Line #133 VideoGame/SuikodenIII


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7	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/suikoden-3_8659.jpg]]
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11	The first ''VideoGame/{{Suikoden}}'' game on the [[Platform/PlayStation2 PS2]], ''Suikoden III'' revolves around several smaller groups of heroes long before the [[Mystical108 Stars of Destiny]] come into play.
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13	''III'' is set fifteen years after the events of ''[[VideoGame/SuikodenII II]]'', during an uneasy cease-fire between the [[{{Arcadia}} Grassland]] tribes and the [[PrivatelyOwnedSociety mercantile nation]] of the Zexen Confederacy. The [[TheEmpire Holy Kingdom of Harmonia]] is waiting for the truce to [[LetsYouAndHimFight hurry up and expire]] so they can launch their offensive. When a diplomat is assassinated before peace negotiations are complete, [[WarWasBeginning war is raging]] once again. The first act of ''III'' sounds a lot like the second game. However, the "Trinity Sight" system allows players to switch control between four characters, [[RashomonStyle each with a peculiar view of events:]]
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15	* Hugo, [[KidHero prototypical]] ''Suikoden'' hero. He is the only son of Lucia, chieftess of the second major Grasslands clan.
16	* Chris Lightfellow, a [[LadyOfWar straight arrow]] who commands the Zexen Knights. She is known and feared in the Grasslands as the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Silver-haired Demon or Goddess of Death]], but she [[HumbleHero retains a sense of honor.]]
17	* Geddoe, officer in a ragtag [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores "Frontier Defense Force"]] who perform duties for Harmonia that the Temple would rather not touch. Apart from him, each unit is named after a {{playing card\|Motifs}}.
18	* Thomas, a [[OnlySaneMan hapless]] young man who [[ReassignedToAntarctica inherits a white elephant]] from his estranged father: a neglected, crumbling [[TheAllegedHouse "castle"]] located [[TheNeutralZone between Grasslands and Zexen.]] Thomas' chapter is short but interesting, its [[LittleHeroBigWar naïve tone]] and colorful personalities meshing with the other groups in later chapters.
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20	In this way, the game introduces many of the Stars of Destiny in [[GeodesicCast smaller groups]], resulting in more CharacterDevelopment and allowing the player a much more extensive view into the motivations of every faction involved in the conflict, up to the point where the storylines merge and the heroes unite against a common enemy.
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22	Also has a [[TheAnimeOfTheGame manga adaptation]].
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24	----
25	!!This game provides examples of:
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27	* AdaptationDistillation: The Suikoden III manga is pure, concentrated {{Fanservice}}.
28	* ActionGirl: Chris, Lilly, Queen, Elaine, Emily, Ayame, Cecile, and others.
29	* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:Luc's chapter]] is this in a nutshell. [[spoiler:We learn that the real reason he was trying to destroy the True Wind Rune was to prevent the series' actual Big Bad from using all of the True Runes to create a dystopia. Then there's Sarah telling Luc that she's in love with him, minutes before they die together. Finally, there's Leknaat forgiving the spirit of her former student and telling him that he is allowed to rest.]]
30	* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: The Trinity Sight System, as outlined above, cast players in the role of several different heroes. Also factored into the MultipleEndings: [[spoiler: gathering all ''104'' heroes before the final war battle unlocked the final scenario, replaying through the events of the game as viewed by the final four Stars -- the villains.]]
31	* AwesomeButImpractical: Using Fire and Rage Runes, because their magic attacks are area-based (and the [=AoE=] increases with the stronger spells), making it hard to avoid friendly fire. There are ways to avoid damaging your own tem, like using the few characters that can learn the "Precision" skill or by wearing flame-resistant equipment to minimize the collateral damage, but it's more trouble than it's worth.
32	* BareFistedMonk: A number of characters use fists to fight (except Kenji, he uses calisthenics). Juan and Emily are the most notable examples.
33	* BadassCrew: Geddoe's 5 (later 6) men ensemble, which you can't swap around for a majority of the game. You don't really need to. There's also [[TheRival Duke's]] crew, which only consists of four people.
