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Official Suikoden Tierkreis Thread: "The Deepest Handheld RPG of All Time"

Gantz

Banned
Duck Amuck said:
My buddy's playing and he says the story has no war, no politics. Just a bunch of wacky cliche jappy rpg magical land crap.

Please say it ain't so, Shy.

thats_waisis.gif
 

Proc

Member
the clerk at EBgames couldn't contain his excitement for this game even though I've never talked to him and was buying pc games :lol

Apparently this is his favourite series and was surprised I had even heard of it. I'm guessing I ought to give it a looksy after I'm done with chrono trigger.
 

Link Man

Banned
Duck Amuck said:
Okay, first impressions...

Things I don't like:

- The buy/sell menus. I have no clue who can equip what, or whether or not it's an upgrade over a past weapon or not without resorting to going in and out of the buy/sell menu to compare stats.

- I have no clue how the exp system works. It doesn't look like a traditional Suikoden exp system either, which is disappointing. I certainly didn't see x out of 1000 xp points or something. That would be a definite step back because the xp system in Suikoden is ahead of so many other rpgs.
-I always use the "Try" command in shops (it's the bottom button). It allows you to see how each item affects your stats, and you can always pull out to see the stats of your current equipment in order to compare. Not as fluid as, say, most Squeenix RPGs, but still servieceable.

-You level up with every 1000 exp. In the status menu, the exp in the upper right-hand corner represents the amount of exp out of 1000, and when that number reaches 1000, it resets and you level up.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Duck Amuck said:
Uhhhhh wait till I finish it first mate. :lol

We shall not rest until it charts in the March NPD! :D
And hey, your post was mostly likes vs only 3 dislikes, of which 2 can now be considered dismissed/irrelevant!
 

Wilsongt

Member
About 3 1/2 hours in for me and just finished up the mine stuff and got Erin... So far, I'm really enjoying it. The cast has been interesting and the story has been good so far. I've no complaints other than the speed acting, of which it only seems bad for MC and co.
 
Mejilan said:
Yeah, ship date was the 17th, most stores had it in yesterday.



I think you're right. Are they making one for Tierkreis?

I've heard that there is. Dunno is if it's finalized already.

Duck Amuck said:
The amount of voice acting is ridiculous in this so far.

...Is there a way to turn voice acting off? :lol

I was being sarcastic. I mean, deciding it's better than I or III in 20 minutes?

NO. :D

Duck Amuck said:
- The characters. Even if the voice acting's not the best, so far the character's have been pretty likable. No one's annoying so far.

Wait 'til you reach mid to end-game... :lol
A certain female...

Duck Amuck said:
- The calendar system looks like it may show promise. Does this mean you can enter some areas at night? It'd be neat if only some recruits were only available on certain seasons or certain times of day. Then again I'm a masochist when it comes to recruiting.

Yup, two SoD are dependent on the calendar for you to recruit them.

Duck Amuck said:
I'm liking Tierkreis but...it's not a Suikoden game. I didn't really mind the absence of being in another world altogether from the beginning since it's a side game (as far as we know) but the exclusion of politics and war in general just makes it feel like random jrpg no. 1000 and not Suikoden. It is as if they slapped a few classic Suikoden jingles like the victory theme or the name entry song from past games and put Suikoden on the box, but the identity is totally different.

That said, if you look past that it can be pretty enjoyable.

Same conclusion as mine. By the way, I've finished the game again, this time in English. :D

Link Man said:
-You level up with every 1000 exp. In the status menu, the exp in the upper right-hand corner represents the amount of exp out of 1000, and when that number reaches 1000, it resets and you level up.

That has been always the case.

Mejilan said:
We shall not rest until it charts in the March NPD! :D
And hey, your post was mostly likes vs only 3 dislikes, of which 2 can now be considered dismissed/irrelevant!

Requoting Himu again...

Duck Amuck said:
I'm liking Tierkreis but...it's not a Suikoden game. That said, if you look past that it can be pretty enjoyable.
 
Duck Amuck said:
Okay, first impressions...

