Reviewed: April 18, 2006
Reviewed by: Jason Porter
Publisher
Konami
Developer
Konami
Released: March 21, 2006
Genre: RPG
Players: 1
ESRB: Teen
9
9
9
9
9.0
Supported Features:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
In the 20-or-so year old world of console role-playing games, the Suikoden series has earned the right to be called 'venerable.' Around since the early days of the PS1, the games have earned a quiet but nonetheless very loyal fan following over the last decade, thanks to their sweeping, 'War and Peace'-esque stories involving literally hundreds of characters, interesting strategic battles and some of the best dialog in the gaming world.
When Suikoden IV came out, I had my first chance to take on the world of the 27 True Runes, around one of which each Suikoden game is based. Unfortunately, that game was widely considered something of a stumbling block for the series. Long, boring ocean voyages filled with repetitive battling, a relative lack of interesting places to explore and one of the absolute worst final boss encounters I have ever seen dragged the game down despite the captivating main plotline and high production values.
I'm happy to write that Suikoden V not only avoids the problems of its predecessor, it leaves them in the dust completely. Its tale of intrigue, deception, revenge and justice, revolving around the frighteningly powerful Sun Rune, is the backbone of the best RPG I have had the pleasure of enjoying so far this year. In fact, it is the most fun I have had with an RPG in a very long time.
Suikoden V tells the story of the Queendom of Falena, a nation with relatively little ocean frontage, but rife with navigable rivers. Players control the character of the royal prince of Falena, a handsome, strong and virtuous young man with long, silver hair. As in every Suikoden game, his name is left up to the player to decide. Falena being a Queendom, the Prince is not in a position to attain any sort of real power in the hierarchy, but is instead resigned to the role of figurehead and royal representative. His little sister, Lymsleia, will someday succeed his mother, Queen Arshtat, as the ruler of the land, but at the game's outset neither the Prince nor Lymsleia have really thought about their futures too much.
Arshtat, together with her husband Ferid, rules Falena with a stern but fair hand and has mostly won the support and admiration of the people. However, she is also the first Queen in centuries to wear - and use - the Sun Rune, a True Rune and heirloom of the Falenan royalty. The Sun Rune is basically a nuclear warhead hard-wired into Arshtat's body, but its effects are not simply limited to spellcasting, as we soon discover.
The story of Suikoden V is as Byzantine as a historical war drama, and so it does take some time for the gears of fate to begin turning. The first several hours of gameplay are mostly build-up and introduction, establishing the core cast of players solidly in the gamer's mind - conniving senators, foppish courtesans, disciplined gladiators, royal relatives, mysterious assassins and so on.
Far from being a chore or a bore, this part of the game is delightful to play through. Dungeons are short and fighting is relatively rare, but exploration and conversation with NPCs is encouraged, and the tale is almost immediately captivating. After all this comes the pivotal event that sets the focus of the entire rest of the game, and it is honestly one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. To watch it unfold in all its terrible momentum is a thing of beauty that any lover of good stories and indeed, any storyteller, will appreciate. From there on out, the game opens up and really hits its stride.
A tale this expertly told is a rarity in any medium except perhaps the printed word, and doubly so in the world of video games, where also-rans and almost-clones dominate the market. Telling a good story is not as popular of an aim for games as it used to be. Even in RPGs, the focus has been shifting away from the story and towards gameplay innovations for a few years now.
Many reviewers regularly blast games for being "old-fashioned" and therefore dull and uninteresting, noting here that "combat is not active enough," and there that "it just uses the same old system as before." I for one appreciate the RPG that does not forgo its story for the sake of developing some system quirk to set it apart from the pack, and Suikoden V is just such a game.
However, don't go into this game expecting another Xenosaga. No, Suikoden V is far more than a long movie strung together with gameplay. In fact, the rest of the game (after that aforementioned pivotal event) has one of the highest gameplay-to-story development ratios I've seen in any modern console RPG. The fact that most of it will be familiar to fans of older Suikoden titles is of no consequence - it's all much more fun this time around than it was last time. Dueling, massive wars on land and at sea, and that venerable old RPG staple, the random enemy encounter, all are enjoyable, and they stay that way from start to finish.
As in Suikoden IV, the main character of Suikoden V will occasionally enter into a one-on-one duel. These encounters are usually of great import for one reason or another, so there aren't a lot of them. They are largely identical to the last game's duels, using the same rock-paper-scissors structure to determine who makes a hit and who takes it. However, this time around the player is given a scant three seconds to decide what move to use. The increased tension this timer adds to the encounters makes them much more fun than before, as well as making them feel more urgent and important.
One of the Suikoden series' signatures is its large-scale tactical battles, and Suikoden V is no exception. Battlefields filled with several thousand regimented soldiers provide suitably grand encounters for many major plot points, and the player controls all the action. These segments play out as a simple RTS (real-time strategy) game, following the same general structure as one-on-one duels: there are three basic types each of land and sea unit, and each one is weak to one other, strong against a second one and an even match for other units of the same type.