34	** Really, all of the main characters have one; Chris leads the Six Knights of Zexen, who are all very capable in battle, and Hugo and his companions (Sgt. Joe, Fubar, Lilly, Reed, Samus, Mua, and Hallec) are all excellent fighters as well. Even Thomas has one, with Cecile, Juan, and Piccolo all able to fight trained soldiers to a degree. [[spoiler: Luc also leads one: while he's more than capable with his True Wind Rune, he also leads Sarah (a very powerful sorceress), Yuber (a demonic swordsman who's one of the best swordsmen in the series), and Albert (an incredibly talented strategist).]]
35	* BathtubBonding: Going to the bath with certain parties renders some very funny dialogues.
36	* BeastMan: The Duck tribe, and the various Dog people.
37	* BewareTheNiceOnes: Mel. A [[CuteAndPsycho seemingly sweet]] girl with a PerversePuppet who's much stronger than she looks, with [[KillItWithFire considerable]] [[PsychoElectro magical]] [[BlackMagicianGirl talents]].
38	* BlindIdiotTranslation
39	** It's the norm for Suikoden games and this one is leaps and bounds over the previous two games, but there are still occasions where lines make absolutely no sense. Often happens when a line is supposed to be indirectly snarky.
40	** Hugo's griffon has renamed Fubar.
41	** A line in the end of Gedoe's Chapter 3 causes a DubInducedPlotHole. When he meets Sana, he claims that [[spoiler:Sana is the Flame Champion]]. In truth, he was supposed to say ''"and you too"'' instead of ''"or should i say"''.
42	** The manga earns this for the English translation having moments of not only being inconsistent to the spellings/terms used in the games, but at times being inconsistent between volumes.
43	* BreatherEpisode:
44	** The first two chapters in Thomas' story, as it focus on him interacting with his friends, recruiting allies to Budehuc Castle and fighting against weak monsters.
45	** [[TeamPet Koroku]]'s chapter. You can interact with the recruited characters and other dogs, but can't change party members, buy items, fight or even leave the castle.
46	* CharacterDevelopment: One of the major benefits of the GeodesicCast is getting to know more of the characters better.
47	* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Yuber was always murderous in the first two games, but he wasn't usually perceived as AxeCrazy. [[OhCrap Then came chapter two of Hugo's story in this installment.]]
48	%%* ContinuityNod: Again, plenty to be found.
49	* DeadpanSnarker
50	** Geddoe. His whole party, actually.
51	** Albert and most of the Harmonians (Nash, Dios and Sasarai) have these moments as well.
52	* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler:The young Lulu is killed by Chris at the end of both her and Hugo's first chapter.]]
53	* DefeatMeansFriendship: Not always right ''away'', but the game's setup results in plenty of matchups between future allies.
54	* DefrostingIceQueen: Chris for one. Staring off she's as rigid and cold as her armor, but mellows a bit by the end game. Yuiri.
55	* DemonicDummy: Branky, a nasty, foul-mouthed puppet carried by GenkiGirl Mel, who ''insists'' she isn't a ventriloquist, and cheerfully bashes Branky's head against various surfaces to punish its arrogance.
56	* EnemyMine: First, the longtime enemies in both Zexen and the Grasslander tribes unite to defend themselves against the greater threat Harmonia poses. [[spoiler:And towards the end, the Harmonian forces unite with ''them'' in order to stop Luc.]]
57	* TheEmpire: Harmonia makes its first real move in the series here. It's apparently a very huge and powerful empire with a habit of adding other lands and cultures to its own, not unlike ancient Rome.
58	* EmpathicWeapon: The True Runes and the Star Dragon Sword.
59	* EyepatchOfPower:
60	** Geddoe, the biggest bad-ass out of the three leads, and a pretty big badass in general.
61	** Gau from Duke's group also counts.
62	* FakeLongevity: Courtesy of the new world map system that forces you into constantly backtracking areas to recruit characters and advance the plot.
