TITLE: Suikoden
PUBLISHER: Konami of America
PLAYERS: 1
MEMORY: 2 blocks


	Ah, after first seeing screenshots on Konami of Japan's
website for "Genso Suikoden", I entered into RPG heaven.  I searched
across websites all over, with my only info being a paragraph,
describing the game.  "108 characters, rich soundtrack, epic story..."
This description couldn't be more right.  I've waited about a year for
this title, and after calling TRU this afternoon, the wait was over.
	
	The opening FMV was um...decent, I guess.  Mostly just
video-playbacks of the game itself, with a nice, soothing soundtrack
playing.  Certainly nothing you'd want to watch again.  

GRAPHICS

	Well, after having played around with the game for 4 hours, I
must say I'm pleased with the graphics.  The best way to describe them
would be "Chrono Trigger meets Beyond the Beyond."  But wait, didn't
Beyond the Beyond look um...primitive?  Indeed.  Does Suikoden?  NO!
While walking around, the graphics greatly resemble that of Chrono
Trigger, except much better color and detail.  So how in the world
does it remind me of Beyond the Beyond?  The fight scenes.  I think
Beyond the Beyond pulled their visual battle engine off nicely, and
Suikoden does it just as well, without all the dizzy rotating around
(it just zooms in and out).  So far, I haven't run into any FMV
cutscenes, but that's ok by me.  Overall, I'm very pleased with the
graphics.  Certainly better than Persona (which was pretty good in
itself) and Beyond the Beyond (blech). 

SOUND/MUSIC

	Oooo...Suikoden scores BIG here!  The sound effects are of
high quality, and there seems to be a large number of them (many
monsters appear to have their own effects.)  But the music.....oh my,
the music!  Remember the musical bliss you were in while playing Final
Fantasy 3?  The epic battle music, the opera's soothing feel, and
Kefka's evil, terrorizing theme?  Take that and multiply by 10.  The
difference is like listening to a song over the telephone, as opposed
to listening over a stereo system.  This game's music is completely
perfect.  I've found myself just sitting in Teo's house, just
listening to the beautiful soundtrack.  I don't think I've ever done
that before in any game!  Music.......pure bliss.

STORY

	Alright -- the first two parts got good ratings, but what good
is an RPG without a good story?  Have no fear!  Suikoden delivers one
hell of a story.  It takes that familiar "rebels against the empire"
theme, but really adds some great drama into it.  You'll experience
friends' deaths, betrayals, and so much more.  I don't want to ruin
the experience for everyone else, but the basis of the story is that
your father, Teo, is a general for the empire.  He goes off to war,
and leaves you with his servants.  You'll begin doing missions for the
empire, until one specific mission (don't want to ruin it) leaves you
in doubt with all that you've been doing.  You eventually join the
rebellion, and begin your long journey.

GAMEPLAY/LONGEVITY

	Very, very fun.  The game boasts 108 characters, and it
certainly isn't lying.  The enormous number of characters certainly
promises SOME replay value.  Eventually, you'll get to the point where
you can create your castle, where all your allies will be.  The game
also boasts 3 battle modes: one on one, party battle, and army battle.
So far, I've only seen party battle, but I expect army battle to
appear pretty soon, since I now have my own castle.  Other than these
things, it appears to be a typical console RPG.  In fact, it reminds
me a lot of Final Fantasy 3 -- which means fun fun fun.  Although,
there were two small things I had a problem with.  The first being the
equipment/item system.  To equip an item on someone, that person has
to be carrying it.  So what do you have to do?  Click on the person
who has the item, move it to the other person, click on equip, and
then finally equip it.  It gets to be bothersome, but like I said,
it's minor.  The other problem I had is even more minor.  Sometimes,
during battle, the camera zooms in too far, and you can't see all the
action taking place (ie: how many HP one person lost on an attack).
Other than those, the game's perfect.

SUMMED UP...

Graphics: 92%
Sound/Music: 99%
Story: 99%
Gameplay: 96%
Overall: 97% 
 
Written by Sheff (sheff@flink.com) -- mail me with any
comments/questions.