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The story is growing more ripe & so are the graphics!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Suikoden 3 takes place in the grasslands 15 years after Suikoden 2 in the year 475. You can choose up to 3 different characters & play their story from a different view point but eventually they will come together in one group. This time your characters are up against a mysterious masked bishop & four allies who are helping him to aquire the five elemental true runes, if they accomplish what they set to due a devestating fate could befall upon the Grasslands & Harmonia...PROS & CONS:STORY: BThe main reason for 4 stars1. A few people from Suikoden 2 ending were supposedly in the Grasslands & Harmonia but were NOT in this game. Albert who returned to Zexen.Hanna who journeyed to grasslands.Camus who journeyed to grasslandsMillie might be Lilly 15 years later??Gijumu & the black guy who set off to fight in the grassland war with tinto city, This war is at least mentioned in suikoden 3. Lilly shows up with tinto forces in chapter 4.Pesmerga is not in this but Yuber is, but unfortunetly once again konami decided that he will not be an ally of ours. (Bring him back to us, with his eight-devil rune intact!) I have Pesmerga at LV 99 so I can go figure what konami will do with him in Suikoden 4. (Take my head as a souvenoir) I'd rather have Pesmerga & Yuber on the good side as they's a free agent.GRAMMER: A-They got the spelling correct this time & the words are not clumped together as one word. (1st name)/ McDohl will actually show up when it is mentioned, I just put McDohl McDohl back when I played the 2nd game. And the heros name from the 2nd game will show up, I named him Hoku & it showed up just like that.Graphics: A-Much Much better than the previous games, I can't complain much. The battles are almost fluid. The characters look like power puff girls with big eyes unlike the picture shown in the text bar. Geddoe and his group look great though, lots of detail. Percival looks cool when he flirts with Chris. (A- For the other people)Battle System: C+You have better control & a chance of winning however you cannot control who does what in the actual fight itself because the fights are auto. You can use spells more in this game, you'll need it against Yuber who takes no physical damage during strategy battles. (Hint: Use Fire spells)My only fib is that you cannot control the battles, just the movements & skills.Main Playable Characters: B+Hugo: Son of Karaya Cheif Lucia who was on the highland side in Suikoden 2. Is 15 years old.Chris: A female captain of the Zexen Knight Federation. 20+ years old?Geddoe: A bad ... mercenary with a bad ... crew who fight for Harmonias Southern defense force. Also friend of flame champ and bears the true lightning rune, Is 112 years old!If you want to know who to finish this game with for Suikoden 4 story purposes in my opinion I recommend "Hugo".

A good game, but a bit disappointing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 10
Date: November 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Suikoden 3 takes place maybe 10-15 years after the events of Suikoden 2 (which, probably, most people don't know about). This game is quite a bit removed from its predecessors, and knowledge of past storylines is not essential (and in fact, is quite useless) to the plot of this tale. Here, we are treated to a multi-person storyline, as the player follows the exploits of Hugo, a war chieftain in the grasslands (the son of Lucia from Suikoden 2), Chris, a knight in the service of Zexen, and Geddoe, a mercenary of the holy kingdom of Harmonia. The peace of half a century is about to be broken by an old friend (who shall remain nameless; the surprise is half the fun) and these three countries are about to wage war on one another. Only the Flame Champion, a nearly mythical hero of fifty years past, can stop this carnage.

The problem with Suikoden 3 is twofold. The graphics are terrible. Konami has decided to bring Suikoden in the world of 3D, with disastrous results. Every country, every person looks washed out, and the stars of destiny (which, by the way, are taken from an excellent Chinese novel, "Outlaws of the Marsh") look pretty much like commoners. Also, the tripartite storyline fails to impress, as we never get a feel for ANY of the characters, except (surprisingly) the villain, which is playable if the "good" ending is found. I enjoyed the game somewhat, but always found myself asking, "OK, so when will this take off?" Unfortunately, the game never does. Here's to hoping that Suikoden 4 gets it right (it's been announced in Japan!).

Rife with problems

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 10
Date: November 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Suiko 3 has some major issues that make it disappointing...

-The battle system: everybody's whining about it and so will I. The 'buddy system' is a terrible addition. In general, the gameplay hovers between tactical (like a strategy game lite) and classical (press X button to attack, now do it a million times). You are unable to accurately control anything. It is nigh impossible to predict where they will run and who they will attack. However, it has the startings of a great system(minus the buddies, with more control of movement and consequences for moving/attacking from different positions or angles)

-The pacing: This game moves SLOW. Now that everything is 3d, it takes forever for cutscenes to play out. All the characters have to move around and "act", which is a joke because of their poor rendering. There's always delay in the text boxes popping up, making a scene that would be gone fine in Suiko 1 or 2 take 4 times as long.

-The linearity: Painfully linear. Very little to explore. You'll enter an area where you get to run around, and it will be a straight path. The whole game you are running along trails, with mundane backgrounds and little to nothing to explore.

-Repetition/Confusion: Playing through 3 sides of the story is a great idea, but you end up running around the same towns with people saying basically the same thing 3 times. Most of the plotpoints seem to consist of randomly coming across somebody. You don't figure out what to do next, you wander around until you find the cutscene trigger.

-Sound: what sound there is is 16 bit era stuff. The majority of the time there is basically no sound but the roachlike skittering of your character's feet.

It's not all bad, the story is okay, though a bit canned. The bigger boss battles can be fun, despite the buddy system. Some of the characters are enjoyable enough.

