Of course! I plan on doing the whole series. And once I've covered 5, I'll go back and look at the spinoffs.
@MagpieMcGraw2 күн бұрын
Naglfar, Sargon and Tukaram can use all their moves with the Sword of Ianna. Only Zoe cannot. In Tukaram's hands it turns into a two handed sword. It should turn into a spear for Zoe but it doesn't.
@SwannyTheMike2 күн бұрын
I've been corrected on that one a few times now. But that's what I get for not completely finishing the game with all four characters instead of making assumptions based off of Zoe's endgame.
@MagpieMcGraw2 күн бұрын
A couple years ago I beat the game with all characters on awesome. My character rating: Zoe>Naglfar>Sargon>Tukaram. Naglfar has a much more forgiving timing on the queens sword combo. It's useful all the way to the end. Some of his weapons are downright broken and never hit anything, but about 2/3 of them are actually good.
@SwannyTheMike2 күн бұрын
I'll try to remember that about the Queen's Sword combo whenever I feel like finally beating the game as Naglfar. Thanks for the tip!
@nebo11862 күн бұрын
playing it since it came out. somehow, i cant get better , always getting slaughtered ..
@SwannyTheMike2 күн бұрын
Take your time going through the levels. Blade of Darkness is merciless if you try and play it like a typical hack and slash. There's nothing wrong with taking a single swipe at an enemy before backpedaling or pulling one enemy at a time. And if you've got more than one chasing you, try luring them to a door or hallway where they can't slip past each other so you can fight them one at a time. Finally, save early and often. What you see in my video are my successful runs. I died plenty of times in each level, often in embarrassingly stupid ways. But if I can beat Blade of Darkness, then anyone can! Though all that is only if you're actually having fun with the game and want to get better at it. If you're not having any fun however, then there's no reason to torture yourself with it. I burned about 100 hours of my life with Elden Ring before learning that lesson.
@HK-souls4 күн бұрын
I was a kid when that game came out and, while in the rest of the world it was very overlooked, in Spain (where I'm from) I can tell you that ALL the video game magazines offered extensive coverage for it, and the hype was incredibly high. When it came out it was celebrated as the incredible achievement it was, both technically (the dynamic shadows were like nothing else in the gaming world back then) and on a playable level. I still have my original copy of the game at home, and today it sits next to my copies of the Dark Souls trilogy and Elden Ring :)
@SwannyTheMike4 күн бұрын
Their publishers outside of Spain really dropped the ball. There was no excuse for it either. February '01 wasn't a big month for PC releases. At least not in North America. The only notable one I can even think of is Clive Barker's Undying. So Blade of Darkness should have had plenty of room to be a hit. Yet until it popped up GOG, it was hard to find info on Blade of Darkness at all in English. Even then, the most useful info I found while researching for this came from an interview in Spanish that I had to run through Google Translate.
@Bruce_Black4 күн бұрын
Played this awesome game back in 2006 as a kid and wondered why no one was talking about it, some years later i forgot its name and spent like most of my teenage years searching for it with no luck and after like 16+ years i finally found my favorite childhood game thanks to you The nostalgia hit hard with this one😢
@SwannyTheMike4 күн бұрын
Happy to help! This is the kind of game that deserves so much more attention than it's gotten over the years.
@peanutboy9996 күн бұрын
Currently playing this after randomly buying it in a retro game store. Really interesting idea and I’m really enjoying it. I wonder what my 8 year old self would think of this strange game haha
@SwannyTheMike6 күн бұрын
Glad to hear someone else is enjoying this weird little game! Also, now I'm actually kind of curious what my younger self would have thought of this too. He was a fickle little brat with very confusing taste.
@fabiankuntzig65076 күн бұрын
ashamed to say: I played this as a pirate. It was a great title and the develpoers deserved better.
@SwannyTheMike6 күн бұрын
I think a lot of us have had a moment or two like that. It's part of why I try to do my best to highlight where these games can be legitimately obtained. I just wish there were more games that got loving digital rereleases like Blade of Darkness.
@TheFailureIsYours6 күн бұрын
This game, Morrowind and Deus Ex were my childhood. Favs 4 life.
@SwannyTheMike6 күн бұрын
I played so much Morrowind as a kid. Didn't understand what I was doing at all, so I mostly messed around in the starting area, but damn did I enjoy making my own fun!
@yamenkurdi35887 күн бұрын
There's also a gimmick to shorten the animation time to make some longer combos viable (Tuk's fire sword combo , Volcanic Edge?). Just press jump in-between combo inputs and you will skip to the final combo
@SwannyTheMike7 күн бұрын
It's times like this that I realize how bad I am at finding exploits like that lol
@yamenkurdi35887 күн бұрын
Finished this game over 20 times. Both modded and unmodded. If you want to really challenge yourself, install the Hyperborean mod
@SwannyTheMike7 күн бұрын
I'm jealous of anyone who can enjoy a single game so much. Simply finishing a game a second time is a sign I really love it because my ADD-riddled brain demands new content at all times.
@docmars8 күн бұрын
One of my favorite games of all time. I replay it maybe once every 2-3 years and it never gets old! ⚔ I've been wanting a remake or a true spiritual successor to be made someday. If nobody does it, I've felt tempted to do it myself! It's a shame the Landstalker 3D remake never got released on PSP.
