[Discussion] Reviews and Opinions of Suikoden V

A forum for people who have played the game concerning the Sun Rune War to answer gameplay questions.
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Raftrider
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Re: Reviews and Opinions of Suikoden V

Post by Raftrider »

So, WHAT if I'm a few years late giving my educated opinion on this game? I'm currently on my second play through (Ha, it's been two years since I've played this game!), and there are a looot of glaring facets of this game that I DIDN'T like:

BYPASS MY POST ENTIRELY IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED! Peasants.

-Sound track. This is one of the only games in my entire life time that I've actually axed the BGM. I DESPISED it! There was maybe one or two songs I liked out of the entire game!

-The encounter rate. Though not nearly as bad as Suikoden IV's was.

-The Godwins and Childerich. All of them felt flat and vapid. The whole political power struggle could have been written A LOT better. Heck, even the War itself felt anticlimactic (not to mention many character deaths). I still feel Konami owes us after producing two garbage titles (Suikoden IV and Tactics).

-Sialeeds's death and "betrayal". Okay, I know she didn't betray the Prince per say, but the way she spoke and acted towards our party during those events seemed so utterly contrived! Even her death felt forced! What the hell was wrong with Sialeeds saying, "Yo, nephew! I really think you and your little sister aren't capable of pwning the Senate, so I'll use my feminine wiles and awesome boobage to fool Gizel, and help destroy them from within all covert-like!" instead ruining her character and wasting story time with that nonsense!?
I'm sick of the resurrecting Gremio-esque characters like the rest of you, but if any one should have been revived, it should have been Sialeeds.
Konami, her character wasn't "broke" therefore, there was no need to try to "fix it". They should have just kept her as she was, and even given her SoD status.

-The ending. Biggest friggin' cop-out ever. Some one, any one. PLEASE tell me how much sense it makes to have the murderers of your mother, father, and aunt (technically) all buddy-buddy with their souls, CONGRATULATING YOU? Give me a big league break! That would be like earning your place in Heaven, only to find Joseph Stalin is having a delightful picnic with your parents, whom he had killed by forced labor in the Gulags!

-Lyon's injury and death. Konami, we already had two characters saved from death in previous installments. STOP IT ALREADY! Rather than having 108 Stars of Destiny bring X Gremio-esque protagonists back from death, why not have them as a deciding factor of the War's outcome? (I don't mean to say you need to recruit all 108 to get a good or even decent ending).

-Lack of a "cooking game". I don't know about you guys, but I miss the one with Hai Yo from Suikoden II. Every time I've recruited cooks in later installments, I'm always disappointed because they have NO BENEFIT!
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Pope Blitzkrieg XVI
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Re: Reviews and Opinions of Suikoden V

Post by Pope Blitzkrieg XVI »

Honestly, we need a real villian like Luca Blight again. I thought this title was perfect for another Neclord related episode too...Whatever happened to the true evil personas? Maybe that's why I'm losing interest in Suikoden...

The one on one battles felt really odd, the way the characters move seem way to robotic, and stiff. Also, the battle view camera seemed way too far, I mean...Suikoden 3 had it the best in my opinion. I kinda want to see the action up close, not from the Goodyear blimp. Don't know...haven't had fun playing a Suikoden game since Suikoden III it seems. Coop attacks were horrible in this game...I mean, no flash at all. I want to see something cool!
Sierra's sister

Re: Reviews and Opinions of Suikoden V

Post by Sierra's sister »

Hm? Weren't Gizel and Marscal Godwin pure villain? They are planning to use the Sun Rune since previous years, until Lucretia was punished because she suggested Arshtat to bear the Sun Rune herself. Um well, Gizel not purely, he still has a small kindness. Marscal is evil.
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Re: Reviews and Opinions of Suikoden V

Post by Runemaster »

