Mounts in Suikoden Tactics

[Parallax]

...Alright, I thought I would collect some opinions here, because I've heard a lot of different things about the mounts in Suikoden Tactics. I really disliked them. Despite their apparent advantages, like a greater range of movement, and the increased attack power, the fact that your skills and Runes are essentially useless while riding kind of annoyed me. Usually, when it comes to strategy RPGs, the golden rule is that the further you can move, the more powerful you are. However...Suikoden Tactics seems to be an exception, at least so far as I'm concerned, because of the skill system.

I used the Giant Owls (somehow. I'd like to see someone get a giant owl underground like that...) to quickly finish levels in the Obel Ruins by flying over the holes in the floor. I also occasionally used them to get key characters into battle quickly, but I would always dismount as soon as I got there. The Kangacorn and Giant Owl Runes didn't really do much for me either, they seemed mediocre at best, and not enough to compensate for losing the use of your other Runes.

Also, on the subject of Owls, it annoyed me that they weren't affected by elemental tiles. My main strategy in Suikoden Tactics tended to involve laying down as much favourable elemental goodness on the ground as possible.

On the other hand, I guess that a lot of people do like them. A lot of people liked mounted units in Suikoden 3 as well, but I heard that they were actually much more powerful than normal units there...which I don't see in Tactics. Am I doing something wrong? Am I crazy? What is there to be said for these mounts?

[Hawk Thanatos]

I have Jeremy almost always mounted on the armoured Kangacorn. He just goes around using Rush (Kangacorn Rune ability) which chances are is an instant kill or at the very least will damage the enemy down to critcal health.

Apart from Jeremy I usually have characters start a battle riding Kangacorns/Giant Owls and then dismounting to attack since you can move, dismount and attack all in one turn.

[Kikito]

The reason that some people use the mounts in Suikoden Tactics so much, is because they specialize characters to use on mounts. They only teach these characters the skills that can actually be used on them(I'm sure there's a few, though I don't remember which ones). Also I found the Kangacorn Rune to be quite useful, especially the second spell, which if I remember right is support spell.

Another use I've heard of people giving the mounts is to move to a really high or unreachable area, and then switching to a powerful mage or archer so he can nuke away from danger.

It's no surprise that maybe you don't find the mounts too useful. It really depends on your playing style, and with this game providing so many different style possibilities it's not so strange. I don't use the mounts too much either. I only tend to use them on specific situations rather than them bein a permanent fixture on my party.

[Username]

God I don't think I could have beat the game without Rush. Snowe was almost always in my party (Till I started dieing alot and swicthed to a story party to avoid death near the end.) I never found the Gaint Owls to be great. Their Rune is shabby conpared to the Kangacorn Rune. I used them only when I had to.
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[Elzamine]

The owls were only good for getting around and dismounting really. I used them to get rid of bats that were putting my party to sleep too.
The kangakorn was useful on slow characters who only hit once or twice. I was using Selma as a tank and she'd hit three times and for a pile of damage, plus she had alright mobility, but was behind my other characters.. thus lesser powerhouses weren't as useful when I could have her.
I took Trishtan and suited him up as a Kangakorn user, put as much as I could into str and attack, and gave him the rune. He could move fast and to the head of the units, and his defense was awesome. He counterattacks a lot, so he takes very little damage, and counter attacks most of the time. It's easy to move him up front, let all the enemies come to him, he won't die, then surround the enemies and win in 3 or 4 turns..
That's the only time I ever bothered with mounts.. I'm trying to work Snowe up to see how he works, since a few people have mentioned him being a good rider.
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[Falcon Critical]

Trishtan is certainly the best Kangacorn rider I have thus far... Currently I have him and Millay mounted from the get-go, both are fast to move and go a long way on the Kanga. The problems with Millay arose then... she has really good sheild defense and parry skills, but neither work when mounted! Therefore I use her to get into the action and dismount... except that can be a waste of a kanga rune.

Trishtan however - he has the defense skill to reduce damage, which DOES work when mounted. Add his high pdef to the armored Kanga and he is a machine. The only issue I have with Trishtan being mounted is his lower skill - meaning he doesnt' get much out of the kanga rune. He has masses of HP and DEF though, big assets.

I will try Ameria on a Kanga I think, her SKL is pretty high so I may get a lot more use out of the Kanga with her.

I havent' gotten far enough to recruit any owls just yet.

(( RANDOM THOUGHT - Kangacorns resemble Kangaroos right, why is it then that they cannot jump! Their jump stat is a measily 1... ))

The mounting system is a LOT more useful than the one in FF Tactics though - in Tactics the Chocobo took up an extra party slot at the start, mounting one took an entire move and action turn... and there were too few benefits to make it worthwhile since many of the characters could get similar movement ranges without taking up more party space.
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[Jurhael]

I loved the Kangacorn for the simple fact that they were affected by terrain elements (both good and bad) and the fact the rune included is very nice. Nothing like a most excellent "Kangacorn Rush" to easily defeat an enemy. Most of the powerful warriors used these cute beasts.

Owls were very useful for sheer distance. No, they weren't affected by terrains, which is both good and bad, but I liked the owls a lot too. I had archers use them though, but every once in awhile, I'd use someone that I felt should cover as much ground as possible. Still, owls were mostly an archer thing for me.

