8,272
edits
(Moved to YMMV) |
HLIAA14YOG (talk | contribs) m (added Category:Fantasy Video Games using HotCat) |
||
(7 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 4:
Set over 150 years ''before'' the events of [[Suikoden I|the first]] ''[[Suikoden]]'', ''[[Suikoden IV]]'' takes place in the ocean far south of the Scarlet Moon Empire, revolving around the islands that would come to be known as the Island Nations following the events of this game. It tells the tale of [[Hello, Insert Name Here|Lazlo]], a recent graduate of the Gaien Marine Knights Academy on the nation's island colony of Razril. He gets snared in a deadly chain of events involving the [[Artifact of Doom|Rune of Punishment]], one of the most dangerous of the 27 True Runes, and winds up wrongfully accused of murder and exiled. From there, he is drawn into the [[La Résistance|resistance movement]] as the islands are attacked by the aggressive [[The Empire|Kooluk Empire]].
Visit the character sheet [[Suikoden IV/Characters|here
{{tropelist}}
* [[All There in the Manual]]: A ''lot'' of important details about the plot only come out if the player makes sure to talk to ''everyone'' as much as possible, and even then, a great deal was left out. [[Suikoden Tactics|Enter the sequel]]...
* [[And Your Reward Is Clothes]]: Oddly enough, the clothes you find? Are for ''Snowe''.
* [[Aristocrats Are Evil]]: Vincent Vingerhut and Schtoltenheim Reinbach ''II''. Their sons [[Upper Class Twit|aren't quite as bad]].
* [[Badass Family]]: Lino En Kuldes and his daughter Flare. {{spoiler|And Lazlo, as he's Flare's brother. Or at least heavily hinted. With all the subtly of a brick to the head}}.
* [[Blessed with Suck]]: The Rune of Punishment.
** To explain in detail, as a True Rune, it desperately ''wants'' its massive power to be used. It will do its best to put the host in situations where the power ''has'' to be used. And it has the power of ''pure destruction''. But it gets worse. The Rune of Punishment also drains the life force of its host. For in-battle usage, that means it drains some of Lazlo's HP every time one of its spells is cast. For the wider-scale plot-based uses, he tends to be put into a coma for a while. And eventually, it'll drain enough that the host dies. The Rune of Punishment does [[The Ageless|halt the aging process]] like other True Runes, but its previous hosts have never lived long enough for that to matter. {{spoiler|In the [[Multiple Endings|good ending]], Lazlo is able to get the Rune to switch from "judgment" to "forgiveness", allowing him to survive. In his ''[[Suikoden Tactics]]'' guest appearance, it's revealed that this makes the Rune of Punishment completely broken, it now ''heals'' him with every use instead of draining him}}.
* [[Boss in Mook Clothing]]: Leviathan, which is encountered randomly in the world map.
* [[But Thou Must!]]: Subverting this a couple of times leads to a few [[Nonstandard Game Over|Bad Endings]].
** Also used in the final dungeon, when {{spoiler|Eleanor insists that she and Lino lead a party into El-Eal to take out Cray. Lino is optional to take; refusing Eleanor prompts her to lock Lazlo in his bedroom until after her events are played out}}.
* [[Butt Monkey]]
* [[Can't Drop the Hero]]: Averted in the first stage of the final dungeon, where, although Eleanor is directly controlled on the field, your party can be anyone else from the army.
* [[Catgirl]]
** Given that she clearly doesn't look anything like a Nay-Kobold, clearly she's an eccentric human girl who wants to be a catgirl.
** She also explicitly states when you recruit her you're an idiot for believing she is a Nay-Kobold (even though you have to have the [[Idiot Ball]] to recruit her...).
* [[Character Development]]
* [[Chest Monster]]
* [[Clingy MacGuffin]]
* [[Con Crew]]: A male "victim" tries to convince the mark to challenge a [[Cute Bruiser]] [[Small Girl, Big Gun|with]] a [[BFS]]. Somewhat ironically, this Shill {{spoiler|turns out to be your Personal Trainer once recruited.}}
* [[Continuity Nod]]: The Hero's weapon is named after Riou's from ''[[Suikoden II]]''. Or is it the other way around?
* [[Cool Ship]]: Your headquarters. A massive, multi-leveled ship with more than enough space to give most of your important Stars individual rooms, as well as hold a roomy lounge/inn/bar where all your [[Mini Game|MiniGames]] go, ''[[Suikoden]]'''s equivalent to a strip mall, a blacksmith, ''two hot-spring style baths'', a training hall, a specially designed room for the mermaids...
* [[Cute Kitten]]: The Nay-Kobolds: feline counterparts to the usual canine Kobolds.
* [[Dark-Skinned Blond]]: Jewel, Axel and other natives of Na-Nal.
* [[Defeat Means Friendship]]: Helmut is a textbook example; Snowe subverts this.
* [[
* [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]]: One feature (for some reason only available in a [[New Game+]]) is the ability to switch your onscreen character to someone besides the hero. If you go into first person mode with a variety of different people, you'll notice that this isn't just cosmetic; the perspective actually changes to match the height of the character. It's a susprising amount of effort for a feature most players will never notice.
* [[
* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: Kind of important for Lazlo, as only by gathering all the Stars of Destiny can he {{spoiler|avert his [[Plotline Death]]}}.
* [[Emotionless Girl]]: Mizuki, Paula.
* [[Evil Plan]]: It seems like the Cray Trading Company wants to take over the Islands but the [[Big Bad]] has something else in mind. {{spoiler|Graham Cray orchestrated the entire Kooluk invasion in order to get his hands on the Rune of Punishment again. He's notably surprised and upset when the Rune sticks with Lazlo at the end of the game}}.
* [[Fantastic Racism]]: Goes both ways between {{spoiler|the human and elven natives of Na-Nal. Both sides claim the island belongs to them; the Kooluk's entry into the equation just [[It Got Worse|makes things worse]]}}.
* [[Fishing Minigame]]: Naturally; you can also throw a net off the back of the boat and snag items {{spoiler|([[Guide Dang It|and an ally]])}} that way.
* [[Flying Seafood Special]]: Plenty of the enmies out in the sea.
* [[Four Is Death]]: This is the fourth ''Suikoden'' game. {{spoiler|Guess what kind of side effects the Hero gets from his True Rune when used too much. Unless staved off by collecting 108 stars of course}}.
** Arguably, one could say that this game nearly "killed" the franchise as well. It's debatable as to if ''[[Suikoden Tactics|Suikoden Tactics/Rhapsodia]]'', ''[[Suikoden V]]'' and ''[[Suikoden Tierkreis]]'' have revived it to its former glory or not.
* [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]: See [[Mass Teleportation]] below. Can you imagine how broken it would be in the middle of a naval battle to suddenly teleport your ships behind the enemy and out of their guns' line of fire? In out-of-battle use of Viki's teleportation, it's made very clear that this is well within her ability, yet nobody ever thinks of it.
** [[Fridge Horror|And if she messes up the teleportation that time?]] It's not uncommon knowledge Viki could very well, I dunno, sneeze and send the ships to the Grasslands or something. Or over a town.
* [[Genki Girl]]
* [[Giant Enemy Crab]]
* [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]]
* [[Golem]]
* [[Guide Dang It]]
* [[Heel Realization]]
* [[Her Codename Was Mary Sue]]: The Rose Swordsman from the story published in Perrault's newspaper after Reinbach and Micky join.
* [[Hidden Elf Village]]
* [[Highly-Visible Ninja]]
* [[I Did What I Had to Do]]
* [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]]
* [[Intrepid Merchant]]
* [[Jigsaw Puzzle Plot]]
** In fact, it's possible that, unless you're previously informed, you won't even ''know'' the game is set before the original ''Suikoden'' until you come across Ted. Even then you might not know that it's 150 years before...
* [[Light Is Not Good]]
* [[Mass Teleportation]]
* [[Meganekko]]
* [[Mini Game]]
* [[Minor Injury Overreaction]]
** In case you're wondering, a fall where he hurts his arm causes the character to ''abandon the ship he is commanding, along with the crew, who are all his friends, to a bloodthirsty, unstoppable pirate''.
*** Though it's rather likely that the character in question, who had been promoted beyond his competence due to political connections and had never seen serious combat before, simply panicked and used the arm as an excuse.
* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: Lazlo, surprisingly, has quite a few girls giggling over him. There's Rita, Rene and Noah, and then there's his self-appointed bodyguards Millay, Gretchen and Helga.
** And when asked what she thinks of Lazlo, Millay apparently has some [[Bodyguard Crush]].
* [[My Country, Right or Wrong]]: Helmut and Troy.
* [[New Game+]]: You get to keep your money and items except for a few artifacts, and, best of all, you can now skip the CG scenes by pressing the triangle button.
* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]]: The Unicorn Zombies in the Ruins of Obel.
* [[Old Save Bonus]]: The lack of one enraged the fandom despite how the timeline would've rendered it impractical anyway...
