Suikoden III

"Critique by someone who has not played Suikoden 1 or 2"

Suikoden III: 970 word review

GRAPHICS: 7/10
+- The graphics are the first thing people will notice when they pick up Suikoden III. The characters themselves are somewhat old school in look, probably to ease the transition from Suikoden 1 and 2's flat 2d look to a fully 3d game. They are similar to FF7's characters, but slightly more detailed (though still blocky).

+- The backgrounds however... towns, fields, forests, castles are extremely well detailed and show that the designers took a lot of time into making every scene eye-grabbing in a subtle way.

GAMEPLAY: 7/10
+- There are no ''in game'' tutorials on the various mechanics in the game (group combat, duels, training skills/magic) and the manual is lacking on details as well. The 108 Destiny Star system is VERY briefly mentioned in the manual and for those who have NOT played Suikoden 1 or 2, it can be confusing when characters are ''added'' to your 108 Destiny Star list. You will find yourself asking what is a Destiny Star and why is this character added to its list. After reading some FAQs or playing more through the game, you will discover that each Destiny Star you find is actually a character you can choose to control later in the game. So there are a total of 108 different characters you can choose from to be in your main party (only 7 at a time though including the support character).

+- Random battles are not too hard, (nor are the dungeon/puzzles), but there is a 1-5% chance you will encounter a rare, super-hard monster while walking around some beginner areas. While they offer more skill points and rare loot they are extremely hard, and during the first half of the game, it is better to run, as they will more then likely wipe your entire party out. This can be depressing for someone who has just started the game. (e.g. dying and having to redo upwards of an hours worth of content). You can save in most every city, so avoid yourself having to redo a ton of content because of one mistake you should save often.

+- Also in battles, your members are grouped into three pairs of two. While a nice concept for strategy and combos, it limits your control somewhat. You can only use items (healing potions) on your partner, as opposed to another pair who might need some health. You can however cast healing/buff spells (via runes) on other pairs.

+- When walking around in dungeons there is an overhead map which shows the area and for each exit in that area there is a huge solid yellow line. For ''all'' the exits, so even hidden areas are shown clearly on the map, which leaves no room for exploration. Thankfully, the map can be toggled off for more advanced players.

MUSIC: 6/10
+- The music and sound effects are either terrific or they are so-so. For example walking around in town when you get near a crowd of people you will hear the chattering pick up slightly in the background. If you walk closer to the camera, the footsteps are louder, walk distant from the camera and you can barely hear them. If you approach a musician, you hear him playing in the background, etc. Again, it shows the details the designers took into creating the sound atmosphere in the game. Most of the town themes are decent as well.

+- Battle music could use a lot of work, some of it is downright terrible... yet bearable at the same time. You won't be humming any tunes at work though, the music just isn’t that great to be memorable. One good thing however about the music is that it has a long loop time so it doesn't repeat so much to be annoying.

CAMERA: 8/10
+- The camera is fixed so you cannot rotate it ala Kingdom Hearts. You'll rarely have problems though as the camera is situated in the best position 90% of the time.

CONTROL: 9/10
+- You can move the control stick a tad and tiptoe along, or push it all the way and sprint forward. There were hardly any issues with moving the characters around (save the rare quick camera change, which makes your character start running in the most random direction. For example if you are running north and the camera turns 90 degrees counter clockwise, you will instantly be going west instead) It can be slightly annoying ''sometimes'' but it happens so rarely it's hardly worth griping about.

STORY: 10/10
+- This is where Suikoden 3 really shines. The story grabs your attention from the very beginning (first 30 minutes). You can choose to play each chapter through the eyes of any of the three main characters. After you finish the first chapter, you can continue on to chapter 2 with that same character or play chapter 1 again through the eyes of a different character to get an entirely new and unique perspective! To get all the destiny star characters you'll have to play through all three main character's stories. There are so many plot twists and turns that you won't want to put down the game. The cut-scenes are not too long either for those who like a lot of action in their games.

FINAL CONCLUSION: 8/10
+- While the game does have its minor flaws (what game doesn't) the story MORE then makes up for it. This game is one that has actually kept me interested for more then 2 hours. I ''want'' to finish this game using all three different characters. That's rare these days considering I still haven't had the desire to finish FF8, FF9 or any of the Grandia games. Rent or Buy? Definitely buy the game, (it can take from 40 to 80 hours to complete), it's completely worth your money and I promise you won't be disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/10/03, Updated 01/10/03