Suikoden III FAQ v 0.15 Contents 1. Introduction a. Review b. Controls c. History of the Game d. Basic Strategies e. The Original Water Margin Tale 2. Walkthrough Chapter 1: Sparks to a Flame Geddoe Hugo Chris 3. Gameplay Strategies a. Help! I'm Stuck! 4. 108 Stars of Destiny Guide 5. The Castle! 6. Item List 7. Armor List 8. Rune List 9. Secrets and Sidequests 10.Thanks, Legal Stuff, Updates 1. Introduction Hello and welcome to FoxSpiritShadow's Mighty Suikoden III FAQ o' Doom. Inside here you will find as much gameplay-related information as I can possibly stuff into a rich text file. There will be excitement and popcorn and people being loud in the theater, but I managed to get rid of the sticky gum, so, um yeah. I'm not a native English speaker, but I have been studying for years so my English should be okay for the purposes of this FAQ. If you have corrections or suggestions to make or questions to ask cause I wasn't clear enough, well, that's what e-mail addresses are for and mine is: foxspiritshadow@yahoo.co.uk. As for the FAQ, there are spoilers in The Castle, Walkthrough, 108 Stars of Destiny, Secrets and Sidequests and the Help! I'm Stuck! of Gameplay Strategies sections. All else is 100% spoiler free. I try not to spoil anything, but it's hard if I have to warn you about a story event or depending on the order you choose to view the scenarios. This FAQ incidentally is for the Japanese version of Suikoden III. I want it to aid players who still have the import or only have the import and do not speak Japanese natively. This means there might be some differences in the translated version and I'm not very privy to what they are, so keep that in mind. While everything should be the same, I can't guarantee it. Of course, the gameplay should all pretty much be the same. Suikoden III is Konami's newest installment in a series that takes some of its material from a Chinese legend of the same name (well in Japanese that is) and concerns collecting an entourage of 108 Stars of Destiny in order to overthrow some corrupt political movements going on. III finds the first time the series is in 3D and makes a number of improvements to the formula. This FAQ is mainly to help out people who can't understand Japanese too well and are lost in recruiting characters or other parts of the game. If you're looking for plot-related translation information, please refer to my in-depth FAQ, which I hope will be accepted by Mr. GameFAQs editor, whoever he is. Updates will be posted at the bottom of the FAQ. You can always find updates to this FAQ at the one and only GameFAQs (I expect you know the URL :P). If you'd like to have it for your site, please e-mail me and ask. With that out of the way, let's get going, shall we? d. Basic Strategies Suikoden III has a heavily modified version of the battle system from the first two games. While you might think Konami's Buddy System for organizing the characters is a simple new innovation, it actually changes much of the strategy inherent in battles. Here are some basic strategies and things to note that people do not always exactly notice when playing around with S3's awesome battle system. Please keep this in mind if my specific strategies don't seem to be getting you anywhere: -Unless its an item that works on an enemy or one that works on each party member, only the two people in a buddy unit can use items on each other. This means you should give a thought to how characters can take care of each other overall in your team. Do you want somebody with a wind rune or water rune to be able to take care of the entire party and back him or her up with another character's defensive earth rune abilities? Or do you want to set a slot for each character to have curative items? You have three such slots, thus its a good idea to priotize who you want healing who. Usually the person in the back should do so. They will usually follow behind and so be less vulnerable to attack, the front character will then usually attack while you heal them and it means the back character usually won't get killed before they can heal. On the other hand, if you decide to put the front character as the one who will use curative items, they should probably be a character who has high defense or is wearing armor that is not weak to piercing so you don't get any nasty surprises. In these cases, its best to pair them with a character who has the tendency to stay behind if not commanded to attack, that way you'll get to heal them before they get themselves in trouble. Otherwise you could waste some time trying to heal them as they run into danger. -Why should I use magic spells when they are so dangerous, you ask? Because they are often the best way to start eliminating a threat early in the game and that's when you won't have too many diffences against getting party members by magic spells. In order to minimize that danger, its a good idea to keep characters