Suikoden II - Story - Plot

Plot

The game begins with the Hero and his childhood friend Jowy Atreides working together as members of the youth division of the Highland Army. Luca Blight, the prince of Highland, and Captain Rowd, the Hero’s commanding officer, orchestrate the slaughter of Hero's and Jowy's unit and blame it on the neighboring city-state of Jowston, giving the prince an excuse to invade Jowston. The Hero and Jowy escape the slaughter by jumping off a cliff into a river.

They meet again after the Hero is fished from the river by a group of mercenaries from the first game—Viktor and Flik—and Jowy is rescued from the river by a girl named Pilika from the town of Toto. The Hero is forced to work for the mercenaries, until Jowy eventually finds him, and the two escape to their hometown of Kyaro in Highland. Upon arriving and reuniting with the Hero's sister, Nanami, the two are tried as spies against Highland and sentenced to death, but are saved by Viktor and Flik and return with the mercenaries.

The Hero travels to the village of Toto to meet Pilika and her family, shortly before the town is destroyed and its inhabitants killed by Blight. They decide that they must fight against Prince Blight, and participate in an unsuccessful defense of the fort. Viktor tells the party to travel to Muse—the capital of the city-state of Jowston—to meet up with the rest of the mercenary force.

On the way to Muse, Jowy and the Hero must travel through Toto village. While walking through the village, Pilika runs off to the shell of shrine that her father was charged with maintaining. Although previously closed to all, the party enter, where the Hero and Jowy are magically transported deeper into the shrine and are met by the seeress Leknaat, the keeper of the Gate Rune. The Hero and Jowy walk down separate paths in the shrine, and are each given half of the Rune of Beginning—the Hero is given the Bright Shield Rune, and Jowy the Black Sword Rune. Afterwards, the two are transported by Leknaat out of the shrine, and continue on their travel to Muse.

After difficulty entering into Muse due to increased security, the party finally reunite with Viktor and members of the mercenary army that survived the attack. Viktor introduces the Hero and Jowy to Lady Annabelle—the mayor of Muse—who tells them she has a story to share regarding the adoptive grandfather/father figure of the Hero and Nanami, Genkaku, who had passed away shortly before the game begins. Without the knowledge of the others, the Hero and Jowy are asked to participate in a spy mission to the Highland camp to the north, and while trying to escape, Jowy is captured by the enemy. He promises to catch up with the Hero and Nanami, however, and eventually reunites with them in Muse.

Time passes, and the Hero awakens on the morning of the Hill Top Summit held in Muse for all of the leaders of the city-state; Muse, Tinto, Two River, South Window, Greenhill, and the Matilda Knightdom. The party all attend the conference, where Annabelle shares the information on the Highland Army's imminent attack. The city-state is split on what action to take, as the Highland Army arrives outside Muse. After successfully defending the city, the Hero and Nanami go to meet Annabelle for information regarding Genkaku. They arrive, however, to find that Jowy has murdered Anabelle, and immediately flees before he can be discovered. Anabelle then apologizes to the Hero and Nanami for how the state treated Genkaku, without revealing details about what actually happened. Shortly after Annabelle's last words, her assistant Jess arrives and assumes that the Hero has killed Anabelle, and runs to get help. Jowy opens the gates to Muse as the Highland army invades the city, with the party managing to escape southward to South Window.

In South Window, the mayor asks them to travel to the city of North Window—Viktor's hometown—to investigate disturbances that have been occurring there. After discovering that the vampire, Neclord, is alive and causing the disturbances, the party obtain the Star Dragon Sword and drive Neclord from the castle. As the party begin to leave North Window, the rest of the survivors from Muse arrive and tell that South Window has fallen to the Highland Army.

With North Window as the site of a new base they begin to build up their forces, and Viktor reveals what Annabelle had wanted to share about Genkaku. He had been a heroic general for the city-state—who also wielded the Bright Shield Rune worn by the Hero—and was betrayed by the then mayor of Muse, Anabelle's father. He participated in a duel against his Highland friend and fellow general, Han, to decide the fate of Kyaro town. Anabelle's father coated Genkaku's sword in a poison that he detected before the duel began, planning to blame Genkaku for the death of the Highland general. Genkaku could not bring himself to strike his friend, and thus was defeated in the duel, with Kyaro becoming Highland territory and Genkaku's name disgraced for many decades. It is this connection to Genkaku and his own character that lead the Hero to be named leader of the new Dunan Unification Army, and bring him to recruit people to join the cause.

The Hero and the rest of the Stars of Destiny recruited work to gain the support of the remaining city-states to challenge Highland. During this time, Luca Blight sacrifices nearly the entire populace of Muse to the Beast Rune after running down refugees trying to flee the city. However, Jowy has risen through the ranks of Luca Blight's army after capturing Greenhill without even a battle, eventually marrying Jillia Blight—the sister of Luca—and murdering the King of Highland by poison. Luca becomes King of Highland, and eventually launches an unsuccessful attack against the Dunan army. However, Jowy betrays Luca Blight, giving the Dunan army information of the pending attack. This allows the Dunan army to set up an ambush for Luca Blight. He is defeated and killed with Jowy then ascending to the leader of Highland through his marriage. It is revealed that Jowy's intention since his original betrayal of the city-state by murdering Anabelle has been to bring peace to the land; he never expected the Hero to have such success against Highland.

After finally freeing the occupied city-states and uniting all of them under one banner, the Hero and the party successfully defeat Highland, causing Jowy to flee, however, Nanami is shot by arrow from one of the soldiers for the king of Matilda, who plotted to assassinate both the hero and Jowy. After the fall of the capital of Highland and the Beast Rune's defeat, the Hero returns to the spot on the cliff from the beginning of the game, when the two first escaped from the youth brigade massacre and promised to return to if they should become separated. Jowy speaks about how the two's fate had been destined to be interconnected since they first accepted the two runes in Toto. The two duel, with Jowy, Nanami, and the Hero's fate depending on how many Stars of Destiny the player has recruited and if the player chooses to attack Jowy.