Sierra's sister wrote:Hm? Weren't Gizel and Marscal Godwin pure villain? They are planning to use the Sun Rune since previous years, until Lucretia was punished because she suggested Arshtat to bear the Sun Rune herself. Um well, Gizel not purely, he still has a small kindness. Marscal is evil.
But not as nuts as Luca Blight where he kills people and destroys everything just for entertainment. Marscal and Gizel are just people who want Falena to be governed in a different way, not realizing its consequences.
I will bring Lordlake's fate... to the entire Suikoden World! weeeeeeh!
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Re: Reviews and Opinions of Suikoden V

Post by Author »

Runemaster wrote:
Sierra's sister wrote:Hm? Weren't Gizel and Marscal Godwin pure villain? They are planning to use the Sun Rune since previous years, until Lucretia was punished because she suggested Arshtat to bear the Sun Rune herself. Um well, Gizel not purely, he still has a small kindness. Marscal is evil.
But not as nuts as Luca Blight where he kills people and destroys everything just for entertainment. Marscal and Gizel are just people who want Falena to be governed in a different way, not realizing its consequences.
Not exactly villainy, but they're still the antagonist. I think I'd credit Suikoden for this. 'Another Luca Blight' would frankly be disappointing.
Grendahl

Re: Reviews and Opinions of Suikoden V

Post by Grendahl »

I just finished it last night, and... yeah, I got a really unsatisfying ending. That's probably the only problem I have with Suikodens, those bad endings ruin the experience. I don't think RPGs should even have multiple endings, or at least not in a way that Suikodens do them. If you screw up (which, in Suikoden V, is very likely) and get a bad ending, it makes you feel like you've accomplished nothing and just wasted your time playing it 'cause you know you'll have to play it again to get any satisfaction out of it. And this is a real b***h in rpgs which usually take about 60+ hours to finish. And when I play a game for the very first time, I don't even want to play the game through perfectly. On the first playthrough I want to enjoy the experience without having to worry about finishing the game 100%. So, that's the problem I have. Well, next time I buy a Suikoden game, I'll be sure to look for a perfect walkthrough first. It's ridiculous I have to do that to enjoy it. It bugs me because I really love the series.
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Re: Reviews and Opinions of Suikoden V

Post by 1234569and10 »

People say four was a crappy Suikoden, but I actually think that I liked that one a lot more than this. Suikoden V might have been really good, but I really disliked the way that it presented it's characters. The overhead view was cold and impersonal, and the lack of any real gestures or visible facial expressions in ordinary dialogue really got to me. It's difficult to sypathize with characters who just stand around like statues when when serious bsns is goin' down.

The characters in SuikoIII were very expressive, always doing crazy things with their faces and bodies. In SuikoII, it was interesting to see Nanami greet Riou when he came back home, and that little dance thingy Riou did whenever he recruited some one was nice, too. There's really not much of this going on in V, and in fact it doesn't seem to be going on at all. Even in during full-blown cutscenes, the facial expressions and gestures are not that compelling. This is more of a personal thing, but that smiling-with-his-eyes-closed thing the prince did just didn't put me off, it PISSED me off...Lazlo was weird looking as all hell, but he never annoyed me as much as the prince did.

Another thing that kinda bugs me is the Prince's position in all of this. In this game, you can make decisions that affect how other characters will respond to your character and ultimately how the story will end. Suikoden gives you decisions to make, but not enough of them. If you say what you really want to say to the other characters, you will most likely be penalized- i.e. having to wait until chapter bazilliondy to recruit detective Oboro, and losing the other endings. This wouldn't be so bad if you could redeem yourself and make amends to all the characters you pissed off, but that pretty much doesn't happen. Suikoden V does not forgive.

And on that unforgiving note, character recruitment. It's pretty lame to have to drop everything you're doing to go recruit character x,y and z, because they won't be available after you complete battle/level/whatever that you were really looking forward to and wanted to do now instead of later. Collecting all 108 characters is what Suikoden is about, but V makes accomplishing this a total chore. When I first play a game, I like to beat it to 100% on my own without any guides. Even after I got a guide for SuikoV, a lot of parts were still needlessly tricky. Apparently, some of the guides couldn't get the game right either. Lame.