defending while you cast the spell. That way, most of them won't get hit. Another idea is to devote all your skill points to raising that spellcasters proficiency in the spell early on and give it to fast characters as that will keep the spell coming out before your party members can get into positions that will put them in danger. In order to develop the ability to cast spells without putting your allies in danger, you should concentrate on the more general magic skills instead of rune or elemental based ones: that seems to keep them on the track to automatically grow into that skill sooner on. -Never seem to have enough inventory? Try to do the lottery and buy lots of tickets only when you are doing things like recruiting stars or trading for money or other things that don't need too much inventory. Don't immediately accept what townspeople say they will give you, wait until later when you will have a place to store it. Keep around the same area for a while so you can redeem your lottery tickets and get rid of dead weight. Replace weaker healing items in your equipped slots with stronger ones. Just common sense, I thought I'd sling it out there just in case you hadn't thought of any this. Also, when you go searching for treasure bosses, make sure you have enough to get everything, you'll usually need at least half your inventory open to get it all. Remember, sometimes when you go back the boss will have changed or regenerated, so you can't always come back later to get the treasures you missed. 2. Walkthrough A. Chapter 1: Sparks to a Flame Geddoe Hugo Chris Insert DVD into PS2. Get comfy. Turn on PS2. Flip out at gorgeous anime intro, be sure to pick up your jaw off the floor as you'll need it later. See that nice art screen? Select start. Okay, so here's the Japanese and my job starts. When you select a new game you will be given an option to load past Suikoden save data. The menu screen says Suikoden II or Suikogaiden Vol. 2 data (or was it the manual? I keep forgetting). For now, you'll need a Japanese version of Suikoden II or Suikogaiden in order to load that data, I'll check later to see if other Suikoden Japanese game saves work and what the possible difference is. If you don't have any of that, don't worry. If you do, you need to have the data on your PS2 memory card that you use for PS2 saves, copied from your PS1 memory card. So be sure to do that in advance. If you do, move the cursor up the first option that says はい　and choose the second option, which the cursor is on by default, that says いいえ。 Alright, alright, I'll be serious now. The second screen you'll come to should look familiar if you've played a lot of RPGs. If you can't read Japanese then on the left side there is a menu of three option for characters. The top is hiragana, the second one is katakana and the third is romaji. Choose the third to get an English alphabet to decide the name for the Flame Hero in English, or enter goobledegook for the Japanese options. My personal favorites チンチン、ミスタドリラ、しょう(my name) and たつひと。 So if you want to keep it Japanese, find those characters somehow and input them. I believe O is input and X is erase last character. Trust me, チンチン is the most manly and wonderful name out of my suggestions, all other characters in the game will look up to you with a new sense of respect if you name the Flame Hero this! Next you'll be taken to Trinity Sight System Character Select Screen. Relax, its not that complicated. Here you can choose which character's story you would like to see. Keep in mind that once you choose them and save within that story, you cannot go back to the Trinity Sight without having a separate save there, and will fall into a black hole of oblivion from which you'll be cursed to eat endless meals of curry and clam chowder. So, the bottom option is to save and the top (I believe O button) is to choose a chapter (選ぶ). In the beginning, you'll see a short clip for Geddoe, Chris or Hugo, and then can choose which first chapter you'd like to play. These are small slices so you can decide who looks the best to you. In Geddoe's clip there are 3 shadowy figures, one apologizes for not being able to follow him any longer and it is a somewhat bittersweet farewell between the three mystery characters. One of them says, that he would like to believe that people could the truth inside them for just a little longer. In Chris's clip, after the parade, Chris is lamenting the ornamental aspect of the parade and generally regretting the burdens of a hero. Salome (the guy with the funky brown haircut and serious look on his face) reassures her and tells her about the price of being a hero. Chris is also grieving what looks like the death of people important to her, referring to a funeral. In Hugo's clip, after he arrives at the village, the characters simply exchange various lighthearted banter, with Sergeant Joe already showing what a dic..I mean duck, he is. There