The Shrine

I must say, I'm pretty impressed. Not as good a game as 2 (or 1), but entertaining enough. Some definate flaws, but worth my time.

I liked the Trinity System in theory, and generally in execution. I liked all three protagonists, Geddoe and Chris more than Hugo, but didn't mind him either. I also liked how their separate stories gave a lot more opportunity to play with different parties and characters, given the prior Suikoden games had you use maybe a dozen characters out of the 60-odd combat characters you'd recruit. Some fun characters this time, and it was hard not to like Geddoe's band of merry (drunken) mercs.

Seeing the returning faces was also nice, in that general Suikoden tradition, especially in seeing how some of them swapped from the "bad guys" to the "good guys", and vice versa (I knew I'd seen Lucia before, but couldn't place her until it was mentioned that she'd been an enemy in S2).

Combat was still fun, though I wasn't a huge fan of the combat pairings. It wasn't a problem for most of the game (it only became an issue late in the game when I wanted to put together a party with 4 semi/full casters and had a hard time balancing that, though as I chose Chris as my champion, I wasn't using her rune all that much anyway).

My only other major criticism was due to the Trinity system, and that was backtracking. I'm glad the encounter rate was relatively low, but having to run across the same few areas repeatedly until you can teleport in the late game did get a bit old, and dropped things a bit in my opinion.

Still, glad I picked it up used. I'll have to grab S4 when I get a chance, though I think I need to wait a bit before I do that - I'm not up for another hunt for the 108 stars quite yet.

Oh, and Branky? Owns.

It's my favorite of the series.
One of the best intros I've seen. I'd love it if they made an anime movie or series with that art (apparently there is a manga).

There's a manga that looks more or less the same as the game. I think Hugo was the flame champion based on what I've seen so far but I stopped following (or actually people stopped scanning it) around volume 5.

Suikoden 3 was one of those games I preferred watching as opposed to playing. I can't imagine having fun doing another 108 guy goose chase and I really don't like to play the same scenes twice from two point of view (e.g. Chris and Hugo chapter 1) since it hardly offers any insight to the story. I thought Luc's point of view was the only viewpoint that was actually different enough to warrant a separate point of view.

As far as the manga goes, they have now released thgough volume 5 of the manga here domesticly in the states. I really liked 3 as well, not just because the storyline was good but because they also gave us a lot of lore from the Sindar and the earlier history of the Suikoden world. Suikoden 4 as excelent as well, you should try it when you get the chance to.

Honestly, aside from Hugo/Chris chapter 1, I didn't find there to be a lot of redundancy in viewpoints (excluding Thomas's two chapters, but I liked those, and they were optional besides). The redundancy was in running through the same half dozen zones over and over again before teleportation.

I agree with you on that, and even when there was redundancy you saw things from diffrent viewpoints, so it wasnt entirely the same.

I was likewise greatful when the teleportation came about tho ^_^

OK, I just started messing around with the theatre. This is fucking hilarious.

My masterpiece so far is the Suikoden 2 Neclord play, with the 5 dogs in the starring roles, and Hallec as the narrator.

You've got the dogs howling at each other and Hallec just shrieking. It's fantastic.

Yeah I have done that one ^_^ Have you done the dog bit yet? Where you get to run around the castle as one of em? The music is hillarious ^_^

Viki has pretty funny lines in theatre too.

Yeah, I made her Juliet. It worked very well.

*snicker* there were a lot of funny ways you could set that Theatre up ^_^

Oh, BTW, M'k'n'zy,

You seem to be a pretty big Suikoden fan. How's the music in 4?

I realized the other day that to my ears, the music in the first game sounds a whole lot less "gamey" than in 2 and 3. Wondering if anyone else had noticed that, and what 4's soundtrack is like.

It's almost like they got more function out of the music/sound processors with the PSX for 1 than they did with 2 or with the PS2 for 3. Just weird.

I thought the soundtrack on 4 was really good. Then again I have liked the soudntrack in all of the games so far ^_^

I've liked the music in the other games too. It just always sounded to me like 1 could be passed off as a live/orchestral thing, whereas 2 and 3 definately sound more synthesized.

I dunno, maybe I'm just weird.

I kinda know what you mean. The soundtrack from 4 is defidently excelent...but I havent played any of the others in a few months, so I cant really compare. I will say that storyline wise I felt 4 rivaled 2. It was a really good game. 4 was also interesting because it takes place 150 years before 1.

Tortolia wrote:I realized the other day that to my ears, the music in the first game sounds a whole lot less "gamey" than in 2 and 3.

I haven't played the others, but I think the music is the best part of the first one. It stood out when I first played the game, and I can still conjure of some of those tunes in my head.