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Published
by Konami
Developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo
Release Date: 25th February 2005
Price: £39.99
The
PlayStation 2, so often a rich source of quality RPG's,
looks set to have another great year as far as the genre
is concerned. With Final Fantasy XII and Xenosaga II both
set for this year, amongst other titles, it's definitely
going to be great for RPG fans. Before those games arrive
though there is a little matter of the fourth game in the
Suikoden series. Whilst the first two games in the series
came to Europe on the original PlayStation console the third
game in the series was never released here; something that
upset quite a few people who had been waiting for it. For
us Europeans then Suikoden IV is the first game in the series
to be on the PlayStation 2.
Suikoden
IV puts you in the role of an unnamed hero (who you get
to name of course but for the sake of this review we'll
simply call him hero). Initially you're about to graduate
into becoming a Knight of Gaien. The game begins peacefully
enough as you're assigned some basic missions before celebrating
your graduation. Your world is all set to fall apart though
after a battle with Pirate Brandeau. This pirate had the
Rune of Punishment embedded into his hand which enabled
him to wield great attacks. These attacks come at a huge
price though because with each use life is taken from the
user. On Brandeau being killed the Rune of Punishment embeds
itself into Commander Glen, of the Knights of Gaien, who
then becomes very ill. During an attack on their home, Razril,
Glen uses the Rune of Punishment to wipe out the attackers
and this kills him. Sure enough, on his death, the Rune
makes its way into our Hero. Thanks to a cowardly companion,
our Hero is falsely accused of murdering Commander Glen
and is exiled. Then of course the real story begins.
Having
played a lot of quality PlayStation 2 RPG's over the last
four years or so, I can honestly say that I've enjoyed Suikoden
IV. The games story is enjoyable and for the most part the
characters are interesting. However, whilst I would recommend
it to fans of the genre, there are a couple of problems
that prevent the game from being hailed as one of the better
games the genre has to offer. The frequency of the random
battles in Suikoden IV, at times, is outrageous. Sometimes
there are only seconds between battles. Whilst random battles
are so often a feature of turn-based RPG's I've never know
a game throw them at you so rapidly. This leads to an increased
sense of repetition and may indeed put some people off the
game. Thankfully the battles are short and snappy, so although
there are plenty of them at times it's not as tiresome as
it could be.
Another
area of the game where there's cause for complaint is when
you're sailing around on the ocean. To be blunt the ships
handle like a three-wheeled shopping trolley. You can get
around this, to some extent, by using the sea chart which
allows you to simply set the course to sail. However as
soon as you find somewhere to dock you'll run into another
source of aggravation. For some strange reason there are
invisible barriers around the islands where you have to
dock and unless you sail toward them in a specific path
you'll bounce off these barriers, which rotates the ship
and leaves you facing in the opposite direction. This often
means that you're in for a battle or two before you get
to dock (as sailing around is one of those times where the
random battles come thick and fast). Sailing the oceans
to get from one island to another is a key part of the game
and the fact that controlling them just doesn't feel right
must go down as a major complaint.
Whilst
this is the best looking game in the Suikoden series, the
game does fall a little short of other games such as Final
Fantasy X and Star Ocean on the PlayStation 2. It's by no
means a bad looking game but some locations do look a little
bland. The game is in full 3D though and there's none of
the pre-rendered backgrounds that we so often seen in a
console RPG. As a random battle is triggered you have a
water rippling effect on the screen which looks nice and
is preferable to the zany effects that usually precede a
battle in other RPG games. The game supports 60Hz mode and
Progressive Scan too which will please many people and the
games frame rate remains constant throughout, which again
considering everything is in 3D is a decent achievement.
Suikoden
IV is absolutely fine for deaf gamers as the game is virtually
fully subtitled throughout with only a few words being unsubtitled
at the beginning of the game (surely an oversight). In fact
not all of the dialogue uses speech but regardless of whether
the conversations are verbal or not text is always displayed
too, so you'll have no trouble in following the games events.
The text is quite large, placed within a blue dialogue box
and is white in colour which makes reading it as comfortable
as possible. It would have been good to have a journal or
log of the previous conversations (always good to refresh
your memory of the games events if you take a long break
in between play sessions) but sadly there isn't one.
Many
Europeans were annoyed that Suikoden III never arrived in
Europe as most of the reviews of the game hailed it as one
of the best RPG's on the PlayStation 2. Whilst it's great
that Suikoden IV is coming to Europe it's a little disappointing
to see the game isn't the best the genre has to offer. The
frequency of random battles is simply too great and the
inadequate method of sailing from one island to another
is another issue that will dampen your excitement for the
game. Don't get me wrong Suikoden IV is a good RPG by anyone's
standards but the faults with the game are in key areas
and they can be annoying at times which is unfortunate.
Overall
Game Rating: 7.0/10
Suikoden IV is essentially a good RPG and I'm sure fans
of the genre will enjoy the game. However it has some major
irritations which might put off less dedicated gamers.
Deaf
Gamers Classification:
(Click
the letter or here
for details)
There's a few words that are not
subtitled at the beginning of the game, which aren't that
important, but otherwise it's fine for deaf gamers.
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