I personally like Suikoden II and III the most, but if you have them all I'd start at I. I haven't played Tactics, but in general people are not very enthousiastic about it.
Cool thing about Suikoden is that you build a base and just like Fire Emblem there are loads of characters to find. It's a little more RPG than FE.
Two archers in the endgame might indeed be a bit too much, although I found it no problem to level them.
Rolf was my main archer and he was insane, he killed a dragon in one turn and he could kill every boss in one turn (except the last one of course).
I used Shinnon in the Oliver level and I used him and Rolf to block the pathway up, where all these reinforcements come. I had Shinnon, who was a bit neglected due to my Rolf-love, from 12 to 17 in that battle alone.







