16/10/2014

Suikoden Tierkreis (1): The most stellar narrative of them all



Suikoden… I wonder: am I the only one who tends to read the name of this game series ‘SuiDoKen’ instead of ‘Suikoden’? I’m not particularly dyslexic, but this just feels so much more natural, somehow… 

With this disclaimer out of the way, let’s talk a bit about that tongue-twisting series, shall we? Developed and published by Konami, Suikoden—or Gensou Suikoden as it is known in Japan—is a loose adaptation of the Chinese novel Shui Hu Zhuan, reprising most notably its enormous roster of characters and remolding said roster in imaginative and fanciful ways. The first installment was released in 1995 for the Playstation, and all entries ever since have taken place in the exact same universe introduced by that first game. The Suikoden series is most famous for its unflinching narrative continuity: characters return from one installment to the next and the overarching narrative and mythology of Suikoden’s world is expanded and fleshed out as games are released. This makes the series a hard sell for players who missed the first entries; on the other hand, thanks to dear internet, it’s always possible to catch up and absorb the knowledge one needs to understand and enjoy these games to the fullest. The series’ most prominent feature is undoubtedly the so-called ‘108 Stars of Destiny’: 108 warriors with various abilities that you can recruit to help you fulfill your quest. As you may rightfully imagine, recruiting all 108 Stars grants you some bonus and affects the end of the game in a positive way. Unlike other features of the series that I won’t enumerate here, the 108 Stars are present in every single Suikoden game ever released, including the spin-offs. 

The spin-offs, yes. Despite being the kind of series that should normally only allow for canon entries, Suikoden actually counts two spin-offs:  the Japan-only Genso Suikoden: Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki for the PSP and—you guessed it—Suikoden Tierkreis, released in 2008(jp) and 2009(eu/na) for the Nintendo DS. Suikoden Tierkreis does not take place in the canon Suikoden world, but rather in one of the numerous parallel worlds that constitute the multiverse in which the series takes place. As a result, it features exclusive characters and does not reintroduce a single face from others games in the series, which makes it the perfect game for a Suikoden beginner. Also, ‘Tierkreis’ means ‘Zodiac’ in German, and that’s how I will refer to that game from now on for the sake of brevity. 

I mentioned not so long ago that I preferred my RPG to be light on the narrative side, and it’s really like the universe wanted to take the piss out of me by suggesting me to pick up that game, for Tierkreis precisely belongs to that modern brand of cutscene-laden, story-driven RPGs that became the dominant trend in the home console RPG landscape in the last years. Such games are not exactly favourites of mine: while I don’t outright dislike them, I usually need a ridiculous amount of time to sink into them and enjoy them fully. Tierkreis was no exception, and it took a good eight hours littered with fleeting thoughts about quitting before I became really engrossed with the game and eager to pursue the adventure. And dear, don’t I regret my perseverance! Tierkreis is a brilliant game that I absolutely loved. However, I didn’t love it at all times, nor did I love all of it: in fact, it’s fairer to say that while I love it to pieces, I still detected a good number of blatant flaws. This game is the poster child for J-RPGs’ difficult evolution these last years, as I will profusely show in my next post. For now, let’s focus on Tierkreis’ abundant goodness, which lies in its epic, awesome narrative—rightfully so for a story-driven RPG.

Tierkreis will make me do something that I don’t usually indulge in, namely analyze an RPG’s storyline and spoil it profusely while I’m at it. However, it’s hard to proceed otherwise: not only is Tierkreis’ narrative the game’s unwavering main focus, but it’s also undoubtedly its greatest strength, as I mentioned just above. By ‘narrative’, I obviously mean the main storyline, but also the characters and the whole atmosphere of the game, which are all craftily woven together to create a encompassing experience that is mesmerizing and very much worth discovering. Let’s now explore this most compelling narrative, shall we? 

Like stars in the sky

First comes the atmosphere. It’s gorgeous, enticing and mesmerizing, and the graphics are mostly to thank for that. Tierkreis is the perfect example of a game that uses great graphics not to show off and pander to the latest visual trends, but rather to craft a beautiful world bound to make the player gape in awe at every corner—had I followed my impulses, I would have stopped playing every two minutes to grab my camera and this post would be littered with dozens of pictures. Tierkreis’ world is not only beautiful but also highly evocative and unique, thanks to a large degree of stylization. Of course, once again, there is a modicum of cliché in that game world, which features obligatory areas like a good ol’ desert and a snowy mountain and occasionally recycles some scenery elements; but that doesn’t detract from the fact that Tierkreis’ world is a highly polished and fleshed out one. Konami went to great lengths to make sure that this game world felt as real and consistent as possible: for instance, not only do the characters who join your side can be accessed and talked to at any given moment, but their lines of dialogue change according to the latest events. The cardboard cutouts used in most cutscenes are very well drawn and show a pleasant variety of emotions, and the animated cutscenes are completely hand-drawn, which gives a lovely old-school feeling to the game.