@SwannyTheMike7 күн бұрын
I'd love it if some indie studio just came out with their own tribute to Landstalker one day. Honestly, I think the closest we ever got to a true spiritual successor was Alundra on the PS1, but even there it's not quite the same game as Landstalker.
@docmars8 күн бұрын
I never played the originals, but after playing A New Beginning, I was super impressed with it. Had a lot of fun and felt motivated to finish it! I realize this video was created before it was released, but it's fun looking back.
@SwannyTheMike7 күн бұрын
I was pleasantly surprised by A New Beginning. I had some worries going in that it wasn't going to come close to the original game. But even if it isn't the same technical marvel that its predecessor was, A New Beginning was still a ton of fun!
@BSzili4 күн бұрын
@@SwannyTheMike I enjoyed A New Beginning for the most part, but I think it missed the mark in a few of areas. I probably liked the writing the least, the last part of the game felt especially rushed. If nothing else it made me want to replay the original Outcast again.
@SwannyTheMike4 күн бұрын
@@BSzili Yeah, the last third definitely could have used more time to breathe. I think the weakest part overall for me was the weak writing on the human characters not named Slade. They all felt very underdeveloped for antagonists you were meant to empathize with. Which kinda undermines the ending being about peaceful co-existence. But when compared to the slapdash effort that is Second Contact, A New Beginning isn't simply a step in the right direction, it's a record-setting long jump! My hope is that they can keep up the momentum and Outcast 3 winds up being a GotY candidate.
@ryanschaefer84079 күн бұрын
I loved this game. Bought it when it first came out and is a major reason I miss my Saturn…
@SwannyTheMike9 күн бұрын
If more games like this had actually made it outside of Japan, I'm convinced that the Saturn wouldn't have been the massive flop that it was in the West.
@eLWacKaZ11 күн бұрын
My first Suikoden game was Suikoden 2, then went back to 1 to get the extra character in 2... Then a few years later I grabbed Suikoden 3... And was disappointed as well... I remember being turned off by the 3D and not being a huge fan of the new characters.. I think I didn't even completed Chris first chapter..
@SwannyTheMike10 күн бұрын
Chris is such a wasted character in her own chapters. The first female protag of Suikoden with a whole stoic knight commander thing going on and the game wastes so much time forcing you to read endless prattling about how much all of her knights think she's hot.
@RizzAustralianHistory11 күн бұрын
ok you convinced me to give it a shot. Got Outcast 1.1 on gog ($2.87 AUD on sale)
@thenightstar831213 күн бұрын
Suikoden II is my favorite video game of all time. This game? I have tried to play it and like it multiple times, but I could never torture myself to get even halfway into it. 4 also sucks. ........5 is actually surprisingly great, but I didn't learn that for at least 10 years because I refused to play it after 3 and 4.
@SwannyTheMike12 күн бұрын
Knowing my weird brain, I'll wind up somehow enjoying 4 lol. Flawed and rushed games I can fuck with. Games that should have been all-time greats, but botch the execution drive me up the wall.
@bdavis24fan13 күн бұрын
51:16 what was this all about?
@SwannyTheMike13 күн бұрын
The whole level is an homage to the first big encounter with the Xenomorphs in Aliens. I used Pitch Black and Shocking Dark as examples of an homage and a rip-off as are both heavily inspired by Aliens. But where Pitch Black is an entertaining movie which homages Aliens while still being its own film, Shocking Dark is a cheap rip-off meant to cash-in on the popularity of Aliens.
@bdavis24fan12 күн бұрын
@@SwannyTheMikeno I meant the whole Dwight Schultz thing.
@SwannyTheMike12 күн бұрын
@@bdavis24fan Oh, sorry. Somehow misread the timestamp. Dwight Schultz is nutjob conspiracy theorist who seems convinced that everyone who disagrees with him is a dirty communist. I initially planned a bit where I talked about all the voice acting roles he had that I enjoyed, but came across his blog in my research and it left a bad taste in my mouth. Frankly, I'm not happy at how I went about this instead of actually saying something about his insane claims like that the Obama administration was going to go door-to-door to force gender reassignment surgery on everyone. There's a difference of opinion on politics, and then there's claiming that the government is going to act out a Cannibal Corpse song on every American citizen.
@bdavis24fan12 күн бұрын
@@SwannyTheMikeHoly crap. I didn't know he had a blog and was posting shit like that. That's insane because I love Dwight Schultz the actor. I get excited when he pops up in stuff I like. I remember finding out he voices Professor Pyg in Arkham Knight and going "oh my God that's amazing!" I guess Dwight Schultz the person is a little coocoo for cocoa puffs. 😂
@SwannyTheMike12 күн бұрын
@@bdavis24fan He is nuttier than squirrel shit, that's for sure. I swear, it's like all the talented actors are either crazy or have some hidden dark side to them.
@franciscor39014 күн бұрын
Hybrid Heaven was a bizarre fever dream, i love it's originality and deep combat system.
@bastardferret86915 күн бұрын
Used to live in Wisconsin. Definitely knew some packers fans. Hahahaha.
@bastardferret86915 күн бұрын
Also, good video. I happened to like this entry, but that was years ago. Mostly I liked the ducks.
