Duels return to the game, as another neat cornerstone for the events, returning to a battle between two lone people that generally involved the Prince. They have not changed enough to not recognize them, but they have been upgraded, and even more fun. Between the commands there is a time limit, so you do need to make your choices quite quickly. In a way it is a little like rock-paper-scissors, but it is entertaining to the end, especially if you listen to your enemy, who generally drop clues on what they are going to do. There is also a similar ploy done on land, or sea when you battle for land using units instead of single people. It is a nice twist, and it does add another level of depth, if you like this type of action.

Graphically the game does look very nice, at least involving the cinematics. A lot of them were quite long as well, which was nice to see. Most of them are well put together, and even involve good voice work. What was not terribly great is how combined with the regular storyline, not every line of the heroes were voiced. Another thing was how the words spoken did not match the mouth movements of their counterparts. I could expect in this day and age, it still may be difficult to voice all the characters in a game, but at least of the main characters it should be a priority. There was a different issue when it came to the voice acting. I could not seemingly skip the scenes and move forward in the storyline. This forced me to sit down and watch it all, when I wanted a bit more action. Another problem I had with the cinematics was that there were a lot of load screens involved with them, even if it were just moving through a bunch of small ones, it would constantly revert to the load screen.

That was a factor that plagued the game though... the load screens. Popping in an out of towns, or battles, you would encounter a bounty of them. Sure there was a nifty little sprite walking, but it became old quite fast. If there was going to be so much loading in the game, they should have had different pictures, or screens, that could keep you interested. Sometimes the load screens would last up to ten seconds, which saps the mood after every battle. Something should have been done to lessen them, but that is just a bit of the salt, with this sweet game.

Finally there are the 108 Stars Of Destiny that you may recruit during your journey. Not all of them will be used for battle, as a lot of them will have other uses. Some assist in your different types of battles, which does give them quite a bit of purpose. You will spend a lot of time collecting them, if not through the first run through the game, or the second and third. With a bunch of different endings, you will want to play it all the way through a few times, if you are one of the elite styled gamers. All these characters do well to help you out in battle, so it is great to have in the end.

In the end does the Suikoden series proud, as it had seemed to be drowning, this puppy has been brought back to shore, and resuscitated. It does a lot of things well, and is by far the best PS2 Suikoden game produced. The storyline feels refreshing, the battling is fun, and this all branches towards a solid and fun experience. There were trivial things that I found with this game, something petty like spelling George “Georg”, but I could look past it. There are a lot hours that you may nail into this game, and it feels rewarding. It is one of the better RPGs out there to pick up and play, but it is not the best. You will not feel bad about picking this game up. If you can make it few the first ten hours, that is when it really gets fun, so just hang in there till that is done. All and all, Captain Gordon gives this game... a B+.

Questions? Comments? Contact the author at CaptainGordonEdward@gmail.com .