Suikoden Tierkreis

by Konami

Product Features

• First handheld Suikoden game and exclusive to the Nintendo DS
• Established gameplay system but also offers a rich online community experience using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
• Many cinematic events that will drive the grand storyline of the 108 Stars of Destiny as they battle to thwart the powerful One King
• Featuring a new storyline and new variety of characters
• A game that will take you to many cities and across parallel worlds

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001H8Y7DA
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches ; 4 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: March 17, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,259 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The Million World universe lies under threat from the mighty One King, who harbors a plot to sow chaos throughout its vast expanse. The only ones who stand a chance of opposing the One King's plan and thwarting his evil machinations are the 108 Stars of Destiny, a group of magical warriors. When the members of the 108 Stars of Destiny come together, it will unleash a stunning battle of good vs. evil that will span the Million World universe's near-infinite parallel worlds.

Customize Your Character View larger. Suikoden Storyline View larger. Lush Environments View larger. Synopsis In Suikoden: Tierkries, the first handheld game in the enduring Suikoden RPG series, you'll use your DS to gather the members of the 108 Stars of Destiny and help put a stop to the One King's plan. Explore the vast Million World universe as you travel across parallel worlds to a variety of exciting cities, and experience a gripping, cinematic storyline that will immerse you fully in the battle to overcome the forces of evil. Send your warriors on exciting quests via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to level up your characters and savor the game's rich online community. Key Game Features: Experience the excitement of the first handheld game in the long-running Suikoden RPG series Gather the magical warriors who comprise the 108 Stars of Destiny to thwart the mighty One King's sinister plan to create chaos throughout the universe Travel across a universe of exciting parallel worlds in which you'll discover a variety of exotic locations and cultures Savor a cinematic gameplay experience complete with new characters, rich animation sequences and gripping dialogue with voiceover Send your characters on quests to be completed by other members of the Suikoden: Tierkreis community via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Suikoden goes online via Nintendo WiFi Connection! This all new, epic RPG in the long running Suikoden series incorporates many innovative features to the handheld RPG genre. An active online community experience is encouraged by allowing players to send their characters on quests that other members of the Suikoden: Tierkreis community will complete for them via Nintendo WiFi Connection. As your character travels around the community and completes quests he will eventually return to your party with new abilities and treasures. This provides a new way to level up characters your characters which helps create a sense of community and provides a new way to experience RPGs on handhelds.

Product Description

Suikoden: Tierkreis is the latest iteration of the popular RPG franchise that was introduced more than 12 years ago. Suikoden: Tierkreis again follows the story of the 108 Stars of Destiny as they challenge the almighty One King, who intends to create chaos in the universe. As players progress through the story, many exotic locations and cultures will be discovered across the game’s universe of parallel worlds. To travel to the parallel worlds players will use Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to send certain characters on quests which other players will then download and take along on their own adventure. Eventfully the characters will return to their original owners with new items and a great story to tell. This online gameplay will create a thriving community as players search riches in far off worlds.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing graphics and great turn based gameplay--interesting story too!, March 28, 2009

By 

AlexJouJou (D.C.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Suikoden Tierkreis (Video Game)

Frankly I'm a bit surprised with the low ratings. I actually think this game is really fun. I didn't pick it up at first as I thought it was more a tactical RPG--and although I like that type I have become burned out on them and am holding off playing for a while.

The graphics and music are very good. I love Anime type RPG. The controls work exceptionally well which is another plus. The turn based gameplay is quite fun. Enemy encounters are random sometimes--which I never mind in an RPG. They aren't as frequent as something like Final Fantasy I but you will encounter enough to level you up. You can use an "auto" fight feature which I found superb for regular enemies--and it cuts the amount of time choosing what you want your party to do. I would not call this title (I'm still fairly early in the game though) extremely difficult. This may change later but for now its fine.

The menu in game is only so-so. I found it hard to purchase equipment and really tell if I should or not. It is kind of difficult to know whether you should when you don't know when a Party Member is going to leave. I'm not finding it too complicated in terms of figuring out where to go and what to do--and the map works fine.