@SwannyTheMike14 күн бұрын
As a Vikings fan, I'm contractually obligated to insult Packers fans. And honestly, who could blame you for liking the ducks? The ducks are the best part of the game!
@johanandersson825215 күн бұрын
Text Adventure
@SwannyTheMike15 күн бұрын
I have been meaning to play Zork, but I don't exactly know what that has to do with Suikoden III?
@Threvlin16 күн бұрын
Excellent review, and a rare use of If the Emperor had a Text to Speech Device as a reaction. Bravo.
@SwannyTheMike15 күн бұрын
Love me some TTS! Shame that Games Workshop had to be all Games Workshop about fan projects.
@Threvlin14 күн бұрын
@@SwannyTheMike it sure is good that they hired the guy that made Astartes. I’m so glad we got to see…. So much more of that series! Haha… ha. As much as I miss TTSD, I gotta say Hunter the Parenting has been fantastic so far, as someone who knows even less about world of darkness than 40k.
@SwannyTheMike14 күн бұрын
@@Threvlin Oh God, I'd finally stopped thinking about how they wasted Astartes... And yeah, Hunter the Parenting is fantastic! Never in my life did I think I'd be so captivated by a man's quest to purchase a blender for 99 pence.
@Threvlin14 күн бұрын
@@SwannyTheMike absolutely enthralling.
@mysticalakatsuki481816 күн бұрын
I'll admit I might be really biased. My first Suikoden game, hell, my first turn-based rpg game in general was Suikoden 3. Despite it's flaws I just can't help but love it. The music is a banger, the characters have really cool designs, especially the villains, and though a bit contrived I really enjoy the plot and love that some companions died and there was no way to prevent that. I know the combat system isn't for everyone but I feel like it made fights, in a way, feel more strategic. You had to plan around synergies, combos, and make sure you had a good rune spread to deal damage or heal allies. And the magic just looks so gorgeous in this game. I was so disappointed when Suikoden 4 toned that aspect down. Speaking of, can't wait to see you cover that. I feel about that game how someone coming from Suikoden 1 and 2 felt about this one.
@SwannyTheMike16 күн бұрын
Enjoy what you enjoy. There's nothing wrong with that. As far as intros to RPGs go, you can certainly do far worse than Suikoden III. I'm very curious about Suikoden IV myself. I've read that it was rushed during development, but my friend who got me into the series has told me that he enjoyed it, so I'm hoping I will too.
@markproveaux519116 күн бұрын
Really enjoyed your video. Great edits, and just a really great review!
@SwannyTheMike16 күн бұрын
Thanks! I honestly do a lot of the edits to amuse myself while editing, so it always makes me happy to know others enjoy them too.
@Pope-of-Comics16 күн бұрын
only disappointment would be you.
@SwannyTheMike16 күн бұрын
I tell myself that every time I look in the mirror. Get on my level, scrub.
@ezg844816 күн бұрын
None of those early gaming magizine reviews never actually finish the entire game before review and giving it a positive 80% isn't unusual and on early reflection fair. If any of them completed the game, I'm sure their tone would have changed DRASTICALLY. To this day, the thought of spending 70 hours on this game... Thank god for the speed throttle button on emulators now a days!
@SwannyTheMike16 күн бұрын
In fairness (God help me, I'm defending early game reviewers...), those magazines typically had about half a dozen reviewers at most. Doing a video every other week was driving me up the wall, so I can only imagine how rushed the process was for those folks having to review damn near everything that came out each month.
@jakl-em8df17 күн бұрын
As someone who played the game on release, yeah, it was a pretty big disappointment. Dumping the more morally gray reasonings that Suikoden 2 prided itself on to instead focus on...Look, I thought Luc was okay in previous games, but to make him the reason...I dunno. Bad things are happening? Felt very...lazy. They had made an interesting reason for conflict, they just needed to drive it home, and utterly failed. And yeah, the new army mechanic was painful to get through. *Spoiler* From what I remembered, the reason Luc was doing everything was to free Leknaat from being forced to be...I dunno. Bound by destiny...Basically he wanted to free her? Or something? ...Sigh, this game was dumb. I don't think the series gets back on a decent footing until Suikoden V, which...also has issues, but is...better...? Rose tinted glasses might be messing with me on that game though.
@SwannyTheMike17 күн бұрын
Luc's whole villain arc felt ripped from so many anime I watched as a kid. Especially the "he had a sad backstory and good intentions, so that makes him a complex character, not a monster" line of reasoning that Suikoden III seems to push. He and Sarah just ramble on and on about morality, fate, destiny, etc. without ever actually saying something meaningful regarding any of those topics. Nor do they ever get seriously challenged by the protagonists on their bullshit beyond essentially "lol nope".
@jakl-em8df17 күн бұрын
@@SwannyTheMike Yeah, I agree. I think what also irritated me was just...HOW many times the villains pulled out a 'Nu uh, you didn't beat me, this was just my first form!' before bamfing out, or beating the party in the later cutscene. As you highlighted in your video, Suikoden III really lacks that...followthrough of a punishment for bad decisions or bad actions that really highlighted in the previous game. You trusted the wrong person? Someone died. Did something bad? Came back and bit you in the ass. Good intentions? Doesn't matter if you don't have the strength to back them up. For your sanity's sake, Suikoden IV and V might be better to compare them to THIS game over Suikoden 2, because...It gets better than III, but won't ever reach that same height of awesome.
