Suikoden V
Well I've finally managed to finish this game, somewhat behind other people, so I'll give my thoughts on it.
After the issues of III with its you will only use these three people and their close friends, and Ritapon with a half-arsed attempt at a Suikoden game attached; then V seems to have been developed with the mindset that most of those games can be disregarded.
Suikoden V has one of the most complex plots seen in a Console RPG; yet again it is closer to the more free-ended PC types where good and evil are not a case of black and white but have many shades of grey; the fact that it constructs a largely linear plot that doesn't feel forced (well not often) is a testament to the writers. The game has more plot before the events that set the Prince alone than IV did in its entirity.
Character-wise they did feel like they had attempted to seperate each and every person with their own personalities and idiosynchrasies which is something they hadn't managed since II, and for the most part these worked well even if at times they did revert to some stereotyped behaviour.
Battlewise we're back to free command 6-person battles which considering how well the system works when they keep it that way may finally remain a staple of any games to come. The addition of the formation system does give more flexibility in things; however, this seriously slows down random levelling battles as each character loads seperately.
Speaking of which the various loading screen images make a welcome return.
The biggest flaw in the game is the war battles which seem to be a hybrid of the previous three games and a bad real-time strategy. The main issue with them was that you couldn't pause the damn things and if a unit engaged in combat the cursor moved to it. At times I felt like throwing the controller down in disgust when the game refused to let me move a unit I'd kept away from the battle. I even lost the withdraw from Lordlake one (I think it was that one) twice when the unit I just beat did their speed burst retreat past my defensive line.
The biggest plus was the recruitment of characters: if people didn't know this is what I find most attractive about the entire setup and is why I tend to stop replays of II at Rockaxe and haven't yet actually finished III. I think the fact that people say no so often makes it more of a challenge than I, III and IV which often just required talking to them. V has harsher recruitment conditions than II (although nothing as hit or miss as Clive in the first two games.) I know others didn't get all 108 before finishing it; I did but that is not a testament to superior gameplay, more a pedantic checking and rechecking practically everywhere before moving the plot on.
Considering that and the fact I levelled everyone I had (including the elves) up to at least level 40 and sharpened all weapons to 12 before the three party section I'm not going to say what my playtime said at the end.
Even powering through this wouldn't be easy to do in under 40 hours, which since there didn't seem to be any timed quests involved I'm fairly glad about.
Actually the game tends to be odd in that you tend to recruit the wrong person while failing to get the person you were going there to collect, not that I'm complaining but I'm still not sure what conditions I actually fulfilled in some cases. Annoyingly the detective is a pain to recruit and after you do so not that useful. Unlike previous games he doesn't show potential recruits in the list until you know the name and have spoken to them, and investigating them usually does little but tell you where they are; something you tend to already know because you have spoken to them already. However, if you do know the name, like for example the last recruit you can get in the plot, then despite the fact you cannot get to them you can research their whereabouts; in some maddening cases it tells you a place you can go, but you can't get them until the plot acquieses.
Minigames range from bad to mediocre, and while the castle feels at least better than the last two offerings it didn't come close to the second's headquarters. I still have no idea what buying those baby fish accomplished, nor the seedlings and as for the restaurant I'm sure I did something wrong there as he would only ever sell two different recipies.
Speaking of which the chef is Retso, he of the hypnotic spinning cleavers from II's cookoffs; I thought we might finally get a combat chef with a decent weapon but annoyingly he didn't fight.
References to other games were there but not overt, in fact because of this the exact timeframe for the game is somewhat hard to place in relation to the others. Strangely it is one single comment box note that confirms what is otherwise suggested: the game must take place between the Succession War and Suikoden I since Milich Oppenhiemer is one of the Six Great Generals of the Scarlet Moon Empire at the time of the game.
The disappointment was references to the Island Nations which suggest that they haven't actually moved on whatsover since the end of Suikoden IV, Gaien is still around; however, new countries were introduced that will confuse mapmakers. Actually the map confused me as it seemed to be based on a river that flows in a lattice rather than out to sea.
Mystery wise it did reveal some details about the Sindar, and we've returned to that spelling, but not really that much more than the extra mysteries it came up with. Jeane and Viki both managed to involve themselves in the plot (although even the strategist forgot they could teleport at times) but in general failed to reveal much more about themselves. I'm fairly sure one throwaway line suggested this Jeane was the one in IV but I can't remember what it was exactly.