The formations were cool, and being able to haul around all those characters was fun as well, but it seemed kind of unnecessary given that pretty much all of the characters seemed more or less identical as far as abilities go. There are the strong characters, and then there are the weak ones. The weak characters are very weak, and the strong characters are very strong. It was too easy to just resort to Belcoot, Richard, Raven and Zerase. I tried to incorporate characters from the story that I liked more, like Zweig and Lun, but without costly rune and armor boosts...meh.

A lot of the characters that I liked stopped being featured in the story line after a while, so that was kind of depressing. I got to spend the whole game hanging out with characters like Sialeeds and Lyon, and I did not much enjoy this.

Augh, I'm tired of complaining. Being able to assemble runes was a plus, and there's a lot of gameplay to be had. I feel like this game had a lot of potential, but the story and battles were just not engaging enough.

Typos? Oh well...
No, Jowy, I do not want your stupid carrots.
atoz

Re: Reviews and Opinions of Suikoden V

Post by atoz »

Suikoden V is the 2nd best Suikoden series. For me, the number 1 belong to Suikoden II.
Actually Suikoden V got what it takes to be number 1, just that... the ending sucks!!
First, it'll be better if Lyon just die or if Konami doesn't want to make her dead, then don't make the scene where she is dying in the end and all the characters like those godwin scums appear and give Frey support.
Come on, they're the villains. It'll be better if villains remains villains.

Other than that, i think Suikoden V is almost another masterpiece in Suikoden series.
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Re: Reviews and Opinions of Suikoden V

Post by amelia108 »

Marscarl's Hitler-esque tendencies made him pretty darn evil in my eyes. He didn't wear it like Neclord or Luca, but the plotting, contemplative type is usually a bit scarier... to me.
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Re: [Discussion] Reviews and Opinions of Suikoden V

Post by TheReMonstor »

You LadyKarasu. I'm using your score system, it's solid.

Alright, a little late in posting I know, but I just finished the game the other night. Had played 12hrs of it previously, abandoned it for a year or so, then, with the announcement of Suikoden on DS, I went back in, started over, and played through til' the conclusion.

My opinion of this game is very odd and will probably look unbalanced, but I thought this game was very odd. To note, I'm a huge Suikoden fan. Suikoden I-III are easily the best and equally unregarded RPGs of their respective times.

To the scores:

Combat - 7: The fluidity of the battles really makes them fun, but the encounter rate is simply too high. I know you can equip the Champion Rune to ward of lessers, but you may as well fight them for the PartySP and Potch. If the battle system was tedious in any way I probably wouldn't have made it past the Ceras Ruins dungeon.

Another annoyance was the HP/Damage balancing throughout the game. In said dungeon for example I had to use 5-10 Medicines after each battle, which is difficulty in disguise. I could probably say more on the combat, but it's ease/fun factor once you start using party members of your choosing is a series staple and is intact in V.

Magic - 5: Overall, I think the Rune System is unique, but it needs a serious overhaul. The biggest glare, for me, is having spells be charge-based. When I've got two magic-users in combat, I want to feel free to use their magic, not save it all for the dungeon boss. Yes, there are magic restoring items in the game, but I seriously only found a single item. It feels like the magic system is the way it is because that's how it's always been, not because it's good. Unique doesn't always translate well.

Also, the majority of the Runes are garbage. So many are particular to character types that there's only a handful worth using and due to limited Run space on characters, even Runes particular to characters aren't worth using their only Rune slots for.

Lastly, though some spells looked cool, some just flat out sucked. I was pissed on seeing the lack of effort put into the Pale Gate Rune, one of the best Runes from previous games. Aside from the centaurs, each spell is a graphic of an already-existing spell with some beast thrown in to make it appear different. Pissed.

Characterization - 7: I've seen a lot of praise on the board for Vs cast, but the amount of shallow, worthless characters far outweighs the good ones. Half of my score is based on George being a key character--bravo for that decision. The Prince was well done too for a character who doesn't speak and all automated responses end with an exclamation point.