63	* FourTemperamentEnsemble:
64	** The four main characters; Hugo is Choleric, Chris is Melancholic, Geddoe is Phlegmatic and Thomas is Supine.
65	** Duke's group: Duke is Choleric, Elaine is Sanguine, Nicholas is Melancholic and Gau is Phlegmatic.
66	** The Destroyers: [[spoiler:Luc]] is Melancholic, Sara is Supine, Yuber is Sanguine and Albert is Phlegmatic.
67	* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: For a good fourth of the game, Chris loses her armour and dons a (much more flattering) casual attire for her travels into the Grasslands. While wearing this, she cannot equip any heavy armours like before, and instead dons light armour and chain mail options, which have lower defense but generally higher mobility.
68	%%* GeodesicCast
69	* GravityBarrier: After [[spoiler:Karaya Village is destroyed]], a vertical drop prevents you from accessing the village itself (even though this was never a problem before).
70	* GrayAndGreyMorality: Most of the game's plot revolves around the three-way conflict between Zexen, the Grassland tribes, and Harmonia, all of which have their good and bad points.
71	* GreaterScopeVillain: Hikusaak. As the High Priest of Harmonia, he is not only responsible for meddling in the affairs of the Grasslands, Highland, and City States of Jowston, but he's also the reason for the BigBad's turn to the dark side in this game. [[spoiler:He concocted a scheme to take the power of all 27 True Runes for himself by making clones who would be able to wield them separately, like Luc and Sasarai. Implicitly, it was a vision of what would happen should he succeed that drove Luc on a mad quest to destroy his True Wind Rune and keep that from happening.]]
72	* HatePlague: [[spoiler: Sarah sets up a magic field that amplifies aggressive emotions near Karaya Village, to encourage the Zexen Knights there to raze the village. We later find that even their most hot headed member has the training and self control to disarm and restrain a warrior rushing him with a knife under calmer circumstances, so his and the rest of the Zexen Knights' actions were decidedly and intentionally out of character as a result.]]
73	* HateSink: Guillaume is an overweight, cheating, dog kicking, lying coward who has no qualms about harassing children... And you can recruit him.
74	* HeWhoMustNotBeHeard:
75	** Toppo, Jacques, Eike, Watari and Ayame. While all of them are pretty silent, Toppo speaks the absolute least. In Toppo's case, he believes that as an actor, he should save his voice for the stage. Put him in any single play, and he'll drop more lines than all of the above characters do throughout the entire game.
76	** Geddoe is often a man of few words but becomes this trope when put on stage.
77	* HelloInsertNameHere: You get to name the Flame Champion, however... [[spoiler: He's not a playable character; instead, one of the three leads takes up the True Fire Rune -- and his name, if you so choose.]]
78	* HerCodeNameWasMarySue: Erk de Forever from 'Erk's Adventures', penned by 'Hitman Bravo', [[spoiler: aka Ace]].
79	* HeroicBastard: Hugo has a DisappearedDad, and [[spoiler: Thomas is the illegitimate son of a Zexen noble.]]
80	* HeroicBSOD:
81	** Hugo has one when [[spoiler: [[TheScrappy Lulu]] [[AlasPoorScrappy gets himself killed]]]] fairly early in the events of the game.
82	** Sasarai gets this one big time when [[TheReveal he gets told]][[spoiler: he and Luc are [[ArtificialHuman clones]] who only exist as placeholders for the true runes]]. He doesn't exactly take it well. The manga interprets this scene differently.
83	* HeroicMime: {{Averted}}. All four of the main playable characters talk. The ones that are real silent are some background characters and even THEY don't stay quiet the whole time.
84	* HiddenElfVillage: Alma Kinan, hidden from the world by a magic barrier and the only one of the Grassland tribes not to appear the truce meeting with Zexen.
85	* HopelessBossFight: Subverted. Other than the duels against Guillaume (as Melville) and Yuber (as Hugo), every boss battle is winnable.
86	* ImprobableWeaponUser: Several; Mel stands out by using her [[DemonicDummy puppet]] Branky. Then there's the [[MusicalAssassin Buskers]]...
