Ah there we go... all finished...

Today, I was sick at home, eschewing work because of a fever(mild) contracted perhaps in the rain last night. So was at home... sleeping, eating, and playing suikoden V for the past 10 hours.
And ladies and gents, after 70 hours on it, it is finished. I have finished the epic that is Suikoden V.

And the verdict?

Fantastic. Fabulous. Oh so damn good.

We shall begin with top-notch graphics, smooth cel-shading and am loving the artwork of the characters. Bright colors play on every part of the world and man, the cities look so good. The only gripe i had with design, layout etc was the immense size of some of the places. Travelling from one end to the other really took a lot of time.

Music-wise, it doesn't really get much better than this. Suiko 1 and 2 had excellent music. 3 was terrible except for opening theme and several minor tunes. Didn't listen to 4 but this one... had superb music. Very emotional synth work there. Nice to hear the familiar tunes show up here and there as well.

Story and characters then and that is where this bloody game shines. The story is rivetting. Not complex, but the game really hits you with its twists. PPLE DIE. Yes, they die and in throes as well. The way they die is pretty cool too. And damn sad. Heart sang out for some of them. Just wanna complain about the end though. The story got really screwy at the end and thats usually the case for the suiko games. The dynamics sort of die down there. Suiko 1 and 2 had the same prob with a final boss that had little to do with anything. I enjoyed Suiko 3's end story though. Now that had relevance and was heart-wrenching if u played the other suikos.
5 not so good, but the end sequence is really great!

Characters drive this game though and the efforts in voice-acting and back story for most of the characters really show the work put into them. You laugh with them, cry etc. Well, not in real life of course, in that imaginary one. Sigh when pple die... its rather touching.

So now its Suiko 5 the best, then 2 then 3 then 1. Never played 4, heard it was rubbish.

And now to the next game... KH2 anybody?