Dinn, Roog, Zegai and some others were well designed and generally developed, but so many just plain sucked. The puppet show lady? Are you serious? And the conductor guy? Resto is worthless with no cooking minigame, the crew associated with the elevator (Lu, Sorensen, something like that), all the beavers, the list goes on. And don't get me started on the beavers.

Recruitment- 4: Way too tedious this time around. It was upsetting that the Oborro crew was necessary to acquire some of the Stars, so if you didn't get them before they vanished (I didn't), then you're screwed out of some team members. A few of the requirements were completely indiscernible without a guide.

But the biggest flaw in recruitment this time had to do with pacing. In past Suikodens, scripted events were somewhat long affairs that required a lot of time to complete which in turn benefited recruiting. After so long on an event it was fun to go out and about to grind and find new characters. In V it seemed that some events barely took half an hour so I went on to the next one without thinking and after a string of that I found myself unable to recruit some people I forgot about.

Graphics - 6. Zero textures and the zoomed out camera made most of the game look like a plastic dollhouse. When cutscenes actually occurred they were very, very well done. It made the story much more engaging, but when the game would have a 10 second cutscene and then jump to the stale "everyone stand around and hand motion and speak" scene it completely ripped out outta the moment. Overall, graphics were good for the series, but the RPG is a flashy affair and there's lots of room for improvement.

Plot - 5: So, what happened? The Godwins seized control through deceit so they could use the Sun Rune to obliterate everything and make Falena that greatest nation ever? But, they couldn't use the Rune, couldn't beat the Prince and couldn't do anything very well at all.

I'm sorry, but this story was convoluted, asinine, and penned with what seemed like an "ok, this happens, then...this happens and..." kind of attitude. There's no logic involved whatsoever. I absolutely love the series staple of regional conflict, but the Suikoden team needs a research branch, some history majors to scrawl out a plot that doesn't go helter-skelter to the point of irrelevance.

The HQ- 6: I remember a scene of Suikoden II, an art still, that showed Rikimaru and Amada drinking or arm-wrestling or something like that. Camaraderie is essential to make these characters feel connected and you can do that by having them interact within the Castle. But everyone is standing around, most of the time in ridiculous locations like starring at a wall or something.

I couldn't stand to be in that Castle. It was way too difficult to navigate, especially in the final stage when Logg is fifty miles away from Viki. It didn't even look cool. The idea that more was revealed as the water level decreased was awesome, but it didn't reveal anything worth a hoot. Give me a traditional castle any day.

Duels - 8: Fun but too easy. The timer was a great addition, but essentially it's just a rock-paper-scissors formula, one which the game relies way too much on. It never made sense to me that to Guard an Attack still meant taking damage.

Wars - 7: As I said, rock-paper-scissors, though it works, it's just a bit too simple, but at the same time infuriating when I have to chase down enemy units with 8 soldiers left, but they still take out 20 of mine. The biggest flaw lies in the "retreat!". I don't know how many times retreating units fled right into the pathway of my other units, eventually creating this big muck of idiots all dying.

Regardless of rebuttals, a military unit, when routed, wouldn't flee behind the enemy they just fought into the face of another unit. Granted, when things went right, it was a lot of fun and customizing the units, though basic, was fun. Unique units like the Dragon Cavalry and using the Beavers for the only thing they're good for--Gnawing enemy ships--was good fun.

Music- 6: One good track for every three bad ones. That song in Haud village made me cringe.

Voice Acting/Cut-Scenes- 8: Like I said above, great cut-scenes, they should've done every dialogue sequence as such. It was those scenes that helped develop the Prince, and, aside from the slew of death sequences around the end, which were straight outta B-Movie 101, they were integral to the success of the game.

Mini-games - 2: Aside from the erroneous fishing game, ugh. Nothing worth the time. Jet Motto on PSX is still better than Dragon Racing.

Skills - 7: I'll be honest, I didn't know you had to equip skills to have them take effect until the last quarter of the game. And only being able to equip two makes the amount of SP gained throughout the game irrelevant. The skill system is a great idea, but could be much better.