are references to Hugo's tendency to wake up early and go riding, and his aspiring to be a great rider. After one of these short clips is done, you'll return to the Trinity Sight screen. If you haven't seen the other clips, you won't be able to see the other character's first chapter, so you'll need to select them and view them first if you want a selection of everyone's first chapter. Otherwise, simply hit the circle button again on the character that you just viewed and presumably want to play. This won't make the character the main character or anything and isn't too important a decision so don't worry about it. Chapter 1: Sparks to a Flame Geddoe The game will now open on the city of Bine Del Zecks with the mercenaries out of money and in a bad mood with their rusty skills when Ace goes to finds Geddoe. He says that an order from the main unit has asked them to search out the rumor of the Flame Hero appearing in the Grasslands and find out whether if it is true or not. The choice in the conversation you'll have here doesn't seem to have much affect on anything, as eventually you'll have to agree to do it. But if you choose the bottom option, you'll be refusing each time and you can make Ace squirm a bit. >:) The top option is to accept. Once the next cutscene is over, which is where the group talks it over and Ace comes up with the solution to ask around Ikuse Village and go into the Grasslands itself, you'll have control. This part is the very edge of Bine Del Zecks city. If you walk straight left, you'll hit the business district, with an armor and rune shop, as well as appraiser who can look at items that have ? in their names to see what they are, in which case, they'll become usable later on in the game. The armor and rune shops are fairly self explanatory. In the armor shop, the top option is to buy, the second is to sell and the third is to see the rare finds that they put on display for time to time. Same goes for item shops. Check this often as it changes often and certain items will disappear after a while. Some of the most rare, cool and needed items show up here, so don't ignore it, or you'll be sorry. On this viewpoint, Geddoe's won't have very much use for the armor in the shop, as most of it lowers your stats. So I'd save your money for better things. In the rune shop, the first option is to attach runes, the second is disattach them from characters and the third is buy them. As you walk down the street, you can either turn up to the smith and lottery shop, or continue down the street until you reach the first residence avenue. In the residence avenue, you'll find Chris's house and a special hidden alley that you can go down, it's the first alley to your right, just walk in. Be sure to climb the latter and look inside, this is a place you'll want to be checking every once in a while as it opens up a sidequest in Hugo's viewpoint. If you're just itching to save money, you should forge the character's weapons to higher levels in the smithery. Check the gameplay details section for details on how the lottery works. The rest of the town, explore at your leisure, you'll find lots of people, a market, a couple of Stars of Destiny and when you exit there will be a cut scene where the characters talk about their pasts and reasons for becoming a mercenary, in which it is assumed that Geddoe has the darkest past and learned that Ace was born in Bine Del Zecks. At the world map, go the only way you can go, into the forest! On the first screen, you just need to continue right, there's nothing here. On the second screen, walk up and push through the foliage near the beginning to find a dead guy. Push O button to be dishonorable and rob him of his corpse, after a while, the treasure will regenerate for other characters to pillage, so no need to feel hesitation. Go back to where you came from, and continue on. You should come to a fork soon, on both paths there is an herb to pick, so treasure-wise it doesn't matter which you take. I guess its quicker to the take the lower path and then backtrack to the upper and out of the forest if you want both. However, if this is your first time in the forest, the character to first cross the forest will go into a story event where you meet Fred and his sidekick, whose name I have temporarily forgotten. They'll ask you if you've seen or heard of a trail of the Flame Hero. Choose the top option to tell him he went to the north and the bottom to deny you know anything about it. After that, the overeager and rude Fred will continue on his way with sidekick fatso scurrying to catch up. I believe this event will only appear if you use the bridge on the lower path, but I'm not certain. Continue on and out west side of the forest, being aware that the branch you'll meet only lops back to the east side. Here you can choose your path. 3. Gameplay Strategies A. Help! I'm Stuck! Q. It's Thomas's Chapter, I saved the boy