Suikoden III

"Incredible and Deep"

Suiko-what?

I thought the same thing when I noticed it on the shelf at GameStop. I hadn't heard of the first two, so I figured the third one was probably just another RPG in a PS2 market already flooded with them.

Curious, however, I grabbed the box and looked at the back of it. The game boasted multiple viewpoints and characters combining for ''devastating combo attacks''. It seemed interesting, but not enough to warrant a purchase.

My friend picked it up, however, and he proceeded to rant about how awesome the game was until I hit him with his PS2 controller. He finally shut up.

However, I decided to take his word, and, seeing as the game was only 25 dollars, I picked it up.

Here's a little spoiler for you: This is the second-best RPG I have ever played.

The game's world centers around Chinese mythology: mainly, 108 Stars of Destiny who change the shape of the world. You're thinking, gee, that's a lot of people, I imagine most of them suck, huh? More on that later.

The story centers around a conflict that has ravaged the land for decades. The Empire of Zexen and the ''barbaric'' clans of Grassland have fought continuously over the years. A third party, the Holy Empire of Harmony, also looms large over the Grasslands. Decades ago, a man known as the Flame Champion, with his followers, the Fire Bringer, marched successfully across the land in defending the Grasslands. Rumors now abound that the Fire Bringer, and possibly the Flame Champion, have returned, as border disputes between Zexen and the Grasslands increase again. An evil presence also looms...

The main story of the game unfolds among three major characters: Chris, the new Captain of the Zexen Knights; Hugo, son of Chief Lucia of the Karaya Clan in the Grasslands; and Geddoe, leader of a mercenary unit from the Harmonian Empire.

The game calls its system the ''Trinity Sight System'', but you don't need to know the name. Just know that it toggles multiple viewpoints.

Basically, the game is divided into ''chapters''. You play a chapter as one of the characters and part of their story unfolds. Play Hugo's first chapter and you watch how rude and cruel the Zexen Knights are to the Grasslanders. At one point, he meets up with Chris and another conflict ensues. Play Chris's first chapter, however, and it casts the world in an entirely different light. All of a sudden, things aren't so black and white anymore. Now it appears as though the Grasslanders are initiating these conflicts, not the honorable Zexen Knights. You also get to see the conflict with Hugo from her eyes this time. It's a joy watching the gray area grow larger and larger.

Don't think, however, that you're merely playing the SAME events over and over again. Trust me, you aren't: the chapters are really quite diverse. Later in the game, however, the characters DO come together due to the problems of the world, but their separate worlds are, again, quite unique.

Graphically, the game features a mixed bag. The backgrounds are wonderfully detailed, and the ''super deformed anime'' look of the characters actually fits quite well. Their large faces make room for a lot of good real-time facial expression as well. The spell animations are also a lot of fun to watch, and so are the combo attacks (for grins, use the Melville/Alanis Child Combo). The animation, however, isn't nearly as good: feet disappear in the ground when characters go up or down steps, and the game slows down quite a bit when there are a lot of people present.

The other major problem is the camera. You can't control it. You're stuck with whatever view the game gives you. Most of the time the view is decent, but I found myself occasionally missing walls and corners because I could not rotate the camera all around me, which was irritating at times. It's a fairly big quibble, but mercifully, it did not really detract from my enjoyment of the game.

The enemies are also uninspired, for the most part. They look cool, but they're surprisingly generic. You'll see ''Wolf'', ''Wild Boar'', and ''Holly Shrub'', which really don't arouse much interest. You'll find different enemies but they really could have been designed better.

The music, when it's present, is usually pretty good, but it's nothing special. Also, some cut scenes have NO music at all, and, combined with the fact that there is no voice acting in the game, it really makes some of the scenes seem a little too lifeless. The sound effects are mostly adequate, but there aren't a whole lot of diversity in footsteps, and you find hearing the same tone and rhythm of footfalls to be irritating, unless you're tone deaf.

The battle system is somewhat unique. You can actively have up to six characters in your party, plus one support character who doesn't fight but can offer passive abilities. Your party actually consists of three pairs, and when you fight, you issue commands to the pair, not to each individual character. It speeds up battle but unfortunately, you can't, say, have one character in a pair cast a spell and have the other character use an item. That's kind of annoying, but the pair system allows for a little bit of tactical fighting: while pair A focuses on this enemy, pair B can either attack it from another direction, or focus on something else. The good outweighs the bad.

There are also multi-unit ''Strategy battles'', as well as one-on-one duels. The strategy battles are a mixed bag: most of them involve a certain trick to win them, which means if you screw up, you can get your ass handed to you fairly quickly, but again, it rewards good tactics as well.

The duels, unfortunately, suck. You have three options: Attack, Defend, and Deathblow (a more aggressive Attack). However, the duel works in a rock-scissors-paper fashion: one option beats one option, and loses to the other. There is a duel meter which swings in your favor if you win a couple ''rounds'' of RPS and gives you more leeway in making an error, but since the enemy's dialogue generally dictates what action they will do next, the only time you will ever lose a duel are in the few cases where you CAN'T win. That struck me as kind of stupid, but fortunately, none of the duels are intensely integral to the plot.

The skill system in the game rocks. You get skill points as you fight enemies, and you can spend those skill points on trainers who can augment abilities for you, like Accuracy, Damage, Parry, and the different types of Magic: of which there are several. What this means is you can really customize your party to how you want it. Want your Geddoe to be a combat machine? Go ahead and pump up his Damage and Swing skills. Would you rather him be a mage? Give him magic skills instead. This is a wonderful bit of flexibility in an RPG.

Back to the 108 Stars. Admittedly, some of them suffer from the same fate the Chrono Cross characters did: with 108 of them, not all of them can be as well-developed. However, Konami did a better job with this than Square did: most of them at least have some sort of interesting role or reason to follow you. Not all, but most. This makes the game seem a little more real. Fortunately, with the skill system, you don't have to worry about the ''Why would you EVER use this character?'' problem that was prevalent with Chrono Cross. If you invest enough skill points, just about any character can be ''main party'' for you.

The game has some meat to it, too. If you insist on finding everything, you'll be occupied for well over 60 hours. Finding all 108 Stars of Destiny should keep most people busy for a long time. Insisting, as I do, to not only find all the characters, but level them up as well, I logged about 65 hours into the game, and in all honesty, I could even play it a little longer. Most importantly, I found myself caring for the characters as it went on, which is exactly what good storytelling does.

Next to Xenogears, this is easily the best RPG I have ever played: yes, I even enjoyed it more than the eternally awesome Disgaea and Final Fantasy Tactics. It is not perfect, but who cares? There really isn't a perfect game out there anyway. Regardless, the storytelling and the multiple viewpoints make this game an absolute winner.

Bottom line: If you loved the first two, buy this game now. Since it's a little old, you can get it for as little as $20, which is quite a steal. If you like RPGs in general, buy it now: you won't be disappointed. If you're skeptical about RPGs or didn't like the first two Suikodens, you probably aren't reading this review anyway, but if you are, I'd still suggest you at least rent it and play for a little while: like all good things, it gets better the more time you put into it.

Graphics: 9
Sound: 8
Innovation: 10
Gameplay: 10
Replay Value: 10
Overall: 98, rounded down to a 9

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/20/04