Metacritic Game Reviews, Suikoden V for PlayStation 2, Suikoden V. With a large cast of interesting characters and a fun and exciting story,.
Suikoden 1, 2, 3, and 4 are now available in the Playstation Network! Please spread the word and buy the games, it may mean a Suikoden VI one day!A subreddit dedicated to Konami's legendary Playstation series and everything we love about it.Rules:.Let's Play's are okay! But please only post one from each series.Links to your blog are okay! But please not too often!.We don't mind answering the same question a thousand times, so if you're new to the series and have a question, post away!.No spoilers in any submission titles.Don't be mean!Permanent Stickies:The series may be old, but we welcome and encourage newcomers- please don't spoil the endings! Hide spoilers like this: Spoiler preface text here(#s 'actual spoiler in here')Please note that there is a space after the hashtag This list of our friends will grow:.
Roleplay as your own character in the world of Suikoden II. Guides, discussion, and hangout for all things Suikoden related. Wiki for all things Suikoden related. A place to discuss, you guessed it, JRPGs. RPG news and discussion for Eastern and Western RPGs! I'm currently (attempting) to play Suikoden 5.
I'm about 11-12 hours in and it just doesn't seem to grab me like the first 3 did. I understand that it's heavy on story, world building and character building as any great RPG is but my God, does the story progress at a snail's pace in the beginning.Although they spend an ample amount of time fleshing out characters and relationships, none of them are standing out much to the point where I'm invested in them with the exception of Belcoot. The constant loading times, especially the ones that interupt the game to lead into a one-line voiced custscene, are annoying as hell too.Aside from that, I'm finding myself running around in uninteresting towns doing errands.
The tournament arc was alright and the arranged marriage thing was the peak of the excitement but ultimately fell flat after the escape when you're on your own again. Everyone keeps telling me that it begins to pick up around the 10 hour mark which it seemed like it did after the prince and crew were forced to leave Falenas. (I marked out when I saw 3-D Kiley) I kind of liked that odd artsy town too and it's music but overall, I'm forcing myself to continue hoping that something interesting happens and nothing has yet. And yes, I know I'm basically still at the beginning but compared to the older games, at least 1 and 2 I found myself moreso invested in what was going on. Don't worry you are not.not getting.
it. The opening to the game is shameful when it comes to pacing compared to the rest of the game. For me personally I think I started to get into it around the 20 hour mark. If I heard someone say that to me today it would be a hard pass.
If it takes 20 hours to get good that's a big no from me. However, and I really mean this, once you get passed that section and it opens up (basically when you get your castle like with all Suikoden games) it gets.really.really. good. It's one of my favourite JRPGs of all time.I don't recommend it to non-Suikoden fans though due to the opening, but if you're already invested in the series, keep going. It will be worth it.
I told you V is a long game. It’s like 70-80 hours minimum.
It’s by far and wide the longest Suikoden game.Oh wow, I didn't know it was that long. I'm used to most RPGS having a 50-60 hour main story. I guess that explains why things feel so dragged out sometimes.Because you’re ten hours into the game and still barely past the intro.I understand the previous games were much shorter but I still can't help that I feel like nothing much of importance is happening in the beginning. I also can't help the fact that I keep comparing as any game in a series will always be compared to other iterations.
I'm in over 10 hours in this game and all that's happened is a tournament that went wrong, I saved some mistreated gladiators, saved a girl who was kidnapped, visited a few towns, etc. It feels like just a lot of filler.We do learn some backstory about the sun rune and constantly see the set-up of how the queen was losing her mind possibly due to the rune as well as witness the collapse of Falenas as well.But a large majority of the beginning is establishing characters and personalities. Which leads me back to your question of what I don't like about the Falenas storyline. Most of the characters just aren't appealing to me.
Lym (and I know most people like her) comes off as very annoying to me. Georg is ok but the typical knight guy although it's cool to see the story showing why he was on the run in S2. I'm curious to see where Lyon's story goes as it seems she was part of some shadowy organization in the past. One guy's a womanizer, everyone else is just kind of there.But 10 hours into the previous games, your best friend dies and gives you a forbidden rune as well as get betrayed by your father and one of your closest allies. Or you literally witness a betrayal in your camp that leads to your squardon being slaughtered and have to escape with your best friend only to be captured and held captive by rebels who happen to be famiiliar faces from the previous games.
I even liked how S3 gave you the choice to begin from different perspectives. Things like that kept me engrossed.. V is a game all about set up. Trust me when I say it all builds up to something.
