Suikoden II Clive Quest guide: How to complete Clive’s secret quest for The Howling Voice Guild trophy

One reason why many people adore Suikoden II is because it offers a deep, intricate gaming experience. There’s an abundance of content to explore throughout the game, but one mission in particular stands out for being undetected and challenging to accomplish: the elusive quest known as Clive’s Quest.

On this page, we delve into the intriguing details about an unofficially named adventure, often called “The Clive Quest” due to its central character. Here’s where you learn the ins and outs of the Clive Quest, including how to enlist Clive, complete the mission, and emerge victorious. We provide both straightforward strategies and a few sneaky shortcuts for those who prefer a bit of trickery. Additionally, we outline the rewards to help you decide whether this mysterious quest is worth your time.

How Clive’s Quest Works
Quest Rewards & Trophy
Cheating the Quest in Suikoden II HD Remaster
Clive Quest Walkthrough

How Clive’s Quest Works in Suikoden 2

In essence, Clive’s adventure revolves around a single idea: it’s a race against time. Among RPG side quests, this particular journey recalls the notorious Excalibur II quest from Final Fantasy IX, where you were tasked with completing a significant portion of the game in an incredibly short span. Similarly, Clive’s journey in Suikoden II follows this pattern.

To finish the Clive Quest, you’ll essentially have to play a significant portion of the game within 20 hours.

In brief, completing our Suikoden II Walkthrough means you’ll need to cut down significantly on your gameplay, rushing through various events, missing out on recruitable characters, and other aspects. This will help you finish the storyline, but it will require less time for grinding, making combat more difficult as a result.

Based on these circumstances, it’s advisable not to embark on Clive’s Quest during your initial gameplay unless you are using the newly released Suikoden II HD Remaster, as it offers an easy solution for this quest, making it more manageable even for first-time players. I’ll explain that in greater detail shortly.

Clive’s Quest Rewards

In essence, Clive’s Quest doesn’t offer conventional RPG rewards like a gleaming new weapon or a pile of money at the finish line. What you primarily receive are scenes and the story itself – intriguing cutscenes that delve into the backstory of Clive and a few other characters, shedding light on various truths hinted at even in the early stages of Suikoden.

Should you be enjoying the latest Suikoden II HD Remaster, there’s an additional incentive: an accomplishment. Known as ‘The Howling Voice Guild‘, this concealed achievement becomes available exclusively upon finishing Clive’s secret mission.

The associated achievement is worth 30 Gamerscore on Xbox, and is a Silver Trophy on PlayStation.

Cheating Clive’s Quest in Suikoden 2 HD

If you’re engrossed in the latest edition of Suikoden 2, there’s an in-game method to bypass Clive’s mission without any trouble. Rest assured, we won’t disclose this secret if you decide to keep it a secret too…

In Suikoden 2, the game utilizes something called an ‘event timer’ to manage time-sensitive events. Essentially, it serves as an internal clock within the game that tracks how much real-world time has elapsed in the game world. This is crucial for preventing Clive from waiting too long. However, in the HD Remastered version, you have the option to disable the event timer, giving you more flexibility with your gameplay pace.

To accomplish this task, navigate to the ‘Settings Menu’. You’ll find an option named ‘Pause the event timer’, which you can toggle on. When activated, this will effectively halt the timer you’re competing against in Clive’s quest. This gives you ample time to move at your own pace, follow our detailed Suikoden 2 walkthrough, and strive for a 100% save file.

In our tests, events like cook-offs or Mukumuku’s friends seem to continue normally, even when the timer is turned off. However, if you experience any unusual problems with quests failing to advance, consider turning the timer back on for a short while.

Clive’s Quest Walkthrough

To finish off Clive’s adventure in Suikoden, I’ve got to move swiftly through the main storyline, keeping an eye out for key scenes scattered across the game that develop Clive’s secret subplot. Let’s dive right into it!

The journey encompasses a total of eight significant stages. To unlock all the storylines that the quest provides, you must activate each one before reaching the climactic confrontation at the end of the game. This will grant you access to additional or altered scenes during the game’s conclusion.

Additionally, every phase comes with its own time limit. If you’re not able to progress to the next stage within that timeframe, the quest will be unsuccessful for you.

Scene 1: Meeting Clive & Elza in Muse

According to our Suikoden II Character Recruitment Manual, this is an important yet overlooked incident crucial for getting Clive on your team. And securing Clive is essential for completing this mission successfully.

