Finished Suikoden V last night...

[auronlu]

 Very enjoyable. Still digesting.

 

The ending nearly gave me a heart attack with Lyon. Meanies. I'm not entirely convinced by having the ghosts of some of the bad guys clustered around the Prince patting him on the back for destroying them, but otherwise a very satisfying ending. They should have made Haswar the Oracle the official regent, but I guess she would decline. 

There's two things in the opening credits that puzzle me. One is a flashback showing how Lyon was found and adopted by Ferid. Did I miss something, or does that flashback never occur in game? The other is a scene in which Lyon and the prince (or Roy?) fight a duel. I kept expecting some sort of Nether Gate mind control, or even a Rune, to cause Lyon to turn against the Prince.


It's taking me a while to figure out Sialeeds. I get the fact that she was trying to bring down both the Godwins and Barrows herself, because (a) she wasn't convinced her sweet-natured nephew had the guts to do the dirty work and (b) she was afraid Lym and Prince-boy would get the same negative publicity Arshtat did for nuking Lordlake if the new queen's reign started with a bloodbath of noble families. So Sialeeds took the fall. 

What I'm puzzled about is how Dolph the Creepy Assassin Guy figures into all this. Sialeeds obviously began having second thoughts when Puppet Queen Lym tried to end the war by leading a poorly-planned attack hoping to get captured by the "rebels". Okay, so Sialeeds didn't want the war to end early, with the Godwins and Barrows still intact and a threat for the future.  Check. But Dolph shows up at the Prince's castle that night and talks to Sialeeds. Had she been in contact with him all this time? Or -- my first impression -- did he bring some news to her that caused her to break with the prince?

My thought was that maybe he told her what the Godwins were planning to do with the Sun Rune (in fact, in light of Georg's killing the queen to stop the Sun Rune from nuking the Queendom, I thought perhaps Sialeeds' betrayal had something to do with stopping the Sun Rune as well). Anyway, I like the ambiguity. 

Incidentally, akycha and HC: remember how you told me not to let Roy do anything stupid? I never saw an opportunity to let him be stupid. Could this have something to do with the divergent plot arc where I chose to abandon the castle instead of defending it? 
 

I figured that the game designers would not have forgotten the castle could be flooded if the enemy occupied it. Lucretia certainly wouldn't forget; she'd already used flood control in several previous battles, and the whole castle/lake setup looked rather Isengard-ish. (although I actually named it Minas Anor, "Tower of the Sun." )

 

Comments

[heavenscalyx]

Wow, it's been a while since we played the game, and I can't remember which ending we got -- I don't remember ghosts gathering to pat the Prince on the back, so we may've gotten the not-perfect ending (well, I know we did, actually: in ours, the Prince went off with Georg).

The opening cred scenes are, in fact, never shown in the game. I think it's just background -- after all, the duel is being fought in front of the Queen, so I think that was her wanting to see that her boy could take care of himself.

I heart Sialeeds and the fact that we never get all the details of her plans. I also believe firmly that she and Lucretia have a Past. One of my fic requests all the years I was doing Yuletide was about that Past. Or the two of them having hawt hawt hate sex. Or something fun like that.

I don't actually recall exactly what Akycha was remembering, so I'm leaving it to her to respond.

YAY YOU LIKED IT!

[auronlu]

Reading list for tonight, then! Yes, that final scene between Sialeeds and Lucretia was begging for subtext. "Words cannot express how much I hate you..." seemed rather at odds with the way they were actually interacting.

Also, regarding Sialeeds' motives, I just went back to replay the first meeting with Lucretia, and I see possible confirmation of one of my theories: Lucretia says that she advised Queen Arshtat to take the Sun Rune because she had evidence that Godwin was about to steal it. Sialeeds was present for or knew about that whole mess... she knew why Arshtat had taken the Rune. So she was aware that Godwin's real motive for doing all this was probably to get his hands on the Sun Rune and use it. He had already given one Rune to Alenia; it was only a matter of time before he figured out how to use the Sun Rune. In which case, "rescuing" Lym was important, but "rescuing" the Sun Rune was actually more important...and Sialeeds figured out she could get into the palace and near the Sun Rune if she turned Lym back over to the Godwins.


Love, love, love all the Byzantine political machinations. (This was actually my main reason for loving XII, although its politics weren't quite this complex. But it was a politics-driven rather than relationship-driven plot. Suikoden V manages to do both.)

[heavenscalyx]

Alas, no reading list: no one ever did it for me. However, I did do a Lelei/Lucrezia fic that's over on AO3.

I LOVE the Suikodens. I think 5 is the best written in terms of the political machinations, but there are complicated machinations present in all the games. (Well, all the ones I've played through; we still haven't managed to get through 4 entirely.)

[auronlu]

Oh, I misunderstood: "fic request" meaning one you requested, not one that was requested of you!

[akycha]

I have a link for you. I was going to email it, but I don't have your email, apparently.

http://boingboing.net/2012/03/09/wander-the-desert-in-journey.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boingboing%2FiBag+%28Boing+Boing%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Re: Roy. Yes, when you're deliberating whether to defend the castle, he wants to stay behind and defend it for you. If you let him, he dies and you lose one of your 108 stars, not to mention feeling REALLY GUILTY ABOUT IT.

[auronlu]

Oh golly! That would definitely be bad. I did come to like the guy, after that initial unpromising encounter. (Love the fact that he became an actor).

And that game looks wonderful! Thanks!

(my old email I've had for 10+ years still works, or use my real name -- first name, last name, no spaces between -- @gmail.com)