Has Suikoden V made you less of a fan?

[red stuff]

SV has made me more of a Suikoden fan than I ever have been. When I first got into the series, I liked it, but my love for it was something that built up gradually over time. But I was in love with nearly everything about SV from the beginning. The characters and setting are hands down the best in the series, and while the plot loses steam after the first 10 or so hours, it remains at least serviceable throughout the entire game. Suikoden V not only has made me love the series more, it's brought back the feeling I got when I first got into RPGs years ago. I can't remember the last time I liked a game this much.

As for aping SII, there aren't many parts in the game that made me think they were trying too hard to copy the older games...In general, SV does a great job of recapturing the older days, while still establishing its own identity.

[malicesoul]

Nah, this game made me more of a fan than ever! The plot, the story, and characters made me realize how bad every other game was. Everything has been made better in terms of gameplay.

[Himuro]

[malicesoul]

[Cuckooguy]

I do think the final product of Suikoden V was necessary to redeem the series after Suikoden IV.

However, I don't think the Suikoden series will survive if Konami consistently makes another "Suikoden V" or "Suikoden II". I also believe the series needs to be buffed up if there is a next installation. Suikoden 3 almost got it right, but a couple of technical issues plagued that game (namely the horrid walking speed and slooow battle animations). A review I once read pretty much hit the nail when he said Suikoden IV was more like Suikoden 1.5; in that sense, Suikoden V is more like Suikoden 2.5 than anything else. I believe that the series needs to do something to itself to prevent a Suikoden 2.75. Otherwise, we'll be getting more of the same and the series will become stagnant.

I feel Suikoden V is definitely a worthy contendor to the Suikoden series, but no way is it gonna survive if they make two more Suikodens in the vein of Suikoden II. Otherwise, we'll be getting Suikoden 2.75 or Suikoden 2.825.

[jjrrs]

[Himuro]

Completely agreed with your post regarding SV's plot jinners.
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She knows stuff.

[Ashley Riot]

[Sophita]

Sorry; I actually really liked the game. I loved the characters, I loved the world, and while I was annoyed that the plot fizzled at the end and that Lucretia is the god-queen of strategists (I like her, but woman has a contingency plan for EVERYTHING. Would it have killed them to give her one moment where she's taken by surprise?) but honestly, I would say it's the best game I've played this year, and by far my favorite of all the Suikoden games. B

Then again, I get the feeling I'm one of the less hardcore Suikoden players here. I've only beaten Suikoden I 3 times (lost my data, then later on, to fix the LcDohl problem, then once when writing HO's SI bios); S 2 or 3 times (lost Nanami once; lost data another time and wanted to load it before playing S3) I think, S3 I've only beaten completely once, I think, but I've beaten all 3 FC paths (saving before that scene with the three and Sana has it's advantages), SIV and Tactics once; SV once (thus far). Never played the Gaidens. I'm more likely to just keep saves in place I like if I ever want to play them again.

On the other hand, Suikoden V is the only videogame thus far I've ever wanted to play again right away after beating it. Generally I need at least a good 6 month breather before hopping into the world again, but this one, not so much.

You might be burnt out though, dude. I mean, that's a lot of Suikoden playing. I would take a break; go play some other games for a while, or just take a break from playing videogames period.

And it's perfectly possible to be a member of the Suikoden community without being a big Suikoden player. :D We do have community forums, ya know? :D I'm not a big FF player (I like them, but it's a series I'd never buy at full price.), but I post from time to time on FFP just because I like a lot of the people who post there.

[Linnaeus]

This is one of the best Suikodens yet. I am one of those people who thought Suikoden II was a good game, but not my favorite of the Suikodens. I liked Suikoden III much better, and I didn't think Suikoden IV was a complete failure, just not as in depth as other Suikodens or the Final Fantasy Series. But, after playing Suikoden V, I am enlightened. I love this game. The connections to the past, the plot, the runes, the characters...OH MY!! I think I'm going to have a Suikogasm if I play anymore Suikoden V, I love it so much! :mrgreen:

[Bright Shield Rune bearer]

Unfortunately i see something bit of concerning here. Although I didn't played FF 12 i can see by trailers an demo i've played, that game is a masterpice. That goes for graphics and fluid motions and music too. As for story, I still don't know the thing yet, but cause it comes from SE it can't be that bad. They have money, and money does wanders in show business, that goes for game industry as well.

