Despite owning Final Fantasy V Advance for many years, I somehow only ever played the two better-known--and better-loved--Final Fantasy entries for the Super Famicom. I don't know why I never tried it out; I suppose at the time I just couldn't bring myself to play much of anything, much less a multi-hour RPG.

Boy did I miss out. This game is a delight. The story never reaches the heights of Final Fantasy IV or VI, but it has some standout moments that at least elevate it above the likes of Final Fantasy I or III. Same goes for the characters as well, though I will say I love Faris with all my heart.

No, Final Fantasy V shines on its Job System and the amount of customisation one can do is simply sublime. This series has become very well-known for its narrative elements, but I always appreciate when they bring something mechanically interesting to the table, and I found immense delight in planning out and executing on specific builds for each character. There are certainly things I would do differently on a future playthrough, and there's always the Four Job Fiesta...

In short, definitely play this one.

I think this is one of the best jrpg gameplay experiences I had. Variety and freedom in combat is simply OUTSTANDING

This is my second final fantasy (first was ff4) and what can I say that did not be said? This game franchise is awesome.

Combat
Ffv uses job system that is different than ff4. What job system means is, there is multiple jobs that you can select for all of your characters. You can make everyone a magician or bard or dancer or knight or samurai or monk etc. Also once you level up a job, you unlock more skills that job has. There is so many variants and neat thing is this is not the greatest part. This time, game lets you equip one more learned skill on top of your selected job. Do you know what that means? You can mix jobs together! Possibilities are endless! Knight that can sing magical songs, magician that can punch really hard, monk that can dance and many many many more...
That is also probably it's greatest downfall for beginners. Because more options makes the game more overwhelming as well, also game sucks at teaching you what jobs does what and what skill can be unlocked with them, there is an optional teacher that shows how things work but on a surface level. So that results with you looking at a guide to learn which skill does what so you can do your dreamy build. I have to say this kind of turned me off at first. Then I decided to push on after seeing a lot of positive reviews and I am glad I did, because this game made me grind voluntarily just to see which skills, which combinations, which techniques to execute and experiment with and that is the biggest compliment I can give it for (because I hate grinding)

Story
Compared to the gameplay, story is much more basic, even more than ff4 I think. Yes when we look at the surface level they are similar good guys vs bad guys story but what ff4 does different is, it makes the character's much more fleshed out, for some reason ffv doesn't try to flesh them out the level ffv did, main characters only get only 1 or 2 small chapters about them but that's not a big negative because this time, story tries to do another thing and that is goofy moments. There is a lot of goofy comedic moments in this game even more than ff4 and new expressions characters have helps in that regard greatly. There is one downside to this unfortunately and that is, unsatisfactory enemies. What I mean is, when the story is not that serious, it's hard to invested for the fight of the big baddy. I didn't had any motivation to take him down, because I felt it's not gonna improve my experience. Then I forced myself and finished it, so just to not miss out anything, but I don't know if it was worth it. Felt like marking the checkmark for me, so I get it when people say they like ff4 more. But I don't agree ffV is lesser than that, after all everything comes to personal taste and question is this: do you rather see an engaging or goofy story. Even if I like the engaging stories, ffv fun story is really entertaining one as well, so don't worry about any disappointment or anything like that.

World
Like the ff4, there is optional town's to visit, small side quests to see, but this time there is more of them like optional summon fights or finding hidden pianos or hidden special items or learning magic songs from town people.

Also like ff4, there is boats to ride, flying ships to control, animals to master. Only not nice thing is, this time there is two worlds in this game and repeating same things to get a flying animal for the second world kind of felt repetitive to me, It felt a bit like padding to me.

Other than that, I found dungeons pretty fun. Every one of them had a gimmick like locked doors that opens with corresponding buttons, river that lets you down from floors, sand places that moves you away and many many more. There wasn't an aggravating one like ff4's stupid magnetic cave I think.
So ff5 still good as ever or maybe even better, so nothing to worry about that

Conclusion
This game is good. So if you enjoy light hearted stories like me and also likes freedom in combat, you probably gonna like this game. I really recommend.

