When you look at a list of Final Fanatasy games ranked this is arguably the most polarizing one. Sometimes you see it near the very top and in others it’s a bottom tier of the franchise. While I understand people that have it towards the bottom for its campy, tongue in cheek story I simply disagree that this isn’t one of the strongest entries in the entire franchise.
While I agree that the story is tongue in cheek and campy I also found the story to be somewhat charming adventure with characters I didn’t expect to love but ended up caring about very much. In fact the only cast of characters that I find better in the whole original 6 classic games was in FF6. I truly grew to love the five main characters and the story wasn’t always comedic (see where you gain your fifth party member.) While I loved most of the characters, liked the story, I admit Exdeath is as bad a villain as his horrible name. The motivations and back story for him were just flat out lacking.
The star of this game is the gameplay and more specifically the job system. The job system single handedly gives this game so much replay potential. The job system from this game is still the baseline for every RPG that contains a job system. I was blown away with how good it was for being a 30 year old system. The replay system is good enough on its own but you could even do self imposed challenges where you only use certain classes to make this game a challenge for any vet.
The music and art is well Final Fantasy so it’s spectacular and always one of the best for its time of release. The battle at big bridge theme has to be a top 5 song in Final Fantasy history.
It’s criminal that this game was not originally released world wide. It makes me sad knowing this easily would have been one of my favorite games as a kid but I never had the ability to play it. While this game is polarizing in the FF community to me it’s nothing but one of the best the franchise has to offer and I cannot recommend it enough.
While I agree that the story is tongue in cheek and campy I also found the story to be somewhat charming adventure with characters I didn’t expect to love but ended up caring about very much. In fact the only cast of characters that I find better in the whole original 6 classic games was in FF6. I truly grew to love the five main characters and the story wasn’t always comedic (see where you gain your fifth party member.) While I loved most of the characters, liked the story, I admit Exdeath is as bad a villain as his horrible name. The motivations and back story for him were just flat out lacking.
The star of this game is the gameplay and more specifically the job system. The job system single handedly gives this game so much replay potential. The job system from this game is still the baseline for every RPG that contains a job system. I was blown away with how good it was for being a 30 year old system. The replay system is good enough on its own but you could even do self imposed challenges where you only use certain classes to make this game a challenge for any vet.
The music and art is well Final Fantasy so it’s spectacular and always one of the best for its time of release. The battle at big bridge theme has to be a top 5 song in Final Fantasy history.
It’s criminal that this game was not originally released world wide. It makes me sad knowing this easily would have been one of my favorite games as a kid but I never had the ability to play it. While this game is polarizing in the FF community to me it’s nothing but one of the best the franchise has to offer and I cannot recommend it enough.
When i say “you cant make a game like this anymore” i dont mean any annoying political tripe or cultural thing, i mean that writers are too scared to have the main villain turn himself into a splinter (im splinter exdeath!!!) for the sole purpose of telling you his master plan and then proceeding to get into a dbz style fistfight with a turtle. The chocobos dont dance to their own theme anymore, you dont get a single small room where you have to slide on your face to hide from enemies (you dont even get the choice) anymore, the list goes on. If any of these stupid wacky things happened nowadays its be a shitty parody game with annoying dialogue that hates itself for being an rpg.
Thats what FFV’s biggest strength is: it loves itself. FFV is a love letter to the series as a whole up to this point, including itself. Its silly and goofy, but the emotional parts of the story still hit hard, and the systems are some the best of any ATB game. (I will defend ATB btw i love this system)
4 is what got me into this series, 5 is what made me fall in love with it.
I am never 100% this game again
Thats what FFV’s biggest strength is: it loves itself. FFV is a love letter to the series as a whole up to this point, including itself. Its silly and goofy, but the emotional parts of the story still hit hard, and the systems are some the best of any ATB game. (I will defend ATB btw i love this system)
4 is what got me into this series, 5 is what made me fall in love with it.
