Review: Suikoden V

(Reposted from The Escapist forums)

For me the Suikoden series has always been a highpoint of traditional roleplaying game design and storytelling. Instead of being an epic quest to save the world, the Suikoden series is instead concerned with telling the deep political dramas surrounding the many kingdoms and empires in its very large world. In Suikoden 1 we saw the collapse of the Scarlet Moon Empire, in the second installment we witnessed the Deunan Unification War, in the third we saw a civil war in the Grassland region which transformed into a war of resistance against the encroaching forces of the great Harmonian Empire and in the fourth we saw the Island Nations Unification War. All of these conflicts take place in different time periods along the worlds history, there are several recurring characters that we see throughout and there are even hints at a longer, overarching plot and presence which sits in the shadows waiting to make itself known.

One of my personal favorite entries in the series was the most recent entry, Suikoden V, which tells the story of the Queendom of Falena, a lush and rich land sustained by the power of the Sun Rune, one of the many True Runes that often serve as major plot devices throughout the series. The Sun Rune is of extreme importance to the games plot, and serves as the initial incident which gets the game going. You play as The Prince of Falena, the only son of Queen Arshtat and King Ferid, the two rulers of Falena. Your first task in the game is to survey the damage done to Lordlake, a small town where the Queen unleashed the power of the Sun Rune to quell an insurrection, leaving the once lush green land a barren waste of sand and rock. Since that time the Queen has become more and more unstable in personality, shifting between kind ruler and petty tyrant at the drop of a hat. Furthermore, various scheming factions within the royal parliament are attempting to gain influence by competing for the hand of the princess of Falena, your younger sister and the heir to the throne.

To portray the various complex relationships and political machinations at work, Suikoden V uses a unique story telling method that some may find undesirable. The "introductory period" of the game is roughly 8 hours long, taking a great deal of time to establish characters and relationships, alliances, allies and enemies before it all finally explodes into all out war and chaos. What this 8 hours did for me was present a series of very likable characters whom I wanted good things to happen too, which made the story all the more dramatic when everything goes to hell and you end up fighting for not only the fate of your country, but the fate of your family and friends. It made the 60+ Hour story all the more compelling as I REALLY wanted to know what was going to happen after every twist of the story. As well, like the other entries in the series, Suikoden V offers multiple endings based on how many of the 108 Stars of Destiny you have recruited by the end of the game, and as usual Darker ending is heart wrenching whereas the Happy ending is very uplifting.

And now onto the meat of any good game review, the gameplay, graphics and overall interactivity of the game. Suikoden V forgoes the unwelcome innovations of 3 and 4 and returns to the fast paced 6 Person Party turn based combat from 1 and 2, with a slight twist. It incorporates the Team Up Magic attacks from Suikoden 4, the combat skills from Suikoden 3, and adds in a new Formation Changing feature which allows you to switch your parties layout on the fly for various bonuses. My favorite aspect of the Suikoden Games is also improved in V as the Unite Attacks (similar to Chrono Triggers Dual Techs) are present and expanded, with every character possessing at least 1 Unite Option with another character or group of characters. What I love about the Unite Attacks is how they are all indicative of amusing character traits, from the Sworn Protector unite between the Prince and his Body Guard, to the Bald Head Flash from all of the characters with receding hairlines. These are fun to discover and are one of the most amusing aspects of the battle system. Suikoden V does, unfortunately, use Random Encounters (in GREAT regularity), but it is primarily a Story based game and you rarely need to "level" in order to continue onward, in fact, I was able to play through the entire game without stopping to Level. (Yes, that's 60+ hours of game, all of it Story focused)

Other than the standard turn based combat Suikoden V has two other "battle systems" of note. One is the Real Time Strategy Battle System, which acts as a sort of Real Time Rock Paper Scissors where you use Archers, Infantry and Cavalry to counter other units of the same type. This battle system also extends to naval conflict, where you use Arrow Boats, Raider Boats and Ramming Boats to similar effect to the various ground forces. Several Characters also possess unique abilities they can use during these conflicts, some of which can GREATLY increase your chances of victory on the field. Though these battles are fairly simplistic overall, they feel very epic and really add to the feel that these conflicts happen on a large scale. As well this battle system presents one of the other more interesting aspects of Suikoden... Non Scripted Character Deaths, that's right, when certain characters fall in the Strategic Battles, they may be gone for good, with only a sad grave stone in your castle grave yard to mark their passing. The third, and least used battle system is the Duel System, a simple game of Rock Paper Scissors in which two characters (usually the Prince and Someone else) fight in a visually dynamic manner. Its not very deep, but it is better than simply showing these duels in cutscene form as sometimes (especially near the end of the game) you feel like making these bastards pay for what they've done, and the fact that you actually get to is very satisfying.

The other important aspect of the Suikoden series is the Castle Development section of the game, whereby you recruit various members of an army and they all converge on your castle, often adding rooms and services as they go. This is largely unchanged from previous entries in the series, you get your standard shop owners, your restaurant, your inn, a fishing minigame, various gambling mini games, a hilarious suggestion box, the painfully funny "bath house" scenes and a newspaper as before, and they are as entertaining as ever. As well it is a welcome feature for you to be able to see all of the games characters while they are at rest between major events of the game, which often leads to some interesting side story based on what certain characters think about the actions that your forces have taken.

Now onto the Audio Visual department of the game. Suikoden V has an excellent soundtrack, almost up to par with the stellar Suikoden 2, but not quite. The tracks are well placed and suitably dramatic and convey the appropriate level of Epic Warfare upon any given scene. Furthermore the Voice Acting is decent, giving many characters a unique spoken voice that fits them well (even the Voiceless Protagonist has an in battle voice). The Dubbing however is a little off, many lines not occuring while that characters lips are moving. Graphically Suikoden V, like many other traditional RPG's, uses simple anime style graphics to get its point across, though in the case of Suikoden V, there are 108 well detailed and unique looking characters to look at. Unfortunately, as a point of Nostalgia, Suikoden V uses a very old-fashioned ¾ overhead view for standard gameplay. This is one of the worst features of the game, it doesn't hurt gameplay, but as conveyed through real time cutscenes, the graphics have nothing to be ashamed of yet the game seems unwilling to let you look at them. As well the Character Animation is a little weak, most motion in battle seeming stilted and restrained.

This game is not remotely perfect however and there are some very annoying little quibbles that replaying the game has revealed to me. For one, the interface is complete shite, it's a pain in the ass to heal your characters and everytime a new party member is added you need to rearrange your party layout to compensate for their attack range. And due to the crappy interface this is made all the worse. As well it doesn't help at all when you need to equip 50+ characters for battle and the equipping system can really hinder this.

In closing I would like to state that if an effeminate main character bothers you, do not play this game, the Suikoden character designer is a woman and she REALLY likes her pretty men, The Prince being one of the worst to date. A last interesting point to make about the main character is that although he is a "voiceless" protagonist, you are given MANY chances to choose his dialogue, which makes you feel a bit more active in your control of this character.

I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys a good strong story with likable characters and decent gameplay to back it up. I would exceptionally recommend it to any Jaded JRPG fans who are tired of saving the world and want a more interesting plot with compelling, well motivated villains whose goals make sense.