So... Why have we recruited this person?

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sticky-runes
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So... Why have we recruited this person?

Post by sticky-runes »

We're fighting a war to liberate our homeland from an invading army/corrupt government/runic cataclysm. We're recruiting a long list of allies, including the 108 stars of destiny. Obviously there's our tacticians, who provide us with valuable knowledge of how to succeed on the battlefield. We've got the hero's closest friends and relatives, who often have combat training and experience. There are the important influential figures that we recruit, who have the loyalty of many soldiers and civilians and also the breeding to help reshape the country after we've won the war. We've got people who provide our home base with services, from armoring and rune mastery to cooking and cleaning. Then there is the odd highly skilled fighter or magician who can help us cause a lot of damage against the enemies we encounter on missions and in major battles.

And THEN there are characters like... Esmeralda. Because, you know, we REALLY desperately need a random woman dressed in a grand dame outfit who sits around in taverns. I sure am glad I found that opal in the Soniere prison so that she could move into our castle and complain about how run down it is.
And Taki. I mean, we haven't found a blacksmith yet to keep our weapons in good shape, and won't get one until we're about 95% finished with the game, but not to worry, we've just recruited an old granny from a fishing village who knows a lot of useless information. Watch out, Luca Blight - you may have superior sword skills, an unquenchable thirst for blood, and soldiers who are ready to die fighting for you, but WE've got an old lady sitting in our castle not doing anything.

What other characters are there that we recruit who don't really do anything useful, and likely wouldn't do anything useful even if given the opportunity? The ones who don't even come with a sub-game to keep us amused in between story line events? The ones who aren't even servants to characters who are useful? Let's take a minute to talk about these guys. And if you want, feel free to talk about how they might possibly have been improved.
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Sasarai10
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Re: So... Why have we recruited this person?

Post by Sasarai10 »

I guess some are fillers because creators ran out of ideas.

In SI everyone fills a purpose though, since everyone participates in War Battles.

In SII Fitcher and Marlowe are totally useless since they don't fight, they don't take part in war battles and they don't provide any service or mini-game either. Fitcher could take part in War Battles using some skill like "Scout" and Marlowe could be playable in Combat by using a book.

In SIII everyone is playable either as fighters or as Support. Still I don't get it why Guillaume doesn't fight when you recruit him.

In SIV we have Nico, Ramada, Oleg and the 4 other Mermaids who don't do anything at all. No service or mini-game and they don't use Rune Cannons. 4 other mermaids just do the same thing Lilin does so they are just fillers to complete your mermaid collection. Nico, Ramada and Oleg could use Rune Cannons though I believe. I don't see why not.

In SV almost everyone takes part in War Battles except the large monsters and the DoReMi elves. Still they are playable in regular battles. Euram should fight here too though.
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sticky-runes
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Re: So... Why have we recruited this person?

Post by sticky-runes »

Esmeralda is usable as a magic unit in major battles, so she could have been a group member with strong magic skills, kind of like Josephine in S5. I mean we can use a merchant's wife, laundress, a counterfeiter and a dancer in combat in S1, so I don't see why Esmeralda couldn't have been a fighter.

Fitcher does have his uses in the story line during Two River and Greenhill. and he takes on an important role after the war. I agree that he could have had a scouting ability in major battles, but then even a lot of character who are decent fighters (Kinnison, Rikimaru, Amada, Wakaba) don't take part in major battles either, S2's major battles were crappy over all.

Nico is the ship's lookout, which is a pretty essential job on a ship, but then he doesn't really get any story line events except for when we crash into the fog ship, where his skills are proven to be useless in the event that a ghostly shop appears out of nowhere, and when we recruit Wendell, who is a fighter but treats every single person she meets like a cunt except our useless lookout. Oh, and he does spot Snowe floating adrift in the ocean, so i guess we owe Nico for finding our 108th star. Come to think of it, we never actually got to see what it's like in the main ship's crows nest. I would like to have been able to climb up there.

Ramada is another story-line-only character. He gives us our two ninjas who become Lino's trusted bodyguards in Tactics, and he risks his life to get us the plans for infiltrating For El Eal, which I guess is his redemption for infiltrating Razril and getting Lazlo and friends in all that sh!t in the first place. And he takes a poisoned dart for Elenor, but apparently it's not a very lethal poison since Ramada survives two doses of it.

