Suikoden V

"Finally, another good Suikoden game"

For those who know a bit about my gaming habits, it's no big secret that I'm a huge fan of the Suikoden series. Although I'm not a pioneer from the first hour, I played every game, look up on more info vigorously, and, possibly one of the worst habits that I have is that I recommend the series to everyone, causing much annoyance, which has earned me the label of a fanboy. I myself don't agree with this, since the average fanboy either doesn't see any flaws in the games that he worships, or he criticizes on everything, from the smallest grammatical error, to a mispronounced word. I like to position myself somewhere in between, where my main interest in the game is the fun-factor, the overall story, and the significance it has to the Suikoden universe in general, but where I'm still sane enough to recognize flaws when they present themselves. As you can see from this introduction, I can't help but being a little biased towards the games, but I still try to keep my final opinion objective enough so that this review has at least some use.

Now the game that has kept me busy for the past few weeks is the latest instalment in the series, Suikoden V. Since I was rather disappointed with the fourth game, I wasn't really getting my hopes up. Sure, Suikoden Tactics corrected quite a few of the errors, but since it wasn't one of the “main” suikoden games, I still had some scepticism. When the game was released in Japan, I was relieved to see that it got some rather good review scores, and the overall impression was that the game took the series back to its roots. Knowing this, I got rather excited, and I eagerly anticipated it's release.

The most important aspect of the Suikoden games has always been the story for me. Where as political intrigues, mysterious runes and backstabbing was absent in IV, the latest game provides more than enough of this. This time, we focus on the kingdom of Falena, a realm blessed by the light of the Sun Rune, one of the True Runes that govern the world. It provides prosperity to the country, but it also can be destructive against those who intend to do harm to the land. While it's normally kept in a sanctuary, an incident in the recent past forced Queen Arshtat to use it, and she has it attached to her forehead ever since. She continues to rule the country with a firm hand, but she also starts to show signs of growing insanity, that worries her family, and also the Queen's Knights, her personal bodyguards.

If this wasn't enough trouble already, the senate also seems to have plans of it's own, especially the two main factions, the Godwin family, who desires a powerful nation, strong against it's neighbours, and the Barrows family, who seems to care more about domestic peace, but at the same time hides some dirty secrets. In the middle of this stands the main character, the prince of Falena. While he seemingly leads a carefree life, going on some missions for his mother, he'll soon be wrapped up in a web of political intrigues that will change his fate, along with that of the country.

With this short description, I haven't even scratched the surface of the game's plot. I could go on for hours about it, but since this is a review, it wouldn't be a good idea to spoil half the game. As you probably guessed, I love this story, mainly because it goes back to the roots of the series, and gives us a deep plot, which make the weak attempt that IV was fail in comparison.

There are only a few things that bothered me a bit, but they didn't ruin the overall experience, and only fanboys will be upset about it. The first one is that the game starts rather slow. By the time the “actual” war begins, you're already ten hours in the game. Now, with most games, I would have given up if there were no real developments after such a long time, but it wasn't really a problem with this one for me. The main reason for this is because the introduction, mainly focused on the royal family, makes you genuinely care about them, you become emotionally attached to not only the king and queen, but also their entourage, the Queen's knights. This makes later events much more important, and it motivates you to go on. But as I said, the slow start may push people away, so it's only a tiny flaw.

The second “flaw” is the game's villain. You have several, and some of them are great, but the main evil guy behind everything just doesn't live up to the reputation that previous bad guys like Windy or Luca Blight had. The game sets their schemes up pretty good, giving you enough questions to motivate you, but in the end, the questions don't get a satisfying answer, or sometimes no answer at all.

