Story	6/10	Characters	6/10
	Graphics	7/10	Music	7/10
	Gameplay	7/10	Extras	7/10
Reviewer: Chi Phan Final Score: 6.7/10

When Suikoden IV was first announced, it was revealed that the story would take place about 150 years before the first Suikoden, hence making Suikoden IV a prequel than a sequel from the series stand point. It's safe to say that most fans didn't know what to make of that revelation. Still with the sneak peek of screens of possible naval ship to ship battles and the return of the popular Ted from the first Suikoden game, things can be quite promising for this game. The big question in everyone's mind is that will Suikoden IV re-capture the greatness that the Suikoden games once carry that Suikoden III failed to do? The answer to that question is no. And the reasons for that are explained below as you continue to read this review from yours truly.

You are the bearer of a True Rune. Let this power be unleashed.      About 150 years before the event of Suikoden I, a group of newly appointed knights from the city of Razril began their first ship patrol around the seas of Razril. This group of knights consisted of you and your best friend, Snowe, who is the captain of the ship. Unfortunately the knight's first patrol did not go smoothly as a pirate ship attacked them. Snowe abandoned his ship and his fellow knights in an act of cowardice during the battle between the knights and the pirates. He was later picked up by a rescue ship under the command of Commander Glen, the leader of the Razril knights. With Commander Glen and reinforcement arriving in the nick of time, you and your fellow knights were able to defeat and capture the pirates and their leader, Brandeau. However in a final act of desperation, Brandeau unleashed the power of a mysterious Rune which resulted in his death and those around him. The Rune however was not destroyed but was transfer over to Commander Glen. Days passed by with Commander Glen health deteriorating due to the mysterious Rune that have now attached itself to his body. One night, the city of Razril was attacked by pirate ships. All hope seemed lost when a powerful rune magic destroyed the pirate ships. With an idea of where this powerful rune magic came from, you and your friend Snowe paid Commander Glen a visit, only to witness his death due to using the power of the Rune. Just as before, the Rune transfered itself to another host. Unfortunately the Rune chose you as its new host. Snowe not understanding what had transpired and still in shock from witnessing Commander Glen's death blamed you as the cause of Commander Glen death. As next day arrived, the Knights of Razril banished you from the city of Razril and the kingdom of Gaien into the seas left drifting on a boat. But all hope is not lost as some of your friends still believe in your innocence and decided to join you in your banishment. Days passed by until finally a ship from the Kingdom of Obel came upon your drifting boat. As fate would have it, the ship from Obel was carrying princess Flare who immediately seemed to recognize the rune that was attached to you. She insisted that you meet her father, King Lino, to know the truth about this rune. Upon meeting Lino, you discovered the tragic past of this rune known as the Rune of Punishment and the fate of all those that had once been its host. The king also revealed to you of a plot by the Kooluk Empire to take over the Island Nations including your home kingdom, Gaien. The King requested your assistant in gathering an army of men to help fight against the Kooluk Empire in which you agreed to do. The fate and freedom of your kingdom is in your hand and the 108 Stars of Destiny must be gathered together for the battle ahead. Your journey is about to begin…..      In terms of rpg stories, there have been better ones and there have been worst ones. Suikoden IV story is just another story among the masses. However as a Suikoden story, this is the most uninspiring and uninteresting of the bunch. There are a few factors for this. One is that the overall casts of 108 stars of destiny are unappealing to gamers. The second factor is that the story itself seems to not strike an emotional accord with its audience. In previous Suikoden stories, there's always something in the story that moved gamers to feel joy, sadness, anger, and hope emotionally. This story doesn't inspire such feelings. A third reason is that the plot seemed like a recycle plot of Suikoden II with the theme of best friends becoming opposing forces against one another. That may have worked for Suikoden II due to the main principle characters being interesting but here, you don't really care too much for both characters and their friendship simply because you don't have a sense that these characters really are best friends. I'm talking about the Hero and Snowe. In the end, the story just comes out flat compare to the other previous Suikoden stories. An okay rpg story but not in the kind of standard you expect from a Suikoden story.

