Suikoden IV takes place approximately 150 years before the events of the first Suikoden game, and relates the story of a young boy living on the island of Razril and the Rune of Punishment, one of the 27 True Runes. The Rune of Punishment governs both atonement and forgiveness, and is unusual in that it consumes the life of the bearer with use; once the previous bearer dies, it immediately jumps to someone nearby. Meanwhile, the Kooluk Empire seeks to expand into the nearby Island Nations. 

As fans of the series have come to expect, the battle system for Suikoden IV has been entirely reworked. Though characters can still perform combo attacks with each other, the pairing system from the previous game has been scrapped in favor of a more traditional four-person lineup, with each warrior acting individually. To give the combat a little more variation, you'll occasionally have fights that depart drastically from the standard form: Ship battles have you firing your rune cannons across a grid-based battlefield, and the one-on-one duels (think "Rock, Paper, Scissors," but with swords) make a return. Though these additional combat styles are simplistic, they are still great fun, and a welcome deviation from the normal pattern.