As for the cast, as mentioned during the story description, the main characters are just wonderful. Characters like Lyon, the prince's loyal bodyguard, Georg Prime, the head of the Queen's Knights, who was given some heavy tasks by the King, Ferid, or Sialeeds, the Queen's sister. She especially is one of my favourites, since she has some wonderful character flaws, that make you want to hate her sometimes, but you can't help but love her. This is also the first game where the main character has a love interest. Now, this is often risky business in RPGs, because gamers will feel that it's forced, but this game just makes it seem natural. I'm rather fond of this development, and I'd love to see more stuff like this in future games.

As with most Suikoden games, we see some recurring characters. As expected, there's Jeane, the mysterious rune master. We get a bit more on her background, but it only raises more questions. Of course, Viki, the sneezing teleportation mage is involved, but no new developments here. One of my personal favourites also makes a return, Lorelai. I'm thrilled that she gets a bigger role, together with Killey, with who she seems to have a strange relationship, and we get a lot of information on her background and her motivations. We cannot forget Leknaat, who returns with her philosophical rambling about the Staros of Destiny, but this time she is accompanied by a new character, Zerase, bearer of the mysterious Star Rune, and knowledgeable about the Sun Rune.

As I've said in my introduction, I value the significance of the game to the entire Suikoden universe, and this one is quite significant. For one, we finally learn the truth on Georg Prime, a mysteries that kept players busy since Suikoden II. Another rather important development is made in solving the mysteries of the Sindar, a race that has left advanced ruins all over the world. We learn more about who they where, although the question of their disappearance isn't anywhere near an answer.

I don't pay much attention to how games look, but the Suikoden games have been an exception when it comes to spell effects. From the first game, the spells, especially those from True Runes have looked awesome, even with CG animation in the second game. While IV was really disappointing in this aspect, V has some awesome spells, but unfortunately, it doesn't seem like we'll be seeing CG spells anytime soon.

Character designs in Suikoden V belong among the best I've seen in the Suikoden games. I'm really glad that the hero doesn't look like a douche anymore. As for the other characters, designs look awesome, although the conversion to in game graphics isn't always as smooth as I wished. Some characters do look better in game, like Killey for example, but overall, I prefer the designs. As for the enemies, we don't see any really original designs here, just the generic ones you'd expect from Suikoden games, or RPGs in general. The final boss is a bit underwhelming, when compared to my favourite Suikoden one, the Rune incarnation in the third game.

Musically speaking, Suikoden V doesn't have the best OST among the games. The opening theme is one of the weaker ones when compared to La Mer (IV) or Transcending Love (III), but it's still a rather nice piece that sets the mood for the rest of the game. The rest of the music is as expected from Suikoden games, nothing really outstanding, nothing bad either. There are a few themes that I like, mostly some of the later boss themes, but also some of the remixes of older Suikoden songs.

As for voice acting, just like in Suikoden IV, it's excellent. The best voices are queen Arshat, who has one of the coolest scenes in the series, especially thanks to the excellent voiceacting, and my favourite character, Sialeeds, who has the best laugh in any videogame. The only problem I have is that the hero is still mute. Granted, this works a lot better than it did in IV, but still, the scenes where you call on your army to head to the battle field always end in a bit of an anticlimax, because all that the hero can do is raise his hands. Another thing related to this is that the hero still doesn't have a name, so during the entire game, he's only referred to as “prince”.
As for gameplay, the Suikoden games haven't shown that much innovation, and V is no different. Since I assume that the basics are well known, I'll limit myself to the few innovations. The regular battle system has gone back to the beginning. 6 party members, each can equip various runes to enhance certain aspects or use magic. Cooperative attacks are also back, but without the levels that were used in IV, magic hasn't changed, although the combination spells are now already selectable, where as you had to find them out for yourself in the previous games. What is new is the use of tactics and formations. During your adventure, you'll find several so-called “tactics”, that allow you to put your party in a different formation, that gives you an extra skill usable in battle, like casting two spells in a row, or a huge attack on the enemy, and a small stat boost. I played a bit with this in the beginning, but I didn't bother changing formations in the second half of the game.

