Suikoden Tactics

"Great game on its own, even better for fans of the series."

Introduction

Suikoden Tactics is the Konami's first time the well known series divulges from its RPG style, and it succeeds. The gameplay is superb, and I find the story to be a welcome addition to weakness of Suikoden 4. You learn more about the characters while traversing through an original story. The main hero is Kyril who is on a mission to learn more about the rune cannons that showed up in S4.

Gameplay: 9/10: Suikoden Tactics plays like every other grid based SRPG. Your Characters move on a grid in order to attack the enemies. However, Tactics uses mainstays in the Suikoden franchise to add in some neat features. Runes are used to cast spells, or strengthen attacks. The cool thing is that weapon runes like the falcon rune have multiple spell levels that increase in usefulness. I think this is a good change even though you can't fire off the falcon rune every turn like in the RPG games. Also, the runes affect the affinity of the ground. Each character is given an affinity and if they are standing on the ground of that element, they are healed. Affinities can also weaken your character and cause damage if the character is weak to that element. Coop. Attacks are back. While they are difficult to fire off (the placement of the characters is what allows the casting) they can change the tide of battle into your favor. These attacks add a great flavor to the strategy element of the game. Finally, the game highlights an enemy red when you move it is in attack range. This and other icons help with the gameplay a lot for newbies to the genre. The fights can be difficult at times, but easy at others.

Outside battle you can level up weapons, recruit the (around) 60 characters, and get quests at the quest guild. Many quests require you to send out a character that needs certain stats, making it useful to level up many characters. Finally, the skill system from S3 is back, but with the entire group sharing the skill points. The skill points give flavors to the characters and turn an average character into a fighting machine.

Story: 8/10: The story revolves around Kyril as he attempts to learn more about the rune cannons. The story takes place in the island nations from 4 and the Kooluk empire. The story coincides well with 4 and characters from 4 make up a part of the story of Tactics. There are twists and surprises, but nothing new to the Suikoden series in style of both. The story is strong, and can stand on its own without S4.

Graphics: 6/10 SRPGs are not known for great graphics, and Suikoden Tactics does not waver from this. If you are looking for great graphics in an SRPG good luck. However, I would have liked a little more character detail.

Sound: 8/10 The voice acting may be a little shady at times, but nothing terrible. The music is pure Suikoden, and the game (at least the copy I got on the release date) comes with a bonus CD with songs from S1,2,and 4 along with Tactics. Suikoden has always had good music and continues the tradition with this game.

Replay: 10/10 This game is made for replayability with its many characters and New Game+. The skills you give to your characters, the skill points left over, and the money and items goes over to a new game. Now you can use all of the characters you did not in the first go around. This helps the gameplay as you can learn the game with string characters in the first play through, and go along with weaker characters the subsequent times for role-play value or jut cause you like other characters.

Overall: 9/10 I like the SRPG genre and Tactics fits well with it. It may be easier for vets of the genre, but with its replay value, good story, and gameplay it is a game I highly recommend even if you did not play Suikoden 4.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/29/05