However, unlike duels, there is a surprising depth of strategy to these field battles once the game develops somewhat. Depending on which commanders and vice-commanders you select from your roster of recruited characters, your units may have various special abilities, both static and dynamic, to help them turn the tide. Also, various units have different speeds, making hit-and-run skirmishing a possibility for, say, cavalry units fighting against a phalanx of spearmen. When cornered by a unit against which yours is weak, uncounterable special abilities such as Charge can turn the tide or at least buy some time, since whichever side takes more damage proportionally in a skirmish will retreat some distance away after the fight.
And instead of just a win or a loss after each engagement, unit health is measured in HP, just as with characters. The strategy of Suikoden V's epic battles is subtle, but it reveals itself nicely over time. It's a huge improvement over the "strategy" element of Suikoden IV, which had numerous exploitable weaknesses and relatively little depth.
Of course, no RPG would really be complete without regular old "x characters vs. y minor enemies" fighting. Suikoden V's encounter rate for random enemies is a bit on the high side for my taste, but it's not nearly as bad as some games - Suikoden IV, for example. I only really had a problem with it when I was in a hurry to see the next part of the story and did not want to spend even five minutes fighting a few extra battles to get to it. It helps that most battles finish quickly, and it is fairly easy to escape from those that do not.
In an interesting and fun departure from the norm, the formation your party of six assumes during battle has a big effect on the strength of the party. New tactics are acquired from treasure chests and the like, and tactics can be shifted for free between turns during battle. In addition to granting static bonuses like "front row +5 defense," these formations also work in conjunction with the range of characters' weapons.
Each character uses either a short, medium or long-range weapon, and placing them in the appropriate position for battle greatly improves their chance to score a hit. Since front-row characters are much more likely to get attacked than back-row characters, you might find that a short-range fighter with heavy armor and some defensive Runes is your best point man, while the long range of some of the spellcasters' weapons complements their safer positions in the rear nicely. Trying tactics out beforehand to come up with the best position for your team adds another element of strategy to Suikoden V's play.
With proper maintenance and equipment, the amount of damage your party of six will be able to deal by the late mid-game is frightening; most normal enemies can't even last a single turn against the onslaught. As always, rune magic is as scarce as it is powerful, and better saved for the inevitable boss fight, but it can make a huge difference in a pinch, possibly dealing more than 2000 damage apiece to as many as six enemies at once with correct setup and preparation. In a game where 600 HP is a huge amount for a player character, that kind of damage really means something, especially when replicated two or more times in a turn.
Which brings me to my only real complaint about Suikoden V: the boss battles are, by and large, far too easy. Worse, they generally get easier as the game progresses (until the very last dungeon)! The only fight I had trouble with was one which the player is allowed to lose, and lose I did - the first time. However, by pulling out all the stops and making a lucky gamble or two, I was able to emerge victorious after a reset. It was the most satisfying fight in the game until the final boss; too bad it happens before even twelve hours have passed.
During one late game sequence of events, every boss except one took only a single turn for me to defeat. While it is true that I could have made the game more difficult for myself by switching my party around and/or under-equipping my characters, I really don't think that's the player's responsibility. Most gamers will prepare as much as they can for any possible boss encounter, and unleash their full firepower as soon as possible on the enemy when that time comes. It's too bad that most of Suikoden V's bosses couldn't at least put up a bit more of a fight. They're not as ridiculously easy as taking down the final boss of Final Fantasy X (let's face it - no other boss, anywhere, is that easy), but I still wish that this game had leaned a bit more to the 'difficult' side, because the game is at its best when strategic decisions have to be made in the heat of the moment: heal or attack; magic or the sword; this character or that?
Suikoden V could have scored a 10 in gameplay if the boss battles had been a bit more in-depth and difficult. Everything else is pretty much perfect. Even if not a huge amount of new ground has been broken, the game feels fresh and engaging every time. And besides battles, there are tons of mini-games and side quests to participate in. The game's overarching sub-quest is collecting the 108 Stars of Destiny, just as in every other Suikoden RPG to date, and as always, this involves lots of exploring, backtracking and smooth-talking the Prince's way into the hearts of those destined to fight at his side.
For those of you new to the series, yes, there really are 108 of them. No, they don't all stand beside the Prince in combat, but all serve at least some function, from shopkeepers and farmers to aristocrats and generals. Add to this card games, board games, recreational fishing, collecting seeds and baby fish for a garden and aquarium, racing, exploring the expansive world map and the various towns, and collecting all sorts of odd things (including different voices for the Prince and extra sound effect sets), and you've got a game that's overflowing with fun stuff to do even if you aren't in the mood to find out what shocking twist the plot will take next.
