Customer Reviews

Suikoden Tierkreis

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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!

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 :)

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.

Just a short review of this game.. I've played Suikoden I,III and V so I am a casual Suik player. I am not all hung up on the story or remaining true to the core of the game, so this game worked for me. I've played a few DS RPG's and I have to say after playing this game for 30+ hours I'm still having fun. The game is pretty plot heavy but thanks to my friend Mr. Fast forward cut scene button the game is a little more bearable. Sometimes you talk to some plot less character that will bother you with no less than 100 lines of text. The game makes me scared to talk to people at times because they want to tell you their life story, and how when they were a kid an old man touched them on a bus. The other problem I have with the game is the waste of space main character..
Whisky Tango Foxtrot Japan.. What is it with making these no spine having androgynous plot useless main characters in games?? Your effeminate main character some how becomes the leader of an army and king of a castle at age 14 by saying the line "You never know unless you try!" over and over until you want to watch Richard Simmons dancing to Boy George to get your masculinity back. And what is with that kid and his damn book? Not really a spoiler, but the game is about magic books... And every time your hero meets some one new he is all about letting them touch his book. Then green stuff shoots out of it on the other character.. It just does not sit well with me its like librarian bukkake. *sigh* Japan.. Japan... Anyways...
WHAT I DO LIKE ABOUT THE GAME IS: It is one of the most beautiful DS games out there, the backgrounds and characters are all full of life. There are literally endless different kinds of monsters to fight. Each imaginative and beautiful to watch. Every time you buy a new weapon it will show up on your character and is rendered differently. Like Pokémon you spend lots of time searching for all the 108 possible characters and right now I have around 70 of them. And for a little DS game there is lots of dialogue, and it is a very long and thorough game. I definitely highly recommend this game. Just do not get stuck up on the classic Suikoden thing. This game is its own monster. Thanks for bearing with me. -Andrew

As the title says, I'm a huge Suikoden fan and this is the first title in the series that has disappointed me.

PROS (which are also sort of cons):
Storyline -- The storyline isn't the greatest, but it does have its moments. My favorite aspect is the political triangle involving the three empresses of the Magedom of Janam. They each have their own agenda and are competing with one another for power. There's a lot of intrigue concerning them as you try and figure out who you should side with and what each has in mind. These queens, as with many of the other characters, aren't morally black and white, which I like in a game. The main characters, however, and their plot, is stale and annoying. Kids discover that they have magic powers and go around doing good? Boring.

Graphics -- The environments are the best aspect of the game. They are lush and imaginative. The game could take advantage of this by forcing you to walk around more. Instead, it feels like you just revisit the same two or three places over and over again.

CONS:
Too many cut scenes -- You just basically walk from cut scene to cut scene. It feels like there is very little gameplay at all. You finish one cut scene and then are delighted to see that you have control over your character again. You take two steps to the left and are forced into another cutscene. What's the point of even letting me walk around? You may as well be watching a movie.

Traveling -- Towns are divided up into single rooms that you access via a menu, rather than walking around freely. If the game wants you to see a cut scene, they won't let you select any location from the menu except for the one that has the cut scene.

Fighting -- Most fights consist of me hitting auto attack. Except for choosing who is in your group, there is no strategy involved.

CHARACTERS -- The big attraction of the Suikoden series is getting to meet and play 108 unique characters. In this installment, unfortunately, you only spend time with a few major characters and the rest you meet once and never really see again. The main characters that form your core group are generic "magic kid" characters. The interesting characters are the ones you barely get to play at all.

RECOMMENDED?
If you enjoy RPGs, this is as good as most, sadly. The graphics alone would make it worth choosing over some of the other options out there. If you're looking for fun gameplay, though, then pick something else.

This game is amazing. It reminds me of the older final fantasy games, like 4 and 6(US). The story is very good. The music is excellent. I enjoyed the voice acting. The cinematics are also quite good. The battle system is a lot like the Final Fantasy 4 DS remake. You can have up to four members in your party, not including a support character that doesn't fight. At certain times, you can have multiple parties. All in all, I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes a good RPG.

