Suikoden V

"A good storyline with interesting characters, what more does a RPG need?"

Having played all the games in the series, I felt I should write a review for at least one of them. That being said, simply put, Suikoden 5 does not disappoint. I am rating this game on 5 different aspects, music, graphics, gameplay, "extras", and the storyline.

Music - The music in this game is... well lets say that you'll listen to it the entire game, and the second you turn your PS2 off, you'll forget the beat. The battle music is almost always the same(except for a few occasions or if you put a certain character in your party), and it leaves much to be desired. The "War Battle" music is actually pretty good in my opinion, its rather catchy, but once again, it is completely the same throughout the entire game. The music in the cutscenes is very well done, and it is the sort of music you'd expect, such as it being fast paced and loud when there is chaos all around you. If I had to sum up the music in the game with one word, I'd say "Expected", nothing radical happens with the music at any point that I could remember, and it is pretty much what can be expected during the game. My rating: 7.5/10

Graphics - Well like most people say, graphics aren't very important in an RPG, and I tend to agree, but suikoden 4 had better graphics, which is why I was confused when I played through my first 5 hours of the game. I honestly can't think of an excuse why the graphics weren't as good as they were in 4, so it was either a lowered budget or developer laziness. The spells in the game look very bland and unexciting, and all though the cutscenes look pretty good, I could only remember 2 scenes in the game where there was actual lighting effects. The character models look very solid, almost every character has a unique look(in fact the only ones I can remember that look the same are dressed in the same military uniform). Overall, I'm rating the graphics low simply because they were better in 4. My rating: 6/10

Gameplay - Ah, the salad to our main course, the gameplay. Gameplay in Suikoden 5 is fun, I found that recruiting characters(without a guide/FAQ) was really fun, finding out what to do by myself was great, since some characters are really confusing to get, and not once did it feel like a chore. Sadly, the main battle system that you use for most of the game is pretty easy, and certain characters are just too powerful. I really wish this game had a "hard mode" since I can rarely remember a point in the game where I had difficulties with the enemies I was facing. Sadly(again) this also applies for the war battles and duels, making the entire experience of the game pretty easy. If you don't believe me look on the message boards for someone asking for help with an enemy, you won't find one. Anyway enough ranting, onto the war battles. The war battles are easy for one reason alone, the enemy AI is just terribly stupid, to describe how stupid the AI is, there was one point in the game where I had a unit of horses(100 men) take out 900 enemy soldiers simply because I had certain abilities that healed my men. Did they run away after the first 300 deaths? No they stayed and fought, and lost. The game does make you feel good about the battles though, since you are usually outnumbered 3:1, you think to yourself "Hey, im the man, I just killed 3000 men and lost 200!". And finally there are the duels, there are only a handful of these duels in the game, but they are rather interesting, you have to anticipate your enemy based on what he says, and I remember being caught off gaurd several times in a few duels. Besides all the combat, there is the traveling, and compared to some RPGs, the traveling in this game isn't bad... its not fun but its never an annoyance. This game has fun gameplay in my opinion, and it deserves a good rating. My rating: 9/10(because its easy, or im just really good).

"Extras" - This section doesn't even really need to be here, but hey, the more optional stuff you put in the game the better, right? There are many minigames, from card games to fishing games, but one of the best minigames in the series was left out, which sucks =P. The minigames are there, and you may play them for a while, but I can remember only playing one for an extended period of time, and that was the dragon racing, because if anything in this game is hard, its the dragon racing. I spent hours hours upon hours mastering those races, and even though the rewards weren't that great, I was just happy that I actually got 1st place on all the tracks. The minigame I was talking about earlier, that should of been in the game, was the Cooking game, it was the most fun out of any minigame in the series in my, and many other peoples, opinion, yet they left it out for reasons I dont understand(yes, you do get a cook in your army). Anyway, there are games to play, and some you might get hooked on, and considering they are completely optional, I can't give them a bad rating. My rating: 8/10(where's my cooking game damnit!)

Storyline - I'll keep this simple, the story is addictive. The first 5 hours of the game are a chore in my opinion, since it is just setting up backstory for the real game to begin, but once you(finally) get out of the castle, and begin the real action, it gets much better. There are quite a few memorable characters that I can think of, some are shrouded in mystery(Zerase would be an example), others trying to fulfill their personal goals(Gayava), there are the prettyboys with big swords(Belcoot and Dinn), and the pure bred badass characters(Georg) plus a lot more interesting varieties. The basic story goes like this, you are a prince in a Queendom, so you have no line to the throne, but hey thats too much work anyway(according to your father, the king). Things go bad(thats all I can say without spoilers), and you end up fighting to reclaim the Queendom and clear your(and your allies) good name against a nation ran by a puppet queen(your sister, who you are trying to save). For anyone who has played a game in the previous series, there is a "true rune" in this game, and oddly enough, it doesn't play a big role in the game, its "children" runes do however, and it makes for a good premise to base the rest of the story on The game is about 65 hours long, which is pretty damn long. My rating: 9/10(the first 5 hours just killed me)

Rent or buy - If you are really really strapped for cash, rent it, hell, rent it twice, chances are you wont beat it in a week(unless you're hardkore), and you certainly wont ge all 108 characters(without a guide). Otherwise, it is worth your 40 bucks to get, and in a few years it might be worth more then you payed for it, so keep that in mind as well.

Final notes - If you're looking for an RPG with a decent combat system, memorable characters, and a good, addictive storyline, you simply can't go wrong with suikoden 5.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/03/06