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Awful! Stupid!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 10
Date: June 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Stupid story, same old characters, battles load to long, bad dubbing, I seemed to like nothing in this game.

The characters were just as in Suikoden 2, Lyon = Nanami, Hero = Hero, Georg = Flik/Viktor. Lymsleia is annyoing and a brat.
90% of the cast were complete whiners.

The story was awful!
What I hated most about was a "poor town" with it's pathetic people.
Poor town hasn't have had water for a looooooong time and they a withering away and getting sicker by the day.
But guess what?
Just a mile from the village = there's a gigantic lake!!!
Even hero just have to walk a few seconds on the map to get there.
But nooo, Poor Town is so pathetic, they can't go there to get water, so you have to fix the town for them!
Oh, and before that, they tell you how much they hate you because they are so pathetic and it's your fault! Uh!

The battle system was useless, my favorite part of RPG is training the characters to get strong.
Well in this game, aside from the battles loading so slow, the characters can only hit monsters sometimes.
That's right, they MISS like 3-5 times in a row, every single character, no matter how much you add more to their hit-rate, they still miss.
Even when you have 6 characters, like 1-2 actually HITS, and often times EVERYBODY miss.
This was my reason never to play this game ever again.

PAY NO MORE THAN $9.99 FOR THIS SAD EXCUSE FOR A PS2 RPG!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 29
Date: January 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

i thought i already played the worst 2006 PS2 RPG when i had Grandia III, and i think i did... but this is pretty darn close! first of all, can't anyone admit this was supposed to be a PSP game?! just like Suikoden Tactics, Suikoden V was originally going to be for the PSP. yeah, i know graphics don't make a game, but have a LITTLE pride! i'm so sick of seeing that SAME guy in the SAME orange jacket EVERYWHERE! i've seen more variety in a GAMEBOY ADVANCE game! not only will your surroundings annoy the hell out of you, not only will the camera angle annoy you (or the lack of being able to change it manually) but having to suffer thru all of the unneccessary cutscenes with inane dialogue... you'll want to hang yourself! overall it's a decent story, but getting thru it is so incredibly painful, you'll need a bottle of advil to get thru it! and those who say "it's the gameplay! it's the gameplay!" -- yeah... it IS the gameplay... it SUCKS! SPECTRAL SOULS has a better battle menu! the gameplay is about as exciting as watching boiling water. UNLIMITED SAGA is more exciting!
ugh, i can't even go on with this review. stick a fork in me, i'm done.

Don't waste your money

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I knew I was in big trouble with this game when the first 4 hours were nothing but cut scenes. Cut scenes are a necssary part of RPGs but 4 hours worth nearly killed off what few brains cells I have remaining. Then things got even worse. The characters in this game are simply boring to put it mildly, especially the prince who had no personality at all and he seemed to be just along for the ride. Now let me mention the character's clothing. Almost everyone wears pseudo samuri clothing that lookes like it was borrowed from one of the later Final Fantasy games. Very unnattractive. What happened to the cool outfits that people wore in the other Suikodens? I also have to mention the poses that some of the characters seemed to like doing and I hope I can properly describe it. They were kind of hunched over with their arms nearly touching the ground as they gyrated around. Also very unattractive and unnatural looking. The war battles are in real time thus hardly giving you time to set up any strategy so each war ends up in melee. I play RPGs because I like turn based combat and these war battles are really out of place and no fun at all. I also found the game to be very grim without the slightest hint of humor unlike Suikoden 1,2 and 3 which are quite light hearted in comparasion. Perhaps the worst feature of this game is the long load times whever you enter a new area or finish a fight with the monsters. 10 second load times every few minutes can test the enduance of even the most hardened game player.

On a brighter note the fights with the monsters, what little of them there are, are your standard turn based action in the traditional Suikoden style, but the monster slashing can not make up for the rest of the problems I have with this game.

If you want fun light hearted games please play Suikoden 1, 2 and 3 and don't waste your money on this turkey.