Next are the characters. To put it simply, these characters are totally, entirely, completely endearing and loveable. I've not been that fond of characters in an RPG since I played Avalon Code and had a minor crush on Duran, Nanai, Heath, my faithful Spirits and a couple of others; however, that was only a few characters in a larger cast. In Tierkreis, all the characters are incredibly endearing, despite being so numerous, and that’s in no small part due to the fact that they are so carefully and lovingly fleshed out. To craft such a large roster of characters, each one with their individuality and distinctive features, is a narrative tour de force if I ever saw one, and massive kudos must be handed to Konami for that. Not only do these loveable characters all have their own personality, backstory and relationships, but they also manage to avoid being complete J-RPG clichés, which makes them even more loveable. Don’t get me wrong: there is a modicum of anime/J-RPG tropes there, but they are far less potent than in your average J-RPG. Take the Hero: instead of being an emo amnesiac with a ridiculous haircut, he’s a well-grounded young man with generic short hair, who also happens to be a natural born leader belonging to a small brigade devoted to defending his village. The obligatory female sidequick does NOT have the obligatory crush on the said Hero and is not a tsundere trope on legs, but rather a cheerful young woman who’s also part of the aforementioned defense brigade. The same thing goes for all characters: they incorporate ever-so-slight cliché elements (the Hero may not be amnesic, but he was adopted as an infant and no one knows about his origins, which adds the required dose of mystery to him) yet manage to stray from them sufficiently to feel fresh and original—and most importantly, realistic and believable to a certain extent. This may be the key to their lovability: while it is often hard to relate to an amnesic character with an emo streak embroiled in a quest that they don’t fully understand, especially after having met heaps of such characters in countless J-RPGs, a bunch of determined people from all walks of life trying to save what they care for is much more likely to strike a sensitive chord in the player, especially the older one.    

The character goodness doesn’t stop there: not only are Tierkreis’ numerous characters totally loveable just by virtue of their careful crafting, but most of them can be used in battle, which gives you even more reasons to love them. Nearly all 108 Stars of Destiny can take part in fights, either as members of the main team or as support members, which gives Tierkreis a completion vibe similar to what you can find in the Pokemon series. Of course, it’s nearly impossible to enjoy the full cast on a first playthrough, and many of them have similar abilities, which led to some criticism: Tierkreis was accused of trying to artificially inflate itself by throwing heaps of similar and/or unusable characters at the player’s head. However, I feel there is no reason for criticism here: collecting the 108 Stars of Destiny is a fixture in the Suikoden series, but it’s not mandatory to complete this game or any other Suikoden game, so fake longevity is averted here. I see this as a giant buffet of characters, from which you can pick up the ones you love the most; and that choice is not all about abilities, but also about the characters’ personalities, backstories and looks. Any game that gives you a wide array of choices in any department without treading on fake longevity territory is good in my book; this is basically synonymous of huge replay value, and I rejoice in the thought that I’ll be able to experiment with totally different characters next time I play Tierkreis.  

Stellar storyline

Last, but certainly not least, is the storyline. (And here come the SPOILERS, as you’d expect.)

Oh, dear. Where do I start? This is absolutely one of the best storylines I’ve been treated to in an RPG, hands down. It starts as a routine quest to find explanations to a couple of weird occurrences happening around the main characters’ village before slowly morphing into a political imbroglio involving a creepy cult called “Order of the One True Way” and a would-be dictator; then the story takes a sudden turn for the worse when it is finally revealed that the very existence of the world is at risk due to a seemingly unstoppable physical phenomenon linked to a mysterious entity named the “One King”. The progress between these narrative milestones is as smooth as it can be, each new element being carefully introduced when the time is ripe. Tierkreis is generous with short exposition segments that help you get an instant feel of the situation at hand and somehow work better than hour-long expository cutscenes. The ‘sick man’ segment at Cynas is a telling example: you try to find a doctor to help a man dying at the inn where your party is stationed but are prevented to do so by the innkeeper, who claims such an act would violate the principles of the Order which rules supreme in the town. Your party members then take care of the man themselves and manage to rescue him from death, only to have the said man blame you for your meddling and claim that his survival was predetermined and nothing you did could change that, before starting to ramble about whether he’s been faithful to the Order’s principles or not. This segment lasts only a couple of seconds yet gives you a full and striking understanding of the locals’ mentality as well as of the obstacles you’re bound to face while dealing with the Order.