The mermaids do take a group of decoy ships out for us to draw off the giant rune cannon's fire, thus giving our troops the chance to face Kooluk's navy on a level field. I've always thought of the mermaids as representing the purity of the ocean, as their natural habitat has been threatened by poachers and people using rune cannons, and we've been taking the mermaids into our protection, and they help us to strike back against kooluk and get a bit of revenge for nature.

The monsters should have been available in major battles. Byakuren could have been a water unit with a strong attack against ships, while Genoh could be a land based unit with strong defences, although he'd be very slow.
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Neclord X
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Re: So... Why have we recruited this person?

Post by Neclord X »

Yeayh, while playing I felt that with lot of characters, sadly its been a long time since I played a Suikoden game so I don't remember which ones.

But there is one I remember for sure Josephine from SV, she had a background that in the end had some meaning since she has some notorious family but the carácter itself when you recruit her its "what's the point of her?"
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Re: So... Why have we recruited this person?

Post by AlOnZo »

sticky-runes wrote:And Taki. I mean, we haven't found a blacksmith yet to keep our weapons in good shape, and won't get one until we're about 95% finished with the game, but not to worry, we've just recruited an old granny from a fishing village who knows a lot of useless information. Watch out, Luca Blight - you may have superior sword skills, an unquenchable thirst for blood, and soldiers who are ready to die fighting for you, but WE've got an old lady sitting in our castle not doing anything.
Been playing through Suikoden 2 again and thought the same! The games really do throw you some right honkin' recruits before what you'd consider top priority skills for fighting a war.

They should of made Taki like Yoda. Mad badass fighting granny putting Luca in his place, and then returning to the castle later and making really annoying broken English statements. "Bath maker you will find, two doors down he will be."
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sticky-runes
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Re: So... Why have we recruited this person?

Post by sticky-runes »

Neclord X wrote:Yeayh, while playing I felt that with lot of characters, sadly its been a long time since I played a Suikoden game so I don't remember which ones.

But there is one I remember for sure Josephine from SV, she had a background that in the end had some meaning since she has some notorious family but the carácter itself when you recruit her its "what's the point of her?"
Your very first optional recruits in S5 are a lady who fusses over Sialeeds' outfit and a conductor who is obsessed with making an orchestra of singing rainbow coloured elves. Both characters are kinda rude to you when you first meet them, and neither of them gives a sh!t about what's going on in the country, they just want to sit somewhere and obsess over music or fashion sense. S5 had a pretty f#cked up beginning.
AlOnZo wrote:
Been playing through Suikoden 2 again and thought the same! The games really do throw you some right honkin' recruits before what you'd consider top priority skills for fighting a war.

They should of made Taki like Yoda. Mad badass fighting granny putting Luca in his place, and then returning to the castle later and making really annoying broken English statements. "Bath maker you will find, two doors down he will be."
Hellion was a bit Yoda like (she even kinda looks like him) she was a powerful sorceress, she gives us the blinking mirror, and at the end she becomes the court magician for Toran Republic. Taki doesn't even display any skills with runes. She's a totally mundane character. She moves into our castle, sits at a table all the way through the war, then goes home to her daughter.
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Sasarai10
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Re: So... Why have we recruited this person?

Post by Sasarai10 »

sticky-runes wrote:
-You forgot to mention a bathmaker. Only game where bathmakers are useable in combat.
-What I hated in SII major battles is, they last for a few turns only. Except last battle.
- Still, Nico could use some Rune Cannon. And OK let's say Ramada is just a storyline character. But what about Oleg? Once he joins he does nothing at all. You cannot even use his device, which would be a good idea actually. You could record battles or even naval battles as well.
- But I think that scene only appears if you have recruited all 5 mermaids, right?
- Indeed. Dunno why they were excluded.
sticky-runes wrote:
Hellion was a bit Yoda like (she even kinda looks like him) she was a powerful sorceress, she gives us the blinking mirror, and at the end she becomes the court magician for Toran Republic. Taki doesn't even display any skills with runes. She's a totally mundane character. She moves into our castle, sits at a table all the way through the war, then goes home to her daughter.
Actually Taki does something. She tells you how to progress with the storyline if you are stuck.
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Re: So... Why have we recruited this person?