@SwannyTheMike17 күн бұрын
@@jakl-em8df It always drives me insane when games pull that "you didn't actually win" crap. Just have me lose the damn fight if that's what your story demands! And I'm definitely going into IV & V with much lower hopes/expectations.
@vsolyomi17 күн бұрын
Did you know you can summon Shade from knights' armors?
@SwannyTheMike17 күн бұрын
I did not! That's such a cool touch.
@vsolyomi17 күн бұрын
I subbed at the Powerglove joke!
@vsolyomi17 күн бұрын
But they fixed everything in IV, right? Right??
@SwannyTheMike17 күн бұрын
Oh totally! Brand new team in charge, rushed development cycle, Konami being Konami, Suikoden IV has all the ingredients for an unmitigated disaster- I mean, success! Hopefully the low expectations will help that one hurt me less than III did.
@Quinz12817 күн бұрын
I always saw so many people say Suikoden 3 was their favorite or second favorite and I always questioned why. I hated the trio protagonists, hated the way combat worked in pairs, didn't like the way war battles were. It was. So many characters were forgettable. I'm the fish, I know. My order of preference was always 2,5,1,4,3... Three was the weakest, though seeing returning characters were nice.
@SwannyTheMike17 күн бұрын
Like I said in the video, I can totally see why someone who started with III viewing that as their favorite. It's the ones who played I and II before that and still prefer III that confuse me.
@creyen17 күн бұрын
Had to search the ebony thing, god I have regrets...
@SwannyTheMike16 күн бұрын
My Immortal claims another victim...
@vsolyomi17 күн бұрын
To top S-II you need to top Jowy, Shu and Luca Blight himself. They only managed to do something at level of Nanami by S-V and then the series died to a heart attack.
@SwannyTheMike17 күн бұрын
No kidding. I wasn't even the biggest fan of Jowy (mostly found his reasoning asinine, but hey, he's the villain after all) but Luc was such a weak villain that I'm reassessing my opinions on Jowy.
@RemoWilliams122717 күн бұрын
3:14 if you wouldn't have told me, I wouldn't have known 😂
@RemoWilliams122717 күн бұрын
Just now finding this channel, certainly glad I did, and what's nice when this happens is I have catching up to do!
@SwannyTheMike17 күн бұрын
I think my editing has improved a lot since this video, so hopefully you'll enjoy those just as much if not more!
@killiandw17 күн бұрын
Didn't like this entry. Every time I played it it put me to sleep so I was like nope
@SwannyTheMike17 күн бұрын
I didn't hit that point until Luc started showing up more. All that initially interesting story tossed aside so we can have cliche 2000s anime villain #34.
@rorybisson75617 күн бұрын
this is my favorite in the series lol. i mean watching that annoying side kick get offed in the first chapter is AMAZING lol. thank god we didn't have to listen to him throughout the game.
@SwannyTheMike17 күн бұрын
He was annoying enough that I was surprised that the game managed to make me feel bad for the other characters when he died.
@E5306117 күн бұрын
Played multiple times all characters. If I would change anything, I would move every weapon's special combo into universal list - otherwise once previous, weaker weapon become obsolate, you stop using it. I was stuck with barbarian's "long sword" for way to long becouse how handy its attack was. Or maybe group them into weapon families: hammers, axes, swords, stabbing things. Not like weapons are used in any different manner anyway - Zoe have only polearms and maybe only one of them have actual thrusting special attack?
@SwannyTheMike17 күн бұрын
A universal list would have been a great change! There were a couple weapons I flat out didn't use because their unique combo was so useless compared to what I'd been using with the weaker weapon.
@johnsantos53017 күн бұрын
Canonically, Hugo is the flame champ that is chosen. Geddoe has the true lightning and Chris has the true water rune.
@SwannyTheMike17 күн бұрын
It makes sense that Hugo would be the canonical flame champ. He fits the mold the best for the typical Suikoden protag.
@Rogaray4life18 күн бұрын
This video made me realize that I didn't really enjoyed S3. I just love Suikoden franchise so much that I found it playable.
@SwannyTheMike17 күн бұрын
I honestly wonder if it was intended to be a Suikoden game initially. Because it distances itself so much from the first two that feels like Suikoden III doesn't want to be part of the series.
@ReptarusOnIce18 күн бұрын
I'm so happy we've crossed internet paths. Fantastic as always buddy.
@SwannyTheMike18 күн бұрын
Me too! Glad you enjoyed it.
@orcwarchiefreviews18 күн бұрын
Never did get into this franchise but I kind of continued on with breath of fire still pissed we still haven't a complete version of the breath of fire Games not cool Capcom not cool at all
@SwannyTheMike18 күн бұрын
You'd think Capcom of all companies would be all about selling another big collection of games. But I guess they'd rather churn out the hundredth Mega Man collection instead.
@ltaus922518 күн бұрын
This was good. Take a break. Enjoy July.
@Ekklo18 күн бұрын
Keep on truckin, yo. This is good stuff. I also was turned off by this game after the first two.
@SwannyTheMike18 күн бұрын
I'm hoping that Suikoden IV will be more a enjoyable for me when I get around to it.
