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Suikoden 3 -> Just as good as the first two, maybe better!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: October 25, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I'm not too keen on 3D worlds due to loading time and such and how graphics can be really deformed, but it seems Kanomi has spent their precious time with Suikoden 3 (And no, that isn't sarcasm!). I admit to not being very far at all into the game, the graphics are gorgous and the anime is eye popping (Especially just the opening movie). Once again, in Suikoden 3 you have to gather the 108 Stars of Destiny and get your own stronghold (this time it is a castle town, not just a castle). The battle system is a little different since it is 3D, but it makes since. Again, you have a 6 person party. You pair 2 characters together and they fight together (one guards the front, one guards the back) and if you have a rideable beast paired with someone, then you are able to mount the beast in combat! The downside is you lose a character during combat, but the upside is that your HP and fighting strength are combined, so it's as if two characters combine into one stat wise. The equipment and inventory is much like Suikoden II, you can equip a helmet, armor, shield, and 3 misc. items and the rest goes to the parties bag. Now, as for the TSS (Trinity Sighty System featured in this game), it's alright. You're not forced to keep switching between all 3 characters, but you are forced to play them in the end (as far as I can tell) you just have to do them at one point, but that's just so you can do the whole story of the game which is fine by me. The only downside I can really think of is the loading. The loading time is not long at all, but in towns, the areas you can explore before switching zones are fairly small, but since loading is fairly quick (Unlike 3DO games like Shifters and Warriors of Might and Magic) it is forgivable. If you're unsure about the game, rent it first, but so far, I'm loving it and if you're a fan of Suikoden, I know you're love it. Try it out and see!

Another feather in this series' cap.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: April 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is another great one from Konami. I'll keep this review within the parameters for a game of it's time, and not present date. If you're an rpg fan in general this one is good, and if you're a Suikoden fan since the start, this one is a must buy.

Graphics - For it's time, the graphics are quite good. The characters are all sort of stubby, but after the first couple hours you get used to that look. The environments are pretty open, and in that respect lack some details we've seen in the 2D parts of this series. But keep in mind this game was the first 3D installment, and they were feeling their way through. Nothing ever feels overly long or drawn out to make the game longer or anything. The battle graphics are also quite good. Animations of people and monsters are well drawn, and the special effects for the time are top notch and what you'd expect from the series.

Music - It's great, plain and simple. It all fits the regions you travel. The tracks are varied but with an overall feel that you're in the same world and all that. The sound effects in battle are also quite good, and what you'd expect if you've played the series before.

Story - Some would argue the most important part of any good RPG. I agree. The story is very, very good. It centers around three characters for the first three chapters, and each of them have several supporting characters. It lives up to the Suikoden name in every way. War torn nations, politics, superstions, racism, underdog heroes that come from unexpected places, and the 108 characters you can recruit to gain all the power of the Stars of Destiny. Halfway through the title (or a little over) you will have played as FOUR characters with unique perspectives and interlocking storylines from the different nations, and then they will all come together. This is where the story and gameplay really pick up, and the stakes get very high as you form an alliance. You must forge brotherhood among one another and press on against a powerful and mysterious nation. You must unravel the secrets of an immortal fire magic wielding hero, and of the True Runes that govern the lives of all characters in every Suikoden title. From there, you'll discover another two characters to play as if you unlock all 108 stars. There are some great guides you can find out there that will assist you. The game is very long, for some lasting up to 80 hours (me) as you try to upgrade many of the character's weapons, armor, and skill points for the final battles. And yet, for an RPG, it's not overly complicated. Most areas and battles are fairly linear. How to gain most of your characters would also be interpetted as fairly simple by most rpg veterans of any kind. But the heart of the story, and the backbone of your characters, is what truly makes the title shine.

