Suikoden IV Review

[Lucent]

You know, I realized I had written a personal review of Suikoden IV back when I finished the game and never really did anything with it. Seeing as how I've been on Suikox for a bit now, and with Suikoden V coming out I figure a nice look back at Suikoden IV might be a pretty nice thing to do.

There are a few spoilers for those of you who haven't completed the game yet, so I've made sure to use spoiler tags on them. To read spoilers, hilight the areas between the (spoiler) marks.

Hope you enjoy my thoughts :3


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I knew something was different about Suikoden IV from the moment I loaded the game, gone was the familiar overture openings with cel-animated character montages. This traditional opening was replaced with a CG montage set to a tropical tune that, while more fitting to the game's environment, felt immediately lacking as a Suikoden theme.

Suikoden III was an installment of the series that seems to have both support and hatred from fans of the series, and this split is squarely divided from everything I have read and heard. From experiencing Suikoden IV, with its new director and writer, I can clearly say that regardless of a split opinion on Suikoden III, that Suikoden IV is a weaker game overall. Though this does not mean it was unenjoyable.

Here's the breakdown:

Gameplay
Suikoden IV's gameplay is strongly reminiscent of the other Suikoden titles, though changed just enough to alienate hardcore fans of the series and make the game seem to lack depth to newcomers. Gone are the six-member parties from the previous installments, now replaced with four-man teams. Though this first and immediately noticeable change isn't major, it is a drastic change to the enjoyability of a game with 108 characters (the majority of which are useable in combat this time around).

Suikoden IV's gameplay suffers from over-simplification primarially. The battle-system remains the same since the 1995 release of Suikoden I. Now this does mean there is sense of familiarity with the battle system, but Suikoden IV suffers from an uninteresting advancement system that offers no customization of characters.

Taking a huge step back from Suikoden III's skill system which allowed for characters to advance and grow as decided by the player, Suikoden IV offers nothing of the sort, only minimal equipment selections and rune placements. This leap backwards in terms of innovation may make the game easier for beginners to jump into, but it won't keep them playing for very long.

Beyond the lackluster combat system, Suikoden IV does offer a fair allotment of entertaining minigames based on classic games such as Mahjong. These minigames (aquired after gathering the specific characters that offer the games) I often found to be more entertaining than the core gameplay itself.

Exploring the world is often a tedious factor in Suikoden IV as well, though the fresh aspect of traveling in an archipelego on a ship is interesting, the clumbsy control design of the ship and the far-too-frequent random encounters make traveling from one city to the next nearly unbearable. By the time you are able to teleport to previously visited locations you'll hardly touch the ship again unless absolutely necessary.

Suikoden IV's world on average seems miniscule compared to previous installments as well. After traveling across the various cities and dungeons I couldn't help but feel that there was something missing. Even Suikoden III, with it's limited worldmap felt like a larger place, and Suikoden IV can not even hold a candle to the vast lands of Suikoden I and II--It all feels like a major step backwards.

Lastly is the mass-combat system, a staple of the Suikoden series that has a very hodge-podged feel in Suikoden IV. The ship-to-ship combat is interesting, and an enjoyable new departure from the standard unit combat of the previous Suikodens, but for a system that has so much potential it ends up feeling like an afterthought tacked on in the final stages of development.

Your naval fleet never gets larger than three ships, and overall the naval battles last but a handfull of minutes and are considerably easy. Even the final naval battle at the end of the game feels like the odds are stacked in the player's favor and you never feel that same threat you did in the other Suikoden games.

Overall Suikoden IV's gameplay comes out feeling a little stripped down and mostly embarassed at it's lack of dressing. Not a horrible game system, but not one that will stick in memory for any length of time.

Gameplay Rating [**********] [4/10]


Story
If the combat system was lackluster, the story might very well cause drowsiness. Though Suikoden IV manages to draw you into its storyline with voice acting (a first for the series) the game's flat characters are barely carried by the voice talents to an abysmally anti-climactic ending.

The main hero of Suikoden IV (a nameless protagonist) has a flicker of a backstory and absolutely no dialogue with which to be fleshed out through the course of the game. Though this is a nod to the silent heroes of Suikoden I and II it causes what could have been a dramatic tale of sorrow at the hands of the cursed Rune of Punishment to fall limp.

The characterization in Suikoden IV is bland, though a handfull of characters such as Kika, Elenor and Lino are given extra screen-time they use this so poorly and to such little effect in the very short (often times agonizingly so) cinamatics that one is left to wonder why it took such a long time to produce the game.

The main antagonist of Suikoden IV even fails as a villain. His motivation for the deeds he does seem like something that one would encounter on a foe who is faced halfway through a more epic storyline. The entire threat the villain poses is actually a rip-off from the Burning Mirror from Suikoden I, which was an event that tookplace over the course of Suikoden I's major storyline, and thus furthering the feel that Suikoden IV is an over-glorified side-quest with no real goal in sight.

