All of this melds into a satisfying mix of Suikoden's trademark blend of straightforward, fast-paced battles with six party members, one-on-one duels (timed rock-paper-scissors affairs with weapons) and army-scale sea and land battles. The big battles even work in some real-time strategy elements, making for mad skirmishes where you'll try to outmatch the bad guys' cavalry units with your archer units (to name one example). That said, the large-scale fights are mainly fluffy side-dishes that aren't nearly as deep or customizable as they seem. But the one-on-one duels and regular small-scale battles balance the action nicely, and help keep the pace clipping along without giving you that dreaded "oh please, not another freakin' battle!" feeling.
