At Konami's Tokyo Game Show 2008 was Suikoden: Tierkreis, an upcoming Nintendo DS version of the long-running RPG series. For the demo there was the option to load two different saves, one at level 3 and one labeled level 26. We chose the higher of the two and started up in control of a four character party consisting of two male humans, a female human, and some kind of dog-headed humanoid. The environment was an artfully painted background around which our party leader's 3D avatar ran from a three-quarters overhead perspective.


There was a bit of dialogue at the demo's start, but it was all in Japanese, something this author can't read. After a brief exchange with an NPC, our party was off to explore a few paths that wound up through the mountain, engaging in random battles with enemies. Once into a battle the background shifts from a painted look to full 3D. It's turn-based, so players pick their actions, from basic attack commands to item usage to magic spells, and then watch as party members and enemies alike go through the motions of the fight.

Your characters are aligned in two rows, and with the proper command inputs before you initiate an attack it's possible to execute tandem moves. These are signaled by character portraits that slide into the center of the screen, then fade away as the camera detaches from its position over the battlefield and focuses on a special attack animation performed by the characters involved. As you might expect, this tandem attack does more damage than the standard ones, but can't be used repeatedly.

Eventually our party made it through the mountains and reached a bridge, whereupon another conversation sequence started up. We were accosted by some soldiers at this point, which proved to be a more difficult battle than with the monsters we were fighting before. Once we put them down, another wave of bosses jumped in with only a cutscene separating the fights, meaning we didn't have time to prepare. Eventually we were defeated, which was apparently supposed to happen as it triggered a cut-scene that gave way to the demo's end.

__________________