The 108 stars of destiny are just as underdeveloped as the main characters, some having only one line in the entire game, which often is as simple as "You are <hero> aren't you? may I join your army?" This leaves a vast feeling of indifference among many of the characters in the game, and you can't help but not care when their lives are threatened. Some recurring characters such as Jeane, Viki and Ted make appearances in the game, though after their initial introduction they have no interaction in the main storyline and thus their appearance truly is attributed to only cameo status, with no real redeeming factors to their presence.

By the end of the game, only a handfull of characters have been given any depth to them and much of the story feels unfinished. I often found myself shaking my head, trying to disbelieve that this was the closing of Suikoden IV and not merely some halfway point. The story had been engaging up until the end, but as soon as the end came the game simply fell flat and felt like so much was omitted.

Overall, Suikoden IV's story pales in comparison to all other installments of the series and is barely kept aloft by the voice actors and the fleeting hope that the storyline is going somewhere interesting.

Story Rating [**********] [3/10]


Sound
Suikoden III was at times a silent film, many cinematics were not covered by musical scores, and without voice acting that dead silent void left much in the room for dramatic interpretation. Suikoden IV does boast a full soundtrack to its cinematics, though the music lacks a certain impact that others in the series had. The light-hearted tropical music found throughout much of Suikoden IV contrasts starkly to the grim threat of annihilation faced by the islanders.

Beyond the somewhat flat musical score there is the highlight of the voice acting. Though there is this unexplainable stigma to english voice acting by certain fans of Japanese games, it's hard to knock the voice acting in Suikoden IV. Many mainstream anime voice actors lend their talents to Suikoden IV and many times it comes off strongly, such is the case with Suikoden IV's main villain Graham Cray, who's voice is the perfect mix of sinister calm with a slight hint of homocidal lunatic.

The voice acting at times helps cover for the weakness of the storyline in Suikoden IV, and it is depressing that it is often used as a crutch. Though the voice acting is good, it is at times impaired by the terribly short length of the cinematics .

Sound effects in Suikoden IV are average, there is little in the line of ambient noise, and the combat sounds are pretty much standard RPG fare and nothing of serious note.

Suikoden IV's music is sub-par, but its better than average voice acting helps keep the story afloat and saves the game on many occasions.

Sound Rating [**********] [6/10]

Graphics
A fair amount of work seems to have gone into Suikoden IV's graphics, at least one could only assume with how long it took to make the game. I can't seem to figure out where all that time went though.

Suikoden IV's environments, one will immediately notice upon playing the game, lack the charm of its 3d predecessor Suikoden III managed to attain with its character designs and environments. The main character of Suikoden IV lacks the expressive capability of the three main characters from Suikoden III and all of the models in general seem to be less detailed.

For taking place primarially on the ocean, Suikoden IV pays little attention to subtle nuances of seafaring that coud have made the visuals of sea-travel more exciting. With Wind Waker for the Gamecube having done a seafaring story so well, it is almost neglectful of Konami not to have seen how wind-waker did what it did, and why it did it so well.

No storms at sea, little in the variation of weather (unless you count the city where it rains all the time), no other sea vessels of note to pass by, it was just a rather flat expanse of ocean which turned you around immediately if you went beyond the borders of the map.

The monster models are for the most part uninspired, with many pallete swaps. The only real times when Suikoden IV shines is in a handfull of character designs (Graham Cray comes to mind) and the game's final boss (spoiler)which is an amazingly designed dragon of wood with a tree rising out of its back. A truly gorgeous design(end spoiler)

Suikoden IV has a few standout moments with its graphics, but its hardly enough to bring its rating above average.

Graphics Rating [**********] [5/10]



Suikoden IV is by no means a bad game, but on that same note it isn't a great game either. Just when the story seems to get moving and the interactions between characters becomes something resembling interesting the game is over, leaving the player feeling a little cheated of what could have been a greater advancement of plot to a more pointful resolution. Suikoden IV had a great deal of potential, and a lot to make up for with its original creator having left Konami. Sadly, the developers of Suikoden IV totally dropped the ball, leaving Suikoden IV floating in the water.

Ratings Summary

Gameplay 4/10
Story 3/10
Sound 6/10
Graphics 5/10
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Overall: 4.5 (A flawed game that falls flat of its predecessors in terms of entertainment and quality)


Hopefully you enjoyed my personal thoughts on Suikoden IV, and I hopefully will be able to get my own impressions of Suikoden Tactics as soon as possible ^-^
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[Darko]

Wow...maybe that's the reason I still haven't bought or played Suikoden IV. I still want to play it though. Mostly for the characters. What if their stories connect to future games. And Ted comes out on it...I mean come on I have to at least see what he was like back then. Do you recommend it regardless of it's flaws, Lucent. I'm pretty sure there are other Suikoden fans that have not played IV BECAUSE everyone says it sucks. I still might get it if I don't have anything to do...maybe during our Christmas break?
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For the first time I feel as though I am reborn

RIP Gabriel J. Figueroa 1987-2007

[Lucent]

Despite Suikoden IV's flaws, it is a mildly enjoyable game. If you can get it used for cheap, I would recommend that highly above purchasing anew copy. the game is bar none the most lackluster of the series in all categories, but the strong voice acting gave it an appeal to me.