87	* InterspeciesRomance: It is hinted in this game that Nash married the 1000-year-old vampiress mistress Sierra, a playable character from Suikoden II, whom he met during the first of his gaiden games. Though, considering that she did suck his blood (and that he doesn't seem to have aged a day in the last 15 years), he may no longer be human.
88	* InexplicableTreasureChests:
89	** Can be found at the end of most dungeons, guarded by a MiniBoss... including in the middle of a canyon that the player passes through several times. With the chest mysteriously refilling every time, along with the MiniBoss coming back.
90	** Also, there are ''corpses'' littered around to serve the same purpose.
91	* JeanneDArchetype: Chris inherits her position from her dead superior and feels uncomfortable in it but carries it out for the good of Zexen's people.
92	* JerkAss:
93	** The Zexen Council is full of pompous, self-righteous, money-hungry jerks.
94	** Thomas' father. His son comes to see him for the first time after his mother dies, and what happens? The jerk of a father sends him to a secluded, forgotten castle where he "won't be any trouble".
95	* LadyOfWar: Chris Lightfellow is one of the series most prominent examples.
96	* LargeHam:
97	** Fred Maxmillian is exceptionally hammy, especially when it comes to virtues of justice. Ironically this makes him a horrible actor in theater plays.
98	** Other honorable mentions include [[{{PsychoForHire}} Yuber,]] and any of the stars from the Lizard Clan.
99	** There's also Leo and Wan Fu, who actually has a CombinationAttack made pretty much entirely of ham and testosterone.
100	* LizardFolk: One of the major Grasslands tribes. Surprisingly, they're ''not'' evil. They live in a huge underground cave and their beds are "nice and chilly" because, being cold-blooded, they can only go to sleep when it's cold.
101	* LukeIAmYourFather:
102	** Played straight with [[spoiler:Chris and Jimba]].
103	** An unconventional one comes when [[spoiler: Luc tells twin brother Sasarai that he's the son of Hikusaak, leader of one of the most powerful nations of the world, through cloning.]]
104	* MagicalNativeAmerican: Aila, a young shaman-in-training from the Karayan Tribe, can read the spirits of the earth and nature.
105	* MayflyDecemberRomance: It is a DeconstructedTrope for this game.
106	* MultipleEndings: Taken a step further in that any of the three main leads can become the ''main'' lead by [[spoiler: taking up the True Fire Rune]], leading to special endings for each. Also, collecting all the Stars of Destiny adds [[spoiler: a PlayableEpilogue recapping the events of the game from the villain's point of view]].
107	* MusicalAssassin: The Buskers Toppo, Nei and Shabon.
108	* MyCountryRightOrWrong:
109	** Chris is not particularly fond of how the Zexen council decides to use its knights, but still will follow the orders while grousing about it.
110	** Sasarai is also an example of this, more in the manga than the game. He's not one for pointless violence but proceeds with his given mission to [[GottaCatchThemAll collect the true runes]]. It takes the possibility of someone using the runes to effectively nuking the continent to bring him around.
111	* MythologyGag:
112	** [[spoiler:Luc]] will remark that Hugo had [[spoiler:similar vibes with Tir and Riou from the previous game. Hugo is not the Tenkai star, but he pretty much held the 'main protagonist' spot, something that Luc wouldn't comment on Geddoe and Chris]].
113	** Lilly will get goosebumps if told to play/narrate at the Neclord stage play. Well who can blame her? She nearly got taken as his bride when she's just a kid... and take note that unlike Tengaar, she didn't have the upbringing or training of a warrior and was still far from reaching puberty.
114	** Same play, Nash will always refer Sierra as 'Old Hag Sierra' and makes snide remarks about her.
115	** Heartwrenchingly done in case of Viki or Futch, who [[spoiler:still remembered that Luc used to be their ally and now they're practically fighting their ex-ally]].
116	* {{Ninja}}: Ayame and Watari.