- The mission system allows flexibility in how much you want to dedicate to the game. It's definitely a portable game. You can finish a mission in a few minutes a piece so far and there's quite a few save points in case you need to save.
- The calendar system looks like it may show promise. Does this mean you can enter some areas at night? It'd be neat if only some recruits were only available on certain seasons or certain times of day. Then again I'm a masochist when it comes to recruiting.
- Although the random battle rate is higher than expected, the fact that the dungeons are small enough so that exploration doesn't feel like a chore is a good thing.


I'm liking Tierkreis but...it's not a Suikoden game. I didn't really mind the absence of being in another world altogether from the beginning since it's a side game (as far as we know) but the exclusion of politics and war in general just makes it feel like random jrpg no. 1000 and not Suikoden. It is as if they slapped a few classic Suikoden jingles like the victory theme or the name entry song from past games and put Suikoden on the box, but the identity is totally different.

That said, if you look past that it can be pretty enjoyable.

-I love the mission system, but ultimately I think it kinda dumbed down the character recruitment process because a lot of it is available as missions.
- as for the calendar system, I love it at first, but felt very under utilized. it affect character recruitment process a little bit because there are cutscenes triggered by time, but most of it is just for how long it takes to finish missions.
-the dungeon get so big later on with multiple branches, dead end, and lack of save points. you'd spent 45 minutes - 1 hour in dungeons and the only saving grace is that it's pretty to look at and the enemies or so easy you can auto battle most fight.

-how far into tierkreis are you? the beginning really remind me to some random tales of games. but after I get my own castle and start recruiting people, I start to have that Suikoden feel. there is war and politics. but the war is very typical good vs evil, and the politics never go anywhere.

ultimately, I think tierkreis is a suikoden game, just aimed for younger crowd. the difference from other games are like going from a PG-13 movie to G movie.
 

Mutagenic

Permanent Junior Member
Am I the only one that notices the little graphical glitch after you kill the final enemy in battle and it cuts back to the victory scene of your characters? It bugs me for no apparent reason.
 

suzu

Member
Been having fun with it (just pretend it's not really Suikoden).

The only things that bother me is how freaking slow the running is and the fact you have to walk back through dungeons... ew. The voice acting isn't bugging me much, only how fast everybody speaks.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
SilverLunar said:
Itreallyamazemehowthevoiceactorpulleditoffwiththisinsanespeedspeech.

Most likely, he was recorded speaking at more normal levels, and then it was digitally sped up as a way of compressing the VA to take up less space on the cart.
 
Mejilan said:
Most likely, he was recorded speaking at more normal levels, and then it was digitally sped up as a way of compressing the VA to take up less space on the cart.
Almost all the characters speaks normally, expect for the MC, hisspeechisjustsofastthatIcan'tcatchwhathesays.
 

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
Callibretto said:
I don't mind the writing at all, I've played jrpg with way worse writing than this (Wild Arms 4 and some tales of games come too mind). I actually thought the writing is one of the thing the game did right.
let's just say i hold suikoden to a higher standard than wild arms and generic jrpgs when it comes to plot and dialogue. i mean, that's why i like the series in the first place, and all i'm latching onto with this game is the world and the battle system. the rest is cliched and generic where the suikodens i played never had that problem.
 
Mejilan said:
They probably chose him because he had the most speech.
good point.

well now i am at Lv.43 and 26:30 hours in.

So now after
Janam dissapeared and Diadora and Nova joind my party,
the story starts making sence again, yay!
I am now really interested how the ending will be after seeing that
all the Starbearers in the other words were actually failing and dieing in their war, I sure would love to see how this will end, hoping for a surprise here!
 

Ananaz

Member
suzu said:
The only things that bother me is how freaking slow the running is and the fact you have to walk back through dungeons... ew.
Make sure you get the Godspeed Talisman (run faster accessory) from the Coastal Cave. That, and Gadburg's Spark command makes the constant backtracking far less tedious.
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
SilverLunar said:
Almost all the characters speaks normally, expect for the MC, hisspeechisjustsofastthatIcan'tcatchwhathesays.

o_O

Say, who voiced Diulf? Will he be as awesome as his Japanese VA counterpart Tetsu Inada?
 
