Suikoden V marks Konami's success in bringing the charm of the old suikoden games to the new generation of platform

User Rating: 8 | Suikoden V PS2
By Dawbarton | Review Date:
I grew up playing the old Suikoden games. The first and second in the series were both, in my opinion, amazing games. Both created an engrossing world with characters you cared about. I couldn't get my hands on a copy of Suikoden III, which is a shame as it's rated very highly, I did however have a chance to play Suikoden IV. The game, to say the least had many flaws, but after playing Suikoden V, I truly think Konami have successfully transferred what was great about the early games.

Lets start with the good:
Like all the earlier games the story is compelling. With many twists and turns and with deep characters that you really do care about. The combat system (a turn based affair much like that encountered in the final fantasy series) still keeps the lovable simplicity that the older games had. With the added improvement on the graphical representation of the runes (magic) the way you can put your party into different formations (each giving different benefits) and the way your whole party can attack together. The game is very long, with at least 30-40 hours of game play if you avoid the many hidden characters and treasures available to you. Played to the full you could easily spend 60-70 hours in this world. The game has multiple endings. With this in mind the game plays well on second and third visits as you make different choices and find more and more characters to your army. There are many different ways to fight your enemies. There are the standard turn taking random encounters, the real time strategic battles and the one-on-one duals. The duals have been improved since the earlier games with added time limits on your decision, making it more changing and realistic and therefore more enthralling.

And now the Bad:
As is to be expected with a game as long as this one with as deep a story as this one: the game can be very long winded with long periods of talking and walking and not a lot of action. On top of this the battles, although less frequent than those in Suikoden IV, are still too common. Also the actual time it takes to get from wandering around into the actual battle is too long. It seems fine to start with but after 100 battles it begins to get tiresome, especially when you intend on running away from he battle and you have to wait to run away. My final point is a big one. Some of the dungeons are basically mazes, making you double back on yourself and solve simple yet time consuming puzzles. This, mixed with frequent, difficult and eventually unrewarding battles is a horrible combination.

If your looking for a fast paced game with lots of blood and gore this obviously isn't the game for you. If however you're for a deep and charming RPG with a great story and amazing characters. then Suikoden V is definitely a game for you.

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