suikoden 2

The story of Suikoden II begins with two childhood friends, Riou (the player's character) and Jowy Atreides. The two are members of the Unicorn Brigade, a youth division of the Highland Army, and are preparing to go home when a peace treaty is seemingly broken by soldiers of the Jowston City-State. It is later revealed that the Highland Prince Luca Blight and the Unicorn Brigade's own Captain Rowd orchestrated the massacre of the youths and blamed it on Jowston, thus giving Highland a reason to commence an invasion. Riou and Jowy flee the campsite and find a waterfall. They promise to return to this spot if they're ever lost or in trouble, then jump into the waterfall.

Riou is later recovered from the river alone by Viktor and Flik, heroes of the Gate Rune War (events depicted in Suikoden), and is made captive of their band of mercenaries in Jowston. Whilst Riou is performing menial tasks for the mercenaries Jowy arrives and explains that he was rescued from the river by a young girl named Pilika from the village of Toto. The two escape back to their hometown of Kyaro, where they are reunited with Riou's adoptive sister Nanami. Unfortunately they are soon caught by Rowd and tried as deserters, only to be rescued just in time by Viktor and Flik.

It soon becomes clear to Riou, Jowy and Nanami that Luca Blight has terrible ambitions for Highland as he burns down both villages of Toto and Ryube and the mercenary fortress and slaughters the vast majority of their inhabitants. Traumatized by witnessing the murder of her parents, Pilika loses her ability to talk.

In the ruins of Toto, Riou and Jowy uncover an ancient cave and inside discover sacred runes along with a mysterious messenger named Leknaat. The two are faced with the decision of accepting two halves of the Rune of the Beginning; the Bright Shield Rune and the Black Sword Rune. Riou accepts the Bright Shield Rune whilst Jowy takes the Black Sword Rune.

Riou, Jowy, Nanami, Flik, and Viktor travel with the surviving mercenaries to the city of Muse in the heart of Jowston territory where they meet the mayor Anabelle. Faced with an imminent invasion of Highland forces, she employs Riou and Jowy to act as spies and sneak into an enemy provisions camp. They uncover the information they need but are discovered on the way out. Jowy insists that Riou should run back to Muse while he holds off the soldiers. Riou reluctantly agrees and spends the following night sitting at the city gates with Nanami and Pilika waiting for Jowy to return. Just as they are about to give up, he appears in the distance.

The following night, Riou is on his way to speak to Anabelle when he finds that she has been murdered by Jowy. Riou takes Nanami and Pilika and they flee south across the Dunan lake to the town of Southwindow where they reunite with Flik and Viktor. An agreement is reached that a formidable military force must be assembled to combat Highland, considering that most authoritative figures within the City-State are unable to reach a stable unification. The abandoned town of Northwindow on the shores of the lake is decided as a suitable position for a headquarters.

It is soon revealed that Northwindow was Viktor's home town until its people were killed by the vampire Neclord while he was away. Upon arriving in the town it seems that Neclord is still alive (Viktor and Tir McDohl's attempts to destroy him during the events of Suikoden were apparently futile as it was only a doppelganger). Viktor reacquires the Star Dragon Sword, the only weapon capable of overpowering Neclord's overwhelming defenses, in the Cave of Wind. While there Kahn Marley, a vampire hunter, joins your team to help defeat Neclord, but the vampire consequently flees from Northwindow. After the vampire flees, Kahn leaves your team to continue hunting for Neclord.

The town is promptly populated with mercenary forces, refugees and other willing additions. The old castle is renovated and established as the base for the new Orange Army. Under the advice of Apple, Riou enlists the help of Shu, a master strategist and former fellow pupil of Apple's under the famous Mathiu Silverberg. Following Shu's tactics, the Orange Army managed to repel a Highland attack despite being significantly outnumbered. In particular, Riou is heralded for his bravery in an ambush against the Highland general Solon Jhee and Shu suggests that Riou becomes the leader of the Orange Army.

The following morning Riou accepts Shu's advice to become leader of the Orange Army. Leknaat reappears and tells him that fate has been once again set in motion and that 108 brave souls, known as the 108 Stars of Destiny, will unite under Riou to uphold justice. She gives Riou the Stone Tablet, bearing the names of the 108 stars, and entrusts her servant Luc to their cause.

Meanwhile, Solon Jhee is executed under the command of Luca Blight for his failure against the Orange Army. Jowy steps up to replace him and promises Luca success with only limited forces.

Riou proceeds to travel to and enlist the aid of both Two River and Greenhill. During a confrontation in the latter, Riou and Jowy face one another. Jowy asks Riou to give up fighting and run away but he refuses, claiming he has his own reasons to fight too.

Riou later travels to Matilda to try and create an alliance with the knights there, led by Gorudo. At this time, however, Luca Blight initiates a plan using the Beast Rune to devour the souls of the inhabitants of Muse City. Luca now has the assistance of Leon Silverberg. Enraged by Gorudo's decision to avoid the tragedy, his once-loyal subjects Camus and Miklotov defect and join forces with Riou. A number of Matilda knights also join them.

