Let's start with a bit of an intro to this endeavor. Recently, I turned in my dust-collecting Wii U and acquired a new PlayStation 2. The third one in this house! Both of ours had issues: one would stop reading discs suddenly, the other would plainly scratch discs. No good. 🤬
There are so many PS2 games I've been meaning to play or replay but that just sit on my shelf, taunting me. Most have just never been ported, or the ports are as inaccessible as the game itself. I bit that bullet and ensured that I could relive this interesting gaming era.
Note for those concerned about rare games: I first tested the new PS2 with a game I don't really care about: no scratch, no stop in one hour of gameplay. Perfect!
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| Suikoden III logo / Wikipedia |
There are so many games I want to play, but I decided to start with one I could never finish ... Suikoden III. Back in the day, I was unable to beat a Thomas and had only one save.
I remember loving this game, but, for the life of me, couldn't remember anything much past the intro chapters. A perfect candidate for a revisit with experienced-gamer glasses!
Today, I want to share with you some Suikoden III highlights!
A beautiful intro
I'm a sucker for games with anime cutscenes. No lies, at the time, the anime sequences usually looked a lot more polished. This is something I miss in modern games. I get it, with graphics today, what's the point? More often than not, the game graphics are already custcene-quality!
To me, it's a little unfortunate. Using a different medium or appearance gives a game a whole other dimension and that's lost today. Something else that seems to have disappeared in the mists of time is intros that play automatically when you idle on the "Press Start" screen.
Suikoden III's intro does both -- 10/10 recommend watching it!
One one hand the intro is really cool and gives the general "vibe" of the game without giving too much away. On the other hand, it's a little confusing: there are just so many characters and so much stuff happening!
Personally, the "yay" far outweighs the "meh" here ... bring me that anime goodness!
Characters & stories
When you initially start the game and when you finish a chapter, you get to the Trinity Site, where you can choose whose story you want to view next. Following a general arc from three characters' point of view was not something I'd seen a lot back then. Even now, it's no easy feat!
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| Trinity Site / Crappy picture from my phone |
The three main points of view follow:
- Hugo, a young Grasslands fighter from the Karaya clan
- Geddoe, a mysterious mercenary and his band of misfits
- Chris Lightfellow, a Zexen Knight (still haven't played her part yet!)
Hectic combat
There are some games were developers tried to make combat more dynamic while also keeping the beloved turn-based formula. Think about the gambit system in Final Fantasy XII or the spinning wheel in Shadow Hearts. Suikoden goes beyond somewhat the classic turn-based formula but doesn't go all out.
You have up to 6 characters in combat, split into three two-character units. You control the unit of two rather than individual characters: if you attack an enemy, both characters will do so.
Sometimes, it's not really clear what either of the character from a unit is doing. If you use an item with your unit, the other will attack an enemy in reach, not necessarily the one you want, sometimes walking in the range of other spells.
Runes give you access to special attacks and spells. You can use special attacks either at will or once per fight, but spells have a different number of slots. The more powerful the spell, the less you can use it. Much like in D&D, you regain slots by resting!
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| Suikoden 3 booklet, yes I have it! |
I love the Runes system, maybe because it feels so familiar! It's a little unfortunate (or perhaps a smart limitation) that you can only activate one Rune per unit per turn.
The lack of tutorial creates a bit of a touch and go experience. Sure, I could crack open the booklet and read the explanations but I'm approaching the game as I would a new release.
Because of this and also the varying strength of enemies on any given map, I find combat to be somewhat difficult. I've had many character deaths but only one game over thus far, so difficult but not frustratingly so!
Cutesy look, brutal story
I'm not sure what I was expecting but this game reminds me a little of Final Fantasy IX: the themes and the plot points are pretty dark but they're hiding behind a cutesy appearance and anime style.
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| Gotta love visiting the city - Suikoden 3 / Crappy picture |
So far, the story opposes the Knights and "civilized" city folks to the Grasslands "barbarians." It involves terrible acts on the knights' part under the guise of "This is war." I'm not sure why the Knights are stirring the pot yet, but they're definitely painted as the bad guys as far as Hugo's and Geddoe's perspective go.
Gotta keep in mind, though, that you eventually see Chris's point of view.
One thing that shocked me is an on-screen child death -- and I don't mean like "He was sick and he passed away" but more of a "He was struck down by Lady Chris." This is something you don't see in modern games. It surprised me! I was like "Shiiiiiit!!!" and didn't even like the kid!
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| Sorry Lulu - Suikoden 3 / Crappy picture |
I think that's it for my few first impressions. I wouldn't call this an actual review, but it's just the first thing that really stood out to me!
If you enjoyed this, please let me know and maybe I'll post a "40 hour in" review! Also, I'd love to hear what game you'd like to hear about next! Look at that beautiful to-play pile 🎮
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| To-play games and a beautiful cat! |
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