A week after the defeat of Luca Blight, Nanami will wake you in the morning. Head down to the war room and talk to the others and she will suggest going for a walk to the surrounding areas. Kuskus is where we need to be to continue the story, but before that, there are several new things that are now open to us.
Enter South Window and Max, an original Suikoden ally, will rush in looking to swear fealty to the hero that defeated Luca Blight. Accept and he will join your party. I've had to leave and reenter South Window a couple of times to get Max to appear; so just keep trying if he doesn't.
Over at Radat Town, enter the tavern to overhear a guy getting free food and drinks by pretending to be Riou. When his Bright Shield "Rune" melts away, an angry mob will beat him, and you, senseless and leave you outside the tavern. Hoi will then call you "brother" and join your party. When you return to the Castle, Hoi will realize you are the real Riou and run off. Hoi comes with a permanent Technique Rune attached to his weapon that steals potch from enemies; if you didn't pick one up as a rare drop at the very beginning of the game. Hoi is also notorious to completionists for needing to get all the way to level 80 to unlock his second rune slot...Ugh.
I've seen this
guy somewhere before...
Sneak over to Kuskus, but don't talk to the guys blocking the path near the blacksmith. Instead, go inside the inn and talk to the dancer, Karen, who has finally returned. She will join your party if you can dance with her. This would be frustrating if not for the fact that during the dance you can hit select to bring up a controller to show you what button you need to hit next. When you are successful, she will join your group and you can play the dance mini-game back at the Castle. The first two games are easy to win by bringing up the controller, but after that, you have to perfectly time your button presses. What generally throws people off with this is you have to press the first button about seven seconds into the dance and then hit every other button combination when she claps. It's not actually too bad once you practice a bit. After each successful dance, you will get a one-of-a-kind antique; all the way up to five of them. Those being Karen Statue A/B/C and Karen Painting A/B. You can't get these any other way, so good luck.
Karen also comes equipped with some things of note. The first thing is your fourth, and next-to-last Blue Ribbon accessory. Second is the amazing Master Robe. While not the best defensive robe-type armor in the game, it has some incredible benefits for both mages and martial-art armor users. Not only does it heal +10 HP per turn, it protects against all status effects, and adds a repel magic chance of 10%. If you aren't going to use Karen, make sure you take this from her and stick it on someone you will. It will be a while before we can regularly acquire these.
Now that we have access to Radat again and the Blinking Mirror, we can attempt to make it into the hidden second floor of the item shop where several rare treasures await. The only way to get up there is to have Viki fail at teleporting your party from the Castle, which is a rare occurrence in itself, and have the destination be the second floor of Radat's item shop. This is going to require some extreme patience; in fact, it took me nearly four hours to do. The only thing you can do is have Viki warp you somewhere, Toto Village being the first option and recommended, then leaving out to the world map and using the Blinking Mirror to try again. Occasionally, Viki will say huh? and you will be warped to a random destination, one of which is the Radat item shop's second floor. The results are worth it, though. In the chests there are all rare items. First is the second of three Blue Gate Runes in the game. Second is a Mole Suit, so you don't have to win it from that awful Whack-A-Mole game. Third is a Gold Emblem accessory. Fourth is a Mega Medicine x9. The highest bundle of Mega Medicine you can acquire otherwise is x7 so make sure to put this in your vault. And fifth is a Dragon Armor, but you can buy that at the moment. Be patient and keep trying.
Next, you should head for Banner Village. It is finally time to fully reap what we sowed by converting our data from the original Suikoden. Talk to Ko or Koh (The translators couldn't make up their mind which to use, I guess), the boy who is dressed like Riou and he will tell you about a guy that is dressed similar fishing over by the pond. Take the path east of the inn to find Gremio. He won't let you by, so go back and talk to Ko once again and he will devise a way to get Gremio to move.
Ko will feign needing help and Gremio will rush off. You will find the original Suikoden hero, Tir, fishing. If you brought a returning character from the original game, they will step out and talk to him. If you recruited her, it is recommended that you bring Kasumi as this will result in an extra scene between the two later on. Afterwards, you will learn that Ko really is in trouble and Gremio will urge Tir to help. Offer to help as well and Tir will join your party.
If you took my recommendation and had Tir equipped with a Master Garb when you converted over your save, then Tir will have one equipped here too. This is the absolute best all-around armor in the game and it will still be a little while longer before you can get these yourself. In the original game, I got my Tir all the way to level 99, so at this point, he is level 63! Totally unfair. Note: At this point, for whatever reason, if you try to leave via the dock here, the game will freeze, so make sure you don't go near it. Instead, head back into the Banner Pass to find Ko.
