Quote Originally Posted by WK
I'm guessing it has to do with the game being heavy on backtracking and forcing you to actually manually travel through towns and dungeons to reach places (which even the older games are guilty of doing as well, though a bit less annoying) which is especially notable because the dungeons are nothing to write home about, though they are thankfully short when you compare them to the dungeons maps of FFX and XIII by comparison. I've been actively trading and hunting down rare finds and fighting optional bosses in all three chapters for the three main characters, and doing all that without Viki's quick travel teloportation has balooned my gameplay time to nearly fifty hours despite the fact I just got to Chapter 4, which some would argue is when the actual overall plot begins.
I don't want to hijack this thread to be all about Suikoden, but after Suikoden IV, I was never so happy to get Viki as in III. It takes a long time to get around in that game, without the benefit of being able to explore much. The battle system also had its flaws, with the buddy system and the fire rune (aka rune of self-immolation). Really, I think the game just wasn't as polished as others in the series, with some changes not being well thought-out in the transition to 3D and the PS2 (another example: the skill system was too easily maxed out for the main characters; V handled it much better). The story can also be more or less engaging depending on how you choose to play the chapters. If someone new to the series played, say, all of Hugo's chapters first, I could see how that could bore someone to the point of them not wanting to play the rest.

I still think III is a great game, largely due to the plot and very interesting characters and the innovative 3-character system. I would rank it similarly to V, despite V's far superior polish. But I can understand how someone new to the series could be a bit put off by it. I agree that full appreciation is benefited by playing the games in order.

Back on topic, I've been meaning to play Wild Arms for a while. It's on my ever-growing list of games I need to get around to playing eventually.