@WWammyy23 күн бұрын
I like the graphics in the game and music but wow the isometric jumps. The camera was your worst enemy in this game 🤣. I've only ever played it on original hardware and I got frustrated by the gameplay way before finishing parallel one. The game was not obscure at the time of release. As someone who chose the Saturn as his main console. Games were kinda scarce on the Sega Saturn in the UK so you picked up whatever was available. Dark Savior got good reviews at the time too
@SwannyTheMike23 күн бұрын
No kidding! The camera in this game is downright malicious! And believe me, I understand how scarce Saturn games were and still are. The first time in my life that I ever saw a complete-in-box Saturn game was 2021. I used to obsessively peruse every nook and cranny of the game stores I went to as a kid and never once saw a Sega Saturn anything. I was going to to cover more Saturn games on my channel real soon but just when I was starting to record footage, the damn A/V port started going out. So now I have to wait until my brother can fix it before I try again.
@kitestar24 күн бұрын
SEGA SA-TAN, SHIRO!!! -Segata sanshiro, busting your door in with a Saturn you must play
@SwannyTheMike23 күн бұрын
It's astonishing that nobody in the West ever put two and two together to realize that a judoka showing up to beat the crap out of people for not playing Sega Saturn is the pinnacle of advertising. My two step program for saving the Saturn in the US: 1. Replace the nonsense ads they actually used with English language Segata Sanshiro ads (obviously, leave the song and everything Segata Sanshiro says in Japanese) 2. Hire someone to head up Sega of America who DOESN'T have a hateboner for 2D games and JRPGs.
@ohmyjosh306524 күн бұрын
Loved this game. Replayed it so many times. The true Souls like. Also the combos and weapon specific combos was awesome. Damn
@LSDariuss29 күн бұрын
Great Job!
@Blayne06Ай бұрын
I found this game way back when, and man it is a trip. No manual, sadly. That said, the combo system has a hidden mechanic -- chain together certain punches or kicks, and you can unleash a sixth hit after a five hit combo.
@SwannyTheMikeАй бұрын
Man, I wish I'd figured that out while playing! That would have been really helpful against the enemies I couldn't grapple.
Пікірлер
Will you do 5 too?
Of course! I plan on doing the whole series. And once I've covered 5, I'll go back and look at the spinoffs.
Naglfar, Sargon and Tukaram can use all their moves with the Sword of Ianna. Only Zoe cannot. In Tukaram's hands it turns into a two handed sword. It should turn into a spear for Zoe but it doesn't.
I've been corrected on that one a few times now. But that's what I get for not completely finishing the game with all four characters instead of making assumptions based off of Zoe's endgame.
A couple years ago I beat the game with all characters on awesome. My character rating: Zoe>Naglfar>Sargon>Tukaram. Naglfar has a much more forgiving timing on the queens sword combo. It's useful all the way to the end. Some of his weapons are downright broken and never hit anything, but about 2/3 of them are actually good.
I'll try to remember that about the Queen's Sword combo whenever I feel like finally beating the game as Naglfar. Thanks for the tip!
playing it since it came out. somehow, i cant get better , always getting slaughtered ..
Take your time going through the levels. Blade of Darkness is merciless if you try and play it like a typical hack and slash. There's nothing wrong with taking a single swipe at an enemy before backpedaling or pulling one enemy at a time. And if you've got more than one chasing you, try luring them to a door or hallway where they can't slip past each other so you can fight them one at a time. Finally, save early and often. What you see in my video are my successful runs. I died plenty of times in each level, often in embarrassingly stupid ways. But if I can beat Blade of Darkness, then anyone can! Though all that is only if you're actually having fun with the game and want to get better at it. If you're not having any fun however, then there's no reason to torture yourself with it. I burned about 100 hours of my life with Elden Ring before learning that lesson.
I was a kid when that game came out and, while in the rest of the world it was very overlooked, in Spain (where I'm from) I can tell you that ALL the video game magazines offered extensive coverage for it, and the hype was incredibly high. When it came out it was celebrated as the incredible achievement it was, both technically (the dynamic shadows were like nothing else in the gaming world back then) and on a playable level. I still have my original copy of the game at home, and today it sits next to my copies of the Dark Souls trilogy and Elden Ring :)
Their publishers outside of Spain really dropped the ball. There was no excuse for it either. February '01 wasn't a big month for PC releases. At least not in North America. The only notable one I can even think of is Clive Barker's Undying. So Blade of Darkness should have had plenty of room to be a hit. Yet until it popped up GOG, it was hard to find info on Blade of Darkness at all in English. Even then, the most useful info I found while researching for this came from an interview in Spanish that I had to run through Google Translate.
Played this awesome game back in 2006 as a kid and wondered why no one was talking about it, some years later i forgot its name and spent like most of my teenage years searching for it with no luck and after like 16+ years i finally found my favorite childhood game thanks to you The nostalgia hit hard with this one😢
Happy to help! This is the kind of game that deserves so much more attention than it's gotten over the years.
Currently playing this after randomly buying it in a retro game store. Really interesting idea and I’m really enjoying it. I wonder what my 8 year old self would think of this strange game haha
Glad to hear someone else is enjoying this weird little game! Also, now I'm actually kind of curious what my younger self would have thought of this too. He was a fickle little brat with very confusing taste.
ashamed to say: I played this as a pirate. It was a great title and the develpoers deserved better.