Just past the Journeyman Crystal, you will encounter some kidnappers, who left Ko when they fled from a monster. Further on you will find Ko and then be attacked again by the Worm from your last trek through this place. Don't use any of your best spells yet! Once you deal enough damage, the Worm will morph into a very dangerous Poison Moth. At this point in the game, this is an incredibly tough boss, but the good news is, you don't have to win, but I always try. You need to cast Guardian Earth and Protect Mist as soon as possible on the party. If the Moth hits you with his lightning spell and then poisonous pollen in the same turn, it is going to devastate everyone. Family Attack with Riou and Nanami, when Riou isn't healing, and have Tir cast as much MP as he has for Judgment. If you take too much damage, the battle will prematurely end and Riou and Tir will unite their True Runes to destroy the Moth. You will receive the same rewards from this as if you beat it normally. After the battle, Ko will be poisoned, and Gremio will suggest taking him to Liukan at Gregminster.
At Gregminster, Luikan will look after Ko and Tir will be reunited with President Lepant. Lepant will once again offer Tir his rightful place as President of the Toran Republic, but Tir will refuse. Leave the Palace and Tir will also be reunited with Cleo and Pahn (I wish Pahn could join your party again..). That night, you will have dinner at the McDohl residence and can talk to Cleo downstairs afterwards.
If you brought Kasumi with you, she will have a special scene with Tir. The next day, return to Gregminster Palace to find Ko, healed of the poison, and Varkas, Tir, and Gremio will escort you back to Banner Village.
Tir will leave your party at Banner Village, but if you hike your way back to Gregminster, you can request that he join your party. Unfortunately, every time you want to add Tir to your party, you will have to make the journey through Banner Pass, but it is worth it. Now that we have met Gremio, we can also acquire his secret Recipe from Hai Yo's mini-game.
You'll need to play the cook-off mini-game at the Castle up until Hai Yo battles the chef Retso, whom cheats to win. The following cook-off will be against chef Lester, from the previous Suikoden game. After successfully beating him, he will tell you to visit Gremio in Gregminster. This will only occur if you have done the previous sidequest with Tir. If you do the cook-off with Lester before completing it, you will forever lose the recipe below.
Make your way back to Gregminster, again, and you will find Gremio by the stove. In a scene reminisce from the original game, Gremio will then hand over Recipe #39 for Hai Yo. That's all the optional things for us to do, for now. When you are ready to continue the story, head for Kuskus.
At Kuskus, you will overhear two guys near the blacksmith talking about how a Highland ship has just docked in town. Head over to the docks and you will find Culgan, whom you have met on the battlefield before. He claims to have come in peace at the request of the new King of Highland, Jowy, and asks to discuss a peace treaty back at your Castle. He will then join your convoy for the trip.
When you arrive, Culgan will complement the Castle and inside the war room will lay out Jowy's request for peace and an end to the war. He will deliver a letter to Riou and asks you to meet in Muse personally to sign the treaty. Sound fishy? Shu seems to think so...Nanami and Chaco will be required members of your party for the journey to Muse. Viktor and Flik will be unavailable as Shu has another role planned for them.
Sail to Coronet as the paths from Greenhill and Toto Village are both still closed. Hmmm...Nothing has changed in Coronet or out on the world map. The White Tigers are still lurking around in the area outside Muse if you need to pick up some more Double-Beat Runes. This will be your last chance until the very end of the game when you can return to North Sparrow Pass.
For some reason, you can't use the Muse-Matilda Border trick to get back to the Matilda area like you could at the beginning of the game. There are Knights stationed perfectly so you cannot push the gate all the way out. Which would have been helpful had you not recruited Humphrey and Futch earlier, or didn't get the missable Sylph/Skunk Runes or Black Urn. This is curious to me; like this glitch was intentionally placed earlier in the game, and then sealed off later. Anyway, when you are ready, you will enter a still-deserted Muse City.
Up on Jowston Hill, you will meet Jowy face-to-face for the first time since he became King. As you might have expected, Jowy demands that instead of a peace treaty, he demands your unconditional surrender to Highland, or be killed. Once again, Jowy has betrayed us...Thankfully, Viktor will burst in, using Pilika as a distraction, and escape with Riou and the party, but leaving her behind with Jowy and Leon.
You'll need to escape from Muse, but will have frequent battles with Highland soldiers. In fact, there is a spot, just past the monument-looking thing on Jowston Hill, where each step you take on the area will land you in a battle with six soldiers. This is an excellent way to boost XP and potch quickly. At the entrance to Muse, Chaco will have kept the gate open for us and we can reunite with an approaching Flik to return to the Castle.
Nanami is rightfully furious with Shu upon return to the Castle, but he had to do what was necessary to insure the survival of Riou. When she runs off, return to your room to check on her. She is okay and believes that Pilika is probably happier now to be back with Jowy.
