Suikoden V: Difference between revisions
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* [[Atonement Detective]]: {{spoiler|Oboro and his team}}.
* [[Ax Crazy]]: Childerich
* [[Authority Equals 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, [[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!".
** Subverted with Gizel Godwin who, though not incompetent, has just average skills regardless of his rank.
* [[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 [[Game Breaker|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]]:
*
** 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, [[Badass Family|it's hereditary]].
* [[Bald of Evil]]: Marscal Godwin.
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* [[But Thou Must!]]: Averted in several places, leading to [[Nonstandard Game Over]]s in most instances.
* [[Can't Hold His Liquor]]: Belcoot, of all people. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by Sialeeds and Georg that they wonder if the guy is REALLY from Kanakan, a place well known for its liquor. {{spoiler|He's not. He's actually a native Falenan, who escaped slavery and then was trained to become a master swordsman in Kanakan}}.
* [[Catch Phrase]]:
*
** Shigure's is "what a pain...".
** Who can forget Richard reciting Mueller's name as a full sentence?
* [[Chekhov's Boomerang]]: Those sluice gates have more than one use.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: The sewers of Stormfist.
* [[The Chessmaster]]: Lucretia Merces. In every conceivable way. She's pretty much an [[Expy]] of [[Romance of the Three Kingdoms|Zhuge Liang]].
* [[Chick Magnet]]: The Prince of Falena.
* [[Chivalrous Pervert]]:
**
**
* [[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]]:
*
** Sialeeds
* [[Cue the Sun]]: Which can actually be used as an attack.
* [[Darkskinned Blonde]]: Lucretia.
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* [[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.
* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]
* [[Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette]]: Zerase; one of the bath scenes revolves around this.
* [[Emotionless Girl|Emotionless Guy]]: Dolph. {{spoiler|Subverted when it turns out that he is a [[Blood Knight]] whose cannot emote due to the drugs he uses to increase his power}}.
* [[Expository Hairstyle Change]]: Lady Sialeeds after her {{spoiler|[[Face Heel Turn]] (becoming a [[White-Haired Pretty Girl]] in the process). It's apparently her natural hair color, which makes sense given all her blood relatives have white hair}}.
* [[Expy]]:
*
** Childerich is not at all suppposed to remind us of [[Suikoden II|Luca Blight]].
** Shoon looks a little like a [[Saint Seiya|Seiya]].
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* [[Furo Scene]]: Taking the right people into the baths triggers [[Subtext]]-laden scenes, for all your [[Ho Yay]]/[[Les Yay]]/[[Hilarity Ensues|Hilarity Ensuing]] needs.
* [[The Gadfly]]: Miakis, who, among many other things, tries to get the Prince to ruin Lym's wedding reception.
* [[Gambit Roulette]]:
▲** 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. {{spoiler|Gizel ignores this advice even after seizing the queendom, which only helps the Prince find allies}}.
*
** 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]]}}.
* [[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!
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* [[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. {{spoiler|She starts to get nicer once she realize you may actually be worthy of the Dawn Rune}}.
* [[Guide Dang It]]:
*
** 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 {{spoiler|(by talking to her with either Sialeeds or Shula Valya in your party)}}.
** Not to mention Egbert. You have to endure an extremely long speech from him at the lowest text scroll speed. {{spoiler|If you press X even once during the speech (the button that would usually let you skip the text), then he will refuse to join until you leave the cave and try again. This is not even hinted at}}.
* [[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.
* [[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 {{spoiler|after the events of The New Queen's Campaign: Sialeeds betrays him, and Lyon nearly dies from a stab wound}}. 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.
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* [[Hero with Bad Publicity]]: Georg. {{spoiler|He eventually leaves the country due to it}}.
* [[Hidden Elf Village]]: Alseid. {{spoiler|You can't even ''visit'' it}}.
* [[Highly-Visible Ninja]]:
*
** [[Playing with a Trope|Played with]] via Raven, a loud, obnoxious thief, who dresses like a ninja and {{spoiler|whose Raven Rune renders him nigh-untouchable so long as he's indoors, and it's dark enough}}.
* [[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.
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* [[Humiliation Conga]]: A massive one gets trotted out for {{spoiler|Lord Barows and Euram}}... couldn't have happened to a nicer [[Smug Snake]]!
** There's also {{spoiler|Childerich's battle after he takes over your castle. It's probably one of the easiest campaign battles in the game}}.
* [[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.
* [[Incest Subtext]]: Miakis tells Lym that if the Prince wins, she'll have to marry him. Miakis has a really wild sense of humor. Then Lym attacks the Prince for winning his ''ceremonial'' match, out of fear that they'll have to marry. Third, in the best ending, the prince {{spoiler|becomes Commander of the Queen's Knights, a position normally reserved for the Queen's husband. Given the [[Ship Tease]] between the two earlier}}...
