Suikoden III Review (Sony PlayStation 2, 2002)

I have a negative history with Suikoden III. I loved the first two installments in the series, and the third installment was one of the reasons why I picked up the PlayStation 2. It helped that it had such positive reviews. I mean the game won RPG of the year above even Kingdom Hearts at a number of different outlets. It had to be good, right? Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. It was the first time I was ever disappointed in the series. Konami was trying some really experimental things with the franchise and most of them didn’t work out well. I have decided to take a new look at the game. Was i originally mistaken? Is Suikoden III actually one of the best PS2 RPGs after all? Let’s take a look.

One of the best aspects of the Suikoden series is its story continuity. This game takes place in the same medieval fantasy world as both the original and part II. It has references to past events and locations, and features several returning characters. Suikoden III takes place sixteen years after the Dunan Unification War concluded in the second game. Here the action takes place West of the setting from Suikoden II. Specifically the Zexen Confederacy and the surrounding grassland plains. This area has long been swept up in war. Both with each other, and the neighboring countries. This plot begins with the six grasslands tribes making a treaty with the Zexen federation. It is soon broken, and war breaks out anew. Of course all is not what meets the eye, but that’s par for the course with this series.

Right off the bat Suikoden III makes some significant changes to story structure. Instead of having just one main character there are three. You can select from each of the three scenarios, and there are three separate chapters for them unlocked as you progress. This is meant to give you a look at each side of the skirmish. Hugo is the young son of the chief of the Karaya people; one of the grassland tribes. Chris Lightfellow is the captain of the Zexen knights, and Geddoe is a mercenary hired by the kingdom of Harmonia. They each have separate but intertwining plots, go to different locations, meet their own casts of characters (with many shared), and more. Although most settings are shared by the three scenarios visits to them are different in each. The trinity mechanic is a really interesting approach for the series.

The trinity system isn’t enough to completely save the story however. This is a series well known for their plots, and this simply doesn’t measure up. While the first game had a heavy focus on fantasy elements, and the second on politics and military part III tries something different. In my opinion it has the atmosphere of a medieval western. It’s a strange blend that I’m not particularly fond of. Like its predecessors there are 108 different characters that join your quest (referred to as the stars of destiny) but the cast is really lackluster. I didn’t care for these people the same way I cared about the ensembles of fighters in past iterations. Additionally the story itself just isn’t particularly interesting.It doesn’t help that most of your objectives just feel like busy work even near the end of the game. There was potential here, but it was wasted.

Suikoden III was the first game in the series to be fully 3D using polygonal graphics instead of sprites. It was a pretty big step forward. The camera is both dynamic and static. In some areas it stays in one place displaying the action from only one angle. Other sections has the camera follow directly behind your character. It works well enough but can lead to some awkward controls during transitions. Unfortunately the developers opted to not include a traversable world map and instead give you an interface to select your destination. This is a major let down to be honest. I generally hate this mechanic in other games, but somehow Suikoden III makes it even worse. There are linear paths your character follows when making a selection. This means that any destination in between where you are, and where you want to go, must be traversed.

The problem is there are plains areas and forests with random encounters that are extremely boring and take far too long to walk across. Even some towns must be walked through to get to the path on the other side. Unfortunately your character moves slow. Even when running. It also doesn’t help that all of the environments are extremely boring. Some, like the plains, are wide open with almost no scenery aside from the grass and sky. Other areas are more enclosed but are entirely too repetitive visually. Basically, Konami completely blotched all aspects of exploration here. Going from town to town in previous Suikoden games was always a treat. Here it’s one of the biggest chores. By the end of the game I’m sure I walked through Brass Castle forty or fifty times. Not because I liked it, rather, because Suikoden III forced me to.

Now for the battle system. This is another area where Konami implemented some pretty major changes. Combat is still turn based, and the six character party returns. Commands include things like attack, rune (magic), combination attacks, items, defending, etc. Unfortunately there’s a new pairing system. Basically you have three slots for pairs of two in your party. You enter one command for each pair. I suppose it cuts down on time selecting individual commands for six different characters each turn. The trade-off is that you don’t have total control over your party. Unless you’re just attacking, that is. Only one character per pair can use a rune or item each turn. I really did not like this mechanic. If one character in a pair is casting a spell the other will automatically attack. There’s no changing this. This makes the battle system more limited than previous iterations.

