Suikoden II is a sequel which builds upon the premise set by the first game and brings in a new story with accompanying characters. I know this is the time of year when tough choices are to be made concerning the purchases of video games. My review here is to help anyone who hasn't yet made up their mind on whether or not to splash out for some nice long RPGs (especially if you're not sure whether to go for this game, or some of the other high profile games).

The main draw to this game is the addictive gameplay, which is pretty involving, with a fun combat system. Six characters per battle party makes for intense fights with lots of combo possibilities. One of the better aspects of fighting is the ability to team up or 'unite' with other party members, resulting in impressive looking special attacks. Interacting with townsfolk is also quite entertaining, although not all of them have amusing things to say. Overall, this makes for a fun gameplay experience hampered only by the dreadful control (characters can't walk diagonally?!).

The graphics are OK, I guess, even though there are some scenes where the beauty of 2D shines. Overall, though, I think the artists could have done a better job going for a more stylistic approach with the backgrounds (just take a look at Legend of Mana, a perfect example of first class 2D animation).

The music in the game is mainly great, but some of the town music is very annoying ( that song for the fortress at the start is horrible enough to give anyone a migraine). That said, there are some really touching scores which add a lot to the emotional moments of the game, of which there are quite a number.

Suikoden II is almost great storywise. Almost, because there are perhaps a few too many little events which are irrelevant to the overall story and perhaps even detract from the game (making it unnecessarily complicated). I guess the story does have a nice flow to it, and never really leaves you stumped on what to do or where to go.

Overall, Suikoden II is an entertaining game, which I would recommend if you were looking for a typical but still interesting role-player. I do not suggest you take this over FF8 or Grandia, but never the less it is a good third choice if you already own the above 2; also, if you are a fan of the original, there's no reason why you wouldn't enjoy this. Personally, I'd take this over most other RPGs released in the past few months (I think Thousand Arms is aimed too much at a niche audience, while FF Anthology is only worth buying if you are desperate for FF5, as FF6's added cinemas do not make it a worthy purchase for owners of the old SNES version). Suikoden II is a very solid title, which you should at the very least rent and try out for 5 hours or so.