Suikoden IV

Such a dissapointment. Awful, just awful.

Reviewed by benkosar on February 21, 2008  |  report this review

Well, I remember buying the first Suikoden game when it came out. And I've played through IV. And I have to say, this is the most dissapointed in a game I think I have ever been.

It's a real shame, because Suikoden III was one of the most personalized, intertwining, amazing RPG's of it's time. Easily up there with the Final Fantasy series, just with a different bent/flavor. Suikoden IV isn't all that bad in it's defense. It has good graphics for it's genre, an improvement over the already good graphics of it's predecessor. It has a decent, workable story. And tons of plot hooks and characters. However, they wanted to do something different in this iteration. The boat; Yes that's right, if you've played it you'll refer to it as 'oh, that goddamn boat'.

This firey, flaming piece of shit handles just like a firey, floating and flaming peice of shit /should/ handle. With absolutely no control. The game is based around an island structure, there isn't really any land to wander off into. You have to sail everywhere. And turning the boat in a different direction can literally take you 30 seconds, to a minute. Forget a map, it's not like it'll matter if you had one. You'll probably have to circle the island before you can pull in just right. With the random encounters, it makes the needless and constant sailing irritating. To the point of aggrevation.

If this game didn't have the sailing parts in it (Which comprise of a large portion of the game, basically being the 'overhead' view) then it would get a much higher grade. At least a 3, who knows, maybe a 4 or even a 5. All the elements are there, but with the 'boating, it's impossible to play it unless you have the patience of a saint. They really went wrong on this one. One has to ask themselves, did anyone freaking playtest this peice of crap? AVOID this game. It isn't worth getting into. You'll get the strings of a story you'll start to get into, then be bashed in the face with the fist of unplayable gameplay. The game literally fights you hard every step of the way, not wanting you to get enjoyment out of it.