The telling of a great story filled with likable characters, political intrigue and back-stabbing.
The Suikoden series is known to have well-told stories and plots, and it's no exception in this game. There are sometimes rather uneventful portions (especially near the beginning of the game, before the plot picks up), but when they do get exciting, the scenes are dramatic indeed. Throughout the whole journey, there were twists and turns, a lot of them unexpected. I have to admit, wanting to find out what happens next made me want to play the game more than anything else.
But of course, what would Suikoden be without the 108 characters? Running around all over the place trying to get more people to join your cause is really fun as well. Most of the characters are way under-leveled when the join, or they just pale when placed alongside the major characters, but each and everyone of them adds their own colors to the game.
The battle system, unfortunately, is nothing special. There are cooperation attacks between certain characters, but that's about it. The rest is standard turn-based fare. Magic and special attacks are obtained through equipping orbs, and MP is how many times a certain spell can be used for each spell level (there are 4 levels in total). Another good aspect of the game is the ability to arrange the battle formation. What formation you choose to use, and where you place each character can majorly affect the outcome of the battle.
The music overall is very good. Some of the tracks are rather catchy, and I wanted to stay in certain areas just to listen to them. Also, during many of the rather emotional scenes, the music playing in the background is quite fitting in my opinion.
To sum everything up, Suikoden V is a game well worth the purchase. You'll come to like most of the characters (whether friends or foe) whom will make this journey worthwhile.