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Saturday 8 March, 2008
GAMEPLAY (2)
So, after some serious story developments happen (I hate spoilers and am annoyed by those who don't warn you about them, so no way I'm ever going to put spoilers in my GameLogs, especially those that some people HAVE to read...if you play(ed) the game, you'll know what I mean), the game begins to open up slowly in terms of gameplay; meanwhile, the story begins to slow down a bit (or at least you have more stuff you can do in-between). Some people call this "getting over the hump" of this game into the actual gameplay. Of course, as previously mentioned, I enjoy the story and characters immensely as well as the gameplay, so for me it was more like a smooth, fun, and thrilling dive into the world of the game.
Anyways, the story and character development continue well as the game progresses, even though it slows down. Also, more story-central characters are introduced and the player can begin recruiting the optional Stars of Destiny; this causes the character development to be spread around more, and thus thinner as well. The main characters and other main-story involved Stars of Destiny (which are usually automatically recruited) usually get more development and depth than the optional Stars of Destiny (SoD from now on); the optional SoD usually only get developed during their recruitment sequence/events and are more cliched, some are even joke-like comic reliefs or have exaggerated personalities, etc. I don't really expect a game to tackle the stupendous feat of developing 108 characters all very well, and Suikoden games have always focused on a group of SoD involved in the main story more. It is enough for me that the main group of characters continue developing and maintain my interest/like for them.
In the meantime, in addition to the sidequesty-like tasks one can do to recruit optional SoD, many other gameplay options open up with the acquiring/evolution of your base (a Suikoden staple). More characters and Rune options make battles more interesting overall, but they remain relatively simple, short, and easy affairs. Duals and army battles change it up a bit sometimes too. This is all better for expanded discussion in...
DESIGN
First of all, the battle systems in most Suikodens have been relatively simple compared to most RPGs. Suikoden V's is completely turn based, with speed affecting only the order allies and enemies act each turn (which is still important to think about of course) and you select all team members actions for the overall larger "turn" at once. Also, if your battle members have anywhere near the proper level of equipment, battles are usually very easy; bosses are usually the only fights you'll ever feel any pressure on your survival, there are exceptions for rare monsters/places you can sometimes reach where you aren't supposed to be yet. Special character combination attacks, thinking of/forming awesome rune combinations, and (new to Suikoden V) choosing formations/using formation skills all add some fun and spice into combat, but are also strictly unnecessary for victory.
Tied to this is the leveling system in most Suikodens, which vastly changes the amount of experience a character receives from a defeated enemy based in the difference between the character's level and the enemy's level. No, we're not talking about a little boosted experience for lower leveled party members here, and allowing experience point scaling to take care of the rest; we're talking about characters say, 20 levels behind, gaining around 5 levels in one battle. This is actually a great way to encourage players to try out new characters in battle, since it might otherwise be daunting to pick five or so characters (even worse, in Suikoden IV it was only three) other than the hero to devote time to leveling up - out of usually more than half of the 108 SoD which you can choose from to use in battle. However, it does make leveling up to a competitive strength trivial, and powerleveling is almost impossible since characters around 5 or so levels above the enemies start gaining tiny amounts of experience. I believe Suikoden V added skills to reward more dedicated fighting, but these overall have varying usefulness, and some require way too much work for a small gain. These skills are also the only real way players can play around with characters beyond upgrading their equipment and changing their runes. Once again, this is likely because of the size of the cast, and thus the player should simply "choose" the right characters for their battle needs rather than "making" the right character. Some skills are also neat in that they are active even when the character is in your "entourage" (basically your reserves you can carry around), some non-battle characters can also be put in your entourage only for their skills. Different players will react differently to the overall scheme, but overall Suikodens have never been about tough/challenging battles or grinding, but more about...
Ally collecting. As mentioned previously, many of the 108 SoD play a role in the plot, and optional ones may be recruited with certain requirements. As with all Suikodens, the larger incentive to collect SoD other than learning side-stories and expanding your options/base, is to affect the ending. With only a few more SoD than the amount given to you automatically by the plot (usually quite a few actually out of the 108 are mandatory), the player will get the "sort-of bad" ending. Have a healthy amount of optional SoD, and you get the "normal" ending. A perfect set of 108 Stars will net you the "best" ending. (Interestingly, some players prefer the "normal" endings since the "best" endings are "too happy/perfect" and the "normal" endings are more sad and realistic). A few "bad" endings can also be gotten that end the game prematurely by selecting certain choices or losing certain duals etc. It is also sometimes annoyingly hard to not miss some optional SoD due to short recruitment windows/hard requirements/whatever. One's best bet is to scour every corner of the world you can reach after every main story event...also, look for characters with names/character portraits...and be nice to them/try to do whatever for them.
Another aspect all Suikodens have had is "the base". Hey, with 108 Stars, you gotta have somewhere to put them. This has been around since Suikoden I, and some other games have done the "base" idea well, like Skies of Arcadia, but Suikoden was one of the first games, if not the first game, to have the idea of a player having their own base that evolved with recruiting new allies. This adds another reason to get new SoD to improve and fill up your base. Also, after it starts getting filled and cozy, it really gives a wonderful sense of "home" in a game, which many RPGs do not have (some other games are built around this idea of course). I mean, a lot of RPGs have the "airship" or whatnot, but those don't boast 108 possible residents or have beds, baths, a library, a vegetable garden, shops, a restaurant, your own room you can decorate, a teleporter mirror complete with cute, spacy teleportress, a half-crazy guy who will play checkers with you, etc. Granted, all of these have limited interaction here, but the point is it feels like HOME. You want to recruit that chef because you know it'll be awesome to have a restaurant inside your base; also, you want to get seeds for the guy taking care of your vegetable garden, so the chef can use the vegetables you grow for new dishes etc. It opens up a lot of side stuff to do/gives you reason to do side stuff like scouring shops for new seeds. Also, what better to do after a tiring day of battling than to go play some Blind Man's Bluff, take a hot bath, and go to sleep in your room?
To wrap up some stuff here, a nitpick would be the game has strange instances of user unfriendliness, more likely just programming oversights, such as the cursor defaulting to "New Game" every time you boot up the game, even if you a memory card with save data inserted. On the other hand, options like the "auto-battle" command make up for it in increasing user friendliness. Also, I won't go over these in detail, but the duals (which are similar in most Suikodens) and army battles (which are completely different in most Suikodens) add nice changes of pace from normal battles, but have their own quirks. Getting more allies also helps for having more options in army/war battles.
Anyway, Suikoden V's strengths lie in its Story and Characters, as well as its ally collecting and base development aspects...not in its battle or character growth systems, which are the core of gameplay in most RPGs. If one can take this change of pace, they may yet find the beauty of the Water Margin.
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