The 108 Stars of Destiny      Like with the tradition of all Suikoden games, the 108 Stars of Destiny will be presented in this game. When you have 108 characters in the game, you're not going to get much in terms of character development here. However the focus will be base mainly on the Hero and some of his close friends. Most of the storyline characters that get most of the spotlight are non l08 Stars of Destiny. From the Stars of Destiny, there are basically four characters that are given decent screen time. They are Lino (the king), Snowe (hero's friend), Elenor (the tactician), and Chiepoo (the Kobald). None of these characters are appealing in anyway. Chiepoo is nothing more than Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars. He's very annoying. It's surprising why this character has so much screen time. Elenor comes off as an old hag that gamers don't really care about at all. Well technically she is an old hag. Snowe is nothing but a whiney coward and you basically can tell there's not much to his character at all from the beginning of the story. Lino is probably the best decent character in terms of character development but he's not want gamers would call a cool character that they all love to play. Suikoden series was never about character development since you basically have a hero that doesn't talk, but what Suikoden was about was having a strong special support of characters where gamers would love and dream of playing. The only character that has a chance of becoming special is Ted but they kept his screen time to zero after his introduction in joining the Stars of Destiny. The days of cool Suikoden characters like Flik, Viktor, Gremio, Pahn, and Kasumi seem to be gone. The Hero himself seem odd and out of place with his bad hair cut and big blue eyes. This is probably one of the most unappealing Suikoden casts of characters to be feature in the series so far. Let's hope in the future it doesn't get any worst than this.

Look at all the pretty colors.      Visually speaking, Suikoden IV graphics seem like a step backward then forward when compare to Suikoden III. Technically wise, the graphic core engine used to power this game is a bit more advanced then what was used in Suikoden III but the result on screen look weaker. Environmental backgrounds such as villages, trees, oceans, and beaches all look more realistic than before and does a decent job in the game. However the character models seem pale and plain compare to the environment that surround them. Not much attention to details was done on these character models as one would have hoped. They have the basic details that gamers can get by when looking at these characters but nothing that even come close to the details that you would see from games like Xenosaga, Shadow Hearts 2, and FFX-2. The designs of the models themselves are also less appealing do to the change in look. They no longer have the tradition anime look to them. The Hero look very unappealing to gamers with the big blue eyes with a bad hair cut. He just comes off looking like a regular game sprite than a main character of a game. The animations of spells are weak in this game too. High level Rune spell animations look like regular low to mid low rune spells. Usually in previous Suikoden games, high level Rune spell animations would just dazzle you. They don't seem to be any attempt from the game designers here to do that. The overall look of the game seems to look too plain for me. Even if it's not plain, it comes off as looking plain in my view. This is one of those few times where I actually didn't like looking at the main hero.

Let's dance people.      Music is above average at best. Nothing bad but nothing too outstanding though. The music doesn't define this game but it is a part of this game. In terms of the overall series, especially in the first two Suikoden games, the music has been a part of the tradition that defined the series. It was also one of the strongest parts of the game, but in the last two games, the music has been just about average. There haven't been any outstanding new tunes that have been able to become a classic hit. And this game is no different. None of the new tracks introduce in this game are any that will have an impact in the game story cut scene or to the gamers. The only track that defined this game is the Opening track which isn't really a new track. It's the original Suikoden track that has become the stable trademark of the series that any rpg fan will recognize right away if they ever hear it even when they aren't playing a Suikoden game. That's what this game is missing, a track or tracks that help gamers attach themselves to this game. On the plus side, the introduction of voice acting in the Suikoden series for the first time is done with a decent job. With so many rpgs having voice acting now, it was just a matter of time before a Suikoden game will have voice acting. Of all the characters in this game that had voice acting, I think only one character really annoyed me so it's all good. Hopefully in the future we can hear the Hero talk instead of being mute all the time.

