That's not until later.
Yeah, whatever
Our review today is on a franchise that I apparently have never been able to get into. Until today!
It is:
Suikoden: Tierkreis!
SUBTLE MUSICAL PUNS SPRINKLED LIBERALLY THROUGHOUT THE REVIEW ENJOY AT YOUR OWN ENJOYMENT!
Unlike my last review, which is probably one of the hardest RPGs this side of the Pecos, this RPG is actually relatively easy. You will probably seldom (if EVER) wipe out, providing you use common sense and a little cognitive thought.
Even if not, you can always just grind to make it to the next point like everyone else...
The story is just like every other RPG you find. Small town boy, living in a lonely world. Takes a midnight train going anywhere. No city girl to be found, until much later in the game, but I seriously doubt she was raised in South Detroit. By that point trains are -- wait, where was I? *ahem...*
In theory, you can play the entire game on the touch screen. This theory holds itself throughout the game as you can navigate, do battle, and make difficult decisions that somehow give you the illusion of choice. Seems freedom no longer frees you. At least in this game. I swear I choose something that seems detrimental to what I actually want, and it ends up being a pro!
Similar to Pokemon, you really do need to catch 'em all in this game. There are 108 in total to capture. Some come in packs, some come alone, in fact most come alone, but you need to capture each and every one of them. Because the fun part comes when you have all of them.
Making teams~!
Awhile ago I just did a quest where I had to pretend that I had everyone fully leveled up (Like hell I did... >.> ), and we all had to go against four tough ********. One team to a boss, and they were far from a cakewalk. However, proving my point that with a little cognitive reasoning and awesome team management skills, I overcame with one of the more interesting concepts - TAG TEAM ATTACKS!
Sometimes it's not almost your whole party, but like the above example, sometimes it is. Not that that is a bad thing. Two siblings, the same person in a parallel universe teaming with themselves to do a tag attack, or the entire sortie (that's what they call parties in this game). I'm not kidding about the parallel universe person teaming with themselves either. It's no disguise, it's that double vision!
When it gets through to me...
Lucky for us, our otherworldly party members are glowing like so.
As you can tell, you can put your characters in the front or the back row using the six spots allocated. You cant change the squares, believe me I would have loved to have an all tank group. Gotta have some support in there. Give them two swords and say "BACK TO THE FRONT!". They arent really going to die when you say they must die, but they'll probably put up a good show.
This is the first of this franchise (which hasnt had one released in awhile, if memory serves) to be on a portable. Lucky us, huh? Konami takes full advantage of the touch screen, although not much else. Except for my next topic! Oh you got burned!
Wi-Fi.
Letting the picture speak for itself, really
I have not been able to test this myself, but apparently you're supposed to be able to hire out one of your 108 to someone out in cyberspace, and they can do the same. Upon doing this, they still gain exp, and hell, even may be able to get rare and exciting items from bosses that only come from wi-fi. At the end of their cybernetic adventure, you see what they've done!
See?
One of the major faults is, well, you. The hero. You sound like you're Speed Racer on a drug bender. The text is usually about on pace with most characters, but not you! You have to go speed racer on us and talk a mile a second. YOU CAN RACE IN THIS RACE GOD DAMMIT! Not really anything to go 'Oh ******** this game in it's non existent a**!' about, but it's still quite annoying.
You are now being taken over by Three Dog.
Good morning Capitol Wasteland!
*coughs* This isnt the Wasteland, Three Dog.
YeahIknewthat. This is Three Dog, comin' at ya with the news about this game.
You see, I've had a discussion with my friend here, and it seems that the game's title is Germanic in nature. Why? Hell if I know. Why'd you put me in this review, anyway, Decavolty?
All for the lulz, my good man.
MOVING ON!
This game is perfect for the person who has not played the Suikoden series, because it really doesnt refer to that series. It's merely a game in the realm of the series. No recurring characters, no vague references, or anything like that.
What you do get, however, is a feast. A very addicting feast. Like Three Dog told me about stim abuse out in the Wastes, it's a very terrible thing. You actually WANT to get through the gameplay (which has monsters that actually spawn way too often, if that's at all possible), to see what happens next. I just wrote a ******** review about it after playing about 3 hours, and I'd play it some more if I didnt have to sleep.
It seems to have everything:
*Story
*Likable characters, with no real throwaways. That's right. YOU WANT TO PLAY ALL 108 CHARACTERS AT THE SAAAAME TIME. SADLY YOU CANNOT
*Beautiful sound
*Touch Screen Support
*Long, drawn out gameplay (With plus points if it's drawing you into where it's drawing out)
*Voice acting (Albeit a bit...bad at times)
*Wi-Fi support
*Graphics that are the norm for a 3D DS game
*Anime-style cutscenes, thank the Gods.
I give this game an 9.5, probably one of my first decimal ratings! It has the makings of an epic RPG, however it's not quite where it should be vocally.
Three Dog! Take us away~!
You got it!
I doont want to set the wooooorrrrld onnnn fiiirrrreeeeeee.....
Author's Note: I'm well aware that one of the references is gender swapped. Had to be done for the purposes of this review. Dont say anything about it or you and the table get it! mad