Seeking Suggestions; Rune and Skill advice

[bookwormbabe29]

Hi there!

So despite playing Suikoden 1 and 2 over 20 times each, I've not had a chance to delve into the ps2 games much. I finally was able to play S3, and I am on my first game of S5 now (still haven't been able to get 4).

Anywho, I am still early on, (unlikely spoilers) helping Belcoot to rescue Marina from some woods. I was fighting around on the world map trying to get cash to buy Belcoot some armor and buy a rune or two at the shop, and I've picked up two counter runes now. So I'm wondering what my best rune set up will be. I have to assume the Prince is going to somehow find himself a True Rune at some point, and Lyon looks to be my Gremio/Nanami type character. I'm so tempted to buy her an elemental rune, but now I have a free counter rune. She seems more physical, but as a medium range character I don't know how much it will see. And if she's always with me, giving her some magic might be worthwhile. I can't change Georg or Sialeeds runes, so the pressure's all on Lyon right now, and I feel every choice is wrong, putting the pressure on me lol.

Similar with skills. Only having two is different from S3, but from what I remember from there you want to increase attack power, and number of attack (attack and... agility in this game, I think). That just seems too easy though, like I'm over looking something obvious.

I'm not looking for spoilers or for anyone to walk me through it, just looking for some feedback. Am I missing something, or am I just over thinking this? Thank you kindly for your time!

[Antimatzist]

I always used Lyon as an attacker with a Healing Rune.

Don't think too much about it, you can beat the game with probably any combination of skills and runes.

[Wolkendrache]

I would suggest:
- Up to mid-game, don't waste your money on runes, spend it at the blacksmith, because most characters join at weapon level 1 for some reason.
- Don't worry about skills. Actually I don't like the battle skills, because they make most unite attacks obsolete. They make some characters ridiculously powerful, in a game that is easy anyway. Even if you just spend them on the preset skills, you'll become extremely powerful.
The most difficult aspect of the game is recruiting all characters, so just concentrate on that. Enjoy the game!

[KFCrispy]

punkaiser found that all those physical damage skills such as multi-hits and crits get calculated into unite damage, so there is nothing that makes unites obsolete (besides the crappy feeling you get from watching many uninspiring unite animations that repeat a character's attack string over and over and over and over...).

[Wolkendrache]

Wow, I didn't know that. Actually I once tested a handful of unites (but only once each) in late-game, and the normal attacks always did much more damage. Great to learn that this was all bad luck
Yeah, I prefered these "make-short-work" unites of the early games as well.

[bookwormbabe29]

I'm not worried about difficulty or anything, or being the most min/maxed or nothing.

When it comes to skills, I like to know what I'm doing lol. S3 always confuses me when I try to increase the normal attacks of a long range archer type, for example. I know for most of my fighters I'm going to want to increase their damage, and the best way for that is generally more attacks. Some will want more power, some high crit guys (George and his fixed killer rune, say) could use critical hit increases, and so on. S3 had lots of choices, but room to use a lot of them. Having only two... it seems like I should be using attack and agility (i think that's the name to increase number of attacks). There doesn't seem to be much for room for variance unless you're trying to limit your damage.

With runes, I was just wondering if anything was different here, like how S3 made fire a two edged sword by letting it hurt you. Really, was just looking to chat about the game, start discussions, etc.

For now, I stole the shield rune off of Miakis and gave it to Lyon, and bought the prince an earth rune. Have some defense up, some healing, chance of fury, and plenty of fighting power. Should keep me covered for a while. Though I did get a power rune which could be fun, too. Who knows? I have time to think it over as i'm trying to find some milk bath beads from those white hairballs. We'll see how it goes....

[KFCrispy]

of course it's always useful to keep some healing spells on the party, and Lyon does stick with you most of the time so she is a good choice as a dedicated healer. note that elemental affinity has no effect on most healing spells, so if you give someone Water Rune and only plan on healing with that character, there is no need to bump up Water affinity.