I've been playing through Suikoden 2 for the first time and after about 20 hours of play I looked at a character recruitment guide. It looks like some of the characters I may have missed and be unable to recruit. For example, I never ran into Clive while I was in Muse so I don't know if I can ever recruit him. I wouldn't be terribly keen on restarting, but I would if I had to.

On a related note, I've bought Suikoden 3 & 4 (I already had 5) through ebay. The Suikoden 2 copy I have is PAL, but the Suikoden 3 copy I bought is NTSC (I have a modded PS2). Will there be any problem importing the save data between the two?

Yeah, a handful of characters can't be recruited if you miss the chances given. Clive, for one. (Actually, I'm not sure if it would happen later on, when you regain access to Muse... As far as I know, though, if you miss the first chance to trigger that event, then you miss out on Clive altogether.)
Some of these characters will have chances for recruitment later on, but not all of them are so kind as to show up again. I can't really recall many off the top of my head, so I'd say just refer to an FAQ for more info.

Sorry, I'm not really familiar with the whole NTSC/PAL deal, so I can't really say for sure if there would be any problems.

NTSC and PAL save files aren't compatible, so you can't transfer the data.

And yeah, there are quite a few characters that are missable in each game. The only reason to get them, besides having them of course, would be that you can only get the good ending if you recruit all 108 stars. (And even then, there are a few conditions you need to follow.)

And about Clive, he has a few optional events with Elza throughout the game that are a bit hard to get if this is your first playthrough. Basically you need to reach each destination within a couple of hours apart, or the chain event will stop. That means you need to reach the end of the game in about 15 or so hours. This isn't something you need to do to recriut Clive though. Just an optional event that reveals some interesting things about Clive and Elza.

Dang. Kind of a major problem since Suikoden 3 was never released in PAL format. To top it off, I have Suikoden 4 in PAL format so presumably I can't import data into it from 3.

If you miss out on the conversation with Clive in Muse, then you can't get him anymore. It is harsh, but this is how it is.
You MUST talk to Clive AND Elza in Muse before the event.

And to get the full Clive sidequest story, you need to be at 12 hours before the end of the game, so don't expect to get all characters, or all sidequests before you're at the end.

Second, keep an eye out for Humprey and Futch in Highway Village, when you're in the Kingdom of Matilda.
The first time you enter (legally, thus without the glitch), you must recruit them, else you cannot get the perfect ending.

Yah, that's why I played Suikoden 1 and 2 in NTSC. Well that, and I prefer the 60 Hz over 50 Hz.

Anyway, you won't have to worry about transferring data to Suikoden 4, since there's no option for that as far as I can remember.
But even if you don't transfer to Suikoden 3, you won't miss out on much. You get a bit of boosted stats for certain returning character. And when they mention the nation from Suikoden 2, they'll refer to it as whatever you named it. That's pretty much it.

More importantly is to transfer the data between Suikoden 1 and 2, since you get to recruit the Hero and Gremio from Suikoden 1.


It depends on how long you wait in between each event. I got to the end in about 15 hours, and the event was still there at 18 hrs. You can extend the time by going to each event as late as possible, but without missing it. Each time you trigger an event, you have a certain amount of time to get to the next one. The faster you do them, the less time you have to reach the last one.

Wow, I was always under the impression the limit was 12 hours and not 20. Never knew I was THAT wrong x'D.

Yeah, from what I remember, it's about 20 hours, not 12.

Anyway, Suikoden IV doesn't give an upload option, but Suikoden Tactics can upload data from IV, if you bother to pick up Tactics. It'll allow you to recruit the hero of IV at a certain point. (Not sure if there're any other bonuses.)

I wanted to do that, but I couldn't. Firstly because I had an NTSC version of Suikoden and a PAL version of Suikoden 2. The second reason was due to an oversight from the developers. I'd recruited most of the 108 stars but hadn't acquired the guy hanging out in the ruins of Rokaku (or whatever it's called). I visited him every so often until he finally told me to tell Mathiu that he'd done a good job. Unfortunately, at that point in the game I was about to head into the sewers under Shasarazade. At that point, it's impossible. As far as I can tell, every time you speak to Mathiu after that he's in "quest mode" so he won't give you the responding letter. The only time he reverts back is after it's too late.

Do you mean Leon Silverburg? He can be a pretty tricky one, for that exact reason.

It can be 12 hours, or it can be 18+, depending on how much time you take in between each event.
Since there's no timer to show you when the time frame for the event runs out, it's hard to know when to do it. The way I did it was that I had an extra save file. I would continue with the next story event. And if the Elza event was still available, I'd overwrite the extra save file and go on to the next story event. And repeat, until either the event vanishes (then I would reload the extra save file), or when I feel like I've pushed it up long enough. For example, if you're about to go through a story event that restricts you from visiting the area where the Elza scene is for a while, then it's safer to do it before going through that story event.

I managed to get all 108 stars, as well as the Elza & Clive ending scene and McDohl on the same save file. I made an extra save file of the Clive and Elza ending scene so that I could watch it again without having to redo everything again.
It was an interesting scene, and after reading up on their backstory on Suikosource, I definitely wanted to see more of the Howling Voices Guild in a future game. Too bad we still haven't been shown the Howling Voices Guild yet or Harmonia. But at least Cathari was in Suikoden V.

Yes, I think that was him. I think the main problem was my missing out on many of the recruits for a while rather then getting them immediately. When I finally made a concerted effort it was too late.

It's a bit nasty IMO to make the recruits available for a limited time and have time limited events. It's not a problem if you know exactly what you are doing, but for anyone playing through normally it's a pain. It's almost as bad as feeding the sandwitch to the dog in the old Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy game.

It is Kalekka, not Rokakku =P.

And yeah, it is a mean one, but Suikoden games itself are rather easy, so this gives them a bit of a challenge.

Yeap on Clive, cool character, but I think Cathari in Suiko V is much more useful.
Leon Silverburg got me the first time through Suiko 1 as well, a tricky character who's got some interesting things going on in suiko 2.
I don't remember on Suiko 3(most characters in this game are pretty straight forward) and haven't played Suiko 4, but I know in Suiko 5 that Oboro and the ninjas are a set of characters you can miss.
Harmonia biggest representation was in Suiko 3, where they basically marched into the grasslands
In the Suikogaidens starring Nash Latjke, the Howling Guild gets some extra coverage actually

The writers of the Suiko series are strange and IMO create troubles for themselves. They have to keep their games relatively close in time period to each other and now they've got to develop more on the Armes and Harmonia kingdoms, more on Yuber, Sasarai, and Albert Silverburg are some other big ones I want to see

Aside from clive,

I think Mukumuku is hard to get if you don't get him during the start. Not totally impossible.

The 5 squirrels are one of the most annoying to get I have to say.