One the plus side this introduces a new ‘mount’ ability. Basically if two characters are compatible, and paired together, one will ride atop the other’s back. It’s not as strange as it sounds because it typically involves an animal based character (like a gryphon, or dragon). This increases their defensive capabilities by evenly distributing damage from a singular attack between the two. You can even their individual runes should you so choose. This is one new thing in Suikoden III that I thought was neat. It’s also not overused. There are only a few pairs of specific characters that you can mount. Thankfully the game nudges you toward one in Hugo’s scenario specifically by giving you the option right from its start to teach players the mechanic. That’s at least one win for Suikoden III.

There’s also a new mechanic called the skills system introduced here. While I had mixed feelings about it early on later in the game I rather liked it. Each battle awards experience, gold, and skill points. You can spend the latter to give each character passive abilities in battle. This can increase the potency of your attacks, bolster your defenses from armor, improve accuracy for physical strikes, and more. You can even train to make casting rune spells faster and more powerful. Some characters even have specific skills that only a few others can learn. Party members have varying proficiencies with each of these individually. This means you generally can’t use the system to make a mage a powerhouse physical fighter, or your stronger characters fantastic mages. The skill system seems annoying and overly complicated at first, but it grew on me.

Unfortunately the skill system isn’t something you can choose to ignore. Suikoden III is the most difficult installment in the series. You’ll need to use every game mechanic to your advantage. This includes skills. While the game is tough by RPG standards it’s not impossible or cheap. I found that I was able to overcome any obstacles by honing skills and runes while switching around characters occasionally. You have to approach battles with strategy, and also, experimentation. That is the best part of Suikoden III. Unfortunately you’re always going to be short on money in this title. Armor and items (even staying at the Inn) are super expensive. Sharpening weapons is also extremely spendy. What’s more is that with such a large cast of characters to manage you’ll be spending money faster than you can make it.

Thankfully the game has re-spawning treasure bosses. These exist in specific areas, and provide fantastic items and a boat load of money each time you beat them. They’re also stronger than all of the standard encounters, and even many of the story based boss encounters. While they’re optional there are some sections of each scenario where you’re really going to struggle without reaping the benefits of defeating them. Unfortunately this adds to the repetition. Generally these boss characters are hidden away at the end of dungeons you’ve already completed. This means you have to repeatedly trek through these areas. In order to reach them multiple times. I can’t help but feel I wasted a lot of my playtime repeating this.

Speaking of dungeons Suikoden III has some of the weakest across the entire genre. What’s also disappointing is that there are only a few of them. These lack puzzles, suffer from too much linearity, and are generally pretty short. Like other locations on the world map there’s a distinct lack of scenery in these areas. It wouldn’t be that bad however the Suikoden series is known for its excellent dungeon designs. How they did this poorly in part III is beyond me. They even repeat within the story. On top of traversing most of them multiple times between the three scenarios sometimes you’ll be sent back through for no good reason. I understand that there aren’t many locations on the world map but I feel like returning to dungeons (and other areas as well) just feels like padding.

Like previous games in the series Suikoden III brings back the three different battle types. You have the standard fights (which I’ve already touched upon) as well as duels and army battles. The latter two occur at specific points in the story, and make some events feel more cinematic. Duels are one-on-one fights between the main character of whichever scenario you’re playing and one foe. It’s a game of rock paper scissors with three different options with each one being strong against another. These are mildly entertaining, and I especially liked guessing what the opponent would do based on their dialogue. Army battles here are different than in the past two titles. You move characters around what feels like a small board game play space. When they attack enemies the screen shifts to what looks like a standard battle, but you don’t have direct control over it.

Unfortunately the army battles aren’t as fun here as they were in the prior Suikoden games. I found it frustrating that you have to build up characters you wouldn’t normally use specifically for these events. Their stats, armor, weapon level, and even skills carry over to the army battles. It feels like Konami lacked imagination here, and I would have preferred the mechanics used in Suikoden II instead. The lackluster army battles wouldn’t be that big of a deal except for the fact that if one of your characters dies here they might perish permanently. Characters significant to the story never fall victim to this, but your other allies can go away forever with just one misstep. Considering you get bonuses for collecting all 108 stars of destiny and mistakes in army battles can rob you of this. I just wasn’t a big fan of these skirmishes.

Suikoden III carries over the art style from the 2D games in a very competent way. The 3D models maintain the signature art style this series is known for. In screenshots it looks really good. Playing it is a different story however. It’s clear the developers were unfamiliar with designing and animating 3D graphics. When characters run they move like wind-up toys. It’s extremely noticeable and very distracting. On the other hand spell effects are extremely impressive, and the same goes for attack animations. As I mentioned earlier scenery is really sparse, and it doesn’t help that colors are really muted and dull here. The soundtrack also has some major problems. It’s by far the weakest collection of music in the series. There are few standouts, and most range from okay to annoying. You can play this one on mute and you won’t miss out on much.