I am never 100% this game again
best game EVER!? #BRUH you can be a Ninja that casts flare or a dual-wielding summoner. They put Faris in a dress now my 🍆 wont go down 🔥🔥🔥
One of my new favorite Final Fantasy games. Fantastic sense of humor, which makes the emotionally charged scenes that much more impactful. The ramp up in difficulty at the final third of the game kept me on my toes, and constantly thinking about new job synergies. Absolutely fantastic game.
No other Final Fantasy game up to this point has put this much focus on the combat. More different jobs than any previous title and more possibilities to combine abilities than anyone could imagine. So many different ways to feel like you’ve broken the game. And yet the game is still beatable with just one job per character (allegedly, I’ll have to see for myself next June during the four job fiesta).
The combat is really fun and thanks to the Pixel Remaster you can save frequently so you’re unlikely to get frustrated by a sudden encounter that you’re not really properly set up to deal with. There are some issues with the combat like the overabundance of undead (especially with some undead being incredibly non-obvious. Why are red dragons undead?), the gargoyle bosses, and some enemies that have way too much hp, but these pale in comparison to how fun combat is most of the time, especially during the superbosses. It is also more grindy than previous games if that’s an issue for you.
The story of V is a bit weird. I’ve heard people say that just like FFI and III it’s just a simple “protect the crystals” story. I’d personally disagree with that. Even beyond the fact that you spend less time protecting crystals in this game than you did in IV, it’s a different kind of simple. I and III were actually incredibly ambitious stories that were limited by the technology of their time, so they ended up only implying most of that story, but V is just incredibly straightforward.
Simple, straightforward stories aren’t bad, but they also don’t really make you think about the game after you beat it. The characters in this are mostly great (Cid and Mid being the exception) and I kinda wish everyone just got to talk a bit more.
There’s not that much to say about this game. The combat is amazing, the story is good enough, the music is great, I recommend playing it if you think you might like it.
The combat is really fun and thanks to the Pixel Remaster you can save frequently so you’re unlikely to get frustrated by a sudden encounter that you’re not really properly set up to deal with. There are some issues with the combat like the overabundance of undead (especially with some undead being incredibly non-obvious. Why are red dragons undead?), the gargoyle bosses, and some enemies that have way too much hp, but these pale in comparison to how fun combat is most of the time, especially during the superbosses. It is also more grindy than previous games if that’s an issue for you.
The story of V is a bit weird. I’ve heard people say that just like FFI and III it’s just a simple “protect the crystals” story. I’d personally disagree with that. Even beyond the fact that you spend less time protecting crystals in this game than you did in IV, it’s a different kind of simple. I and III were actually incredibly ambitious stories that were limited by the technology of their time, so they ended up only implying most of that story, but V is just incredibly straightforward.
Simple, straightforward stories aren’t bad, but they also don’t really make you think about the game after you beat it. The characters in this are mostly great (Cid and Mid being the exception) and I kinda wish everyone just got to talk a bit more.
There’s not that much to say about this game. The combat is amazing, the story is good enough, the music is great, I recommend playing it if you think you might like it.
It's not a bad game, but it does have a lot of flaws. That said, let's start with the positives. The game looks and sounds great. It also has a pretty charming story, although there's not much to it. The job system is also very cool, even though I didn't use it to its fullest potential. There's a lot you can do with the various classes. That's my problem with this game though: It has so much potential, but doesn't go anywhere with it. The story is laughably thin. You'd think the story would be more substantial, considering it's a SNES Final Fantasy game, but it's barely there. This is especially disappointing, coming from FFIV. Heck, the main villain is called Exdeath. It's so ridiculously stupid. When I first started the game, I was loving it, with pirate ships, adventure and whatnot. I was excited to see the story evolve, but it's a typical, bland cartoony story.
Then there's the pacing. It takes a dive in the second half. The game starts to feel bloated and keeps going on and on after a while, making you wonder when it's going to stop. Not only that, but the game is filled with gimmick bosses. A lot of the time, I was overleveled with good gear, but I still couldn't beat certain bosses. Ahh, but there's a trick to this boss. He attacks you every time you use physical attacks, or he can only be damaged by magic and so on. Felt like so many of the bosses didn't take any skill, you just had to know the right gimmick to take them down. This is pretty disappointing when Final Fantasy bosses have always been great in the sense that you feel like the whole team is coming together with good equipment, taking down bosses, giving you a satisfying feeling, but instead, you just have to find out the gimmick. A lot of bosses were annoying like that.
