Completed Suikoden V (Spoilers!)
Whew. That was a long haul. I finally beat it last night and I STILL feel fatigued.
This game was a fitting choice for this scorching summer. It was simple, straightforward, and soothing. I didn't have to worry about constantly paying attention to my environment, aiming at moving targets, and feeling stressed that something horrible is about to kill me. Just what I needed to decompress after an academic year. Considering how there were frequent marathon sessions that lasted a few hours where I *couldn't* save, this had to be a vacation-time game.
It was WAY TOO LONG, and very slow paced. Some of it is due to the massive scale of the locations - I ran through multiple screens just to exit a city or climb flights of stairs. Random encounter rate is super high. The character manager system is clunky, and this bogs down playtime, too. It shouldn't take me nearly 30 minutes to select my party, properly equip them, and settle on a formation, but it frequently did. There was so much to equip - not just gear, but runes and skills as well. And skills and weapons must be leveled, too. I am nitpicky, so I spent too much time customizing certain characters, JUST TO HAVE THEM LEAVE MY PARTY FOR PLOT REASONS! GRRRR!
Recruitment was very touchy - in retrospect, I am glad I FAQ'd it, otherwise I would have gotten only 70 characters! Missing just one would have resulted in a very disappointing ending. I would have been PISSED.
I liked how in the end, I needed to use about 30 characters. I wish I knew this sooner - I had too many under-leveled characters. The game doesn't make it easy to change your mind after this point, so I worked with who I had. After the 30 char bit, I had to pick my final party from that limited pool, with no opportunity to change. Then I REALLY wish I chose differently. I nearly wound up in an unbeatable situation, and reloading the save would have set me back hours!
Of the Suiko games I completed, I'd rank this third: SuikoII >> SuikoI > SuikoV. I still think this would have been a stronger story if told from Sialeeds's POV. She had complex, interesting motivations, and she was a much more sympathetic character. So much was demanded of her for the supposed greater good of the kingdom. Her perma-death was depressing, but fitting. I expected gaining 108 would have restored her, but I knew that wasn't happening once it was used for Lyon. I also think it was unfair for her to be not counted among the 108. If completely irrelevant characters like Cornelio can be a Star of Destiny, then Sialeeds definitely deserves to be! How can Euram Barrows, who never, ever helped the cause, in any way shape or form, become a Star and Sialeeds be excluded?
Lyon's possible demise - once again I would have been furious if that was my outcome. It wasn't the logical conclusion, unlike Nanami and Jowy's possible deaths in SuikoII. It was too late for it to have worked the way it did for Gremio in SuikoI (AND THAT WAS AWFUL!!!) - no time to process it. If she died, any happy-ish ending would have been yanked away from me. For a game this lengthy, that is not acceptable!
The 108-mandated sequence, where the Prince is briefly reunited with his deceased family courtesy of the Sun Rune, was touching. (I suspect losing several family members has made me extra sappy in this regard.) That was worthwhile. I must say the Prince and Lyon grew on me over the course of this game.
I was offered a choice in the end, to travel with Georg or rebuild Falena. Of course the Prince stayed in Falena! And to quote Dave, "Looks like the little girl got her man." I would have liked more ending cinematics - a game this lengthy needs a huge payoff. (The Final Fantasy games are very good at this.)
I wonder how long Falena will continue to exist - Viki was surprised it was still around, and isn't it referred to as "former" by SuikoII?
This game was a fitting choice for this scorching summer. It was simple, straightforward, and soothing. I didn't have to worry about constantly paying attention to my environment, aiming at moving targets, and feeling stressed that something horrible is about to kill me. Just what I needed to decompress after an academic year. Considering how there were frequent marathon sessions that lasted a few hours where I *couldn't* save, this had to be a vacation-time game.
It was WAY TOO LONG, and very slow paced. Some of it is due to the massive scale of the locations - I ran through multiple screens just to exit a city or climb flights of stairs. Random encounter rate is super high. The character manager system is clunky, and this bogs down playtime, too. It shouldn't take me nearly 30 minutes to select my party, properly equip them, and settle on a formation, but it frequently did. There was so much to equip - not just gear, but runes and skills as well. And skills and weapons must be leveled, too. I am nitpicky, so I spent too much time customizing certain characters, JUST TO HAVE THEM LEAVE MY PARTY FOR PLOT REASONS! GRRRR!
Recruitment was very touchy - in retrospect, I am glad I FAQ'd it, otherwise I would have gotten only 70 characters! Missing just one would have resulted in a very disappointing ending. I would have been PISSED.
I liked how in the end, I needed to use about 30 characters. I wish I knew this sooner - I had too many under-leveled characters. The game doesn't make it easy to change your mind after this point, so I worked with who I had. After the 30 char bit, I had to pick my final party from that limited pool, with no opportunity to change. Then I REALLY wish I chose differently. I nearly wound up in an unbeatable situation, and reloading the save would have set me back hours!
Of the Suiko games I completed, I'd rank this third: SuikoII >> SuikoI > SuikoV. I still think this would have been a stronger story if told from Sialeeds's POV. She had complex, interesting motivations, and she was a much more sympathetic character. So much was demanded of her for the supposed greater good of the kingdom. Her perma-death was depressing, but fitting. I expected gaining 108 would have restored her, but I knew that wasn't happening once it was used for Lyon. I also think it was unfair for her to be not counted among the 108. If completely irrelevant characters like Cornelio can be a Star of Destiny, then Sialeeds definitely deserves to be! How can Euram Barrows, who never, ever helped the cause, in any way shape or form, become a Star and Sialeeds be excluded?
Lyon's possible demise - once again I would have been furious if that was my outcome. It wasn't the logical conclusion, unlike Nanami and Jowy's possible deaths in SuikoII. It was too late for it to have worked the way it did for Gremio in SuikoI (AND THAT WAS AWFUL!!!) - no time to process it. If she died, any happy-ish ending would have been yanked away from me. For a game this lengthy, that is not acceptable!
The 108-mandated sequence, where the Prince is briefly reunited with his deceased family courtesy of the Sun Rune, was touching. (I suspect losing several family members has made me extra sappy in this regard.) That was worthwhile. I must say the Prince and Lyon grew on me over the course of this game.
I was offered a choice in the end, to travel with Georg or rebuild Falena. Of course the Prince stayed in Falena! And to quote Dave, "Looks like the little girl got her man." I would have liked more ending cinematics - a game this lengthy needs a huge payoff. (The Final Fantasy games are very good at this.)
I wonder how long Falena will continue to exist - Viki was surprised it was still around, and isn't it referred to as "former" by SuikoII?