Post by Antimatzist »

She does? All she ever tells me is that water is boiling faster on top of a mountain.
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sticky-runes
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Re: So... Why have we recruited this person?

Post by sticky-runes »

Having a bath maker is pretty useful, or else you have a load of sweaty smelly people living in your castle that will have to resort to dipping in the lake to wash themselves. Having communal bath rooms is a bit more civilized and gives our characters a bit of leisurely time outside of battles.

Oleg was a dumb idea for a character. He invents the world's first camera and captures live footage of Illuya being destroyed, and his device never gets used again? and yet we still get newspapers being printed throughout S4 and other games taking place years later. I guess it's some sort of in game gag for the series where a piece of technology gets discovered or invented and never heard of again (like how each game has a different guy inventing the elevator)
But for entertainment's sake, they could have made Oleg into a character that provides a movie gallery of all the game's cut scenes.

I'm pretty sure the first time I played S4 I did not get all of the mermaids and still saw the scene with all mermaids taking the boats out, so I don't think there was any alternative outcome.

I don't think Taki did give me any reminders either. Onil occasionally told me what i was supposed to be doing. S5 had the right idea by making your current follower the person who reminds you where you're supposed to be going next. Good thing one of us was paying attention! But I think S3 was the only game where I did get stuck and wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing to progress the story.
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Re: So... Why have we recruited this person?

Post by Sasarai10 »

Antimatzist wrote:She does? All she ever tells me is that water is boiling faster on top of a mountain.
http://suikosource.com/phpBB3/viewtopic ... 5&p=147472
sticky-runes wrote:Having a bath maker is pretty useful, or else you have a load of sweaty smelly people living in your castle that will have to resort to dipping in the lake to wash themselves. Having communal bath rooms is a bit more civilized and gives our characters a bit of leisurely time outside of battles.

Oleg was a dumb idea for a character. He invents the world's first camera and captures live footage of Illuya being destroyed, and his device never gets used again? and yet we still get newspapers being printed throughout S4 and other games taking place years later. I guess it's some sort of in game gag for the series where a piece of technology gets discovered or invented and never heard of again (like how each game has a different guy inventing the elevator)
But for entertainment's sake, they could have made Oleg into a character that provides a movie gallery of all the game's cut scenes.
What was more noteable is that Sansuke is the only bathmaker who can be useable in combat. And Sergei as well is the only inventor who is useable. Notice that since SIII characters who offer some kind of service in your HQ (like gamblers, cooks, etc) , are not useable in combat most of the times.


I think Manu was the original inventor, and Sergei and Adlai "thought" they invented the elevator first, because Sergei wasn't aware of Manu's existence, and Adlai wasn't aware of both. Well that's my theory at least.
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Re: So... Why have we recruited this person?

Post by Antimatzist »

The beaver in V can be used in battle, and the inventors in V and Tierkreis were support characters.

Adlai's elevator is working differently than that of the others, it's manpowered, whereas Sergei, iirc, has something to do with what they call alchemy in the Suikoden world.
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Re: So... Why have we recruited this person?

Post by Sasarai10 »

Antimatzist wrote:The beaver in V can be used in battle, and the inventors in V and Tierkreis were support characters.

Adlai's elevator is working differently than that of the others, it's manpowered, whereas Sergei, iirc, has something to do with what they call alchemy in the Suikoden world.
If I remember well only Beavers that don't fight were Fuwalafuwalu and Miroon (the one with glasses who holds a pencil). Babbage, what kind of weapon could use though?
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sticky-runes
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Re: So... Why have we recruited this person?

Post by sticky-runes »

Sorensen was Babbage's weapon.
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Re: So... Why have we recruited this person?

Post by wataru14 »

Miroon does fight. Only Fuwalafuwalu does not.
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Re: So... Why have we recruited this person?

Post by Sasarai10 »

wataru14 wrote:Miroon does fight. Only Fuwalafuwalu does not.

Ah OK! It's been years since I've played this game.
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