Suikoden is, at its core, a traditional JRPG, but one that has cast aside all the fluff, characteristic for the genre. From the very start it grabs your attention and throughout its adventure it keeps you at the edge of your seat.
Pros: A good story full of twists, main characters are endearing, surprisingly solid translation and writing, great music, fast combat, most of the traditional RPG goodness, building your army (and castle) is strangely rewarding, gives you choices (although the ones that would alter the story are not really eligible for you to take), mixes things up with varied gameplay sections, bittersweet ending, virtually no grinding
Cons: Recruiting people is extremely easy and most of them lack a fleshed out story, loads of backtracking, slow movement, traversing the world map is slow and boring, dungeon floors are often recycled within the same dungeon, visuals are ho-hum, gameplay is simple throughout, item management is a chore, typos (especially near the end)