Suikoden V: Difference between revisions

** 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, [[Badass Family|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!".

* [[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.

* [[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]].

* [[The Chessmaster]]: Lucretia Merces. In every conceivable way. She's pretty much an [[Expy]] of [[Romance of the Three Kingdoms (novel)|Zhuge Liang]].

** [[Chivalrous Pervert]]Gavaya: 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.

* [[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- alsoand thus qualifies, with only one rune slot and irremovable Wind Rune. {{spoiler|Possibly a subtle way to discourage the player from being too dependent on her, so her [[Face Heel Turn]] later in the game won't cripple your party}}.

* [[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. SeeOddly alsoenough, thesomeone [[Distractedcompliments byhim theon Sexy]]how entrymasculine abovehis new outfit makes him look. Falena must have different ideas of masculinity.

* [[Expy]]:* Lucretica Merces is basically a hot female [[Dark-Skinned Blond|Karayan]] version of Zhuge Liang.

* [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]]: There are magic runes, talking animals, dragons, dwarves, elves, etc, in Falena.

* [[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. {{spoiler|Worth noting that his machinations during the Sacred Games were indirectly responsible for allowing the Prince to escape during the Coup. It also sows the seeds to make him a [[Badass]]}}.

* [[Guide Dang It]]:* Oboro can be a big offender here, along with {{spoiler|Sagiri and Nakula}}, among others.

* [[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. She then zizags this trope: 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.

* [[Highly-Visible Ninja]]:* [[Subverted]] with Shigure and Sagiri, who are never even called ninjas, but fight with ninja weaponry and {{spoiler|were once assassins for Nether Gate}}.

* [[Hope Spot]]: The entirety of the Sacred Games is full of these. {{spoiler|Hey, the Godwins rescue you from certain death by shipwreck! They might not be plotting against the Queen after all! Well, actually, yes they are, as shown by a cutscene. But wait, they still have to win the Sacred Games to put their plan into action, and the Barrows family gladiator is a much better fighter than theirs! Nope, the Godwins frame said gladiator as being an Armes spy and get him disqualified. But wait, a [[Darkdark Horse]]horse foreigner comes out of nowhere and gets to the semifinals! He's also a better fighter than the Godwin's, to boot. Too bad the Godwins enact a plot to drug him so their gladiator wins the tournament}}.

* [[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.

* [[Killed Off for Real]]:* Roy can end up like this, {{spoiler|if you stubbornly choose to defend your castle instead of abandoning it}}. This is not recommended, {{spoiler|because his death bars you from getting the best ending}}.

* [[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.

* [[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 {{spoiler|Belcoot, Zegai and Richard -- in this order of priority -- who will make the offer; those who entered the Sacred Games}}.

* [[Non-Idle Rich]]:* Luserina Barows, a girl born in a dynasty of [[Upper Class Twit]]s who lacks any of her relatives' haughtiness and actually performs the majority of the administrative business of their house.

** There's also {{spoiler|Josephine, who's actually Shula's sister Yuma, who came to Haud in search of... ''culture''. Despite her questionable tastes though, she's surprisingly effective in battle, and you'll probably get a lot of mileage out of her magic skills during the early war battles}}.

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: {{spoiler|Lord Barrows}} and Skald Egan.

** Oboro also does this; he's a detective who downplays his real talents... {{spoiler|and used to gather intelligence for Nether Gate}}.

* [[Power At a Price]]:* Raging Nostrum. {{spoiler|A [[Psycho Serum]] developed by [[Murder, Inc.|Nether Gate]] that sends the user into a [[Unstoppable Rage]], but [[Deadly Upgrade|they die afterwards]]}}.

* [[Precursors]]:* The Sindar are the staple ancient civilization of ''Suikoden'', having left heaps of [[Ragnarok Proofing|still functioning]] [[Lost Technology|cryptic devices and ruins]] all over.

* [[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. Then he goes and becomes the leader of the rebel army. This is 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]].

* [[Ship Tease]]:* Early in the game, there's a lot of [[Subtext]] between [[Brother-Sister Incest|the prince and Lymsleia]], including [[Sleep Cute|sleeping in the same bed at one point]].

* [[Triang Relations]]:* Type 4: {{spoiler|Alenia loves Gizel, who has a ''complicated'' history with Sialeeds; Gizel is aware of Alenia's feelings, but mainly uses them to keep her in line}}...

** 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.

* [[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 {{spoiler|attempting to purge the nation of all nonhumans}}. A fairly common [[Epileptic Trees|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 [[Xanatos Speed Chess|Plan B]] when it was clear they were losing...

* [[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 {{spoiler|and almost doing the same to the entire country of Falena}} 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.

* [[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 [[Romance of the Three Kingdoms (novel)|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.

* [[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.

* [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle]]: After you liberate Sol Falena. {{spoiler|theThe country is saved, but the [[Big Bad]] escaped and with the Sun Rune and threatens to flood the place}}.