If you're able to get past the fact that communication between the characters feels like they're experimenting with the spoken word for the first time, this traditional RPG has some mileage. And for those who care about the plot, it's set seven years before Suikoden IV, and your character, Kryll, is on a mission to find out all he can about a set of magical weapons called the Rune Cannons.

As the tactics in the title implies, this is a strategic battler, as opposed to Suikoden's normal trad role-playing. We particularly like the potency of combined attacks when two cohorts befriend each other - sort of - on the battlefield, but like a fearsome warrior in Oxfam armour. On the downside, your enemies soon become too easy to read. Suikoden Tactics takes itself far too seriously - which, given the plot, makes it hard not to laugh as it goes about its competent business so earnestly.

Some nice ideas that could have made this effort stand out from the crowd were it not so chock-full of cliché.