in the mountains, now what do I do? A: Talk to three of the NPCs with character portraits and then an event will occur wherein the butler will tell you about the castle's expenses and the danger of foreclosure. After this, you'll decide to declare the place a free city for both the Grasslands and Zexen merchants to come and open up shop and all sorts of places will open the world map. On the world map, visit every town you can and get as many Stars of Destiny as you can. Once you've visited every town and gotten over 5 Stars with support abilities, a cutscene will occur and you'll search for the librarian to end the chapter. Q. Why can't I get past this one army battle with Chris's units? A: Run. Retreat. Get the hell out of there. All there is to it, really. Q: I can't defeat the Six Knights of High Honor in Geddoe's first chapter at Karaya Clan Village! A: Choose the second option before this, then you won't have to fight them and the cutscene is much cooler. Q: I hate the Man in the Mask, oh yes I do! A: Don't worry, you're not alone, so do I. Q: Any characters return for this one from past Suikodens? A: Yep, you'll have to excuse my memory for the time being, but Star Dragon Sword, Luc, Yuber, Futch, Apple, the little boy who wanted to be a doctor in S2, Lilly, Sasarai, Lucia, Nash from Suikogaiden and the robot all return. I have a hunch that Jowy might be Jack, but right now its just a hunch from a couple of hints I've gotten on his story. I'm not sure yet. But Jack sure is an awesome character, ain't he? Dowaikin the dwarf is also from dwarf town in Toran, way back from the first game, but I'm not sure if he was in any of the other games. 4. 108 Stars of Destiny Notes: I'm not sure of some stuff yet and I'm doing this from memory, so some of it might be a little sketchy. Especially the noble in Bine Del Zecks' name, which I can't remember for the life of me. I'll update ASAP. If I say tell them about the castle, it always means to choose the first option of a dialogue choice. Character: Mel Seen in: Ikuse village, outside a house near the path to the windmills. Chapter/Viewpoint: 1st appearance in Thomas's first chapter after you rescue the child from the mountains. Joining Condition: Just talk to her. Rating: ***** In the beginning of Thomas's quest she is a very strong character with a high level and a very powerful special attack. She'll make things a lot easier for the time being. Personality: She claims the puppet on her hand is real and not a puppet, and punishes it by hitting against a wall over and over again when it says perverted things about her, always suspecting others of wanting to be with Mel because she's supposedly really pretty. Very weird girl. Attacks with her puppet in battle and is a good character to put in plays. The wolf puppet's name is Bracky. Kidd Investigation 1 ? How does she eat meals with the puppet like that? Kidd Investigation 2 - It seems that when she is alone in a room, she becomes very quiet and Bracky doesn't talk. Star: ? Character: Bartz Seen in: Ikuse village, first on the walkway to the windmill and later standing near the burnt windmill Chapter/Viewpoint: Actually, you can get him any time after the razing of Ikuse and with any character. That happens in Chris's 3rd chapter, BTW. Rating: ***1/2 Neat guy and I liked his personality, he's very laid back and has the same type of style I do. But he actually isn't too useful, as the things he grows probably won't help you too much. However, its always nice to deck out your castle with a farm. Joining Condition: Since he really has nothing left in Ikuse, give the man some inspiration by buying grapes (not grape seeds) and giving them to him. You should find them in trading houses as a trading item. Once you've got them, go back to him and a cutscene will commence and now you have Bartz. You can find grapes usually at Bin Del Zecks, trade city of Zexen proper! Personality: Bartz has an awesome character design and his good attitude and nice way of looking things can't help but be effective. If only everyone looked that cheerful after their beautiful crops had been burnt down. Character: Mike Seen in: Karelia, go inside the trade shop, he's the man in the corner. Chapter/Viewpoint: Chapter 1/2, Geddoe. Rating: **** The gambling game is super good for making quick money and his support skill is nice. Joining Condition: He'll say he wants to test your luck and gamble with you, playing "Kabu." Choose the first option and you'll need to win 20000 pochi in order for him to join. The game is played as follows, three cards will be drawn from a deck and you will see dealer's card as well. Choose one of the three cards and then enter the money you want to bet at the top of the screen. From here on, one more card will be drawn, if you want to draw a third card, choose the first option, if you don't, choose the second. You want to try and get as close to 9 as you can when you