I think a lot of us have had a moment or two like that. It's part of why I try to do my best to highlight where these games can be legitimately obtained. I just wish there were more games that got loving digital rereleases like Blade of Darkness.
This game, Morrowind and Deus Ex were my childhood. Favs 4 life.
I played so much Morrowind as a kid. Didn't understand what I was doing at all, so I mostly messed around in the starting area, but damn did I enjoy making my own fun!
There's also a gimmick to shorten the animation time to make some longer combos viable (Tuk's fire sword combo , Volcanic Edge?). Just press jump in-between combo inputs and you will skip to the final combo
It's times like this that I realize how bad I am at finding exploits like that lol
Finished this game over 20 times. Both modded and unmodded. If you want to really challenge yourself, install the Hyperborean mod
I'm jealous of anyone who can enjoy a single game so much. Simply finishing a game a second time is a sign I really love it because my ADD-riddled brain demands new content at all times.
One of my favorite games of all time. I replay it maybe once every 2-3 years and it never gets old! ⚔ I've been wanting a remake or a true spiritual successor to be made someday. If nobody does it, I've felt tempted to do it myself! It's a shame the Landstalker 3D remake never got released on PSP.
I'd love it if some indie studio just came out with their own tribute to Landstalker one day. Honestly, I think the closest we ever got to a true spiritual successor was Alundra on the PS1, but even there it's not quite the same game as Landstalker.
I never played the originals, but after playing A New Beginning, I was super impressed with it. Had a lot of fun and felt motivated to finish it! I realize this video was created before it was released, but it's fun looking back.
I was pleasantly surprised by A New Beginning. I had some worries going in that it wasn't going to come close to the original game. But even if it isn't the same technical marvel that its predecessor was, A New Beginning was still a ton of fun!
@@SwannyTheMike I enjoyed A New Beginning for the most part, but I think it missed the mark in a few of areas. I probably liked the writing the least, the last part of the game felt especially rushed. If nothing else it made me want to replay the original Outcast again.
@@BSzili Yeah, the last third definitely could have used more time to breathe. I think the weakest part overall for me was the weak writing on the human characters not named Slade. They all felt very underdeveloped for antagonists you were meant to empathize with. Which kinda undermines the ending being about peaceful co-existence. But when compared to the slapdash effort that is Second Contact, A New Beginning isn't simply a step in the right direction, it's a record-setting long jump! My hope is that they can keep up the momentum and Outcast 3 winds up being a GotY candidate.
I loved this game. Bought it when it first came out and is a major reason I miss my Saturn…
If more games like this had actually made it outside of Japan, I'm convinced that the Saturn wouldn't have been the massive flop that it was in the West.
My first Suikoden game was Suikoden 2, then went back to 1 to get the extra character in 2... Then a few years later I grabbed Suikoden 3... And was disappointed as well... I remember being turned off by the 3D and not being a huge fan of the new characters.. I think I didn't even completed Chris first chapter..
Chris is such a wasted character in her own chapters. The first female protag of Suikoden with a whole stoic knight commander thing going on and the game wastes so much time forcing you to read endless prattling about how much all of her knights think she's hot.
ok you convinced me to give it a shot. Got Outcast 1.1 on gog ($2.87 AUD on sale)
Suikoden II is my favorite video game of all time. This game? I have tried to play it and like it multiple times, but I could never torture myself to get even halfway into it. 4 also sucks. ........5 is actually surprisingly great, but I didn't learn that for at least 10 years because I refused to play it after 3 and 4.
Knowing my weird brain, I'll wind up somehow enjoying 4 lol. Flawed and rushed games I can fuck with. Games that should have been all-time greats, but botch the execution drive me up the wall.
51:16 what was this all about?
The whole level is an homage to the first big encounter with the Xenomorphs in Aliens. I used Pitch Black and Shocking Dark as examples of an homage and a rip-off as are both heavily inspired by Aliens. But where Pitch Black is an entertaining movie which homages Aliens while still being its own film, Shocking Dark is a cheap rip-off meant to cash-in on the popularity of Aliens.
@@SwannyTheMikeno I meant the whole Dwight Schultz thing.
@@bdavis24fan Oh, sorry. Somehow misread the timestamp. Dwight Schultz is nutjob conspiracy theorist who seems convinced that everyone who disagrees with him is a dirty communist. I initially planned a bit where I talked about all the voice acting roles he had that I enjoyed, but came across his blog in my research and it left a bad taste in my mouth. Frankly, I'm not happy at how I went about this instead of actually saying something about his insane claims like that the Obama administration was going to go door-to-door to force gender reassignment surgery on everyone. There's a difference of opinion on politics, and then there's claiming that the government is going to act out a Cannibal Corpse song on every American citizen.
@@SwannyTheMikeHoly crap. I didn't know he had a blog and was posting shit like that. That's insane because I love Dwight Schultz the actor. I get excited when he pops up in stuff I like. I remember finding out he voices Professor Pyg in Arkham Knight and going "oh my God that's amazing!" I guess Dwight Schultz the person is a little coocoo for cocoa puffs. 😂
@@bdavis24fan He is nuttier than squirrel shit, that's for sure. I swear, it's like all the talented actors are either crazy or have some hidden dark side to them.