Typically the game came up with more entries to the enigmatic female mages brigade in Zerase and Eresh (made even more puzzling by their connections with Jeane) while the male archmages stay content with big explosions.
The skill system returned, but between the limitation to two skills and the party skill points system didn't cause the using new characters is pointless issue that III did; although, having everyone's weapon start at level 1 at recruitment was somewhat irritating and usually nonsensical. The game did redeem itself by allowing out of party actions like sharpening again (they even looped in the storage to Jeane and the appriaser), something IV pointlessly removed.
The game also made full use of it combining the convoy system from II with the auxilliary effect party member in III and the secondary party in IV. This entourage system of four people worked fairly well; although it was annoying at times to have three people join that you'd never consider using in combat (usually due to level 1 weapons) and forcing your support characters out. At least it was better this way than having them force their way into the party.
Runes gave plenty of options both magic and otherwise; even if some had changed function and others had changed name from previous incarnations. Some limited form of affinity system was in place, although for the most part items were not available to improve them. People were listed with everything even if they couldn't use the runes in question for whatever reason; and I never did work out what some of the abbrieviations (e.g. Th) actually affected (for some reason I'm fairly sure Resuurection was Ho and oddly Pale Gate was Da) but whether or not St was Star magic the fact remains that Zerase's rune was massively overpowered for most of the game.
Actually the most overpowered rune was a weapon rune: the Magic Drain one which restored a magic point of any level on a physical attack, combine that with Zerase's massive speed and you end up with a self-sustaining killing machine.
While the above is random thoughts and not particularly ordered the fact remains that I definitely enjoyed this game (much more than the disappointment of Shadow Hearts: From the New World which I have yet to finish.) Is it the best in the series? I'd say no on one single issue: I think V is superior on many grounds to all its predecessors; however, unlike II which may take you 40 hours the first time until you learn to get everything in under 20, V will still take you more than 40 hours each time you play it so it is less accessible from a replay factor. Well that and ten hours are spent before you can even start playing the game properly.
After the issues of III with its you will only use these three people and their close friends, and Ritapon with a half-arsed attempt at a Suikoden game attached; then V seems to have been developed with the mindset that most of those games can be disregarded.
Suikoden V has one of the most complex plots seen in a Console RPG; yet again it is closer to the more free-ended PC types where good and evil are not a case of black and white but have many shades of grey; the fact that it constructs a largely linear plot that doesn't feel forced (well not often) is a testament to the writers. The game has more plot before the events that set the Prince alone than IV did in its entirity.
Character-wise they did feel like they had attempted to seperate each and every person with their own personalities and idiosynchrasies which is something they hadn't managed since II, and for the most part these worked well even if at times they did revert to some stereotyped behaviour.
Battlewise we're back to free command 6-person battles which considering how well the system works when they keep it that way may finally remain a staple of any games to come. The addition of the formation system does give more flexibility in things; however, this seriously slows down random levelling battles as each character loads seperately.
Speaking of which the various loading screen images make a welcome return.
The biggest flaw in the game is the war battles which seem to be a hybrid of the previous three games and a bad real-time strategy. The main issue with them was that you couldn't pause the damn things and if a unit engaged in combat the cursor moved to it. At times I felt like throwing the controller down in disgust when the game refused to let me move a unit I'd kept away from the battle. I even lost the withdraw from Lordlake one (I think it was that one) twice when the unit I just beat did their speed burst retreat past my defensive line.
The biggest plus was the recruitment of characters: if people didn't know this is what I find most attractive about the entire setup and is why I tend to stop replays of II at Rockaxe and haven't yet actually finished III. I think the fact that people say no so often makes it more of a challenge than I, III and IV which often just required talking to them. V has harsher recruitment conditions than II (although nothing as hit or miss as Clive in the first two games.) I know others didn't get all 108 before finishing it; I did but that is not a testament to superior gameplay, more a pedantic checking and rechecking practically everywhere before moving the plot on.
Considering that and the fact I levelled everyone I had (including the elves) up to at least level 40 and sharpened all weapons to 12 before the three party section I'm not going to say what my playtime said at the end.
