Sail-Fight-Recruit...Sail-Fight-Recruit... Sail-Fight-Recruit.... Wait a second... didn't this game have
Konami's motto: "The best thing to do, whilst in a hole...is to just keep digging."
Suikoden IV takes place 150 years before Suikoden I in an area of the southern seas known as "The Island Nations".
We're back to "Insert Name Here" Heroes in this installment. Your protagonist lives in the town of Razril which is part of the country of Gaien. The game starts off in his final exam in his training to become a Knight of Gaien. Sounds nice huh? Too bad he's a nameless nobody that was pulled from the sea and lives in a store-room. Ah Serendipity.
Anyway, on one of your first couple of mission you take down a pirate that was in possession of a strange Rune, which upon his defeat, turns the pirate to ash and attaches itself to your commander. [But wait! Mysterious Runes are meant for the protagonist!]
During an attack on your port by some pirates [out for revenge?] your commander tells everyone to stay away from the Academy while he attempts to use the Rune to fend off the fleet of ships. Naturally you head up there just in time to see him use the rune and get turned to ash in the process. The Rune naturally seeks out you as its next host [That's better...or is it..?]
In an expected turn of events your blamed for the commanders death and exiled to the sea. Thus is the setup for Suikoden IV.
Graphics
Hhmm...how to explain... well they are *technically* better than the ones in Suikoden 3...however they're so incredibly bland in their design that the characters and environments are almost sleep inducing. Also the graphics and artstyle this time around seem slightly more "real" and rather less....well... like Suikoden.
Spell effects are also more subtle [Read: Crappy] this time around.
Gameplay
Oh my ******* god.
Having graduated from the Point and Click World Map System [Read: Disc Space Saving 101] of Suikoden 3 the developers have learned in Disc Space Saving 102... that the use of an "Islands" theme leaves the game open for nothing but empty ocean as a world map saving even MORE space. [To use on the technically better but especially bland graphics]
That being said to get around you have to pilot a ship that is rather awkward in its navigation and slow in its movement from place to place. Pair this with an encounter rate that would put a Shin Megami Tensei title to shame and you've got one annoying setup.
In battle you'll be using 4 characters. Why not 6? Well... 4 characters take up less space than 6 and we've got to save that space for um....uh...later?
War battles are now fought ship to ship and I hope you've been brushing up on your Paper-Rock-Scissors because...it's...baaaaaaack......
The battlefield is set up in a grid and battles are carried out in a Strategy RPG fashion. You attack by firing Rune Cannons powered by various elements from the side of your ship. If you fire at the front or back of a ship you'll do extra damage and they won't be able to fire back. If you fire at another ships side, well they're going to counter-attack at the same time.
This is where it gets tricky. Each is stronger than and weaker than another element. Water beats Fire, while Fire beats Wind and so on. If the enemy counter with an element weaker then yours you will cancel their attack and damage them anyway, if theirs is greater than yours, your attack is canceled and you're hit.
If you both fire the same element then the attacks cancel each other out and nothing happens. Ships can be equipped with more than one element so you've got to give it your best guess as to which one they're going to fire.
If you don't like the idea of this you can always sail right up to them and board the ship and attack that way. Boarding parties can't use Spells or Items though [W-why?] only Regular attacks and Combo attacks. And as always death in a War battle could mean permanent death to that character.
Let it be known that Suikoden IV is VERY short. Even with all the sailing and fighting that it will take to recruit all 108 Stars of Destiny this game can be beaten in under 30 hours. Without all the recruiting you could probably get through it in 15 to 20 hours truth be told. Hey, game content wastes space! We've got to save that space for.....uh....dammit I know this one...hhmm... there's got to be a reason Konami is cutting all these corners....uh... oh well, I'm sure it will come to me.
Also the main plot requires you to recruit a certain number of people to advance what little story this game has. So there are times when you'll be forced to do nothing but sail around fighting endless battles looking for some weirdo to come build you a bathtub or something so you can continue fighting the good fight...or whatever.
Music
Well... the game does have music. The battle theme is alright if you let it play out awhile it gets pretty good. But that's all I can remember. The great music that you might have once heard in a Suikoden game hasn't been around since part 2. Granted the music here is better than some of the stuff in 3... it's just not memorable.
So that's about it. Suikoden 4 is all about sailing around a sea filled with random encounters to try and get as many weirdos together in the same place as possible. Sure this game's got some kind of a war going on and something like what one might call a story... but those thigns really take a back seat to all the sailing.....and fighting......and recruiting.......
Oh and about what Konami was going to use all the space they were saving with all the corners cut in this game... um... I still can't figure that one out...