Suikoden 5

whoo. now i've done it again. bah. innocently picked up suikoden 5 and thinking that it'd probably not take more than a day to finish, seeing that the cover doesn't have much of a die-die-also-cannot-finish look on it. bah. but never mind. i'm here to praise the game, not speak of my stupidity. bah.

well, i've skipped suikoden 4 along the way, but it doesn't seem to affect the story progression, coz i guess they're all independent of one another, except for some history, which would probably kill everyone, so i won't be dabbling into that. rights. hmm, as i said, the cover din really impress me, so the only reason i bought it would be because of its name. right.

the soundtrack does impress though, the songs used help to bring the mood about and aid in the smoothness of the story. i have to say, the music used is really superb, it brings the entire game to life, coz in suikoden 3, i think the music wasn't enough, and hence made the game feel rather dead...

the play system is rather the same as suikoden 3, as it is with all other suikoden games. the battle system didn't really change much, so it's quite easy to manipulate. the art of suikoden 5 is rather good, though i prefer that of suikoden 3, coz of the bright colours used and the up-close camera views of the characters. the camera viewpoint of suikoden 5 seems rather far and might not feel as close to the character as in suikoden 3. hmm, i have to say, the play system in suikoden 3 was quite a good idea, having to play the story from all 3 characters point of view, but it got rather dry, coz it's basically the same story over and over again, so i guess that was remedied in suikoden 5.

one big change i noticed was the the main character is really the player. well, that's how RPG are supposed to be right, but this one really states it right. coz all that the 'hero' does or say are decided by the player (me!!) hohoz, though it might not really change the flow of the story, it does help to make the 'hero' more 'personalized'. rather interesting, coz the player would decide the development of the hero and well, at the end of the game, you could say u've gotten ur very own hero.

well, i'm not even close to that yet, being only in my 1st 10 hours of play, this game looked rather dry to me. no side stories (otherwise, they're weren't fully developed) no mini-games yet, no major wars or anything interesting. for now, i'm just being initiated into the plot, running errands and basically being under the thumb of my dear 'queen'. sighs. the hero feels bullied. but one thing i have to say, is that the political aspect of the game has really really thickened much more. i can't say i like it very much. bah. many of the things are beyond control so it can be rather irritating at times, coz i ain't a politics fan.

well, i do hope the story will progress with more interesting stuff to do, and a nicer wardrobe for my prince if possible. coz he's been wearing that same orange shirt with white pants day in day out. and perhaps a change of clothes for the other people too. bahs. on the whole, i think suikoden 5 resembles suikoden 2 more than suikoden 3, but it is convient now that i have a personal bodyguard who rarely leaves my back, so i can ask her where the heck to go. it's one plus point about this game as compared to in suikoden 3 in which i never knew where to go. hohoz, i want more boss battles, they really liven up the game. hopefully, that will soon be true.