Not only is the story incredibly well told, but it’s also pleasantly realistic. The threats encountered by the characters are very tangible and ominous and can very much make a shiver run down your spine—no doubt because they are inspired by real-world menaces. Instead of fighting a group of misfits wielding a supposedly powerful crystal or your former teacher who betrayed you to become king of the world, you are confronted by a powerful cult with elaborated brain-washing techniques, a growing number of countries under its influences and powerful armies ready to attack at its beck and call. Now that’s what I call a threat. Later, you face the very dissolution of your world, caused by the collapsing of universes onto one another. While this may be a little less tangible as far as our real world is concerned, it’s not coming entirely out of the blue, since it refers to the physical cosmology theory of the multiverse born in the late 20th century and defended by a number of scientists. 

This is the perfect transition to the refreshingly simple metaphysics of Tierkreis. Unlike other J-RPGs that feel forced to create twisted metaphysical concepts from scratch and give them the weirdest possible names for good measure, Tierkreis bases its whole narrative and universe on a couple of concepts that are incredibly simple to grasp and yet pave the way for some mind-boggling developments. The first one is the “Infinity”, which postulates the existence of an infinite number of parallel universes, each one containing its own version of our heroes. The second is the existence of the so-called “Stars of Destiny”, a group of powerful warriors who can wield a form of magic unavailable to mere mortals and have a more important function that is revealed in the game. Last are the “Chronicles”, which are books that compile the whole history of every single of the parallel worlds; they are infused with the power to awaken the dormant potential of the Stars of Destiny, who can then modify their content under certain conditions. From these simple concepts, Tierkreis weaves a story that is so incredibly complex yet implacably logical and well-articulated that my mind still reels when thinking of it. Sure, there may be a few plot holes here and there, but as a whole, it’s just brilliant. Tierkreis’ story belongs to this rare brand of storytelling that prompts you to replay the whole game immediately in order to see everything in light of what you’ve learned in the later stages of the game. As a matter of fact, I did exactly that, and was shocked to discover that one of the very first events of the game takes place in a decayed version of the very tower in which you fight the One King at the very end of the storyline, which rose even more mind-boggling questions. 

But there is more: if you want to get the whole picture and fully understand the story in all its spinning complexity, you have to witness all the possible endings. Fortunately, there are only three of them: the Good Ending, the Bad Ending and the Perfect Ending, which you get when you recruit all 108 Stars. The Bad Ending is triggered by one particular choice at one point in the story and is incredibly brief, but it’s nonetheless crucial as far as the narrative is concerned, for—drums rolling— it reveals the true nature of the One King! This is actually a shiver-inducing moment that left me struck and gaping as everything fell in place in my head and the whole story took a totally different turn. The Good Ending and Perfect Ending both give hints about what the One King is and how they come to life, but only the Bad Ending lets you witness the full process in all its devastating glory, leaving no doubt about the heartbreaking nature of the One King. Konami could have played it nasty by saving the big final explanation for the Perfect Ending, but thankfully, they abstained from such roguishness and delivered said explanation in the Good Ending as well. The Perfect Ending only adds a cutscene containing a couple of minor narrative elements—nothing that a quick visit on Youtube can’t provide quickly and efficiently, saving you the chore of painstakingly collecting all 108 Stars only to get a disappointing extra cutscene as your sole reward.  

Will you have a bit of brain-racking?

That being said, it’s worth noting that not all the questions raised during a playthrough of Tierkreis are bound to be answered at the end of the game, even with all the possible endings in hand. Konami conveniently paved the way for future installments related to the Tierkreis narrative arc by leaving many of them opened, preserving thus a lot of potential material and large avenues for future storytelling. From what I’ve read here and there on the internet, this way of leaving many questions opened and lingering seems to be entirely intentional and a fixture in the Suikoden series; the folks at Konami visibly want to craft a complex and compelling fantasy soap-opera, using as many entries as necessary to develop their huge, overarching narrative. However, and that’s where the genius of the narrative—and Konami itself— lies, it’s perfectly possible to guess how things may have unfolded in the past  and led to Tierkreis’ events—and to extrapolate how they may unfold in the future, for that matter—based on elements provided in the game. Even more interesting, Tierkreis actually offers several possible explanations to what happened over the course of the game, which are all plausible and logical; it’s thus up to the player to pick up the one they prefer, until a hypothetical future installment brings extra elements to the fold and clears matters for good—or not, since Tierkreis is already eight years old and no trace of a sequel can be found, not even as a vague innuendo from someone at Konami’s. Oh, well. At any rate, I’ll keep my own interpretation of Tierkreis’ events shelved until I clear my second playthrough; there are still a couple of elements that are murky to me and that I would like to clarify before delivering my vision of the story. I will edit that post if need be; for now, let’s move on! 

