a lesson in good old school and bad old school.
On to the review, this game intitilaly gives your average rpg gamer a nostalgic high. The outset of the game just gets you pumped to sink your teeth into it, and because this game doesnt get interesting till atleast 8 hours in, that nice nostalgic feel turns into a head ache. You make all the dialogue choices for the main character who happens to be a prince in a queendom. Meaning its the females who hold the power and the men who are the figure heads. Well this doesnt apply to the senate and queens knights, which also exist in that society. The game starts of by having the prince visit some locations, and gives you a feel for all the troubling things going on in the queendom of felana. What awaits is an adventure filled with power hungry nobles, ancient ruins, and lots of betrayal.
Well I guess the whole gimmick to the suikoden games is being able to recruit about 108 people who either directly or indirectly help you on your campaign. This works really well with the plot, and it really hooked me in. Infact this game is at its most interesting in a couple of dungeons when its required for you to split up into groups. However if I remember correctly this only occured no more than three times. Other then that your still going to want to get all 108 just to see all those small story events, and few minigames you get. There is downside however besides the fact that this is really tasking and will almost double your gameplay time, you need some sort of strategy guide. Ok so the script slowly turns into one of the best for any rpg on this generation of systems, and the 108 stars of destiny concept is great, what about the actual game play? The random encounters are the most generic experience Ive had in any turn based rpg as far as I can remember. There really isn't that much strategy here just attack and heal. Seriously the battles are fast and all because there really isnt much going on. The magic from the runes you equip run dry fast, the different battel formations are barely worth the effort, and the skill equip system moves at a snails pace. Sure u have to use your head a little because the runes and skills you can equip to a given character are very limited, but like I said in the end its going to boil down to attack heal. However the random and boss encounters aren't the only types of battels in this games you engage in. There are RTS style troop battels that start to get more strategic as you get more characters to join your cause, and there are these one on one duels which is kind of like rock paper scissors but instead you have to figure out what your opponents next move will be through what he/she says and counter it. These sequences give the gameplay a much needed shot in the arm in the gameplay department.
Now here is the aggrevating stuff, wait till a few minutes in and you get a load of the fixed camera angle you have to bare through out the game and how you cant swing it around. As apose to the third person style exploration you got in the third game. Yeah you can zoom in a couple of times to get a better look at the chracter models but then you wouldnt be able to see where your going. Seriously this really upset me now I need to speak to the rpg gamming community about this growing problem in rpg's, listen up. Liking the way this game looks does not make you hardcore for having old school taste, it makes you a retard Your just giving an excuse for game developers to get lazy, because of people like you Link will never have voiced dialogue. Konami If your gonna go old school why not make the game 2d, why waste money and make the characters 3d just to play like its 2d? --besides the obvious to annoy me. Honestly any idiot could tell this game was rushed even if you can get past the camera perspective, there is the frequent loading times, and the character models moving awkward like in the cut scenes. Over all, out of being pissed off alone im gonna ask you all not to encourge game developers like this. Maybe Im bieng a bit too harsh overall, I guess its worth the purchase, but it will leave you with the -- "it could have been so much better if they had made just a few tweaks" kind of feeling.