Suikoden V

"Not perfect, but Suikoden is well on the way to redemption."

The Suikoden series has had an interesting track record. Way back in the mid 90s, Suikoden was released and flew way under the radar. After all, it came out at the beginning of the PSX's life and it certainly didn't have all the fancy 3D graphics everyone wanted. A few years later, Suikoden II was released, and much like the original, went relatively unnoticed, no thanks to its limit production. Then Suikoden III came out for the PS2. The series did a complete 180 and nearly everything about it was changed. A lot of people didn't like the changes and the series started on a downward spiral. Another few years later, in an attempt to fix the problems, Suikoden IV was released with a similar feel to I & II. Unfortunately, it was plagued with a number of problems and if often considered the worst in the series. One year later, Suikoden V is released and does quite a good job of fixing what was broken. It sure isn't perfect, but it does bring the series out of the slump it's been in.

Graphics - The graphics here and interesting. A lot of people have complained about how simplistic they are, and how “sub-par” they seem. Regardless of what you may have heard, they aren't that bad. Suikoden just wouldn't look right with overly realistic character models so the cartoon/anime-ish graphics work fine here. There is enough expression and detail put into them to make them more than bearable. The backgrounds, however, do suffer from a bit of simplicity. This may be due to the awful camera angle used in the game, but you'll often be looking at a whole lot of nothing as far as the environments are concerned, and what is there is near impossible to see anyway. In addition, the fonts are a bit too small, making text somewhat difficult to read, especially in menus. It's not a huge problem, but something worth noting.

Story - Anyone who's ever played a Suikoden game could, essentially, tell you the story of Suikoden V without even having played it; the typical “one country invades another and one guy gathers a bunch of people and liberates everyone”. The series' stories have never been all that different, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. While it's been told before, it's still better than a lot of what you see in recent RPGs. Suikoden V's story does have a few unexpected plot twists that should keep you interested. Nothing mind-blowing, mind you, but interesting nevertheless. The characters are wonderful, though, and Suikoden V may very well have the best set of 108 in any Suikoden to date.

Unfortunately, this is also one aspect of the game that drags the game down a lot: the pacing. It starts off unbearably slow, and doesn't show any signs of picking up until at least 5 hours in. And even once that threshold is passed, things never move as fast as they should. Some people may have no problem with this, but other will wish there was more than 5 battles in the first five hours of gameplay.

Gameplay - Much like the story, gameplay has been pretty consistent throughout the series. The regular battle system almost mirrors the one found in I & II. Six-person parties, turn based combat, nothing terribly exciting here, but it works. Battles are fast for the most part (with the exception of some rune animations) and the added party formations inject a bit of strategy, albeit small, into the battles. But like anyone who's played a Suikoden game before knows, that's only one of three battle types. The one-on-one duels are far improved from the past version. The time limit placed on each command makes it feel more like an actual duel (as opposed to the staring matches in the older games) and the animations are fun to watch. The duels do suffer from being a bit too easy, but that's hardly a big concern.

The third (and most problem ridden) battle system is the large war battles. These battles play out like a Warcraft meets rock-paper-scissors mini-game where you send your units out on the battlefield in real time and use their RPS advantages/disadvantages to beat your opponent. The idea it a good one, but there are a few issues with the system. The mapping is a little off, so when a unit gets beaten and pushed back, if they hit a wall or corner, they'll be stuck and pummeled to oblivion. It's all fine and well when you're on the winning side. Not so much when it's your unit getting annihilated, though. It also takes too long to move the cursor from one unit to another. By the time you scroll to the unit you want to select, another will have engaged in battle, and the cursor will automatically center on the new unit. This gets frustrating when you are trying to move a unit out of harms way, only to have it lose because you couldn't select it in time. Luckily, these battles hardly make up a huge chunk of the game, so you won't run into these problems too much.

Another gameplay issue worth mentioning is Suikoden V's camera. Scrapping the rotating camera from III & IV, Suikoden V opts for a stationary overhead camera. This may not seem so bad in theory, but in practice it really doesn't work. Towns become a chore to navigate and things are very hard to see, especially when you have a house or tree blocking your view. Not very fun.

Sound - No Suikoden game has ever had a stellar soundtrack, and V is no exception. There are a few standout songs, the overworld, your HQ, Raftfleet, that may have you humming them throughout the game and whenever you are in the area, but the rest are all rather forgettable. There are even a few that become irritating, due to the long amount of time that you are exposed to them.

The voice acting, on the other hand, is done very well. Nearly every character's voice fits their character and it is very well done. There's nary a single cringe-worthy line the entire game, which is really saying something.

Replay - Let's get one thing straight. Suikoden V is a long game. 50 hours long. And that's just playing through the main story. A lot of people may enjoy a nice long game like that, but the length feels like a hindrance more than help. The great thing about the first two Suikodens was that you could easily play through them again to get all 108 Stars of Destiny if you missed them the first time around. And even if you did get them the first time, you could still run through the game again in a relatively short period of time, just because you enjoyed it. With Suikoden V, it's tough to justify playing a 50-hour game again, just to get an extra scene or two at the end. Some people will do it, but it's likely that many will not, even with the new game+ option that carries over unused armor, runes and SP.

Overall - Suikoden V does a great job of redeeming the series compared to it predecessor, although it takes a few steps back in a few areas. Despite its flaws, it is most definitely a look for fans of the series that have been looking to see it returned to its former glory. And even if you haven't been following the series since the original, Suikoden V is still a solid RPG that's worth a look from anyone. Suikoden's not all the way back, but it sure is getting there.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/19/06