I am almost at the end (I think) of Suikoden V and have really enjoyed myself. I skipped it when it first came out, waiting until just last month to finally track down a used copy from an amazon seller. But it did take a third try to get into it after quitting two times early on out of lack of interest. The visual presentation felt sloppy as well, with the worst offence being the shoddy town/dungeon graphics. I know the graphics in Suikoden are not the high points of the series, but even the lackluster IV looked better. The introductory scenes were also excruciatingly boring to me as well the first couple of times.



Then finally the game clicked with me. The battles were finally starting to get a bit more difficult than what I was seeing in the first few hours. And I was starting to have fun exploring the large (and ugly) towns looking for new recruits I may have missed. But in the end its the characters and story that eventually got me hooked on this game. I felt like I wasn't playing to fight more battles and bosses, but to see how the story turned out for the characters. Very rarely do I feel like I have a vested interest in what happens in a games story. That is what makes the game so incredible from what I have seen so far. Hopefully I can get on it and finish the game soon.