V has the most rounded cast. Plenty of characters hold relevance to the plot, more than any other Suikoden. Suikoden team went all out with V. Try not to compare. It’s the final “real” Suikoden game. The story is absolutely a slow burn.I'm in over 10 hours in this game and all that's happened is a tournament that went wrong, I saved some mistreated gladiators, saved a girl who was kidnapped, visited a few towns, etc. We do learn some backstory about the sun rune and how the queen was losing her mind as well as witness the collapse of Falenas as well.I’m not sure what more you want.
You seem to want drama? The intro is jam packed with politics and intrigue, which is a heavy part of the appeal of Suikoden, at least for me. V is a heavy political story.Also I’m not sure why you’re forgetting that Falenas castle was attacked.
You lose your mother, father, your sister is held hostage, and you’ve lost everything. If you don’t find the build up of Godwin and Barrows playing the nation for a fiddle as they fight for scraps only to lead to the eventual fall of the Queen engrossing, I’m sorry.
I don’t know what to tell you. But to say nothing happens would be incorrect. V’s intro is jam packed with intrigue and I found the climax to the intro, and fleeing Falenas dramatic and satisfying. I don’t know what to tell you.But 10 hours into the previous games, your best friend dies and gives you a forbidden rune as well as get betrayed by your father and one of your closest allies. Or you literally witness a betrayal in your camp that leads to your squardon being slaughtered and have to escape with your best friend only to be captured and held captive by rebels who happen to be famiiliar faces from the previous games. Things like that kept me engrossed.In V, you’re a prince in a matriarchal society whose nation is being torn apart by infighting between nobles who have vested interests outside of the nation. One of these nobles overthrows your family.
He wins the tournament specifically to gain the legal okay to marry the princess. Without it, they’d just be accused of treason. Your castle is attacked.
Your mother and father are killed. You have few allies and have to build up an army.
I really don’t see the problem. V is equally as dramatic as past games. Well the firsts 3/4 hours are about the prince doing princes things, visit here, visit there, say hi to the poor, getting involved with corrupted nobles and shits.It totally fit the game.Tir was the daddy boy, future general and worked for the empireRiou was the dojo style puppy who enrolled into military, becoming then a prisonerHugo, the free soul hanging everywhere with his buddiesLazlo sucksAnd was in marine, patrolling the seaFrey.
Well, the prince. What a prince has to do?. That’s fair.Gizel and Godwin are different though. Gizel does whatever.
His father and Sialeeds make this clear. He just does things to see what happens. This makes him unpredictable by proxy. What Gizel does for Gizel is different than what his father wants. Gizel just happens to go along with what his father wants as well. For example, the attack on Falenas castle wasn’t his plan at all. It was his fathers.
One surprise is that his father says in a cutscene,”your games will get you in trouble” and you think he wants no part. Turns out he wanted to overthrow the queen the entire time. Gizel is just in for the ride.That’s a big part of the appeal for me: what are people’s motivations? You can say Gizel isn’t to be trusted but he often creates situations out of nothing. He saved you and aggravated the lizards to make a good impression. In cases like that they were beholdened to him.
The same thing is true for Barrows. You don’t fully trust him, but what more can you do? What’s his motivation?There’s appeal in that.
Because it makes the story a story of wills going against each other.But things like the tournament aren’t really filler. They’re very important. Indeed, i've quoted that as an incipit, my point was about a prince doing princes things and get blamed for that (being boring, like he had to slay dragons in the first chapter).Everything from the very beginning is a setup for the true plot: you get acquainted with the environment, with the main characters, about the queen's doing (like the shit in Lordlake), multiple pov regarding the queen and the nobles, your position in the hierarchy, custom and traditions (Lunas and the tournament at Stormfist), plans for your own future, the little brat that one day will rule the kingdom. It takes a long time for the protag to establish agency. You're being pushed, ordered and lured in every direction by all parties, trudging through exposition in the form of small towns that establish the setting but provide little in the way of action. Even when something exciting does happen, you, the player, are stuck in the passenger seat watching it all unfold.Personally, I don't rate it that highly in the series. The s l o w beginning and bizarre balance (a couple of the runes and characters appear to have been hit by a truck) hold it back.
It's a good send-off for the series, though, brimming with homage for the originals. Definitely worth seeing it through. Give it more time.
When it gets good it gets really good. I consider it my second favourite game of the series, but it still has some glaring issues and it's still far behind 2 for me. I just happen to have issues with all of them.Horrible pacing at the start.
Calling it a long intro is understating it. It's ridiculous. The start of most Suikoden games before you get your base is still exciting and gripping.
In S5 it's a horrible slog. The towns are large for the sake of being large and you spend so much time just running back and forth in them. This also detracts from the legitimately good parts of the early story.Basically It's like they took the 'running back and forth through Muse/Jowston Hill' part of S2 and stretched it to 20 hours.That being said, once you get your castle I still feel like it gets good enough that I forget all about the initial slog and don't want it to ever end.
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
March 2023
Categories |