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When one thinks of a console RPG,
the first thing in your head is probably Final Fantasy. While these suckers are
awesome on their own right, don't let that fool you that this is the ONLY
console RPG worth a purchase. About a month and a half ago, I was browsing
through the local EB's used PS1 section, looking for some games I missed out on
as I didn't jump to the PS1 bandwagon until early 1999. I picked up a little
game called Suikoden and read the back. Hmm, armies, duels, castle building.
"Looks sweet," I thought. Lo and behold, the game totally rocked. Not so much as
a killer battle system, somewhat basic by any standards, but more by the
immersive story line that made you actually care about the characters. Later on,
I grabbed the sequel and only marveled at the vast improvements, including a
more tactical battle system and even more immersive story line. So, I can't
really say I was looking forward to Suikoden III for a long time, as I'm
relatively new to the series (new as in I've only had the oldest one for a month
and a half), but once I figured it out, this turned out to be one of my most
anticipated titles.
For those who didn't get the chance
to play the previous two games, don't worry, you won't need to, though it helps
as you can import previous saves for some extras and also meet some past
characters to see what they are up to.
Well, some back-story. In Suikoden,
you take the role of General Teo McDohl's son, (insert name here) McDohl, who is
caught up in a web of corruption in the Scarlet Moon Empire, with roots all the
way to the leader, Emperor Barbarosa, himself. So, McDohl joins the Liberation
Army, defeats the Emperor, and forms the Toran Republic, then promptly
disappears on a personal journey. This event is referred to as the Rune Gate
War in 3.
Suikoden II takes place in a land
to the south of the Toran Republic (or so I think as these nations seem to have
odd shapes and I had to go north to get to the place in 2) called the City-State
of Jowston. Here, you take the role of the son of Genkaku, the exiled hero of
Jowston, named (insert chosen name here), and you discover a plot on part of the
Blight family to take over the city-state for their own kingdom of Highland.
Your best friend, Joei, and you gain the sword and shield runes, two of the 27
true runes, and end up fighting against each other. You prevail, unifying the
nation, and leave with your now forgiven friend. This is referred to as the
Unification Wars and the nation is named what you name it had you imported the
II save.
Not the best looking, but given
the situation, darned nice.
People were spoiled by the visual impressiveness
of FFX. I was too. So, when playing this game, you aren't given the same level
of excellence that was put into X. Characters, while well done on their own
accord, are generally blocky compared to those in X. While at first, this turned
me off a bit, I realized a few things. One, the graphics don't stink, and based
on the scale of the game, are downright impressive. FFX probably had around
40-50 different models to work with. Suikoden III has twice that many (108) in
optional recruitable characters, each of which are vastly different from any
other one, not just "Male Model A with skin C". Add in around 5 different random
people models for each town, which each have their own feel, about 20 special
NPCs, and 40 or so monsters and boss models, I can fully respect the overall
visual effort put out here and I estimate there to be on the order of 200 or so
vastly different things to look at. So, technically, character and monster
models are incredible due to the amount of work put into it. Of course, a big
shocker was the complete lack of jagged edges in the models. I know not how they
pulled it off, but if you can get individual fingers on each of the models AND
remove the jaggies, you deserve a good pat on the back.
The rest of the game is
darned nice to look at, too. Towns are well done and each one has a unique
flavor. Vinay del Zexay, for one, has your typical medieval feel. Castles, stone
streets, and Tudor style homes. Then there is the Duck Village, huts sitting
over water and Caleria, a very Mid-East feeling area. Texture work is really
well done, I noticed few blurry ones during the course of the game and the
reduced shimmer effect in the distance is a lovely improvement as I didn't get
any headaches from it. Then there are the spell effects. One word - very well
done. While most people are used to the 2 hour spell effect movies in the Final
Fantasy series (exaggeration for effect), Suikoden III spell effects are flashy,
but get to the point. The longest one is 10 seconds. Still, they are a sight to
behold yet don't get annoyingly long. Perfect balance, I say.
