Suikoden III Character Tiers

[KFCrispy]

i'm not sure what you are asking anymore.... aren't we talking about Suikoden III here? The topic is "Suikoden III Character Tiers"

[ninjaluc79]

Okay guys, I'm back.

Since I'll be playing Suikoden 3 for the first time once I get my PS2 emulator to work, I intend to use balanced teams of fighters and magicians all throughout the game, including characters that most people don't tend to use.

I have seen a Level 61 Physical DD Tiers topic somewhere in this forum, but I haven't seen a Magician Tiers List around here. Luc and Sarah must be hands down the best mages in the game, but you can't use them in a normal playthrough, so I'm pretty stuck looking at the skills guide for potential magicians with natural affinity of at least B in any element (Wizard Hat + three elemental amulets can bring it up to S).

[Aldo]

Yuiri's affinities kind of suck... but there's actually one good thing I was thinking about with her recently if you want a healer hybrid.

Stick a Cyclone rune on her, throw a wind ring and wind hat (pretty sure she can use a wind hat) to get her affinity up to S. Shining Wind heals your party for 300, and hurts the enemy for 500. Not exactly a game breaking spell, but it's better than using someone with a water rune. Also, can use the shredding (which again, not game breaking, but better than breath of ice on water rune).

Yuiri has the same magic stat as Estella, Joker and Sasarai... she just gets forgotten about as a mage I feel because she's also so strong physically (and physical trumps magic in this game) and her affinities aren't as good. You can boost her to S in Earth, Wind and water (fire and lightning need wizard hat and three rings for S), though earth will take the most worth getting the rings. Yuiri has slightly higher magic than the vikis, lucia, rody, queen, yumi and piccolo.

So you can tack on cyclone rune, wizard rune (or something else if wanted, like fury or double strike), wind hat, and wind magic ring for a strong healer/damage hybrid with a much better attack than most magicians.

The other option with Yuiri is using Yumi, who is also quite nice. She can get an S in water, fire, lightning, and earth. I like to give Yumi a water ring and two earth, with a mother earth and flowing rune for damage/defense/healing. Then you can make physical Yuiri and use their alma kinan unite.

They may not be top tier but they're a pretty solid option I feel.

[ninjaluc79]

Pretty good setup especially during the Alma Kinan sacrifice arc, but I'm not sure if it's possible to get higher-tier magic runes for that during the arc.

[Aldo]

I use them at the end of the game. You get them so late.

[Sasarai10]

Okay guys, I'm back.

Since I'll be playing Suikoden 3 for the first time

What?????

Ninjaluc if you'll play S3 for the first time,then don't look into any walkthroughs and things like these...that's my opinion.


You'll really lose the pleasure of exploring the game by your own.

[ninjaluc79]

I did play S3 once, but only through a rented PS2 and I even didn't get past Hugo Chapter 1!

Haven't worked the kinks of the battle system out, so I think it's okay. I've been pretty much spoiled anyway.

[Sasarai10]

I did played S3 once, but only through a rented PS2 and I even didn't get past Hugo Chapter 1!

Haven't worked the kinks of the battle system out, so I think it's okay. I've been pretty much spoiled anyway.

So your experience with S3 is very little,so you shall discover it by your own then.

I won't force you to do it of course,but i think the experience of discovering the game by your own cannot be compared

[ninjaluc79]

Okay, the reason I'm looking at walkthroughs for S3 is because some people say S3 is very hard compared to S1 and S2, mainly because you control only 3 units of 2 people each instead of the usual 6 units of 1 person each.

You know the anxiety that says, "Can I really play this, are the monsters and bosses overpowered, is the game really that hard to beat" and all that stuff.

I had those same feelings in S1 and S2, but I never lost a battle the first time I played both games. So I don't want the opposite to happen to me in S3.

[Aldo]

The big difference is if you plan on using a lot runes, you don't want to pair them together. In suikoden 1/2 you could have people spam runes in a turn whereas in this game, you can only use up to 3 a turn.

However, physical damage is ridiculous in this game. Physical attack runes stack with it of course, but for many characters you don't need them (e.g. Emily). You can get by without using a lot of runes in this game with a good setup for your characters.

Armor is a lot more important in this game than 1 or 2, because you don't have a base PDF stat on non-monsters. Your defense is ONLY from armor. With low defense, enemies will hit you for a lot.

The skill system takes some getting used to at first, but once you do it's pretty easy. For many damage dealers, swing a skill you want to invest in. Swing gives your characters multiple attacks, with a 2nd hit being 75% of the first, and each additional being 75% of the second. Many characters can get 3-4 hits, and Emily can get 8.

Also, Nei is one of the most broken characters in the game. If you max her Jongleur Rune skill, she increases damage by like 150% so your physical hitters do roughly 2.5 damage. The spell takes half a turn to go off so usually they attack before the first round it goes off. However, it is free to use so you can spam it every battle as the mp never decreases.

[eldrasidar]

Suikdoen 3 is pretty easy overall. Yes, you control peoples in pairs, but then consider that for most of the suikoden fights, you generally just go on auto anyway, and it's not really that big a deal. The only time it really limits you is if you want to cast more than 3 spells a turn, but there isn't really a lot of times where that is the case.

As far as Mages go, there are plenty of good ones, and if you spend enough time farming the right equipment and runes, you can make most characters good at magic as long as they have an open rune slot, a b+ in some magic skill, and at least 101 magic, they can be competent magic users.

[ninjaluc79]

Alright, thanks.

I have to say this, I don't want to cheese in my first time. I'll save that for when I'm better experienced in S3.

[Aldo]

Yeah, enemies don't fall under those rules. Though it's kind of rare for that to happen. Usually only certain boss battles have a lot of casting

[ninjaluc79]

Oh man, that's kinda rough. That's why I'm thinking S3 is much harder because you can only do 3 actions a turn when the enemies can still do up to 6 like in S1/2.

[Aldo]

Well if you use a rune with one character, the other usually auto attacks (except a few tank characters, they defend). Everyone still gets a turn. You're just limited in that you can't use 6 runes. You can have three people use runes, and three people auto attack.

It's really not bad. In fact some things are easier, like kindness drops getting shared with the pair instead of getting used on one. With the mounter pairs, you can have the animal use a scroll (e.g. kindness drops or lightning spell) and you still get a full attack round.

Pros and cons.