A great all around game. A flash back to what made this series great.
With that out of the way, I have to say this is the best Suikoden to come out for the PS2. For those of you who have played all the other games, you will find a lot of similarites to Suikoden II. This is not at all a bad thing since almost everyone agrees that Suikoden II is the best in the series. For those who are new to the series, or have only played Suikoden III (if you started with Suikoden IV then you probably wouldn't have played any of the other ones) you will find a much different game.
Battles: Like the rest of the main series there are 3 kinds of battles: Party battles, Duel battles, and War battles. First off, duels haven't changed much, same 3 fight options that work in a rock paper scissor fashion. Party battles have changed a bit. Suikoden returned to the 6 person party (max can have lower numbers if you wish) after only having 4 in Suikoden IV. In addition there are new formations that grant different effects. Some may grant stat boosts, may cause the enemy to focus attacks on one person, etc. Each formation also has one battle skill like having one person able to cast two spells in one turn, or have the whole party attack first. Characters can also do combos now. When attacking, instead of just striking once characters may do 3 or 4 hits in one attack. The war battles have once again been changed, this time to a kind of real time strategy. Just like in the other games certain types of attackers are more effective against certain types, but there are also a few extra classes (catapults, beavers, dragon riders) that are handy to use. I personally really liked this system, and at the end of a battle, if you did well enough (minimal damage done to your party) you got special items at the end. There is a bit more to party and war battles but you can check it out if you buy the game.
Graaphics:
I don't really care about graphics when it comes to games, especially in RPGs, but the graphics in Suikoden V are very good, best so far in the series.
Gameplay:
Alright, this is where people might get a little turned off. Random battles are a bit frequent and a lot of people get impatient, but this is really the only complaint there is about this game. Otherwise gameplay is great, controls are easy to use, camera angles aren't too bad, its an overall good experience.
Story:
This is where the game shines, the story is one of the best if not the best on the series. Again impatient players may give up on it because the beginning is a bit slow, but I promise if you can get through the first few hours of play you will find one of the best stories in an RPG for the PS2. To avoid spoilers I'm going to keep this section small, but take my word for it, if you want a game with a great story you'll be glad you bought this game.
There are a lot of interesting elements to the game like the minigames, skills that you equipped to characters (kinda like Suikoden III), and of course an interesting cast of 108 stars you need to recruit. Oh by the way the main character is a silent hero, but that shouldn't deter you from playing this great game right?