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19. Suikoden III (PlayStation 2)
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Suikoden III mostly takes place in Zexen and the Grasslands. Zexen is full of knights and brick buildings, and the Grasslands consists of several tribes of people who largely live with nature. These two nations are bumping heads and it seems like war is imminent. We get to experience the story through three heroes: a young man named Hugo, son of one of the Grassland chiefs, Chris, a famous knight of Zexen, and Geddoe, a mercenary and his group. As we watch the situation deteriorate between the two places they soon discover that they may share a common foe.

This game is largely similar to most Suikoden games with a few differences. In this game, you will experience most of the story through the eyes of the three main characters. The game is divided in to 5 chapters and you will play 3 chapters with the main 3 in any order you choose. From there, you will choose a hero among the three to continue the adventure in chapters 4 and 5. There are also a few side stories you can experience. While that part differs from the series, the rest is very much the same. You recruit as many of the 108 Stars of Destiny as you can, magic takes the form of Runes that you equip on characters, and you have battle parties of 6. You build up an headquarters and can play mini-games and such depending on who you have recruited. There's also rock paper scissor inspired duels and war battles that are played sort of like a board game. There are a total of 78 playable characters in this game including non-stars of destiny and guests.


General impressions:
This was my first game in the series, and I'd say on the whole it's a good introduction. The character recruitment in Suikoden III is easier than most of the other games in the series, it's well explained, it's intuitive, and it has an interesting and easy to follow story, making it good for newcomers to the series. So if you haven't played a Suikoden game then I'd say this is a very good starting point. It also has my favourite headquarters and some of my favourite mini-games, like the plays. It was funny casting some people in the role of Romeo and Juliet for example who didn't suit the part at all.

Story:
It's got some politics in there but it's overall easy to follow and the politics kind of act as background noise anyway. I like how the game kind of snowballs so what you start with is nothing like what you end with and I really liked that about it because it got more and more investing and less predictable. Your enemies are no longer enemies and some friends are no longer friends. It was also a neat touch to watch the conflict happen from different points of view, although I never enjoyed playing Geddoe and his story felt very disconnected from the others.


Gameplay:
Very good and a great example of the series. It was fun, easy to get in to, and improved on a few things. I liked the new skill thing where you could increase your characters attributes and add more to increase, it added a bit of customization. The war type battles were quite interesting in this one although I found them harder than the other games. And the mini-games were some of the best in the series. The game was also pretty easy and character recruitment was also easy for the series, which could be refreshing. It's also one of the only ones I bothered with trading.


World:
The world travel is a bit odd, like they didn't know how to incorporate a world map, but still there managed to be a lot of diversity in the areas and a lot of really interesting places. I really liked the Duck Clan village and Chisha Village (despite not going there often) but there were a lot of great areas and Budehuc Castle was gorgeous and an awesome headquarters to have.



Characters:
Lot's of great characters, which is bound to happen when you have such a large cast. Surprisingly, I liked the main cast less than the main casts in the rest of the series and much preferred a lot of the side characters.

Favourite character: Iku FGFD2XK.png
Honourable mentions: Percival, Yumi, Fubar, Sarah 7Cwhh1o.pnglH4vKDc.png0eMsniI.pngFcKsd3U.png

Iku, although not usable in battle, was just an awesomely sweet and adorable woman and I've always loved her hairstyle. She has one of my favourite love stories. Percival was just amusing and Suave. Yumi showed a lot of strength despite not being in the limelight much and I loved using her in battle. Fubar because I mean come on. And Sarah because I felt for her in a weird way and I really appreciated her sense of loyalty. Plus she was badass in battle.

Overall a great example of the series and awesome for newcomers. I have very little complaints, the game was fun and engaging and I'm excited to play it again.