Suikoden III, the third main game in the Suikoden series and sixth overall. Up until now, the series has been firmly rooted in the 2D realm in its PSX and GBA incarnations. Having followed and enjoyed the series since the first one debuted in 1996, I’d be lying if I said that the move to 3D didn’t cause me to have some reservations, but in the end, despite some flaws (which actually have little to do with the 3D nature), the game is Suikoden through and through and has a great deal to recommend.
Let’s get the graphical stuff out of the way first. The game may look bland in the beginning, but the further you play, the more the charm grows on you. With a style reminiscent of Skies of Arcadia, characters are modeled in an anime-like fashion with a multitude facial expressions, the latter of which is a tremendous addition to the game in terms of conveying character emotions. From the bickering band of mercenaries that accompany Geddoe to plucky little Cecile, the facial expressions and newfound physical freedom allows the player to get a better sense of the characters just by watching them (the classic hand-drawn portraits are still there as well). The downside to the newly modeled characters is this is that the game will spend extra time panning the camera and focusing on extraneous body language (think Resident Evil), bogging the game down somewhat.
Once you really get into the game however, the game is Suikoden through and through, and that’s a damn good thing. Tales of political wrangling, betrayal, and war are all the order of the day, accompanied once again by the best side quest ever for an RPG, collecting all 108 Stars of Destiny and building up your castle. It’s a simple joy to wander around the world, asking people to join your castle, and seeing what they bring to it. Likewise, many mini-games also appear in the castle, though the Iron Chef cookout from part II has sadly gotten the axe. It does seem a bit easier to collect Stars this time around since many more join automatically. Like the sequel before it, Suikoden III contains plenty of returning characters from the previous games, some more surprising than others. The Trinity Sight system is an excellent addition to the game, allowing the users to see the game from the perspective of the three main heroes. Even though it involves a bit of overlapping between the three scenarios, it fleshes out the story even more from the perspective of the other sides (something which Suikoden II needed), all the more important when dealing with something like war, with an intriguing reminder that the other side in a war oftentimes has there own legitimate reasons for the conflict. Something to think about given the situation in the world today. The best part of the new system is probably that all three main characters now have dialogue. I always felt that the mute heroes of the first two games diluted some of the games’ emotional resonance during key events, so this is a welcome change. Plotwise, the game does stumble a bit towards the end of the game, falling into standard RPG cliches and one-dimensional villain stereotypes that Suikoden vets will probably not like. I’m told that collecting all 108 stars enables something to fix this problem, so I’m looking forward to playing it again and seeing more of the story that’s hidden in the game.
Gameplay is still the standard console RPG fare: wander towns, fight battles in fields, fight bosses, repeat. The change in the battles is somewhat mixed. Instead of a large six-person group, members are divided up into pairs and issued a common command, so you can’t have both people in a team heal or cast a spell in the same turn nor can you use healing items on people outside a pair. The new system does feel limited in terms of what you can do, but at the same time, a few new doors are opened. Battles have taken on a Lunar-like quality of range and positioning having some influence in the battle, which players can manipulate to a small extent. Also, certain characters attack better in pairs, such as a human character and an animal partner, offering increased defense and greater attacking power. Loading times are still quick for fights, but the speed of battles is bogged down by characters moving about the screen before they strike and lengthier (than parts I and II) spell executions. There have been some criticisms about the game’s difficulty level, and I don’t disagree. Whereas in previous games, leveling up was a natural process so that no battles were overwhelming, there are times in part III that seem to throw bosses at you that are way to hard for your level, so leveling up or improving your characters may be your only solution. The segues nicely into something new in Suikoden III, at libraries and training areas in the game, you can use skill points you have gained in battles to improve your character’s battle or magic capabilities. Interesting in concept, but not very well executed the game. Although you might give different characters different magical skills or make one slightly more defensive that the other, generally the characters don’t have a lot of specialization (unlike, say, the job system in Final Fantasy), they still pretty much end up being the same, you just don’t die as much.
Large scale army battles are probably the best yet, instead of being more or less random like part II, in part III you form groups based on existing party members who you can move about a grid and issue commands to attack, retreat, or cast a spell. You have less control over the fighters than in a regular battle, but this also allows for some interesting strategy; you might want to create teams of fighters to take care of the dirty work on the front lines while more magic-oriented folk hang back and deliver spells to knock out the enemy (believe me, you’ll need to do this).
Sadly, the area where the game takes the biggest hit is the music. The composer for the previous games, Kukeiha Club, didn’t work on this game, and the drop in quality shows. That’s not to say the music is bad, it certainly has some good compositions like the Duck Village theme and Chisha Village, but overall the exotic beats and emotional meoldies of the previous games are absent. Even worse, the emotional impact of certain key events is ruined by the bland or complete lack of music. Dissappointing. For comparison, I loaded up my Suikoden II game, which happened to be at the end, and watched the ending again, and I was immediately brought back into the game with the beautiful orchestration accompanying the final resolution of the conflict between two childhood friends. What almost makes up for this is the opening theme, Exceeding Love, one of the most amazing pieces of music ever heard, for a video game or otherwise.
If it sounds like I’m being overly critical of the game, it’s probably because I love Suikoden so much. I probably wouldn’t have written a review of a game I didn’t care about, and despite these flaws, like I’ve said, this is still very much a Suikoden game. Veterans have already picked this up, so I’d be interested to get some other viewpoints on the game, while for newbies to the series, I’d personally recommend that they play the first two games in the series first. Firstly, they are overall better games, while secondly, a lot of the enjoyment derived from Suikoden sequels is seeing the returning characters and mention of locales that you remember from previous games.
From GameFAQS: "The only things you get for loading Suikoden II data into Suikoden III are two extra scripts (with plays related to events in Suikoden I and II), boosted levels for three characters, and references to the names you gave to the heroes and armies of the previous games. "
I didn't notice the extra levels, but I did get the scripts in question, and the name of the republic in part 2 is the name you gave the castle. Fun little references overall.
Cool. If they do the level carry-over the same way as they did from I -> II, it divides continuing characters' levels by 5 or something. Hmmm....maybe I should start building up everyone...
Your knowlege of games and your passion for them really come through in this review. It was also a very informative piece, and I think you covered exactly what needed to be covered. If I were on the fence about this title, I could see your review being the deciding factor in my purchasing it, which is also a very good thing.
If you had organized your writing into more paragraphs, it would have gone a long way toward tightening up the review and making it a smoother read. Try to make each paragraph about only one topic, and not a very broad one, either. For example, if you are covering gameplay, you can split that into two or three paragraphs, exploring different facets of it. Even though the topic is "gameplay," you could have a couple of sentences about the battle system, a few more about the exploration, etc., so that the pieces are easier to digest.
I read your review at work, so I looked away from the screen a few times to deal with other things. It takes longer to return to your place with those big blocks of text than if you had smaller bites.
Sausage-in-Training
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