Nitpicks about Suikoden V

[patapi]

Epic skills combine two or more basic skills into a single slot. Find and train those instead if you need to equip more skills at once. A few characters can actually equip ALL the basic skills because of this.

[Shikton]

My main thing to be nitpicky about is the ammount of random battles. They drive me friggen insane when I only get to run about 5 steps before encountering something. Evilevi.

[NeoBlight]

I don't have any problems with the loading times.

Someone mentioned a "design" problem with the environments and the camera and there I must agree. The characters are as good as ever when it comes to design but the game perspective, the camera and some of the environents just feels unartistic and outdated. Like some experiment from some long forgotten, mediocre Super Nintendo game which was revived.
I can see the purpose behind the visual style and the camera, however. So many nostalgics complained about Suikoden loosing its "essence" when it was made in 3d. This is probably an attempt to compensate that and bring back the old style, I don't think it works though and I don't even think the Suikoden "feeling" has anything to with wether or not the game is in 3d or 2d. To me it's more about the story, the characters, the design, the atmosphere in general and I'd say Suikoden 5 has most of that, from what I've seen so far. Too bad they didn't make the game the same kind of 3d as Suikoden 3. Then this game would have felt like the best thing for a long, long time.

Aside from the really strange and sometimes even ugly walkaround perspective and the extreme stiffness in some environmental graphics and visuals, the game surprised me positively.

I didn't expect anything after Suikoden 4 with all of its letdowns but Suikoden 5 really got me interested just from watching the first few cut scenes. The character design and animations, the dialogue and even the voice overs were good. The voice acting is not disturbing in any way, it's far from the rock bottom level of Suikoden 4 which only made that game even more agonizing to play.

In general, I feel the fresh winds of real Suikoden blowing back and this game would probably have knocked me off my feet if it wasn't for the unattractive camera/visuals, the graphical stiffness (the cutscenes are AMAZING, I love them, with stiff I'm referring to the general game visuals) and certain design issues concerning the environments. The menus are also a bit under-worked and "ugly" but that's no big deal since the nice character design compensates for it.

For Suikoden 6 I would like Konami to keep everything that is good with Suikoden 5, namely the character design which strikes a perfect balance between colourful cartoon and realism, a 6 person battle system, a well written story, good dialogue, beautiful cut scenes and decent voice acting but the one thing they should improve greatly is the visual perspective and its design.

From a design point of view only the cut scenes of Suikoden 5 can compare with the living 3d environments of Suikoden 3. I don't know why but despite the fixed camera Suikoden 3 was most "alive" from a design point of view.

Overall Suikoden 5 more than well makes up for the failure with Suikoden 4. It isn't perfect and the camera sometimes makes it a pain to play but for a true Suikoden fan such as myself that can be overlooked just because the game in all other aspects is well done with a true Suikoden feeling I totally missed in the last game.

[son_michael]

The menus are also a bit under-worked and "ugly" but that's no big deal since the nice character design compensates for it.

the menue's and sounds can be changed via the window guy and the bard girl

[Pahn]

I bacially love everything about the game...but if I have to nitpick...

this is an EXTREME nitpick and does not affect the game in any way, but I don't like how the journeyman's crystal changes color, I like it when it's just plain blue.

[Konno]

I love Suikoden V, but three things bugged me.

1. Walking animation.
2. The camera stayed in a fixed position.
3. Random battle every 5 seconds/ steps.

Take care.

[son_michael]

random battle times are exactly the same as suikoden 2, suikoden 4 was the only suikoden game with excessive random battles

[Pahn]

i dunno, I find 5 has alot, but I don't mind em so much because it makes gaining Potch, SP and treasure easy.

[SpecialNewb]

Epic skills combine two or more basic skills into a single slot. Find and train those instead if you need to equip more skills at once. A few characters can actually equip ALL the basic skills because of this.

I had no idea you could do that, I can't wait to learn it. To be able to merge skills that complement or are conceptually similar to each other especially, seems a good idea.

Realism, thy place re-layeth in Suikoden V.

Also, my problem with city design (it just feels fake, and the cities feel empty) might be helped by a change in camera angle. Suikoden III remains my favorite not least in part because of the world design. The A to B map I can do without, but when you were actually in the environments they felt more organic covering up things like the smallness of the cities (really most games have this problem) and the lack of crowds. Thanks NeoBlight, you gave me something to think about.

[Seldio]

Things i didn't quite like was that you couldn't move the camera and the mass of loading screens. ( Out of a room, loading...go into the room next to it, Load screen and so on )
And after every single fight too - that annoyed me a bit after 30-40 hours.

And my eyes got burned when i first saw the Sun Rune animation before a battle. *laugh*

Random encounter - hm, well i think it is slightly higher ( and it isn't that negative at all since you need alot of money in this game ) but during the attack on Doraat, the Encounter Rate there really got me a little mad, every few steps a bunch of soldiers and you couldn't even flee from it. ^_^

Well, that's all i have to complain. :p

[son_michael]

I dont see how any of the loading is annoying, it takes a few seconds and the loading is done, camera angles arent the worst thing int he world and its not like anything's actually hidden in the towns

and I whole heartidly disagree with the towns feeling empty and unrealistic, I think the towns are perfect and after playing so much of the game I would say most of my complaints are gone

[SpecialNewb]

The loading has gotten increasingly annoying as the game has gone on but so far I'm not too upset at it. Be nice when that kind of thing goes down on persumably PS3 Suikodens.

[Laharle]

Wow, better than 2 eh, how far in it are you Michael? I still think 1 is my favorite. It just, touched me. V is very entertaining though... *ponders in deep thought*

right now im in kyle's home town, trying to defend it from zahaks forces

man this battle is HARD

minor possible spoiler ( not sure though)




i find tat battle entertaining because most battles are easy. but this one makes u think because first of all, it start out less ppl in ur army than in the Godwins which is 1250 to round 1700. wats sooo interesting about this battle is u get to fight both land and the sea! well i failed the first time because i thought im suppose to fight on the land instead of the water. but wen Zahak's forces in the boat started attacking me, my crew members were pretty much screwed lol so i had to reset mines. also i didnt change my army correctly and most of em were archers and no cavalry by far i love this battle at Lelcar.

[Harmonian Zealot]

I found the random encounter rate to be annoying, especially with weaker enemies while you are travelling.
However, you get the blinking mirror/Viki rather early compared to the other Suikos(or so it seemed to me?), which I think was a good move on their part.

[Seldio]

I found the random encounter rate to be annoying, especially with weaker enemies

True, but unlike in Suikoden II, this time you can get the Champions Rune earlier which should prevent encounters with weaker enemies.
In Suikoden 2 this Rune seemed useless to me, especially when you get that one in the last dungeon when you don't need it anymore. *laugh*