Ten hours into Suikoden V, and I’m pretty sure the first arc of the game is over. I tend to think of Suikoden games in 3 major arcs, the opening arc, which is the introduction; characters, motivations and the how of our hero becoming what he is destined to be. The second arc being the building of your stronghold, collection of 108 SOD and the revelation of plot, and of course the many battles. Finally, the third arc, in which there is much death, pain, and the truth is revealed, this is where Leon Silverberg screwed me over in the first game, and Snowe fucked it up for me in the fourth game.

Moving on:

First off, the good:

1. Ferid and Ashtart are like OMFG!LOVE SO MUCH! I pretty much whimpered as soon as Ferid decided to have a talk with Georg. It was like; NOOOOOOOOOO! Because you know, I could see where it was going, and the two of them are so beautiful and wonderful together, and WHERE IS THE FIC ABOUT HOW THEY MET? AKA How Ferid Kicked Arse, and Ashtart Made Him Her ToyBoy!! HELLO! It NEED to be written!!!

2. The opportunity to have 6-party members! Oh baby, THANK YOU SO MUCH!

3. The skills system! Oh, how I have missed you, even though we only ever met once, and that was back in Suiko3.

4. Characters!!! OMFG! You can tell Konami decided to spend much more time to flesh out each individual character. It is amazing just how attached I got to characters that I pretty much called was going to die for the sake of plot. The main Hero (hereby known as H5 in the following babble) is really, really, really adorable. His relationship with his sister is so sweet, and there is more of a sense of direction and ability that has been rather lacking in the main characters of 2 and 4. In fact, he kind of remind me of McDohl, a reallyreallyreally pretty McDohl, but a McDohl nonetheless.

5. Lyon kicks arse! A FEMALE bodyguard for a MALE Prince! Yes, I am very aware of the set up, but by the gods, she’s still cool, the sibling vibes I get from H5 and her is just OMFG!SQUEEE!


Now, the bad:
1. The battle system of Suiko5 makes me grind my teeth; the loading time of random encounters is once again painfully slow. I blame the amazing battle system of ff12; I am forever spoiled by the high flexibility of the gambit system.

2. The lack of good maps! You think being the Prince of a Country that the main character would have a damn map of the bleeding capital city. I have never been as aggravated as I was then running through the town beneath the Sun Plaza.

3. The camera angle took a bit to get used to, and even now (10 hours into the game) I still want to randomly throw things at the screen because of the damn camera angel. If I want to stare at my hero’s arse I should be allowed to! Though seriously, it is really irritating when you want to have a view of certain things, and you can’t because the bleeding camera angel won’t allow you. ARGHHHH!

Will talk more about Suiko5 after Sunday, will get the PS2 back then.