56. Suikoden IV (PlayStation 2)
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Suikoden IV takes place in the island nations long before the other Suikoden games. Our hero, Lazlo (or whatever you name him) has just graduated in to a full-fledged knight, but because this is a video game, and a Suikoden one no less, he soon finds himself outlawed. His troubled don't end there because he also inherits the Rune of Punishment. In case you couldn't tell by its name, it isn't a good thing.

This is a Suikoden game and plays much like the others save a few differences. For one, battle takes place with parties of 4 instead of 6. Most travel is also done long distances over sea on a ship instead of walking around a world map. Like other Suikoden games, you have to try to recruit the 108 Stars of Destiny. Magic takes place in the form of 'Runes' which you can purchase and attach to certain characters. There are ship battles as well as rock-paper-scissor type duels. As usual, you have a headquarters, this time on a ship, which contains several mini-games. There are at least 108 recruit able characters, and 56 characters usable in battle (including guest and non-stars of destiny).


General impressions:
Suikoden IV is the black sheep of the Suikoden family. It isn't as good as the others. The HQ isn't as nice, the battle party was lowered to 4, the characters aren't as interesting on the whole. But it is by no means a bad game. It still had a very interesting story, some solid characters, some very pretty locations, and my second favourite True Rune story of the series. It has some fun things like the confessionals, and it has some of my favourite character designs as well. It also has my favourite Jeane and Viki designs. I don't enjoy it as much as the rest of the series, but it's still a very good game and I really like it.

Story:
I'd say it's a strong point in this game, despite everyone disagreeing with me :P. I liked the Rune of Punishment because it wasn't just a rune you could spam for power (well it was, but not story wise). I liked learning some back story for the history of the Suikoden world, and seeing some old (young?) faces like Ted, which tied in with the first game. I liked the politics of this one a bit more than most other Suikoden games as well, and while the characters and gameplay weren't as good, I thought a lot of the dialogue flowed well in this one.


Gameplay:
The gameplay is by no means bad, I think the biggest issue is that it was a departure from the rest of the series. When you have as many characters to level grind as a Suikoden game, 4 in a party is not nearly enough. Those extra 2 party members make a difference. Also, as much as I liked the beautiful water environments, getting from place to place with little going on was just very dull. Other than that the gameplay was fine and I did actually enjoy the ship battles.


World:
As I mentioned above, both pretty and dull. The ocean is vast and beautiful, but having to traverse it forever to get somewhere was not fun. But the islands for the most part were pretty interesting and it had some memorable areas.


Characters:
The characters didn't have the same charm as in the other Suikoden games, but it still had some strong ones that I enjoyed. As usual I appreciate the diversity of character types you find in this series, and it was certainly interesting having an older, drunk woman as your strategist.

Favourite character: Flare WtLnIpu.jpg
Honourable mention: Kika 6umtaCy.jpg


I liked both of these ladies because while they were very different people, they were both strong and determined and excellent allies. Plus Flare is an archer and I love me some archer characters.

Overall it is the weakest in the Suikoden series, but it is still a solid, fun, enjoyable game that I will continue to play. It has a strong story and some interesting characters.