Gameplay
Suikoden III shares many elements with other role-playing video games. The player controls the current protagonist and travels with them around the world map, advancing the plot by completing tasks and talking with other characters. In towns, they can gather information, sharpen their weaponry, learn new skills, and buy equipment; wilderness areas generally feature random encounters with monsters. Aside from the main plot, after a certain point in each main character's chapters, they may recruit new characters to go to Budehuc castle. Recruiting a character often requires a short sidequest or other mission. Unlike Suikoden II and Suikoden V, Suikoden III has no "time limits" for character recruitment; assuming certain plot decisions are made "correctly," it is always possible to recruit all 108 Stars of Destiny.
As in other RPGS, characters in Suikoden III possess a variety of statistics that determine in-game combat ability. However, characters can also learn specific skills; for instance, the "Parry" skill allows a character to defend against attacks more often, while other skills may increase damage output or hasten the casting of spells. Different characters have affinities for different skills, and their own maximum limit on the number of skills they can learn. Parties may consist of up to 6 characters who participate in combat and one "support" character who adds a special skill to the party, such as minor healing after battle. If all 6 characters lose all their hit points (and are thus incapacitated), it is game over and the player must restart. Exceptions exist for certain plot battles in which winning is optional; the player can lose and the plot continues on, albeit in a slightly different fashion.
Battles in Suikoden III take place on a continuous field of battle, unlike the static front and back rows of earlier Suikodens. Characters are still aligned in rows at the onset of battle, but the front and back character in each row are controlled as a pair. For example, selecting to cast a rune spell with the character in the back row of the pair will cause the character in the front row to defend them while they are casting. On the other hand, choosing to attack will cause a character in the front row to move towards the enemy and strike.
Runes, the primary source of magic in the world of Suikoden, are generally handled similarly to other Suikoden games. Characters have a certain number of spell usages per "spell level;" for instance, a character with 4 level 1 spell slots and a Water Rune could cast "Kindness Drops" (the level 1 Water Rune spell) 4 times. Other runes offer different benefits, and some may be used as often as desired. Since Suikoden III's combat takes place on a free movement field, some of the rune effects were reinterpreted from other games to strike areas. For example, some Fire rune effects that only struck enemies in earlier Suikoden games now strike a generalized area, meaning they could affect allies who moved in too close. The rune spells cause the caster to begin chanting. While in this state the character can be struck to slow or halt the casting time. The time required for chanting varies depending on the abilities of the character and the magnitude of the spell.
At certain points in the game, armies clash and a strategic battle system is used, similar to those seen in military turn-based strategy games. These are set on a graph, a set of connected vertices. Certain places on the map offer special advantages for units occupying them, such as a defense bonus for a forest or castle ramparts, or automatic free healing for a base of operations. When attacking, units in other nodes adjoining the attacked space can aid, giving a bonus to the attack. When army units engage in combat (generally by one unit moving into a space occupied by a hostile unit), the standard Suikoden III battle system is used, albeit an extremely sped-up variety in which no orders are issued and characters act on a simple AI. Leaders can aid their army units with a variety of special abilities and rune magic. Each side also requires a strategist; the better the strategist, the more moves that side can take before their turn is over. Strategy battles end when the pre-set mission objectives are completed, generally either to take a node on the map for offensive missions, or to successfully hold a node or escape for defensive engagements. Alternatively, they can end in failure if a main character is defeated.
Suikoden III also features a number of minigames, such as gambling on dice, card games, and horse racing. These minigames are generally accessible from Budehuc castle.
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