All in all, not a bad game, but certainly one of the weaker Final Fantasy games. Get it during a sale if you want to try out the cool job system, just don't expect a deep story like in IV or VI.
Then there's the pacing. It takes a dive in the second half. The game starts to feel bloated and keeps going on and on after a while, making you wonder when it's going to stop. Not only that, but the game is filled with gimmick bosses. A lot of the time, I was overleveled with good gear, but I still couldn't beat certain bosses. Ahh, but there's a trick to this boss. He attacks you every time you use physical attacks, or he can only be damaged by magic and so on. Felt like so many of the bosses didn't take any skill, you just had to know the right gimmick to take them down. This is pretty disappointing when Final Fantasy bosses have always been great in the sense that you feel like the whole team is coming together with good equipment, taking down bosses, giving you a satisfying feeling, but instead, you just have to find out the gimmick. A lot of bosses were annoying like that.
All in all, not a bad game, but certainly one of the weaker Final Fantasy games. Get it during a sale if you want to try out the cool job system, just don't expect a deep story like in IV or VI.
This is definitely one of the more challenging FF games if you don't know what you're doing—when I was a wee lad, emulating SNES games for the first time without knowing what guides were, I loved this game... up until I got utterly skill check'd by a certain mammoth that shall not be named. Ah, the days of not understanding how job systems work.
After playing a bunch of games with job systems since (shout out to Bravely Default), I kinda grew to appreciate and understand them, and eventually learnt that FF5 was a massive influence for like, every modern job system ever. So of course when I attempted this again as an adult a few weeks ago, I expected the experience to go a lot smoother. I didn't expect too much from the characters/story, as I'd heard this one was a lot more gameplay focused than say, FF4, so I kept my expectations in check there. But still, despite usually caring about story/characters over gameplay, a part of me was really excited to see this unfinished experience from my childhood through to the end.
So to start with, this is obviously a significant improvement on like, everything FFIII introduced. Jobs are generally more useful, and the game rewards you for switching between them with its new job mastery system. I was a huge fan of how creative the jobs were, each coming with their usages: bard buffing your party in crazy ways while being defensively vulnerable, samurai literally throwing money to do massive damage to enemies, ninjas being able to use two weapons at once, and so on.
Of course, the real fun comes once you've mastered a few jobs and can use their abilities on other jobs, and man there are some fun combos. Combining the ninja's dual weapons with the ranger's rapid shot leads to genuinely absurd damage numbers, and best of all this feels by design; the game encourages you to break it. So many bosses have hidden weaknesses that with enough knowledge of this games' systems, you can absolutely nuke them. There's even superbosses that basically require you to break the game to beat, it's wild. Unlike previous FF games, I never got bored of the gameplay here, there's always new job combos to try and tricks to learn; the depth of mastery is frankly quite staggering for a SNES RPG. Not to mention the fun times you can have with the freelancer and mime jobs by the end...
In terms of the story, it can be pretty campy, and generally goes for a much more light-hearted tone than FF4. I can see why people wouldn't be as much of a fan of this, coming off of the previous game. The cast are also more of a ragtag gang rather than individuals directly related to the plot conflicts, setting this apart from FF4 even further.
Ohoho, now this is where things get spicy though: I'm of the opinion that... 🥁... FF5 has a MUCH better story and cast than 4. Now I'm not going to go too into this as this isn't a FF4 review and I don't want to spoil that game wholesale, but what it really comes down to is that 5 feels so much more alive to me. While not on the level of 6 (which I'm playing at the time of writing), it has a lot more dialogue than 4, and this does wonders for establishing chemistry of the cast. I cared about them more in like, the first hour. I'm also going to contradict what I said earlier, and say they actually do relate heavily to the plot conflicts, just more in thematic ways. At the end of the day, FF5 is all about how different people handle loss from a more grounded perspective, and I thought the execution was absolutely fantastic. Not to mention the villain does a fantastic job at embodying this conflict, while also being weirdly lovable in its shameless malevolence and cheesy villain speeches.
