Current mood:	lazy
Current music:	Tom Petty - Even the Losers

Suikoden 5 (again): Even the losers...
Stupid analogy: Suikoden 5 is like a struggling baseball team that gets all the way to the World Series. Does it win despite being at a huge disadvantage, or does it lose embarrassingly? I don't know that part yet.

The good news: the game is now going along at an even pace. The slow first eight hours are now long over.

And yet the game isn't out of tricks yet. The main character's allegiances have shifted again, so he's no longer in a comfortable setting. I like the idea, even if it's strangely linear. (This should've been a legit choice, rather than "if you don't stand up for your beliefs, it's a Bad End.")

At last, the party is finally finding ways to address the problems that were clearly detailed in the opening scenes. It's a "Huck Finn" sort of plan that involves recruiting the beaver tribe and excavating a ruin, all in order to destroy the Hatred Fortress... eventually. (Or, as I like to call it, the "Hate Sin Blood Death Plague Fortress, which is not overcompensating.") About as elaborate as that Godwin plot earlier in the game.

By the way, there's some other big-name PS2 RPG that will be available tomorrow. I forget its name though. However, I have noted that it's getting an awful lot of good reviews. Could this be another example of a manufactured hit: a game so high-budget that it can't possibly fail? After all, that trend has existed for years...