No.14

Suikoden/Gensou Suikoden series(1-5, tactics) 7/10

Besides the 2 suikogaiden, I've finished the others. 

1: 8/10 This is good, to be frank the gameplay is not very satisfactory simply it is just your old-school rpgs with no attractive features. But the story and the attempt to do a game with 108 characters(and lots more including your villians etc) is commendable. The story and characters are really the only strong points here.

2: 8/10 2 was my fav rpg for nearly 3 to 4 years until I came upon the Langrisser and ultimately Growlanser series. This is also the game that scored under my record of the most no. of replays through the entire game, with at least 10 times. As with the first, the story and characters are still the only attractive features that made this game a 'masterpiece' to some people. Overrated? yeah I guess. But you can't deny the plot is one of the best rpg war plots mixed with tactical thinking.

3: 5/10 I never gave any game a below 5 score because every game have got its good points which one have to consider(not just because "I hate it so I give it a 1/10", that's fine only for your own opinion, but not in a review). 3 is a very unbalanced game especially in terms of the battle system. I don't think I need to elaborate since many other detailed reviews will explain them, but in all truth, whoever is the one who came up with that buddy system should just bang his head against a wall. The story is not acceptable, though they made things a bit more interesting by having multi-roles but really, this is the start of the decline in in-depth war plots for the entire series. Let's just say despite wanting to give up halfway infinite times, I still forced myself to complete this, but that did not reap any changes in my opinion of how this game is not good.

4: 7/10 Hey, I wrote a review for this on gamefaqs, so check it out there. But to answer why I think 4 is better than 3, even though the story is even worse, and characters are as boring. At least the way battles workimproved. Travelling on world maps, dungeons and fields is more tedious than 3 for definite(the sailing...why oh why? why didn't anyone notice such a nightmare when they were testing the game?). But the overall pace is pretty even, and probably thanks to someone who realized that since the story is already not so good, they decided to keep the game short, therefore at least at the end, the good > flaws

5:7.5/10 5 is a loooong game. I don't like that because it became really boring by the 30th hour since we are just running around in circles with trying to rescue the princess. Obviously, the connection between the runes are ripped off from 2, including sialeeds betrayal = jowy's betrayal. I wouldn't say they are COMPLETELY similiar, but anyone with eyes can see the close resemblances. Characters are more interesting, and at least we get more strategical elements in both story and gameplay battles.

Tactics: 7.5/10 I did a review at gfaqs as well witha  round-up score of 8. Okay, it is true that this game is not that impressive of a srpg game, but most of the characters(okay probably only kika, sigurd and hervey), story and gameplay is really decent imo. I can't quite say why that despite annoyances(those endless waves of disgusting fishes and a main character who misses as if I'm shooting the moon with bow+arrows), I still gave a 7.5.


Fav game(of what I've played): 1. Yes I used to like 2 more than 1, but I'm sorry the presence of jowy and jilia in 2 is such an abomination not even luca cannot salvage that.

Fav characters: ...Pesmerga, Miklotov, Lazlo, Ryhalt/Richard(from 5)
Hated characters:  The 2 abovementioned  "Js", actually I also hated that couple in 5...what was their names I forgot...mariano? mariana? whatever it's that girl who worked at the inn and the guy's name is belcoot right? yeah.