Suikoden III (official n' all that)

[StriderKyo]

Originally posted by Victrix
Interesting. I'll grab that demo, maybe give Tactics a rental.

I recommend you do. I've just put up a fairly lengthy review for the reader review contest here:

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/s...threadid=11840

That should give you a good idea of what to expect.

One other rpg you may have missed was Legend of Dragoon. Some people love it, some people look at it as just another FF7 wannabe and don't care for it, but for $15 you can't really go wrong either way.

Personally I loved it - it's got an incredible battle system, atmosphere, battle system, set of characters, battle system, soundtrack and a great battle system to boot. Seriously, the way the fights reward you for pulling off combos got so addictive I actually found myself wandering around getting in random battles for the heck of it - and as general rule I usually hate random battles.

But LoD was a total suprise to me (it shouldn't have been; Eggo gave it a 99 back in the Gamefan days), and it was the last rpg I can remember where I was actually sad when it ended - I just didn't want to leave that world or those characters. It does borrow the FF7 polys-over-renders grpahical stye of FF7, and has a few rpg cliches popping up, but with enough suprises and story twists/shocks to keep things interesting. Best of all, it wasn't a cutesy story. And the straight-from-Panzer-Dragoon dragons were cool, too, but the real star was the battle system. It took me 46 hours, so it's not a quickie, but I also spent time running around doing stuff I didn't have to (because I enjoyed it that much).

[Victrix]

Yeah, I'll check out DT. I hated LoD though I played about 20 hours to make sure I hated it, but indeed, I did. That was one of the games that the voice acting was so horrendous as to be painful (DIE, MORE AND MORE). I get twitchy just thinking about it. That and the horrifically cliched characters killed it for me. The plot and the graphics were the only things I didn't mind, come to think of it. Don't remember the music much, was pretty lukewarm on the combat.

It's one of those games that a lot of people really liked, and I don't understand why

[StriderKyo]

I understand why people might not like it; I was suprised I liked it as much as I did. Heck, I only bought it because I was bored, broke and it was cheap. But there was almost no voice acting in it - unless you mean the big spells and combos. What was in the cinemas wasn't that bad - if you think that's bad, Dynasty Tactics will make you cringe. They spent all of 35 cents and a case of bud on the voice acting for that game, except for the narrator, who's quite good.

Back to LoD, yeah, the characters were kind of cliched (except for Rose), but I still ended up really liking them. I dunno, I guess it just hit the right chord with me (and I really liked the soundtrack), although I won't pretend for a second it's the greatest rpg around. But I do think it has the best battle system out of any standard rpg I've played - the combos and the transformations worked really well, I thought.

And the story does get better towards the end, particularly the whole "black monster" thing, if you remember that. I liked the game so much that when I heard rumours of a PS2 sequel, it became one of my main motivations for the buying one - although it's been the better part of a year since those rumours (which said the game'd be out in Japan by the end of this year) and I haven't heard anything...ah well, there's always Xenosaga, I guess.

[Tracer]

*spoiler*













Rose is the black monster... and don't say you wouldn't have guessed it. I hated the game. Boring and predictable and just like nearly every other "traditonal" RPG. Linear and your style of play has no bearing no what happens. They might as well just make movies from here on.. if they could put together a decent story for once.

[StriderKyo]

Well, maybe I just suck, but I didn't guess it. And since when is linearity not allowed? How many console rpgs haven't been linear? Like, 5? And how was its battle system traditional? And I'm not sure what you mean by style of play having no bearing - you choose which characters to use, what to equip them with, and what combos to use. It's not Morrowind, but that's as much or more than most other rpgs. Besides, its combat engine kicks Morrowind's ass.

Like I said, I acknowledge it's got some cliches to it, but it's got a fair bit going for it as well. I also dug the fact that the hero wasn't a 14 year old Japanese boy, nobody was super deformed, and there wasn't a monster-ranching mini-game to be found anywhere. My capsule review would be "solid if uninspiring, with a unique charm and noteworthy soundtrack and battle system".

Now Breath of Fire fans - those guys I don't get. It's like Capcom just pressed "generic" in rpg maker.

[Kidnemo]

Originally posted by StriderKyo
Now Breath of Fire fans - those guys I don't get. It's like Capcom just pressed "generic" in rpg maker.

Breath of Fire 4 craps all over LoD btw.

[StriderKyo]

Originally posted by Kidnemo
Breath of Fire 4 craps all over LoD btw.

Yo' mamma. (Although I'll admit I haven't played 4, just fallen asleep during the others).

Getting this thread back on topic, the new OPM has a demo of Suikoden III. My impressions so far....

The graphics. Ugh. I see why some people felt let down when they picked it up. Lower the frame rate and this could seriously be an N64 game. The animations are also awkward, and the battle camera is seriously awkward.

The music. Ugh. No lie, I've written more inspiring stuff than the drek I've heard so far. I'm giving KCET a call. A shame, considering how excellent Suikoden II's was.

The story - well, I haven't played much of it, but what I have gone through was fairly well written, very much in the tragic vein of Suikoden II. I also liked the characters - I figured I'd hate Sgt. Joe, but he's pretty cool aside from the squishy noise he makes when he walks.

The battle system - the 2-guys-at-a-time thing seems arbitrary, but I have no problem with it. Although, I could see how it'd get annoying in the middle of a strategic boss fight.

The Suikodenness - what seems to be the game's saving grace, this is unmistakably a Suikoden game. I'm such a Suiko-tool I actually got all nostalgic seeing how col they made The Shredding. But how the heck does that one zexen dude have the shield rune? Hmm....I guess I'll find out.

Anyway, I'd gone from must-purchase to wait-and-see to I'll-get-it-after-I-win-a-bunch-of-other-stuff. Suikoden's one of my favourite rpg series (heck, maybe my absolute favourite), and while this seems to be a bit of a letdown after II, it still seems pretty cool.

[Kidnemo]

Originally posted by StriderKyo
The music. Ugh. No lie, I've written more inspiring stuff than the drek I've heard so far. I'm giving KCET a call. A shame, considering how excellent Suikoden II's was.

I dug the music.

Similar feel to the first couple of games I thought.

[StriderKyo]

Yeah, it uses similar instrumentation, but the composition just seemed weak. I dunno, it's only the demo. Maybe it gets better.

Oh yeah, I loved the fighting/riding around on horseback thing, as well. It's such a simple thing, but designers never seem to think of it.

[Kidnemo]

I never did return my copy.

If it would've been any other game I would've returned it outright, but my love for Suik's proved to strong.

It's sitting on ye 'olde pile of shame now, and after I kick the PSO habit I'm going to give it another shot...