Finally, we are up to speed. Luckily for this one, Blue and I could use Pokemon that we had from earlier raids, so a pair of familiar faces pop up here.

I have the Vaporeon from the Blastoise raid, but the moveset has been changed up (I still Tera fire). With my ability (Water Absorb), Muddy Water will heal me and not be an issue, meaning I can carry a different item in without worrying about accuracy. Like when I send Umbreon, this Vaporeon is a saboteur, using Chilly Water to lower Swampert's attack, Mud-Slap to lower its accuracy, and then when it starts to default to special moves, I can use Calm Mind to become bulky. I brought Fake Tears to lower its special defense to help Blue, but I was distracted while recording this, so I did not end up using it properly.

As for Blue, he is running a Stored Power Slowbro here. He starts off with Amnesia, but this is because I am here, otherwise Iron Defense would be better. Since I am lowering Swampert's physical attack, it will default to special, thus Amnesia is better (same logic as my Calm Mind). Once his defenses are up, he can Nasty Plot, then go to town.

We got a little lucky with the Tauros being with us here to help lower Swampert's physical attack, but I think we still largely had it under control. This is also our first run on Swampert, so we did not know when the wipes and other effects were coming. With what we know now, I am positive we could beat it faster and even more decisively.

Everyone's true colors are on display as 119 heroes take to the field. After routing the Imperials, we take to their camp to try to bring everything to a permanent close. Sadly, it is probably one of the most boring dungeons that has ever been created. You just have to run around some wooden stakes and fight the boss. There are no mechanics or strategy to be had here as it is just a long relaxing walk after the strategy battle where there are too many heroes and not enough squares to hold them all.

I am not going to elaborate too much here. We get to "play" as Freddy and round up some ingredients. There is no real combat, but loads of dialogue. If you like the CS3 and CS4 characters, you may get some enjoyment here, but I want to move onto the next one, so I will see you there.

At the beginning of the game, we had to defend this place, now we must siege it. In the preparations leading up to the liberation, the game will split into the two routes. If any of the heroes are missing, the assassin will kill Perielle. Since everyone is here, there is a fortunate intervention that preserves the team. Then when all of the heroes are assembled, we are free to commence the liberation.

As to whether the 120th hero is worth the hassle of getting all heroes to unlock her, that is up for debate. You will not see me use her.

The minor characters have their day! But on a serious note, this is how Jingo got her airship. It also ties into the Orbal Gear story and a bunch of others. The time frame when Tio is turning it over at the end is a little weird in how it all lines up, but I'd rather move onto the next game than sit around and question it.

The alliance is about to meet the Empire's alliance and everyone is feeling the heat. There are scenes here with multiple different groups to try to give some insight into them, and this is the extent of character development that the vast majority of them receive. Sadly, the game does not do a good job at directing you to the different scenes, so I spent roughly an hour wandering around here looking for them. I cut out the really bad parts where I got lost to try to make this smoother, but I imagine it still drags a bit. With the end of the game in sight, I am hoping we can keep things together for a little while longer...

I kind of got a Super Mario RPG vibe here in that like Bowser, Markus got evicted from his castle and needs our help in getting it back...

Otherwise, Marisa strikes out in order to avenge her home and it is a bit of a lengthy segment. The important thing here is that we need to get Sacred Tree Chips as we need to use these to expand Gocteau's operation back at our castle. In doing so, we will have access to all of the resources in the game and can completely upgrade the castle. If you do not get the chips here, you will need to come back for them later, and you will lose out on some time. As a result, you will need to burn some game time doing things while the teams are out gathering resources.

Otherwise for this part, the castle is one of the better dungeons in the game I think. It doesn't abuse the vertical element and may even give a bit of Castlevania vibes to people. If you bring both necromancers, you do get a damage boost to undead enemies, so that can allow you to cut through the random battles a bit more quickly, meaning that the fights are even less of a slog. That may have played a part in building a smoother experience.

There were probably better picks for this one, but after having to train the Vaporeons and other things going on at the time, I opted to bring back one of the older ones I used in the past.

