Cheers for the underdog!

User Rating: 9.5 | Suikoden III (Konami the Best) PS2
This series never got the recognition it deserved. Apart from 4 every game in this series was either good or great (in truth 5 was good, the other 3 were great). I'm reviewing 3 right now simply because I started playing it again recently. I'll start with the few flaws here. First off, random battles! I am just sick of random battles! They don't generally happen too frequently here but I still am just tired of them. Second is the difficulty. I'm not saying it should be easy, but if I'm mopping the floor with everything in the area, I shouldn't be too weak to beat the boss coming up. Instead I have to grind for another half hour with these simple enemies. Kinda ruins the fun.
With that said, here's the quick and dirty on why this game rocks. The story is amazing! There's intrigue, betrayal, political twists, and touchy subjects like racism all handled in a gripping way. The combat system has some very cool elements similar to the Lunar series, but with emphasis on teams. The ever cool character collection is still as challenging and fun as ever. The base building element rocks. Really just all in all this is a great game with great story. The graphics may feel a little dated, but they're good enough and stylish enough where you won't be bothered by them.
There isn't much bad I can say about this game and more good than i care to write at the moment. If you're still totin a PS2 and can find it, pick it up!