117	* NoIndoorVoice: Peggi, the ''very'' enthusiastic Lizard Clan [[TheBlacksmith blacksmith]].
118	* NonActionGuy: Thomas is the Tenkai Star this time around, but generally lets more capable people do the fighting for him. Still plays an important role in events, however, and goes through some nice CharacterDevelopment in the process ''without'' going all gung-ho for combat. Also, he won't [[InexplicableTreasureChests loot bodies for treasure]]. Or climb ladders, for some reason. His stats are also arguably the worst out of the heroes... Or just the worst, period. It ''is'' possible to make him a decent fighter, however.
119	* NotTheIntendedUse: The Theater minigame is intended by the developers to create epic, moving playwrights that generate revenue when people cheer for the well-done plays. However, players are more likely to miscast the players with people not fitting with the role, which results with less money and the crowd booing the plays. [[RuleOfFunny Because it's looking more like a comedy gold mine than an actual money-making tool.]]
120	* ObliviousToLove: Chris is adored and fawned over by most of her knights. Their subtlety is a rock that still manages to fly over her head.
121	* OddballInTheSeries: Out of the mainline games, ''Suikoden III'' is easily the weirdest: you have multiple protagonists who can talk instead of single HeroicMime, the new True Runes are about standard ElementalPowers instead of abstract concepts like death and punishment, the antagonists counts as Stars of Destiny, the overworld is a point-and-click map, etc.
122	* OldSaveBonus:
123	** Save data from the first two games unlocks some extra goodies and more personal [[ContinuityNod Continuity Nods]].
124	** There are some for the Gaidens, but [[NoExportForYou for obvious reasons]] these don't appear in the North American version.
125	* OlderAndWiser: Lucia, Apple, Sasarai, Nash (applies to the Gaidens) and Futch.
126	* OlderThanTheyLook: [[spoiler: Geddoe]] (looks 35ish but is actually over 100}, [[spoiler: Jimba]] (Looks like late 20s but is actually about 80), and the Twins (in their 30s and look like androgynous 16 year olds). ALL are justified by their True Runes.
127	* OneWingedAngel: So we got the BigBad cornered and [[AllYourPowersCombined all the True Elemental Runes]] at our disposal so we can beat him... {{OH CRAP}}! DID HE JUST TRANSFORM INTO A FUCKING WIND PHOENIX?!?
128	* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Duke and the 14th Unit have this attitude towards Geddoe and the 12th Unit, which led to their HeelFaceTurn.
129	* PapaWolf:
130	** Put Toppo and Shabon in your party. Should Shabon get knocked unconscious during battle, Toppo will go [[UnstoppableRage berserk]], meaning he will get even stronger than before.
131	** This occurs with a number of character combinations, but in keeping with the trope: Sergeant Joe is a more apparent in-story example to Hugo and Lulu, and berserks when either of the boys are heavily injured or knocked out.
132	* PlayAsABoss: If you recruit all of the Stars of Destiny, [[spoiler:you unlock the ability to play the story from the villains's perspective and get to replay all of those {{Hopeless Boss Fight}}s as the powerful bosses.]]
133	* PluckyGirl: Cecile, a little girl who appointed herself captain of Budehuc's guard. She's confident in her role and refuses to be depressed.
134	* PointAndClickMap: An interesting case. Unlike its predecessors, Suikoden III uses a point-and-click world map, however you cannot instantly warp from one place to another (at least until you get Viki) and have to backtrack every town or dungeon in the way to move around.
135	%%* Power Trio: Hugo, Geddoe and Chris. [[spoiler:Geddoe, Wyatt and the Flame champion]] %% Needs to elaborate how the trio tropes applies to the three heroes.
136	* PurpleIsPowerful: Lilly, Fred, Rico, Picolo, Ayame, Salome, Melville, Wilder, Roland.
137	* TheQuisling: Franz, a Mantor trainer trying to earn second class citizenship for his hometown, Le Buque. Unlike most examples, he's treated Sympathetically (Foolish, but sympathetic) -- since everyone else in Le Buque just sit on their asses and complain about the conditions.
