Suikoden III

PS2

Konami - 2002

I really like this game. I need to state that now, for I am about to go on a rant that will make you think that I don't in fact like it. If you have ever played a Suikoden game before, congrats, for few people have. At college I have a certain amount of people (say 7) that will come by twice a week to find out what I am playing at the moment. A few weeks ago it was Kingdom Hearts. "Oh yeah, the Disney Game, how is it?" they would ask. Then Animal Crossing. "Oh yeah, the weird game. I heard it continues playing even when you turn it off." Yeah. You heard from me. I wrote a review of the game in the local paper, you moppet. Now it is Suikoden III, and the conversation goes like this:
"So whatcha playing now?"
"Suikoden III."
"Sue-what?"
"Suikoden III."
"Whatever. So is it fun?"
"It's only the newest game for my favorite rpg series."
"So is it fun?"
"Yes. It is fun."
"Ok. Hey, is there really six people in your party?"
"Yes. You can get 108 (really 104) characters in total."
"That's a lot."
"Yes it is."
Awkard silence follows. Well, actually, awkard for him, I'm just fine since I am still playing Suikoden.
"Alright, bye."
"Whatever."

Yes I don't like people. But that isn't what we are talking about. We are talking about Suikoden III. Back to my rant. The first two games of this series, Suikoden I and II respectively, were quite similar in gameplay mechanics. Read the reviews for them in the PSX section of the review page, I'm not going to go into great detail about them here. Needless to say, all you need to know is that you controlled a young boy in both (a different one in each though) and gathered 108 characters, Pokemon-style, to lead a rebellion against the bad guy country. It was like Risk meets Final Fantasy. Which is a good thing. Suikoden III follows this tradition, but throws in a few new ideas, some good, some bad.

First off, instead of having one main character, they give you 3, no 6. You think you have three, for that is what they advertise, but really there are 6 people you can control. (One is a dog, mind you, and the other is a secret character you can play as if you get all the characters. I'm not sure if they really count as "main characters" but you can play through the game thru their p.o.v. so that counts for something.) The "Trinity Sight System," Konami's fancy words for 3 main characters, allows you to see the war that is going on in Grasslands from 3 points of view. And since they chose 3 very different types of people, this is a good thing.

The first 3 chapters of the game unfold like this. (Wait, let me mention this. Chapter consist of a certain timeframe where you watch one character's pov. Once the chapter ends, aka you finished all the plot up to a certain point, you can choose another character or keep playing with that same character. Yes you have to play all 3 chapters with all the characters before you can go on to chapter 4.) Chris, the female knight from Zexen, the very british-like country, is forming a treaty with the Grasslanders, a more asian-like tribal area with 6 very different clans. The treaty goes sour and they start fighting again, like they have since time began. Chris, without many knights to hold off the amount of Grasslanders, flees and burns villages to stop the grasslander army from killing her, since they will need to tend to their burning villages. Next POV. Hugo is the son of one of the Grasslander tribe's leader. He is sent to deliver a peace message to the Zexens. After doing so, he returns home to see Chris burning his town and killing his friends. Next POV. Geddoe is a mercenary from Harmonia, a neighboring country. He winds up visiting friends in the same village that is attacked by Chris' knights, and tries to hold them off, but can't. He saves one of the people from the village and leaves.

Lots more happen than that, but I think from that short summary of the first chapter you can see that this isn't a game about good and evil. Everyone is human and has reasons for doing what they did.

Also, to not reveal the "bad guy" I will not explain how he/she/it has it's own modivation for it's deeds, but it does, and is fully explained in the plot, especially if you get all 104 characters before the end. That's all I have to say about that.

Alright, now I guess I will talk about the stuff that bothered me. First, the camera takes some getting used to. It likes to move randomly as you walk, and takes really low views insead of arial views which you would be used to in a videogame. I really wish I could have moved it around. But alas.
Secondly, while the game introduces you to a lot of characters, you never really get to make your own party from people you recruit until the fourth chapter. Which means 8 chapters (3 for the 3 main characters and 2 other chapters for the secondary main character) where you don't get to use characters you have recruited. Which is pretty sad. But once you get them, it gets a whole lot better.
C. The game has relatively few areas. Since the 3 different characters travel to different places at different times, the enemies can not have a certain level to be at. Instead, depending on the character's levels and the chapter you are on, you will run into harder or easier enemies. Which is nice. Except they made the game so that normal enemies in a chapter will not raise levels very well, but there will be harder enemies that will appear in fights randomly, and from them you will get like 5 levels or so. So just be ready for that.
Lastly, I was just upset with the lack of focus on the 108 stars of destiny. This is just a personal issue. I do love the fact that the story focuses on the 27 true runes, in particular the True Fire, Lightning, Water, Earth and Wind runes. Since they have been described in the past two Suikodens many times, it is nice to see them all, and use them. But the 108 Stars of Destiny, which always came with Luc and Leknaat to explain how you had to collect the 108 people was never there. You collected people to live in this town that Thomas ran. He wanted people to set up shops on land they leased so he could make money. But they never explain why you recruit fighters to just live there. Oh well. You can't have everything.

