Suikoden III (Rpg ps2)

It's been a little crowded in the PlayStation 2's role-playing game market this October, what with the release of no fewer than four such games. Yet Konami's entry, Suikoden III, rates at the top of the heap, thanks to an incredibly fleshed-out setting and a huge cast of characters in a tightly woven and relatively contrivance-free plot. Strangely enough, Suikoden III manages to distinguish itself from its contemporaries by not straying too far from common fantasy set pieces and themes, instead opting to focus on the execution of the storytelling. While it has a few minor problems, they are dwarfed by the sheer amount of enjoyment the game will undoubtedly offer to anyone who enjoys a good RPG.

Suikoden III begins on the verge of a peace agreement between the upstart Zexen Federation and the Grassland's Six Clans, with both of the warring factions lying in the shadow of the Harmonian Empire. You assume three main roles: Chris, the newly appointed captain of the Zexen knights; Hugo, the son of the Karaya clan's chief; and Geddoe, the leader of a mercenary band acting as part of Harmonia's frontier defense force. Their storylines are interrelated and even have a few points of intersection. This chance to see a few plot points from different perspectives is grandiosely named the "trinity sight system," but thankfully, the mechanic works much better than its gimmicky name, as each character's story is fairly independent of the others. The shifts in viewpoint help make things very interesting, as political intrigue renews the Zexen-Grassland conflict and new threats arise.

Intro: