Suikoden V



Set five years before the events of Suikoden I, Suikoden V chronicles a period of great internal strife in the Queendom of Falena: two noble factions are wrestling for control of the queen's favour, and the queen herself is slowly succumbing to the insanity of the Sun Rune- one of the 27 True Runes- that she was forced to bind to herself years before.

The main character is the prince of Falena's royal house of Falenas; a figurehead who mostly gets sent on unimportant ceremonial missions for the Queendom (since he's not in line to the throne). That is, until a coup d'état forces him out of Falena and into hiding. With his little sister forced to act as the head of a puppet government, it's up to our scrappy royal-in-exile to step out of the shadow of those who would manipulate him for their own ends and gather an army to take back his homeland and restore order to the Queendom.

The game is filled with Continuity Nods and Shout Outs to Suikoden I and especially Suikoden II, in a deliberate attempt to get back to the series' roots.

Suikoden V provides examples of:
"Oboro: "Lelei used to be a guard at Agate Prison, but she fell for Lucretia's pretty -- I MEAN, she was concerned about Lucretia, as she came with her. Now she's kind of Lucretia's...assistant.""
 * Abandoned By The Dragon Cavalry:
 * Action Mom: Kisara
 * Adaptation Expansion: The manga, due to not being as bound to the prince's POV, involves a lot more exploration of the characters. Amongst other things it follows the point of view of the Godwins
 * Affably Evil: Gizel Godwin. Bahram Luger and Dilber Novum could count if their "evilness" wasn't... debatable.
 * All Love Is Unrequited: Roy is in love with Lyon, while Faylen pines over him, while Lyon has feelings for her charge the Prince. Whether or not any of it gets resolved is all up to the ending the player gets.
 * An Interior Designer Is You: Randomly acquired potted plants and paintings gotten from enemies can be used to decorate sections of your castle.
 * Anti-Villain: Bahram Luger didn't want bloodshed, and most certainly didn't want to fight his old mentor Raja. A shame he was too damn loyal to defect.
 * Anyone Can Die: Well just about, on the battlefield. Or off depending on your decisions.
 * Atonement Detective:
 * Ax Crazy: Childerich
 * Authority Equals Asskicking: Justified with Ferid, who earned his authority because of his asskicking. The prince plays it a bit straighter, being among the best fighters in the game who surpasses some of his elite bodyguards, both in and out of cutscenes, even though nothing was ever expected of him, combat-related or otherwise. Then again, his whole paternal family tree seems to be like that.
 * Some funny lines are spoken by opponents who learn this the hard way. Something along the lines of "I thought this guy was supposed to be a pushover!"
 * Subverted with Gizel Godwin who, though not incompetent, has just average skills regardless of his rank.
 * Bald of Evil: Marscal Godwin
 * Badass: The beavers look ridiculous, cute and cuddly, which is probably the reason why the bad guys completely underestimate their importance in the river-covered Falena. Not only do the beavers have such good dam-building ability that they can transform the land through river-rerouting but they make terrifying naval shocktroopers, since they can swim out to enemy ships and bite holes in their hulls.
 * They're also quite good in normal battles. They're faster than hell, multi-hit a LOT, 3 out of 5 of them are great magicians, all but one have the HP-restoring Bath skill, and the 5 of them have a powerful Combination Attack that either instantly kills the target or just deals a crapload of damage.
 * To put their naval capabilities in perspective, the battle system has a rock-paper-scissors type of unit balancing, so one type of boat is stronger than one other type but weaker to the other. Beaver units are strong against all types. In fact, just keep a healing unit handy and you can pretty much solo any water-terrain encounters with them.
 * Badass Grandpa: Raja, the retired navy admiral, is still the best at her job and proves it by thoroughly crushing her ex-disciples in open combat.
 * He doesn't get to do much on screen, but Skald Egan certainly has a reputation for being exactly this. From what you can see of his descendants it's hereditary.
 * Bare-Fisted Monk: Nikea, Shoon
 * Base on Wheels: Raftfleet is a town made of interconnected boats. Since Falena is full of rivers, they are effectively a mobile town and you find them in different places throughout the game.
 * Big Eater: Nikea; she goes around entering tournaments just to support her appetite.
 * Big Screwed-Up Family: The members of the Falenan royal family you get to see are all very nice people. You don't get to see the others because they are all dead, thanks to struggle for power that gave the resident Murder, Inc. plenty of jobs from all sides. Several NPCs repeatedly note how remarkably morally upstanding Arshtat and Sialeeds are compared to her predecessors.
 * Bishounen: The Prince, Rahal, and Roy, notably.
 * Blinding Bangs: Shigure.
 * Bodyguard Betrayal: Georg is accused of this; straighter examples are
 * Bodyguard Crush: Lyon towards the Prince.
 * In an optional scene, Dinn assumes that Isato and Mathias feel the same way toward their charges.
 * Mathias looks like a straight example at first, as he is from Warrior's Village, and the men of that village are famous for naming their signature weapon after the person they care about the most, and his weapon is named Isabel. Of course, that doesn't mean he loves her 'romantically', only that he has dedicated himself to her service above all else.
 * There's also Lelei's crush on her "Lady," Lucretia Merces. If you have Oboro dig into her past, he comes up with the following:

"Boz Wilde: Sometimes justice is just a pretty word, other times it's three feet of steel to the face."
 * Boisterous Bruiser: Several. Ferid initially comes off as the type, but resident big guy Boz Wilde takes up the part for most of the game.
 * Break the Cutie: Part of Richard's backstory. His father was an abusive son of a bitch, up until Mueller killed him and all but adopted the boy.
 * Brilliant but Lazy: Shigure. Lightning Bruiser, skilled detective, and constantly complaining slacker. What a pain...
 * Incest Subtext: Miakis tells Lym that if the Prince wins, she'll have to marry him. Of course, Miakis just has a really wild sense of humor.
 * To the point that Lym attacks the Prince for winning his ceremonial match, out of fear that they'll have to marry. It doesn't help that Lym is ten years old.
 * Also, in the best ending, the prince
 * To be fair, there probably wasn't a better candidate. He was leader of the rebel army. Plus, with Lym being only ten, she is a little too young to be married anyway.
 * Bingo. It also sends a clear message that the system, which caused the problem in the first place, is changing.
 * Brotherhood of Funny Hats: Sisterhood, in this case. Nifsara and Linfa form a secret society dedicated to protecting pretty boys: the Secret Alliance for the Protection of Pretty Hunks in Real Endangerment (SAPPHIRE). Their motto is: "To observe! To protect! To observe some more!"
 * But Thou Must!: Averted in several places, leading to Nonstandard Game Overs in most instances.
 * Can't Hold His Liquor: Belcoot, of all people. Lampshaded by Sialeeds and Georg that they wonder if the guy is REALLY from Kanakan, a place well known for its liquor.
 * Catch Phrase: Mathias usually finishes sentences about your enemies by describing how he will exact final retribution to said enemy and cast their loathsome corpse into nearby swamps, bogs, rivers, or other bodies of water. It's almost a Running Gag.
 * Shigure's is "what a pain...".
 * Chekhov's Gun: The sewers of Stormfist.
 * Chekhov's Boomerang: Those sluice gates have more than one use.
 * The Chessmaster: Lucretia Merces. In every conceivable way. She's pretty much an Expy of Zhuge Liang.
 * Chick Magnet: The Prince of Falena
 * Chivalrous Pervert: Gavaya, he isn't really all that much of a pervert either, though he comes off as creepy due to his borderline Gonk status.
 * More traditionally, Kyle displays interest on mostly everything resembling a female. Whether his chivalrous side depends entirely on his own conscience or is partly due to the fact that he's usually too busy/somewhere else when you get to meet women is up for debate.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Miakis, although she becomes more serious later and fits the Genki Girl archetype more.
 * Cool Boat/Base on Wheels: Raftfleet is basically a floating city formed from various individual ships that lash themselves together whenever they make port. It changes location several times throughout the game.
 * Cool Old Guy: Galleon, Bahram, Dilber
 * Cool Old Lady: Raja
 * Crutch Character: Georg. He differs from the usual Crutch in that he remains a Game Breaker throughout the entire game (which is why he gets Put on a Bus until late in the game, whereupon he's still overpowered, but not ludicrously so). Physically, at least. His defense against magic is severely lacking.
 * Sialeeds -who starts out as powerful long-ranged fighter and mage- also qualifies, with only one rune slot and irremovable Wind Rune.
 * Cue the Sun: Which can actually be used as an attack.
 * Darkskinned Blonde: Lucretia.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Sialeeds is pretty good at this, as is Shigure. Miakis, meanwhile, is more of a Genki Snarker.
 * Death Is Cheap:
 * Determinator: Nakula
 * Distracted by the Sexy:
 * Dragon Rider: The Feitas Dragon Cavalry.
 * Drill Sergeant Nasty: Mueller will smack his subordinates upside the head with an iron rod if they screw around. Richard sees him as more of a Sergeant Rock.
 * Dude Looks Like a Lady: The Prince himself. He looks feminine no matter how he dresses, but the costume with no sleeves, long gloves, some kind of kilt and tights doesn't help. See also the Distracted by the Sexy entry.
 * And the funniest thing? Someone actually compliments him on how masculine his new outfit makes him look.
 * That could be due to cultural differences.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending
 * Emotionless Guy: Dolph.
 * Expy: Lucretica Merces is basically a hot female Karayan version of Zhuge Liang.
 * Childerich is not at all suppposed to remind us of Luca Blight.
 * Shoon looks a little like a Seiya.
 * Shigure channels Shikamaru just a bit...
 * Expository Hairstyle Change: Lady Sialeeds after her
 * Eyepatch of Power: Worn by Georg Prime.
 * Eyes of Gold: Roy.
 * And even then, only Lyon . How curious.
 * Possibly because.
 * Problem is, different eye color is a pretty blatant sign, yet still somehow overlooked by even . Justified if ... which is very much unlikely.
 * Actually, he only has yellow eyes in that one cut scene,  any other time   his eyes are a bluish-gray,
 * Fantastic Racism: The elves of Alseid hate "barbarous humans" and say "screw the world"; the Beavers of Beaver Lodge don't mind humans but are kind of "eeeeh..." about getting involved in the whole war thing;
 * Fantasy Kitchen Sink
 * Fishing Minigame: Run by Subala, who turns it into a four-way contest between the Prince, herself, Logg and Lun. Complete with Trash Talking and boat-ramming. (Sadly, Lyon does not provide Trash Talking on the prince's behalf.)
 * Five-Bad Band: The Godwins
 * Big Bad: Marscal Godwin
 * The Dragon: Dolph
 * The Evil Genius: Gizel Godwin
 * The Brute: Childerich, although most of the Godwin generals have elements of this as well
 * The Dark Chick:
 * Five-Man Band: The party with the Combination Attack Falena's Finest
 * The Hero: The Prince
 * The Lancer: Lyon and Miakis
 * The Big Guy: Kyle
 * The Mentor: Galleon
 * Sixth Ranger: Georg
 * Foil: The Prince and Lyon are complementary to each other, representing "Dawn" (the Prince) and "Twilight" (Lyon). This ties in with the game's sun motif.
 * For Great Justice: The Maximillian Knights' one and only raison d'être. Their philosophy shows them to have Hidden Depths, however, as they consider their killing of evildoers as a crime in itself.
 * Friendly Sniper: Cathari
 * Fridge Horror: Visit Rainwall after and talk to some of the NPCs. These people have clearly been put through trials of their own.
 * Furo Scene: Taking the right people into the baths triggers Subtext-laden scenes, for all your Ho Yay / Les Yay / Hilarity Ensuing needs.
 * The Gadfly: Miakis, who, among many other things, tries to get the Prince to ruin Lym's wedding reception.
 * Gambit Pileup: Phew. Trying to explain this is already staggering. Though the ultimate winner is  Need proof? Talk to Kyle  . Also
 * It doesn't help that this is Gizel Godwin's preferred method of scheming: he sets multiple plans in motion and just sits back to see what takes root. At one point his father warns him about this kind of reckless behaviour, pointing out that his failed plans have only stoked dissent against him and advising him to be more conservative and careful in his machinations..
 * Gambit Roulette: Lucretia's strategic skills border on precognition.
 * Gizel actually prefers this sort of plot, comparing it to throwing a bunch of seeds onto a field and seeing what bears fruit. It's lampshaded by his father, who tells him to intrigue decisively, if he's going to do so at all.
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: The potentially profound tactical advantage of having Viki, a character capable of teleporting people instantly to anywhere in the country, is never explored.
 * On the other hand, Sialeeds, a Wind Rune user, does make use of her power to make a boat fly over the water faster. Usually only when she's not in your party, though!
 * For Viki, she has stated that she can only teleport you to a location you have been to before, and only if there are no hostiles in the area (the latter seemingly a gameplay-based restriction, though). Teleporting large numbers of people en masse might also take a while (though based on Suikoden IV, Mass Teleportation is well within her power). Also, remember her sneezing habit? That would be an irregularity that would make mass teleportation techniques potentially quite dangerous, which is probably the main reason the heroes don't try it.
 * The Prince acquires the spell "First Light" as part of a side quest to heal Lyon. That spell can be used in battle.
 * Genki Girl: Nikea. There's also Lu, who can't seem to speak without using nicknames and sound effects.
 * Good Is Not Nice: Zerase is a bit of a bitch in the early parts of the game.
 * Guide Dang It: Oboro can be a big offender here, along with, among others.
 * Other big examples would be Cornelio, who has a VERY brief window of opportunity to be recruited (with no build-up to him at all, and no indication of when you're able to get him), and practically everyone in Lunas, as even getting back in requires one obscure support character that few people would ever use otherwise (who in fact might be considered a Guide Dang It himself).
 * And Josephine, who you can either recruit very early in the game or really, really late
 * Not to mention Egbert. You have to endure an extremely long speech from him at the lowest text scroll speed.
 * Guns Are Worthless: Lampshaded when a member of the Howling Voice Guild -- and the game's only gun wielder -- explains that rifles are inferior to the bow-and-arrow because of the cost, difficulty to manufacture and reduced accuracy: however, they are useful as an intimidation tactic.
 * But also averted in that the aforementioned gun user has the second highest attack stat in the game.
 * Also, in the very same scene where the rifle user explains the limitations of rifles, she then adds that those who are aware of their limitations can work around them, and everyone who are given rifles knows. Leaving one arrogant elf and a certain lady samurai very upset that they'd just been toyed with.
 * Happily Married: A few examples, but most notably Arshtat and Ferid.
 * Heroic BSOD: Interestingly, the Prince has one (despite his Heroic Mime status). He goes through a large amount of trauma throughout the story, but he finally cracks  In a scene after the above spoiler, Luserina tries to reach out and comfort him. After a moment, He simply turns around and walks off; the player is not even given the option to respond (which would normally happen). Pretty powerful response for a silent protagonist.
 * Heroic Mime: The Prince. There was one sequence where it seemed that this is averted, but it's . As is usual with the Suikoden series, the hero does talk, but only when you're given dialogue options. Instead of a simple Yes/No option, the player is given choices of the actual lines the hero will be saying. Though unlike the other characters, the Prince doesn't have a voice actor speaking the lines. And given that those dialogue choices are usually only given at key moments, with Lyon (or, when she's incapacitated, Miakis) doing most of the speaking for him, it's clear that the Prince wouldn't be a very talkative guy even if we did hear him.
 * Heroic Sociopath: Nakula, Mathias may also count given his...hobby of killing enemies and throwing them into water.
 * Hero with Bad Publicity: Georg.
 * Hidden Elf Village: Alseid.
 * Highly-Visible Ninja: Subverted with Shigure and Sagiri, who are never even called ninjas, but fight with ninja weaponry and.
 * Played with via Raven, a loud, obnoxious thief, who dresses like a ninja and
 * The High Queen: Queen Arshtat of the Queendom of Falena fits this trope rather well, at least while at court, and especially while being influenced by the Sun Rune.
 * Hopeless Suitor: Poor Gavaya.
 * Hope Spot: The entirety of the Sacred Games is full of these.
 * Hot-Blooded:
 * Hot-Blooded:


 * Hot Shounen Mom: Arshtat, oh yeah, Arshtat.
 * Who is married to Hot Shoujo Dad Ferid.
 * Ho Yay/Les Yay: Lucretia gets Lelei and Cathari; Miakis gets Subtext with her charge, the Princess Lymsleia; then there's Richard's slavish devotion towards Mueller...
 * Roog and Rahal...Oh, the friendships that must bloom in a town that prohibits women. It doesn't help that Rahal is, in Roog's own words, "disturbingly attractive."
 * On Roog, there are some hints in the game that he has the hots for Miakis, who's just happy to push on the button.
 * Humiliation Conga: A massive one gets trotted out for  -- couldn't have happened to a nicer Smug Snake!
 * There's also
 * Improbable Weapon User: Loads of 'em. Most notably Viki, whose staff is supposed to be her weapon, yet she attacks by... randomly teleporting and dropping stuff on the enemy.
 * A curious example is the Prince himself, who uses a slightly-too-thick but otherwise real three-section staff... except for the fact that its middle section is somehow split in two for easier carrying. The method of assembling displayed in the artbook makes one wonder just how skilled the prince is to be able to pull it out and piece it together in a single motion every battle. Not to mention his skills in turning it into a staff and back at a moment's notice.
 * Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Euram Barrows, until
 * Intrepid Reporter: Taylor
 * Its Pronounced Tropay: The english dub wierdly pronounce Georg Prime (normally pronounced Gay-org) George.
 * Jerkass: Killey. Cornelio, until you get his Do Re Mi elves back. He'll still refer to everyone else as mediocrity.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Roy, following his Character Development.
 * Killed Off for Real: Roy can end up like this,  This is not recommended,
 * , too, if you wait too long to recruit them.
 * In the Leave Him to Me entry below, if the characters you choose lost the duel, they also end up like this.
 * Killer Rabbit: A type of Random Encounter enemies that have been in the series since the first game are literally called Killer Rabbits/Bunnies, which happen to be fluffy little black rabbits... wielding throwing-axes.
 * The beavers also qualify. They're half your size, furry, and wield an Improvised Weapon each, but get five of them together and they have an attack that can cause instant death. Oh, and their troops literally eat up enemy ships. As the official guide puts it, beaver troops turn the naval component of the usual rock/paper/scissors to "Beaver smashes rock, beaver shreds paper, and beaver breaks scissors." That's a pretty accurate description.
 * Kill Sat: The Sun Rune's ultimate power, once unleashed, can burn an entire county with a column of light from the sky.
 * Knight in Sour Armor: Georg Prime, though he's pretty nice. He just prefers to dispense with formalities.
 * Large Ham: Barring Luserina, the Barows family are deliciously hammy.
 * Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Lymsleia, In-Universe. Partly justified by the fact that she's a princess and her husband will sit the throne beside her, but several individuals seem to actually desire her, either in text or subtext.
 * Leave Him to Me: Take the right people along when you finally face off with Childerich, you get to see what happens when several people try to claim this right all at once.
 * Specifically, it's.
 * Lima Syndrome: It's implied Lelei fell for Lucretia while .   also qualifies, as he was a hard-lined rules lawyer, and yet
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: It's Suikoden, after all.
 * Lolicon: Euram's slavish declarations of love for Crown Princess Lymsleia, who's all of ten... Sure, marrying her will net him the kingdom, but he goes a biiiiit over the top. Whether it's disturbing or funny is up to you.
 * Averted with Gizel, however, who barely gives a polite pretense of interest in her.
 * Gavaya also seems creepily into Lymsleia. But he also feels that way for anyone else with a vagina.
 * And then there's the Sleep Cute and Ship Tease Lymsleia gets with the Prince, and the Subtext with Miakis...um...Lymsleia is a bit young to be getting this much attention, isn't she?
 * Lost Technology: Rune Cannons from Suikoden IV are now a lost art, and in fact you blow up the last of them for being "too powerful".
 * Magic Antidote: Averted -- The Hero's Rune has the power to keep Lyon from dying, but she still has to spend a long time in bed recovering from the poison..
 * Magikarp Power:
 * Mama Bear: You don't want to insult or threaten Arshtat's family. You really don't. On a similar but less dangerous note, don't pull anything around Sialeeds either, because it will backfire on you.
 * Master Swordsman: Richard is called the Blade Master, and it's a justified moniker.
 * Mistaken for An Imposter:
 * Monochromatic Eyes: Dolph has dull brown, emotionless eyes. Two other characters with similarly "flat" eyes are
 * Monster Protection Racket:  hires bandits led by a lookalike of the Prince so that he can beat them and look awesome.
 * Multiple Endings: Aside from the 108 Stars endings (and yes, there's a few variations on that!), and the not-so-good endings where the player didn't track everyone down, there are several premature endings the player can stumble across.
 * Murder, Inc.: Nether Gate.
 * My Master, Right or Wrong: Galleon in a nutshell. He continues to work for the monarch that reduced his hometown to a desert. Dilber and Luger also suffer from this.
 * Mysterious Waif: Eresh
 * Mythology Gag: The alternate outfits worn by the Prince, Lyon and Kyle during certain sections of the plot are meant to invoke the outfits worn by McDohl, Cleo and Viktor in the original game. You also get to go to an Island Nations city and fight a battle there with a remix of Suikoden IV's battle soundtrack. Not to mention the recurring characters.
 * Non-Idle Rich: Luserina Barows, a girl born in a dynasty of Upper Class Twits who lacks any of her relatives' haughtiness and actually performs the majority of the administrative business of their house.
 * Sialeeds, the queen Arshtat's sister, officially tasked with absolutely nothing, served as a sort of counter-intelligence/micromanaging problem-solver for her sister, and had no problem engaging in combat herself. Arshtat probably intended for the prince to become this as well, until the plot just went and did the job for her.
 * There's also
 * Not Blood Siblings: Lyon and the prince, who were brought up together as lord and bodyguard.
 * Not So Harmless:
 * Lym is pretty sharp and has more political and people smarts than you would expect from a Ten year old girl.
 * The Prince himself falls under this as well. As noted above, not many really expected the Prince to be a major player in the game's storyline; or that he was a formidable warrior and capable leader. Most of it is due to princes being generally seen as royal deadweights in the Falenan tradition.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity:  and Skald Egan.
 * Oboro also does this; he's a detective who downplays his real talents....
 * Odd Friendship: Fun loving, lecherous and hammy mercenary captain Wilhelm, and his stern, dour right hand man Mueller.
 * Older Than They Look: Fuyo, who's all Puni Plush, big pigtails and big skirts.
 * Only Sane Man: At times, Shigure openly questions the sanity of his coworkers in the Oboro Detective Agency. Said complaints are generally met with much amusement by said coworkers. What a pain...
 * Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Zerase; one of the bath scenes revolves around this.
 * Papa Wolf: More like "Brother Wolf"; Shigure may be lazy, and constantly complain about his adoptive family, but don't threaten them.
 * Could also be said about Georg towards the prince, Lym and Lyon.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: tried to pull this to impersonate, although it didn't work since.
 * Petting Zoo People: Beavers
 * Power At a Price: Raging Nostrum.
 * The Sun Rune also qualifies, the ability to utterly decimates one's foes comes at the cost of one's sanity erroding away.
 * Precursors: The Sindar are the staple ancient civilization of Suikoden, having left heaps of still functioning cryptic devices and ruins all over.
 * The ancient Armes Dynasty also got themselves wiped clean with the same MacGuffin that triggers most of the conflict. Their stuff isn't quite as durable.
 * Private Detective: The Oboro Detective Agency, composed of three detectives, a plump secretary and a well trained mouse.
 * Private Military Contractors: The Lindwurm mercenary brigade.
 * Psycho for Hire: Childerich.
 * Random Encounter: Not quite high as in Suikoden IV, but still... Even in the very first dungeon, you won't leave it without at least ten random encounters while getting two mediocre treasures.
 * Rant-Inducing Slight: Egbert Aethelbald, who will always quickly descend to ranting about FILTHY GODWIN DEVILS!!!! in mere seconds.
 * Rebellious Princess: Princess Lymsleia, with good reason.
 * There's also
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Roog and Rahal. Their mounts even share the color scheme, if not the dynamic.
 * Redundant Researcher: Zweig, Lorelai and Killey.
 * Restraining Bolt: The Sun Rune, worn on the head, is meant to be worn along with the Dawn Rune and the Twilight rune (on either hand) in order to keep its power in check and prevent the wielder from going insane. Unfortunately, Arshadt has access to neither when she takes up the Sun Rune.
 * Revenge Before Reason: Nakula, arguably.
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: The prince of the land is your main character, so yeah. This is of particular note as, being a male royal in a country where only females inherit the throne, nobody actually expected him to do anything at all.
 * Actually played for contrast with him and his father Ferid. The previous commanders, usually noble-born who simply hired someone to earn their position for them, were very rarely if ever trained as field commanders, much less fighters, usually delegating the job to someone else. Ferid, and later the prince, gain a lot of popularity precisely for being Royals Who Actually Do Something.
 * Secret Project Refugee Family:
 * Ship Tease: Early in the game, there's a lot of Subtext between the prince and Lymsleia, including sleeping in the same bed at one point.
 * The manga teases the prince with Luserina Barrows.
 * There's also Roog and Miakis, though that may be one-sided.
 * Shoot the Dog:
 * Shout-Out: Alhazred, and his weapons are all named for the different "translations" of the Necronomicon.
 * Sibling Yin-Yang: The prince and Princess Lymsleia; Euram and Luserina Barrows; Faylon and Faylen.
 * Small Girl Big Weapon: Faylen and her boomerang; Lu and her crossbow...
 * Silk Hiding Steel: Luserina Barows. She's sweet and graceful and apparently stays home while her dad and brother politic in the capital. However, if you talk around Rainwall, you'll find out that she is the one running the place. She also takes part in the coming battles as 'morale', in other words, encrouaging them to victory.
 * Spare to the Throne: A non-royal example with the House of Barows. After his older brother Hiram was assassinated during the bloody Succession Conflict, Euram was thrust into the role of his father's heir, as well as dealing with his mother's extended BSOD. This stress of this helps shape him into the irritating Epic Failing Upper Class Twit everyone has to deal with during the events of the game, until Character Development enables him to grow out of it.
 * Stealth Hi Bye: Dolph does this all the time.
 * Stepford Smiler: A disturbing example can be found in
 * The Strategist: Lucretia Merces, particularly notable for being the first character to play this role in the series not related to the Silverbergs in any form.
 * Street Urchin: Roy, Faylen and Faylon.
 * Stripperific: Many examples, but the biggest offenders are Jeane (as usual), Nikea, Urda, Nifsara, and Faylen.
 * Summon Magic: The 'Pale Gate' rune.
 * Sympathetic Murder Backstory: Lyon reveals
 * Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors: As usual for the series, both Duels and War Battles function through these. The latter gets a bit more complicated, though.
 * Team Mom: Fuyo to the Oboro Detectives. Oboro serves as a Team Dad. Together they're a kind of defacto husband and wife.
 * The Battle Didn't Count: If you do win the not-quite Hopeless Boss Fight at the start against, they just get up completely unharmed.
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Nakula has this towards Sagiri, and all of Nether Gate actually. Inverted with Raven, who feels that Oboro is The Only One Allowed To Catch Me.
 * Those Two Guys: Rahal and Roog; Logg and his daughter Lun.
 * Tome of Eldritch Lore: The "miraculous book" your character receives in the inn at Yashuna Village by a stranger,
 * Triang Relations: Type 4 --
 * There's also
 * Unlucky Childhood Friend: Faylen really likes Roy, but he's too interested in Lyon to notice.
 * Upper Class Twit: Euram, through and through.
 * UST: Between Lelei and Lucretia, and Lyon and the Prince.
 * Lelei and Lucretia may be resolved, however. Oboro's comments are suggestive but not conclusive. As in, Nanoha-level conclusive.
 * One could argue that the same is true for Lyon and the Prince. While nothing is directly mentioned about it, there's a lot of subtle subtext pointing towards that they indeed have more developed relationship that what is known. See for example certain dialogue-less scenes in Lunas.
 * Warrior Prince: The prince not only directly leads the army in combat, he fights as part of the infantry.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Godwins seek to empower Falena as a nation so that the losses suffered in the bloody civil war several years ago is not repeated. Unfortunately, they try to do this by overthrowing the royal family, reviving a defunct assassin's guild, and
 * A fairly common fan theory is that they expected to lose, and that the newly empowered Falena at the end was their plan all along. This becomes a Gambit Roulette if looked at too closely, but that doesn't mean they didn't invent it as a Plan B when it was clear they were losing...
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: Prince Felanas. He even gets called a pretty boy in-game.
 * Oddly enough, you could probably say he fits the White-Haired Pretty Girl trope better: he is chosen by a rune (magical properties) and is a good commander despite his young age. The real White-Haired Pretty Boy, with its connotations of villainy, is actually  whose hair is allowed to turn white (it was dyed before) after betraying your party.
 * Wholesome Crossdresser:
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The Sun Rune is one of the strongest of the 27 True Runes, and can cause moments of extreme megalomania in it's bearer, as they believe themselves to be a God. Even the kind and loving Arshtat fell victim to this, destroying Lordlake because of the rune's influence.
 * This is in fact what happened to empire that existed where Falena does long before the game takes place. The ruler who wielded the sun rune went mad and annihilated his entire nation overnight. Supposedly having possesion of both the Dawn and Twilight runes prevents this from happening to the wielder of the sun rune.
 * The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask: Queen Arshtat
 * Xanatos Gambit: Lucretia wields one of these masterfully to beat the combined Armes/Godwin army, first feigning defeat to get the enemy armies to occupy the rebel headquarters, then flooding the entire thing, then launching a full out assault on the weakened enemy forces. Truly worthy of being an Expy of Zhuge Liang.
 * She really did think of everything. Leaving the castle itself is a good move because they would be surrounded otherwise, and it denies the enemy desperately needed food. Even if the Armes/Godwin army ''didn't fall for the trap, they'd still be chasing a fully stocked army with empty bellies and grumbling mouths.
 * Yin-Yang Bomb: The Twilight Rune and the Dawn Rune have an incredibly powerful combination spell that heals the friendly party and damages all enemies at once.
 * You Can't Thwart Stage One: Very, very obvious, and very very painful.
 * Especially since the quality of the writing repeatedly forces blatant false hope on the player that serves only to underscore this trope.
 * You Fight Like a Cow: One-on-one duels are carried out by executing three possible commands that cancel each other by Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors mechanics. How to tell what the enemy is going to do? By their pre-action taunts, of course. While this is a staple of the series, Suikoden V takes it further by adding a time limit to the input so you are in a bit more of a hurry. The catch? Certain characters with apparent Medium Awareness start taking advantage of this rush by making feint taunts that seem like they'll be one action and change to another by the end of their speech.
 * You're Insane!:
 * Your Princess Is in Another Castle: After you liberate Sol Falena.
 * You're Insane!:
 * Your Princess Is in Another Castle: After you liberate Sol Falena.