Suikoden III: Taking A Look Back

System: PS2

Year: October 24, 2002

ESRB Rating: Teen

Genre: JRPG

Suikoden III is the third game in the franchise. For those returning to the game from Suikoden II they will know some of what to expect with III, but also know what not to expect with the game. If you are wondering what I mean by that, I will get to that part shortly. This game does have you 'save the world', but not in the typical fashion as you don't get to see the whole world as a player. In fact the whole game only spans a small part of a much larger world. That is because this game series, unlike the Final Fantasy is actually a connected game series that spans the same world and timeline, even same magic system.

The main difference is the characters that you get to play as in each game as the games take place in different places along with at different times across the timeline. Now yes this does mean to get a full understanding of the full broader story of the game, it is expected that the player will play all of them, but you can play each of them on their own. Its just if you do, things that are mentioned or hinted at will go over your head as you will not understand what is even being talked about. This can be an issue with this being an older game and an older game series as it may be harder to find along with taking out the time to play.

Now as for the actual game play. Well if you are expecting just one battle-system you would be wrong, very wrong. Players of the previous games would already know this, but new players would be in for a completely new surprise. This has 3 different battle systems. The first one is for when you are just running around on the map and happen to run into an enemy (As shown below). This has your up to 6 group party paired up into squads of two. They then act together, meaning that if you have them attack, they both attack. Same for defending. If you have one of them use magic then the other will just attack, and sometimes that magic will take more than one turn to cast, so you have to be careful.

Now onto the second battle system, which is for dueling. Dueling is a one-on-one match between two characters that normally happens for story reasons. Its pretty much a rock-paper-scissors match. What I mean by that is your three options are attack, defend, and deathblow. Your opponent will say something before each round to give you a hint as to which they are going to do any you just have to pick which one is going to beat that one. It is also shown below.

Last but not least is the war battle system. Now this system is the one that is honestly the most grueling in my opinion because if you lose any character that isn't considered important to the game then you will lose them forever and not 100% the game, so you will not get the true ending. Mind you there are 108 characters in this game to collect, so yes this game will punish you for not paying attention. It is still a rock-paper-scissors system, in the fact that you have warriors, archers, and mages, but you still need to pay attention as you will also get special troops from time to time to help out. I won't really go too much into them, but you can get ninjas for instance, as a troop to help out, but you can also loose them. The picture below is of the war system. Each troop might also have skills that you can use and a limited amount of movement. You just have to really plan each of these battles careful.

Now as for the magic system, everyone can use magic. That is correct, everyone that can fight can use magic. Not everyone of the 108 can fight, some are shopkeepers and the like, but anyone of them that can fight can use magic. Its by a process called Runes that get attached to them in a Rune Shop. So long as you buy or find a Rune then you can get it attached to them and they will get access to the magic over time. Its honestly a great thing to be able to have everyone be able to have magic, now mind you the game will let you know via skills from a magic skill trainer or just checking their skills in the menu if they are better with one Rune or another, which means they will learn the magic faster along with doing more damage. Its always something to keep an eye out for.

Now that I have explained the basic systems, lets get to the heart of the game. This game takes place during a peace time, even more than that it starts during peace talks. Of course something goes wrong during the peace talks between the Grassland Nations and the Zexen Federation. This causes a war to break out between the two. You as the player actually get to see both sides of this conflict as you get to pick to play Hugo, a Grassland prince, Chris, A Zexen Knight Captian, or even Geddoe, an Outsider Mercenary. Just so you know, even more characters unlock to play as you continue to play the game. To unlock more of the game and to get to chapter 4 of the game, you must play as all 3 and experience the story from all sides.

You as the player will find out that an outside force is working against both sides to get them to fight against each other to make them weaker and expose the Elemental True Runes. True Runes in the world of the game control everything. The big bad, Luc, wants to get all of the Elemental ones to cause the world to reset by causing a horrible chain reaction by putting them too close to each other and ending the world. So see you save the world, but also stop a civil war between Zexen Federation and Grassland by uniting them against this madman. Its an interesting and unique take on the 'save the world' idea. Along the way you also build up a base and collect 108 unique and colorful characters that are all very different from each other. I do hope that each of you will take a chance to at least give this game a chance and even maybe the series.

I will give this game a 4/5. I would give it more, but the war system is something that constantly changes with each game, so by the time you are used to it, it changes with the next game.