28.Oh man, I've been wanting to talk about this series for awhile now. Until I made this list, I didn't quite realize how much I really enjoyed this series and how angry I am that we'll never it's proper conclusion due to both Konami kind of killing the franchise and their new business model means it will probably never see a sequel after the PSP spin-off. In truth, this entry is the one responsible for really getting me invested in the series. While I had played and enjoyed the original, I missed the second entry and it wasn't until this game came out that I began to really take notice of the series and go back to fill in the missing gaps. I'll try to make the background synopsis brief: Very loosely based on the Chinese novel "The Water Margin" the series is set in a European/Asian influenced setting that is governed by 27 True Runes that each control a fundamental aspect of the world such as Fire, Life and Death, or even the Night. If a mortal should obtain one of these runes, they are granted immortality and eternal youth as well as the runes power. All magic in the world is derived from one of the runes as are many of the creatures that inhabit it. Suffice to say, these runes become a central element of conflict whenever they pop up in history and so the series follows a series of regional wars that erupt when countries and individuals battle it out for them. Central to the game is that all of them entail a hero caught up in a terrible war within their homelands caused by man's greed or historical circumstances and they decide to fight off the menace by building an army composed of 108 individuals to help them in their conquest. What makes the series stand uot besides it's strong casts political drama is the historical significance of the games one each other in their collected world. Events and characters in one game will sometimes wind up in later titles and this adds an interesting historical element to the games not seen in most fictional settings.Suikoden III is set 15 years after the Dunan Unification War (Suikoden II) in a region to the northwest called the Grasslands which is a territory controlled by the Six Clans of indeginous groups who find themselves in constant territorial disputes with the Zexen Federation, a merchant guild based country that formed on the western sea border and their industry keeps pushing them eastward into the Clans territory. Fifty years prior to the story, the land had been besieged by the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia (think fantasy Rome if it were more of a theocracy) who invaded the lands to obtain the True Fire Rune. A young warrior from the Clans, only known as the Flame Champion, obtained the Rune and united the clans to push back Harmonia. After a devastating battle where the Rune's power went out of control and nearly destroyed both armies, the Clans and Harmonia made a truce that would last for fifty years on the condition that Harmonia keep some of the territory they had acquired. The truce is coming to a close and the Clans themselves have been in constant conflict with Zexen for so long, the two sides are finally getting ready to sign their own peace accords, but other figures have their own intentions for the region and it's true rune. Unique to Suikoden III within the series, the game actually has three protagonists and the story is told from three distinct point of views through various chapters. Hugo is the son of Lucia (Suikoden II), the Chief of the Karaya Clan, and he's tasked with being the messenger to drop off records pertaining to the truce between the Six Clans and Zexen. Hugo fancies himself a warrior but he's too young to really understand the ramifications of war, and he is still confined by the prejudice between both groups against each other. He travels with his his pet Fubar, a baby Griffon he grew up with; Lulu, his childhood friend who is a few years younger than him; and Sgt. Joe, a member of the Duck Clan and the voice of reason in the group. When the war renews itself, Hugo is sidelined due to his position as future leader of the clans but also due to his age, he instead travels the Grasslands looking for the Flame Champion who saved them all years before.Chris Lightfellow is a member of the Zexen Knights who was recently promoted to Captain of the Knights after a recent battle that saw the deaths of the former commanders of the knights, and her own heroic bravery in leading the survivors to victory after such a devastating battle. Chris loves her homeland and wishes to protect it's people but she is weary of dealing with the Zexen Council who seem to be more motivated by their business interests than their people. Thrust into the spot of leadership as well as being a beloved hero of the people and a vile Red Baron-esque foe to the enemies, Chris is a bit overwhelmed by the pressure she's put under. While her closest knights all adore her and try to do what they can to help her burden, Chris still finds herself feeling melancholic about the mysterious disappearance of her father years ago and wonders now if he may still be alive somewhere. When the war renews, Chris starts by protecting her kingdom and even commits a war crime to save her men from a dire situation, afterwards she receives information that her father still lives and is in hiding somewhere in the Grasslands. Chris goes undercover with a Harmonian spy named Nash (SuikoGaiden series) to travel the Grasslands to learn more about her enemies and find her father who is connected to the Flame Champion. Geddoe is a mysterious mercenary and Captain of the Twelfth Unit of the Southern Defense Force, which is part of a large battalion of mercenaries used to guard Harmonia's borders from invasions. While on a mission in the Grasslands, Geddoe's unit gets orders to investigate the rumors of the return of the Flame Champion and to obtain his True Fire Rune if possible. With several connections within the Grasslands and Harmonia, Geddoe finds the sudden interest in the Flame Champion to be a bit too coincidental and begins investigating the issue which leads him to learn that not only is someone trying to re-spark the Zexen/Six Clan conflict, but also mobilize Harmonian forces to take advantage of the conflict. Geddoe's journey takes him farther than most of the characters and explores his mysterious connection with the Fire Bringers and their leader, the Flame Champion. A fourth POV character is also unlocked concerning Thomas, a young boy of about twelve who hails from the North Lands and is the illegitimate son of a Zexen Noble. Wishing to meet his father after his mother's death, his father sets him up in a rundown castle far to the north of the capital to save himself from scandal. Now Lord of the Castle, Thomas is tasked by the few remaining inhabitants to try to revitalize the commerce of the region and Thomas finds himself both discovering the castles connections to the Flame Champion, his own good business sense, and dealing again with an outsiders perspective on the Zexen Six Clans disputes. All three POV characters pass through at some point and Thomas actually fulfills the role of collecting new party members. There is a fifith POV character obtained if you beat the game with all 108 Stars of Destiny collected and it fills in