Armarouge is pretty much here to wipe the enemy stats, rendering buffs meaningless. I have a little bit of damage to contribute, but my goal is to prevent Meganium from becoming a monster.

Ceruledge is the one aiming for the knockout here. Swords Dance will boost his power, then he just needs to spam his ghost moves until he can tera and bring it to a close.

With this one down, there is only one starter from Johto remaining and I have not heard a word on when the gator will be making its entrance.

It has been awhile since I fought one of these twice just to show variance, but here I tackle Primarina solo in the first part, then Blue joins me in the second. The trick here is to abuse the AI (and people complain about gen 1!?) Both times, I use Gholdengo as there is an effect where Primarina can get stuck using Sing and not really do anything. The second time, Blue brings the Vaporeon he used in the Blastoise video to further abuse the AI.

So during the solo run, I did this one completely blind with no prior attempts, so it does not go too smoothly. I get lucky with Bellibolt being able to apply some screens to contain damage which allows me to do some things. Without it, I probably would not have survived my first attempt. The goal is to buff up and then use Flash Cannon to chip away at Primarina until it goes down, not too much difference here between rounds.

During the second, I do not have Bellibolt, but Blue is running support for once and you can see how it plays out. He drops Sunny Day to weaken Primarina's water attacks while I do my stuff, then he spams accuracy dropping moves to further stabilize me. When he is ready to Tera, he goes Fire to protect against Fairy attacks and his ability protects him from the water attacks. He is still using Weather Ball as his primary damage move. Primarina can get stuck in a loop where it uses water moves on him, and even the automatic timed moves are water by default, so Blue is in a very stable position.

Ultimately, you can see how much of a difference having just one teammate can make. I imagine some of these would be hilarious stomps if we had even one more person with us, but the video would probably be good for little more than comedic value.

Blue has the Arceus game, so we brought in some Goodras to do the invincible strategy here. We did not have access to the DLC at the time, so we are not running the optimal set up. Instead, since we can double team everything, we can win this by sheer force.

The set up is that this is a Sap Sipper (grass immune), Steel (poison immune) Dragon, with an Air Balloon (ground immune). The turn Venusaur wipes stat boosts, we have to Protect to save the Air Balloon, otherwise ground attacks will hurt us. Since we do not have Gyro Ball, we are using Steel Head instead to do the DPS. Overall, this is probably the easiest raid to date.

A somewhat short video, but an important one as this is the game's last optional dungeon and the final recruitments. As of this video, we have ALL of the heroes and anyone we are missing is story related and will be joining us as we press forward.

Allaby is a free recruitment, as you merely need to talk to her at the bar/restaurant. Afterward, you can build her singing area and there is probably a minigame here that I never played.

Dijkstra is an important recruit as this dungeon is where we can get Orichalcum. There are only two gathering spots for it, and only one can be farmed efficiently. Like the Sacred Tree Chips, you will need to get some in order to unlock the gathering missions where the rest will come from. However, since this is almost the end of the game, I won't bother waiting too much to let them accumulate.

As for the dungeon, this is also the place where you can get some fairly powerful Beigoma. If you need to do that quest, try to get the ones here as they can help you take down the spinadiers.

So from here, it will be non-stop story segments. I was hoping there would have been a bigger optional dungeon, preferably with three groups like in FF6A, but it never materialized. As such, there are still quite a few heroes who I never fielded and just don't have the time or resources to send out. Sorry if you will not see your favorites, but it is just one more issue with the game itself.

This is the other side quest/minigame that kills any desire I have to ever play this game again. In order to get two of the characters, we have to endure this and whenever the game has a bad minigame, they force you to play it repeatedly to get a character. They don't do this crap for the egg races, but they do it for the cooking and beigoma crap.

So the problem with this other than it taking forever and having no markings anywhere to signify who can be played (you must play the random NPC), you must get your tops as rare item drops from different monsters. The accessories to boost item drop rates come around the final third of the game, and you must do the first part of this to recruit Corque to get his passive effect where he can boost their drop rate. I would have preferred to have bosses have guaranteed drops that you get by playing the story like FF8 does with some of its cards, but this is a huge step back from what would have been the standard over 20 years ago when Suikoden was relevant.

