Suikoden II is now available on PSN for PlayStation 3 and Vita, several months after an ESRB rating portending its immanent arrival. The fabled RPG is a legitimate lost classic. Released in the United States in September 1999, it was overshadowed by higher-profile PlayStation releases like Final Fantasy VIII, and thus saw very limited distribution. Never reissued in America, copies on the open market currently run over a hundred dollars.

It's Pretty Much Dragon Age: Inquisition Meets Game of Thrones

But is there more to Suikoden II than mystique and rarity? Does the original game hold up?Absolutely. Suikoden II remains a masterwork, a crossroads of storytelling, art, music, and mechanics. We're still seeing its effect in modern RPGs like Dragon Age: Inquisition. It's not perfect, though. The localization is awful. But this doesn't compromise the phenomenal characters, relationships, and narrative, an unpredictable, engaging intrigue worthy of Game of Thrones.When you first start your journey through Suikoden II, there's very little to indicate that you're headed into anything but a stereotypical Japanese RPG. Many of the troupes are glaringly present: a plucky young hero, cute animal sidekicks, and burning villages. But Suikoden quickly and refreshingly veers into unexpected territory.The plucky young hero proves both sympathetic and vulnerable. The cute animal sidekicks quickly give way to a cast of interesting, diverse, and mature characters whose appearance belies their likability and depth. And rather than representing some great, world-shaking threat, the village-burning enemies you face are three-dimensional human beings, self-interested to be sure, but empathetic and believable. Even the twisted arch-villain Luca Blight proves shockingly sympathetic as you uncover the story behind his madness and corruption.Much like Dragon Age: Inquisition, a good portion of your time in Suikoden II is spent establishing a new base of power in a world of shifting alliances and unstable political structures. Inquisition's Skyhold is remarkably evocative of North Window Castle, a vast, abandoned fortress which gradually becomes your seat of power. As you wander the warring kingdoms, you meet and recruit allies from every walk of life who relocate to your new home. You'll be building a military machine, to be sure, but you'll also find yourself inhabiting your stronghold with contributors from every vocation and ilk, each hoping to add their talents toward creating a better world. The actions you take gradually begin to shape the course of history, first within the lives of a few friends, then in the new city-state you establish, and finally for all the kingdoms in your sphere of influence.With shifting alliances, constant betrayals, and complex political intrigue, the story of Suikoden II draws from the best traditions of classical Machiavellian literature. Add Peter Dinklage and a few more dragons and you've pretty much got Game of Thrones. Best friends become bitter enemies, morality is constantly in question, plot twists happen at the most unexpected times, and even the most ethical players are hard-pressed to tell right from wrong. Assassination, war, and treaty are all tools of statecraft, and the ever-changing landscape and story is refreshingly unpredictable.And in true George R.R. Martin fashion, no one is ever safe. Beloved and reviled characters can, and will, fall at any time.Many PlayStation RPGs are difficult to return to thanks to slow load times and ridiculous combat animations. Suikoden II happily suffers from neither of these weaknesses. The two-rank, six-character party combat system is snappy, responsive, and offers just enough tactical diversity to be consistently engaging. The turn-based battles rarely last more than a couple of minutes, and a well-implemented combo system -- in which certain characters have unique skills when partnered in battle -- rewards players for careful planning and proper timing

Designed for the PlayStation, Suikoden II's art looks much more like something you'd expect from a late Super Nintendo game. The diversity of character animations is striking. I'm hard pressed to think of another sprite-art RPG with as many individual frames, each painstakingly and lovingly crafted by talented hands. The color palette is lively, drawing heavily from high-saturation primaries, and the vast catalog of heroes presents a feast of styles and hues that pleases the eyes.Most of the extensive soundtrack to Suikoden II was composed by Miki Hagashino, also known for her musical contributions to the exceptional Gradius and Life Force series. It's a delicious buffet of classical-styled themes, cinematic but unpretentious, adventurous but rarely derivative. In terms of variety and creativity, the 105 tracks stand up nicely in comparison to the best PlayStation-era RPG offerings, and are among the most sonorous arrangements in Konami's considerable catalog of great game music.As an added bonus, you don't need to have played the original game to understand anything. Suikoden II is a terrific standalone sequel story, though you're certainly free to visit or begin with the enjoyable and brief first installment in the series if you wish.

Jared Petty in an Associate Editor for IGN. He really, really likes Suikoden 2, just in case you didn't get that from the story above. Write to him about Suikoden 2 or other things on Twitter @pettycommajared