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.
