Suikoden III is a decent game for the most part, which unfortunately falls miserably on its backside a lot of the time.
The story of Suikoden III is told from 4 different perspectives : Chris, the leader of the Zexen Knights, Hugo, the son of the Chief in one of Grasslands six clans, Geddoe, the leader of a band of Mercenaries called the "Harmonian Border Defense", and Thomas, a young boy who has been appointed Master of a Castle between Zexen and Grassland. This is a really good way of telling the story, but unfortunately, due to the amount of overlap between Chris and Hugos stories, it can lead to a bit of boredom, because you pretty much know whats going to happen. After you have completed each of the characters individual stories (with the exception of Thomas : His is optional), they, because of circumstances I will not go into, join forces, and you will have to choose a character to continue with. While most aspects of the game are the same regardless of which character you pick, they differ enough to justify playing the latter half of the game through multiple times to experience the story from each characters point of view. The end result is a very satisfying story, with many plot twists and suspenseful moments, and, if you've played through Suikoden II, you can be assured that you are in for one hell of a shock.
The other aspects of the game are not so perfect. Graphics, on the most parts, are nice, but there is some horrible, unacceptable slowdown during larger scenes or battles, enough to have you a little confused about whats going on. Spell effects in battle also look pretty awful and can be annoying long at the worst of times, especially when you have to wait for four skeletons to cast Explosion on you. Environments on the whole look ok, as do character models. Sound, is, well, ok, and thats about the best I can say for it. There are some fantastic tunes, such as the boss theme, and some absolutely horrendous ones, such as the dungeon battle theme, which has honestly made me mute the game so many times. Bar that, however, the slash of swords and chime of the magical spells are nothing to complain about.
Gameplay, however, is a very mixed bag. There are three types of combat in Suikoden III. Group Combat, or random battles, uses a very different system to the rest of the series. Characters are placed in three pairs, and you issue ONE command for each of these pairs. Only one item can be used by each pair, and can only be used on a character in that pair, and only one Rune can be used per pair : The other character in these circumstances will automatically attack the nearest enemy. (or defend, if they are a magician) This has its ups and downs. On the up side, it forces you to really think about how you order your characters. On the down side, it can lead to a horrible lack of control at the worst of times. Duels are also back, and while they are criminally simplistic (you either select Attack, Defend, or Deathblow during your turn. Attacking will reduce your enemies health. Defending will reduce the damage you take, and allow you to evade and counter deathblows. Deathblow will inflict double damage onto your opponent, but will fail if your opponent defends. This goes on until one characters health gauge reaches zero), they are never the less an exciting and interesting way to advance the story. The last type of combat is Major Battles, and they are, quite easily, the worst in the series. It takes place on a board with several nodes on them, and each node is linked up to other nodes. You can have multiple of your units on each nodes, and you can only attack a node which is directly linked up to the one your unit is on. This system would be fine, but the absolute worst thing is...each unit is just four of your party members. When you attack or get attacked, you see a battle play out exactly as it would in Group Combat, with only three commands at your disposal : Ordering the ENTIRE unit to either attack, defend, or retreat. This aspect seriously makes you wonder where the word "Major" came from. To make matters worse, this system doesn't really fit into the game well, as there are less than ten "Major" Battles in the entire game, and less than five that you are actually meant to emerge victorious in.
One very interesting aspect of the game though is the Skill System. Skills are ranked S - A+ - A - B+ - B - C - D - E, with E being the worst and S being the best. These are leveled up by spending Skill Points, obtained after battle, and are basically passive abilities that assist that character in battle, for example, leveling up "Lightning Magic" will make that character cast lightning magic faster and more efficiently. However, not every character can obtain an S in every skill : In fact, theres only a few characters in the game that can achieve S ranks in a skill. Each character has a pre-determined maximum rank for each skill. (that the player will be made aware of through the text that appears when they are selected : "Natural Ability Exists", "Average", "Perfect Match!" etc etc). While it may not be a major breakthrough, it does add a lot of depth to the game, and choosing characters that can go higher in certain skills over others that can't is very likely.
In terms of difficulty, Suikoden III varies. Battles, especially in Geddoes chapters, are incredibly difficult, and you may be seeing that Game Over screen more often than you might like. However, getting all the 108 Stars Of Destiny (a recurring optional element in the series where you set out to recruit 108 characters for your army, and results in a better ending if you do so) o this game is seriously easy. There is no character, to my knowledge, that you can miss permanently. Also, most, if not all, simply require you to speak to them to get them to join, and if not, the additional task to carry out in order to get him/her/it to join is rather obvious. (Whats that Rilder? You're looking for "The Sergeant"? What if I was to put that character in my party who has the word "Sergeant" in his name and talk to you...? Oh, you'll join now? Brilliant!) Add this to the fact that theres a character who will tell you the locations of every star in the game, and you've got...not much of a challenge in your hands. At least the reward for getting them all is fairly good.
Despite all its flaws, however, Suikoden III is well worth playing, and will offer a fairly good experience to fans of the series and newcomers alike.