Played a couple of hours so far and yeah, it's sad but true that this Suikoden RPG is probably a better 'game' than the last two real Suikoden titles ^^;
The main thing that's really looking good is the overall depth of the battle system. Considering that the main Suikoden titles have always had really cookie-cutter battle systems I was kinda afraid this would be a simple SRPG with attack/defend/move and nothing else. But it's actually pretty cool.
Basically the main change is the elementals. Each character has an element that they are aligned to and when standing on a tile with their element they get beefed up atk/def and regain HP every turn! When standing on an opposing elemental tile they have downgraded atk/def and lose hp every turn! Now what makes this fun is EVERYONE has tile changing spells and items and they sure love using them. Even the little enemies will run at you and throw down a set of fire tiles (Assuming they are fire element) near you so that they'll be buffed up and regain hp per round. Attack spells often change the ground tiles after the attack too and these tile changes can be done through cheap items as well. If you cast a different element over an existing one it'll replace it so the system becomes a battle of controlling the elements.
There's also a nice Fire Emblem style talk option where if you move next to a unit and it shows a mouth you can talk to them and raise your friendship level. Raising it earns you dual-techs (and I think there are triple or quad ones later). These are really really powerful but can only be used once a map like team attacks in the previous Suikodens.
Magic is handled with the usual Suikoden system of x/x/x/x for lvl 1/2/3/4 magic. So you're limited to the amount of spells you can cast.
There's also a pretty good skill system where you can buy skills with skill points you get from battle and can increase their effective-ness over time.
One nice thing is the battle system tends to show you nice little help/user-friendly icons. For instance when you move a guy onto an elemental tile if it's a favorable elemental you'll get a smiling face icon and if it's an oppositional elemental it'll be a frown. You can also see which enemies will be able to attack you on there next turn if you move to that specific position. This stuff is pretty nice and saves a lot of time. Only non-userfriendly thing I've found so far is I can't figure out how to check what spells come with a rune in the rune shop when you buy them.
Another nice thing is that you gain exp when you attack and not just on kills. This is really useful in rpgs for bringing up low-level characters who aren't strong enough to kill enemies . I also hear that (haven't gotten far enough for it to appear yet) you can change party members during battle! So I'd guess you can sub in your low-level guys and have them level up a bit again easy enemies, then switch them out and bring in your high guys. This would also help alliviate the spell # restrictions.
In towns it has the traditional Suikoden feel. You can forge your weapons, attach runes, by items, or talk to people and hear rumors. You can also camp out to move forward the plot and your characters will all chat with each other.
The game seems fully-voiced in chapters so far (towns and camps are not voiced) which is more voice acting than the previous two games for sure.
Music is pretty good! The tunes tend to be remixes/arrangements of Suikoden classic songs (from I & II) and various songs from Suikoden IV. Not terrible amazing or anything, but it might be better sounding than III/IV.
Graphics are ummmmmm....odd. The 2d aspects (the character portraits) are really really nice. The 3d lego people are .......really really bad ^^; It works fine for battles when the camera is zoomed out (you can change the camera level with triangle) to normal or far positions because the animation is fine for an srpg. But in the cutscenes...wow it looks like crap. Buuuuut, during the cutscenes you tend to be looking at the boxes of dialogue which have the great 2d art faces accompanying them so I don't really even notice the 3d guys much so it's not a big deal. The voices and 2d art along with the text are enough to make it enjoyable.
The main plot seems interesting so I definitely think there could be potential but I'm too early to say if it meets it or not. One thing though, the game shows how forgettable the plot and characters of Suikoden IV are. Besides the main few from SIV I haven't recognized almost anyone, yet it seems the majority of people in this game are from SIV. Like I looked on the front cover of SIV after playing some Rhapsodia and I was like "oh, wow that guy I just met was in SIV!" but I don't remember them at all. For people who actually remember all the characters of SIV, they'll probably enjoy the game a lot more.
Only downside I see so far is the potential for unbalanced maps. Straight from the start strong boss characters can kill your average character in a single hit which is a bit annoying since the map sizes seem pretty big (about 45mins to an hour). You just gotta play really careful if you don't want deaths.
Anyhow, the game seems like a neat SRPG with an interesting original battle system and some good battle and customization depth. So maybe it won't be another average or worse Suikoden ^^;
