Suikoden Tierkreis: The Review

Okay, this is a game that bugs me. Like, seriously bugs me.

This game is intended to be an alternate universe version of the general Suikoden series. This is all well and good, but they screwed it up badly.

Firstly, they tried to revamp the magic system. Here's how the old magics worked in EVERY other Suikoden RPG (this includes Tactics).

1. Runes give you a set of spells.
2. Spells can only be used a certain amount of times between heals.
3. You get four levels of spells, each being allowed to be used less and less.
4. Fourth level spells are amazing.

Here's how they did the magic system in Tierkreis.

1. Magic is unlocked by plot. (getting new Marks of the Stars)
2. You get one pool for magic points.
3. You must spend magic points for spells.
4. You can change what spells you can use: they aren't locked in at later points. (using a Mark of the Stars gives you the magics)
5. There are no real epic spells.

Now, I like that bit about changing things up, but that's it. I don't like the fact that you have to do spells like you would in, say, Final Fantasy. Suikoden games are supposed to be a little different than that.

Secondly, in the original games, you character had a signature weapon that they used through the whole game. They could upgrade/sharpen the weapon if they so chose. That's not how things work in Tierkreis! You have to buy weapons, and they're expensive! In addition, most characters can equip most weapons, so there's no uniqueness in weapon choices! Not even the later Final Fantasy games did that. You see Cloud over there? You see how he carries around that gigantic sword? That's HIS sword. No one else's. It's a signature thing, and taking that away from characters is not very effective for engaging you in a game.

Thirdly, and this irked me from the very beginning: the voice acting and scripting is horrible. The main character begins as a complete spaz. There are typos throughout the game. And, to give an example of this nonsense...there's a character by the name of Rizwan in this game. They pronounce her name "Lizlan". We're not in Japan, there's no need for Engrish.

Finally, we get to the elephant in the room. The plot. The plot doesn't work. It doesn't engage you. It just makes you want to get the characters to stop talking. It's so bad that I don't even want to talk about the plot. Combine that with the bad mechanics of combat and you get a generally horrible game. Don't do it.