some more backstory to the main conflict but I won't spoil it because it's actually one of the best rewards in the series for doing the whole collectathon. Each of the three main protagonists get about three chapters to complete their story, and you must complete all three characters chapters to finally move onto the the final two chapters of the games conflict. It's interesting how well each of the characters tales intertwine with each other. The game deals with serious topics such as war crimes, cycle of revenge that maintains these types of constant conflicts, the idea of what it means to be a hero for the people, and cultural identity. One of the more detailed plotlines involves the Bug Riders, who were former members of the Grassland Clans before Harmonia took over their territory during the Flame Bringer War fifty years ago. Subjected to Harmonia's caste system, the group is mobilized by Harmonia to attack their former allies in the hopes they can finally be upgraded to second class citizens where they can finally gain some rights. The issue is that some of the older members of the clan still maintain loyalty to their former allies and the hope they will one day be liberated, while the new generation raised in Harmonia can't see themselves being liberated and are simply trying to find an alternate method to better their people. The game delves into complicated issues like that and despite the fantasy elements all around, the game handles most of it's serious topics incredible well. In fact, the game's incredibly strong cast is one of the best things about the game. Thanks to the perspective switch with the POV characters, each character has their own large collection of allies and characters to explore which allows for the player to feel more intimate with the series usual staggering amount of characters. There are also quite a few shout-outs to the previous entries as many recruits are either grown up versions of some of the child characters from previous games such as Tuta the medic, rich bitch Lilly Pendragon of Tinto, and the final conclusion to Futch's story arc which began all the way back in the first game. You even meet some of the kids of characters from previous entries and even the cantankerous Star Dragon Sword makes an appearance although without the wonderful Viktor/Flik duo outside of a name drop. While most entries are pretty self-contained, Suikoden III has enough shout-outs and story depth to make it more rewarding to have played through the previous entries. Sadly, the Save Data feature is a bit of a dud in this entry as it doesn't net you a whole lot like the previous game or Suikoden Tactics. On the gameplay side of things, Suikoden III is much more experimental than the rest of the franchise barring spin-offs. While it still stays true to most of the series formula, the game features a new turn based battle system that fully incorporates a semi-realistic take on 3D battles. What I mean by this is that while characters start in their typical sides, once the battle starts, the characters and enemies will move around the battle field to obtain their objective and the game has friendly fire with the magic system. This introduces some unique tactical depth to the series that is surprisingly lacking for a series about mobilizing armies to win wars, but also brings a lot of contrived annoyances that makes the system pretty divisive among the fanbase. Most fans dislike the friendly fire aspect with magic while others were put off by the new buddy system which took away direct control of half your party. If you can either learn to look past these issues or simply embrace the novelty they bring to generic turn base combat, you'll find that SIII actually has one of the more rewarding battle systems in the series. A bigger blemish on the game is the world map mechanics that make getting anywhere in the game more tedious than usual, especially jarring since the character who can teleport you around shows up incredibly late in this entry.Less controversial is the game's new Skill System where the player can put points into special background skills to improve a characters battle capabilities. There is a wide-breath of skills and each character has their own level of proficiency with them which makes most of the games fighters feel really distinct from each other which helps address a large complaint most people have with the series. With that said, the mechanic is overpowered in the players favor and outside of appearing again in Suikoden Tactics, has largely been gutted or heavily modified in the later installments. Another new feature is the Mount system where certain characters can ride large beast allies and combine their stats for extra power. This also was deemed too powerful and kind of got nerfed in subsequent games.In series tradition, SIII introduces a new Army Battle system in which your army must capture nodes on a map and can garner benefits by having allies in adjacent nodes helping them to attack enemy units. What's really unique about it is that the actual battles are played out in a semi-A.I. battle system similar to the Battle Ogre series where your units are composed of the allies you gain and you choose to either attack, defend, or retreat against enemies and the computer determines what attacks you use. What the game kind of fails to mention is that your characters stats are directly taken from the main game, so having a unit with a character you barely use will often lead to disastrous results whereas an overleveled constant party member can sometimes solo the battle fields if the RNG gods feel generous. This makes using the whole playable cast even more important than previous installments. This is especially crucial when the game throws in Yuber or the actual Harmonian Army to deal with as both are as absolutely terrifying in battle as the series builds them up to be. Suikoden III has an odd place in the series history. Despite being the best selling entry, it's regarded as the middle child of the franchise. It's the third entry in the series but canonically the last entry on the timeline. It was the final game developed by the series creator before he left Konami, but the game drops a few of the legacy myth arcs of the series and instead introduces a whole new collection of myth arcs which were sadly never gone into as all of the later entries sidestepped the issues by being prequels. It's the last entry to really innovate the franchises basic mechanics, but a lot of it got ignored in the fourth entry while the fifth entry borrowed more from Suikoden II. It changes a lot of the series narrative focus such as getting an incredibly late start to the army building side of things and spends more time delving into the social aspects of the conflict. It drops the silent protagonist and the players ability to change their name. So it's kind of divisive, though not in the same "love it/hate it" way you usually see in other franchises. Of anything, most fans are simply sad that a lot of the new plot threads introduced in the game will never see resolution and several of the series myth arcs like are dropped in later installments. Overall, despite it's flaws and being a semi-fugly looking early PS2 JRPG, I honestly feel it's one of the best JRPGs on the system.