Japanese reviews are in!

[John Layfield]

Surely actual different 'viewpoints' ala the Trinity Site System in Suikoden III would have been mentioned on the official site as a part of the gameplay rather than going unmentioned for all this time?

I'd say it's referring to the actual camera angles. However, I'm willing to bat around the idea of multiple viewpoints simply because it'd be a nice touch.
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[Falcon Critical]

Though there is no evidence to suggest it, perhaps what they are talking about is the swinging camera in combat ala FFX. Seems unlikely though, perhaps the cutscenes take a lot of camera moves?
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[poorguy171]

The only real Japanese review I'm going to trust at this point is Sars'. Beyond that, I'll wait for US reviews. To be honest, I'm pretty sure I'll love this game no matter what, but I do hope that it gets good reviews and turns out to be one of the top games this year.

And I don't see what's with all the "classic RPG" complaining. First, people make a big fuss because FFX and such aren't traditional RPGs, and now people are complaining when we get them.

EDIT: Sorry, I just realized that this person was commending the game for being traditional. I have seen complaints about it in previews and such though (as well as for other games).
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[Takemura]

[Vextor]

Yeah, the translation isn't partiuclarly good for the famitsu review; plus, the translator added his/her own views as well, which only feeds more confusion.

Japanese fans who browse these boards are making fun of "foreigners confusing "changing camera angles" with "Trinity site system." I'm glad we are providing entertainment for the 2ch folks.

Let me translate:

Reviewer A
Graphics have improved.
The story/gameplay is loaded.
The map is too large.

Reviwer B
The story/gameplay is loaded.
Changes in camerca angles made it easier to play, but you can get lost pretty easily.

Reviewer C
The characters have a variety of facial expressions.
The battles are simple to understand.
The map is too large.
A very traditional RPG

Reviewer D
The characetrs are developed well.
The game has good tempo, and shouldn't be boring even at your 2nd playthrough.
Generally very good controls and game mechanics are easy to understand.

[Himuro]

Japanese fans browse these boards? What the?

[Vextor]

Yeah, but they use babel-fish like applications to translate what we say. They apparently think that you translated the Famitsu reviews, and one guy thinks that you are me. Very funny.

[LaLaLaVinCE]

What is 2ch folks??? :?

[Leb]

Users of the 2ch.net bulletin boards.

Eh, their sense of humor sucks anyway. We take their lame and unfunny stuff and turn it into something greater than all of us. Then we usually run it into the ground, but the point stands!

The camera bugs me quite a bit. It's too far out, and I prefer to see people on the field more easily. Also, if these guys are listing "lots of facial expressions" and "battles are simple" as highlights, I'm still not seeing too much to get excited about.

[Neclord]

Yeah I fail to see what is so great about battles being easy. That is always mentioned as something good. Shouldn't they be challenging instead?

And another thing... a map can never be too big!
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[Leb]

They're not saying battles are easy, they're saying the battle system's simple. As in, basic.

[Filipe]

Well I am not the least bit surprised by the Famitsu reviews given to this game considering that well I remember some of the things said about the 4th game in comparison to the others. Clearly the company as a whole seems to only review games they like well, rather than giving an even chance to all the games. We have to consider the fact that a large scale game with a lot of detail like Suikoden 5 seems to have only got 32/40. However a game where all you seem to do is play around with an electronic dog, and whatever else is done with that gets a perfect score? What this screams to me, is that this magazine or company I am not really sure, is filled with reviewers who tend to be Nintendo fanboys perhaps. I mean come on now even by liberal standards and being very kind, I would not give a game like Nintendogs higher than maybe 30/40. I judge games on my view of the quality of game, and my opinion as such, in fact as much as I like Suikoden I wouldnt give even the best Suikoden a perfect score. Much less a game where all you do is play around with an electronic dog, with some other such features I didnt really pay any attention to. Thats just my take on the whole review for the game, but even then I happen to think that 32/40 is a pretty decent score, far from anything to be ashamed of.

As far as some of the comments that were made about the game, it actually bodes well for the game, considering these are things fans of the series want. They want a larger world map, they want a wider spread story, and hey different styles of camera work also is nice. Sure some of the comments were a little simplistic, and I would love a review that was more specific about the details of the game. However, one of those will come closer to the NA release date, or when Sars gets the game and decides to write one out for us. Either way you look at it, we wont be waiting too long for something like this.
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[Neclord]

[Vextor]

What it's saying is that the battle system is easy to understand. It's probably complex based on what we know, but they don't make it "hard to understand."

[melange]

Well the commotion on 2ch about us 'confusing camera angles with trinity system' died down pretty fast... plus there's at least one guy who's figured out that the misleading translated review was copied/pasted from another site.

What's really ironic about the whole thing is all this translating back and forth muddling up and confusing everybody... Makes me shudder when I think about my own attempts at translation...

Off topic but
Sars: How long have you studied/been using Japanese, if I may ask?
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Anyone else notice that Lyon's weapon = overglorified switchblade?