É normal ter um estranhamento Final Fantasy V, muito pelo que se viu depois dele, mas também por ele ser mais parecido com os três primeiros do que com seu antecessor direto (IV).

O enredo é simples, lembrando os três primeiros FF, e é bem amarradinho, com personagens principais e secundários bem construídos (impossível não amar Gilgamesh aqui), com direito a várias cenas adicionais que ajudam na construção deles, com uma fixação pouco usual com cenas noturnas. A exceção fica com o antagonista, que é meio raso mesmo em comparação aos predecessores do NES.

Da parte técnica, gráficos, som e direção de arte são o padrão Square, então tudo vai estar nos conformes da beleza. A pixel art é bem bonita, e os personagens têm diversas roupinhas conforme a classe que está atribuída e que fazem referência à outros jogos da série. Acho eu que é um dos primeiros exemplos de fan service.

Ainda na parte técnica, fica o destaque para a mecânica do jogo, em que se retoma o sistema de Jobs. São várias ocupações que os personagens podem desempenhar, cada qual com atributos bem distintos, permitindo um alto grau de customização do grupo, propiciando uma gama imensa de experimentação. Quando uma habilidade é aprendida por um boneco, ela pode ser utilizada em outro Job, o que ajuda na já citada experimentação. No entanto, com o decorrer do jogo, algumas funções e habilidades ficam claramente obsoletas, limitando muito as escolhas possíveis e tirando o brilho do fundamento mecânico do jogo. Senti isso mais ou menos com uns 30% faltando para o fim.

Terminei a campanha regular em umas 70 e poucas horas, e joguei a versão de GBA, que tem uma tradução bacana (sem adição de um suposto sotaque de marujo para um personagem), um bestiário com informações bem úteis além de jobs e uma dungeon adicional após o final campanha normal, que garante mais jobs extra e lutas contra chefes ainda mais cretinos.

Final Fantasy V não tem a fama do seu antecessor e do sucessor imediatos, pois além de ser meio diferente a Square trouxe ele pro Ocidente de um jeito não muito habitual. De todo jeito recomendo com gosto, e acho a versão do GBA a mais aconselhável, por todo o conteúdo extra.

Like i had before with Dragon Quest 3, i had to double check the year this game came out with how it nailed what it meant to do the best it technically could.

The more story driven final fantasy titles (like 4 and 6) feel a bit too restrictive as far as experimenting goes. Understandably so, if your characters can become anything there will be sacrifices in the story department. The story was not even that bad. FF 1, 3 and 5 all have the same story idea, but it evolved in each game. At least here the main characters (while still not that interesting) have personalty and are not just faceless dolls. They really tried to have some humor in it as well. The main plot while somewhat predictable actually did hold my interest, and it becomes better the farther in. It's the best told version of the ' the crystals lost their grace and slowly kill the land' tropestory old FF became famous for.

While i like complexity in my combat, the saga games are a bit to complicated for my taste, and the more story driven FF like i said a bit to restrictive. This game felt like the perfect balance. I can experiment however i want and the possibilities feel endless for someone like me that wants to do as much as possible in a single playtrough. But i don't get overwhelmed like in saga, where i sometimes feel like i need a college course to see all in and outs of what i can do. There is a lot of player choice but it's not overly complex at the same time. And nothing feels overly OP in comparison to all the rest, like more than 80% of games where balance is important.

I really feel this is the best of the old (1-6) final fantasy's gameplay wise. This job system even echoes through the ff14 mmo. A surprising amount of jobs there (almost all of them) already were possible to play here, which is a testament to this game's enduring brilliance. The whole idea of the blue mage and beastmaster control to make it learn certain spells is someting i enjoyed immensely in ff tactics when i was younger ( i never played ff5 before now). Nice to see it's origin. it's such a creative design and wasn't done before.

I wanted to try out the pixel remaster of FF3 (i did not like the DS version) since it's easier to change jobs there, but it only ever will be a beta version of this game as far as gameplay goes. This game ruined ff3 for me before i could finish it, that's why i normally play series in order of original release. Maybe when it's 80% off on steam.