Wassupp fellow gamers, Gambus Kahn in the house coming to ya with a review of yet another great RPG that I really enjoyed, Suikoden 3. For those of you who don’t know about the Suikoden series, Suikoden is an RPG based on the Chinese novel The Water Margin or Suikoden for short. The story is about a rebellion made up of 108 people that overthrows an empire, the games are based very loosely on The Water Margin. What the games do retain from the original story is the number 108 pertaining to the 108 people whose fates are inter-woven in a complex plot of political intrigue. Suikoden 3 is no exception.
Storyline
The storyline in Suikoden 3 is awesome it deals with the Six Clans of the Grassland and the conflict they face against the Zexen Federation. The Grassland people try to make a peace treaty, but we all know that peace talks nine times out of ten end up being too good to be true. So the war with the Six Clans of Grassland and the Zexen Federation turns for the worse. As the war rages on, the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia becomes the observer of the conflict, and it also gets stricken with tragedy. What evil powers are working in the shadows, the force behind the conflict? The fate of three people will be the stem from which tragedy will claim the world, cool huh!!!
Gameplay
The gameplay in Suikoden seems at first like the standard role playing game, you know the drill; kill monsters in a battle mode, get experience points, and visit towns; and yes you do get to do all of those things. The game starts to get interesting when you discover that you are in fact playing three main characters whose stories are inter-connected. You can chose to play as Geddoe (eye patched badass), Hugo(typical nature boy who grows up too quickly), or Chris(hot female knight femme fettale). Each characters story crosses the others characters storylines, making Suikoden 3’s a highly complex game, but wait theirs more. Not only do you fight in your standard party based battles, but you also fight in large battles controlling large group units in a grand war battle, and if that isn’t enough you also get to fight one-on-one duels for those dramatic moments.
Graphics-Sound
The graphics in Suikoden 3 will not win any awards, but you can tell that a lot of heart was put into the towns and characters. The towns have a feeling of life in every aspect from the layouts of the towns to the local villagers that look as if they have lives of their own. The characters have a quasie super-deformed/cell-shaded look to them reminding me of a more old school RPG lore, but it is to my liking. The music for the Suikoden games have always been very good, Suikoden 3 continues the trend. The soundtrack has both its ups and downs, but the quality of the music(unlike some RPGs) is constant and rich, perhaps buying myself a new soundtrack is in order.
Overall
Overall, Suikoden 3 is a must buy for any self-proclaimed RPG junkie and perhaps for newbies alike. In a lot of ways I enjoyed it even more than Final Fantasy 10, I just felt that Suikoden 3 had more character, more gameplay, a grand political story, and most of all MORE HEART!!! GK says “God bless and rock on”!!!