Some Sounds
Good, Some Annoying
Konami seemed to have stopped about half-way through
their audible presentation. In battle stuff, like sword clashes and other random
sounds are great. Problem comes with the half good/bad musical score. Well, most
of the music is pretty good, like the opening theme with the 5 minute anime
cut-scene (only one, thanks you Konami for not making this a movie) and most of
the ambient sounds. My problem comes in the form of two of the scores. The first
one is the Great Hollow score. This sounds a lot like a Ricky Martin song, and
just for that, it was annoying. The second is the battle theme, which is by far
the most prevalent theme in the game. This one is highly annoying, doesn't sound
like something that belongs with a conflict, and is, well, just really freaking
annoying! Had those two tunes been re-worked, it would have all been good.
It Is
All About The Story
Suikoden III builds itself up on some of the best
storytelling in the business. If anything, Square fans, it outshines anything
they did with the exception of Chrono Trigger. The Suikoden series always
creates a lovable cast of characters (or despisable if they are a
villain/unpleasant ally), and the third game is no exception. This time, Konami
created a rather unique way to tell the story. They dub it the "Trinity System".
In this system, you see the story unfold through the eyes of different
characters, then have it blend into one main line. You start out with three
main characters, Chris Lightfellow, Zexan Knight, Hugo, son of Lucia of the
Karaya Clan (Suikoden II players will remember Lucia), and Geddoe, mercenary who
works for Harmonia. You also get three other stories (well, one real one and two
fun side quests), two of which have to be discovered and can go without and
still finish the game. At first, I was expecting just a rehash of the overall
story, but this is not the case. For example, I started out with the Chris
story, and it unfolded rather well. Then, I went to the first Hugo chapter, and
expected to see the same thing again. Oddly enough, the stories only cross at
important pivotal points, explain what some characters were talking about and
motives seen in other stories, but overall have their own path to take and
explain why THAT character ends up doing what he does in the final chapters. It
is also amazing how, when playing as one character (Chris to start in my game),
the other guys seem like pure evil. Then, you get to see their perspective, and
you begin to rethink all your opinions of the characters you just played as. It
is masterful storytelling that kept me glued to the screen.
The only real
negative is that the first chapter of the three main characters start rather
slowly. It takes about an hour and a half to really get into the game and for
the story to pick up. Still, it was probably necessary to build the character's
past, something other console RPGs fail to do, to give the characters a real
life feel.
Solid Gameplay
Solid gameplay is just as important to a
console RPG as the story is. Fortunately, Konami took their already existing
gameplay and put some worthy improvements to them. First, the world system. The
previous two Suikoden games were 2D overhead games. So, I was somewhat worried
about the jump to 3D. It took a bit of time to get used to moving around the
world and spent the first hour or two using the transparent map in the corner of
the screen for guidance. You get used to it after a while and find out it is
very responsive and well done. Also, the overworld was replaced with a waypoint
map system ala FFX. I didn't really like this, but it sped up travel time
considerably until I picked up the Blinking Mirror.
Character development is
handled differently this time around as well. For those who didn't play this
series, they have a somewhat unorthodox method of level gaining. Everything is
based on a 1000 exp scale. 1000 exp points, and you gain your level. It is the
amount any given enemy hands out that changes. This actually improves your
understanding of when you are going to level. If you are thinking, "Hey, what
should I fight then?", I have the answer for you. When you enter a battle, you
see a little running man icon on the top of the screen. When you highlight this,
it will give you a description. If it says "retreat", the enemy is worth your
time to get some decent exp. If it says "let go", then they aren't worth the
effort and you just release the enemy by scaring them off. This helps quell the
endless random battles by simply releasing the ones you don't want to bother
with, making this game a less combat oriented and more story oriented one.
For Suikoden veterans, there is a new option for you to toy with. In addition to
gaining levels, you also gain training points. You can now customize individual
characters in the game. Say you want to make a melee master, then dump your
points into accuracy and damage. Or you want a healer, then water magic is for
you. The rating ranges from E, the ultimate worst, to S, the best of the best.
