you know, I don't even remember his character, he barely played the game. My young est brother played another girl named "Katrina" who sucked at everything but had fun doing it, and my oldest brother. (Countless weeds were sprouted and countless Bells were pocketed thanks due to my constant changing of the in-game date.) My younger brother played a fishing-obsessed boy only known as "xcv!" who would often be sporting a tan from his many trips to the Gameboy Advance island. My character, a girl named "Bonnet" who only wore gingham clothes, was the bug-catcher and general penny-pincher who'd do anything for money. My brothers and I all had houses in the game and we all covered different bases. It stuck with me till this day and remains, in my heart, as one of the best games I have ever played - it highlighted or foretold the process of growing, of the coming of age - a reminder of the little promises we've made as young friends, no matter how silly they may seem at some points, end up being the bond that keeps us together. in some senses, it also inspired some form of idealism and a yearning for adventure - like how would it feel to take on the world with my good friends in school then. It was a very powerful experience in the sense that for my age then, the game's story/plot made me think about my little world then - how it would feel if I had to fight my best friend in school then. I shuffled among all the characters to try out the different attack/skill combos - it was just rather crazy.
I made sure I found all the 108 characters so that I could save everyone and get the best possible ending.
I grew very attached to all the characters in the game - I wanted to find out more about each and every single one of them. I try my best to not talk about the story/plot in detail lest I spoil it for anyone. I was thinking quite a bit about this and it's hard to really pinpoint one specific game.įor me, Suikoden II will always be special to me - having played it when I was still under the age of 13 (I can't remember exactly when.