Best of all, this game knows have to have fun. After enduring the rather dreary story of 4, this was a welcome change a pace, with some amazing comedy that rivals even like, Tales (a favourite of mine) and its hilarious skits. I was really impressed by how well it balanced light hearted moments with heavier ones (and boy does this game get surprisingly heavy), always walking the tightrope between both without falling one way or the other. Plus, Gilgamesh is hands down the best villain of the first five games, you can't tell me otherwise.
Now I'm not saying this game is perfect... there are parts that could have used more dialogue imo, and from what I've played of 6, the team had clearly improved at this and become much more ambitious in their storytelling. Faris and Lenna also have areas of the story (particularly in Act 2) where their individual traits aren't as emphasised as I'd like. But overall, I think V's story is a good exercise in why quality is often better than quantity, and sometimes a more straightforward tale of good and evil works well. Cause frankly, 4's story really becomes a mess later on with its ridiculous twists and lack of understanding of what made its early beats so strong.
Overall I'm not berating 4 for being pretty messy, as it was literally one of the first RPGs ever to be so story focused and kind of set the trend for that, so ofc it'd be rough around the edges. I just felt the need to expand on this, as I went into 5 expecting it to be a step down based on what a lot of people say, and subsequently found myself VERY surprised.
As for my favourite character? Obviously Gilgamesh, but if I have to pick a protagonist, I would say... Bartz? I'm very surprised at myself by this, as I usually find his archetype kinda boring, but he's oddly charming and has an unexpectedly engaging arc. I love all of them of course, including you-know-who, but at the end of the day, Bartz sticks out in my mind the most. I also like how he doesn't really hog the show with his role as main character, they feel more like an ensemble cast at the end of the day. Oh and my goodness, their restraint with not pairing him with any of the girls in the party was impressive, love my platonic gang.
Since I played the Pixel Remaster, I should comment on that: remixed soundtrack is amazing, and they did an incredible job with remixes like Battle on the Big Bridge (the trumpets are here!) and Home, Sweet Home. Usually when I hear someone like Uematsu is 'supervising' I'm a little sceptical, but it's kind of undeniable here with how faithful everything is. Boosts were very welcome for late game, which expects some level of grinding if you want to really push the job system to its limits, and with how stingy that final dungeon is with save points, I'm not sure if I wouldn't finished the game without quick/auto saves. Visually, it's simply gorgeous, a very faithful modern recreation unless I get insanely picky with comparing every single texture something something system limitations create art (this is unironically true, but there's something to be said for how much love they put into these pixel remasters). Aaaand as always, I can't get enough of these minimaps, having to bumble my way around these artificial labyrinths with my terrible sense of direction (not helped by random encounters!) has always made dungeons in older rpgs pretty unpleasant for me.
The lack of the GBA content is a shame, as from what I've read it seems really cool, but honestly I'd take these QoL improvements any day, I don't have the time and patience I used to. Not to say that we should really need to pick one or the other, but... ah well, no point getting too caught up in what could have been.
But yes, FFV is amazing, and imo it's a travesty that it's the least recommended of the SNES titles (from my experience anyway). Give this game a shot if you're insane enough to have read this entire review without doing that!
After playing a bunch of games with job systems since (shout out to Bravely Default), I kinda grew to appreciate and understand them, and eventually learnt that FF5 was a massive influence for like, every modern job system ever. So of course when I attempted this again as an adult a few weeks ago, I expected the experience to go a lot smoother. I didn't expect too much from the characters/story, as I'd heard this one was a lot more gameplay focused than say, FF4, so I kept my expectations in check there. But still, despite usually caring about story/characters over gameplay, a part of me was really excited to see this unfinished experience from my childhood through to the end.
So to start with, this is obviously a significant improvement on like, everything FFIII introduced. Jobs are generally more useful, and the game rewards you for switching between them with its new job mastery system. I was a huge fan of how creative the jobs were, each coming with their usages: bard buffing your party in crazy ways while being defensively vulnerable, samurai literally throwing money to do massive damage to enemies, ninjas being able to use two weapons at once, and so on.
