Infinite Undiscovery – Xbox 360
Grade: Pass
(7.0)

I am a tri-Ace fan through and through. I was much more vehement and fanservicy back in the early century, but I was certainly excited to play a tri-Ace RPG on the 360, because I thought it would be um, good for once. There were a few technical issues in the game that could have easily been corrected I believe, and some of these issues take away from the enjoyment factor. I’d say the learning curve is fairly short and small, but control figuration and button mapping definitely takes time getting used to as I believe every button is used on the controller in this game. The storyline is acceptable as is a lot of the characterization that has been done well, but it sort of quicktails into “what?” during the last 10 minutes of dialog. Infinite Undiscovery is a game that clearly shows it shortcomings, but it is playable, and playable always gives my brain a sense of calm.

The storyline surrounds a flute player named Capell who was arrested for being Sigmund, a faction leader attempting to break all the chains of the moon that ensare the Earth. Capell is broken out of jail by supporters of the faction, and after a bit of hooha, Capell later joins the faction. The story initially is one of simply follow-the-leader Sigmund, though there is meat tossed into the fray. For example, the chains cause blight and famine to inhabitants of the world, and the chains are imposed by the Order of the Chains led by the Dreadknight and are also understood as ensaring the moon. The moon grants the people prosperity and a gift called Lunaglyphs which embue the wielder with special powers, longer lives and a higher rank in society. It’s given to children when they are born, but if they are born by lunar eclipse they are considered unblessed. Nothing more can be said about the story that will not spoil, but there is definitely an interesting dichotomy between the classes of unblesseds and blesseds that are played through really well, and emotionally. Many of the characters are somewhat passable for human in what they’d say under the story’s circumstances. Therefore, the initial lameness of Capell character and Aya’s somewhat annoying brashness help to develop them into some of the better quality characters in the game. Perhaps Edward’s characterization matches their quality as he later becomes one of the few characters with a nice noggin’ on their shoulders. I can’t really think of any characters I disliked. There’s many PCs and NPCs (but are in your team) that are introduced in the game, but they’re still memorable by whatever lines they say. Wait. Komachi’s sidekick — I forget her name? Yeah, she’s one of the few characters full of fail who join to join because someone else did. The ending of the game made me drop this game down from an 8.0 to 7.0 as it really sucks and doesn’t wrap ANYTHING up even though it shows you what characters are doing.

Ah. The battle system. Now this is what I like. Of course there are things such as Item Creation, skill creation, stat increases from items, cooking, smithery and etc by specific characters which add to the plethora of things you can do in battle. But. Actually playing the game is simultaneous and fun. The game is fully real time. That means, if you’re an idiot, while you’re fighting you might create an item and get pulverized by an enemy. Or, once you’ve finished destroying some troops, you quickly have Rucha make your team something to eat. Or, around a corner you spot extremely annoying enemies and decide to have Capell increase his strength by 20 points, Def+5, etc. Who knows? The choice–is yours. Skills are mapped to two buttons, commands are mapped to others to make designated AIs do specific thing. Quick note: the AI and AI options are intelligent for once as they saved MY ass plenty of times when I just rush into a big group of enemies and die. Equipped skills level up, though leveling them up is extremely slow. Anyway. To actual battles. I still don’t know the 360’s Dpad and I go from patterning clearly, but in order to do physical attacks, you use the lower two buttons. Pressing them consecutively once, twice, three times or holding creates different combos or doesn’t a special move. You’re able to counter and freeze an enemy with the L2 button. At times, if you have your AI on Combo, the entire area will turn into a colorful mess and you won’t necessarily be able to discern where you are exactly, but it’s a good thing the game has auto-target within vicinity or else that would have been extremely frustrating. Capell can sheath and unsheath his sword (you need to unsheath your sword to open treasure boxes which can become annoying because if they are mimics, they will kill you). Connecting to a team member to do a specific move or get the team advantage (basically a surprise attack lower the enemy’s DEF increasing your ATK+AP accrual) is a spiffy aspect to the game to. It’s as if they took SO3’s battle system (and SO4’s from the look of it), and made it a completely free roaming game. I like it. I like all of the characters’ unique skills too (though I can’t say the same for the mages).

