I recently set up my PC and my new Retroid Pocket 5 with a bunch of my old games library, which brings me to four devices in my house that have 90% of every game I’ve ever played installed. Imagine telling your 10-year-old self that. I’ve needed a new bedtime game for a while and even though Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. is excellent on Steam Deck, it’s a little intense and the button mashing is just a little obnoxious for my sleeping wife.
Instead, I’ve started a new save file of Suikoden III, a game I have put tens of hours into but never completed. Released in 2002, for the PlayStation 2, the third Suikoden game is a strange little number. It’s a story told from three (well, secretly five…kinda six) perspectives with three main characters. As with every Suikoden game, one of the major draws is recruiting 108 Stars of Destiny, an optional but rewarding task that fully unravels each game’s story.
In Suikoden III, there are some twists to the typical Stars of Destiny task. Because you’re dealing with three different characters and playing through each of their scenarios, it’s tough to keep track of the steps you need to take to recruit every Star of Destiny. Thus, I reference a guide.
I almost choked up when I searched for a good Suikoden III walkthrough and GameFAQs was the first result. I clicked through and the most recommended guide is the very one I consulted 23 years ago when I first played the game, constructed beautifully by author Dan Crenshaw (oh my God I hope it is not the shitty Congressman). It’s all there, too. Every step needed to recruit everyone. The best order to play each story. Advice (not decree) on which skills to build for each character. The weird trick to get one of the protagonists Chris to level 99 super early (not recommended by the author but still painstakingly conveyed).
THE LOTTERY BOOST. Oh wow I forgot about the lottery. You can buy lottery tickets early and savescum your way to get tons of money to make everything a bit easier. Again, this is shit I didn’t bother with. It always seemed like a minmaxer’s dream and not the way I typically played games, but I truly love the attitude Crenshaw took with this guide. “Here’s the sicko stuff…you definitely don’t need to do it but it’s all here, baby.”
I’ve spent the most time over the past five years on Polygon’s outstanding guides for games like Tears of the Kingdom, where they combine helpful imagery with their walkthroughs. I also appreciate how their guides are searchable by keywords instead of having to dive into a long walkthrough with nested chapters. With all respect to Polygon and their guide writers, no one is really doing it like the freaks who made the most recommended GameFAQs guides.
And yeah of course IGN and Polygon aren’t going to inject tons of personality or strange quirks into their guides because what a burden to place on the guides freelancers busting their asses week in and week out, but magic rarely comes from mandate. It comes from being a pervert.
So thank you, Dan Crenshaw and every other GameFAQ author who totally overdid it. You’re a hero in this house and always will be…unless you are that Dan Crenshaw.