NOW LOADING......

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 19
Date: March 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've played about 4 hours of this game so far (using no walkthrough guide) and while there is plenty to be impressed at,
there are quite a few downfalls from the last installation of Suikoden,part 4.

First of all,and most notably,THE LOAD TIMES! There is a "now loading screen" with the little hero runing,after EVERY SINGLE RANDOM BATTLE!! That's nearly unforgivable.Konami should have gotten rid of all those needless voice over cutscenes to make more room for memory,thus cutting down on all the now loading times.I would be more than happy to give up some of the flashy graphics in exchange for less load times.

What's bad is that voice over cutscenes are alright,so long as they are a significant part to the story.No,not here.You get a voice over scene when you regroup with your party at town,when you need to talk to someone at the inn,meet your sister,walk the dog,scratch your arm,go to the bathroom.What's with all these friggin' voice overs!? It's almost like Konami wants to prove so badly that they can do this,which to me isn't all that impressive to begin with.Part 1 and 2 didn't have the technology of 5,yet the story,and more importantly the gameplay was excellent.More isn't always better.Please stick to making video games instead of movies.

Another bad thing is that we are seeing a return to Suikoden 3
(the very worst in the series as far as I'm concerned)as there is soooo much "go here,go there,talk to this person,talk to that person;wander around until you trigger the next scene".
With 4 as well as 1 and 2,you pretty much got to the fighting and experience gaining right off the bat.You know,the whole fun
of playing an RPG?

Also with the way that the characters are dressed,I feel like I'm playing something that is really wanting to be FFX-FFX2, Kingdom Hearts.Please,you don't need to copy;you are BETTER than those games.Be a leader not a follower.

This game is fun,WHEN YOU ACTUALLY GET TO PLAY IT!As far as the graphics and load times;if it was truely to much to cram on a PS2 disc,then Konami should have waited and released it on the PS3.For now I'll stick with playing Shadow Hearts:From The New World.

Frustrating.....but worth the time

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 14
Date: April 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Alright basically this game is fun if you're an RPG player but it has a lot of flaws which I don't understand why were allowed to happen.

Good Stuff:
-battle system
-characters

Bad Stuff:
-cliche storyline
-HORRIBLE ENDING!!! RUINED EVERYTHING!!
-replay option is hardly worth it--you don't even keep your level or your equipped items!!
-no world map on a game with a world map???!!! How are you supposed to figure out where you are?
-Difficult to find the 108 stars--much more difficult that Suikoden 3
-long periods with no way to heal--just make a "tent" item like final fantasy!!
-combination of incredibly high random battle rate and long loading time make battles somewhat annoying. But really, in the Twilight Forest I couldn't move 3 steps without another battle! Combine that with the fact that the area was designed to be confusing it took me 6 hours to get out of there!

I know I listed a lot more flaws than good things but it really is worth the money it's just incredibly frustrating at times.

Castle Building For Fun And Profit

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 21 / 23
Date: July 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'm not quite sure what I expected when I started Suikoden 5. My first meeting with this series was Suikoden 3, which I enjoyed greatly. Konami had made a definite effort to compete with the Final Fantasy series, and while they are different style games, the result for Konami was a genuinely compelling fantasy odyssey. I was less thrilled with Suikoden 4, which was a step backward in technology with very flat characters and a plot that lacked the vastness of Suikoden 3.

So here comes Suikoden 5 which, strangely enough, has been simplified to the point of almost being a throwback to a PSOne game, lacking event the graphic finesse of its predecessor, but which is every bit as interesting a game as Suikoden 3. Once you get past the lack of fine detail, you can't help but notice that the artistic design itself is excellent. The plot is intricate, and the fight system is solid without being overwhelming. And it's a very big world with plenty to look at and interact with.