add all your cards. If the cards add up over 9 then the 10 becomes a zero and its recounted. So for instance, if you had a 7, 4, and 5 it adds up to 16 and your score is 6. In the instance that somebody does not get a 9, the higher score wins, unless you have a help draw. A help draw is a rare combination, like shippon, which is an ace and a 4 that increase your gambled money by a certain amount. You can see all the help draws by pressing the square button to hide and show the list. If you lose, he'll ask if you want to play again. The top option is to play, the second is to hear the rules and the third is to quit. If you win, he'll ask if you want to double or nothing and bet on that for another game or take your earnings. The top option is to double or nothing and the bottom option is to take earnings. Personality: Somewhat mysterious, Geddoe wonders about him... Character: Edge Seen in: Rubic, near the rune shop and Scholar House standing next to a sword. Chapter/Viewpoint: Chapter 2, Geddoe Joining Condition: Talk to him and he'll offer to duel with you for 1000 pochi. If you win, you get him and the Star Dragon Sword, though at first he promises the Star Dragon Sword. Be sure to have relatively good armor for the time on Geddoe and be around level 35 to make it easy for you. Choose the first option in the dialogue. Personality: Connected to Flik and Viktor? He received the sword from somebody important and seems to be in some sort of training. A pretty impudent rascal if you ask me. He and the Star Dragon Sword are constantly arguing about who is the master of who, just like usual. Rating: ? Haven't tested him out yet. Character: Meimi Seen In: Duck Village, inside the item/appraiser shop on the second floor. I think you need a character who can climb ladders to get to her, I don't remember. Chapter/Viewpoint: Chapter 1,2,3 Hugo; Thomas Chapter 1,2 Joining Condition: Its easiest to get her to join in Chapter 3 of Hugo's viewpoint. If you tell her about the Kupt Forest, she may go wandering there beforehand, so its best just to find the food she is researching. You'll get your first chance to get the hands on this food after you meet Hareck in Bras Castle, the beast man from an outside area who has come to search for the Flame Hero. He'll have the food equipped on him when he joins. Take it off him and give it to her, and she'll join you. Simple as that really. Otherwise, you may have to find the item dropped by enemies in Kupt Forest which is accessible in the same Hugo chapter. I'm not sure if enemies drop them, but Meimi seems to think they will. Kupt Forest is the forest right outside to the right of Duck Village. In Hugo's chapter you'll open it up once you go to the Lizard Clan after getting Hareck and the knight from the Free Union at Bras Castle. Ranking: ***** Awesome because she opens the restaurant for you and makes it easier to find food items with her support ability. Character: Nadir Seen in: The second floor of the inn in Karelia. Chapter/Viewpoint: Chapter 3, Hugo; Chapter 1,2,3 Geddoe Joining Condition: Bring a party of 3 guys, 2 girls and one kid and he'll join. Character: Gordon Seen in: The item shop owner in Ikuse Village. Chapter/Viewpoint: Chapter 1,2 Thomas Joining Condition: Bring Olgyudan (the blond man with the black feather hat and elegant look and mustache) in your party with JUST HIM and THOMAS. NO WOMEN. That's the earliest character I know of who is elegant enough to make Gordon join you. He'll make an item shop in your castle. Character: Olgyudan Seen in: Bine Del Zecks Chapter/Viewpoint: All, but Thomas seems to be the best to recruit him Joining Condition: I believe he'll react to Thomas the very first time you see him and talk to him. He will have lost his precious rose brooch! Time to replace it for him. Go to Ikuse Village and buy it at the item shop for 6000 pochi from Gordon's rare finds. Return to Bine Del Zecks and give it to Olgyudan to watch the incredibly amusing scene and get him. Ranking: *** Pretty hard to hit if you up his quickness, weapon guard and evade skills, but also has a really inconvenient and nasty special attack. Nonetheless, he's one of the most fun to use battle members. Mostly a fighter. Character: Kidd Seen in: Duck Village Chapter/Viewpoint: Chapter 1,2,3 Hugo; Chapter 1,2 Thomas, best bet is go in Thomas's Chapter 1. Joining Condition: After you save the kid from the mountain and start trying to attract Star of Destiny to rescue Byude Hyuke Castle from financial ruin, go to the Duck Village. Thomas will be able to spark an event wherein you solve *shock* a murder mystery! First of all, offer to be his assistant, which is the first option. Second, offer when the cutscene about when Kidd on the scene of the crime ends, go around the room and make sure you look at the window, the body and the dresser in the opposite corner. Just walking to those places (behind wear Kidd is standing next