Customer Reviews

Suikoden 3

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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 The graphics are adequate and while they would be good on the Playstation (one), they seem outdated on the PS2, and this is a game from late 2002.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.

This game has almost everything that you would want in an RPG.Tactical combat on occasion.People Recruiting.This is a must for Suikoden Fans.It also has an ability to take the Suikoden 2 (USA version) and convert it over to the Suikoden 3 game.If your a fan of the 2 or 1 there is one slight difference...The Trinity System.This system allows you to play the game from several different perspectives,and not just the three you start with.
Chris (Easy difficulty),She's a Knight.Hugo (Medium difficulty) ,He's a Tribesmen. Geddoe (Hard Difficulty),a Mercenary. Later in the game you can play other people such as Thomas,he's...well...you'll just have to play it to find out about the rest of them. Anyways,you actually can recruit people to help you in your adventure with any of the main characters.Or you can recruit weaponsmiths,traders,and other support people and have them go to the Castle to setup shops and the like.This series is one of my all time favorites.And as I play more and more it impresses me allot.

The Suikoden series has provided quite an exciting ride over only three games. The first game was not only one of the first great Playstation RPGs, but showed that you didn't need hyper-advanced graphics to still enjoy a game. It was refreshing compared to the extravagence of Final Fantasy VII which soon followed. Suikoden II was fell prey to an incredibly poor translation and lackluster gameplay--all the fun of the original game seemed to have been sucked away. Suikoden III, however, excells above both its predecessors and provides one of the great gaming experiences in recent memory.

The game begins with the player being able to choose between three different points of view. This "Trinity Sight" system is elegant and, despite the repetitious dungeons, manages to keep the game more interesting than in probably deserved. Why? Because it starts slowly, and nearly crawls to the climax in the beginning of the fourth (of five) chapter. But the player's interest is somehow held completely by wanting--needing--to know what is going on with the all three main characters.

All the Suikoden conventions are back (108 characters, duels, massive war battles, six character parties, a castle to build, etc), which makes for a far more involved play experience than most RPGs coming out today (see the Final Fantasy series). The 108 characters are well worth seeking out, and, with the aid of a new "detective" character, much easier to find. I promise you that you won't be dissapointed in the bonus you get for finding all the characters. The duels and standard fights are much the same as they always have been. That is, fast paced and fun to play. What changes in the normal fights is that you now have three groups of two you fight together. It sounds simplistic, but it really helps speed the battle up with only a slight dent in the strategic element. I was also glad to see that the battle system, while different from the rock-paper-scissors-system of the first game, managed to also diverge from the horrendous system of the second. Battles are smaller, and still turn based, but they're fast, and fun to watch.

I really can't recommend any Playstation 2 game more highly than Suikoden III. I don't know why the game is becoming increasingly hard to find, but if you have the chance pick this one up as soon as possible. You won't regret it.

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).

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.

I was late to get this game and have only played it for about four hours now. I enjoyed Suikodens 1 and 2 so much that I bought this one without hesitation. The storyline is engaging once it gets going, and some of the music and characters are familiar if you've played the first two games. The menus are easy to access and logically laid out as is the battle system. The only thing I don't really care for is the clumsiness of the character control when you're in a village or town. You can't alter the point of view of the camera, which makes things awkward sometimes when you're trying to get in or out of certain places. I also have never cared for the 3-d polygonal characters that all the games seem to use nowadays, but Suikoden 3's characters have a little expression and personality and aren't too bad. Overall, I'm enjoying this game based on my past Suikoden experience.

Overall, this is a fairly good RPG. The plot is a little slow but picks up in the later chapters. Not quite as good as the previous 2 suikoden games. I dont really recommned this game if you played the previous 2 games since it is a little repetitive but I highly recommned this game if you havnt played the other 2 games.

this is undoubtedly the best RPG I have ever played, in terms of storyline and how much time lapses before I absolutely have to turn it on again. I've played a lot of RPGs, and though Square-enix's Final Fantasy series produce the best graphics, they have much to live up for and in the process, can disappoint. Suikoden was a pleasant surprise, maybe because I've never played the prequels. Nothing was overdone, everything was perfect for this game. If you have some time on your hands, and like being challenged, get this game for the summer.

Suikoden 3 is one of the best games I have ever played. With a great story and lots of great characters it is really addicting. It's fairly long with a view point from 3 main characters; one being a mercenary, a knight, and a boy from a village. The battle system is one of the best I have ever seen with up to 6 characters in a battle; you can do strong combo attacks depending on who is in you party. The magic in this game is great it is so in-depth with the magic you can create your characters how you want them using the different elemental runes. With 100+ characters this game can keep you going for a long time. The game has 3 different battle types; normal- You have six people and you face the enemy, Duels- 1 on 1 fight with who ever challenges you, and my favorite Strategy battles- You and your enemy have a certain number of units and you move them across the field....however in these battle you can't control the actions of your people. Well I rate this game a 4 out of 5 but honestly I think anyone of any age could get into
this game it is one of the best I have ever played. The 3 main viewpoints are fun to play and you can also unlock 3 others. One being a little boy named Thomas who becomes the owner of a castle which becomes your main base later in the game. If you unlock all 108 characters before the end of the game you can unlock the viewpoint of the main enemy Luc and his followers. The last viewpoint is of a dog. You can't do much but it's still fun nevertheless. Well that's all I have to say about this great game, anyone who can should really try to play this game.

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.