So lot of you guys here, not just saying that you don't like the game, but also using terms such as 'game is a disasster' or 'it completly sux' etc. Which, looking objectively can't be true. Game itself is being rated with the hiest rankings and sales of game are showing the rest.

Although I'm a huge ... HUGE suikoden fan, i can't close my eyes on reality just cause i love that game. Many people do, and that's the thing that actually makes them quite stupid.

I have played Kingdom Hearts 2, and i have to say that game it self is much better done than Suikoden 5. Esspecially the graphics and music. But since I'm not tipe of guy that falls on graphical preferences IMO Suikoden 5 and Kingdom Hearts 2 are almost the same for me. They were both quite dissapointing. Especially the endings.

MAjor spoilers ahead:
Playing the Kingdom Hearts 2 the same thing occuerd me while playing Suikoden 5 a weeak before. Both games have too long intro, and later as the story goes on. It only get's really complicated in quite childish way, and it resolves in more stupid way than it got complicated ... leaving the whole 'the game is too long and it doesn't concern INETERESTING things at all' ... feeling in the end. And endings are disasterous. In Kingdom Hearts it just shows SE's thirst for money cause game obviously continues (if it got sold over milion or more) and in Suikoden 5 it's just pure pathetic try to get something emotional, wich didn't work out for me. Game got me quite bored up untill the end, and seeing Lyone dying was quite anoying ... cause couse of death was so... how should I put it ... i can't remember any other word than stupid... for real.

Only few things got that 'artistic' feel to the game .... in suikoden i would point at ghalleon's memory of queen and king dying, and as for kh2 ... there are many things that could be good and dramatic (roxas and namine for example) but just ended up being happy and .... whatewer. That just got me sick.

Everybody says how Suikoden 5 has this really great character development ... I'm or blind or just don't see that GREAT development. Sialeeds was a poor character, and with her dying scene i couldn't think of anything else but a bad comercial for hottline. Lymsleia ... omg, they've could of put a great 'must to grow up' burdain on her but everything I saw in that character is anoying bratt. As for other characters, I would only point out Zeresse cause of whole mystery thing, not cause she has great character. And Arsthat offcourse (maby the greatest character in S 5). There are other few good characters like Ferid and Georg .... maby some more. But nobody of them had some burdain like Luc, Sarah, Jowy, Barbarossa, Wayat, Nanami, Kika ... etc, etc , etc. I could go on like this forever, the thing is, characters of S 5 IMO were really lame although their design and start-story really promised a lot. That's for story based characters. I won't go that far pointing out goods and bads for every SoD.

As for the last boss in both, KH2 and S5. It's quite pathetic that in SE people just don't get it that huge all powerfull monsters aren't really that interesting. One Jowy kicks them all off. It's not important how glamouros the last fight and ending will be. It the 'thing' that evokes emotions from people whether they are happy or sad.
And the feeling that stays within us after we turn off the console (it seams that everybody is forgeting that).
And in S5 .... the whole butterfly thing ... i don't know how many of you have loaded their data from SI to SII, but loaded data unlocks this secret event with Tir McDohl as you all probably know up untill now. And in events u got to fight with this huge caterpilr that later evolves into butterfly. Fighting last boss from suikoden 5 the first thing that crosed my mind was : 'It's really terrible that programers actually pulled off beter animation for optional boss in SII then for S5 last boss.' As I said before, I'm not guy who falls on graphical aspects of game, but that.... that was pathetic. And as for attacks of Sun Rune Incr. ..... it's Known that last boss (if huge monster) usually have this stunning attacks, and they're usually quite hard to beat up. Not only that i closed my eyes while efects were runing on TV screen, but i also beat up a crap of him in some 6-7 minutes. ...
Whole ending got me a feeling ... 'Great, it's magnifficent how people actually succeed to make things even worse then they were' (this is considering Suikoden 4).

As I already said somewhere before. Suikoden 5 really is a great game, no doubt about it. But once Sars said that it brought back that 'suikoden' feel in it.... i was so happy about it. And in the end, through whole game, I bearly felt that 'thing'.
For me Suikoden is just more then collecting SoD and making your castle grow. It's more than tactical and duel battles, and it's more then any kind of graphics that it offers.
For me suikoden is game that combines uniqe elements in one most atmospherical masterpiece which is hard to see these days. To me .... suikoden 5 just collected everything that seems to make Suikoden game, and they really succeeded, but they forgot the most important thing, and that's the story that's original and breathtaking.

