8 Things Suikoden fans should know about Tierkreis

Falling two short from a top ten list, here are 8 changes that have been made in the new Suikoden game - Suikoden Tierkreis - fans of the series should know before getting into this one.

1. The Hero isn't a mute

With the exception of Suikoden 3, the Hero, or the Tenkai star has always been a mute for better or worse. In Tierkreis our nameless (to the best of my knowlege) Hero is actually quite talkative. Personally I feel that this helps flesh out an otherwise blank character, but unfortunately it also means you're subjected to the Hero's terrible English voice actor for the entire game. It eventually grew on me, but still it should be mentioned that his voice is really one of the worst in the game.

2. It's a whole new world

The previous five Suikoden games took place in the same world, despite taking place many years apart from each other in the case of Suikoden 4. Tierkreis takes place in a whole other dimension as far as I can tell, and as such you won't see many similarities between this game and the rest of the series. This is especially surprising when you consider that all of the previous games featured characters from each of the previous games. It's also disappointing for fans who have been keeping up with the series lore and history, but for whatever reason Konami decided to cut ties with everything they had built up this time around. Oh well.

3. The "Location Menu"

Similar to Suikoden 3, you select locations on the world map to travel to. However unlike previous games you also choose locations to travel to in towns as well. You'd think there wouldn't be much walking around then, but you'd be wrong (more on that later). You'll still be able to walk around the entire Castle/Headquarters and any dungeons though. A minor change, but worth noting.

4. Where's Viki?

Perhaps one of my favorite characters from the Suikoden series is also missing in Tierkreis, Viki. Not only is she always a funny character but she was also one of the most useful characters you could recruit into your army. She'd allow you to warp to previous locations on the fly. While this isn't as big of a deal in this game thanks to the location menu it's still noticeable. Also it seems like the game was trying to include a substitute for Viki in the form of the warp gate system, but there were only two locations you could warp to in the entire game, and it was a one way trip. What a mess.

5. No Escape Talismans

This is easily the most annoying change, and one that is really beyond my understanding. For whatever reason they decided to remove the ever useful "Escape Talisman" item that would allow you to instantly warp out of dungeons. Yes, you heard me. This means you have to manually walk out of almost every dungeon in the game. The game also has a nasty habit of dropping you off in the middle of a dungeon on a quest and still making you walk back out. It's fucking infuriating.

6. No Weapon Upgrades

In the previous five games, each character would come equipped with a single weapon that could be upgraded up to a maximum of 15 times throughout the course of the game. In Tierkreis however you can actually purchase new weapons and some characters can even use a wide variety of weapons. On the one hand this makes things more versatile, especially considering many enemies in the game are weak/resistant to certain types of weapons. On the other hand, I liked the simplicity and attachment the characters in the previous games had to their single weapons.

7. Runes? What Runes?

Perhaps the most surprising change in Tierkreis is the absence of any sort of runes in the game. Not only were runes the main form of magic in the Suikoden series, allowing the player to outfit characters with various runes allowing them to access different spells and abilities, but they were also huge plot points in the previous five games, with each game revolving around several absurdly powerful "True Runes". In their place is the "Marks of The Stars" system, which while still allowing you to customize your characters skills and abilities, doesn't have quite the same impact as the runes did.

8. A serious lack of Strategy

One of the defining features in the Suikoden series has been the various strategy battle mini games that have varied from game to game. From controlling a unit of soldiers to naval battles the strategy battles were always an interesting addition to the RPG genre, and usually quite entertaining. However for whatever reason Konami decided to exclude any such mini game in Tierkreis. In it's place you just form multiple groups that will tackle a series of random encounters and bosses during key battles in the game.

Despite these changes Suikoden Tierkreis is still an enjoyable RPG, even for a Suikoden game I think I liked it more than the fourth game in the main series. While the lack of strategy battles and escape talismans really make no sense to me, the other changes are at least an interesting new take on the series.