SilverLunar said:
good point.

well now i am at Lv.43 and 26:30 hours in.

I am now really interested how the ending will be after seeing that
all the Starbearers in the other words were actually failing and dieing in their war, I sure would love to see how this will end, hoping for a surprise here!

There is.
Near the ending, there's a surprising tidbit of info that explains a lot of things.

Duck Amuck said:
IwishIcouldtalkthisfastinreallife

IwishIcouldtoo. Anyway, I have this theory that certain individuals are the physical manifestation of their stars [and subsequently] stars can manifest themselves in physical forms.
Enuclaw (Teni) and Belemuel (Tensyo) kinda hint at this. It's possible that both Jeane (Chiketsu) and Viki (Chitatsu) are the similar gievn the mystery behind the presence of those two.

And I'm still waiting for Suikoden VI. PleasE?

300px-Jeanegroup.png
 

Hobbun

Member
Link Man said:
-I always use the "Try" command in shops (it's the bottom button). It allows you to see how each item affects your stats, and you can always pull out to see the stats of your current equipment in order to compare. Not as fluid as, say, most Squeenix RPGs, but still servieceable.

Oh, ok. So it sounds like FFT's system. I had heard you had to actually purchase the armor/equipment to see the difference. But it's good you can 'try' it on.

Thanks.
 
lucablight said:
Too many random encounters. I can't explore the freaking dungeon if I get into a random battle every 5 seconds.

Solution:

Ananaz said:
Make sure you get the Godspeed Talisman (run faster accessory) from the Coastal Cave. That, and Gadburg's Spark command makes the constant backtracking far less tedious.
 

matmanx1

Member
Had another play session last night and Im now liking the game a good bit more than I was on the first try. The VA is annoying me less (I've just accepted it as crap and moved on) and the battle's are fun and entertaining to watch. And I actually like playing this one with the stylus rather than the d-pad and buttons which is something I dont usually do. I cant explain it but it just feels better and more fun to me that way.

I know some may disagree but I love the auto-battle feature, especially using the aforementioned stylus. 2 clicks and your team is stylishly destroying annoying foes. It's painless and it looks good!
 
so, I'm 25 hours into the game and I think I'm already familiar with all the gameplay mechanic, so maybe we can talk about the changes Tierkreis made from previous Suikoden games. what you like, what you don't like. element you want to stay if they ever make Suikoden 6 that kind of stuff. so here's my thoughts

- talky main character with distinct personality, I like the concept and execution, but the main character personality in this one is not what I want in main Suikoden series.
a little criticism I have in previous Suikoden is that the main character often doesn't feel like a leader. more like a figure head, while the strategist is the one making the real decision.
now, while the main character in Tierkreis is kinda annoying with it's always upbeat attitude. In his dialogue choices, he often argue and clearly stated what he want to do. in that way, I don't feel like a puppet leader, which I like and I hope continues in the next Suikoden

- Missions, I like this new mission structure, it make sure there's multiple plot thread going on at the same time, give a little sense of non linear progression, and help finding new character easier.

- Calendar, I think it's a little underused because so far it's only used for how many days mission need to complete. I heard the calendar is related to the recruitment of 2 stars although I haven't noticed it. hopefully haven't missed it.

- world map with dots, to be honest, I'm not as annoyed by this as much as I thought I would. maybe in the future they can keep the same world map with dots thing, but make sure the area in between town is like the first plain near your starting village, with multiple exit points leading to different town or dungeon, something like scaled down FF12, but have the big world maps with dots for fast travel.

- weapon system, I prefer upgradeable weapon because it's easier to balance my party stats. low level character won't feel as useless if I upgrade the weapon to max even though they still have low hp and rune stock. kinda like the slash/strike/pierce system, but getting stuck to specific weapon in battle against monsters that strong against your weapon sucks.

- mp system. mp instead of rune stock is not bad, but less customization for your skill and magic is a major bummer.

- trade item as monster loot and no money drops. I'm fine with the no money drops thing like ff12, but monster loot being trading item kinda defeat the purpose of trading imo.

