Its fighting system sets it apart from many Tactics games, but it isn't Disgaea or FFT, and not the best Suikoden Game
While I may not be the normal Suikoden Fan, no one game on the PS2 has come as close to the fun and originality of the first two games of the series as Suikoden Tactics has. Granted, I've been bogged down in other games to finish Suikoden IV, and you might argue that the simple fact Suikoden III was on PS2 was a crucial step for the series--these are both promising games in respect to what Konami has tried to bring back or bring to the franchise, if you'll hear me out, you may just end up agreeing with me.
First off, the game starts in classic Suikoden fashion: Your father and his crew go adventuring to stop weapons known as Rune Cannons, which apparently, aside from being elemental wrecking machines, they have a strange side-effect which turns whomever they hit into monsters. This is what happens to Kyril's father, right before his eyes, and when he least suspects it, his father-turned fish monster attacks him--forcing one of your father's comrades to kill him. While this doesn't directly relate to any previous Suikoden, it always seems to be that a strange set of circumstances and/or a traumatic event propel your character onward to destiny. In Suikoden 1, your childhood friend is called to audience with the King's right-hand woman, and then mysteriously comes back mortally wounded, at which point you receive one of the 27 true runes. In II, you get set up by your Captain as starting up the war between the Duchy of Highland and the City-States of Jowston. In 3, it's a number of things given the 3 character setup. And in 4, the closest entry to Tactics, it's a run-in with a pirate, hmm..who you defeat and then receive a true rune.
So far so-so, but the voice acting up to this point ought to have impressed you. If you're like me, and you probably aren't, you might even recognize a few of them as solid anime standbys. The graphics? Probably not what you'd expect from a top-of-the-line PS2 game, but it's par for the course in Suikoden. The Music is pretty good, and that can make you feel good about it at first, but as you travel from place to place, or travel back, as the case may often be, the music ought to get a bit old...You'll see that the game is set in and around the area of Suikoden 4, just simply further in the past, so if you liked Suikoden IV, then your'e in luck.
The Best part of the game is its battle system..As is the fun part in any tactics game, you get to deploy as many characters as you are able, up to usually 7 or 8..anyone who's familiar with the original Suikoden 6-man battle system will love that part of Suikoden Tactics..Each character has slots for Armor, including a shield, armor for your body, head, hands, and accessory slots up the wazoo..The reason for these extended slots is so that you can hold items, which you must have equipped coming into battle..Medicines, accessories, elemental items (which come into play big-time during battle), and medals even. The reason for the elemental items is that Each character in Suikoden has a basic element of Earth..Earth, Wind, Thunder, Fire, Water, etc. Putting your characters on ground with their element will give them stat boosts and help them rejuvenate their life, while doing the opposite will make them lose life, and stats..So be careful to learn their negatives..Example..Thunder elementals are usually bad in water and vice versa..
One of the neatest things you'll find as you go through the game is characters that have specific uses or abilities..They may set your party back offensively, but they often help out by giving stat boosts, or other advantages. One mission involves Suikoden IV's Treasure Hunter Renee, looking for pieces of Gold..And that is her purpose in the game, which can be helpful when you put in a good group and can keep her protected..This will take some skill however as the characters level up along with your party. Suikoden also has dungeons which give you a chance to get rarer treasures and consistently have time to train your characters or otherwise you'd have to find spots of ruins or similar areas to fight monsters on the world map..
The final thing worth noting about Suikoden besides its tendency to 108 characters, which don't quite show up in this game, is its Runes. There are 27 true runes, each one with different effects. Your main character has one..You can buy runes as you go along and as your characters get stronger they learn new abilties with a rune and gain more chances to use its power. Paying attention to a character's class generally lets you know when you might only be able to use Runes that can give your weapon an elemental boost, or if they are a mage and can use Runes like commonly see in other Suikoden Games. The characters have the ability to talk to each other which allows them to do Friendship attacks and those can be surprisingly strong. Just be careful that you don't let a valued character Die, because when they lose HP they may simply retreat, or they could also die..which means you lose them entirely, and generally you have to keep characters alive if you want a character for any situation.
The characters are lively and unique, and the story line has some umph to it..The presentation is pretty average but the Music and Graphics and Battle System all come together to give you a pretty fun game. You definitely wanna give this one a try if you're at all a fan of Tactics Games.