138	* QuestionableCasting: In-universe. Nadir's Theatre Mode allows you can choose characters to play roles in his plays. [[ScreamingWarrior Hallec]], [[TheStoic Geddoe]] and [[TheDitz Viki]] are some of the least qualified ones to use.
139	* RoseHairedSweetie: Estella inverts the trope by the opposite of the page description. She's an abusive mentor to her only student and lacks any kind of emotional warmth for anyone else.
140	* RotatingProtagonist: The "Trinity System" allows the player to experience the story from different perspectives. Hugo, Chris and Geddoe are initially available, but more three characters will appear if certain conditions are meet.
141	* RuleOfFunny: Getting a badly cast play in theater will get the show booed... But who cares about that when those reek of complete hilarity!?
142	* SexySurfacingShot: Occurs offscreen during a BathtubBonding scene between Lilly Pendragon and Jeanne. Lilly confronts Jeane about having a True Rune somewhere in her body, and [[TheTease Jeane]] gets out of the water for her to inspect it, but Lilly doesn't find anything.
143	* ShoutOut: The child detective Kidd is a rather obvious CaptainErsatz of ''Manga/CaseClosed''.
144	* SimultaneousArcs: For much of the game, you alternate playing chapters between the three leads. (i.e. Hugo Chapter 1, then Chris Chapter 1, then Geddoe Chapter 1.) The three Chapter 1s cover roughly the same period of time, but from different perspectives.
145	* SpinOffspring:
146	** Emily (Ronnie Bell and Mose from ''VideoGame/SuikodenI''), Sanae (Freed and Yoshino from ''VideoGame/SuikodenII'') Sharon (Milia from game 1 yet again), Fred (Maximillian from the first 2 games' grandson) and his retainer Rico (the granddaughter of Maximillian's own retainer, Sancho), Ceasar and Albert (Silverberg descendants) compensate for the relatively few recurring characters this time around. Belle is implied to be Meg's (from the first two games) daughter.
147	** There's also Goro, the son of Tetsu from ''VideoGame/SuikodenII'', who has followed in his father's footsteps as a bathmaker.
148	* TheStrategist:
149	** Caesar, with an OlderAndWiser Apple returning as his personal mentor. Also, Salome serves as this in the Zexen Knights.
150	** Just about all of the major factions have one except for arguably Geddoe's party, who mostly work behind the scenes and never get into major battles until the routes join together. Albert is this for the antagonists and Dios for the Harmonians.
151	* {{Stripperific}}: Unlike the other installments, this game gloriously averts this, as only Estelle is a major example. It is notable that this is the only game in the series where Jeanne averts this trope. She makes up for it later.
152	* SurprisinglyEasyMiniQuest: The castellan's sidequest. Also gets subverted later.
153	* TakeYourTime: You can actually leave the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon at any time you want and spend as much time as you want riding horses, putting on plays, rearranging the furniture and so on. Your enemy will hold off on the whole [[spoiler: ceremony to destroy the world thing. [[note]]Though it's fun to nab all the other runes first, effectively derailing his plan ''anyway''...]][[/note]]
154	* ThemeNaming: Geddoe's mercenaries are named: Joker, Queen, Ace and Jacques. Hint: think of a deck of cards. All of which, or at least in Joker's case which hints that the others may be as well, are pseudonyms.
155	* ThoseTwoGuys: Lilly's attendants Reed and Samus. They're [[PaletteSwap Palette Swaps]] of each other with notable personality distinction between them.
156	* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler:Luc and Sarah at the end of his path.]]
157	* WeAreExperiencingTechnicalDifficulties: In the William Tell play, if the Son gets hit, the screen will fade to black, and Nadir will apologize for that technical difficulty.
158	* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: Luc, whose EvilPlan is supposed to avert a horrible future.]]
159	* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Plays a critical role this time around, as a True Rune bearer gave up his power and immortality so that he could grow old and die with the woman he loved.
160	* WilliamTelling: William Tell is one of the plays available in "Theater Mode".

Context VideoGame / SuikodenIII