Even powering through this wouldn't be easy to do in under 40 hours, which since there didn't seem to be any timed quests involved I'm fairly glad about.
Actually the game tends to be odd in that you tend to recruit the wrong person while failing to get the person you were going there to collect, not that I'm complaining but I'm still not sure what conditions I actually fulfilled in some cases. Annoyingly the detective is a pain to recruit and after you do so not that useful. Unlike previous games he doesn't show potential recruits in the list until you know the name and have spoken to them, and investigating them usually does little but tell you where they are; something you tend to already know because you have spoken to them already. However, if you do know the name, like for example the last recruit you can get in the plot, then despite the fact you cannot get to them you can research their whereabouts; in some maddening cases it tells you a place you can go, but you can't get them until the plot acquieses.
Minigames range from bad to mediocre, and while the castle feels at least better than the last two offerings it didn't come close to the second's headquarters. I still have no idea what buying those baby fish accomplished, nor the seedlings and as for the restaurant I'm sure I did something wrong there as he would only ever sell two different recipies.
Speaking of which the chef is Retso, he of the hypnotic spinning cleavers from II's cookoffs; I thought we might finally get a combat chef with a decent weapon but annoyingly he didn't fight.
References to other games were there but not overt, in fact because of this the exact timeframe for the game is somewhat hard to place in relation to the others. Strangely it is one single comment box note that confirms what is otherwise suggested: the game must take place between the Succession War and Suikoden I since Milich Oppenhiemer is one of the Six Great Generals of the Scarlet Moon Empire at the time of the game.
The disappointment was references to the Island Nations which suggest that they haven't actually moved on whatsover since the end of Suikoden IV, Gaien is still around; however, new countries were introduced that will confuse mapmakers. Actually the map confused me as it seemed to be based on a river that flows in a lattice rather than out to sea.
Mystery wise it did reveal some details about the Sindar, and we've returned to that spelling, but not really that much more than the extra mysteries it came up with. Jeane and Viki both managed to involve themselves in the plot (although even the strategist forgot they could teleport at times) but in general failed to reveal much more about themselves. I'm fairly sure one throwaway line suggested this Jeane was the one in IV but I can't remember what it was exactly.
Typically the game came up with more entries to the enigmatic female mages brigade in Zerase and Eresh (made even more puzzling by their connections with Jeane) while the male archmages stay content with big explosions.
The skill system returned, but between the limitation to two skills and the party skill points system didn't cause the using new characters is pointless issue that III did; although, having everyone's weapon start at level 1 at recruitment was somewhat irritating and usually nonsensical. The game did redeem itself by allowing out of party actions like sharpening again (they even looped in the storage to Jeane and the appriaser), something IV pointlessly removed.
The game also made full use of it combining the convoy system from II with the auxilliary effect party member in III and the secondary party in IV. This entourage system of four people worked fairly well; although it was annoying at times to have three people join that you'd never consider using in combat (usually due to level 1 weapons) and forcing your support characters out. At least it was better this way than having them force their way into the party.
Runes gave plenty of options both magic and otherwise; even if some had changed function and others had changed name from previous incarnations. Some limited form of affinity system was in place, although for the most part items were not available to improve them. People were listed with everything even if they couldn't use the runes in question for whatever reason; and I never did work out what some of the abbrieviations (e.g. Th) actually affected (for some reason I'm fairly sure Resuurection was Ho and oddly Pale Gate was Da) but whether or not St was Star magic the fact remains that Zerase's rune was massively overpowered for most of the game.
Actually the most overpowered rune was a weapon rune: the Magic Drain one which restored a magic point of any level on a physical attack, combine that with Zerase's massive speed and you end up with a self-sustaining killing machine.
While the above is random thoughts and not particularly ordered the fact remains that I definitely enjoyed this game (much more than the disappointment of Shadow Hearts: From the New World which I have yet to finish.) Is it the best in the series? I'd say no on one single issue: I think V is superior on many grounds to all its predecessors; however, unlike II which may take you 40 hours the first time until you learn to get everything in under 20, V will still take you more than 40 hours each time you play it so it is less accessible from a replay factor. Well that and ten hours are spent before you can even start playing the game properly.