I'm gona finish exams next week and i'm gona have a hell of alot of time on my hands waiting for my friends to finish theirs so we can start going out.

so naturally i'm looking for something to eat up alot of my time, and the rpg fan in me is itching to come out. i saw an offer for Suikoden V and IV just a while ago and wondering if their any good? I dont trust reivewers that much when it comes to rpgs, really i always buy rpgs through word of mouth, but no1 i kno has played either of these.

what you guys think? should i just go for it, its quite cheap, £20 for both the games together including delivery

feedback please, i'm uncertain about this purchase

Go for it. Suikoden IV can be a bit disappointing, but all in all is a good game, not excellent, but it has its moments, even though it's kinda short (25-30 hours).
On the other hand, Suikoden V is a fantastic game that everyone should play at least once. It has one of the best and most complex stories ever told, its very long (55 hours in my first play, 60 in the second), the characters are memorable and the battle system fits very well in the game. The only downside is that the game starts off a bit slow, so at first you don't do very much, but you can see the story develop. But if you pass that part, the game picks up a lot and doesn't let you go.

Suikoden V is better. If you had to play one of those two, play V. The stories aren't connected at all, so you won't miss anything. Suikoden IV is one of the two worst games in the Suikoden series along with the original. I am not counting the Suikoden: Tactics game which I never played.

Suikoden IV stripped down the combat to its basics with mixed results. You also only have four characters, which I didn't particularly like. Its story was alright. The best thing it had going for it was all the naval stuff which was added to the game, which I liked quite a bit. The boat battles were fun, but unfortunately Suikoden V has even better boat battles.

Suikoden V was very solid all around. Personally, either II or III is my favorite, but this game is as good or almost as good as those two games, and in some ways better. III had too much worthless backtracking and time-wasting for my tastes, but it is still probably my favorite of the series. V had a pretty good story, IMO.

Suikoden V will not disappoint, Suikoden IV might disappoint.

I enjoyed both IV and V but V was a better game

I never played either game or any Suikoden game for that matter. I do, however, know that Suikoden V would have been a top class RPG if it wasn't for it's slow start and the loading times

V yes, IV no.

well they come in a bundle so i guess i'll be trying both of them out

suprised IV is that dissapointing though, i thought its supposed to be a top rated franchise rpg. guess i'll find out first hand

 Suikoden is not exactly what I would call a top-rated franchise.  The highest gamrankings average is Suikoden III with 86%.

Nah, 4 isn't a piece of crap. It's just not as good as the rest of the suikoden games. The tile game in it is damn addicting though.

Infact i'd play 4 first.  If you haven't played hte other games there won't be anything to be disapointed about.