[Discussion] Reviews and Opinions of Suikoden V
-
- Posts: 20
- Joined: Mon Nov 20, 2006 3:35 pm
After the somewhat disappointing Kingdom Hearts 2 and the, in my opinion, overwhelming Dragon Quest VIII, Suikoden V was the saving grace of RPGs this year. As ever the feel of the game is epic.
Though I feel at times the narrative structure was similar to Suikoden II, that didn't deter what I thought was a powerful tale of politics and hierarchy. The characterisation also made everything more engaging, and I honestly cared about what happened, especially to the Royal Circle. The biggest achievement for me was the script; so modern with its dialogue, yet clever too.
My only critcism is the ending. The staple of having a major character die only to be ressurected if you collect the 108 Stars of Destiny is a tired exercise. And of all the interesting characters that did die - Ferid, Arshtat, or the most interesting character in the game as far as I'm concerned, Sialeeds - why Lyon? Her backstory with Nether-Gate was never really covered well enough for the gamer to feel a huge sense of empathy.
The difficulty of the game is another issue. I felt most of the bosses were easy to beat, especially with some of the over-powered characters featured in the game.
Ultimately, however, I thoroughly enjoyed Suikoden V amidst mountains of college work. I haven't played Suikoden III or IV, and found Tactics quite tepid, but this made me remember how much I loved the series. Definitely one of the best RPGs I've played this year.
Though I feel at times the narrative structure was similar to Suikoden II, that didn't deter what I thought was a powerful tale of politics and hierarchy. The characterisation also made everything more engaging, and I honestly cared about what happened, especially to the Royal Circle. The biggest achievement for me was the script; so modern with its dialogue, yet clever too.
My only critcism is the ending. The staple of having a major character die only to be ressurected if you collect the 108 Stars of Destiny is a tired exercise. And of all the interesting characters that did die - Ferid, Arshtat, or the most interesting character in the game as far as I'm concerned, Sialeeds - why Lyon? Her backstory with Nether-Gate was never really covered well enough for the gamer to feel a huge sense of empathy.
The difficulty of the game is another issue. I felt most of the bosses were easy to beat, especially with some of the over-powered characters featured in the game.
Ultimately, however, I thoroughly enjoyed Suikoden V amidst mountains of college work. I haven't played Suikoden III or IV, and found Tactics quite tepid, but this made me remember how much I loved the series. Definitely one of the best RPGs I've played this year.
Last edited by ascending_poet on Thu Dec 21, 2006 8:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- 27x4=108
- Posts: 256
- Joined: Mon Dec 18, 2006 3:58 pm
- Location: Spain
-
- Posts: 357
- Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2005 4:37 pm
- Location: Malmö, Sweden
Hehe..Truemen..special ablity..."splatter"27x4=108 wrote:Yeah, maked crits of 7200 at lvl 55, at 99.. i prefer to not know xdascending_poet wrote:I felt most of the bosses were easy to beat, especially with some of the over-powered characters featured in the game.
Jeane, The Marilyn Monroe of Suikoden.
-
- Posts: 62
- Joined: Thu Jan 25, 2007 9:00 pm
- Location: IL
- Contact:
-
- Global Admin
- Posts: 2861
- Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 10:41 am
- Location: ON, Canada
-
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Wed Sep 28, 2005 9:51 am
Pros
Character designs = Were very good in this game. Suikoden 1's designs
were lacking, 2 & 3 were very good, 4 was horrible, and 5 has probably
the best designed characters thus far. The backgrounds and locations
were also quite good.
Storyline = Unlike 4 (which was horribly boring) and 3 (which was less
than stellar), 5 seemed to get it right by following the same route 1 and
2 did. Although it is very slow at the beginning (like walking around your
home looking for sister. Ugh.) the story does pick up right away when
the castle becomes under siege. It starts to pick itself up again when
you finally get your own castle. So if there were any less than exciting
moments, they were quickly brought to a conclusion, with some needed
excitement.
Graphics = Although I personally preferred the 2D sprites, for a 3D
Suikoden, it's the best looking one thus far. Beautiful effects (like
water and light) and the effects from the spells are all very cool to
watch.