to the body to look at the body) to see them. Now talk to Kidd and then go outside, talk to the maid duck between the inn and the room of the deceased duck. Talk to the duck by the windmill and then talk to one of the ducks in one of the shops wandering around, I forgot which. Once you do that, you'll get a scrap of paper from the duck in the shop I believe. Bring this to Kidd and he will solve the murder. Before he does though, he'll ask you who you think it is. My memory is sketchy but I believe the first option is to say the maid did it, the second is to say Kidd did it, the third is to say he committed suicide and the fourth is to confess to the murder yourself. I believe you can answer anything you want, but I choose the third option, suicide. It turns out the duck just needed to be woken up because he was doing an extremely painful-looking form of yoga. Er, yeah. Tell Kidd about the castle and he'll join. This is an especially funny event because of the parody on Meitantei Conan or Famous Detective Conan, a long-running Japanese anime/manga about a super-skilled boy detective, and because Kidd gives everybody a lecture about not to jump to conclusions when he was the first to say it was a murder in the first place! This is played out like the "moral of the story" cartoon endings everyday. Classy stuff, Konami. Ranking: ***** if you like story, ** if you don't Some people don't care about the Stars of Destiny, I do. I want to know everything I can about the characters and Kidd can investigate for you (that's what Kidd Investigation is in my list here, all the different stuff he digs up for you). He can also help you find characters you're lost about and don't know how to find, but they're not that hard, so its not all that useful. His appraise skill isn't terribly high otherwise. Character: Kathy Seen in: Amul Plain, North, just walk to where the trees are and you'll see a bunch of horses in Thomas's quest Viewpoint/Chapter: Chapter 1 Thomas Joining Condition: Count her horses, which have been scattered due to a stampede of wild stallions. It may be random, but if not, I counted 19. Choose the second option I believe (again, sketchy memory, I'll check later)either way tell her there are more than 15 horses that she thought she had and then choose 19. Tell her about the castle and she'll join. Character: Randis Seen in: Kupt Forest, between Alum Kinan and Duck Village. Ranking: ****1/2 What can I say, the guy is a NICE fighter. Not the best, but worth having both for the comedic relief in the theater house and as quite a nice overall party member, plus he has one of the most unique weapons and attacks in the game. Viewpoint/Chapter: Chapter 3 Chris Joining Condition: Simply have five characters in the forest and fight there. All of a sudden he'll just pop up in your party. I think it might help to try it when you have the Alum Kinan girls with you in Chris's chapter, because that's where I've ALWAYS run into him, but that may be just me. It may take a while to get him, but sooner or later he's going to come out in battle if you just keep on trudging, its very random, so have a little patience. One note is that for some reason I don't think you can get him in Chapter 4, only 3 or 5. I'm not sure why that is, but it seems to be the case. So if you have no luck in Chapter 4, try 5. Personality: What a morbid guy! I love that smile on his face. Go into the very basement of your castle once you've got him and you'll see him wandering around near the back if you follow the cave farther in. You can have a short conversation with him there. He sure is a strange and weird guy. As an added plus, make sure to put this guy in your plays! He is hilarious as certain characters and makes some of the most inspired and funny comments out of all the characters, especially do it with a character who is supposed to be innocent and nice, I think your sides may split he's so hilariously evil. 10. Thanks to the following people: Noah Glenn, for catching an incredibly embarassing typo, you rock man! My hands, for putting up with my typing and playing. You, for reading. Legal Stuff This FAQ is copyright 2002 a FoxSpiritShadow creation. Steal it and I'll tell Konami on you. If you want it, just ask me. Don't copy or spread it around without permission. It is a work in progress and I'd rather not spread stupidity throughout the Internet if I can keep it check. :) Updates: October 29th, 2002 -First update in a long time! We're talking V 0.15 now! Yippee! -Spruced up and updated the introduction a bit. -Added in some general gameplay strategies in d of part 1, the intro. -Corrected some stuff, and a very embarassing typo. -Added a few more characters. July 16th, 2002 -First update, everything is new, new, spaaaarkling new! V 0.1 baby! -Watch out, weird stuff and inconsistency everywhere, will be updating to correct it frequently and organize the FAQ. But its something for now, heh?