Suikoden: Tierkreis

First things first, most of you reading this may not know what Suikoden is all about. For the majority, you'll be sitting there thinking: "of course I know what's about, why would I be reading a review about a game series I've never heard about?" and be already halfway through the game anyway. Those of you who are, DO NOT TELL ANYONE WHAT HAPPENS, OK? Pain of death applies, etc.

Suikoden Tierkreis is the game series' first incarnation on the DS and just by turning on the game and watching the beautiful opening sequence and being presented with some top-notch graphics, you can already see that it's gonna be a stomper. If you've played any of the previous Suikoden title on the PS1 and 2 then you will be familiar with the battle format here and you will welcome the return of the "auto battle" too. Nothing beats shifting battles into auto for those annoying weak monster fights that tend to sneak up on you all the time. This brings me to my first quibble: random encounters.

It wholly depends on how you take this leveling up system in RPGs as to whether this bothers you or not but even after a while, the constant wandering for a random battle is irksome and while you have the auto battle option, after a while it gets slightly tedious and repetitive.

My other major, MAJOR, quibble is the voice acting.

Oh yeah, that's right. I went there. You're all thinking: "so what? It's voice acting, who gives a bit?"

WRONG. It's not that it's awful. Some characters are fine, some of the characters show some real emotion and you do get a nice sense of atmosphere with it. BUT WHY, WHY, WHY DO THEY SPEAK SO FAST? Your main character speaks like he desperately needs the toilet and has to finish recording his lines before his bus leaves or summat which is painful to listen to. The poor child has obviously never heard of punctuation! There is no atmosphere or emotion evoked when you burble off "whenarewegoingtogokillsomemonstersweneverknowunlesswetry!" is the space of a second.

It is a shame that these quibbles have actually stopped me from giving it five stars. It richly deserves five stars for story, graphics and gameplay alone and I WOULD honestly have given it five, had it not been for the voice acting and the over-reliance on random encounters... but when certain things start to spoil the fun, it's not a perfect game and as such should be treated as one.

That's why it gets 4 stars despite deserving 5. I'm sure that makes sense.

Recommended wholeheartedly to fans of the series, but you'll have bought it already no doubt, and even to newcomers, I would recommend it. Just be warned that EVERYONESTARTSTOSPEAKASTHOUGHTHEY'REMISSINGFULLSTOPSANDCOMMASANDEVERYTHINGELSEINBETWEENAND my word it's hard to type without pressing the space bar...

Go. Buy it. Turn the sound down and enjoy.

I tell no lie. Suikoden: Tierkreis snuck up on the DS community like a panther, and it's not letting go. Lovely music, interesting characters, voice acting and lush anime cutscenes as well as fantastic gameplay are all beautifully pieced together into one awe-inspiring package. Like all Suikoden Games, there are potentially up to 108 'stars'/characters to persuade into joining your campaign. With a likeable main character (that actually speaks, perhaps a first for RPGs where you name your character), interesting supporting characters and a world and universe-wide war, Suikoden will keep you up for hours. Don't just take my word for it - if you're lucky enough to own a copy, you proudly own one heck of a game.

I have to say, although it is a little easy for the first half or so of it, this game is fantastic.

Good graphics, good voice acting (Except at the beginning when somehow they talk too fast) the video clips are great and, personally, I think this is one of the most under rated games for the Nintendo DS.

I haven't heard much about it, but since I got it...I've had a hard time coming off playing it.

It's definitely worth buying, will give you hours of fun, especially if you try to play it and get all 108 companions too.

My favourite DS game that I've tried so far.

Not much to say about gameplay, classic turn-based and stuff (you can find about it in every reviews around the web).
Beautiful scenery, nice graphics and music...the ONLY thing I regret -and this thing has been pointed out by many people- is the low-quality voice-over.
OK: it's nice they made scenes with voices, just like a game on ps2, but hey, they speak TOO WAY FAST. When reading reviews, I thought: "It can't be so bad!". Instead it is, especially for the main character (the hero). Anyway, you take it as a matter of fact and you buy the game (if you like Suikoden saga, and if you like RPG, you have to buy the game, it's a good title for your Nintendo DS).

I give it 5 stars. In the worst case you follow the advice you can find at the end of the previous review: you turn off the volume and you play, but once you get use to the voices, I think you can enjoy anyway the game (as I'm doing).

UPDATE after playing 3+ hours: you really get used to the voices, they don't bother you anymore once you're into the game, even if they are a bit fast...and DO NOT turn off the volume, you would miss all the nice music!
This game is quite addictive, if you love RPG you just fall in love with it!!! :D
Highly recommended if you like the genre!