Final Score: 7: Like I said, there's no way all those complaints make this game a 7, but here's the best thing that Suikoden V had going for it: it came after Suikoden IV which is one of the worst RPGs ever made. For me, and I think the developer as well, Suikoden V was a chance to restore the series to what it was. So, they put back all the things they took away, the stuff that makes Suikoden what it is, but they didn't go above and beyond. They didn't add anything new, they just made an average game that was much closer to what Suikoden fans are used to.

Granted, I played through it all, around 50 hrs, but I was glad to be done. The characters had half the charm of the first three games, the story was 3rd rate at best, something you could toss together in a few hours, and the core gameplay was average. But, it was better than IV by a thousand and simply shows that the dev.team knows what went wrong with IV and it's a kind of promise that we won't have to endure anything like it again.
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Rune
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Re: [Discussion] Reviews and Opinions of Suikoden V

Post by Rune »

I think Suikoden V has a great story and cast, with a sufficient presentation and simple-yet-fun gameplay. I feel the same way about every other game in the series (except IV, but it still has it's positive aspects). Suikoden V, however, happens to be my favorite in the series. Objectively, it's probably no better than II or III in the end, but this cast, story, and setting clicked with me more than any other Suikoden.

STORY

V has, by far, the most detailed and involved story of the series. Whether that's a good thing or not is up to the player, I guess, but there's much more development and details for the plot and events than any other entry in the series (only III comes close, and even there, a lot of minor events were barely touched on). Every even in V received a full amount of development, whether it was a featured part of the story (the coup d'etat or helping Lelcar, for example) or just a minor event that happened alongside the rest of the story (Lym's coronation or Skald Egan's movement against Armes). There were no plot holes that I could think of or anything that didn't make sense/seemed to come out of nowhere.

I also felt the story flowed extremely well overall. While everything didn't always make sense at the time, looking back from the ending, the many different events and actions of characters all came together and made sense. Armes' meddling, Godwins' plotting, Sialeeds' hatred of the nobility, Marscal and the Sun Rune, it all tied together to create the plot, rather than a bunch of individual events happening. Somebody earlier mentioned that the story seemed to be written in a "this happens, then this happens, then this happens..." fashion; I couldn't disagree more! Almost every event occurs because directly as the result of an earlier event.

The story overal was just very enjoyable for me. I loved the setting and the characters, and the events which took place were fascinating and enjoyable (sometimes even emotional and moving). I've seen many people criticize V by calling it a rewrite of I or II. While there are definitely a few events and characters which are similar to previous events in the series, these are usually very general or minor similarities. Abandoning your headquarters, the coup d'etat, flooding the river to wipe out an enemy fortress and save a town at the same time, these events and many more were original and much more significant to the story. The entire war was essentially a stall tactic for the Godwins to gain control over the Sun Rune and hold their throne, which was unique in and of itself.

CHARACTERS

V's cast is my favorite by far. I absolutely love the character designs, and I really enjoyed the characters themselves too. I fell in love with the royal family, Lucretia is one of my favorite characters period, and I found the antagonists to be fascinating and a bit nontraditional (both for Suikoden and RPGs in general). What I enjoyed most about the characters, however, is how involved in the story they were. Well over half the Stars of Destiny were involved in the plot (with many having optional or additional roles), plus there were nearly 20 other main players who didn't join up with the Prince. That's a lot more than any other Suikoden, and it made the recruitment aspect feel a lot more connected to the story, rather than a sidequest.

I also found V's cast to be the most developed in the series. Many characters had recurring roles in the story, involved recruitment quests which told more about them, and ended up having unique relationships with other characters. If you talked to characters in your castle, read comments in the comment box, and did the bath conversations/detective investigations, you could see a lot more interaction than in previous entries. There were no characters that I felt didn't belong in the game or with the Prince. The cast felt very alive.

That "charm" that some people say the more recent casts lack is nothing more than nostalgia, in my opinion. The characters of III, IV, or V are not inherently worse than the characters of I or II; in fact, I would say the characters of III and V are much better developed and presented than in I and II (and definitely IV, which had the weakest characters in the series not including their involvement in Tactics).

