Surprisingly fun and addictive
PROS: - Awesome story, surprisingly well thought out. Final Fantasy fans can even enjoy this one. Plenty of plot twists, love stories, betrayal, etc... - Great cast of support characters. - Decent length. You can powergame through this in about 40-50 hrs, but if you go for all 108 Stars of Destiny, expect 100+ hrs. - The game doesn't force the story on you. The ability to go wherever, whenever and have plenty of sidequests at your disposal. Also, later in the game you get to customize a castle (slight spoiler, sorry). - Decent graphics. Good CG and best overall graphics in the suikoden series thus far. - Good voice acting. Something alot of games are lacking now-a-days.
CONS: - Prince (main character) NEVER speaks. He's the only character that you'll never hear speak. Not to mention he has a very feminine quality about him... - Sometimes random battles are "too often" and can get annoying at times.
Overall great game. Definately worth buying if you're any type of RPG fan. I'm typically very picky, meaning finding a good RPG to maintain my interest is hard to come by, but this one does it easily.