Suikoden V has its own unique "look," midway between Digital Devil Saga's stylized cel graphics and Suikoden IV's solidly polygonal presentation. It is immediately recognizable and stylish, without looking like it tries too hard to stand out. Generally speaking, this style can handle up-close shots and long-distance ones quite effectively, without much loss of detail in either case.
Textures are simple and smooth, creating the effect of animated characters in 3D, and it works very well. More than any other Suikoden to date, the cast of Suikoden V really looks almost exactly like their concept art. And as far as the enemies go... well, overall the designs aren't exactly unforgettable, but some of them can be quite endearing, and all are at least interesting to look at. Cutscenes, as in the Shin Megmai Tensei series of games, feature graphics very similar to normal in-game graphics but with better lighting and blurring effects, etc.
The stage upon which these characters act out their play is the Queendom of Falena, which shares its inhabitants' visual aesthetic - low detail, smooth and sharp, convincing without being realistic, by design. Falena's many hamlets, fortresses, ruins and natural features are full of vibrant colors and lush lighting effects, creating the feeling of a true fantasy realm.
Sometimes the characters walk a little oddly, though they never look anywhere near as goofy as the main character in Suikoden IV (or Jack Russell's "power walking" animation in Radiata Stories). Occasionally, movement can seem stiff, but again, less so than in many other games. And a handful of the character designs, especially for minor characters like Cornelio and Bergen, fall a bit short. But overall, Suikoden V's graphics do a wonderful job of drawing players into its magical world and unforgettable story.
While there isn't quite the "whoa!" factor here to warrant a 10, there's no problem with anything in Suikoden V's sound package. As with Suikoden IV, Konami has spared no expense to record some of the best voice talents I've heard in any RPG. Rarely is there a misstep in delivery, and when there is, it's so small and brief as to be unnoticeable. These voices become a part of the characters they are connected with, which is the idea all along, right? In fact, one of the things that had me liking Georg, a main character, so well was simply the rich, natural sound of his voice.
This time around, the series has gotten the soundtrack right, as well. At times reminiscent of Dragon Quest, at times of Star Ocean, the music of Suikoden V is always spot-on and never annoying or dull. Even the opening theme is actually pretty good, which is more than I can really say about Suikoden IV's. And the main themes are actually really memorable for a change. I found myself whistling the castle theme quite often, as I got deeper into my game. The soundtrack still isn't quite at the level of Final Fantasy VII or Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, but it's one of the better RPG soundtracks nonetheless, both complementing and adding wholly new dimensions to the gameplay.
At first glance, Suikoden V doesn't look like a very original game. It's a turn-based fantasy RPG in which the main character is a royal prince who sets off on an epic journey and gathers companions along the way. Rest assured, however, that in this case, the whole far exceeds the sum of the parts. Sometimes, a game just has the 'magic touch' - and Suikoden V's got it. There's something immensely enjoyable and satisfying about experiencing its world on all levels, from story and combat to collection and exploration. It's hard to put a finger on any one thing that makes it this way; rather, it has achieved this phenomenon by virtue of every piece of the puzzle being as expertly crafted as every other.
If the enjoyment of playing through one of the best-written and best-executed stories in RPG history is not enough to convince you, though, consider also that Suikoden V features multiple endings (including a couple of pretty awful ones for those who want to see them), over a hundred recruitable characters and a robust New Game+ option, in addition to a staggering 45-50-hour minimum, 75-80-hour maximum play time.
Best of all, you'll definitely want to come back and play through the whole story at least twice, to see alternate endings and discover more secrets. That makes the New Game+ option, which restarts the story with all of your money and non-equipped items from the previous game, more than just another frill. In the current era of 40-hour, one-play RPGs, all this makes Suikoden V one of the best values around for a game of its type.
Let me be plain: Suikoden V is damn good. The story is one of the very best in all of gaming, even surpassing some of the previous Suikoden titles in its intricacy and brilliance with its complex, realistic characters and motives, and a plot that draws you in like a good book. Unlike many story-driven RPGs, though, Suikoden V leaves the player in the driver's seat almost all the time. Cut scenes never last more than a minute or so, and the player almost always has the option to stop what he's supposed to be doing and go do something else for a while. There are even multiple endings - both good and bad - that can be seen based on how the player responds to critical plot developments.
As the Prince, you're forced to play a silent hero, but he never seems that way, thanks to expressive body language and lots of meaningful player-controlled choices that transcend simple "Yes/No" answers and build his personality up instead. Graphics, sound and replay value are all good and in abundance. And something about the way the story flows, always with the player at the center of it, makes Suikoden V a deeply satisfying game to play.
Suikoden V reminds me of the best PS1 RPGs, with its world map, random battles and endless lines of dialog, but it still has the balance, polish and flair of the current crop of PS2 RPGs, placing it right in the sweet spot for any RPG fan, and indeed, anyone looking for a great story.