God, Konami finally brought the series back to its best shape.
Then it was countless nights waiting for the next Suikoden that happened to appear in the Playstation 2. It started a new generation of graphics but it followed pretty much Final Fantasy X gameplay style and abandoned its roots. The story wasn't bad at all, but it really wasn't the same Suikoden all fans were waiting for. And to make things even worse Suikoden IV was released and completely abandoned almost everything we had as "unique" in the Suikoden series.
But fear not Suikoden fans, because seems like God and Konami heard our prayers and came back to the old-school style of the series that we last saw with Suikoden 2.
Some people complained the story start too slow but I thought it was great, because it developed pretty well the relationship the Prince had with his family, the Queen's Knights and other important characters of the game. The rest of the story you can expect the best storyline in a game released for the Playstation 2, with a bit of everything you can imagine.
The graphics are good, pretty much everything the Playstation 2 could handle, cool effects and a good anime feeling.
We can't forget the gameplay which added everything Konami made right from other games into one. The duel system is better than ever, the battle system can't even talk about, way too good with lots of customization and strategy option and the nice skill system from Suikoden III is back. Finally, that's basically the first RPG of this generation that comes back to the big free-to-walk world style, which is really big with lots of places to explore, cities of all kind, caves, castles, forests, ruins and everything you would expect from a great RPG. The camera is fixed but they did a very good job, theres not a single time that you'll get annoyed with it because it works very well. I found only a single flaws with the strategic battle mode, in some battles I found difficult to control many units at the same time while having to do a strategy to attack an enemy, but it's nothing that will ruin the game.
You'll have good moments with Suikoden V while listening to a big part of the two first Suikoden games sound. The world-map music and others will make you revive completely the good moments you had playing them.
To finish, I don't know what are you waiting for to run and buy this game that is by far the best RPG made since the end of PS1 RPG's. Good job Konami.