::Suikoden 3 review::
Suikoden 3
Platform: PS2
Developer: Konami
Genre: RPG
ESRB Rating: Teen
My Status: Almost Finished.
Konami's Description:
Fifteen years after the events of Suikoden II, follow the intertwining stories of Hugo, the son of a village chief, Chris, the virtuous Knight of Zexen, and Geddoe, the rebellious unit commander, as their fates bring them together in order to gather the 108 Stars of Destiny. Suikoden III breaks new ground in the RPG genre with 3 different battle systems, 3 main characters, 3 styles of combat and a fully detailed 3D world.
Features:
* Trinity Sight System - see 3 characters' viewpoints of events
* Build a castle town and uncover the 108 Stars of Destiny
* Character skill development allows customization of entire party
* Pair up characters to unleash devastating combo attacks
My Current Review:
This is one of Konami's few. We all know Konami is a big game developer, but they haven't done many RPGs from what I know. The Suikoden series wasn't made by Konami, though, as I can't find any of the other Suikoden titles on their site. The Suikoden series is one of the most unique RPG series out there, though. I admit, Konami doesn't have much experience in the RP genre, which can be detected in the dialogue of every character. Also, I found a few minor glitches that their programmers should have detected, which makes me wonder just how hard they tried. The graphics in game are really good, but they're not Final Fantasy quality. It's true they're lacking, but this game has a good amount of high points.
First, I should mention the intro. The intro has got to be the best compiled intro in any game ever. It made me wish they made an anime on the game. The intro was in anime style, too and the graphics blew me away and the music went so well with it. I was practically convulsing on the floor in awe from the whole thing. It's a bit misgiving to the graphics and movie sequences of the game, but it does tell you about the game. As you progress in the game you should probably go back and check out the intro, but don't overdue it. They don't have any movie sequences like that in the game, it won't switch from game view to cinema view, which is a bit dissapointing. The intro deserves five stars by itself.
There's a different battle system in the game. It's turn based depending on who has the highest speed. The characters have a distance to move in order to reach and attack the enemy, which can affect things, but you don't choose where they move to. The battle system is unique though.
The magic system involves runes. In order to use magic you must equip a rune on the character. Characters have three places to put runes: the head, the left arm, and the right arm. As your character gains levels he can start equiping ruins to one of the three body parts as they become accessible. Runes don't just hold magic, but also abilities. Such as for 1 hand sword users, you can equip a rune that has a 1/3 chance of a deathblow. There's also runes that you don't activate, but are active throughout the battle. Like a rune called sunbeam that allows you to recover 15 HP each turn in battle and 3 hp each few steps on the map.
Characters are given weapons that are upgraded in blacksmith shops. These weapons cannot be equiped or unequiped.
Armor can be equiped and unequiped. Certain characters can't wear certain armor, also. Basically, there is the shield, hat and armor category. Not everyone can use a shield. Most hats and armors can be worn by a lot of people, though. It's mainly helms and armor that can't be worn by most. There is also three places beneath the wear accessories that characters can place stuff. They have the option of placing medicines and items that do special things, or equiping small accessories that raise attributes.
The leveling system involves killing animals until you gain 1000 exp, then you level up. Leveling up raises your attributes, the basic stuff. You have to progress through the story to get to harder enemies. You gain skill points each time you kill an enemy and you can cash in your skill points at a bujutsu trainer or education center to raise attributes of your choice. You can customize your character to a degree. When you defeat an enemy, a whole bunch of things appear on screen and can be confusing. They don't explain this stuff in the game or booklet, which is kind of crappy and I still have yet to figure out what some of the stuff means.
The story is definently unique. You can view the story from three different people's views. You choose the opening sequence of your choice of character, then you return to the Trinity Site screen. From here you can choose to persue that character's story, or continue on the other peoples. My suggestion if you want story enhanced is to do as much of one character's story as you can, then go to the next character and do as much as you can with him. If you want gameplay enchanced do one chapter for one character, then go to the other character's chapter, then the others, etc. I currently have 100+ hours in the game, and they say there's not a lot of playing time. Of course I extend the gameplay of my games by trying to do everything I can. One of the funnest things is collecting the 108 stars of destiny. There's 108 characters in the game you can recruit to join a castle. The characters can either be support characters, or they can be on your party. Support characters usually own shops and will open up all the items you can get for that shop as you go to more and more towns. There's also a slot in your party for support characters. The game's story is long, with three chapters in the beggining per character, and two more chapters after this. There's no replay value as you can go through the game once and be done with it if you get everything. There is stuff you get after unlocking the game, though. But the game can get boring and tedious quickly, to the point where you can play the game with one hand. I found myself falling asleep during some of it. Maybe some voice acting would have helped? But with 108 characters, I can understand the problem there.
None-the-less this is a highly recommended game for those who aren't big critics. Otherwise, you might find the races, clans and some dialogue lacking. They put to many modern things into the game. But I guess they're trying to appeal to the non-RP genre to play this game too.
One intresting feature is the ability to load your suikoden II data into the game and use it. Suikoden III runs off of Suikoden II. The story is about how all these people are looking for the Flame Champion and the True Runes. Paths cross and a lot happens between different people and characters. One thing isn't always what it seems.
Graphics: 3
Gameplay: 3
Story: 4.5
Audio: 3
Camera Angels: 3
I give this a 3.5 out of 5.
Back to game reviews.
Back to Main Page