You can also enhance your characters' stats by using skills. Battles reward you with skill points, that you can use to raise certain skills. You can only equip two skills at first, but later on you'll find “epics”, combinations of various skills. If you think that you can just fight enough in the beginning to max out your skills from the start, think again, because the later levels have to be unlocked with special items. The only problem I had with the battle system is that it was too easy. I only died once in a regular battle, and that was only because I wanted to see a special rune's spells. For the rest, you'll have a rather easy time going through them, and since there are enough healing items around, you don't really have to worry about anything.

The duel system hasn't changed one bit, except for the fact that you now only have three seconds to enter an action. But for the rest, you still have to divine what the enemy will attack you with by paying attention to their lines. There are a few guys in the game where this isn't possible, so you just have to guess what they'll attack you with.

The coolest changes can be found in the War system. Wars now take place in real time, and combine various aspects from the previous games. The biggest change is that your units now advance in real time, and that you continuously have to pay attention to the entire battle field, because the enemies attack from everywhere. The battles themselves play like rock-paper-scissors, only replaced by cavalry, infantry and archer squads. Archers can also be equipped with runes that allow them to unleash a powerful magic attack on your enemies, and all units get recovery spells, charge attacks, that allow you to hit the enemy without receiving any damage, and a few special commands. When one of your units attacks, you get to see them charge through the enemy, or you see the devastating effects of a rune spell. This is pretty cool, and makes the battles seem more epic

The major battles are not easy, you have to pay attention to every unite, don't rush into things, lure enemies away from the group to slaughter them, heal a lot, run away and you really have to sue tactics, where as the previous games had pretty easy battles that could be won without to much effort. I had a lot of fun with the major battles, and I wanted more of them. The use of your tactician's strategy also took some effort on your part, and you couldn't mindlessly obliterate your opponents. This is my favourite system yet.

The rest of the gameplay also remained the same. You still have to search for the 108 stars of destiny, but they are rather hard to find this time. Some of them require you to go back several times, others have you fighting bosses, and there are even some that are missable permanently, so that you can't get the best ending. I was glad that finding the stars actually had more meaning to it compared to Suikoden III and IV, where it didn't seem that they had an actual reason to join you. It's still one of the coolest aspects of the series, and I look forward to this with every new game.

Finally, after two boring Headquarters, this game gives you a place that reminds you of the glory of the old lake fortress in Suikoden I, or the castle town in Suikoden II. This is the biggest base yet, and I had a lot of fun exploring it. As in the previous games, there's a lot that can be done in your headquarters. There are various shops, places to customize menu's and a lot of minigames (fishing, dragon horse racing, gambling,…). One of the coolest activities is always finding the so-called “Old Books”, because not only do they provide you some useful gameplay tips, they also give you more insight in the history in the world. The game surely doesn't disappoint here, since there are as many as 13 books to be found.

Overall, while the gameplay can't really be called original or innovative, it continues to be a lot of fun, mainly because the variety in activities that you can do. If your bored with searching for Stars of destiny, you can always go play some mini games at your castle, or explore a few optional dungeons. There's plenty to be done, but you won't get so lost in it that you forget the main story.

As for replay and extras, as usual, there are few optional dungeons and hidden bosses that you can take on, most of them are related to the recruitment of certain characters. There are several endings that you can get, some during the game if you lose certain battles or make certain choices, and others that depend on the number of stars that you collect. There is a new game+ option, that allow you to start over with your equipment and your levels, if you want to go through the game quickly to get a different ending, but since the game is rather long, it took me 60 hours, I don't think that many people will be that interested.

In conclusion, I can say that I had a lot of fun with this latest instalment, more than I expected to be honest. Although there are still some flaws, I personally rank it among the top Suikoden games. If you're interested in the series, this is an excellent game to start with, if you don't find the older Suikoden games (which is a rather good possibility), since it doesn't require a lot of knowledge from the previous games, and because it contains enough intriguing points to suck you right into the Suikoden universe.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/30/06