Gameplay - Another important part of an rpg title. The gameplay is slightly over average to the veterans of the series or of any rpgs. For new comers, it'll be just right to learn. Although, some newcomers may find a few spots overly difficult without leveling up and gaining alot of money first. But for most, this will be done with ease once you learn how the world works. See, you travel from story point to point (revealed by your characters of course) by traversing field maps and town areas. The field has random encounters with monsters of ALL kinds. They vary in power and look by region. In town areas, you can upgrade armor and weaponry, gain magic, and in some places upgrade physical and mental skills through bujutsu instructors and tutors. This is a new aspect of the game in this series. It won't be seen again until Suikoden V either. I liked it very much. As you battle, you can skill points. In towns or your fort, you can upgrade them via the instructor (physical power and abilities) and the tutor (magic abilities). Some characters have natural abilities in say, fire magic, or say, multiple hits with their quick blades. These characters can truly shine with the right training, and the game will tell you who is best at what. But you *can* just ignore that and upgrade whatever you want, if you're willing to gain the extra skills to do so. But some characters naturally cut off at certain areas, while in those they excel in they go way up in rank eventually. Basically it's the bread and butter of the gameplay, you do fields/dungeons, then you hit towns to buy items or what have you, and repeat. In between, and in most fields/dungeons, you'll discover powerful monsters that appear on screen rather than as random battles. These are another new aspect to the series, Treasure Bosses. They're usually at your level though near the end they'll be stronger for a time. You kill them for tons (and I mean, TONS) of money, and rare/good items for your level. And the best part is, they'll respawn within 30 minutes or an hour in real life time. So add that to your routine and you'll have found the meat of the gameplay. There are also one on one character duels, and large scale battles with armies, just like in the other games in the series. The duels are the same for you vets, as for the newcomers, you'll get the hang of it fairly quickly. An enemy makes a remark (usually hinting at the attack they'll use) and then you use a paper rock scissors system to figure how you'll retort. Attack beats defense, desperate (power) attack beats regular attack, and defense clobbers desperate attack. Also, a difference this time around, the battle can go with or against your favor depending on how well you start it out. Meaning you'll get "free" hits or no penalties for a mistake, if things go your way. If they go against you, you'll take extra damage and have no room for mistakes. In the battlefield stuff with armies, new things can be found for vets and newcomers alike. You basically shape the teams yourself, using the 108 Stars you gather. So in this game more than ever it's very important to have them all or as many as you can get at the time. You'll also want to level up EVERYone, and upgrade all the weapons and armor you can on these people, as they're ALL participating in battles, something new to the series. The early ones serve more as a learning mode, most of which you either can't win, or simply have to survive a certain amount of turns. They are advanced tactics the game can teach you (such as support on field), and then there are high stakes where if you lose no teams you gain special items at the end (war spoils). Don't expect anything major here (like Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem calibur stuff), but in itself the battles are fun and simple (usually). By the end game you'll have tons of powerful people, and you'll be expected to win all the battles, usually without a loss (seeing as a loss can sometimes get one of the people you have killed, meaning you won't gain the good ending or all the Stars).

In the end, this game relies heavily on the story. If you don't like it or the characters, you probably won't want to stick the whole way through. I heartily recommend playing the entire series in order. With Suikoden II save data you'll gain some neat extras. Anyhow, you'll quickly become addicted to spending skill points, killing treasure bosses, and progressing this wonderful storyline. There is a degree of customization here as well. I gave this game a five star rating for it's time. By today's standards it might have degraded to a four star. If you pick this up and a ready for a long haul, you'll get what you put into this beautiful title.

~lastfirstborn (writing for Shelia)

one of the best games of the year

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: February 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Suikoden III is one of the best RPG's that I've played in several years. IGN.com ranks it as the RPG of the year. Today's gamers will likely compare everything to Final Fantasy X, and while I feel that this game is on par with FFX, it appears to fall short in several ways.

1. There is no voice acting. I've seen this listed as a huge flaw for the game. I don't see it as a huge flaw. Voice acting is only a good thing in a game if it is done well. Metal Gear Solid is a good example of excellent voice acting. The VA in Final Fantasy X is adequate. Grandia 2 had fairly poor voice acting, if I remember correctly. Suikoden III has 108 significant, named characters that can be recruited. While not all of these characters have much dialogue, the scope required of voice acting and casting all of these voices may be too large for a video game. It is also unnecessary. While dialogue can make or break a game, voice acting is not very important to me.

2. The graphics are not up to standard. No argument here. The graphics are adequate and while they would be good on the Playstation (one), they seem outdated on the PS2, and this is a game from late 2002. My argument against this is that Suikoden III is a RPG. An RPG is about story and how much fun it is to play, not how it looks. Lunar and Lunar 2 are two of the better games on the PSX...and the graphics are more closely related to the SNES. That's fine. The games are fantastically fun, and so is Suikoden III.

3. No CG cut scenes. For the same reasons as the graphics point, I don't see this as important.

So what is good about this game? The story. Instead of war to save the entire planet/universe carried out by a small group of people, we have a story that gets larger as the game continues and the story makes use of something called the "Trinity Sight" system, where you can choose between three different characters (at the start) and see some of the same events from different perspectives. We see how events developed from both sides. This is a very nice addition to the game. The characters eventually do meet up as the storylines converge and become one storyline.