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* [[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]]:
*
** {{spoiler|Faylon and Faylen}}, 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]]:
*
** 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.
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* [[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 [[Lolicon|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 {{spoiler|Belcoot, Zegai and Richard -- in this order of priority -- who will make the offer; those who entered the Sacred Games}}.
* [[Lima Syndrome]]: It's implied Lelei fell for Lucretia while {{spoiler|guarding her cell}}. {{spoiler|Cius}} also qualifies, as he was a hard-lined rules lawyer, and yet {{spoiler|he broke the rules to keep Lucretia informed, and ultimately broke her out of jail}}.
* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: It's ''Suikoden'', after all.
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* [[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 [[Suikoden I|the original game]]. You also get to go to an [[Suikoden IV|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]]:
*
** Sialeeds, the queen Arshtat's sister, officially tasked with [[Upper Class Wit|absolutely nothing]], served as a sort of counter-intelligence/micromanaging problem-solver for her sister, and had no problem [[Lady of War|engaging in combat herself]]. Arshtat probably intended for the prince to become this as well, until [[Call to Adventure|the plot just went and did the job for her]]. {{spoiler|[[The Call Knows Where You Live|By doing her in]]}}.
** 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}}.
* [[Not Blood Siblings]]: Lyon and the prince, who were brought up together as lord and bodyguard.
* [[Not So Harmless]]: {{spoiler|The jovial and seemingly scatterbrained Salum Barrows is revealed to be the mastermind of the theft of the Dawn Rune, and by extension, the Lordlake incident}}.
** 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]]:
** {{spoiler|Lord Barrows}} and Skald Egan.
** Oboro
* [[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.
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* [[Paper-Thin Disguise]]: {{spoiler|Faylen and Faylon}} tried to pull this to impersonate {{spoiler|Lyon and Georg}}, although it didn't work since {{spoiler|Roy laughed off at Faylen's disguise, and Faylon ripped out the costume when he tried it on}}.
* [[Petting Zoo People]]: [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Beavers]].
* [[Power At a Price]]:
*
** 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 ancient Armes Dynasty also [[And Man Grew Proud|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. {{spoiler|Said three detectives are also former assassins}}.
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* [[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.
▲** There's also {{spoiler|Yuma Valya, a [[Spoiled Brat]] version who fled to Falena because she saw New Armes as "uncultured". She goes by the assumed name Josephine}}...
* [[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. 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]].
* [[Secret Project Refugee Family]]: {{spoiler|The Oboro Detective Agency}}.
* [[Ship Tease]]:
*
** The manga teases the prince with Luserina Barrows.
** There's also Roog and Miakis, though that may be one-sided.
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* [[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, {{spoiler|who is later revealed to be Euram Barows, is a cursed tome that brings death to those who possess it}}.
* [[Triang Relations]]:
*
** There's also {{spoiler|Roy, Lyon and Feylen. Roy has the hots for Lyon, Feylen has the hots for Roy, and Lyon only has eyes for the Prince}}.
* [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]]: Faylen ''really likes'' Roy, but he's too interested in [[All Love Is Unrequited|Lyon]] to notice. {{spoiler|Even if he makes his [[Heroic Sacrifice]], his last thoughts are of ''Lyon'' while ''Faylen'''s the one who 'gets' to watch him die... ''[[Tear Jerker|Ouch]]''}}.
* [[Upper Class Twit]]: Euram, through and through.
* [[UST]]:
** [[Schoolgirl Lesbians|Lelei and Lucretia]] [[Hide Your Lesbians|may be resolved, however]]. [[Ambiguously Gay|Oboro's comments are suggestive but not conclusive. As in]], [[Lyrical Nanoha|Nanoha-level conclusive]].
**
* [[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 {{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...
** {{spoiler|In contrast, we have Sialeeds. She planned to dissolve the bickering Senate and eliminate the two factions in it, probably because of her great hate of what happened with her mom and aunt on the last civil war, but also so that such a civil war wouldn't be repeated (at least, not by the same people). She succeeded. Gizel and Marscal just realized it around the time Sialeeds died}}.
* [[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 {{spoiler|Lady Sialeeds}} whose hair is allowed to turn white (it was dyed before) after betraying your party.
* [[Wholesome Crossdresser]]: {{spoiler|Rahal fills out his sister's clothes pretty well... it's also unclear why he has a spare of them with him}}...
* [[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.
* [[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 [[Romance of the Three Kingdoms|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!]]: {{spoiler|Lyon says this to Dolph when she learns that he works for the Godwins just so he can continue to kill people}}.
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