War events = Are handled very well, being extremely simple and
overall, rather simple to get used to. There are some minor annoyances,
but overall, the best war gameplay yet.
So-So
Voice Acting = This is actually IMO, not particularly a pro, but it's not
a con either. The voice-acting in this game is far from being the worst,
(since Japanese RPGs seem to usually bring in the VAs who suck at it)
but it still needs to slightly improve. Most characters sound lacking in
any kind of emotion necessary for the situation, or just don't sound
very good period. There are some good VAs, Arshtat, Ferid, Sialeeds,
and a few others who play their roles well. Secondary characters
however, have less than good acting talents, and VA recycling (when
a VA is doing another character and it's blatantly obvious) is a big
No-No in my book.
Difficulty = Suikoden games were never that hard. Although some
were quite challenging (1 & 2 notably) the 3D ones seems to have
been declining in difficulty. Although the cons certainly seem to
replace the game difficulty.
Cons
Money = What I've noticed is that in this particular Suikoden game,
money is a LOT harder to come by. Most of the time, only Faroush
and Lyon were ever up to date in gear and weapon strength. I just
never had enough for any other party members. Unless you train
your butt off, which honestly, is never really all that fun since
everyone else aside from you is well-equipped or strong enough to
make it go by quicker.
Character Equip/Weapon = Another thing I noticed was that unlike
previous Suikoden games, where the characters actually had decent
armor and their weapon strengths were NOT ALL AT LEVEL 1. Which
adds to more money wasted on characters on your level that should
be on your level in armor and weapon strength. The fact that every
other character barely had anything equipped on them as well didn't
help.
Training to get money to buy upgrades is fine. But this game seriously
set it up to where it's more of a HUGE inconvenience and chore.
Cutscenes = This game has one of the single worst uses of cutscenes.
Most cutscenes in the game are severly useless, if not wasted. The
cutscene introducing Luserina? Pointless. She doesn't even talk!! And
it's like...3 seconds. Wow. Really worth a cutscene. Although there
were good ones (Like the rescue attempt for Lym), most other ones
were either too short to be worth it, or just not interesting enough to
be worth it. The choreography in the fight scenes were simply awful.
It looked like they were done by puppets.
Formations = Although they are good, most formations are overall,
useless and are barely ever used save for 1 situation, and even then,
the situation isn't so dire that you need it. They look good, and their
potential for depth in the combat system is also good, but in this game,
they were not handled very well. You're probably only going to use
about 3-5 formations out of the 18 in the game.
Character Recruitment = Unlike previous Suikodens where only a few
required you to go through certain events or even to go through
certain events with said character to recruit them, in this game you
must do something for EVERY character that does not join you via
storyline. Although it's nice to see some development in the non-main
story characters, it gets to be kind of tedious when every single
character needs you to do something for them. Another big error from
Konami is that in this game there are a LOT of ways for players to
accidently lose the chance to recruit characters, far more than any
other previous Suikoden game. Most of them are simply just not
easy to find, and you may very well be ambiguous to their locations
unless you use a guide or some other FAQ to help you. Also, certain
characters are frustratingly difficult to recruit, like the appraiser
Bastan. (Which btw, no other Suikoden game has EVER had an
appraiser as hard to recruit as Bastan. WTF Konami.)
Overall
Although I did enjoy the game as a whole, it nevertheless, gave me
many fits of frustration, far more than any other previous Suikoden
game. I have always gotten the "best" ending in previous Suikoden
games, and although they weren't easy to achieve, they were by no
means nearly as frustrating and difficult as this game's was. Although
Konami is taking a good step forward by bringing Suikoden back to
it's roots (as opposed to Tactics, Suikoden III & Suikoden IV) it does
need to be a lot more leniet towards the gamer in the other aspects
of the game.
6/10
Character designs = Were very good in this game. Suikoden 1's designs
were lacking, 2 & 3 were very good, 4 was horrible, and 5 has probably
the best designed characters thus far. The backgrounds and locations
were also quite good.
