Suikoden III (PlayStation 2)

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The main attractions of the Suikoden series have always been the "108 stars and the castle," and they continue to be a strength in Suikoden III. The concept of the 108 stars of destiny is based on the Chinese legend that gives Suikoden its name--a story about 36 heavenly heroes and 72 earthly heroes regarded as outlaws by their governments and heroes by the people. The 108 characters that make up the stars in Suikoden III include the three main characters and a variety of others. Gathering them all will require some work, though it is by no means an impossible task. A lot of the stars are just fighters, but there are others who have special roles like shopkeeper, cook, farmer, nurse, librarian, and even theater director. While a lot of the characters have personalities that are little more than lighthearted one-note caricatures, there are more that exhibit depth than in some other RPGs. Each is unique and stylishly designed as well, with perhaps a handful of exceptions. Early on in the game, you'll open up two chapters devoted to the character Thomas, a bastard child of a Zexen official who is sent off to become the master of the dilapidated castle because it's out of the way and unimportant. Thomas' quest is to keep the castle financially solvent, and he does this by recruiting the first few stars and turning the castle into a trade hub that's open to all--a particularly egalitarian move that flies in the face of the current political tensions and causes a lot of problems.

Thomas' side story is very entertaining (though somewhat cloying), but the castle itself is also a great source of entertainment. Beyond acting as a headquarters and a place to rearm, rest, and organize supplies, it also provides minigames and lots of other interesting little distractions. Sure, the peace of the land is in the balance, but there's always time for fun. For instance, once the theater director is recruited, you can spend a surprising amount of time mangling the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet or a few other dramatic scenes. All you do is select the cast from the stars you have recruited up to that point and watch. It has a surprising amount of depth to it, with each line in each play delivered in a large number of ways according to who's playing the role. Sometimes an actor will ad-lib a line related to their real job, break character completely, or knock a part of the set over. Seeing how your favorite characters fare at acting really adds to their personalities. If you ever wondered if ninjas, wizards, and barbarians make good actors, Suikoden III is the game for you.

As far as production values go, while Suikoden III's great anime-influenced art direction and the aforementioned plot, setting, and gameplay touches make for attractive character design and interesting character development, the game doesn't have the graphical flash of the benchmark Final Fantasy X. Though the exteriors of some buildings have an unnatural, undermodeled look, for the most part the environments are detailed and stylish. The frame rate can get annoyingly slow, but not frustratingly slow. There's also a minor but incredibly obvious control issue that causes problems in three or four locations if you keep holding the directional stick in the same direction when moving into a room or the next segment of field--the orientation of the new area places the border you just walked across in the same direction you pushed to walk across it, so if you continue to hold the stick as you enter, you just walk right back out.

The only really jarring problem is the game's music. Apart from the striking theme accompanying the opening movie, the music is largely unremarkable. There are even large cutscenes in which there is no music at all, and the silence is very distracting--doubly so since there is no voice work at all in Suikoden III. While most scenes are scored, the few that aren't are few and far between, and none of them have any dramatic reason for being silent.

Suikoden III is a little rough in spots, but it has the makings of a classic: The characters are both numerous and memorable, the setting and back story are amazingly well thought out and original for all of their classic fantasy trappings, and the plot is more mature than that of the average "bad guy threatens to destroy the world" RPG. For every small shortcoming, there are two or three little extra touches that give Suikoden III a depth beyond that of its peers. It's a must-buy for RPG fans, even those new to the series.

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