Hybrid Heaven was a bizarre fever dream, i love it's originality and deep combat system.
Used to live in Wisconsin. Definitely knew some packers fans. Hahahaha.
Also, good video. I happened to like this entry, but that was years ago. Mostly I liked the ducks.
As a Vikings fan, I'm contractually obligated to insult Packers fans. And honestly, who could blame you for liking the ducks? The ducks are the best part of the game!
Text Adventure
I have been meaning to play Zork, but I don't exactly know what that has to do with Suikoden III?
Excellent review, and a rare use of If the Emperor had a Text to Speech Device as a reaction. Bravo.
Love me some TTS! Shame that Games Workshop had to be all Games Workshop about fan projects.
@@SwannyTheMike it sure is good that they hired the guy that made Astartes. I’m so glad we got to see…. So much more of that series! Haha… ha. As much as I miss TTSD, I gotta say Hunter the Parenting has been fantastic so far, as someone who knows even less about world of darkness than 40k.
@@Threvlin Oh God, I'd finally stopped thinking about how they wasted Astartes... And yeah, Hunter the Parenting is fantastic! Never in my life did I think I'd be so captivated by a man's quest to purchase a blender for 99 pence.
@@SwannyTheMike absolutely enthralling.
I'll admit I might be really biased. My first Suikoden game, hell, my first turn-based rpg game in general was Suikoden 3. Despite it's flaws I just can't help but love it. The music is a banger, the characters have really cool designs, especially the villains, and though a bit contrived I really enjoy the plot and love that some companions died and there was no way to prevent that. I know the combat system isn't for everyone but I feel like it made fights, in a way, feel more strategic. You had to plan around synergies, combos, and make sure you had a good rune spread to deal damage or heal allies. And the magic just looks so gorgeous in this game. I was so disappointed when Suikoden 4 toned that aspect down. Speaking of, can't wait to see you cover that. I feel about that game how someone coming from Suikoden 1 and 2 felt about this one.
Enjoy what you enjoy. There's nothing wrong with that. As far as intros to RPGs go, you can certainly do far worse than Suikoden III. I'm very curious about Suikoden IV myself. I've read that it was rushed during development, but my friend who got me into the series has told me that he enjoyed it, so I'm hoping I will too.
Really enjoyed your video. Great edits, and just a really great review!
Thanks! I honestly do a lot of the edits to amuse myself while editing, so it always makes me happy to know others enjoy them too.
only disappointment would be you.
I tell myself that every time I look in the mirror. Get on my level, scrub.
None of those early gaming magizine reviews never actually finish the entire game before review and giving it a positive 80% isn't unusual and on early reflection fair. If any of them completed the game, I'm sure their tone would have changed DRASTICALLY. To this day, the thought of spending 70 hours on this game... Thank god for the speed throttle button on emulators now a days!
In fairness (God help me, I'm defending early game reviewers...), those magazines typically had about half a dozen reviewers at most. Doing a video every other week was driving me up the wall, so I can only imagine how rushed the process was for those folks having to review damn near everything that came out each month.
As someone who played the game on release, yeah, it was a pretty big disappointment. Dumping the more morally gray reasonings that Suikoden 2 prided itself on to instead focus on...Look, I thought Luc was okay in previous games, but to make him the reason...I dunno. Bad things are happening? Felt very...lazy. They had made an interesting reason for conflict, they just needed to drive it home, and utterly failed. And yeah, the new army mechanic was painful to get through. *Spoiler* From what I remembered, the reason Luc was doing everything was to free Leknaat from being forced to be...I dunno. Bound by destiny...Basically he wanted to free her? Or something? ...Sigh, this game was dumb. I don't think the series gets back on a decent footing until Suikoden V, which...also has issues, but is...better...? Rose tinted glasses might be messing with me on that game though.
Luc's whole villain arc felt ripped from so many anime I watched as a kid. Especially the "he had a sad backstory and good intentions, so that makes him a complex character, not a monster" line of reasoning that Suikoden III seems to push. He and Sarah just ramble on and on about morality, fate, destiny, etc. without ever actually saying something meaningful regarding any of those topics. Nor do they ever get seriously challenged by the protagonists on their bullshit beyond essentially "lol nope".
@@SwannyTheMike Yeah, I agree. I think what also irritated me was just...HOW many times the villains pulled out a 'Nu uh, you didn't beat me, this was just my first form!' before bamfing out, or beating the party in the later cutscene. As you highlighted in your video, Suikoden III really lacks that...followthrough of a punishment for bad decisions or bad actions that really highlighted in the previous game. You trusted the wrong person? Someone died. Did something bad? Came back and bit you in the ass. Good intentions? Doesn't matter if you don't have the strength to back them up. For your sanity's sake, Suikoden IV and V might be better to compare them to THIS game over Suikoden 2, because...It gets better than III, but won't ever reach that same height of awesome.
@@jakl-em8df It always drives me insane when games pull that "you didn't actually win" crap. Just have me lose the damn fight if that's what your story demands! And I'm definitely going into IV & V with much lower hopes/expectations.
Did you know you can summon Shade from knights' armors?
I did not! That's such a cool touch.
I subbed at the Powerglove joke!
