Suikogaiden, Vol.2 (2000)

[幻想水滸外伝Vol.2 クリスタルバレーの決闘]

Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo
Platform: Playstation

Overview:
Nash returns to Harmonia, where he finds himself charged with embezzlement, part of Saji's plot for revenge.

Gameplay:
As with the previous entry, there's no real gameplay per se. There are branching options in the story and certain choices result in hidden modifiers that affect the options available to you and some of the scenes you can see.

Story/Characters:
While the first gaiden was centered on Nash's activities during the Dunan Unification War, this time around we get a glimpse of byzantine politics of Harmonia. This particularly makes it a good bridge into Suikoden III. I'll admit to feeling somewhat dissatisfied with the conclusion of Nash and Saji's conflict but was overall pleased with the story. The Viki alt route is amazing.

Graphics:
As with the previous entry, we have static backgrounds, a few variants of character art and illustrations of key scenes along with an animated OP. The quality of the previous entry holds true here.

Music/Sound:
The music is decent enough and the sound effects passable.

Conclusion:
This is a good visual novel that does well to wrap up the loose threads from the previous entry and do some setup for the next game in the mainline series.

Rating:
Play It (Read It?)