Revival of the Series for sure.
User Rating: 9.9 | Suikoden V PS2
So if your considering this game your one of three types of people, A. Hardcore RPG guy whos played all the suikodens (myself), B. Someone who heard about it from a friend and thought they'd give it a shot without any prior suikoden game play, C. The guy who buys video games just to say he has them. Honestly I really can't see anyone else buying this, its definitly not a RPG for new comers to the genre and not something that I would recomend as a gift to someone who hasn't played the series. Ok so lets get down to buisness. Im gonna write this from the stand point of A. So you played 4 and chances are you were a little disapointed in it. You played three and either liked it or didn't. And you played 1 and 2 and must have really enjoyed them to have bought or played 3 more games. In my opinion 2 was the best suikoden for different reasons that maybe i'll go into if I decided to type a reveiw for it. Suikoden 5 really lives up the the franchise's name. The 6 person combat is back. 108 charecters again (plus the 5 bonus ones this time around their DoReMi Elves), a fantastic storyline, solid skill system, moderate difficulty, nice vintage looking graphics (really makes it feel like suikoden 2.), the return of Viki, Jeanne, Lelei, Kelley, and a few descendants from 4 along with a hand full of tie ins for 2. The plot focuses on the Queendom of Felana and the Sun Rune along with its two sister runes Twilight and Dawn. The plot starts out kind of slow and you really don't get to recrute till around 7 hours into the game. Once that happens the game really takes of with challenging military battles (at certain points you'll be split up between naval and land combat, mastering the system and having beavers makes it a whole lot easier.), amuzing charecters, and probably the second best castle in the series. So seige on the kingdom, a little tourmoil, some plot twists, some betrayels, some revelations, and you get a pretty compelling story line. The scenes are played out were you can actually feel the charecters emotions and the hero has been animated fantasticly so that even though he doesn't speak you can still feel him. Overall for you've got a damned good Suikoden, a fabulously solid RPG, some great replay value (especially if you weren't able to find all the stars) and a hand full of different endings. If you liked any of the Suikodens check it out, if you liked SquareEnix RPGs check it out. If you like a good story that keeps you up till 6 in the morning, check it out. Or if you just want a game to blow some hours on check it out. Either way it's a great game and another title Im happy to have in my collection. 