Overall, a very nice feature in Suikoden Tactics.
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[sybillious]

on the subject of the owls, the elements affect terrain; that means ground, so complaining about something not being affected by terrain effects when that something is ABOVE said terrain is moot at best. if the area, to include the space above the affected terrain also had the elemental change, then i could see the point.

on the kangas, they had some use as mentioned by others; as far as using them as a constant in battle, i didn't find them that helpful. as a few pointed out, their range increase was helpful in moving the character of choice within range, then dismounting, or giving additional armor effect, but as a whole, i don't use them a great deal.

i like the idea; it gives a different feel and some good options that can be helpful under the right situations. it just depends on the players style as to whether or not they have any real application.
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[Admiral Ackbar]

The important thing to remember is that you can still use the "elemental sword" runes while on mounts, but not weapon runes.

I personally found that even though Kangacorns increase a characters survivability and movement range, they do have drawbacks. THe biggest being the obvious absence of useful skills. But also, characters cannot use shields., and a Kangacorn is a horrible jumper.

The Giant Owls suffer from the same debilitating lack of good skills. While they are great at increasing evasion, they lack defensive power and usually lead to premature character death. Thier level 1 rune attack is nearly useless.
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[fuji]

I've found my great owl works best with archers. I use Flare as a mobile sniper with both a flowing sword rune and the owl rune. This way she can either finish up an attack or I send her out there to support Mizuki who I have a tendency to send in the middle of a group of enemies. I find giving my archers the increased mobility, speed and evade allows me to use them in more situations. The berserk, increased accuracy 2nd level spell is great too.

With my other owls, I use them to drop quickly move people around and then dismount at a good location.

Kangacorns are alright and would only use them for 1H sword users since I really dislike their Viper rune. Guys like Snowe and Trishtan are great for kangacorns imo
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[Parallax]

I experimented a little bit with both mount types in New Game +, but perhaps I just have an aversion to mounts left-over from Final Fantasy Tactics which I can't shake. :) At least the Kangacorn Rune is much better than the Giant Owl one, but my parties tend to consist of folks who are heavy on Evade, and Battle Lust. And the Eagle Rune. I guess, since I haven't been using Trishtan or Snowe, I might be missing something there as well? I'll never use snowe, but I'll give Trishtan a try on the Kangacorn.

As for the Giant Owls, after reading Elzamine's post, I recalled something that I do like tremendously about them. I'm sure Tactics would have been infinitely more frustrating for me without the owls to kill those stupid bats that hover over the black on maps like the Obel Ruins and cast sleep spells on my party. Grarh!
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[fuji]

Try it out with Trishtan, armored kangacorn and the kangacorn orb. Stock him with earth beads (and their better versions) and let him hold your flank. That level where I had to save the ninja lady who throws knives (name omitted for spoiler purposes), I left Trishtan on his kangacorn to hold the choke point while I rushed to defend that ninja and mop up half the enemies. He was receiving dmg of 1's and 2's while counter attacking successfully. That level was where that setup for trishtan proved it's use in battle.

I've found trishtan the best because of his innate high speed, good defense and crappy weapon rune. Snowe works okay, but that's only because Snowe's useless to me and this was the only way I could justify using him. He can't keep up with hero4 so I am never able to use their combo.
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[Admiral Ackbar]

The Viper Rune may seem crappy at first, but the level 2 attack has a roughly 50% chance of killing an enemy. That spell is just great to use on the ostrich people and giant plant enemies that swallow allies. Those two have more HP than normal it seems, and the 50% kill chance is great, especially since you still deal damage if it doesn't work.

Oh, by the way, I noticed something...

Giant Owls can be ridden by characters with: light swords, spears, and bows
Kangacorns can be ridden by characters with: light swords, spears, and darts

This means anyone with a spear or one-handed sword can ride any mount. Then, Kate and Sigurd can ride Kangacorns and Frederica and Flare can ride Giant Owls. For some reason Seneca cannot ride Giant Owls. She has a crossbow, not a normal bow, but she still uses an Eagle Rune so should still qualify...its wierd. I really wish two-handed sword users could ride Kangacorns as well. Or mages on Giant Owls!
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[KFCrispy]

i find that Kangacorns are best for characters with low skill and high defense. Trishtan, of course, was an obvious pick because you start using him early in the game. Others are characters with medium to poor skill and no Bull's Eye, meaning a) they can't use high level spells frequently, b) they will miss often and get slaughtered without doing a command attack. Tal pretty much needs a Kangacorn as well, and Jewel can take advantage of it.. she has pretty high STR and mediocre SKL.
Sigurd and Kate can make great use of it too, of course.

someone like Snowe really doesn't need a Kangacorn. try taking him off (an S in Battle Lust usually has a greater benefit than the STR boost from a Kanga.. but it depends on each character's actual STR stat; Battle Lust multiplies damage that includes total ATK value). He can achieve 2 or maybe even 3 3rd level spells by the time he's max level, and the Viper Rune's 3rd spell is great (other ones are near useless, only for times when you have a low hit rate).

i totally agree with Owls being great for finishing Obel stages quickly and archers. i find myself mounting and dismounting Owls with a bunch of characters often, without dedicating anyone to using a Great Owl Rune. But Flare and Frederica are monsters with extended range, higher SPD and more mobility. they hit for less dmg, so it's sometimes necessary to dismount and pull off a ground attack, and i've been able to abuse the Hawk Rune's 3rd atk pretty often since enemies like to line up staggered (it's hard to get a row of 3-4 to hit with Unicorn Runes and such)

but both mounts are great for getting around. you'll see characters like Jeane, Coop and Selma taking it easy by the starting position by the time the riders, ninjas and mages have cleared the enemies. The only way of getting THOSE characters into battle is permanently switching out someone that was fast and had great movement.
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