Some info on this review before you read on. I want to warn you in advance that I am a true Suikoden fan. I've played almost all the games in the series and I truly cherish Suikoden I through III. I feel this is one of the premier JRPGs out there and thus my view of the game might be biased in some form. However, I do try to keep my opinion balanced and fair and try not to skew the quality of the game towards some fanboyish propaganda piece.

Let's start:

Suikoden Tierkreis is a spin-off from the main Suikoden saga that many of us whom follow this series have come to know. The game features a brand new story path with new characters and worlds to explore. If you were hoping to see some returning characters, too bad--you won't see any here this time around. This brings me to the first gripe I had with the game: No returning characters.

This is one key aspect that most Suikoden fans have come to expect from this series. The charm of having old friends come back and aid you in your quest was always welcomed, and even eagerly anticipated. This time around there are no familiar faces from games past. No Pesmerga, or Yuber, or Flick, or Ted, or Vicki, or any other character that has graced the story before. Is this a bad thing in the grand scheme of things? No, not really. While I would have loved to see some past characters come back, these new set of bandits actually carry themselves pretty well. They have charisma and fury, wants and emotions and at the end, you can't help but be taken over by them.

The story is, to say the least, a typical JRPG experience, which usually goes like this: This really bag guy (The One King) is trying to take over the world (your world) and his forces (The Order) will stop at nothing to make his will come to fruition, which might lead to the destruction of the world as you know it, and it's your job (the teenage hero with magical powers) to make sure he doesn't succeed. Obviously it's a little more complicated than that, but you get the picture. In this quest you will have to travel far and wide to recruit all the forces needed to oppose the One King, which in this case is a plus.

Recruiting is where Suikoden really shines. I've always enjoyed this aspect of Suikoden. The recruitment process of the 108 stars is, and always will be, the best thing about this series. Here is where you will choose personal favorites to accompany you in your quest for victory, and I can't stress the fact that if you want to fully enjoy this game, you should try to capture as many 108 Stars of Destiny (or Starbearers) as you can.

Why would you go through that trouble? Well for one it extends the game time considerably. If you want to blow through the game and follow the main story you can finish in about 25-30 hours. You only really need about 40 Starbearers to complete the game. If you really want to accomplish everything that the game has to offer, try and get all the Starbearers and side quests, which could possibly extend the game to 65+ hours. Not only that, the more characters you have, the more combination of parties you can take out onto the battlefield. This really adds depth and really advances your enjoyment in the overall experience.

This game, by far, has the most robust set of characters that you can actually take out to fight. This is great, but it comes at a price. No longer do you have mini-games that you could only get through recruiting characters, or attain a bathhouse to ail away some aches and pains, or have cooking competitions. This really creates a glut of people at your castle that just stand there in the hallways, not really doing much but to fill space. Again, is this a bad thing? Well yes and no. While I would have enjoyed such distractions, the game really makes up for the empty space with side quests you receive through out the story.

Recruiting characters earns new side quests, some of these are tricky to complete. You'll really need to think about what parties you send out, or even how the main character goes about trying to complete such quests. These are nice diversions and some are necessary to acquire more characters.

The battle system here is just like old games, with turn based sorties that pit beast and men against each other. You'll definitely grind to keep your group ahead of the enemy and the Mark of the Stars (basically your Rune system, renamed) will keep you busy to create a well rounded group. The one thing I have against this RPG convention is that sometimes the random battles become too repetitive and bog down the exploration aspect. There is no way to avoid these battles when you don't want to encounter them, except by running away or using the "spark" command given to you later in the game. However, these aren't solutions to keep the flow of the game alive, but this is what you have to play with.

Now I'd like to speak of the main character. It's great that Konami was able to include voice acting. It really adds emotion, and some of the cast used here do a great job of bringing out the characters to life. However, not all is good in the world. The main character, although charismatic, is too one dimensional. He doesn't have depth or much personal conflict, and it feels like we use him mostly to come along for the ride, not to invest in his plight. The other troublesome tidbit here is that his voice feels too rushed at times, especially at the beginning of the game, but it slows down to a reasonable tempo by games end. I don't know why the voice talent, or even Konami, chose to keep the dialogue like that, but it is what it is. Is it irritating? Yes at times, but I got used to the voice work and it really didn't hinder the story at all. To others it might be too much.

