Suikoden 3: Impressions

[Crono]

I bought Suikoden 3 last night, and here is what I have to say about the game. I'll also expalin some game elements, which could be slight spoilers.

One word: Amazing.

I'll start with the opening video. It is truly amazing. All of the cutscences in Suikoden 3 are in anime, and it's really nice, but the opening video to this game is beautiful, and really inspiring. And the music in it is pretty good, too.

Now here's about the game itself...

When you begin, you have the choice between 3 main characters to choose from. Suikoden 3's story is played through different points of view (trinity sight system), which will eventually tie everything together. I chose Geddoe, a guy with a patch over one of his eyes, he is a Captain of the 12th unit in some army called Harmonia or somethin...But there is also Hugo, a young guy with blonde hair, and Chris, a female knight. There are 6 chapters and a total of 4 main characters (the 4th one is the overall main character). Each of the 3 beginning characters have their own "small game", which is a 3 chapter sequence that lasts about 15 hours, or so I've heard.

Runes
Runes play a major part in the game's story. In this game, Runes is what gives you magic. You can equip these runes onto your characters, although certain runes can sometimes only be equipped by certain characters.

Weapons/Abilities/Skills
Instead of buying new weapons all the time, you just get them upgraded by the blacksmith. Weapons have levels, and the blacksmiths increase their levels to become stronger.

As for skills, after each battle your characters gain skill points, which can be converted into upgrading your character's abilities.

Battle System
The battle system is really cool. 2 characters may team up using the buddy system (actually the game forces 2 people to always be together, but you can swap characters for other characters). This allows for certain attack combos, etc. Other than that, it mainly just a basic "attack, magic, item" battle system. And your characters move around, although you can't control where they go.



You can also rebuild your own castle town. By getting other people to go to your town, it will grow and become bigger, and more stores will be set up, etc. I haven't done that much n it so far but it's pretty cool from what I've seen.

So, to conclude, if you have the money and like RPGs, this is a definite purchase in my opinion. It is the best PS2 game I have ever played. The game is awesome, although casual gamers and people who don't like rpgs much probably won't like it much. But anyway, the game is fun, and like I said, if you like RPGs then this is an awesome purchase.