Music? Motoi Sakuraba. Nothing else to say. Once you’ve heard one, you’ve heard it all. Not a bad OST at all, but. . . definitely nothing that stands out. NOW for the technical issues! Other than trying to self-target enemies (I turned auto target on) and get a mind splitting headache, the VOICE acting and SOUND. On the first disc of the game, the sound goes in and out or sounds scrappy. I don’t know if this is exclusive to my copy as it was a Used copy, but playing it on two different TV screens is at least telling me it’s not the TV. Voice acting does NOT match up with the words for 70% of the game making the cutscenes appear as if they’re lagging. You can get stuck in corners and pulverized by an enemy with no chance of moving. In one of the first larger dungeons that I can’t remember, when moving onto a new screen you’ll be walking into a black abyss that will segment and load slowly into the actual dungeon. Either my 360 or game disc or developmental lag problems. I can’t remember any other major technical issues that stand out, but those certainly are annoying. Luckily this game’s battle system is above average (and yes, enemies do have weaknesses, but for the majority of the game, you don’t need to know them~) that keeps it afloat with its okay storyline. Otherwise, it’d be more frustration that enjoyment.

Yes, the soundtrack is that fleeting. I don’t care to cover it at all.

Suikoden V – PS2
Grade: Win
(10.0)

It’s been a while since I’ve had this racy feeling. You know, that sort of feeling when something dear to you starts pumping you up, but you’re weary about ranting because of the fear of fanaticism. It’s been quite a while – back during the 1990s, that a game has astonished me so much with its polish. Notably, this feeling was definitely exclusive from the Playstation 2. And it feels good. Suikoden V’s masterful storyline is not the only unique quality that sets it off among many other RPGs. The hours and hours that can be poured into quality gameplay, with a soundtrack that appears to have no significant downfalls certainly outfits Suikoden V in a picturesque masterpiece. Having just got off my high playing the game, I cannot put a finger on a significant repulsive fault that makes Suikoden V unplayable. I’m told that the storyline starts off slow, but the slowness does not beget poor quality. No, no. The slowness allows for the awesome dialogue and level of exploration to dig slowly under your skin and situate itself there.

Definitely not a story that can or will be summed up in this review, Suikoden V manages to present multiple overarching themes and executes them with terrific dialog and casting. Playing directly as the Hero (as usual for Suiko games), the game lays very important foundational details that emphasize the immediacy of the issues Sol-Falena and other inhabitants are striving for or dealing with. It is done with tons of intrigue, by not limiting the explicitness of projected enemy/comrade motives and having the characters produce logical responses to their environments. For example, Queen Arshtat and Ferid’s reluctance in boldly responding to the nobility’s lust for control in the Senate, Sol-Falena and for the Sun Rune certainly strikes a cord because the all-powerful Queen and Commander should be capable of diminishing them. But there are dire consequences, they acknowledge this, and plays along with the Senate in hope for indirect settlement. The Godwin cause can equally be empathized, though their actions are definitely questionable. Barow’s actions are dually understandable. The story is full of different opinions that make sense, yet their actions certainly speak for themselves as the responses of Falena’s citizens emphasize this. Personally, playing a mute character definitely has its reserved qualms because of the way characterization has stifled the main character due to the lack of actual dialog. However, I cannot seem to fault the Hero (who I named Charles) as the choices they give you to respond to significant issues changes the storyline, and does not actually respond to inevitability. This is nice. It submerges the gamer’s involvement more directly into the storyline and opens or closes many different pathways to experiencing a different storyline, depletes the hackneyed fetch-and-go solely by other characters’ statements and defintely adds to the gameplay. With 108 characters + more, it seems as if there would be a definite negligence of characterization for MANY. However, I can only instantly think of three characters, all plot or non-plot involved, that didn’t receive some level of characterization and remained static due to lesser background (Gavaya, Byakuren HSSSSS, and Wilhelm). Even a little beaver named Meroon (I believe? Maroon, Muroon, Miroon. . . .) who solely sings “Nuuuoooh~” receives characterization through dialgog involving important characters to her. It’s just amazing that, in a game with an overwhelming pack where the PCs and NPCs play their roles very well, there doesn’t seem to be an overwhelming presence of fail. Sure, there are characters whose character I totally despised, such as Alenia and Zahak, the failed Queens Knights of Faildom, but the quality is still there. The storyline is immense, engaging, and prevalent even with the amount of gameplay that the gamer can do.