One thing I need to mention quickly. The intro, an animated 4 minute-ish cutscene, is amazing. It seriously follows the plot really well, although you will not understand what is going on. But I watched it about 20 times before starting the game.
Also, you get a castle, as I stated above, to put your people in. Although the cooking "Iron Chef" game doesn't return, instead there is a better minigame. You find an actor-person, who will direct plays. He will let you cast people (anyone who has joined your 108 stars) as characters from plays like "The boy who cried wolf," or Romeo and Juliet to certain plots from the previous games. Also, each character has certain acting abilities. Some are really good at ad-libing, and some try but fail. Some get really nervous, and some forget they are acting. It is great to cast, for example, Nash as the wolf in the Boy who cried Wolf, and have him run across the screen chasing Percival, who is playing a sheep. Percival will say: "In case you can't tell, I'm a sheep. Baaa." Then Nash will chase him saying, "I'm never going to accept a role without reading the script again."
.....
I guess you would have to be there. But trust me. A game with so much character development for so many characters really goes well with a bit of theater role-playing. Try casting Viki as Juliet sometime.

What liked: A new Suikoden. You can bring people from the last game, just like in Suikoden II. (Although only 7 or so people come back.) I pumped Futch up to level 99 in the second game, so now he's really strong in the third. Hahaha.

What disliked: It takes place 15 years after the last game, so most all the characters are new. Although you do get to see the sons and daughters of your old heros, so I guess this is a good thing. The camera is a bit screwy. The game feels too short, for I rushed through it to get all the characters together, and now they are, but it is the end of the game.

What to expect: Don't expect to learn everything about every character. That's not what they do in these games. They reveal a bit about each, but leave things for the next game, or for your imagination.

What not to expect: You know how Suikoden II felt like Suikoden I, but better? Suikoden III does NOT continue this trend.

What's so different from this and other games of it's genre: It took the triad hero idea from Wild Arms 2 and made it good. It is more about epic wars than personal character development, but it still manages to really develop a lot of characters.

Ratings on:

Control: 9 - It would be lower because sometimes the camera changes weird and you run back into where you were, BUT the developers added the greatest thing EVER to the game. L1 is also X, and L2 is the cancel button. The right analog stick also can control your character, so you can play with one hand only, and whichever hand you want. This is like the greatest invention EVER.

Graphics: 8 - Ok, the graphics suck. Let us be honest. If you compare them to FFX, they look like pig feces. But remember that they designed animations for 108+ characters, and were able to make them all look very different so that you can recognize even their shadows. Plus, some characters, the ones that don't wear armor, look sort of cell-shaded, since their clothes don't really have shadows. I personally really like this look. They failed when they tried to make armor though. Plus, Chris' second costume just looks terrible.

Sound: 7 - Suikoden has always had some great songs, and this is no exception.

Style: 7 - Introduces new things, like chapters, multiple heros, and such. Never feels as much of a rehash as Suikoden II did of Suikoden I.

1st hour: 5 - That intro was cool. But I didn't save in the right place for Suikoden II. Gotta go do that before I play III. But I wanna play III. Waaah. Shut up baby! Oww! Don't punch me in the face! Take that! What was that? A karate chop mister, and don't you forget it.

5th hour: 10 - Alright, I stopped fighting and started playing. Amazing fun. But I want my castle.

1st week: 8 - I got my castle, but I can't change people there yet. Why can't everyone just team up so I can use everyone cool (ahem: Jacques) and ditch everyone not cool. (ahem: Lilly)

2nd week: 9 - Got my castle. Got everyone teamed together. Still can't use all 3 main characters together in the same team, but it is good enough. I spent 7 hours just running around my castle and playing with all the characters I hadn't used yet.

#1 reason why I hate this game: I wish it was longer.

by Hawke