Storyline = Unlike 4 (which was horribly boring) and 3 (which was less
than stellar), 5 seemed to get it right by following the same route 1 and
2 did. Although it is very slow at the beginning (like walking around your
home looking for sister. Ugh.) the story does pick up right away when
the castle becomes under siege. It starts to pick itself up again when
you finally get your own castle. So if there were any less than exciting
moments, they were quickly brought to a conclusion, with some needed
excitement.
Graphics = Although I personally preferred the 2D sprites, for a 3D
Suikoden, it's the best looking one thus far. Beautiful effects (like
water and light) and the effects from the spells are all very cool to
watch.
War events = Are handled very well, being extremely simple and
overall, rather simple to get used to. There are some minor annoyances,
but overall, the best war gameplay yet.
So-So
Voice Acting = This is actually IMO, not particularly a pro, but it's not
a con either. The voice-acting in this game is far from being the worst,
(since Japanese RPGs seem to usually bring in the VAs who suck at it)
but it still needs to slightly improve. Most characters sound lacking in
any kind of emotion necessary for the situation, or just don't sound
very good period. There are some good VAs, Arshtat, Ferid, Sialeeds,
and a few others who play their roles well. Secondary characters
however, have less than good acting talents, and VA recycling (when
a VA is doing another character and it's blatantly obvious) is a big
No-No in my book.
Difficulty = Suikoden games were never that hard. Although some
were quite challenging (1 & 2 notably) the 3D ones seems to have
been declining in difficulty. Although the cons certainly seem to
replace the game difficulty.
Cons
Money = What I've noticed is that in this particular Suikoden game,
money is a LOT harder to come by. Most of the time, only Faroush
and Lyon were ever up to date in gear and weapon strength. I just
never had enough for any other party members. Unless you train
your butt off, which honestly, is never really all that fun since
everyone else aside from you is well-equipped or strong enough to
make it go by quicker.
Character Equip/Weapon = Another thing I noticed was that unlike
previous Suikoden games, where the characters actually had decent
armor and their weapon strengths were NOT ALL AT LEVEL 1. Which
adds to more money wasted on characters on your level that should
be on your level in armor and weapon strength. The fact that every
other character barely had anything equipped on them as well didn't
help.
Training to get money to buy upgrades is fine. But this game seriously
set it up to where it's more of a HUGE inconvenience and chore.
Cutscenes = This game has one of the single worst uses of cutscenes.
Most cutscenes in the game are severly useless, if not wasted. The
cutscene introducing Luserina? Pointless. She doesn't even talk!! And
it's like...3 seconds. Wow. Really worth a cutscene. Although there
were good ones (Like the rescue attempt for Lym), most other ones
were either too short to be worth it, or just not interesting enough to
be worth it. The choreography in the fight scenes were simply awful.
It looked like they were done by puppets.
Formations = Although they are good, most formations are overall,
useless and are barely ever used save for 1 situation, and even then,
the situation isn't so dire that you need it. They look good, and their
potential for depth in the combat system is also good, but in this game,
they were not handled very well. You're probably only going to use
about 3-5 formations out of the 18 in the game.
Character Recruitment = Unlike previous Suikodens where only a few
required you to go through certain events or even to go through
certain events with said character to recruit them, in this game you
must do something for EVERY character that does not join you via
storyline. Although it's nice to see some development in the non-main
story characters, it gets to be kind of tedious when every single
character needs you to do something for them. Another big error from
Konami is that in this game there are a LOT of ways for players to
accidently lose the chance to recruit characters, far more than any
other previous Suikoden game. Most of them are simply just not
easy to find, and you may very well be ambiguous to their locations
unless you use a guide or some other FAQ to help you. Also, certain
characters are frustratingly difficult to recruit, like the appraiser
Bastan. (Which btw, no other Suikoden game has EVER had an
appraiser as hard to recruit as Bastan. WTF Konami.)
Overall
Although I did enjoy the game as a whole, it nevertheless, gave me
many fits of frustration, far more than any other previous Suikoden
game. I have always gotten the "best" ending in previous Suikoden
games, and although they weren't easy to achieve, they were by no
means nearly as frustrating and difficult as this game's was. Although
Konami is taking a good step forward by bringing Suikoden back to
it's roots (as opposed to Tactics, Suikoden III & Suikoden IV) it does
need to be a lot more leniet towards the gamer in the other aspects
of the game.