All literal interpretations of the story aside, Tierkreis’ narrative very graciously lends itself to other types of interpretations, which is utterly pleasant and makes that already splendid narrative even more excellent and fascinating, if that was possible. The story can be seen from different analytic angles and provides fascinating conclusions for each one, as I’ll demonstrate right now:

—The political philosophy angle: Tierkreis brilliantly illustrates the dangers inherent to any form of leadership. The Bad Ending, and by extension the genesis process of the One King, show that a kind leader with excellent intentions can still lead his troops to a complete disaster by taking just a couple of bad decisions. The Stars of Destiny relinquish their freedom and power of decision to follow the one of them who’s a natural-born leader, and that renouncement alone is dangerous, since it’s the first step on a trail that can ultimately lead to the birth of a brand-new One King. If the Stars remained totally independent, the One King simply couldn’t exist: its mere existence is a warning against the mirage of an encompassing positive leadership that could bring happiness to everyone and the illusion that sacrificing members of the group can lead to a greater good. The only way to save the world in Tierkreis is to let all the Stars follow their own way and fight their own part of the final showdown, after which everyone go back to their land and duties. Tierkreis teaches us that good leadership is bound to be temporary and must respect the individualities of every member of the group, lest a new twisted dictator be born before everyone can say ‘One King’.

—The metaphysical angle: Tierkreis postulates a universe of unlimited freedom, full to the brim with an infinity of potential developments and outcomes. This freedom is embodied by the Stars of Destiny, who are powerful individuals that can have enough influence on their environment to steer the course of events in a certain direction—or, to be more precise, a portion of the course of events. The more Stars are awakened and active, the more diversified and vibrant the future will become; reduce the numbers of Stars, and the future will slowly merge into a more unified thread, until it becomes still and encompassing under the dominion of the One King. Interestingly, this recoups quantum physics notions about the interdependence of mind and matter and their reciprocal influence on one another: as some Stars disappear, so do the worlds that they could have helped molding. It also gives a whole new meaning to the Hero’s motto, the deceptively cliché “You’ll never know unless you try”. This sentence that seems to be pure bromide at first sight, copy-pasted from any generic J-RPG under the gaming sun, reveals an unexpected depth upon further inspection and conveys a fundamental truth about Tierkreis’ world: this is literally a world in which the Stars of Destiny (such a perfectly fitting name, indeed) must take action in order to allow for a potential future to materialize. 

—The moral angle: This is maybe the most cliché of them, because it reprises the old J-RPG credo of “I will decide my own destiny!” However, it’s more palatable in Tierkreis because it’s backed up and fed by the other possible interpretations of the narrative. Following one’s free will, especially if one happens to be a Star of Destiny, is highly recommended in Tierkreis; but unlike in many J-RPGS, it’s not recommended only on the superficial ground that freedom is more alluring and glamorous than submission. It’s recommended first and foremost because not doing it can have devastating consequences: there is a moral imperative at work there, and Stars have the responsibility to follow their own way in order to preserve as many parallel universes as possible, and thus as many lives as possible. Freedom in Tierkreis does not equate roaming the world with no worries, but rather fulfilling your duties and remaining faithful to the path that only you can walk. From that angle, Tierkreis' storyline can be seen as a bildungsroman of sorts, a tale of spiritual growth in which the Stars of Destiny slowly discover their own tremendous power and the important responsibilities it entails.

When all is said and done, Tierkreis is the kind of game that makes you think. It doesn’t simply offer you a stellar narrative with compelling characters and an enchanting atmosphere, which would already be great; it also offers you the possibility to draw your own conclusions and interpret its storyline the way that suits you. This is quite rare in the gaming world and must be enjoyed to the fullest, and I can’t recommend enough Tierkreis’ stellar, shining gem of a narrative. There are other elements in that game that I wouldn’t warmly recommend, though, and that will be the subject of my next post, along with a plea for a much-needed different approach to story-driven J-RPGs. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

No comments:

Post a Comment