At the risk of pissing off every rabid Suikoden fan out there....

[aruru]

Okay, so I lied. I DID take a small break from WA3 greatness to check out Suiko3 a little and rant about it. I just can't seem to resist the allure of having a new game to start. It's like some animals and the Fighter and their attraction to shiny objects.

I will now quote my quickie (and amazingly spoilerless! w00t again is me!) preliminary review of Suikoden 3 I gave in jurhael's LJ:

As for Suiko3.... eh, I've only done the first chapters for Hugo and Chris and am in the middle of Geddoe's chapter 1 and thus am probably not the best judge yet, but thus far, I haven't been that enthused to continue. The game's just overall been kinda... well, bland thus far. Even the music (other than the opening movie theme, that is) hasn't been up to par with the previous games thus far - I sincerely hope that what I've heard thus far isn't what the general quality of the soundtrack's going to be like, or.... :(

I admittedly have liked playing through Geddoe's chapter a bit, though, as the character relationships between his comrades are rather amusing to watch. Hugo's chapter was rather cute at first, and it's sad at the end, but the drama of the end scenario was kinda spoiled for me by playing Chris' chapter 1 before it. So I suggest playing Hugo's first scenario before you play Chris'. As for Chris' scenario, it was... eh. Not bad, but there's not that much to say about it. Chris does seem to be a fairly strong woman thus far though, and that's good.

Anyway, at the risk of getting my head bit off by all the other rabid Suikoden fans, overall I've yet to be won over by this installment of the series. While it IS interesting to watch how the different character scenarios connect/overlap to tell a bigger story, and Geddoe's scenario has had a lot of personality to it, there's just been something... lacking to me thus far, something that's keeping me from saying "Yeah, this feels like a Suikoden game." :(

Of course, you could just say I'm full of horseshit and accuse me of still being unhappy because the Bear and the Blue Lightning aren't in it. ;) I'll just wait until you've played it for yourself to see if you concur on any of this.


I forgot to mention in that thing that I'm still hoping for an explanation about Viki to be one of the saving graces for this game, though. <--Viki fan, OBVIOUSLY

I will now sit here and patiently wait for Blue Moon fanboy types fellow fans of the series to flame my ass for not immediately worshipping TEH PREFECTION TAT SI TEH SUKIYODEN. Nyar.

Comments

[ichirou.livejournal.com]

I picked up Suiko 3 and WA 3 at TRU today when I saw they were having one of those "buy two, get the third game free." (they probably still are, dunno if you've got three PS2 games you're interested in) Ended up getting GTA Vice City as well, since nothing else looked appealing. I dunno...I might return it still (it's unopened) and trade it for something else. I've never played a GTA game.

...got any suggestions? ^_^

[aruru.livejournal.com]

You mean Toys 'R Us? Is it only for PS2 games? 'Cause dammit, I didn't know that, and I'm not looking for any other PS2 games for the moment. *sigh* I always miss the deals.... ><

Anyway, you bought WA3? Good call, I'm sure you'll enjoy it! It's been great IMHO thus far, and the music just ROCKS. Michiko Naruke 4-EVAR, d00d. :D

As for Suiko3, I'd actually rather suggest you try the game yourself and see what you think. See, as I mentioned above, I've only played the first chapter of each of the characters (including Thomas, after opening up his POV during Geddoe's ch. 1), so it's possible I'm being too hasty, as I'm only scratching the surface of the story and the plot's probably just a little slower to pick up than the previous Suikoden games were (which is funny, actually - I strongly stressed patience with the story numerous times to friends and acquaintances playing Arc the Lad Collection [since things don't really pick up until Arc2], and that's one of my favorites). So who knows? I might still warm up to this. ^^;

So really, be your own judge this time. It really could be that I'm still bitter about the lack of Viktor and Flik. ;) I suggest for starters Geddoe's ch.1, as it has the most personality and charm of the beginning chapters I played. Nothing like seasoned mercenary types to get you going. XD Plus it's the first of the chapters to bring up a fair amount of references to the previous Suikoden games.

Oh yeah, additionally (since I hadn't played this when I originally made that post), Thomas' ch. 1 is rather cute, even though Thomas is NOTHING like you would expect the "lead" Star of Destiny to be. He also makes some pretty weird recruits, like the chick with the hand puppet. XD

My opinion on the music thus far being overall bland in comparison to the previous games still stands, though. The tunes aren't bad or anything (some are even pretty pleasant, like some of the Grasslands plains themes and the Karaya village theme), but nothing has really struck out. Still hoping I'll be proven wrong, though. :(

[aruru.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I forgot to make suggestions for games... well, if you don't have them already (and somehow, I get the feeling you probably already do have them... you play so many more games than I, and all ^_^;): Kingdom Hearts (the camera's evil, but otherwise the gameplay is pretty solid, and it's cute as hell to boot) and Arc the Lad Collection (YOU MUST ALL WORSHIP THE SEXY BADASS THAT IS TOSH.).

I have one OL pal (chaoscheebs) that really liked Okage: Shadow King or whatever it's called, too. And I'm sure my other friends can give further suggestions. I'll force ask them to post here if they have the time.

As for GTA games, I've never played them either, but I know lyria and irksnapple had loads of fun with GTA3, so I dunno, eheh. ^.^;

Re:

[ichirou.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's Toys 'R Us. I went by there today to trade in Vice City for Grandia Xtreme but the saleslady said she'd never heard of it, then told me they'd gotten in a big shipment o' stuff, but I'd have to wait until Sunday or Monday for them to unpack it. I'll check back then, and get GX if they have it. If not...heard anything good about Legaia 2? Or Gungrave? I didn't like Legaia 1 much, but maybe the sequel's better, I dunno.

I haven't even opened the games yet - I've such a HUGE backlog of games...after I finish Valkyrie Profile I'm starting Kingdom Hearts, so...it'll be a while before I get to play Suiko III or WA3. :\

[chaoscheebs.livejournal.com]

Yep, it's "Okage: Shadow King". Battle system's not so good, but the story and weird characters more than makes up for it. It's great! ^^

'Course, if you're looking for something non-RPG, there's always Capcom vs. SNK 2. Ph34r the mighty powers of the team of Chun-Li, Sakura, and Mai. (I focus more on speed than power; can you tell?)