I actually like the story--its interesting. Now, for the voice acting. I would have to agree that this may be the worst VA I've ever heard. Actually it would be fair to say I've never heard anything like it. These actors talked so fast I seriously believe they paid them to have all the VA done in like an hour or something. It is unavoidably annoying and pulls this game down in rating for me. Although I didn't feel as strongly as some of the other reviewers the VA alone makes me consider removing one star. It is THAT BAD. Like nails on a chalkboard. Seriously.

Overall though fans of more traditional turn based RPG will like this game. I have never played any other Suikoden titles so I can't relate it to the series (but others already have done that for you anyway). As far as RPG's go I'd probably give it 4.5 stars--but I really like the graphics, music, and gameplay so in the end I don't feel justified to subtract one star for the terrible rushed voice acting which does detract enough to matter but did not ruin the title for me in any way. I am still thoroughly enjoying it!

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This game is the reason I bought a DS, March 22, 2009

By 

T. Sewell (Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Suikoden Tierkreis (Video Game)

I want to start by saying that I am a huge Suikoden fan so this review may be a bit biased...but truthful none the less.

For starters there are certain elements of the series that they have taken out. You won't find the whole rune system that fans of the series such as myself enjoyed which kinda sucks. They basically replaced it with Magic Points...most characters have certain moves which when used depletes some of your magic points. No choosing what kind of magic they specialize in...it's random.

From what I understand there are no more huge army vs. army battles...

You still have the castle that you have to build up...108 characters to find (which I'm hoping still includes my own chef, bath guy, the gambling dude so I can make extra money, etc; haven't gotten far enough to tell yet)...2 or more party members can still team up on a move...no returning characters (so if you've never played a suikoden game before no worries, this is a completely different story)...trading system is still in place.

I'm a little disappointed with the game in some aspects. For example there is no roaming a town or map like you use to be able to do. Instead a menu pops up with different locations inside a town and when you click on one you just pop up in that area...no walking. Seems as tho this game is geared toward the younger crowd as some things have been dumbed down.

I do wish there was a guide out there for this game tho. Some caves and forests you enter are maze like and have some classic Suikoden traits where you can walk through walls and enter hidden areas to open chests and what not...hate missing out on stuff like that...Finding all 108 stars of destiny can be tricky too.. *EDIT Prima Games has an ebook/guide for this game on their website that you must download to your computer for 19.95. Why prima games...why?

There seems to be a Chrono Trigger element to it...with gateways to other worlds. I'll leave it at that so I dont spoil anything.

Story wise it's interesting. I haven't beaten the game yet but the story is good enough to keep me wanting to see what happens next. Its hard to tell what the story is about without adding any spoilers, but basically there is this organization called The Order recking havoc and you and the people you assemble are going to find out what their up to and try and put an end to it (insert evil laugh) There are also numerous side quests to go on.

Love the music. Very familiar soundtrack (which is a good thing) a few tunes seem to be remixed with some new ones added. Beautiful if you ask me. The game itself is beautiful. Nice background with lush environments and cutscenes. One minor annoyance is the voice acting. The main character seems to speed talk.

All in all I'd recommend this game. I'm having alot of fun with it. The battle system is the same as others in the series. The menu and controls are very intuitive. I know Suikoden has had a few misses *cough* (Suikoden IV/Tactics) *cough* but this game thus far seems to be worth my time. As long as I keep reminding myself that this isnt a full blown add on to the series but a spin-off it helps with any disappointment I may have. Just buy the damn game :)

27 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hard to get past the miserable dialogue and voice acting, March 22, 2009

By 

M. Sean Molley (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

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This review is from: Suikoden Tierkreis (Video Game)

I haven't finished the game yet, but so far it's reasonably enjoyable. However, I feel compelled to write this review now, on the basis of one single glaring flaw: the dialogue and voice acting are appallingly bad. In the world of computer gaming, there is voice acting that's so bad it's good (i.e. you listen to it just for the amusement value) and then there's voice acting that is so bad it's painful. This definitely falls into the latter category. The characters sound like they were voiced by a group of random Canadians (that's not a dig on Canada, most of the voice actors really do have obvious accents) who spent about 4 hours one afternoon in a conference room at their offices doing the recordings and called it a day. It is truly, truly awful. My initial reaction was to be impressed that they crammed as many voice samples as they did onto the cartridge. But after 10 hours all I want now is to find an option to delete the voice track entirely. It is that bad. I don't consider voice a must-have in a DS RPG by any stretch of the imagination, and in this case, the game would have been much better had they just left it out.