* [[Petting Zoo People]]: [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Nay-Kobolds]].
* [[Pirate Booty]]: Found through a digging [[Mini Game]].
* [[Pretty in Mink]]: Ameria.
* [[The Quisling]]: {{spoiler|Snowe, who trades vital information, the dissolution of Razril's chapter of the Knights of Gaien, and the use of their island as a hub for the Kooluk's ongoing invasion in exchange for Razril's safety. In exchange, the Kooluk give him a false title and duties, distracting him from how Razril suffers under their control... Leading to his immense surprise when the citizens [[The Dog Bites Back|turn on him]]}}.
** Another example is {{spoiler|the chief of Na-Nal, who makes his own alliance with the Kooluk and openly mocks Lazlo and Lino for trying to fight back. It doesn't end well}}.
* [[Random Encounters]]: ''Oh very much so''. The rate's just a ''liiiittle'' bit high in this incarnation, and it ''hurts''.
** Fortunately, you get Viki later on to the point that you can just use her warping abilities. Except for those few times when she won't let you teleport due to story reasons.
* [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]]: {{spoiler|Ted, in a sort of [[Early-Bird Cameo]]. Kinda}}.
* [[Rebellious Princess]]:
** Flare, though her rebellion is aimed towards the enemy forces rather than her father.
** Millay is a straighter example, though not royalty. {{spoiler|Her parents tried to force her into an [[Arranged Marriage]] with Middleport's heir (who's twice her age) and when she fled, the local lord sent his [[Mooks]] after her. Ironically, Schtoltenheim Reinbach III didn't even ''know'' about said arrangements until he helps Lazlo ''save'' her, and seems rather horrified by the thought himself}}.
* [[Rodents of Unusual Size]]: Killer Rodents.
* [[Run, Don't Walk]]: Default is running; you can walk by using the + directional pad and run ''faster'' by holding the R1 button.
* [[Running Gag]]: Schtoltenheim Reinbach III appears ''in person'' this time around. As do the fictionalized accounts of his life that will make him famous to future generations.
* [[The Scapegoat]]: Lazlo; at one point, {{spoiler|Katarina acknowledges that she suspected he wasn't to blame, but wanted to see ''someone'' pay for Glen's death}}.
* [[Smug Snake]]: Vincent Vingerhut, Snowe's father. The richest man on Razril, he {{spoiler|[[Backstory|took advantage of Razril's growing budget issues as Gaien scaled back its navy to]] [[Blackmail|subtly buy out the local branch of knights]]... something Commander Glen resents, yet can't do anything about or he'll lose his funding}}. In the game ''proper'', he {{spoiler|takes advantage of Glen's [[Plotline Death]] to frame Lazlo and have him exiled, then instills his son as the new commander... then hides out in his mansion when things get rough, only emerging to [[Ungrateful Bastard|try and drive Lazlo off]] after [[The Alliance]] liberates Razril from the Kooluk}}.
* [[Spirited Competitor]]: Mitsuba, a [[Con Man|Teenage Con Woman]] who doesn't mind getting beat when she gets recruited afterwards.
* [[Start of Darkness]]: {{spoiler|Graham Cray}} has a surprisingly tragic one: {{spoiler|he had the Rune of Punishment once, and cut off his hand to escape the curse... then it jumped to his son. Then his village was attacked by ''his own superiors'' in the Scarlet Moon Kingdom, and his son died using the rune to stop them}}.
* [[The Strategist]]: Eleanor Silverberg, who doubles as [[Lady Drunk]].
* [[Stripperific]]: Jeane's outfit this time around is... well. There was a joke theory in fandom that, since she was steadily losing clothes in each game, [[Anachronic Order|''Suikoden IV'''s position on the timeline]] meant we'd see her in full heavy robes. Didn't happen.
* [[The Stoic]]: Lazlo, who combines this with [[Heroic Mime]].
* [[Viewer Gender Confusion]]: In-world example: Wendel, a [[Tomboy|Tomboyish]] [[Action Girl]] who declares herself the apprentice of Nico, your ship's lookout. Who, despite his frequently-praised vision and having her constantly hanging around him, thinks she's a guy.
* [[Weapon of Mass Destruction]]
* [["Well Done, Son" Guy]]
** [[Character Development]]: With enough sharpening it becomes ''My Blade''.
* [[White-Haired Pretty Boy]]
* [[Xanatos Gambit]]
** In short, the planner is
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Strategy RPG]]
[[Category:Eastern RPG]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Suikoden IV]]
[[Category:Video Game]]
[[Category:Video Games of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Fantasy Video Games]]
|