Although i haven't played FF 12 yet. I really belive, and hope in first place, that game will please my needs. Since i have read in many rewiews that game has 'artistic' style. And for me that's what really counts. And after all, the game is taking a place in Ivalice, IMO the best FF world ever created....
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Forgiver's Sign

[Parallax]

First thing's first. Bright Shield Rune bearer, could you...do a little bit more with the proofreading? I don't mind spelling errors so much as long as I can read and understand your main point, but I do have a problem with Internet shorthand. Replacing 'you' with 'u' and 'sucks' with 'sux' and other things like that are definitely frowned on around here.

As for the discussion at hand...I actually thoroughly enjoyed Suikoden V. It really clicked with me, the plot, the characters, the environment, and the various little improvements that they made to the game system were all huge selling points for me. I didn't notice this 'massive loading time' issue that certain others seemed to, so I'm pretty much ready to call V my favourite out of the Suikoden games offhand. Also, it's worth noting that I completely agree with this statement:

[arts03]

First of all I think Suikoden 2 is the best among all the Suikodens Konami has made.

The plot was just so moving, everything was a bit realistic than any other games i've played. You could see real EMOTION in a game, which is very rare in an rpg.

Suikoden V helped me recover from the shock I received when I played IV. And I'm so thankful it did because if not I would've given up on the series by now.

I've followed Suikoden through from the beginning of Suikoden 2 and then started searching for a copy of Suikoden 1 upto now. And I think Suikoden V surpassed what Suikoden 2 did, with some minor problems at hand.

I don't deny the resemblance of the game to Suikoden 2, but still that didn't turn me off as a fan. Though i pray they won't be doing that until the end of the series, I agree though that Konami needs to buffen things up a bit in the Suikoden world.

Suikoden V helped me discover more about the Suikoden Universe. I mean, did Suikoden 2 reveal so much about neighboring countries like Suikoden 5 did? I think it did not, Suikoden V talked about Armes, Nagarea, Island Nations, and other places more than any other Suikoden did. It opened much more doors in the world I love and just kept me wanting more! That's the good thing this game did to me. Everything just was so interesting that I wanted to play another installment right after it, but sadly I can't.

The Council of Chieftains in Armes, the Naval powers of different Nations and this Theocracy nation somewhere, don't you guys think there is much more to see in Suikoden that was realized in this sequel? (or prequel? i don't know. lol. it's all jumbled up)

To sum it all up I think this game made me more of a fan. And i doubt I'd start getting Suiko'd out in the next few years. You just need a break. :D
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Fuwalafuwalu, the best name. Ever. :)

[Blazing Camp]

I agree with everyone here. SuikoV was more than just a much needed boost to the series after IV. It restored my faith in the series again and made it so that we can speculate on the next Suikoden instead of worrying if Konami was losing their touch on the series.

This might be shallow on my part, but I would'nt want Suikoden to change so dramatically. Sure I'd like a diffrent plot and tweaks to the gameplay, but I just worry that a change in the next installment would be so 'out there' that it ruins everything else in the game. Sure it's nice to give every game a "refresh", but then again there's the phrase "don't fix it if it ain't broke".

[Swordsman from Kanakan]

Suikoden I enjoyed most:
TOP 1
Suikoden II - Because of there are many collectibles. . .
I feel excited when its time to battle Gorudo. . . because of Jowy. . .
Because it's related with Suikoden I. . .
You can use Tir McDohl again!
TOP 2
. . . Sorry to disagree with you. . . Himuro
Suikoden V - The plot twists. . . Sialeeds betrayal. . .
Strong Runes. . . Star Rune. . . Twilight + Dawn = Creation. . .
It's a little challenging than other Suikodens. . .
Luserina!
TOP 3
Suikoden I - The Soul Eater Rune!
Very dramatic. . . Gremio's death. . . :cry:
TOP 4
Suikoden III - Quite boring BGM. . . I'm falling asleep. . .
TOP 5
Suikoden IV - Too short. . .
I've finished the game with 108 Stars, all Lv.99, all Lv.16
Weapons, ALMOST all collectibles in less than 30 hrs. . .
Hmph. . .
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"Oh, Luserina"