GAMEPLAY

I think most would agree that, for the most part, V has the best battle systems of the series. Duels are no different than in past entries except for the few additions (which I found great). Although the real-time aspect of the war battles produced some minor issues (not being able to select units while paused), it was overall a great direction to go in and it's my favorite system of the series. The regular battles were too easy (enemies should have had more HP and done more damage to the party), but otherwise I loved the formations. I think the battle system works fine as it is (in terms of future installments). They should focus more on making the battles more cinematic/flashy and develop what's already there (particularly, the formation and skill systems), rather than try to throw in any new gimmicks.

Speaking of the skill system, I did like how the skills affected stats rather than just mysteriously adding effects. I also liked how you didn't need a B+ or higher in a skill to actually use it at all (particularly magic). While I didn't have a problem with only 2 skill slots, I think adding more slots would've been better. That or making all epics learnable by everyone as well as making them equal to the regular skills (an A in magic will increase the stat more than an A in an epic with magic included).

Recruitment was fine. It was difficult, but not impossible. There were a good number of missable characters, but not nearly as many as people make it out to be. I think had Oboro given a few more hints as to how to recruit someone, recruitment would've been fine. I did like how many characters' recruitment quests were more involved and helped develop the characters' personality, history, or relationships.

PRESENTATION

The graphics were effective, but not spectacular by any means. I don't mind the zoomed out camera, I only wish it had been rotatable. The regular conversation scenes worked, but were a little bland at times. I didn't mind them for most conversations and events, but anything that involved some sort of action should have been entirely done in the full-motion cutscene. I understand the budget was a limited factor, but I think it would've made a pretty large difference. Were budget not a factor, I would also have liked to see all conversations voiced. But what we had was great. I really loved the lighting effects. Other than the technical aspects, design was superb. I loved the art direction for the entire game. I didn't have a huge problem with the load times, but it was a technical flaw that I would rather have seen addressed.

Sound was great overall. The voice acting in cutscenes was excellent. The battle voices were a little over-the-top at times, but usually acceptable. The music was all outstanding, however. The town themes made nice background music, while the event music was all very dramatic and emotional. Many songs still send shivers down my back. I also loved how brassy a lot of the music was. It's not something we've heard much in Suikoden, and it gave the music in V and interesting new element. Battle themes were some of the best in the series IMO.
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Re: [Discussion] Reviews and Opinions of Suikoden V

Post by Drognar »

50 Hrs in still nowhere near done.(yeah I obtained my PS2 quite recently from a friend)

Heres my Review-

Graphics-6.5/10
Not very good, I wish I could say more but the sprites in town just lack motion and fail to impress me, the battle animations are a little above average and kinda slick but not all that great either. The best part for graphics are the cut-scenes which all look beautiful. The menus and art style remind of Suikoden I.
Sound-10/10-
Quite a variety of music that has a very good Rhythm to like most Suikoden Titles, its just too catchy. Voice acting is insane and where the game truly shine, these great models along with the excellent voices make the game sound truly convincing and expertly done.
Gameplay-10/10 doesn't just give it justice.
Awesome in a word. Suikoden V takes the great play style from Suikoden 2 and builds upon it infinite ways like formations, skills and other great ways to customize your gaming experience, Entourage system is excellent addition, I love idea of getting 4 slots to store my character or use for support. War Battles and duels both feel much better, I love the real time strategy they got in wars, its so evolved from 2s that feels so limited like your command of nothing. Duels are fun and frequent, although the time limit is annoying it adds challenge and the very well done animations encourage the player to think on one's feet.
Story-8/10
Characters are all convinced and very well developed, but unfortunately a story can't survive with a weak Villain, Gizel and Lord Godwin are boring as hell. They are just bunch of rich losers who got lucky and now your prince is screwed pretty much. Prince isn't very entertaining either, Silence mains are outdated, darn it!:(. Yeah, silence fits him well but if he opened his mouth this story would have a 9.5, only not a ten cause of the lame villains. Never the less most o the characters are flowing with personality and well made, I got to hand to konami, they hooked me.

