sialeeds joins, but don't bother rearranging the party, we are just going to go on a tour of the Senate Hall and the City Proper. Back to the foyer, and leave out the large southern doors past the journeyman's crystal to the Senate Hall grounds. Walk down the first flight of stairs and turn east to the Garden area. A short way north off the dirt path is a chest: [SCARF]. Return to the bridge level, and then descend the second flight of stairs, to go back to ground level. Walk under the bridge to find [MEGA MEDICINE] along the southern side of the Senate Building. Approach the building for a small cutscene. The dialogue choice is unimportant. Go inside and turn west up the stairs, then north and talk to the official waiting by wooden double-doors. Well, we have to talk to all the people in the Senate Hall and watch a scene before the clerk in charge of the list comes back. Start by talking to everyone round the upper walkway. There are 6 people, 2 guards, 2 nobles, and 2 officials. Cross the bridge to the left to go inside the Senate Chamber's upper floor for a short scene. There are 2 more officials here. Leave the upper chamber and go to the ground floor. In the outer area there are 4 people. 2 guards and 2 officials. (There is a 5th person in the northwest room, but you do not need to talk to him to advance the story.) Inside the large green doors of the Senate Chamber Floor, there will be a scene. *****Dialogue*****(choose either) -----Be unflappably well-mannered. -----Act like you just got accosted by a walrus, which is an accurate description of what just happened. The scene continues, rather hilariously. *****Dialogue*****(choose either) -----Agree with Lord Borrows superficially. -----Express doubts about his character. When you regain control there are 4 more people to talk to in the Senate Chamber Floor, 2 nobles and 2 officials. Return to the clerk's office for a cutscene. *****Dialogue***** (choose either) -----Apologize for the rush. -----Get to the point. and again-- *****Dialogue***** (#1 recommended) -----Be distressed at your sister's lack of popularity. -----Be amazed at the brat's popularity. When you are done go outside to the upper bridge area for a short scene. *****Dialogue***** (#1 recommended) -----Encourage bad habits. -----Be strict. Miakis, Sialeeds, and Lym leave. You will have a few more dialogue options at this point. *****Dialogue*****(choose either) -----Suggest your next activity. -----Have Kyle suggest your next activity. *****Dialogue*****(#2 recommended) -----Act interested and make Lyon cross with you. -----Act disinterested and have Kyle guide you gently into manhood. I recommend #2 on the second choice because it helps not to get Lyon too mad at you. I have not tested out and verified the effects of _every_ single dialogue option, so I don't know if this one matters. When you get control, go south to the City Proper. Sol-Falena is divided into four sections, from north to south they are: Sun Palace, Senate Hall, Sol- Falena Proper, and the Pier. At this point feel free to explore the city and talk to the people. I will point out some treasure chests to get and some places to visit. Down the stairs to the east is the Blacksmith, sharpen the Prince's and Lyon's weapons if you want, though don't worry about Kyle, as he is much higher-leveled than you at this point. The trade post is up the stairs to the east, check it out, but I don't recommend buying anything just yet. In this walkthrough will use trade as one of our main means of gaining war funds throughout the early game, because this allows for much better equipment and higher weapon levels with only a little effort. East of the Blacksmith, and Southeast of the Trade shop, there is a cest on the pier [BANDANA]. Other than that, there is not much for us on the eastern side of the city, head vaguely west from there to the other side of the large bridge that divides the city. A treasure box near the Tavern contains [MEGA MEDICINE]. I did not have enough money to buy anything of value at the armor or item shops yet. Do not worry, sharpening your weapons is all you really need to do here in the early game. On the Islet north of the Item Shop there is a chest with [MEDICINE]. If you want to continue on, from the Item Shop in the eastern half of the city, walk east-southeast to the far eastern islet. There you find the rune shop, and watch a short cutscene. Go back outside for another dialogue choice. *****Dialogue*****(option #1 recommended) -----Go help Kyle -----Stay back (and skip the next choice) I recommend #1 because it helps to get some money here. *****Dialogue***** (option #1 recommended) -----Get into an easy fight and earn some money. -----Let the guards handle it. If you decide to fight, just have Kyle use his Lv 2 water magic, Breath of Ice, while the Prince and Lyon Attack. These guys are push-overs, I was able to annihilate all of them with one Breath of Ice spell. After the scene, finish up any business you have in the city and return to the Sun Palace. You can roam if you like: the woman in the room on the lower floor of the Inn has some choice comments about Galleon. Just for the sake of stating the obvious: ================================= Sun Palace ================================= As you enter the palace, a scene begins. This is largely between Ferid and Arshtat, until it switches to the Prince and Lyon... *****Dialogue***** (option #1 recommended) -----Be reassuring. -----Wonder why she's acting this way. If you have made Lyon cross with you, you will get a slightly different scene and dialogue choice. The balance is not as delicate with her as it is with Lym, she actually has a much higher affection for you, so mostly you can say what you want when you are with her. But on this occasion I do recommend option #1, no matter which choice you got. The scene continues the next morning. Georg and Sialeeds return to the party. When you get control, talk to the Queen's Knights gathered round on your way to the southern door. When you reach the door, Lym will come say goodbye. *****Dialogue*****(choose either) -----Understand your Father's idealism -----Be too immature to understand Now it is time to go to the Pier, just head south on the large causeway all the way past the city proper to get there. Down two flights of stairs, Kyle will be waiting by the ship to say goodbye. Say whatever you want to him, then board the ship for another long scene. *****Dialogue*****(choose either) -----Have faith in the Queen -----Meh After more talking, you'll encounter the game's second boss: ----------------------------------- Boss: Zadom This one is much more tricky than the Ulse, but still a far cry from the difficulty on many of the later bosses. The game is still taking it easy on you... Have the Prince and Lyon use "Sworn Protector," their Co-Op Attack, every round. Georg should do what he does best, throwing critical hit attacks at the enemies. Sialeed's wind magic is again pretty useless here. . . so have her Attack, as well as throw out some Medicine as needed. The Prince does have an "Angry Blow" spell scroll equipped, but try to save that for later, it is not needed in this battle. The Zadom can inflict the "Anger" status effect, causing the afflicted to be unable to use unite attacks. If Lyon or the Prince gets hit with it, just have them both attack, it will not make too much difference in the end. It can also inflict poison, though this is a nuisance more than a threat. The Zadom really does not hit very hard, so you will have plenty of time to use medicine or the Formation skill to heal your party. With Georg, this should be over in 3-4 turns Rewards: 3,000 Potch 20 party SP Medicine, Fire Sealing Pc x1, Breath of Ice Scroll x1. ---------------------------------- After the battle, another dialogue choice comes up, but it has no real bearing. The scene shifts to the evening, still on the ship headed for Stormfist, yet another choice for you that has no consequence. After Sialeeds comes up with some disturbing theories, you arrive at the Stormfist Pier. ============================================================================= STORMFIST ============================================================================= Over the course of the next few scenes, your replies to the Godwins' questions won't amount to anything in the long run, so I'll leave them to you. Gizel will take you on a tour of the facilities. Throughout this part of the game you will have intermittent cutscenes, and brief moments of free movement. Move south to trigger the first. Once inside walk west to trigger the next. From where the last scene ends, you are either in the Arena Causeway Upper Floor or the drawbridge. If you are on the bridge, return to the Causeway. Both upper and lower floors of the Causeway are divided into 2 quarter- circle sections. You are currently in the Northwest section. Go ahead and go south round the bend to the Southwest Upper section. Go into the stands to watch a scene with an old friend. Afterwords, back inside the causeway, go down the thin flight of stairs to reach the Lower Southwest section. Walk to the Lower Northwest section and turn right immediately to visit the infirmary, and try to walk down the steps inside. Gizel will tell you that it is a place unfit for Royalty, but insist on going down anyway. This is necessary to move the game events forward. *****Dialogue*****(choose #1 to move story events forward) -----Insist on seeing the Gladiators. -----Insist on not moving the story forward. Down in the cells, there is another option. *****Dialogue*****(option #1 recommended, for Moral Purposes) -----Slavery is wrong. -----I'm a fan of slavery, but I'm too ashamed to admit it. Walk east a bit for yet another cutscene. *****Dialogue*****(You get the idea) -----Ask for a Doctor. -----Treating injured slaves wastes money. Leave the Cells and exit the infirmary. Walk north to the large doors and exit to the Arena Garden. Here you will find 2 chests, the first in the northwest corner containing [OLD BOOK vol. 7], the second is packed in with some boxes and nearly hidden in the southeast corner, zoom the camera in if you are having trouble finding it. It contains the first of many Tactics, the [DOUBLE ARM TACTIC]. ----------------------------------- --Tactics-- If you don't want to hear what I have to say about tactics, skip to the next divider. On the menu screen choose "Formation", then "Rearrange" to change your tactic. Different Tactics offer different status bonus to party members -- for example, Double Arm adds +2 to both Physical Defense (PDEF) and Magical Defense (MDEF)-- there is more to tactics than just adding status bonuses though. Each tactic has a special skill that can be used in combat once per battle at the cost of 1 turn. So, the Standard tactic can heal a small amount of HP, and so on... What Tactic you use though, depends largely on the Characters present in your party at any one time. Even late in the game, many of the parties you form will have some slots taken up by required characters, so I find myself switching tactics frequently, just to accommodate what characters I have to work with. In the end, the status boosts and skills are just bonuses that come along with the tactic that corresponds well to my party. There are three different types of weapon ranges in this game, just like Suikoden I and II. Short range weapons are meant for attacking from the first two rows on the grid that is shown on the "Rearrange" window, anything further back and they begin to lose accuracy, to the point that they will rarely connect with an Attack from the rear row at all. Medium Range weapons are just that, meant for combat from the middle two rows. Unlike Suikoden I and II, mid-rangers will miss frequently from the front row, so don't put Lyon or the Prince up there unless you are just planning to have them use magic or defend. Long Range weapons attack from anywhere equally well, but almost every character that wields a long range weapon is weak physically, and cannot take front-line combat, so it is best to let them occupy spaces in the back. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Right now, the Double Arm tactic does not suit you well, so stay in the standard formation. Back inside the Lower Causeway, go south all the way till you reach a long, straight hall. At the south end of the Hall, take the stairs up to see a scene. This is the Royal suite. Back downstairs, Gizel bids goodbye. Your choice effects nothing, except my opinion of you as a human being. No matter what is said Gizel and Sialeeds leave the party. At the town proper, you will have two short scenes. When you gain control, you can talk to the Girl standing next to the leopard. This is Norma, and the leopard is Ernst, you cannot recruit them now, but remember them for later. Just south of them, the red-haired guy is also another future potential recruit, talk to him for a taste of his disgusting personality. His name is Gavaya. Walk west and head into the Inn for a short scene with another character. Feel free to explore around and talk to the people. The general attitude here is much more sympathetic to the Godwins. West of the Inn, western edge of