6/10
-
- Global Admin
- Posts: 2861
- Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 10:41 am
- Location: ON, Canada
This is the same as Suikoden IV. I think the reason it was done was to allow everyone to know what their weapons' names are.Red Exodus wrote:Character Equip/Weapon = Another thing I noticed was that unlike
previous Suikoden games, where the characters actually had decent
armor and their weapon strengths were NOT ALL AT LEVEL 1.
I agree, formations weren't used effectively.Formations = Although they are good, most formations are overall,
useless and are barely ever used save for 1 situation,
It was actually one of the criticisms levied against Suikoden IV, that the additional characters didn't require any thought to recruit. Personally, I prefer having to do extra work. Like you said it develops character.Character Recruitment = Unlike previous Suikodens where only a few
required you to go through certain events or even to go through
certain events with said character to recruit them, in this game you
must do something for EVERY character that does not join you via
storyline. Although it's nice to see some development in the non-main
story characters, it gets to be kind of tedious when every single
character needs you to do something for them.
-
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Wed Sep 28, 2005 9:51 am
May I just say then, that it's not worth it. It made absolutely no senseOppenheimer wrote:This is the same as Suikoden IV. I think the reason it was done was to allow everyone to know what their weapons' names are.
for characters 5+ my level to not have ANY upgrade in their weapon.
Although it does, some characters were just not interesting enough.It was actually one of the criticisms levied against Suikoden IV, that the additional characters didn't require any thought to recruit. Personally, I prefer having to do extra work. Like you said it develops character.
IMO, anyone who wasn't useable in combat was not worth going through
story, especially if their recruitment didn't offer any sort of humor, or
depth.
-
- Posts: 166
- Joined: Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:47 am
- Location: my own private hell
- Contact:
I love the character recruitment in Suikoden 5. For some characters you have to pick the correct answers, sometimes you have to beat the crap out of them AND my favourite is the recruitment during a certain period of time. War battles are very impressive and it is a real challenge when you have to switch between land and sea units.
The battle of Lelcar is my favourite there. There is not much to criticise except the loading times, but that's all I have to criticise there. Great story line, great voice acting, great plot.
This is what I was waiting to get from Konami. And I also hope that Suikoden 6 will top part 5.
just my 2 potch
Pokerface
The battle of Lelcar is my favourite there. There is not much to criticise except the loading times, but that's all I have to criticise there. Great story line, great voice acting, great plot.
This is what I was waiting to get from Konami. And I also hope that Suikoden 6 will top part 5.
just my 2 potch
Pokerface
Mess with the best, die like the rest!
http://www.suikoden3.de
http://www.suikoden3.de
-
- Posts: 200
- Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2007 10:23 pm
- Location: Magical Land
Hmm, the only major thing i'm not particularly fond of in S5, is not the loading time's like most people don't like about it, it is just the way that the game MAKES you play all these characters and doesnt let you choose any character's you wanna play with...like 3/4 character's in your party that you MUST take with you and you can only pick like 2 of your own choice... and some of them are low lvl and have gimpy armor... most of this happens throughout the whole game but more at the begining. I also don't like the way the camera is, it just doesnt feel like i'm playing a "Suikoden" game... sure you can zoom in but it still doesnt look right to me and the town's look awkward and weird.
I love it though, S5 is a really good game and reminds me of S2 but honestly after S2, Suikoden has really went downhill but atleast S5 has an amazing storyline but i still have more fun while playing S1 and S2.. i guess i'm more old school. Lol
I love it though, S5 is a really good game and reminds me of S2 but honestly after S2, Suikoden has really went downhill but atleast S5 has an amazing storyline but i still have more fun while playing S1 and S2.. i guess i'm more old school. Lol
-
- Posts: 139
- Joined: Mon Jun 12, 2006 8:11 am
- Location: East Rockaway, NY
actually, aside from the money glitch with Hans in S2, S5 is the easiest in terms of getting money. It's actually pretty ridiculous. With the ability to BUY prosperity rings (i.e. infinite prosperity rings), it makes money-attaining simple. You throw 4 rings on each of your 6 party characters, have all the prosperity set spread out (never all on one person), and for good measure, throw in all the characters with potch-finding as a skill into your party/entourage. You'll be getting 200,000 potch a fight in ashtwal mountains.
