Page 1: Genso Suikoden
Page 2: Genso Suikoden II
Page 3: Genso Suikoden III
Page 4: Genso Suikoden IV
Page 5: Suikoden Tactics
Page 6: Genso Suikoden V
Page 7: Suikoden Tierkreis
Page 8: Suikogaiden Volume 1, Volume 2 and Card Stories

Suikoden Tierkreis / Genso Suikoden Tierkreis - Nintendo DS (2009)

American Cover

Suikoden Tierkreis

Suikoden Tierkreis

After Suikoden V, the series took a short hiatus. With the PS2 falling out of favor and the JRPG genre largely being unable to adapt to the HD console market, many Japanese publishers flocked to the portable platforms. As such, it should come as no surprise that the next Suikoden would be released for the Nintendo DS. But what is surprising is that this game, dubbed Suikoden Tierkreis, does not expand on the established Suikoden world. Rather, it's set in a parallel world that just happens to contain some of the aspects of a Suikoden game. The story starts out with a brief prologue, where four warriors stand up against an omnipotent figure known as "The One King". After the battle, the perspective switches to a young man named Sieg from Citro Village. Unaware with the world outside of his town, the locals possess a strong belief in fate, that every event that has happened is completely predestined, and a majority of the people have accepted that belief as a fact. As Sieg and his friends are conducting their usual rounds of exploring the mountains, Sieg feels that something is out of place. A forest suddenly springs out of nowhere, and everyone starts to believe they're going mad. However, as they go deeper into the forest, they find a book which contains "The Mark of the Stars". As Sieg and his friends touch the book, they see a vision from another world. With the exception of Dirk and Liu, a rush of memories return to the party, and they set out to the City of Cynas, unaware of what events are going to unfold. Characters: Sieg: An eager young man who has a curious mindset regarding places outside Citro Village. Sometimes he can be a motormouth. His motto is, "You'll never know unless you try." Jale: A level-headed person who resides in Citro Village. When things need to be done, he's usually the first to take action. Marica: She's the daughter of the Elder of the village, and is usually around when the situation gets complicated. Strangely, she has a counterpart from another world. Liu: A young man who happened to moved into the village several years back for unknown reasons. When a plan of action is needed, he's the one who formulates them. Dirk: He taught Sieg on weapon combat. He's considered a big brother to Sieg and his friends. Atrie: A quiet young man from another world. He often comes over to Sieg's world to find info on how to defeat The Order. Diadora: She's the head archivist at the library of Cynas. What are her motives for getting the book that Sieg possesses? Valfred: He is the King of Cynas. He expands his territory in order to spread the philosophy that the world is governed by fate. Suikoden Tierkreis is missing many substantial Suikoden trademarks. For example, the Army and Duel battles are gone completely. Instead of the typical wide scale battle, there are series of consecutive regular battles with different groups of people. None of the recurring characters from the Suikoden world appear in Tierkreis, not even mainstays like Jeane and Viki. The protagonist is no longer silent, either. Also, since the story is set in a different world, the concept of True Runes are not touched upon. Instead, it's replaced by the Mark of the Stars, which in turn affects the gameplay. Instead of giving a set of magic in a single rune, the Mark of the Stars is a mix and match set. For example, as you get further in the game, you have an option of what magic or techniques to equip. Because of this, the gameplay mechanics also takes a significant change. Instead of the Final Fantasy I magic system, where each level has its own set of magic points, it has the common Magic Point system found in most RPGs. A majority of the characters have become homogenized. For example, rather than characters getting an assigned weapon, all of the playable characters available can equip a certain kinds of weapons. Also, there are very few characters that receive exclusive magic from the Mark of the Stars. Lastly, the regular battles is quite similar to Suikoden IV, with a four man party. With 90+ playable characters to choose from, making this choice can be quite difficult. Still, there are some Suikoden elements that have been retained for this spinoff. You still gather 108 Stars of Destiny, and each still has their own motives to fight against the order. Like most of the mainline Suikoden games, there's an extra scene in the ending if you get all 108 characters. Your recruited characters still reside in a growing fort that grows throughout the game. The trading system still exists, but this time it plays a bigger role. Since enemies do not drop money, you need to sell the raw materials from traders to gain money. By doing so, you might find new weapons and armor in your fort. Also, the quest guild introduced in Suikoden Tactics has returned. At a certain point of the game, you can run quests for other people. Some will grant you cool items, events that lead to a character recruitment, or even a backstory for a particular character. Gameplay-wise, there are a couple of aspects that retain the Suikoden feeling. Despite the fact that the battle system is identical to Suikoden IV, weapon range still influences the battlefield. Short ranged weapons such as swords stay in the front while long range weapons such as the bow and arrow stay in the back. This being released for the DS, it's not exactly a pretty game. The standard backgrounds are 2D, but the character graphics and battlegrounds are 3D, which look quite ugly. Given the series' 2D heritage, it probably would've been wiser to mimic the style of the PSOne games. At least the music, although a bit fuzzy, is quite good and there are a handful of themes from the older games. Much of the game is voice acted, which actually works to its detriment. It's heavily compressed, and the actors speak their lines so quickly that it sounds like everyone's overdosed on caffeine. There are a number of anime scenes too, which don't look too bad. Overall, if you are expecting a Suikoden experience, you're most likely to be disappointed. It seems like Konami felt the series was too dense and wanted to give it a reboot for newer gamers. Unfortunately, the target audience for Tierkreis skews a bit younger, removing some of the maturity of the earlier games. Taken on its own, it's a pretty alright standalone RPG, but it's really not to the level of its predecessors. MP3s Download here Sally Beacon Pulsation of the Forest By the Pride of the Sword

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