Question regarding the "monster" Stars of Destiny

[Sylo]

Okay, so as I was playing Suikoden II yesterday, Im at the point where Im able to go ahead and recruit all of the Squirrels.

As everyone knows, the additional squirrels you recruit are bonus characters and are NOT Stars of Destiny. I dont really understand why this is, and why MukuMuku is the ONLY SoD character out of them all. I know he is the "leader" of them all and everything, but still....

Anyway! This got me to thinking why arent you able to recruit ALL the other non-human extras? Like Rudolia AND Sigfried, Ayda, etc? I know that you are only given two listening crystals. Was it said that they are the ONLY two remaining in the world? If so, then how does one know such a thing? If not, is there any place to find more listening crystals?

I thought about this and believed it to be an interesting point in the Suikoden world. I also think its different than just choosing Valeria over Kasumi for instance (you HAVE to pick one or the other) But with the monsters, its kind of optional. But as two of the monsters are NOT SoD i makes me think "why cant you recruit them like you can the squirrels?"

If anyone has any ideas or opinions to share, I would LOVE to hear about them

[EstrangedIX]

I always thought that was annoying too. I figure it either comes down to technical limitations or they may have just thought that no one would be concerned with getting them all. It also adds a little to replay value if you want to try them all out. It bugs me though that in order to have the kraken family that you can't get 108 Stars.

[Pyriel]

For a real answer to most of this, you'd have to ask Konami. It seems rather senseless to have half a dozen--give or take--stars that are variable, but not the ones related to Feather and Ayda. (Ayda's human, right?) Any theories we could concoct would probably better fit the Unfounded Speculation section. I mean, you seem to realize that the game limits you to two crystals, so I have to assume you're asking whether there are more anywhere at any time in the main Suikoden universe. They're not explained very well in-game, and they're never mentioned anywhere else that I know of, so you really need the translators and the manga-readers to tell if you anything was mentioned in an interview, guide, novelization, etc.

[Sylo]

I mean, you seem to realize that the game limits you to two crystals, so I have to assume you're asking whether there are more anywhere at any time in the main Suikoden universe.

Yes, this is exactly the question I pose.

You are given two, but it seems to be unknown whether there are more. So you can recruit the Kraken family too. Even though only Rudolia is a SoD....

I would love to explore this deeper, but there seems to be no official information on this D:

[Sasarai10]

I always wondered why Rulodia and Chuchara weresn't SoD. They could definetely be so you could have 108 stars. I found it strange....although it isn't strange for the other 4 squirells being non-stars. If they were stars then we'll had 4 stars less,in order to be replaced with squirells.


And yes,i'd like to use both Valeria and Kasumi without codes. I don't know why the creators chose to recruit only one of them. They could easily remove some character who is useless,like Marlowe who does NOTHING when he joins you,he isn't playable in regural battles nor in war battles,and he doesn't provide any service in your castle....and place Kasumi or Valeria in his place. That was another thing i wondered why the creators did it,making Marlowe a SoD.

[veeshadow]

The only time Marlowe was useful is when you trigger bad ending path lol.. He even worse than Fitcher in term of story...

[Sasarai10]

The only time Marlowe was useful is when you trigger bad ending path lol.. He even worse than Fitcher in term of story...

Yes those 2 were completely useless since they didn't fight or provide any service,but at least Fitcher was frequently part of the main plot...but Marlowe after the evens in Tinto fades away.


He should be a fighter imo,using a book as weapon.

[Nikisaur]

Yeah it sucks. Seeing as getting the Kraken family is one of the few things I've never done. The other is Clive's quest, which I ran out of time for RIGHT BEFORE SAJAH

Optional stars are awkward. I always choose Kasumi over Valeria, but it'd be nice to have both. In Suikoden 1 it felt like almost everyone was playable. In Suikoden 2 it felt like they cut back a lot (no Ridley or Gilbert etc) and there's stars who aren't stars and waaah :'(

I guess it adds replayability though. Because no one would play it again otherwise [/sarcasm]

[Antimatzist]

It would have been cool if it would have mattered more who you've taken, like choosing Valeria allows for more War Battles whereas Kasumi helps you on stealth missions.

And yeah, I've never taken the Kraken before. Bad design, Konami!

[Piisuke]

Marlowe is similar to Esmeralda. They just do nothing. The only difference is that Marlowe looks up to you and loves the castle and Esmeralda moans about it.
Marlowe doesn't even run the library, as that is already taken. Doesn't he help Bolgan read?

I do agree with the overal sentiment here. Too many questions asked. Why only two crystals? Why are two of the three kraken's non stars? Why only Kasumi, OR Valeria and not both. They were invaluable in Suikoden with the Shrike and Falcon Rune.
I've taken on kraken, as only Feather is the one that you must recruit.

[Sasarai10]

Marlowe is similar to Esmeralda. They just do nothing. The only difference is that Marlowe looks up to you and loves the castle and Esmeralda moans about it.
Marlowe doesn't even run the library, as that is already taken. Doesn't he help Bolgan read?

I do agree with the overal sentiment here. Too many questions asked. Why only two crystals? Why are two of the three kraken's non stars? Why only Kasumi, OR Valeria and not both. They were invaluable in Suikoden with the Shrike and Falcon Rune.
I've taken on kraken, as only Feather is the one that you must recruit.

Man,Badeux should give 4 listening crystals so you could have all the monsters plus Chuchara. Of course monsters should be non-stars,so we could have 2 free stars left. One star would be for Tomo since you could have both Valeria and Kasumi,and the other could be someone else,Rowd for example.



It may sound crazy but i think Rowd should be recruitable. After all,after defeating Kiba he vanished from the game...so after that,you could find him in some city (Gregminster probably since he was searching for Liukan -probably- to heal his sister),and then choose to forgive him or not....

[Sylo]

It may sound crazy but i think Rowd should be recruitable:

I bet a lot of people thought that Rowd was recruitable during their first playthrough. You have certainly recruited more horrible people than Rowd during both the first two games! I am not sure what I would think of that, I guess it would depend on how his character developed and (possibly) repented.

But yes, I did think it was a bit odd how he was no longer significant once the bigger plot was expanded upon. Its a bit of a shame since you spend a good portion of the beginning despising Rowd! I would definitely prefer to have been able to recruit him than some random unicorn and such :/

[Pyriel]

I was honestly hoping that when I got Badeaux to spawn in the castle, he would give out more Listening Crystals. That would have been an awesome secret to have hidden for years because of a stupid bug. Instead he just babbles about nature and stands around.

[Sylo]

I was honestly hoping that when I got Badeaux to spawn in the castle, he would give out more Listening Crystals.

Thus alluding back to my first observation. Did he not have more listening crystals? It seemed like he possessed one (him being able to listen to Shiro etc) He could have given that one over to you (at least until the end of the war) Or perhaps just ONE listening crystal should have been enough to recruit the whole kraken family.

It is said that he owns the "Rune of Mindfulness" Maybe he should have been able to help you recruit all the monster SoD? It would be pretty awesome, Badeaux and his army of beasts!

[Pyriel]

Yeah, I was mainly responding to Sasarai10 saying Badeaux should give 4 crystals. If he'd given out a side quest to find more, or opened up a "Listening Crystal Shop" on the library lawn, it would have been spectacular. Of course, it also would have been a huge black-eye for Konami, because you'd think they'd notice that an important quest-giver wasn't showing up at some point during the development of 7 versions of the game.