The rings are available once you get to port spinacks, I think it is called, which granted is a decent way through the game. maybe 3/4 of the way. But you still get to abuse this potch-finding technique for the powering up at the end (not to mention keep an insanely high amount for a new game+).
The rings are available once you get to port spinacks, I think it is called, which granted is a decent way through the game. maybe 3/4 of the way. But you still get to abuse this potch-finding technique for the powering up at the end (not to mention keep an insanely high amount for a new game+).
- patapi
- Forum Moderator
- Posts: 2545
- Joined: Sat Jun 12, 2004 3:55 pm
In retrospect, the game gives you 4 backup slots for you to toss in those forced characters to fit in your favourites in the fighting team. This option never existed in previous Suikoden.VinceValentine wrote:Hmm, the only major thing i'm not particularly fond of in S5, is not the loading time's like most people don't like about it, it is just the way that the game MAKES you play all these characters and doesnt let you choose any character's you wanna play with...like 3/4 character's in your party that you MUST take with you and you can only pick like 2 of your own choice... and some of them are low lvl and have gimpy armor... most of this happens throughout the whole game but more at the begining.
-
- Posts: 200
- Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2007 10:23 pm
- Location: Magical Land
Yeah, i know, the 4 backup slots for other characters that you can switch in and out is pretty cool, but 1 of my slots is already taken by Marina ever since i recruited her, for her regen ability during battles. I suppose that only leaves 3 slots right? and sometimes those slots are also taken by gimp low LVL people... so i'm stuck with 3 or 4 low LVL gimp people that i have to deal with until i progress through the story and sometimes i even had to take Marina out for a person the game made you take with you so i wasnt too thrilled over that. I really hated taking Zweig to all the Sindar ruin's especially... and Lorelai didn't really bother me because she's cute and she's pretty tough and her Drain Rune made her pretty hard to KO.
Anyhow, I'm not saying that all of the game they made you take useless character's but a lot of times they did and it was just annoying and it sucked that you used Georg for mostly all of the begining but then he disapeared after you've trained him to a decent LVL and bought good armor for him, for him to only disapear again and again because he was off doing who know's what... and i never actually got to use him at the end in Ashtwal Mt. either. I was kinda annoyed with that. I just hope in S6, they'll make the towns look better... more detailed ATLEAST and have the NPC's have some kinda detail... the NPC's in S1 and S2 looked better and thats pretty sad. I guess i'd just like it if they make the armor a little less expensive too, Saint's Cloak, and, Corruption Shell, anyone? I know i'm picky when it comes to RPG's... action games not so much.
Anyhow, I'm not saying that all of the game they made you take useless character's but a lot of times they did and it was just annoying and it sucked that you used Georg for mostly all of the begining but then he disapeared after you've trained him to a decent LVL and bought good armor for him, for him to only disapear again and again because he was off doing who know's what... and i never actually got to use him at the end in Ashtwal Mt. either. I was kinda annoyed with that. I just hope in S6, they'll make the towns look better... more detailed ATLEAST and have the NPC's have some kinda detail... the NPC's in S1 and S2 looked better and thats pretty sad. I guess i'd just like it if they make the armor a little less expensive too, Saint's Cloak, and, Corruption Shell, anyone? I know i'm picky when it comes to RPG's... action games not so much.
-
- Posts: 139
- Joined: Mon Jun 12, 2006 8:11 am
- Location: East Rockaway, NY
well those two pieces of armor provided an INSANE amount of defense. and also, there is no limit on the potch you can make, unlike in the previous games (999999). You can go above and beyond that, making the end of your first game/new game+ very easy in terms of purchasing power.
also, zweig is quite a character. i didn't mind having to carry around a bunch of required characters, because the game was so easy that it didn't really matter. and, i don't think i ever had marina in my party. i needed her to run the inn. ;x
also, zweig is quite a character. i didn't mind having to carry around a bunch of required characters, because the game was so easy that it didn't really matter. and, i don't think i ever had marina in my party. i needed her to run the inn. ;x