Now the next problem that comes up is that the RNG does not stop with the drop rates. These stupid things have a chance to apply status effects to themselves and the opponent every time they collide. By having a bad roll, you could find yourself under enemy effect without being able to influence them, and other times victory is extremely easy because the RNG goes your way. The solution to this would have been consistently applying lesser effects that just add up as the match goes on, but like so many other things, they just opt to have everything left to chance.

I know some people prefer the normal/bad ending of the game, but it is a combination of laziness and stupidity to gate the best ending behind this. I tried putting this off as best I could, fighting here and there so I didn't have to walk out to the middle of nowhere, but as we draw close to the end, I have to sit down and finish this.

So with this one, you can see that I have access to the DLC, but I don't know when/if I will get around to uploading that. The gist is that sometimes Umbreon can't go far enough and for times like that, we now have Vaporeon. Blue is using one that is essentially the mirror image of the one I have here.

The goal is to seize weather control, buff using Calm Mind, then using Weather Ball to wipe out Blastoise.

You will be seeing more Vaporeon in the future as there are still quite a few water starters we needed to do at the time of this recording.

While trying to clear out stuff from my HD, I realized I haven't uploaded one of these in awhile despite having recorded it quite some time ago. So every day this week, I intend to upload a video to get caught up and to let me clear this for space if needed.

The danger with Empoleon is its ability, meaning you do not want to drop its stats. As a result, you need to be very careful with who you bring and who you get as teammates as some of the bots can easily wreck you.

My strategy here is to have Umbreon steal its ability, seize control of the weather, then Snarl Empoleon into oblivion. Blue has a Slowbro you will be seeing more of later, using Amnesia to put on some bulk, Nasty Plot to boost his power, then Stored Power for the win. We got somewhat lucky that Bellibolt was here as it likes to put up shields for us, making this a lot easier, but overall with the two bulky guys we had, we were fairly safe the entire time.

Athrabalt has fallen and we need to get back to the safety of the castle immediately. Before going, we return to the spot where Nowa's team detonated the charges at Snowpeak where an extremely important character awaits. We must defeat him in a duel to get him to join, but he brings the passive ability of boosting drop rates, allowing you to farm Beigomas and other stuff far better than we could before. It sucks that there is still so much RNG reliance, but the game has bigger problems that need to be addressed first. You will see what I mean in the next video after we're done licking our wounds.

Here is the other half of the story about Tita making a new machine. This one has a bit of gameplay as we wander through a "dungeon" and fight some of the other playable characters as "bosses" for the segment. When everything is said and done, little is accomplished, which is a good summary of what the series has become.

There is no gameplay here, only some talking. The premise is that the power balance in Erebonia is unstable and the Scarecrow is working behind the scenes to remedy that. While this is going on, Kloe/Klaudia is trying to spend some time with her fellow alumni, which makes scheduling some of these things a bit tricky. If you're a Kloe or Lechter fan, you may enjoy this one, otherwise you can sink a half hour into some of the minute details from Sky.

With the avalanche plan having been predicted, we take refuge in Athrabalt and aim to stall until reinforcements arrive. This starts with a "strategy" battle that is fairly simple before going hand to hand inside the city. Like in the previous part, we split into three teams and each team has their own boss battle, so hopefully the groups from the last part work for you, otherwise you will need to adjust them on the fly here. If everything goes according to plan, we just may get a little more time...

This is the first time that we have to split the group up into three teams, each being led by one of the MCs. Unfortunately, I was not fully prepared for this, so I have to scramble somewhat as Seign's group is murdered hard in the first random battle. You can either send Nowa to buy armor to bring it to the group if you want the optimal stuff, or you can shop in the castle and directly equip if you don't mind it being somewhat inferior. For weapons, the castle is the only option sadly, so you may want to swap in some members before this segment to get them the best gear possible. As you can see, it can still be beat without the optimal stuff, but it will streamline things.

Regardless, the group will be splitting up a bit from here, so make sure people are upgraded to make it easier as the distance between them only continues to grow...

Since we are approaching the end of the game, I have to start doing the really annoying recruitments I've been putting off.