Meanwhile, Jowy marries the Highland princess Jillia and joins the Blight royal family. However, a plot reveals itself during the ceremony and it turns out that Luca has poisoned his father, King Agares Blight. Agares dies, placing Luca on the throne of Highland.

Soon Riou travels south to the Toran Republic, formerly the Scarlet Moon Empire, where he meets President Lepant who has been left in charge in the absence of Tir McDohl. Lepant says he sees the same glimmer of hope in the eyes of Riou that he once saw in Tir and agrees to form an alliance and offers troops and a general (either Kasumi or Valeria).

After Riou's return he receives news that Luca Blight is planning a large-scale attack of Northwindow with an army of 50,000 men. Hugely outnumbered with a mere 20,000 men, Shu devises a strategy to ambush Luca with a surprise attack led by three separate units. The units - under the leadership of Flik, Viktor and Riou - attack Luca's unit consecutively but are still no match for his unbelievable strength. Luca escapes, wounded, but is ambushed again by a unit of archers and is riddled with arrows. Riou duels with him and, having suffered too many wounds, Luca is eventually defeated. The Orange Army return to the castle where Riou, after being lauded by his people, collapses from exhaustion.

He recovers a few days later when he receives an invitation to a peace treaty meeting from Culgan of the Highland Army. Riou attends but it is a trap and he is threatened by Jowy to surrender. During confusion, Pilika returns to Jowy and he orders the soldiers not to fire any arrows in front of her.

Riou soon after receives a plea from Koyu, a bandit from the western lands of Tinto, claiming that Neclord is attacking their towns. Riou travels with Nanami and Viktor to put an end to the fighting and manages to seal away Neclord's power with the help of Kahn Marley, a vampire hunter, and Sierra Mikain, the first vampire from whom Neclord stole the Moon Rune.

Now with the support of Tinto's mayor Gustav Pendragon the Orange Army is able to liberate the Highland-occupied cities of Greenhill and Muse and plan an attack on Rockaxe Castle, the domain of Gorudo and the remaining Knights of Matilda. But before the dawn of the battle, Leknaat appears once more to congratulate Riou for he had successfully united all 108 Stars of Destiny in his struggle. She unlocks the full potential of his Bright Shield Rune.

The following battle is a success and the next stage of the plan is set in motion. With the enemy soldiers lured out of the castle by a decoy unit, Riou is able to sneak inside with Nanami to burn the Matilda flag, replacing it with Dunan's own. Unfortunately, they are intercepted by Jowy who intends to prevent them from completing their mission. Despite Nanami's pleas to avoid fighting, Riou and Jowy are both fully prepared to do so. At this instant Gorudo appears with a group of Matilda Knights. They fire arrows at Riou, but Nanami leaps to his defense and is hit in the process. Jowy and Riou furiously join forces to attack Gorudo and succeed in killing him and his knights, but it is too late for Nanami and she dies later in the castle's infirmary.

Forced to quickly deal with his grief and terrible loss, Riou must rise to lead his army to victory at L'Renouille, the capital city of Highland. Shu creates a strategy to burn an entire forest with the Highland Army in it, killing a massive amount of enemy soldiers. The remaining forces are defeated by the Orange Army on the battlefield and Riou is able to infiltrate L'Renouille Castle with a handful of companions.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the castle, Jowy tells Jillia to flee Highland with Pilika and to start a new life for themselves under a different name.

Riou finally finds Leon Silverberg in the throne room. Leon cuts his hand and his oozing blood awakens the Beast Rune etched in the castle's very floor. After the most challenging battle yet, the Beast is finally defeated and causing the castle to collapse. Riou escapes safely where he is greeted by the Orange Army.

The following day the leaders of all the factions of the City-State gather together to form a new alliance. The player can either choose to help lead the new Dunan Republic, or leave to fulfill Riou's promise to Jowy and return to Tenzan Pass. If the player chooses this option, Jowy is waiting for him. Jowy explains that when they acted as spies in the Highland camp he stayed behind and met Luca Blight. He despised everything that Luca stood for and vowed to never let anyone destroy peoples' lives like he had done, in particular he didn't want anyone to suffer as Pilika had. Jowy then attacks Riou.

Several things can result. Riou can simply win the duel. Even if Riou holds back, Jowy will pass out regardless as too weak if Riou did not try to save Nanami in time at Rockaxe, or if all 108 Stars of Destiny were not collected. In these cases, Riou takes Jowy's Black Sword Rune and reunifies it into the Rune of the Beginning. Then, Riou leads the Dunan Republic after all as in the first ending, with a black & white picture of Riou, Nanami, and Jowy as the ending. If all 108 Stars were collected, the hero attempted to save Nanami at Rockaxe, and Riou refuses to fight in the duel, Leknaat will appear and stop the fight. As they leave, Shu appears and tells them that Nanami is in fact still alive and had faked her own death because she couldn't bear to see Riou and Jowy fight. Shu says farewell to Riou as he leaves with Jowy to find Nanami waiting at Genkaku's house in Kyaro, where the three of them embark upon a new adventure. The Jowston City-State becomes reborn as the Dunan Republic.