I think I want to shake the hands of the developers of the PS2 game, Suikoden III. Then I want to kick them in the shins.

I recently finished what was overwhelmingly a great game. Lots of fun. Beautifully put together. I haven't played any of the earlier Suikodens--I've been told I would have recognized certain characters and had a little more in the way of their back stories if I had. Even so, the game had a story line that was comprehensible whether you've played the earlier games or not.

I wil start with the things about the game that made me want to tear my hair out in painful clumps. I'd rather start with the negative and get it over with. Ultimately, this review is much more about the positives.

1. The first and probably the largest downfall of Suikoden III is that it initially requires lots of patience: I played several hours off and on before I really became interested in it. I know other people who set it down and never picked it up again. Too bad. The game really begins to give you more freedom and get addictively fun after the set of second chapters.

2. Another thing that drove me nuts initally was the fact that there was a pretty steep learning curve, and the game did little to teach me how to use rune magic, up characters in magic and fighting skills, create combos, figure out what people's potential in different areas was, etc. I'm used to the Final Fantasy-type games, where you are bombarded with instructions. It took awhile to understand everything. I realized as I went along that I'd been playing with a seriously underequipped party for a while.

3. There are not many times where you fight numerous long battles and don't have a chance to save, but one is too many.

4. It takes a while to catch on to the "Suikoden Way." In the same way as someone who has never played a Mario game has no clue that spraying open windows with water in Mario Sunshine will produce a gold coin, I didn't have a feel for Suikoden at first. I would occasionally get frustrated with the pace of the story. In that respect it felt a little forced. ie: run around trying to trigger the next plot point. Or try sleeping. Something might happen the next day.

5. This happens a couple times: I hate battles where the player is destined to lose no matter what. "I just kicked your ass. Now you're stealing my stuff and telling me you're letting me go??"

And now on to the positives.

1. All in all, the story line was pretty well crafted. Three nations vying agaist each other under the threat of something that seeks to destroy all three, and you are able to play a character from each. You choose which character you want to play first, then between chapters, you can switch to another person to see the perspective from the point of view of other cultures. Seeing things from three perspectives was enjoyable. Little things that are a mystery from one point of view suddenly become clear when you play the same time period from another perspective. I was pretty even-handed with the characters--I played chapter 1 with all three people before moving on to chapter 2. It's not at all repetative. In fact it's interesting when characters ocasionally overlap.

2. I really liked the way each culture had a very clear identity. The Xexan Federation looked and worked akin to Shakespearean England-- knights and tudor architecture. The Grasslands were a cooperating force of six tribes. Each tribe had a distinct cultural attitudes and customs, along with colors and designs. Beautifully done. It contributed enormously to the atmosphere of the game. Later in the game you work to create a place of neutral ground-- an area where all the cultures can trade and coexist peacefully. Because they were so distinct before, it made it more rewarding to see everyone interacting.

3. Amazing. I just played an rpg and didn't even spend hours leveling characters up so I could beat the final boss. You collect 108 playable characters over the course of the game, and at first I dreaded trying to level them all up to each other. But Suikoden III is not at all stingy with rewards. When you kill something stronger than you are, you get massive amounts of experience. ie: add a level 4 charcater to a group of level 30-somethings, and within a few "just tough enough to be interesting" fights, you're all within a few levels of each other. Another nice feature is that experience is not divided among characters. For example, if only one character survives the fight, they receive the same amount of experience they would have otherwise. Makes it so one person doesn't leap up in front so much, and gives more even leveling up. Also then I don't begrudge the experience to characters I don't prefer. There are also several optional bosses who give enormous amounts of money and rare items in addtition to pretty good experience. A few visits here and there, and everyone is up to par.

4. Every Item in the game has a purpose if you want it to. Example: You begin to find a series of recipes early on--later in the game, a character you recruit sets up a little cafe at your home castle. (one of the many people you convince to set up businesses or move to your castle/town.) The recipes, combined with spices or vegetables you find in different parts of the country, can be used to create foods that are useful for eliminating various status effects or recovering huge amounts of HP. However, none of that is obligatory. I like having choices.

5. The optional side quests are a good fun, and worth your while. I mentioned the optional bosses earlier, but there are also two different card games one can play, a track race one can do for prizes, and a series of really freaking adorable dogs found various places that can be adopted to live at the castle. (only one is part of the 108 stars you're collecting) More very cute things about the dogs, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone who's eventually going to play. You are also able to buy items at a trading post in one town and make quite a bit of money by keeping your eyes open and selling for a profit later. Don't sell too many of the same rare item to one town though, or the value will go down as the market gets saturated. There are several other fun things that shed light on your more mysterious charcters-- a detective who will do funny little investigations into the character of your choice, and a bathhouse/sauna where different combos of characters will produce enlightening and often pretty funny conversations.

My very favorite of the random additonal activities, though, is putting on plays! Hurrah! Once you've acquired a theatre director and some of the scripts, you will have a chance to select a cast from the characters you've collected. Every charcter has acting strengths and weaknesses, and each responds differently according to the role. Let the hijinks ensue! The Boy and I spent an entire evening putting together unlikely casts and producing plays. Sometimes it's very very funny. Many times the audience hates it. "Sir Boris of the Xexen Knights stars as the little match girl! See 'Romeo and Juliet' with an all ninja cast!" Every now and then you get wild applause for something completely unlikely.

SO. I reccommend that if you can find it cheap, Suikoden III is a load of good fun. Lots of detail, and not many negatives that can't be avoided.

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