But they fixed everything in IV, right? Right??
Oh totally! Brand new team in charge, rushed development cycle, Konami being Konami, Suikoden IV has all the ingredients for an unmitigated disaster- I mean, success! Hopefully the low expectations will help that one hurt me less than III did.
I always saw so many people say Suikoden 3 was their favorite or second favorite and I always questioned why. I hated the trio protagonists, hated the way combat worked in pairs, didn't like the way war battles were. It was. So many characters were forgettable. I'm the fish, I know. My order of preference was always 2,5,1,4,3... Three was the weakest, though seeing returning characters were nice.
Like I said in the video, I can totally see why someone who started with III viewing that as their favorite. It's the ones who played I and II before that and still prefer III that confuse me.
Had to search the ebony thing, god I have regrets...
My Immortal claims another victim...
To top S-II you need to top Jowy, Shu and Luca Blight himself. They only managed to do something at level of Nanami by S-V and then the series died to a heart attack.
No kidding. I wasn't even the biggest fan of Jowy (mostly found his reasoning asinine, but hey, he's the villain after all) but Luc was such a weak villain that I'm reassessing my opinions on Jowy.
3:14 if you wouldn't have told me, I wouldn't have known 😂
Just now finding this channel, certainly glad I did, and what's nice when this happens is I have catching up to do!
I think my editing has improved a lot since this video, so hopefully you'll enjoy those just as much if not more!
Didn't like this entry. Every time I played it it put me to sleep so I was like nope
I didn't hit that point until Luc started showing up more. All that initially interesting story tossed aside so we can have cliche 2000s anime villain #34.
this is my favorite in the series lol. i mean watching that annoying side kick get offed in the first chapter is AMAZING lol. thank god we didn't have to listen to him throughout the game.
He was annoying enough that I was surprised that the game managed to make me feel bad for the other characters when he died.
Played multiple times all characters. If I would change anything, I would move every weapon's special combo into universal list - otherwise once previous, weaker weapon become obsolate, you stop using it. I was stuck with barbarian's "long sword" for way to long becouse how handy its attack was. Or maybe group them into weapon families: hammers, axes, swords, stabbing things. Not like weapons are used in any different manner anyway - Zoe have only polearms and maybe only one of them have actual thrusting special attack?
A universal list would have been a great change! There were a couple weapons I flat out didn't use because their unique combo was so useless compared to what I'd been using with the weaker weapon.
Canonically, Hugo is the flame champ that is chosen. Geddoe has the true lightning and Chris has the true water rune.
It makes sense that Hugo would be the canonical flame champ. He fits the mold the best for the typical Suikoden protag.
This video made me realize that I didn't really enjoyed S3. I just love Suikoden franchise so much that I found it playable.
I honestly wonder if it was intended to be a Suikoden game initially. Because it distances itself so much from the first two that feels like Suikoden III doesn't want to be part of the series.
I'm so happy we've crossed internet paths. Fantastic as always buddy.
Me too! Glad you enjoyed it.
Never did get into this franchise but I kind of continued on with breath of fire still pissed we still haven't a complete version of the breath of fire Games not cool Capcom not cool at all
You'd think Capcom of all companies would be all about selling another big collection of games. But I guess they'd rather churn out the hundredth Mega Man collection instead.
This was good. Take a break. Enjoy July.
Keep on truckin, yo. This is good stuff. I also was turned off by this game after the first two.
I'm hoping that Suikoden IV will be more a enjoyable for me when I get around to it.
I like the graphics in the game and music but wow the isometric jumps. The camera was your worst enemy in this game 🤣. I've only ever played it on original hardware and I got frustrated by the gameplay way before finishing parallel one. The game was not obscure at the time of release. As someone who chose the Saturn as his main console. Games were kinda scarce on the Sega Saturn in the UK so you picked up whatever was available. Dark Savior got good reviews at the time too
No kidding! The camera in this game is downright malicious! And believe me, I understand how scarce Saturn games were and still are. The first time in my life that I ever saw a complete-in-box Saturn game was 2021. I used to obsessively peruse every nook and cranny of the game stores I went to as a kid and never once saw a Sega Saturn anything. I was going to to cover more Saturn games on my channel real soon but just when I was starting to record footage, the damn A/V port started going out. So now I have to wait until my brother can fix it before I try again.
SEGA SA-TAN, SHIRO!!! -Segata sanshiro, busting your door in with a Saturn you must play
It's astonishing that nobody in the West ever put two and two together to realize that a judoka showing up to beat the crap out of people for not playing Sega Saturn is the pinnacle of advertising. My two step program for saving the Saturn in the US: 1. Replace the nonsense ads they actually used with English language Segata Sanshiro ads (obviously, leave the song and everything Segata Sanshiro says in Japanese) 2. Hire someone to head up Sega of America who DOESN'T have a hateboner for 2D games and JRPGs.
Loved this game. Replayed it so many times. The true Souls like. Also the combos and weapon specific combos was awesome. Damn
Great Job!
I found this game way back when, and man it is a trip. No manual, sadly. That said, the combo system has a hidden mechanic -- chain together certain punches or kicks, and you can unleash a sixth hit after a five hit combo.
Man, I wish I'd figured that out while playing! That would have been really helpful against the enemies I couldn't grapple.