Overall, is this game worth the purchase? If you are a long time Suikoden fan, yes, no doubt about it. I enjoyed the game through and through and even though they have omitted some long running staples of the series, it retains enough of its whim to enjoy this iteration of Suikoden. For the rest, I suggest if you can get them, go back and find copies of the first five games. The first three were excellent and they will give you a better representation of what the series is about. If that's too much trouble, I would give this a shot for sure. There is enough of what makes Suikoden great, and you won't be left out by the story arc of the previous games.

Yes a definite buy.

It's funny that a game that does so many things better than so many RPGs feels so generic and tedious to me, but I think it's a product of the seemingly intelligent decisions made. The decision was evidently made from the beginning to focus on creating a decent combat system rather than throwing together something crappy with a pretty plot, which sounds good but means the plot itself is neglected pretty badly. Because there are a hundred and eight playable characters, and you have great freedom in choosing who to use for what, a hundred and six of them are flat and/or cliched and get little storyline time. Because the designers evidently didn't want to punish the player for sticking with favorite characters, there's little strategy to choosing who to use, and the only reason to ever switch characters is to build people up to send them out on dispatch missions. So as not to punish the player for a certain style of play, styles of play have in essence been eliminated--whatever your best attack is, you spam it until your opponent is dead, occasionally pausing to cast a healing spell on yourself. Most painfully, because several gameplay and story elements worked well elsewhere, they're reused here with only slight changes to them, but with little understanding of what makes them good or bad--a comment covering everything from the haphazard implementation of attacks that require multiple characters to use, to a complete inability to understand that a few brave people chosen by destiny to fight evil do not belong in the same game as a message that there is no such thing as destiny. Ultimately, I've had more genuine entertainment (as opposed to complacent semi-happiness) from games made in RPG Maker.

Before I picked up this game, I had never played a Suikoden game before. The only thing I expected was a good RPG experience. My expectations sunk, though, as the game started.

First, I was discouraged by the voice acting. At times, it seemed like the speech had been time compressed, so I was left wondering if it doesn't say Micro Machines, it's not the real thing.

Then, there was your cliched starting scenario, 'C'mon, you kids! Let's go beat up some monsters to protect the village.' Ugh...

Soon, though, the game departed from that worm-ridden story progression to another story progression that was only recently emerged from rigor to another that seemed pretty fresh.

Obviously, I don't want to give up the details, but if the game content seems to be tired when you start playing, I can only suggest that you stay with it. It does get better. Although, if you've been playing for ten hours and the game still seems dreadful to you, then you must have purchased the wrong game. I think you can still use that excuse at some retailers.

It is very infrequent I write a review for a game. Personally I'm an old style gamer, who loves a great challenge, lovable characters and interesting plot.

If there was anything I'd dock this game on, it would be the challenge. The game offers a few moments of "illusionary" suspense. But even in fights designed for your character to lose I felt I could knock blows with the enemy forever. This is further disappointing because of the combat system itself, which is painfully simplistic. There are a few mechanics in place, but their effect is minimal.

On the upside the characters are incredible. They are full of fun, life, and personality. I've heard in so many review how much people hate the main character. Personally I love him. He may be on the annoying side, but he was DESIGNED to be annoying. If you've ever played Radiata Stories and seen the main character Jack, you'd understand perfectly what I mean. And Jack from Radiata is one of the most memorable and fun characters I've ever encountered. Many of Suikoden Tierkreis's characters are lovable and fun like this. I certainly have enjoyed most of the characters I've met so far.

Suikoden Tierkreis's plot is quite interesting. It certainly isn't revolutionary, but it has some interesting topics other games haven't tackled. For one the Order (evil empire so to speak) drives their evil through predestined fate... which is fun to think about. My favorite book series the Cold Fire Trilogy, has a religious order just like this. This kind of enemy is much more difficult for our hero to fight and makes for a much more interesting and twisting story than your typical destruction and downfall of the purely evil empire.

To finish this game is great. Its beautiful, fun, and enjoyable. But I'll warn you, if you're looking for a game full of of action packed challenging combat with deep mechanics... look elsewhere. If you're looking for fun characters and an interesting story (much like a good book) then this game is for you.