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.
