A great come back for the Suikoden series (please read whole review before rating)
STORY: The story starts out with a cutscene of you, the prince, and your traveling companions Lyon (your personal knight and bodyguard. She's sweet and is always by your side. She follows you throughout the game and if you get stuck, just turn around and talk to her. She'll usually point you in the right direction), Sialeeds (your aunt, the queens sister. Very spunky and free spirited), and Georg (a queens knight). Once you get back to the Queendom (yes the queen is the ruler) of Falena, you realize what sort of mission you were on. You had visited a town pretty much destroyed by the Sun Rune (not going to say anything more about that), the rune that only the queen of Falena bares. It's a rune that slowly takes control over a persons soul and is turning your loving mother into something else.
As the story progresses a little further you realize that this country is not just ruled by the queen but by two major factions of the senete. They are two familys that have been on bad terms (to say the least) for centeries, the Godwin family and the Barows family. Neither is trust worthy. One, the Godwins, wish to use the Sun Rune to show who is in control and to strike fear into the people. And the other, the Barows, wish only too have peace...and perhaps deepen their pockets a little bit. The struggle between these two family always comes to its height in the Ceremonial Games held in Stormfist (Godwin territory) These games are to be held to decide a husband for your younger sister Lynnsleia (or Lyn). It may seem that I'm telling you a bit much, but trust me. This is the tip of the ice berg. The game starts off a little slow. But give it time and you won't be able to put down the controller.
GAMEPLAY: First of all, the controls are great. Everything is a little small and sometimes hard to see, but that's alright. Brings back memories of the older Suikoden games.
There are 3 types of battles (as is usual for this series). One is normal battle, where you attack, use runes, defend or co-op attack (2 characters that are close can do this) which is a powerful attack and fun to watch. It doesn't cost anything to do this either. You can have up to 6 characters in a normal battle, and trust me you'll need them seeing as you cannot revive a person unless you have a special rune or have equiped that person with a special item before hand. These battles are all about strategy (don't worry, they are very "RPG" though). The one thing about these Normal battles is that they happen way too often. Making exploring annoying and very tedious. The second type of battle is a One-on-One. This will be hard if your new to the series, but you get used to it quickly. You have 3 moves you can do (I know, seems simple), attack (the square button), special (the O button) and guard (the X button). To win these battle you really have to listen to what your enemy is saying and read between the lines. It's really easy to master and actually kind of fun.
The 3rd type of battle system comes in the form of War. This is different from the other games (such as Suikoden III where you have all the time in the world to make your move), as it is very active. It really gives a sense of a real war.
For every war battle you will have a certain number of troops. There are 3 types, Infantry, Calalvry, and Achers. Some troops have special skills (such as using runes and healing). As for sea battles there are also 3 types, Combat Ships, Rams, and Archer Ships. Sometimes, especially towards the end of the game, you will fight both land and sea at the same time. But it's really not hard. In fact it's one of the most fun things about the game.
As for characters and how they level up, this is interesting (never neglect your characters in this game.). You can 60 playable characters and aquire the 108 to get a great ending. Now the way a character levels up depends on who they are fighting with. Lets say your group consists of a 3 LV 9 characters and 1 LV 20. The level 9s will get more experience points than the level 20. This makes leveling characters up easy. But you always have to remember to go to the Blacksmith, because your weapons have to level up as well or they are useless. Also, there are many runes to be had and mastering them is very much worthwhile. But do not use them if you don't have to, because you only have so many rune spells you can use. If they are used up, to get them back you're going to need to stay at an INN.
GRAPHICS: The graphics are beautiful. But as I mentioned before, the characters can be really small. The whole game is very much like the early games in the fact that it's very Eastern. Not a lot of Mideval Castles
anymore. The buildings seem very Chinese at times and are always beautiful. And the clothes your characters wear are always interesting. The graphics are not perfect but, they are still beautiful.
SOUND: The sound is interesting. Your characters have voices during certain special scenes. Can be very amusing. And most of the voices are great (aside from a few annoying ones.) The prince though does not have a voice. But people will ask you questions and answering them is always a fun experience. The music is alright, but nothing to get over excited about. The good thing about it, it always fits the scene or place very well.
SUMMERY: If your a fan of this series or maybe just an RPG fan (or even a Strategy fan), you have to buy this game. The story is amazing and will keep you on edge. The game can be hard at times but once you master it (which doesn't take more than an hour if your new to the series) it's great. Trust me and pick up this game.