- no mini games, war battle, 1 on 1 duel, detective and bath house. I have a feeling that it's absence from Tierkreis is more because it's on ds rather than a new change of direction. so I fully expect this to come back in future Suikoden (if it's on console or at least psp).

that's it so far. so, what you guys think? agree or disagree, any wishes on what you want for the next suikoden? personally, I kinda want a dating sim element like Persona:D
Suikoden female characters is definitely my guilty pleasure playing Suikoden series
 

schild

Member
This game could be totally awesome but I'll never know because the voice acting is so terrible that I can't play it for any length of time that would be considered long enough to generate an opinion.
 
Hobbun said:
For those far enough, how is the castle in the game? Is it as good as S2's castle?

Nearly as good. It just lacks the minigames, the bath, and random people (non-SoD). And DOGZ, UNICORNZ and OCTOPI.
 

ITA84

Member
shykyoichi said:
Nearly as good. It just lacks the minigames, the bath, and random people (non-SoD). And DOGZ, UNICORNZ and OCTOPI.

No baths!? That's it, I quit!

Kidding aside, the very first part of the game isn't very encouraging, plot-wise, but since it appears it gets better later on, I guess I shouldn't worry. I've only played Suikoden II and the beginning of I, so the absence of links to the series doesn't bug me too much, but I hope the general feeling of II is somehow present in Tierkreis.

Is there an elevator in the castle?
 
Ok people I'm looking at 16 hours or so of game time but I'm holding out on my impressions thus far but in the mean time!

Yeah so, the polygamists mage lord is giving me a second chance at the beach. Clearly if I turn him down I'm going to have to deal with the Order and magedom right? Plus how many stars will I miss out if I say no?
 
Urban Scholar said:
Yeah so, the polygamists mage lord is giving me a second chance at the beach. Clearly if I turn him down I'm going to have to deal with the Order and magedom right? Plus how many stars will I miss out if I say no?

Beach? I don't remember any beaches. Though plot events are kinda fixed regardless of the options you choose.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
I uh... wound up with an extra copy of this game somehow. Anyone interesting in buying it from me, $30 shipped? Continental USA, of course.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Haha, yeah, unfortunately.
I've been pretty sick this week, and not thinking straight at times.
I forgot that there was a preorder bonus for this at certain retailers, and that I had dropped money down via Amazon for it.
I stepped out a few times this week to visit a nearby Gamestop to pick up a whooooole bunch of games that have been coming out this week, and I picked up this as well.

Not unexpectedly, Amazon was late in shipping out their order, and I only remembered I had a preorder when I received the shipping notification email. I've opened up the GS copy, so I'll keep that, and I intend on keeping the Amazon preorder goodies, but figure I'd just sell the sealed Amazon copy of the game to someone here. I imagine there's someone here willing to buy the game but hesitating over the $5 Konami tax...
 

Hobbun

Member
Mejilan said:
Haha, yeah, unfortunately.
I've been pretty sick this week, and not thinking straight at times.
I forgot that there was a preorder bonus for this at certain retailers, and that I had dropped money down via Amazon for it.
I stepped out a few times this week to visit a nearby Gamestop to pick up a whooooole bunch of games that have been coming out this week, and I picked up this as well.

Not unexpectedly, Amazon was late in shipping out their order, and I only remembered I had a preorder when I received the shipping notification email. I've opened up the GS copy, so I'll keep that, and I intend on keeping the Amazon preorder goodies, but figure I'd just sell the sealed Amazon copy of the game to someone here. I imagine there's someone here willing to buy the game but hesitating over the $5 Konami tax...

Why not just take the Amazon copy and return it to GS? Unless your preference is to sell it to someone here.
 
Mejilan said:
I uh... wound up with an extra copy of this game somehow. Anyone interesting in buying it from me, $30 shipped? Continental USA, of course.

Thank you for supporting Tierkreis... TWICE.
 

Hobbun

Member
Mejilan said:
Because that's kind of a skeevy thing to do.

Um, why? I mean it isn't like you didn't purchase a copy from them. I can see your point if you purchased the game from another store and tried to return it to GS. But you still purchased a copy from them.
 
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