As for the gameplay, it's average JRPG stuff. You navigate from place to place on a world map and then run around in a 3rd-person view (fixed camera) within each location. Lots of random battles as you run around the individual locations, but the individual fights don't take very long and you usually only have to traverse maybe 3-4 screens to get where you're going, so it's tolerable. When you get to a town you are presented with a list of locations you can visit (which I actually like; sometimes it's a pain in these games to run around the towns trying to find every single NPC hidden in every nook and cranny that you might want or need to talk to).

The combat system is a bit disappointing -- it's very simple, even when you manually give commands to your characters. (Overall, the game is very easy so far -- I am playing on the "Normal" setting, and I generally just hit the auto-battle button and watch my characters wipe out the enemies in either the first or second round of combat.) You have a basic attack option based on the type of weapon you wield, and the individual characters quickly learn a magic option with different spells of the expected types (damage, status conditions, healing, etc.) Each character can have up to 4 spells ready although there are a larger number to choose from as you progress in the game. There are two "ranks" (front and back) and the characters in the front rank protect those in the back rank (although there are also reach weapons, ranged attacks like bows, and magic, which can hit across ranks). Your selection of equipment makes a huge difference in the amount of damage you deal -- equipment seems to be far more important than level. That's about the entirety of the tactical depth I've seen so far, which is a bit of a disappointment, but maybe it gets more interesting later. Seeing the fight play out in 3D is nice, but I would rather have more tactical options (such as moving around the battlefield). I haven't played any of the previous games in the series but the description on Amazon made it sound like it was more of a tactical RPG than it really seems to be.

Definitely the best thing about the game is the graphics -- they are excellent, and there is a lot of variety. The character portraits are done in anime style but each character has a 3D model and you can see it in some detail on the equipment screen, including the equipment/weapons you're currently using, which is cool. There are some animated cut-scenes which are fun to watch (usually too short, but nicely done). I am from the old school of RPGs so super-spiffy graphics aren't a must-have for me, but I definitely appreciate them when they deliver, and the graphics in this game do indeed deliver.

Apart from the battles, there is a "trade goods" system that lets you buy low and sell high among the various cities you visit; it's easy to make a massive amount of money this way, so you should always be able to afford to buy the best equipment. The quest rewards are also generous. Some of the quests take on a mission type structure where you have to pick your party (there are combat characters and support characters) and then play through a pitched battle. I'm hopeful that perhaps this mission system will evolve into something complicated and interesting as the game goes along, with multiple battle groups that each have to complete different objectives or something along those lines. Fingers crossed.

The story seems like it has the potential to be interesting (travelers between an infinity of worlds, the classic debate between free will versus pre-determination of each person's destiny) but I'm having a hard time getting past the poorly-written dialogue and the horrible, horrible voice acting. To be clear, I don't think the dialogue being bad is a localization issue -- there aren't a bunch of typos and nonsensical word choices as one would find in a bad translation -- it just seems like whoever wrote the English dialogue really needs to go back and take some creative writing classes. It doesn't help that the main character seems to have the IQ of a gnat and is apparently surprised by more or less everything no matter how blazingly obvious. Half his lines are some form of "Huh?!?" or "What!?!"

So far this game is a definite "meh" which is too bad as I had high hopes based on what I had seen of the previews. We'll see if I can tough out another 10 hours or not. The combat is easy enough that I don't expect to hit any speed bumps, which means I will likely finish the game just to see how it turns out.