If you haven't played a Suikoden game before, the underlying structure is political, and a good part of the game involves international and interpersonal relationships. One of the keys to the games are the 108 stars - characters that must be found, recruited, and used during the fights and battles to come. They must be trained, armed, and occasionally coddled in order to complete the game successfully. You not only get to deal with the traditional hack and slash of traditional combat, you have to cope with a real time battle system. When you're not doing that you can go on trading expeditions to make money. And you will always need to make money.

This otherwise successful game has two flaws from my point of view. I found the tactical warfare system difficult to work with. I seemed to be getting the job done, but I was never sure what it was that I was doing right. Another irritant is the number of random fights encountered in fields and dungeons. When you are in the middle of trying to figure out a puzzle or a maze, getting interrupted every three steps can get on your nerves.

Over all, this was a game that far exceeded my initial impressions. I contribute this to the complexity of many of the characters. This kept up the flow of surprises that make a game interesting. I'd play it again some day.

Suikoden V

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: August 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I enjoyed the game pretty much, but there was only one thing I did not like it was all the talking sequences through out. It does have much replay potential. I can not wait for Suikoden VI.

A classic RPG...and a classic example of why RPGs need to evolve

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: July 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'm a longtime fan of the Suikoden games, and after the atrocity that was 4, I'm glad to say this game does it right. As other reviewers have said, "Suikoden is back." Suikoden 3 was the "black sheep" of the family, doing different things that made some players love it, others hate it. Suikoden 5 harkens directly back to old Suikoden 2. But...is that still a good thing?

***THE GOOD***

STORY - The story is incredible. For once, FOR ONCE, the world does not evolve around a anonymous spiky-haired hero. Matter of fact, in the first 6-10 hours of the game, barely anyone cares about you, period. You're the male son of a matriarchal country, and everyone is more concerned with your little sister than you. This is a VERY REFRESHING change of pace, and makes the whole game world feel 100x more "real." A plot twist occurs after 6-10 hours of playtime, which was visible from the start of the game...but it was still surprisingly emotional, nonetheless. After that, the world slowly does begin to revolve around you, but at least they do it in a semi-believable way. And the other twists in this awesome story are ones you will NOT see coming. The characters are all extremely well-developed. There are a few cookie-cutter anime archetypes, but overall, the characters are believable...or at least likeable.

GRAPHICS - Although it doesn't support progressive scan like Suikoden 4, the graphics here are very solid. Beautiful environments, great character models...very pretty overall.

***THE BAD***

GAMEPLAY - There are 6-character parties this time around, with the option to carry around about 4 other characters to switch with whenever you wish, even during battles. I say "about" 4 other characters because I don't know for sure. I never used it. I barely used anything during battles besides the "Auto" button. If you put ANY time AT ALL into trying to improve your characters (equipping good armor, runes, upgrading weapons, etc.), then you'll blow past most every enemy in the game. Even BOSS enemies may go down in one round. You can make your characters go into a specific "Formation", which you find in chests around the world (?) - these Formations each have special attributes, such as giving all party members +10 Attack, etc.

The battle system is also very zoomed out, so you'll just have to trust that those monster designs look cool and interesting. You won't be able to see them much. You can use Co-op skills, where a pair of characters in your party join up to unleash the hurt on the enemies. There's also the Formation skill, which is a special skill involving all members of your party, which is specific to which Formation you have equipped at the time. These special skills look absolutely ridiculous when they're carried out, with no effort whatsoever put into creating the animation, and, well, THOUGHT that would make them fun to execute.

CUTSCENES - Once in a while there's a "special" movie that involves voices and zoomed-in camera angles, but the huge majority of cutscenes in the game take place with a birds' eye-view. So you're mostly staring at the pretty anime pictures and reading the (well-written) dialogue. But for some reason, the game designers still have those little dots that are the characters bow, or wave, or do some other blurry action. This means that you'll read something short, like "All right," in the dialog box...but the 'continue' prompt won't pop up for 10-15 seconds because one of those blurry characters is doing a slow bow or whatever. This is frustrating.

