Plot

Fifteen years after the events in Suikoden II, three warriors search out the legendary Flame Champion and gather the 108 Stars of Destiny to save the world from a new evil who plans on destroying the world.

Suikoden III is told primarily from the perspectives of three different characters: Hugo, son of the Karaya clan chief, Chris, the female leader of the famed "Six Knights" of the Zexen Federation, and Geddoe, a secretive man who leads the 12th unit of Harmonia's Frontier Defense Force. When plans for a peace treaty between Zexen and the tribes of Grassland are shattered mere hours before its signing, the threat of war between the nations escalates. Separately, the three protagonists begin to realize that the tensions were reignited intentionally by outside forces from Harmonia, and that the fate of Zexen and Grassland rests in the hands of the Flame Champion, a supposedly immortal hero that disappeared fifty years beforehand. Taking separate paths, they simultaneously arrive at the Flame Champion's resting place, only to discover that the great hero chose to abandon his immortality and passed away long ago, leaving the power granted to him by the True Fire Rune for a successor: either Hugo, Geddoe or Chris. Who will be the successor to the title of Flame Champion and become the next great hero?—Anonymous

50 years ago the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia invaded the Grasslands, but was repulsed by the legendary Flame Champion, who united the warring Grassland clans and the mercantile Zexen Republic. Now, a new threat appears in an attempt to destroy a True Rune, an action that could threaten the world itself. The leader of the Knights of Zexen, the teenage son of the Karayan Clan chief, and a mercenary under the employ of Harmonia, each seek out the old Flame Champion in order to save the Grasslands once again.—Kefka-3