Suikoden has a lot of history behind it, both in story and games in the series. Dating back to the early PSOne days, the series has - in the eyes of many - gone downhill after it leapt to the PlayStation 2 with Suikoden III. Considering the fifth installment is the last planned installment for this generation of consoles, it would be fantastic if the series could go out in a blaze of glory, and while it does reclaim some of that glory given to the first two games, Suikoden V still shows its age in a lot of ugly, ugly ways - still, if you're so die-hard into RPGs that you can easily throw aside graphics, presentation and pacing then you'll probably love this offering.

Taking place in the politically torn Queendom of Falena, six years before the original Suikoden, you control the Prince of Queendom as you traverse the various nations of the land whilst they deal with several conflicts with other nations, including ever-popular war. The Queen, your mother, has made some controversial decisions (likely attributed to being outfitted with what's called the Sun Rune) and you're tasked with going to the nations she's affected in an attempt to uncover more, whilst also meeting the people of the towns. Along the way you acquire various party members to help you out with the nation's problems - in all there are over 60 playable characters and 108 unique recruits to discover, each with different abilities and styles of play! Fans of Suikoden for the long haul will know exactly what I'm talking about and if you're new then prepare for a treat when it comes to discovering them all.

While the story in Suikoden V is original - dealing with torn nations, politics, royal families and even magical runes - plus has a massive amount of depth and history behind it, it does an absolutely superb job at confusing people who are new to the series, by introducing them to the entire world as painstakingly as possible. The first few hours of the game are almost entirely made up of short cut scenes, which abruptly cut off into nothing but a view of your characters standing around talking as you read pages and pages of text. I don't mind this at all, but it needs to be balanced out with eventful gameplay as well; the story is well presented if you're willing to sit and soak it all in, but for most it may be too overwhelming and cluttered in the beginning. It takes a long while for Suikoden V to pick up and really get exciting, which shoots the game in the foot when it comes to getting newcomers on board.

Established fans of the early Suikoden titles, particularly installments one and two, will be happy to hear that the gameplay of Suikoden V features not only numerous returning characters from this era, but throws out many criticized changes from the third and fourth titles. New players shouldn't expect to notice anything original right away, as the exploration part of Suikoden V, which comprises a big part of the gameplay early on, is very basic and watered down. There's only one camera perspective, which can be zoomed in on for unflattering graphical results, and you simply go from point to point talking to characters who basically do nothing but stand around like LEGO men stuck on their pegs.

Luckily the battle system has a lot more depth, and this is where those early Suikoden fans will jump up and down for joy! With a party system supporting six members at once, you can switch between a variety of battle formations that will increase specific abilities of your party whilst reducing others, adding a lot of strategic depth to the fighting element (which many RPGs could do with!) Furthermore, you can even swap party members' positions to cater more towards their attack strengths and weaknesses.

The combat mode also supports co-op attacks for characters who are linked in some way, such as the Prince and his bodyguard, or a relative. Though they're powerful, they aren't always as affective as using standard attacks, as they lack the ability to inflict critical damage on an enemy. Learning each character's strengths, equipping the correct items, knowing when to use certain attacks and mastering the formation system are all important aspects of learning how to successfully come out alive. It's a shame that such a great combat system with loads of depth is buried under a barrage of mediocre exploration and dialogue, and further tarnished by the utter lack of any tutorial or beginner's guide - if you're not familiar with how RPGs work then you will be lost almost instantly, especially when you start managing your inventory and equipment through very complex menus and attribute displays.

Exploration wouldn't be a bad thing if the graphics were pleasant to look at, or even if the non-playable characters had a spec of personality to them, but as it stands, Suikoden V simply looks like an ancient game with high-res textures (but still quite bad for even the PlayStation 2). Each room, house or shop you enter is placed in the middle of what appears to be infinite blackness, which severely dampens the experience for any fan looking to be fully immersed into the universe - you can zoom in and eliminate the emptiness around the room, but you'll barely be able to see anything outside of the poorly animated and rendered characters you're moving.

The twist in Suikoden's gameplay relative to most RPGs comes in the form of the returning war battles; with more real-time movement, the battles pan out in a somewhat predictable fashion where specific units always beat other units, but it still makes a nice break from the turn-based battles and has a nice bit of strategy to it - you can't deny that it is definitely nice to see something new like this in an RPG, even if it has been featured in Suikoden before. Finally, similar to most RPGs, you'll find mini-games such as fishing and several other games (most of these are unlocked by recruiting particular characters into your party, some of which can be a bother to track down!) Those characters you chase down, be it a chef, orchestra conductor or high-class warrior, have a direct influence on the size of your forces during the war battles, even if you can't use each character in battle. Easily the best part of the game is hunting them all down and recruiting them to your nation's cause, especially later on when you can see them all in one place and interact with them.

The concrete thing I love about RPGs are the parts where you interact with charming characters in equally captivating villages or cities - it's why I love Xenogears and Dark Cloud 2 (known as Dark Chronicle in Europe), and why I continue to give RPGs a chance even though it is certainly not my favorite genre. Unfortunately in this area, outside of your recruits, the game really shows its age when it comes to talking to all the other characters around town, or trying to get from area to area (largely because of the harsh loading times that crop up everywhere). Many of the people are very stale and lack movement, feeling cold and empty, even if they have unique designs to them; this is caused almost entirely by the near-always high angle camera view that gives the game a lonely feel, with no way to really get a good look at the people and setting around you. Perhaps the only aspect of the graphics I can really give a big thumbs up to is the reflection of nearby water, and some of the costume designs - that doesn't include the Prince, though! There are also some nice layout designs for the towns, featuring hidden paths and routes, but compared to other RPGs on the PS2, everything looks pretty drab.

The sound is a bit better, mixing in some classic Suikoden tunes with new orchestrated bits - yet I can't help but feel that some of them are very out of place when I'm hearing dramatic battle music during the times I'm simply visiting a town. The voice acting has highs and lows, with solid deliveries in some areas but rather squeaky and annoying ones in others. There also just isn't enough of it; with many scenes being cut at random from a cut scene into text dialogue. Suikoden V could do with a major boost in the ambience department - it seems many developers have yet to discover just how much simple ambience can give to a game, especially an RPG such as this!

Once you awake from what feels like the eternal slumber caused by the opening hours of the gameplay, then if you're an RPG fan you're in for a treat - Suikoden V combines three battle modes, one of which is extremely well thought out, while the other two provide a good dose of variety to the gameplay. The storyline can be engaging once it combines with some actual gameplay (this takes a while!) and this iteration does a good job at grasping the glory it once had by throwing out many things in the third and fourth volumes and bringing it back to its roots. It's just a crying shame that it's lacking that extra cinematic sparkle for which many of its RPG siblings are famous, instead using a very dated graphics engine, dreadful camera control and lacking any kind of visual or audio appeal. Those only slightly into RPGs won't last long with this, but if you live and breathe for RPGs then you'll absolutely love the depth that the battles and items supply, finding yourself immune to the lack of explanation for many things in the game, as well as the poor presentation. Suikoden V is a move in the right direction in terms of gameplay elements, but the series needs to completely revamp the visual and technical engines backing it next time around. This is far from the best RPG you can find on the PS2, but easily the best Suikoden in a long while!

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).