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I finally got around to finishing Suikoden V. I suspect that there were quite a few–especially among those who are hardcore Suikoden fans–who were put off by the first few hours of the game and had a tough time working through it. I have less patience than I did when I was younger, and it took me this long to pick it up again. In my opinion, amongst the rest of the series, the game ranks below Suikoden II and III, but above the original and Suikoden IV.

I’ll highlight some of the issues I had with the game first, then go into its good qualities, which, fortunately, there were a good amount of.

First, like Suikoden IV, the game is plagued by nasty loading times. Unfortunately, this was taken a step further with the introduction of loading times even in between town or dungeon screens. I could actually say that this would be fine if they had worked on making getting in and out of combat as seamless as it was in the first three games, because many of the locations are large enough so that loading is infrequent, especially in the dungeons which are just as twisty and labyrinthine as you might expect. Sadly, this really breaks up the flow of the game in terms of actual gameplay, and the flow of the narrative when cutscenes are blended in.

The worst part is that there’s no real excuse for it. The game is not impressive visually in really any sense. With a handful of exceptions, most of the locales are rather bland. The characters are just as diverse as they have ever been, but that’s credited more to art design than actual rendering in this case. Furthermore, many if not almost all of the locations are needlessly large, especially to fans of the series. Suikoden has always been in a condensed form of reality; this is one of its quirks that really makes some of the town locations seem vibrant and full of life, yet contrasted with spacious outdoor environments. To take a quote from a review of Suikoden IV on Game Revolution (a good site for reviews that are just as cynical as this one), “it seems like most of the work was put into making water look nice, since everything else looks dull.” You know how the new dungeons in Final Fantasy X-2 stuck out like a sore thumb because they were so uninspired? It’s kind of like that.

However, what is likely the most surprising disappointment to Suikoden fans is the atrocious interface. The interface took a step back or so in Suikoden IV; nothing really bad, just some minor inconveniences here and there. The interface underwent a major overhaul in Suikoden V, though. First, most of the options in the interface require confirmation, and a lot of them default to “no,” so you will need three button presses to complete an action in many cases. This is especially annoying when you are dealing with your storage or trying to do something as simple as use a Medicine item. Also, items and equipment have been completely segregated into different menus; if you want to equip or remove something, you have to go under its specific function. The interface really fights you every step of the way, and doesn’t even come close to being intuitive.

Lastly, as I alluded to before, the game takes a lot of patience to get in to. The introduction is the longest in the series, by far. Nothing really happens for, I’d say, at least 6-8 hours on the first play through. Not only is there enough dialogue and cutscenes to give Xenosaga a run for its money, but you also have to know where to go and who to talk to for story progression. This sort of “find the trigger” game has plagued Suikoden since its inception, so this really is nothing new to the fans. However, when compounded with bad loading times, minimal information, and a clunky interface, frustration levels are sure to go through the roof. Konami even saw it necessary to include a character that follows you around that you can talk to for a hint as to what to do next.

I know I’ve painted a really dismal picture, but there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Those who persevere will be treated to an engaging storyline and an enjoyable recruiting task. The story is pure Suikoden, hearkening back to better RPG days. The combat system is much like that of old, with six characters again, and none of the positioning or multi-turn casting times that were experimented with in the third game. The combat is challenging overall; if you can handle the rather high encounter rate and be patient enough for your battles to load, you may actually enjoy them. You gain a rather overpowered character not far into the game, but the difficulty scales up considerably. You’ll need to keep those weapons sharp and keep an eye out for armor and skill upgrades.

I feel the recruitment deserves special mention; there’s good and bad. The bad is that it’s extremely easy to permanently miss a few characters. Without a guide in hand, you will not get all 108 Stars of Destiny on your first play through. Some are in downright obscure locations or have requirements so far-fetched and unusual that they border on easter egg material. Despite all this, one could make the argument that the star collection here is the most enjoyable in the series. There tends to be a story behind each character, and they also have some interplay with each other in some cases. Some characters even have specific dungeons or tasks to go through that definitely add much to the game. Darting all over Falena and watching your base fill up is a pleasant contrast to the very slow beginning.

Overall, the game is adequate. It has its ups and downs, and I know that some of you definitely won’t like the way the story plays out (its quality is good, you just may not like the way things develop), but it really does have its fun moments. I can easily recommend it to any Suikoden fan with some patience, but RPG players who are starting off with Suikoden should probably try to start with one of the first three games first, then come to this one.

A couple of side notes that are more opinion than analysis:

- I don’t like the ubiquitous water imagery. We really had enough of that in the previous game, and it really seems strange to have a land-locked territory governed by a Sun Rune ruled so much by water. This river that snakes through the land seems to be where 90% of the action takes place, and you’re never very far from water. I just think it was the wrong direction to take this game.

- The return to a traditional battle system is welcome, but the special runes in this game are rather uninspired. I know that it’s hard to top the runes in the third game, but I really think they could have done better. You will end up relying on your more traditional runes in this game, which is getting boring since they have been around since the first game and do almost exactly the same things now as they did then. The new runes in each game are what break up this monotony.

- The music and voice acting were average. Nothing oustandingly bad, although some of the tracks could have used some extra length. For a video game, though, I suppose the voice acting was decent.

- Finally, Leknaat’s role is just plain awful in this game. Her brief appearances are actually rather insulting to long-time fans. She is completely out of character and I would even say downright adversarial to the Hero. This was probably the single largest disappointment with the game’s story.