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I finally finished Suikoden V & I have MANY thoughts so be prepared for a long thread.
I shouldn't have to say it but - spoilers ahead if you haven't played Suikoden V.
First off, let me start by saying, a bitch is fucking tired. I clocked in at 70+ hours for the entire story plus any level grinding I had to do as prep for certain story battles/group scenarios.
First off, let me start by saying, a bitch is fucking tired. I clocked in at 70+ hours for the entire story plus any level grinding I had to do as prep for certain story battles/group scenarios.
To me is absolutely INSANE. I've never clocked in that many hours in a previous Suikoden. Granted, some people might be hardcore about completing a game. I usually do enough to get through the plot, have a solid party, & do some sidequests/mini games if I like them enough.
The only games I've ever clocked in 70+ or to 100 hours on are Final Fantasy games. And that's because those generally come with EXTRA content ASIDE from the main story or I'm much more motivated to dedicate time to leveling up people to 100, etc. Def was not the case here.
This was on another level for how much filler was in the game. I felt like at least 50% of the game was completely unnecessary. 6 hours in till the plot ramps up, what the hell is that garbage??
Not every recruit needs to have that much backstory or a mission requirement. I'm not going to use half of them so!! Stop wasting my time.
So much dialogue that wasn't needed. Even in parts where I simply wanted to do upgrades/buy things at the castle, not every single person has to have added dialogue for every new story development!!!!
The duels give me ANXIETY, almost as much as the strategic battles. Now some of them were easy to read at least but like....3 seconds to pick an option....I don't like that. I don't like how this game really wanted to push you into a corner of constantly being stressed.
Worst part, the absolute WORST part of the game aside from it being too fucking long, is the strategic battles. Never in my life have I hated doing something more in a game. It's so messy, so uncontrollable, & makes me so frustrated.
Half the battles also didn't let me control setting up most of my units either. Not every character has to be involved in that part given half of them have such useless abilities. Land & sea battles happening at once is a goddamn nightmare no one should ever have to live through.
You shouldn't have so many elements in a game that make me loathe turning my PS2 on. I shouldn't go into a game being like, 'god will I finally finish this today or even get CLOSE to finishing it???' That brings me to the latter portion of the game.
The ending scenarios were completely lackluster, drawn out in the worst way, & everyone's motivations were so stupid to me. I can understanding wanting to completely revamp a gov that isn't working, but the way they played this out was beyond stupid.
Why would you have the Godwins inherently doing the same thing that Arshtat did initially? Arshtat was more restrained in a way & less callous about it (when possible given the Sun rune's affect), but the Godwins were purely on an evil track through the game-
- then at the last second you wanna turn around & try to make them seem like chaotic goods what???? No, they were even more selfish than everyone else involved. Both the Godwins & Barows family had their own agendas, but ultimately the Godwins were condoning genocide.
You can't just try to cover that up in the last few hours of the game by being like 'oh no we wanted what was best too har har'. Showing the Godwins at all in the end game scene too...bruh come on. I absolutely hated that shit. Go full blown Luca Blight or don't.
You don't show people who love the main character, his family, & then also the Godwins who basically put the death sentence on all of them what???? WHAT??? KONAMI WRITERS ARE YOU OKAY??
On top of that the Sialeeds betrayal was extremely underwhelming. It felt unnecessary in a way too. Her fights were too easy & should've been harder if she's now a supposed 'chosen rune bearer'.
The final boss was lame as fuck too. I was reading the guide & he was making it sound so hard, putting backups in entourage in case people die, worst magic attacks in the game, heal every turn!!
I...finished in 5 turns & the fight ended so abruptly I thought it was a phase change but nope it was just terrible transitioning to what was supposed to be a touching end game scene & I just buried my hands in my face & couldn't enjoy it at all.
I'm jumping all over the place now. What it boils down to is that I disliked pretty much every aspect of this game. From the constant, shitty camera angle, duels, strategic battles, loading times, encounter rates, recruitment, too much filler, lackluster story arcs - ALL OF IT.
The only thing I liked was a handful of characters. Georg was my favorite. I'm happy they gave him an interesting personality & story. Lyon was ehhh all right. Miakis & Kyle were other favorites.
Jeane obviously always is. Zerase was a nice addition & I did like seeing more about Killey & Lorelai. Lucretia...I could go on another rant but...I wish she didn't have a perfect plan for everything.
Previous games gave the tacticians slip-ups sometimes & it helped develop their character more. She literally did everything right & it basically gave the plot no traction or tension at all.
The voice acting was a nice touch with improved graphics. I still thought S4's voice acting was a little better. Some parts of 5's were just overacted & bleh. And it's funny cause the ENTIRE time I was playing this, I kept thinking, I would rather be playing S4 on new game plus.
A lot of people in the fandom crucify S4 & disown it, but honestly I think S5 is the worst of the bunch. That's my opinion, no one has to agree, but I am so glad I'm done with this game because I will probably never play it again.
I'm longing to replay S1 & 2 now because of nostalgia. I still have Suikoden Tactics to replay too, so hopefully that goes a little better than S5 did.