Criticisms are rediculous. Game is a classic. NO SPOILERS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: April 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Don't believe 1 word you hear from those criticizing this game. They're completly unfounded. As someone who has played the vast majority of RPGs ever made i can tell you first hand that the Story in Suidoken III isn't just great, it's one of the best ever. In fact when judgeing all the RPGs available on the modern systems (GC, PS2, XBOX) Suidoken III in my book is tied with Zelda The Windwaker for best RPG.
The trinity sight system is simply an amazing concept, and works well throught the game. Just playing the first chapter the player goes through a rollercoaster of emotions seeing the opening events play out through the different perspectives of those involved.
The combat has very little of a hack and slash feel - it's very much turned based, with a realistic real time feel. What does that mean? It means that you direct your characters to perform actions, attacks are done in turn (based on individual speed) and characters will redirect attacks as practical based on changing battle conditions (formation changes, deaths etc.) The battle system blends real time action and strategy very well (erasing the down side of turn based combat - realism and the lack of strategy that comes with real time combat) and this just scratches the surface, there are also individual duals, and military comand combat (where you direct groupings of soildiers)
The only real downside of this game is what is often a lack of direction. I often seemed a little lost trying to figure out what to do next, but this really does little to distract from how great, and addictive this game is. This game is a MUST BUY, especially if you love games like Chrono Cross, Zelda and Final Fantasy

save precious time and money

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: March 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Fans of the previous Suikoden games (availible on the original PSX) will probably be disappointed in the PS2 offering. This game was very difficult to locate at a decent price due to the scarcity of copies availible. I did manage to find 1 copy at a Target store for $..., however I would recommend saving your money. Like Suikoden II, you can load data from the previous game but it is of little value. It does, however, include positive aspects like popular novelties of building up your castle, gaining recipes, horse racing, collecting ornaments, etc. The battle sequences are difficult and time consuming. Your players attack in a 2-man "team" mode, which leaves less room for stratedgy. Unlike previous Suikodens, the game is broken up into "stories" which you must select at the end of each sequence. Instead of one continuous quest, you must play as three (or more) different groups throughout the game. The graphics are very remenicent of N64's Zelda: Majora's Mask, in a sense. There are two basic facial expressions for each character, and the cinematics are slow. Plus, there is no navigatable world map--the map only allows you to select your destination and move to a dot (exactly like Final Fantasy Tactics). If you are a huge Suikoden fan you may find this game essential for you to keep up with the storyline; but if you are simply an RPG fan, I would recommend waiting for another title. This is a rather lull time for PS2 RPGs. Going back to PSX software to tide you over til' the good stuff comes out might be worth your time. Check out these extremely under-rated RPG titles (can be found at great used prices): Star Ocean: 2nd Story, Suikoden II, Valkyrie Profiles, Dragon Warrior VII, Arc the Lad Collection.

Suikoden III - Don't just pass it by!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 29, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I have this game for a few weeks now, and it's one of the RPGs that I own that I really enjoy. Having three main characters to start off with (and then more as the game progresses), and 108 characters total is amazing. Trying to find all of them becomes addicting after a while, too. From time to time, however, you do get stuck and have to run around trying to find out where to go.

A genre of its own..

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Suikoden III is by far one of the best RPGs ever. The dialogue is witty and clever, the heroes (since you can pick from Hugo, Chris, or Geddoe) are people the player can connect with. The graphics, while they may not be Final Fantasy level (heavens forfend that a game not be compared with Final Fantasy......) are nicely done, and the spells especially are beautiful. The game is so complex, with many side quests and 108 characters, that small problems go virtually unnoticed, or are forgiven. Game play for me was about 75 hours, so unless you work from dusk 'til dawn, you can get some serious game time out of this. You can take your time and enjoy the world created for you... Just be wary of triggering the next step in the plotline! ^_^ The sound was a bit disappointing -- I had not played the other Suikoden games, so I didn't know what to expect from that. It was repetitive, but you get that in most RPGs. It was synthesized, which was disappointing as well, considering the intro had real music. The intro is worth seeing on its own merits, for certain! I would highly reccomend this game, unless you're a Final Fantasy X fan who thinks it's the god of games and compares all other RPGs to it (I know I couldn't live up to the pressure).

good but slow at times

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Suikoden 3 is a great RPG game, probably on of the best games I have played ever. I enjoyed the gameplay and the idea that you can use three or four different teams and have three or four different perspectives on the story. What made it more interesting was that the stories all blend together and it has an unexpected twist.

The only thing that I didn't like about this game was the cutscenes. I think that there were too many of them and that slowed down the gameplay.

Overall, this was a good buy and I would recommend anyone who enjoys RPG games to buy this game.

Just Awsome

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

let me just say that this is quite possibly the best RPG out there. yes better that all the final fantasys and pretty much every ohter game out there. the only game i would consider to be on this level would be chrono trigger but still.
now on to the reason for the awsomeness, point 1 the plot is quite possibly the most complex and enjoyable out there. I honestly think that it could be made into a movie.
Point 2 the trinity sight system. this just adds to the amazing plott letting you view the plot from all three of the main charaters and how this changes what in fact is going on.
Point 3 its darn pretty the backrounds and the charcters are just amazing.
Point 4 you can have more than 108 playable characters. yes more than. All of them with there own special powers and personalities and jobs. such as a spy a blacksmith a rancher a chef a journalist and a gambler...

Great story

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Most of the next gen RPGs have great cuts scene and graphics, but no real story or game play substance. This is the first ps2 RPG that seems to have a great mixture of everything. No annoying 10-minute cut secences. Lots of action, memerobal characters and much as 100 + game play. There are a few minor problems, and some areas seemed unfinished. Looking forward to Suikoden IV.

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