The game is also fun to play. It is easy to get immersed in the game and play it for hours at a time. I ended up logging 80 hours into the game, and this is without spending pointless hours leveling up. The game is long. I began with Chris, and I found her first chapter tedious (short, though, only 2 hours), but the more I played the more I got into the game. It may take a little bit to get into, but without question, it is worth it.

BORING! Has the World Gone Mad?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 12
Date: March 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

To me, the appeal of Suikoden 3 to so many people is one of the world's greatest mysteries, right up there with Roswell, Stonehenge, Easter Island and JFK's assasination. Why did so many people enjoy this game so much? My theory is that someone switched the discs in my game when I bought it, and that I was actually playing a fake version of Suikoden 3 that really, really, REALLY sucked.

Well at any rate, I'll review the game that *I* played.

Suikoden 3 is terrible. It is one of the most boring games I've played in my life, and I played all the way through it. Up to the very end, I kept telling myself that the game MUST get better (based on the reviews I read). Yep, right up to when they started rolling the credits I promised myself the game would get better.

It didn't. Elizabeth R. Powell's review is actually a pretty good description of my experience, though I would disagree with her contention that Hugo's plotline was worth playing. It wasn't. The worst part of the game hands are the game triggers (those events that happen when you enter a certain place that "triggers" the game to progress). Some of the game triggers are so random it's ridiculous. Sometimes, the game doesn't even tell you what you need to do next (like the chapter you spend recruiting people, and you have to talke to EVERYBODY in ALL the towns you visit). I spent countless wasted hours running from screen to screen trying to figure out how to progress that damn game, baffled because apparently I was supposed to know I to go to some remote corner of the castle to speak with some character I've never even met before. How in the world was I supposed to know to do that? And of course the overly high random encounter rate, coupled with the boring terrain and terrible music made the whole experience dreadful.

The story hardly makes up for the game either. In fact, if the game had good gameplay, I'd probably complain about the boring storyline. The uninspiring characters make you think Konami game designers flung darts at a personality chart to come up with their characters.

All in all, not even worth a rental. But I do implore you, if you are the least bit curious about the game based on the other reviews (reviewers bribed by Konami no doubt, CONSPIRACY I tell you), RENT, don't buy, the game. Don't worry, I'm sure you won't mind if you don't finish it in time.

Great!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: November 10, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I think this a great rpg. But the makers are getting away from a real true rpg. I have almost all rpg that have been made. I truely enjoy FF series. FF10 was great also. But unless the makers don't change something the rpg are going to be history. the earlier rpg are "great" They are losing their touch. I am a gamer. So come on companies let's keep a rpg a rpg.

Horrid game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: December 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

If you liked the second one odds are that you will hate this game.Rent it first and return it never play again.

eh

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: July 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I could not handle this game. I love role playing games, as opposed to shoot-em-up games, but this was way too boring. I had no idea what I was supposed to do, and hated the battle style, you just sit and wait! AH! I could not get past the beginning part to even get to the more exciting stuff. I could not sit through it, the pace drove me crazy. It may be cheesier, but I prefer Gauntlet over this game any day!

Where's the plot?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: March 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Having played RPGs for a number of years with pencil and paper, I found this game to be very weak. I expect an RPG to have a plot and a story to tell, this is what Role Playing Games are all about. Suidoken III's start is slow and reminiscent of Nintendo's style of RPG's which involve a lot of wandering around, hacking and slashing, with little plot to back up all of this wandering. The lack of voice overs for cut scenes also made the game a real eye sore after an hour of play.

If you want a game with a real plot, buy Xenosaga. If you just want to beat things up, then this game is for you.

Suikoden

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 19
Date: October 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

hey i dunno about 3 but the other 2 games were great you get over 108 playable characters there are tons of side quests lots of hidden magic\runes you can lead entire armys, u even get your own castle to do with as you please....basicly this is one of the greatest series games ever made!!!!

A good game....

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 7
Date: April 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Hey who ever has this game is cool I own all 3 Sukoden
games and the first and second were awsome but the third was kinda mising some thing; like the second had the characters from the first sukoden,and the hero from it too.The third ofcorse has diffirent graphics and and the three way play thing but it was still missing originality(maybe im wrong sukoden4 mite have the same as sukoden 2)I hope....botomline the game was nice.

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