Rush Attack!! All for one and one for all! Game Information    Genre: Traditional Rpg    Publisher: Konami    Disc: 1 DVD Disc    Memory: 99 KB    Players: 1 Player Mode    Analog Control: Yes    Vibration Function: Yes    Progressive Scan: Yes    Rating: Teen    Release: January 2005      Suikoden IV gameplay hasn't really changed that much from the previous games. The tradition of turn base battle system mix in with a little bit of strategy element continues in this game. However instead of the land base strategy element, we are introduced to naval battles instead. The core of the game is still turn base rpg with exploration of various dungeons and traveling around the world. Since Suikoden IV is going back to the grass roots of focusing on only one hero, the Trinity Sight System is no longer in play. The game itself is fairly straight forward in terms of knowing where to go and what to do next. The concept of the game of course is to find and collect all 108 stars of destiny. The random battles are at a pretty evenly pace where you don't get too annoyed with it but at the same time does allow you to gain adequate experience to level your characters. The balance of leveling your characters are done nicely that you are able to level up any weaker characters to that of your current strong characters quite easily. The battle system is broken down to two category, land base fights and naval base fights. The naval base fights are an interesting new introduction to the Suikoden series. Let's look at some of the returning familiar features as well as some new ones. Runes:The trademark of the Suikoden series, Rune Magic. Your magic comes from Rune Orbs your party members are equip with. There are true Rune orbs and lower elemental Rune orbs. What types of level spells are available on the rune depends on how strong of a magic caster the wearer is. The maximum level of a rune magic is level 4. Of a special note, in addition to the magic spells that the rune orb gives, you can do rune magic combo by using two level 4 spells of different elemental orbs. This can create an even more powerful level 4 spell with both elements combined. Group Battles:Group battle is the basic of the battle system. In group battles you can have up to a maximum of 4 party members with one support party member. This has actually gone down from the 6 party members system that the series started out with. Personally I think this is a set backward since this game has 108 stars of destiny, you would like to have as many members in a party as much as possible. Four party members don't cut it. You give commands to each of the 4 party members as their turn comes up in a turn base traditional battle system. Your fifth character which is the support character don't take part in the actual battle but will have a special function that will be used after the battle base on the support role that they are suppose to play. For example, let's say that your support character ability is healing. Well after each battle your support character will heal all party members' health points by a small percentage. Another example is a support character that has the ability to grant more items drop after each battle. Group battles really are nothing more than the old school of turn base rpg battle system. Rush Attack: This is a new feature that was introduce in Suikoden IV. Rush attack is a special multi-hit attack that does damage to all the enemies on screen from the Hero. You need a full party in order to have the Rush Attack command available to you. Another catch is that you can only do Rush Attack every 6 group battles. It's a nice feature to have but nothing that this game can't do without. Cooperative Attacks: This is the combo attack feature in this game and work very similar to what was used in Suikoden III. Certain members of your party can reach a level of familiarity with each other that they will learn a special combo attack design just for them and between them. It takes about 10 battles to reach level 1 familiarity and to learn the first combo attack. Now the strength or power of the combo attack can be improve by increasing the level of familiarity. There are 3 levels of familiarity. 10 battles for level 1, 20 battles after for level 2 and of course 30 battles for level 3. Like with Rush Attack, Cooperative attacks are nice to look at but you can get by this game without it. Duels:The tradition of the one on one duels return in this game. If you played a Suikoden game before then you pretty much know what it's all about. For those that are new, the one on one duel works like rock, paper, and scissors. Of course instead of the rock, paper, and scissors you have Attack, Guard, and Special Attack. During the course of the game, you'll be thrown into one on one duel with an opponent. The objective is to beat your opponent by countering him/her with the right command that they plan on using. To make it a bit easier, your opponent will drop hints on what one of the three attack commands that they plan on using against you, thus allowing you to counter with a proper attack command of your own. I always enjoy the Duel system and it's no different here. Naval Battles:Naval battles are an interesting change of menu from the usual land base strategic battle system. Instead of having different units of men in the army to fight with in the strategy element of the game, you now have ships consisting of units of men. Before naval battle can begin, you'll need to set up your ship or ships. The set up is broken down to four key parts, Captain, Rune Cannon, Fighters, and Underlings. Captain: Your captain will determine your ship mobility. The higher the mobility, the faster your ship can take its turn. You can assign a captain from the 108 stars of destiny. Rune Cannon: Rune cannon is what you'll be attacking the other ships with. The type, power, and elements of the cannon are determined by the crew members that you assign. Again the crew members are chosen from the 108 star of destiny. When you fire your Rune Cannon at another ship, they will in turn fire back at you. When both Rune Cannons are fired at one another, which one will win out, is base on the elements of each cannon. Like with all rpgs, each element will be strong and weak against a certain type of element. Fighters: Fighters are really a party that consists of the 108 stars of destiny for the purpose of boarding the other boat. If you decide that naval to naval rune cannon battles aren't your type of thing or having problems defeating the other ships with your rune cannons, you can have the option to board the other ships and go into group battles. However there is a difference in this type of group battle as oppose to the regular group battles. In a boarding group battle, you can't use Rune magic or items to heal members. You can still use cooperative attacks though. Underlings: Each fighter will have a set number of underlings. The combine number of underlings from all your fighters on a ship will technically be the ship health points. Each time a ship takes damage from a Rune cannon attack, the number of underlings goes down. Once there are no more underlings, your ship will sink. Just as if it has no more HP. Naval battles look cool on the surface but it's very easy to master and become too boring where you can destroy the enemy ships in a couple of rounds. The boarding feature is pointless because in all honesty a few rune cannon shots can do the other job. It's all about setting up your ship with the right elemental Rune cannon. The game makes it easy because before naval battle begins, you can see what the rune cannons the enemy ships are equip with and then set up your ship with the proper elemental rune cannon to defeat it.      Suikoden series was never about astonishing fans with it cutting edge gameplay. It was more about keeping the basic old school turn base gameplay around but mixing it in with some new added elements from the current era. And Suikoden IV serves that purpose. However the gameplay does leave fans a sense of not being satisfied once they finish the game. First and foremost, the game is quite short. If you cut away all the mini games in this game and look at the actual in story gameplay, you pretty much notice that it's about 20 hours long only. Granted that's probably the same kind of gameplay length from the first Suikoden games but the difference is those games had excellent stories to accompany the short gameplay which helped ease fans dissatisfaction of such short gameplay time. There's also the fact that in today's era, fans no longer want to look for rpg games that only offer them 20 hours of gameplay, they want their money worth since video games are no longer cheap and for rpg games that means an epic quests or adventure. By no means does this game offer such an epic quest or adventure. Secondly when playing this game, there's a sense that this game is too plain. With a less than inspiring storyline, the gameplay doesn't have anything addictive enough to drive you forward nor was it challenging enough for gamers. Most of the interesting features such as combo attacks, rush attack, and rune attack aren't really needed since regular group attack can provide the same end result. Rune magic isn't really needed in regular battles except for boss fights and this includes healing magic. Since your fighters recover full HP each time they level and with a support healer healing party members at end of battles, the use of items and healing magic are nearly render mute unless it's a boss battle. Being able to customize lots of your armor and weapons are render pointless since this game doesn't really require you to have the best armor or weapon to finish it. The introduction of naval sea battles was nice but there were too few of them and they were far too easy to be any real challenge. Naval battles might be more interesting if there were more ships involved as well as better features from them. Move your ship and shoot the right rune cannon isn't enough in my opinion. By the time you finish the game, there's no sense of accomplishment. In a good and long rpg journey into the world of fantasy role playing, a sense of accomplishment is usually the kind of feeling you get at the end of your journey. You just don't get that here. You beat the game and there's no feeling of excitement or anything. Truly a Suikoden game needs to be more than a feeling of emptiness.

