Mad Prince of Highland wrote: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
If you've read my Suikoden IV - What Could Have Been topic, you'll know I found severe deficiencies in Suikoden 4. I was hoping that V would address these. So far I have just reached the first chance to recruit characters I'll provide a quick rundown.
Art - The characters are in much more colorful, with costumes that so far tend to stand out (except for the knights but that is understandable). The body types also seem more realistic so far and as for HeroV (once again, I named him "Pol" do we have a semi-cannon name for him yet?) his second outfit (the one in red with the green cape) is awesome. I wish you had the option to choose which outfit he wears. But still a big improvement over Lazlo.
Gameplay - In my topic I said: "Maybe 6 actives and 2 supports even" and it looks like thats exactly what they did so I'm happy. The formation system itself is cumbersome to set up, but it works well in battle. Battle is fairly good and I like the non-pair system more like S1. In regards to war battles the first one was a lot of fun with everyone running about and I was able to pull off some flanking manuevers though I only got a Victory+ so no prize. That's okay, I rarely got prizes in the S3 battles either. I wish you could slow the battles down a bit, but still good.
I understand there are naval battles in S5 but I haven't gotten there yet.
Characters - YES! Character development so far is good, with each being distinct so far. I hate Lymsleia's character model, my GF thinks its cute, but I find the Miakis and Lyon models to be adorable. The animation of the character models seems a little off, but it's not a big fault yet.
Races - ANTHROPOMORPHIC BEAVERS?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Is this some sort of tradition? We have Kobolds (actually cool), Ney-Kobolds (in waistcoats? I ENJOYED ruining Chiepoo's buisness in Tactics), Elves (eh), Dwarves (eh), Mermaids (eh). Too many! LESS IS MORE! Ah well. Also, we have yet ANOTHER type of mount, the dragonhorses. Why couldn't they just be kangacorns?
Plot - So far, the plot seems twisty and neat though it's been a little too simplistic as some parts were easy to see through though there have been a few surprises that fit nicely into story developments. The blood relations of the characters annoyed me a little bit.
The one problem I have with SuikodenV is the city design. They seem okay, but for some reason the colors still seem bland and the cities just seem artificial and empty. Now the S3 cities seemed small, and decently full but they also had that element of fakeness to them. If I'd have to give an example of city design I LOVE it would be Star Ocean. In SO3 (and SO2) I looked forward to getting to a new town because of the music, and the design. I can't help but wonder what a Tri-Ace designed Sol-Falena would look like. Also a minimap in the city like in the SO series and in S3 would be nice too.
In the end, Suikoden V has largely addressed my problems with gameplay, art, character development and plot. I'm happy to continue playing it, especially as I never played Suikoden II.
Edit: Mind your spoiler tags next time, okay? -p
I figured this topic would be rife with spoilers but you're right. In fact I have now gone back to edit it. It's tough that the only people that cared what I wrote cared because of potential plot spoilers. Blech. I need to do better.
Last edited by SpecialNewb on Mon Mar 27, 2006 9:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Yeah, even I had trouble with that battle. I only had around 900 soldiers left at the end. I think the reason that particular battle was troublesome was due to the fact that your attention was constantly divided between land and sea, not to mention you were at an extreme disadvantage at sea. I propose placing Shinro in Zerase's unit so that she can use her star rune twice. That should widdle them down quickly. As for on land, Talegyl and Sialeeds should be able to take everything out with their runic magic. Add Josephine to Sialeeds party so that you may use Rage as well and bam, no problems what so ever.
Angelis_Taleria wrote:Yeah, even I had trouble with that battle. I only had around 900 soldiers left at the end. I think the reason that particular battle was troublesome was due to the fact that your attention was constantly divided between land and sea, not to mention you were at an extreme disadvantage at sea. I propose placing Shinro in Zerase's unit so that she can use her star rune twice. That should widdle them down quickly. As for on land, Talegyl and Sialeeds should be able to take everything out with their runic magic. Add Josephine to Sialeeds party so that you may use Rage as well and bam, no problems what so ever.
thanks for the great strategy! it really helps cause I didnt know zerase could use the star rune twice...
Despite using the same TV setting for both versions of the game, it's as if there's a slight drop of quality in terms of graphics. It's not a problem, but it does make the colours appear a bit less appealing than what it should have been.
I have to admit, so far, I'm in love with this game. I'm not very far in (I've just made my second visit to Lordlake), but I'm in love. From the very beginning, this game has had a feel to it that made me love 1 and 2 so much, something that 3 and 4 were lacking. 5 minutes into the game I was going "Dear lord, what is WRONG with Falena??? I'm the prince, why is my family letting these people LIVE like this???" I'd have a nitpick with this game about it being yet another male main character (c'mon, we girls want to take the lead sometimes too), but since it's so important to the plot for the main character to be male in this game, it doesn't bother me so much. Yes, I know, we had Chris, but lemme be honest, I think Hugo's more feminine than she was, with her always trying to be so hard and steely to lead the knights. But yeah, all around love this game, it's right up there with 1 and 2. I do have a bit of a nitpick, which I haven't run into but I saw it in the artbook that I got with my pre-order. There's a rune that they threw in, not the condemnation rune (not too pleased with it either), but like a lesser form of the Soul Eater is what it looks like, with a scythe symbol to it as well. It's just so late in the series now, why suddenly throw in a lesser form of it and cheapen the beauty that the Soul Eater was. When I get home later this afternoon I'll dig out the book and give the name of the rune, it is kinda disappointing. Also, the having to find pieces for some runes is kinda a pain in the butt, but not too big of an issue. I've already got 2 sunbeam runes.
Those have been around in the series forever, actually. It's normal practice in the series to have derivatives of newly revealed True Runes popping up in subsequent games: e.g. Shield from Bright Shield, and Condemnation from the Rune of Punishment. Of course, you already know about the normal form of the five elemental runes.
I don't think it was called the darkness rune, might have been, but no, aside from the Soul Eater in 1, 2, and 4, I've seen no other runes anywhere similar to it. And yeah, I know it's common practice to make a lesser form, but like I said, I've never really used Darkness runes before, so to me it seemed kind of like a sudden cheapening when they last minute throw in the lesser form of the Soul Eater after so long. Looking now at the runes page for 2, I see they did have darkness runes even back then. Guess I was wrong, lol. Never really used em.
The only real complaint I have about the game is that there is so much dialogue in the first few areas. Always curious to see what the NPCs have to say and every location seems to have like 20-30 of them and they all feel the need to give me their life story. I think I had managed almost seven or eight hours before finally having access to the world map.
I'm also having issues keeping my characters up-to-date with the best equipment available; same deal with the weapons. Every time I finally have enough potch to upgrade everyone's equipment, the armory's selection has changed to better, more expensive equipment and the weaponsmith can now upgrade weapons even higher. :_; Not a big deal though.
I could go on and on about what's good about this game, but that's not what this thread is about.
The only real complaint I have about the game is that there is so much dialogue in the first few areas. Always curious to see what the NPCs have to say and every location seems to have like 20-30 of them and they all feel the need to give me their life story. I think I had managed almost seven or eight hours before finally having access to the world map.
On that note, remember in the beginning you go to the East Palace and then Lunas right after that? Well, make a trip back to Sun Palace in between and Kyle makes a comment about Zerase. So much dialogue in this game!
Later on, even everyone in the HQ says different things after every major story event.
it really helps cause I didnt know zerase could use the star rune twice...
