I have never played a Suikoden game before this, even though I have wanted to, I just wanted to say that, I love this game. The graphics are fantastic, the story is awesome, most of the characters are well developed (you try and develop background stories for 108+ characters). The only fault I can find in this game is the difficulty, it is too easy until the final boss, then it is devestatingly, nope not hard, cheap. Personally, this is my favorite original DS game.
BTW TC, there is no way to be objective when stating your opinion. You cannot prove to me that this game is bad, nor can I prove to you that this game is awesome. Opinion is completely subjective, which is why we all disagree at one point or another.