Galladur appears in the Proving Grounds and you have to defeat the enemies he summons in a single round. Bring people with good AOE skills like Isha and this one is fairly simple.

Momo requires a dungeon that just so happens to overlap with the Celia quest, so I do both here. We need to navigate the Sea Cavern, but Momo needs to go to the very end while Celia requires stopping a bit short. Unlike Celia, there is a boss here, so you will need to drain the water if you wish to use the ballista. Otherwise, beat it down and you'll be out of here.

Celia requires you to do almost the entirety of the glitched cooking quest. According to the Steam forums, if you spam Omelet, Fried Egg, and Coconut Water for ALL of the matches, you are pretty much guaranteed to win all of them other than the scripted loss. After the scripted loss, you need to go to the Sea Cavern for a shiny item on the ground. Once you have it, you can resume and take it all the way to the end. The second to last match will get you Celia. I am only showing a few of these matches as the "joke" was beaten to death longer before I pushed the record button here.

I don't know the exact requirement for Shixeen, but you need to buy a lot of cards. Once you are secure in your finances, and you may want a card shop upgrade or two, buy a bunch of boosters, then reset the room. There is no special scene to announce she has arrived, you need to notice her standing there. Play her and win to get her to join up.

This is a pure story segment where we are starting to reach a single event told from numerous different perspectives. Tita wants to build a new mech and does a lot of research and talking. The gameplay stuff will be coming in the other half of the Orbal Gear segment.

Not really a fan of this one. It is the usual daydream fare where we get a pre-constructed character and have to slog against an enemy with way too much HP. There are no major revelations or anything to justify this, but if you're a Cedric fan, you get to see him become the Sun. It's something, right?

This is a somewhat annoying segment. I opt to cheese my way through all of the pain and hardship:

Hogan, a reference to Crocodile Dundee, is a trader who wants you to make 50k in PROFIT to recruit him. I've been buying inventory here and there through the playthrough, almost as if anticipating this moment. Everything I accumulated BEFORE talking to him does not count toward my COST. As a result, I just dump everything I built up and the game thinks we have 50k profit and Hogan joins. I will use him once, and never again...

Rohan just needs a certain population at the castle to join. If you've been doing the upgrades regularly, you just need to talk to him like I did. All that time fishing has paid off... (not really). Rohan is one of the best supports you can bring along as he offers post battle passive healing, conserving items and MP for the dungeon boss. To describe him as valuable does not do him justice.

Foxiel requires Kurtz to join. When you talk to her, she wants a dish. Talk to Kurtz and he will make it. Give it to her and she joins, simple.

Aoi wants to duel Iugo to join. If you've been using him regularly until now and he has the needed upgrades, this is fairly easy. Take her down and she will join.

Reyna is one of the glitched characters and I have no idea when or if she will ever get fixed. She gives you 3 turns to deal around 1500 damage to her, but they mean her turns and not your turns. Since she just defends, this means she will always go first and thus you only have 2 turns. I am bringing people who can Charge Up on the first round to cut loose on the following turn. We have Marin with us just as an earth user to bust her shield. Everyone else needs to cut loose with their damage at the first opportunity. This can be a little easier once you get Dijkstra, but it is up to you if you want to wait that long.

Chances are, you are supposed to recruit Reyna a lot earlier than this, but due to the glitch, she joins us late and ..

With no reinforcements on the horizon, we have no choice but to become the reinforcements ourselves. A different liche from last time has appeared with an undead army to siege Yarnaan. With their numbers, we are forced to withdraw, which means a series of controlled fights as we hold the vanguard at bay while everyone can evacuate. It seems like everything is gathering for a showdown at Athrabalt.

We make a detour before accepting the main mission. I wasn't sure how things compared in Twinhorne, and I intentionally leave the characters there until a later video that is upcoming. Otherwise, we follow Rudy to Skriss and enter the Ice Cave in search of the missing children. This is one of the better dungeons in the game I think, and once again, I make cuts to eliminate the backtracking as you need to do quite a bit from the entrance.

Once the children are rescued, Rudy joins the team and we move to bring the next chapter of the story to a close.