Suikoden 5 (PS2)

Hurray another installment in a great series. If you've been a long time fan of this series you've known its been otherwise great till the recent hits of 4 and tactics neither of which were terrible but not all that note worthy. I expected this game to also fall into that category so let's see if it did.

Story: Ok so the game basically starts out with you returning from some mission or other with your starting companions. You'll soon take the role of the Prince, who is your typical mute hero that and he looks like a younger Jeane, if you don't know who that is then just know that you'll easily mistake him for a girl most times. For a good portion of the game your more or less running from A to B discovering litle bits of the story. Then at some point as the games tend to be it all goes to hell and you find yourself leading a rebel army and trying to free your kingdom. All in all not bad. 4/5

Gameplay: Basic RPG hero stuff, you'll have your party which will range from your hero and his body guard Lyon, then 4 others of your choosing and upto 4 more support or alternative characters. There are points where certain people have to be in your party for some scenarios but none of that drags it down. In the game you'll have a few different forms of combat, one being your everyday RPG turn based. Then you have Navel and War battles that play out like a free range tatical fight nothing irritating or difficult here. Finally you have a suikoden old favorite of mine, the duels. Easy enough with a close ear and quick hands you can easily take this one down. 4/5

Graphics: The game has and 3D anime feel to it and you'll notice the world isn't overly detailed or vivid, but you don't really dislike it either. All the areas are a little to straight forward no real exploration needed most times just kinda go. This isn't bad the areas still look good but, it does feel a little A to B. Your spells and skills aren't anything new just prettier versions of the previous ones. Characters tho, especially reoccuring ones look really good. No one really looks like anyone else they all have a uniqueness to them that makes it nice. 3/5

Audio: Personally I've always love suikoden music. 5 boasts a couple of great ballads and some old revised versions of songs from previous installments. At times the BGM sounds just like that, background and nothing more and at othertimes its actually enjoyable. I also like that all your important characters that appear it cutscenes have voice acters and good ones from other games and some of your favorite games an animes. 3/5

Replay: Its a suikoden, and as they are all tied together in some way or another you'll probable want to play through more than once just to connect all the dots. There's also a game plus which will reveal a few more secrets, other than that no real reason the game isn't that detailed to play through more than twice and check out a few of the different endings. 3/5

Overall: Overall this is a good installment in a great series. Though it doesn't stand out among so many othe games its still pretty good. Definately an improvement for the series. With the ability to have a wide range of party memembers and different abilities and skills the game never really gets boring so long as you change things up a bit. You do have to suffer through alot of A to B early on but its worth in it my opinion. So yes I'd say pick this up and possibly all the other ones if you haven't already . 4/5