I suppose the battle system is something that can or cannot be an acquired taste. It’s pretty simplistic, and the formation skills you can obtain through exploration certainly breaks the game. I can’t forsee why anyone would struggle with Suikoden V’s battle system, including its equipment, battle and magic skills leveling. The books are pretty obscure to reach SS level rank, but I don’t find them necessary in beating the game [though they're still acquire-able, especially if you simply want to beat the crap out of a certain Barows member]. You are not exposed to many different enemies, so if you have an issue with seeing a Skeleton in one dungeon and an upgraded Skeleton in another Sindar Ruins, you’re more than likely to be disappointed. All the SP you gain with characters you project to never use again can be simply tossed into the SP bin for characters you find more invaluable in battle. Definitely a flexible system. Battles are not, and should not, be long. Powerleveling isn’t even necessary. After being recommended the Circle Tactic after Sable, I never used another battle tactic again. Not exactly a battle system that can be hyped for its innovation, it’s definitely doable and lacks any level of frustration for me at least. Auto originally fails, because of your characters lack of battle development and team members not taking down enemies, but just attacking (plus the Auto options fail during this point), but it becomes a very good choice to choose in the latter game when you’re scrounging up all your 108 Stars if possible, or visiting places that doesn’t require blinking back to Viki.

The 108 Stars. I am told I am very lucky. If you are a completist, getting the 108 Stars without a FAQ will probably be impossible. This would definitely be a downside to the game. However, I am lucky and I have no complaints since I spend the majority of my time visiting villages when I don’t need to. I believe it is necessary to have 108 Stars if you love Lyon*** and get a joyous ending, but hey. The endings are all online if you feel stifled. How you perform in the awesome duels/war battle outcomes are all online too. But I suppose if you live in a cave, these aspects of Suikoden V would definitely frustrate you. I don’t know if I would exactly fault the duel/war system or choices you can make to get premature endings. But I WOULD fault 108 Stars, as the system in Suikoden III was definitely all-user friendly.

Suikoden V’s art style was something I personally needed to get accustomed to. The design was not bad. But I suppose it was much more the camera capability and resolution that sort of peeved me at the beginning of the game. The furthest distance away, everyone looked like blocks of color. Close up, everyone looked blocky. I came to assume that this was definitely a design choice more than a graphics capability choice, as the sprites with their beautiful watercolored prints looked fabulous in cinematic scenes, as did their avatar designs in text boxes. The designs of the towns were not blocky either as detail could be seen from any magnitude. I am not a particular fan of some of the outfits the characters wore as I found it difficult to discern their regional uniqueness (besides Raftfleet). Otherwise, they all considerably appeared to be from the same place, despite the Royalty jazzy outfits and the dearth Lordlake presentation.

I cannot begin to describe the awesomeness of Suikoden V’s soundtrack. Every track is bold, and easily memorable due to its presentation in and out of plot-important pieces. There was one track that definitely didn’t level up to the awesomeness of the entire track, and it was some change in the random battle music that should have never been changed. Otherwise — awesome. Raftfleet is one of my particular favorites, as is the music from Armes and the Island Nations. Haud was even interesting, with its odd meter and wacky snippet sounds. And with some of the load times in Suikoden V, hearing that awesome music is a great way to make them seem like less than 5 seconds of black screen. It has a great presentation in-game. Out of game it is good standalone too, besides some of the more serious tracks that are used during Godwin screen action. The war battle theme could have been redundant, but I found it very important and well-paced for the magnitude of battles. The dueling theme–! Yes, this also brings up a good point. The dueling theme is very simplistic, and has a very steady meter with not too many sounds in it, but it fits the events like a glove. It’s actually pretty repetitive though. Good thing it does not last that long. Also! There’s many things to do, such as farm, cook, get fish, race dragon horses, play card games, etc etc etc, and more et cetera! Quick sentence. Great stuffs, great games – I’m happy I wasn’t too discursive and ranty for I could rant for hours in details~ Nuuuoooooh~
*** I don’t want to spoil too much. But. I loved Lyon. Adorable. Stern. Adorable. Empathetic. I mean, c’mon.