In the third chapter, when you reach Muse, move towards the north-east direction to locate Elza. After speaking with Elza, she’ll ask you to keep an item for her. Agree, and you’ll subsequently encounter Clive.

After departing from Muse, please make sure to return the packages. Certain things transpire, and for the moment, that’s all there is to it.

From the onset of the game, rather than our current location, the countdown is underway. Therefore, it’s crucial to get to the upcoming event expeditiously, though at present, there’s no strict deadline enforced.

Scene 2: Clive’s Recruitment

After encountering him, you’ll be able to enlist the help of Clive later in the game. As your journey progresses, you will eventually navigate to Lakewest Town by boat. Once you acquire your vessel and venture it into open waters, you’ll have the opportunity to recruit Clive.

While there isn’t a strict deadline, aim to reach that particular milestone within five hours, ideally before six hours have passed.

Scene 3: The Letter

After bringing Clive aboard, proceed to the Lakewest Inn. There, the innkeeper NPC will hand Clive a note that displeases him significantly. This note hints at your upcoming location.

You need to reach this scene by the time the event timer hits 11 hours.

Scene 4: Forest Trickery

In Chapter 5, you’ll have an opportunity to explore the Forest Village. It would be best to bring Clive there prior to visiting Greenhill. Upon entering the village, if Clive is part of your active team, he will instinctively detect Elza’s presence.

Head northward, continue till you reach an open space hidden beyond the Trading Post. That’s where it appears to be located, but take note – appearances can be deceiving…

You must reach this scene by the time the event timer hits 13 hours.

Scene 5: Hunting for Clues

After reaching Chapter 6, you can set off this particular event. It’s ideal to do so following Rockaxe Castle, but before engaging with Miklotov. Find an Inn within the Matilda Region; the closest one will be in Rockaxe itself, although any Inn around that region would work just fine, with Clive being part of your group.

You must hit this event by the time the event timer strikes 14 hours.

Scene 6: Gunslinging

Once you’ve wrapped up in Matilda, skip heading back to your Castle for a moment. Instead, make a detour to Radat Town. Clive should definitely stay with your group during this journey.

Once you’ve finished dealing with Matilda, take a moment to appreciate this particular scene before moving too far ahead in the story. If you advance beyond it at this point, you might not be able to revisit it for a while. So, I recommend you check it out straight after handling Matilda, but before returning to your castle.

Head over to Radat’s Bar with Clive, let’s see what unfolds there. Make sure we arrive before the countdown on the event timer hits 15 hours.

Scene 7: The Truth

Following the liberation of Rockaxe in Chapter 10, guide Clive towards Muse. On the summit of Jowston Hill, a momentous encounter unfolds once more.

Scene 8: Resolution

At this stage of the story, you’re nearing its conclusion. When it comes to assembling an army for L’Renouille, include Clive in your group and postpone the major battle. Instead, lead your party, which should be made up of your strongest characters, northwest towards Sajah Village.

The end of the storyline plays out here. Naturally, you need to hit this by the 20 hour mark.

Well, I’ve just wrapped up Clive’s epic adventure! This journey has given me new insights into these intriguing characters, and I’ve even stumbled upon alternate versions of some final scenes. Kudos to us for conquering this challenge together!

Tips to Keep in Mind

If you’re genuinely competing against the clock, here are some key actions and reminders to maximize your chances of success:

When you’re in a race against time for real, keep these crucial steps and tips in mind to improve your odds:

Keep Clive with you. Once you recruit him, you might as well just leave him in your party – his presence is required for all scenes, and swapping things around just wastes time.
Set up for speed. Run from battles often, hammer through dialogue, and run everywhere. Don’t forget to also set the text speed to ‘Fast’ in the game settings.
Only talk to NPCs critical for advancing the story. Our walkthrough is handy for pinpointing these.
If given the option to hear more about something or not, always choose to not – keep things moving.
If you die, keep going. Rather than reloading, carry on – you retain EXP earned since the last time you saved. In fact, sometimes dying can be beneficial in this sense.
[This has been patched, and therefore doesn’t work, in the HD Remaster, only the original PS1 version] Use the ‘Matilda trick’. This bug lets you push the gate at the Muse/Matilda checkpoint when it’s closed in order to force your way past, before the gate gets opened in the story. This lets you battle powerful enemies and level up fast, which expedites the speed of other battles. This does mean enduring some very difficult fights, however – but this is where dying deliberately can come in handy.

2025-03-09 22:32