***OVERALL***

It's just painful to see games with this level of dated tactics still being released. You walk through a prison. All the NPC prisoners look the same, except...oh, there's a guy wearing a red COSTUME sitting back there! I guess he's a Plot Character! Also, want to bring a party of women to sneak into a male-only guard encampment? Go ahead and do it! The game doesn't know who's in your party. The only people who even appear in the cutscenes are the ones that the game is forcing you to have. So you walk into a town with 6 people in your group, but as far as the story and movies go, there's only 2 there. This completely, utterly destroys any sense of immersion you may have had. We shouldn't see stuff like that in this day and age.

So, overall - while the plot is excellent, the gameplay keeps this from being a true classic. It's not very fun to run around an ugly world map, sitting through loading screens to extremely easy battles...and keep at it for 50+ hours. It's not very fun, but it is bareable - and there are aspects that will interest you, whether it's getting new Formations, Runes, or upgrading weapons. Along with the excellent story, this game is a solid 4 out of 5 stars in my book.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 8
Date: July 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First of all I'd like to begin by expressing my claim that I'm the master of rpg's. Someone telling me what's good and bad about an rpg is like president bush telling lincoln how to be a good president. The good in this game involves several things. My favorite is the characters. You'll instantly fall in love with them ( especially Sialeeds and jeane ). It's easy to make money if you're creative and leveling low level character's up is very easy. Also all rpg's are supposed to be long, and this one is up to par.
The bad things in this game are only minor details. Like the constant loading times. The loading times aren't very long but are very frequent which is very annoying. I'm on the same terms with what another reviewer said when he said that he hoped loading times will be fixed on the ps3 ( It better be with the huge pricetag on the system ). And being a man and all Sialeeds and Jeane definatley perked my interest, but those who are scantally clad do not belong in video games (even pervs have some morals ).There are other bad things but covering them would take forever.
Finally the ugly. I do not like having to resort to strategy guides to finish an rpg with a 90% coverage of the whole game. It is absolutly impossible to find all 108 stars of destiny without the guide. The ending SUCKS unless you have all 108 stars of destiny ( which are people in the game by the way ). The one on one duels are to easy and the battles aren't challenging enough. Perhaps the worst of all though is that there is just to much talking in the game.
This game is worth your money as long as your an rpg fan or at least a Suikoden fan. It seems good rpg's haven't had much competition in the last while seeing how most of all the rpg games that have come out in the last year have really sucked, but Suikoden 5 will relieve your withdrawals.

Almost gets it right...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: April 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Well, I didn't much care for Suikoden 3 (although I still gave it 4 stars), and I probably am too easy on Suikoden IV (which at least I replayed), so I am happy to say that Suikoden V is head-and-shoulders above each of those. The storyline is good, the war sequences are the most fun yet, the minigames (particularly the fishing minigame) is entertaining, and yet, and yet...

NOW LOADING...

You will never get more sick of a screen, and truthfully, there is no excuse for it. After every battle, after going into any door, NOW LOADING, every time. Every time.

The battles would be nice except that each one is about 10-15 seconds longer than it should be, due to the ridiculous amount of time necessary to enter and exit the battle screen. Couple this with an uncomfortably high encounter rate (in some dungeons, about 1 battle every 10 steps), and you are looking at hours spent waiting for battles to begin and end. Were it not for this (very noticeable) flaw, Suikoden V may have given Suikoden II a run for its money. As it is, it'll have to settle for second.

I won't spoil any of the story, but I will say that if you know Suikoden II, there are MANY more ties to that game other than Georg Prime. Moreover, the story is interesting enough to survive the incredibly slow beginning (it took about 6 hours for the game to get off the ground!) and the overly long battles. Nearly 60% of the Stars of Destiny must be discovered on your own (i.e. they won't join merely as part of the progression of the game), and there are numerous sidequests involved in finding them. Unfortunately, the load times really hamper the experience (and frankly, I see no excuse for them, as this is the 3rd offering from Konami on the PS2 - haven't they figured out the hardware yet?).

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