In response to 'A Double Standard in RPGs'

by Nathan Larkins

Original Editorial: Suikoden II and Wild Arms 2: A Double Standard in RPGs

After reading Mr. Kleinman's editorial comparing Suikoden 2 and Wild ARMs 2, I became greatly disturbed. I will say without hesitation that I disagree with his opinion on which is the better game. However, I hope not to belittle his views, but rather to offer a different perspective, as I have played and beaten both of the Suikoden games, as well as Wild ARMs, and am very close to beating Wild ARMs 2. This, I think, enables me to play a sort of "devil's advocate" in that I can understand where the reviewers are coming from.

Both Suikoden 2 and Wild ARMs 2 were highly anticipated games for me, as each of the originals had entertained me greatly. Suikoden 2, although heralded as "more of the same", was actually very different from the original. Genso Suikoden's story was much simpler, being the basic story of the son of a great general who winds up leading the army which overthrows the Empire he grew up in. "Wait a minute," you say, "Suik 2's story was about that sort of thing, too!" Yes, it was, but behind the story of war lay a tale of friendship, loyalty, and betrayal, things, which, while present in the original, were in the background of the story, and nowhere near the plot's main focus.

Also, the gameplay for the second installment was vastly redone. Again, you say, "What do you mean? You still get a castle and build on it. You still get the 3 battle systems. Even the sounds are the same!" And again, this is true, but only up to a point. The castle in Suikoden 2 was really a city. There were more things to do within it. For instance, you had cooking contests, a trading post, farming, a detective for a little extra character development, and a sculptor who makes a mascot for your army. The army battles in the sequel were much more realistic, as they relied more on strategy and position than luck (or, if you were like me, than your thieves and ninjas).

Wild ARMs 2 held great promise. Unfortunately, it was a considerable letdown from the original. The puzzles were easer. There were several occasions during the first game where I spent hours in an area trying to figure out what to do to open that oh-so-aggravating door, and a couple of times when I had to go over to my local EB and sneak a peak into the strategy guide to get past. The longest I ever spent on any puzzle in WA 2 so far has been around 30 minutes, and that only because I overlooked a bombable wall.

Character development in the sequel also left rather a lot to be desired. When Rudy cut his arm off in the original I was genuinely concerned for his well being, even though I knew in the back of my mind that he'd back. Conversely, when Brad appeared to die in WA 2, my exact thoughts were, "Aw, man, he's my strongest fighter. Oh, well." I didn't feel the supposed pain that the rest of ARMS was going through (which could have come across much better). When Marina almost leaves Ashley because she finds out about his relationship with Lord Blazer, I again was left with a "So, what?" feeling.

The story of the second Wild ARMs game gave me a sense of, "Now, why am I doing this, again?" Throughout the game, I have been thinking to myself, "You know what would be cool? What if you wound up joining Odessa to fight Irving? That would be an interesting plot twist" or several different other things that would have improved on the overall quality of the story. After the first 2 hours of Wild ARMs 2, I could tell you almost everything that was going to happen for the rest of the disk simply by taking the most obvious way out. That was very disappointing.

On the other hand, gameplay for WA 2 was improved. The personal skills system was very interesting, as it allowed me to develop my characters based on what was important to me, not necessarily to the story. The 3-d environment contributed to the object puzzle nature of the game, as there were some treasure chests that could only be gotten by turning the view at an angle. Even gameplay suffered some, however, in that ARMs could only be upgraded 9 times. This severely limited the potential strength of Brad and Ashley's special attacks.

I apologize for the length of that comparison, especially for those of you who felt the same way, yet plodded through anyway. It was, however, necessary in order for my main point to make sense, which is that Suikoden 2, though not without faults, is a better sequel that Wild ARMs 2 because Suikoden 2 took what was good and fun about the first and improved on it, whereas WA 2 took most of what was good and fun about the original and watered it down.