Now, don't go thinking that you can just make a super character, since that
won't happen. Each individual fighting character has a limited number of
learning slots, some more than others. Also, each character has a rating in each
skill. So, it is not wise to give a character who has a horrible rating at fire
magic the skill as he will never make it past C. Also, if you have a skill on a
character and want a better one, you have the option of forgetting the skill and
getting some of the points back for the next one.
Now, on to the battle system.
The battle system was streamlined in comparison to the first two games. You
still have the option of having up to six fighters per battle and the usual turn
based combat using speed as the determining fighting factor. This time around,
you no longer have to individually give commands to each one. You are given
three columns, two fighters each, to give a general command to. Hit the fight
button, they both go out and wail on the enemy. If you want to cast a spell,
tell one to do so, and the other one goes out and attacks normally. This speeds
things up, but you run into the problem of wanting two spells cast by characters
in the same column and you will have to choose which one you want more. Also,
some combo attacks can only be activated when the two characters are in the same
column. This creates a problem when you get a great attack combo, but have two
characters that don't have the defense to be front row fighters. A fun
improvement is the fact that your fighters are no longer stationary on the
field, but move around a lot like Grandia 2. Another cool improvement is how you
handle your spells. A lot of spells are area effect ones, and that means allies,
too. So, you have to be careful to give your allies enough space to withdrawal
before you fire off your spell, or they will end up in the blast themselves.
This opens up a bit more strategy than just healing at the right time. There is
also an optional 7th, supporting character. These guys are mostly useful in
post-battle. I prefer using the healers, like Tuta, who save you some money by
healing you instead of using up all your potions. Also, some of the 108 stars
can only be recruited when you have the right supporting character in your
party. All in all, the battle system is vastly improved over the previous games
creating a deeper strategy feel and thus a more fun experience.
You still have
your standard rock-paper-scissors duels and for some reason, they still are
quite a blast, seeing your fighter duke it out in full 3D.
The final change came
in the form of the army battles. The first two games were all about leading
100,000 men into battle. Now, you lead at most 40. Battles are squad based, each
one being made up of four of your playable combat characters. You move these
squads to waypoints, each one having special abilities like damage reduction or
healing, or maybe nothing at all. When you battle, you are shown your four
fighters and the four enemy fighters. You have the option of using attack,
defense, or retreat, then it plays out what would be two normal combat rounds.
Characters will attack or use spells at their discretion. You can also use
spells on the battle field to help weaken an enemy prior to entering combat.
This alteration has a mixed effect. On the plus side, it is more personal as you
can individually give orders in fighting. On the negative side, it doesn't feel
like you are leading an army into battle. All in all, it is still fun and
requires a good deal of thought to win these things. Meaning, fun stuff.
Replay Baby!
Nothing feels better than finding out your game works to be
less than a dollar an hour. It took me 65 hours to finish this thing, and that
is because I went out to find all the 108 stars of destiny and see the best
ending. Even if you don't go out of your way, I foresee this game to be around
50-55 hours long. Also, the replay is tremendous. Depending on who of the three
main characters you picked to be THE main character at the start of chapter 5,
the story unfolds in a different manner, allowing another 25-40 hours addition
to the life of the game, bringing the overall total to at most 100 hours of
goodness. You also get a lot of incentives to explore and talk, too. You can
pick up plays, and if you imported a Suikoden II game that had Suikoden imported
into that, plays about past events. Also a bunch of books talk about past events
as well.
Bottom Line
Suikoden III is a masterpiece in the world of
console RPGs. Great for newcomers and veterans alike, Suikoden III is a good bet
for outright purchase. Brining in one of the most engrossing storylines ever,
impressive battle systems, and some good visuals into an overall incredible
package. If the battle music was better and the story started off as strong as
it played out for the bulk of the game, this very well could have been a perfect
title.
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