Overall-10/10-Suikoden is back and better then ever, everything looks so classic but it feels so cool.Fun as hell even 50 hrs in, the game really is Suikoden 2 fanservice buts it so much more than just that. Its a CLASSIC, a resurrection of what Suikoden should always be. Too all that say 2 was better, just screw off I don't want to here, I love 2 but Suikoden V surpassed almost every way possible. I hope Komanis looking back at V when they see that horrid failure that is tierkras on their plate, V's true suikoden perfection, but Tierkras, oh well thats just a generic piece of shoot.
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Belcoot4
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Re: [Discussion] Reviews and Opinions of Suikoden V

Post by Belcoot4 »

Dragonar, you should try it on the PS3 on an LCD thats 1080p the graphics are maximized. I totaly agree with everything else, just that I thought the actual story should have been longer. Also, this game was a great villain away from being a 10/10 rating, I mean psychologicly the Godwins were quite impressive but once they get punched in the mouth they fall like dominoes. Overall, this game is awesome and definitly should have set the series on track for faster releases, I'm hoping.
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Drognar
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Re: [Discussion] Reviews and Opinions of Suikoden V

Post by Drognar »

Belcoot4 wrote:Dragonar, you should try it on the PS3 on an LCD thats 1080p the graphics are maximized. I totaly agree with everything else, just that I thought the actual story should have been longer. Also, this game was a great villain away from being a 10/10 rating, I mean psychologicly the Godwins were quite impressive but once they get punched in the mouth they fall like dominoes. Overall, this game is awesome and definitly should have set the series on track for faster releases, I'm hoping.
I don't know about the Villains, I mean you gotta admit, its pretty corny to have some rich assholes who just happen to have the perfect opportunity to take the throne do. Also don't me make mention Euram Barrows, even for comic relief hes embarrassing, thank god hes not a main villain, Suikoden might have lost a lot of respect there if that was the case. The graphics are good but not great, my TVs colors are little messed right now admittedly but its a high quality TV. I just don't notice anyone moving around in town or in your castle, like they are glued to their environment like early PSX games. The battle sprites could zoomed in bit more, too. I mean I only get a click glimpse at my characters in the the battle end screen or unite attacks. Suikoden III gave you a much better glimpse, even though they always seems to be followed by a dark shadow that covers them making it hard to make out details.
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Re: Reviews and Opinions of Suikoden V

Post by Oppenheimer »

atoz wrote:Suikoden V is the 2nd best Suikoden series. For me, the number 1 belong to Suikoden II.
Actually Suikoden V got what it takes to be number 1, just that... the ending sucks!!
First, it'll be better if Lyon just die or if Konami doesn't want to make her dead, then don't make the scene where she is dying in the end and all the characters like those godwin scums appear and give Frey support.
Come on, they're the villains. It'll be better if villains remains villains.

Other than that, i think Suikoden V is almost another masterpiece in Suikoden series.
I just coerced my boyfriend into playing through Suikoden V. He's a big JRPG fan and generally very intellectual and he loved Suikoden V's political backdrop. He really felt that Gizel was a worthy villian due to his scheming etc. However, he was very dissapointed in the ending. He got all 108 stars but he expressed to me that he felt that Lyon's almost death at the end seemed like a cop out to give you some sort of punishment if you didn't get all 108 stars. I told him that it does make more sense if you think of it that she never fully healed and it was just the Dawn rune that was keeping her going.

There was one other thing that we both found dissapointing about the ending, Gizel and Marschal's final words before their deaths are actually them repenting. It seems to detract from their villianess when they do such a thing. I thought that perhaps they were lying but then the worst part is that they, Alenia and the other traitor knight, the Barrows guy, and both of the Godwins are beside your parents in the final vision. This made it seem as if they were all redeemed. They were all smiling and happy. While it was nice to see Arshtat and Ferid again, to see the other enemies besides them was a bit insulting to the entire game up to that point. I have to agree with my boyfriend on that point too, that particular vision makes the ending very disappointing.
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