If you can get past the blandness of the game and the painfully boring ship travel, you will find yourself enjoying some of the aspects of the gameplay. While the war battles aren't difficult, they are enjoyable, but it left me with a poor "This could've been so much cooler" taste in my mouth.

A lot of wasted potential, but not a bad game. I'd say rent it (it doesn't take too long to beat) or buy itr used if you like to collect the series.
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[Parallax]

Couple of spoilers...don't read this reply if you don't want to hear some of the stuff I'm going to say...



I would say that was an excellent way of describing Graham Cray in particular. He doesn't have the feel of a "main villain" at all. He's an interesting character, and I thought he could have been very cool in some other capacity...but even he, the most developed out of the villains, still seems sort of flat and ... not quite epic enough. The other villains were even worse.

I thought I could have seriously come to respect both Colton and Troy as adversaries, but they also are barely given any attention in the game at all. They have hardly any dialogue, even in the rare "councils of villainy", and have no interaction with your characters at all.

Unlike other "nationalist" type characters (Seed and Culgan and Teo McDohl come immediately to mind), it was hard to think even of Troy's voluntary death as a dramatic moment.

For sound...I didn't really notice the soundtrack in IV, as opposed to me noticing the absence of sound in Suikoden III. I think I liked the sound in Suikoden II the best... Although I did kind of like the opening theme music (if not the opening video itself.)

Graphics, interestingly, was one of the first things I noticed. I was initially tentative about Suikoden IV, in part, because I wasn't entirely sure my Playstation 2 could handle it. It's very old (about the first month that they were released here in the United States) and it has gotten to the point where Suikoden III is simply unplayable on the system. Since Suikoden IV runs perfectly...that's clear evidence that their environments are simply not as complex. Also...while I don't necessarily enjoy watching hours of spell cinematics over the course of a game (Final Fantasy VII comes to mind...)...I did think the really dumbed down spell animations kind of sucked.

Gameplay...I think you've about summarized it...although the four man party was a very serious blow to me also because it felt like they were going a Final Fantasy route...and one of the reasons why I like Suikoden are the differences between it and Final Fantasy. Bleh.
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He's a victim - not a perp - and I'm choosing to let him go.

[Windspun_Monkey]

I actually thought that the only major flaw was the story line and character development. I thought the graphics were fine and liked being able to pull items out of inventory instead of having to have them equipped. If you are a fan of the series I do reccomend buying this game because it does have it's good points even if it is the worst Suikoden to date.

Thought to self: If their are more returning characters in a game, they probably wouldn't require as much development. Maybe Konami should do that if they want to do a crappy job developing characters.

[Parallax]

Yeh...that was another thing about Suikoden IV...although it is both a flaw and not a flaw inherent in the game itself. Yes, the game was out of place, way out of sync with the main Suikoden timeline. I am interested in things that happened in other times and places in the Suikoden storyline, but I must confess, I was primarily interested in things that happened in relation with the "main" storyline...not some faraway part of the world, where the only thing that you see that comes into play later is Ted and his Rune of Life and Death.

Anyway, despite my interest in the background of the Suikoden world, I also felt less engaged by Suikoden IV, I'm sure, because the game had literally almost nothing to do with any of the other three. Suikoden I, II, and even to an extent III were fairly interrelated...while at the same time, managing to be totally seperate games. Man...I find too many things to gripe about...it's not even like I didn't enjoy Suikoden IV...

...Oh...

...That and the fact that they didn't include Yuber...I'll just mutter to myself over in the corner for a bit...
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He's a victim - not a perp - and I'm choosing to let him go.

[Maori_knight]

i liked IV but my fav would be II i dont know why but its a really good game

[Hawk Thanatos]

You were a bit harsh with your review Lucent. It's understandable but this your review is definitley in comparison to other suikodens as an RPG Suikoden IV isn't a bad game it just lacks in some bits.

The graphics weren't bad they were just dull, although I really liked the pictures of each character in the status screen, a lot of work would of gone into drawing all 108 characters. Except for Snowe the characters themselves had about as much personality as the soldiers you can hire in games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Ogre Battle. I didn't mind the music in SIV except for the opening song, compared to II and especially III it just doesn't have any emotion in it, although the rest of the music was better then III.

I'd be curious to see what rating you would give Suikoden IV's story if you seperated characters and plot from the rating.

[Lucent]

The plot would have an even lower score if it weren't for the characters. It'd drop down at least two points.

The characters are worth those two points right there. Overall Suikoden IV felt like half a game, a lead up without the money shot.

And we all know how much I like the money shot.
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[Hawk Thanatos]

lol I was expecting you to raise the score! I think the plot was really let down by the characters.

[Axiose]

Please don't post game reviews on this board, especially on a game that has been out for a long while now already.

If you want to post game reviews, ask you NL if you can post them within your nation in the future.
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[Axiose] [Fliktor]