Suikoden V, released as Genso Suikoden V (幻想水滸伝V) in Japan, is a role-playing game developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation 2 console. It is the fifth entry in the main Suikoden series.
Plot[]
Two years after Lordlake was razed by her Sun Rune, Queen Arshtat dispatches her son the Prince, her sister Sialeeds, and their royal bodyguards Lyon and Georg Prime to inspect the state of the ruined town. The player as the Prince sees the grim state of the dried-up town and report on it, but Arshtat scorns this; she declares that Lordlake's citizens deserve their desolation for stealing the Dawn Rune. Arshtat's husband Ferid pulls her back to her senses, and she dismisses the inspection party with a whisper.
The next issue of contention is the Sacred Games for Princess Lymsleia's hand in marriage, being held somewhat early for the ten-year-old Lymsleia. The two main contestants, both representing themselves with a champion, hail from rival noble houses: the foppish Euram Barows, and Sialeeds' former fiancé, the charismatic Gizel Godwin. The royal family, however, favors the mysterious outsider Belcoot, as a neutral option less likely to cause strife; the Prince attempts to aid Belcoot quietly with Ferid's approval. However, Gizel successfully rigs the Games to his advantage, and his champion Childerich defeats a drugged Belcoot while the Barow's champion is disqualified.
However, Lord Marscal Godwin, Gizel's father, is less than impressed with Gizel's activities, thinking that he has made an enemy of the Prince and the royal family as a whole with his plotting. Additionally, the royal family took Zegai, the Barows champion, into their own personal custody, who could perhaps help reveal the Godwins cheating and offer an excuse to annul the engagement. Thus, the Godwins launch a preemptive attack at the engagement ceremony in Sol-Falena, Falena's capital. Arshtat and Ferid had anticipated and prepared for the attack, but not the involvement of the elite Nether Gate assassins, who overwhelm the palace's defenses. The struggle culminates in Arshtat and Ferid's deaths, while Lymsleia finds herself a captive. The Prince (whose irrelevance to the line of succession made him the lowest-priority target), Lyon, Georg and Sialeeds are forced to flee.
Gameplay[]
Suikoden V is a console role-playing game and thus shares many traits with past titles in the series. A new feature involves a party member specifically following Freyjadour onscreen, who can be spoken to in order to remind the player what the party's current task is should they forget; the majority of the time this character is Lyon, the Prince's bodyguard, but task-specific or story-specific characters occupy the role as well.
Suikoden V introduces many new features. The function of supporting members Stars of Destiny within the party has been expanded. In this game, if a blacksmith, a rune master or an appraiser is in your party he or she can do the tasks they do at your headquarters such as appraising, sharpening weapons or equipping runes directly from the menu. The Battle system has been returned to 6 battle members, whereas it's predecessor Suikoden IV had only 4 battle members, which many Suikoden fans did not like. In addition to the battle system, a new feature of Suikoden V is the battle formation system, in which players can change their battle formations for different effects, with a stats bonus added to the battle party, which can make the battles more interesting. The Tactical battle System is now fully in real time as well, unlike its predecessors. The Duel system has also been expanded and is more dynamic; the fact that the players have now a limited time to execute an action add a new dimension to the duels. The recruitment system has also been revised and many of the 108 Stars of Destiny are much harder to recruit than in previous versions, with most characters having a recruitment side quest.
Soundtrack[]
The music to Suikoden V was composed by Norikazu Miura and Konami veteran Miki Higashino. Miura, however, did all of the arrangement. The opening movie piece, "Wind of Phantom," was composed, conducted, and produced by Yuji Toriyama; he arranged for it to be played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The soundtrack includes a large number of remixes and references to Higashino's work in Suikoden and Suikoden II, ending with "Into a World of Illusions."
The complete Genso Suikoden V OST, featuring all the music from the game in original form, was released on March 24, 2006. A shorter "Limited Edition" demo disc with 10 tracks had been released earlier.
External links[]
- Suikoden V at the Suikoden Wikia