Score: 7/10

It's a secret how I can join you.      Suikoden IV carries the traditional mini games galore that are now quite common in the series. There are about 14 different mini games on hand. I believe that's the most in all of the Suikoden games. Each mini game of course will net you various prizes that range from common to very rare good items. Some of the mini games can be very addictive and time consuming to complete while others are just lacking to the point where you don't really bother with it at all. If you're looking to take a break from the in-game storyline and for some needed distraction away from the game, these mini games are just what the doctor ordered. However mini games are still mini games, they are not side quests. When we look for something extra in rpg games, we looking for some extra side quests that we can do along the way. This game doesn't really have any side quests. Technically getting Ted can be consider a side quest but then again in order to get all 108 stars of destiny you have to do Ted's quest because it's pretty much part of the main storyline. So from that outlook Ted's quest isn't a side quest at all. Without the mini games there's really nothing else to do in this game beside the main storyline. That's a bit of a disappointment. You can load up your New Game+ mode and replay the game again if you decide to give it another go around. With a New Game+ file loaded onto your new game, you basically start out with all your Runes, equipment, and money from the first game. You also have the option of using a different in-game character beside the hero during the exploration mode. Personally I don't feel the incentive that you get from the New Game+ file is a good enough motivation for wanting to play this game again unless you really happen to enjoy the game the first time.      From an overall standpoint, the mini games didn't interest me much other than maybe one or two mini games out of the fourteen that were presented to us and the New Game+ mode didn't provide any real cool features that a gamer should be excited about that would make them want to replay the game again.

If history is any indication, then Suikoden IV would be the last game for the Playstation 2 before the series take a jump to the next console, the Playstation 3. Where and how Suikoden V will be done is unclear. Clearly Suikoden II was when the series spiked in its popularity and greatness but since then the series has taken a fall during the Playstation 2 era. The aura of something special about this series is gone. This is due to the stories and characters in both Suikoden III and IV being less than stellar. Suikoden IV was an attempt I suppose to go back to its grass roots but that's hard to do when it doesn't involve characters that made the series a classic cultural hit. It will be interesting to see if Suikoden V will take place after Suikoden IV or take place in events that involve the first original Suikoden characters. I believe that the game developers need to go back to the days of McDohl, Flik, Gremio, and Viktor. As for Suikoden IV, it is by far the less appealing out of the 4 games within the series but it's not entirely a bad rpg game. It's just like any other rpg game out there. Which makes it an okay game but not up to the usual standard of the greatness that a Suikoden game should carry. Final Score: 6.7/10