Suikoden, a long-standing series, is back again with another instalment. After a dismal performance with Suikoden IV, and Suikoden Tactics, in affect they have returned to their roots. It has been quite a long time since the series has pumped out a game worthy enough to satisfy its legacy. I would personally know because I own each of the games in the series. Now number two is still the best in the series, at least by my opinion, and quite a few others. This one does fantastically well to try and aspire to the same greatness, and made leaps and bounds over the previous three games to get there.

Mainly the game revolves around the Prince of Falena. In a way he battles with his mother, the queen, who wields one of the true runes, the Sun rune. Now the true runes were never meant for a single person to control, because the immense power can lead to madness. This is because absolute power corrupts, as well all know. She controls it by her lonesome, much to the delight of those trying to use her to make the kingdom better. Two factions, the Godwin, and the Barows, each with completely different ideals, where the Godwin’s are like manifest destiny, and are trying to expand the kingdom to conquer all. The Barows are much more about the infrastructure, wishing to add to the security and inner wealth of the country. This leaves them like oil in water, and while they are forced together, they simply do not mix.

This battle between the parties has not helped the Queen, and in a way it is tearing the kingdom apart bit by bit. This spirals down through the age-old dispute between the two families that had even previously involved murders. It is quite possible for one of these families to seize power as well, for every 16 years the Sacred Games occurs where the princess of the kingdom is put up as a prize. This is where many men battle against each other to become her husband, and one of the controlling factors of the kingdom. Most any person is also able to enter, but they may also have a fighter battle for them. This leads to generally the person with the deepest pockets winning the tourney, and of course that would be to two largest families, the Godwins and the Barows. One of the applicants was the Queen’s sister’s ex-fiancé, who is now looking to marry the Queen’s daughter. What a twisted mess of love and affairs, with the goal of power. That coupled with the Queen’s wrath, a woman that destroyed the livelihood of one of their most loyal cities turned treasonous, in huge ball of fire.

The storyline of Suikoden V pretty much goes back to their roots. There is a struggling force trying to battle for the proper rule of a kingdom. You have friends, and with them, betrayal and corruption. Sometimes you will have friends that betray you because of corruption. It does pass the checklist of the qualifications of a true Suikoden game. In the beginning, the very long beginning, you will have a lot of reading to do. It seems like most of the first ten hours of the game is pretty much full of that kind of stuff, leaving the storyline green and growing, but the gaming part rotting. It is quite annoying, since what I wanted to do in the game was oddly fight. Of course there are two sides to RPG’s, but this was simply not showing off its battle style.

You will spend quite some time just wandering around the large cities. Even earlier in the game you will even spend quite some time tracking down your sister, and she was in the same castle as me. Talking to most of the people saying that she was looking for me did not yield any result in finding her. You will also have your bodyguard following you around, so if you angle her incorrectly when talking to someone, you will end up talking to her, again and again. While she does occasionally provide the proper assistance needed to continue on in the game, most of the time you will end up with garbage.

The environments in Suikoden V do look pleasant. From room to room though, the objects in the room seem out of place with the room itself. It seemed like almost a stamp on a piece of paper, where the ink looked blue on a white background. The environment is also set up so that things can be well hidden, like things involving doorways. This was fairly disappointing because I spent roughly ten minutes talking to people in one town, because it was difficult to see where I needed to go. It was near the beginning of the game, so the buzz I was accumulating from playing the game was quickly becoming extinguished. What was nice though is that the cities are quite large. It can take a great deal of time just seeking out all the aspects of ones, and you will spend quite a few hours doing this through the game. Sometimes it will be just about finding the right people though.

Outside of battle you have three options of camera view, which was basically involving distances away from your characters. They did work out quite nicely, but sometimes it showed you a little too much. It made me wish to be able to wander through additional city areas that had been blocked off by boxes. Considering I have some of the strongest warriors in the world, if they want to go past a few boxes, chances are they could do it. What was also a little difficult to gauge was just how the characters walking around. It seemed a little like sprites on the game, instead of 3D characters. On top of that it felt like they were not rendered well enough, and easily faded into the background if you were on the far away camera view.

I felt that the fighting in this game was well put together. It almost felt like I was playing a game of Ogre Battle, but I had control of the characters. The enemies jumped forward, which would prevent some global attacks from hitting them, and added a good level of depth to the battle. There was also a counter feature inputted into the game, which could have your character not only block the enemies advances, but also deliver a heavy blow for a retort. All and all, for a turn based role-playing game it felt like I had a lot of control over the battle, but more so it really felt interactive, like I was really controlling them. What is also great is that you can have up to six people on the field at the same time. This makes battles a bit too easy, at least for the first half of the game.

There were different levels to the battle, involving up to all six of the characters. Each one could play off of the last, giving each other stat boosts. It was also possible to group the attacks together, so it did feel like a team game, rather than just a few lone people trading shots back and forth. You have the rune attacks, which would grow as you and your team gathered the experience needed. Well rounded, and fresh, it was very nice to play through, especially more so later on in the game where it became a bit more challenging.

If you are not into that type of thing, there were a few options that you could choose at the beginning of the game, which would allow it to automatically push through the round. You could set it up to attack randomly, the highest HP creature, or the lowest to pick them all off one by one. This made it quite nice when I no longer really wanted to take control, and while I had to set it every round, it was a bit nicer than having to choose all the attacks I wanted to use on the meaningless low levelled characters that are a factor in every game. It really is a great feature included. You will also scroll through quite a few different types of creatures, so there always seems to be a healthy variety.