Posted on: May 18, 2024
masonwheeler
Verified ownerGames: 118 Reviews: 2
Feels 20 years old and not in a good way
First off, I've never played Suikoden. Everyone seems to have their opinion on whether or not this is a good successor to the series. I can't speak to that; only to whether or not it's good as a game released in 2024, and... it's not. The first thing that jumps out at you is the graphics. You have a beautifully-constructed 3D world, but all the characters are 2D sprites. Now that was a great trick on the original PlayStation, when the hardware wasn't good enough to render human bodies well. Today... it just feels badly out of place. There's a cuscene early on with Nowa and Seign sitting at a campfire. Beautifully-rendered PBR lighting and reflections on the slightly-shiny stone nearby... and two blocky guys made up of very noticeable pixels, who the lighting just does not look right on *at all!* You have no control over your camera. (Except on the world maps, where you do. So the devs did implement this; they just decided to deny it to you for 90% of the game!) And there are plenty of places where you have to walk through areas that are obscured because of stupid camera angles. Likewise, you have no control over the pacing. There is no way to skip cutscenes, or long battle animations. (Disgaea had this figured out 20 years ago. Why can't this studio do it today?) You have no control over the plot. The entire thing is on very, *very* noticeable rails. Almost every single war battle and duel battle is a scripted cutscene trying and failing to pretend it's a game with actual stakes. And there are really no stakes throughout. If a town falls to the Empire, for example, you can still walk around freely in it and even if you talk to the guards, they don't realize you're their Public Enemy #1! You have no idea what's going on. After playing all the way through, I still have only the slightest idea what a rune lens is, and no clue what primal lenses are or why they're so important. And the entire plot revolves around them! This game is a mess. Buy something else.
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