Of course, the real fun comes once you've mastered a few jobs and can use their abilities on other jobs, and man there are some fun combos. Combining the ninja's dual weapons with the ranger's rapid shot leads to genuinely absurd damage numbers, and best of all this feels by design; the game encourages you to break it. So many bosses have hidden weaknesses that with enough knowledge of this games' systems, you can absolutely nuke them. There's even superbosses that basically require you to break the game to beat, it's wild. Unlike previous FF games, I never got bored of the gameplay here, there's always new job combos to try and tricks to learn; the depth of mastery is frankly quite staggering for a SNES RPG. Not to mention the fun times you can have with the freelancer and mime jobs by the end...
In terms of the story, it can be pretty campy, and generally goes for a much more light-hearted tone than FF4. I can see why people wouldn't be as much of a fan of this, coming off of the previous game. The cast are also more of a ragtag gang rather than individuals directly related to the plot conflicts, setting this apart from FF4 even further.
Ohoho, now this is where things get spicy though: I'm of the opinion that... 🥁... FF5 has a MUCH better story and cast than 4. Now I'm not going to go too into this as this isn't a FF4 review and I don't want to spoil that game wholesale, but what it really comes down to is that 5 feels so much more alive to me. While not on the level of 6 (which I'm playing at the time of writing), it has a lot more dialogue than 4, and this does wonders for establishing chemistry of the cast. I cared about them more in like, the first hour. I'm also going to contradict what I said earlier, and say they actually do relate heavily to the plot conflicts, just more in thematic ways. At the end of the day, FF5 is all about how different people handle loss from a more grounded perspective, and I thought the execution was absolutely fantastic. Not to mention the villain does a fantastic job at embodying this conflict, while also being weirdly lovable in its shameless malevolence and cheesy villain speeches.
Best of all, this game knows have to have fun. After enduring the rather dreary story of 4, this was a welcome change a pace, with some amazing comedy that rivals even like, Tales (a favourite of mine) and its hilarious skits. I was really impressed by how well it balanced light hearted moments with heavier ones (and boy does this game get surprisingly heavy), always walking the tightrope between both without falling one way or the other. Plus, Gilgamesh is hands down the best villain of the first five games, you can't tell me otherwise.
Now I'm not saying this game is perfect... there are parts that could have used more dialogue imo, and from what I've played of 6, the team had clearly improved at this and become much more ambitious in their storytelling. Faris and Lenna also have areas of the story (particularly in Act 2) where their individual traits aren't as emphasised as I'd like. But overall, I think V's story is a good exercise in why quality is often better than quantity, and sometimes a more straightforward tale of good and evil works well. Cause frankly, 4's story really becomes a mess later on with its ridiculous twists and lack of understanding of what made its early beats so strong.
Overall I'm not berating 4 for being pretty messy, as it was literally one of the first RPGs ever to be so story focused and kind of set the trend for that, so ofc it'd be rough around the edges. I just felt the need to expand on this, as I went into 5 expecting it to be a step down based on what a lot of people say, and subsequently found myself VERY surprised.
As for my favourite character? Obviously Gilgamesh, but if I have to pick a protagonist, I would say... Bartz? I'm very surprised at myself by this, as I usually find his archetype kinda boring, but he's oddly charming and has an unexpectedly engaging arc. I love all of them of course, including you-know-who, but at the end of the day, Bartz sticks out in my mind the most. I also like how he doesn't really hog the show with his role as main character, they feel more like an ensemble cast at the end of the day. Oh and my goodness, their restraint with not pairing him with any of the girls in the party was impressive, love my platonic gang.
Since I played the Pixel Remaster, I should comment on that: remixed soundtrack is amazing, and they did an incredible job with remixes like Battle on the Big Bridge (the trumpets are here!) and Home, Sweet Home. Usually when I hear someone like Uematsu is 'supervising' I'm a little sceptical, but it's kind of undeniable here with how faithful everything is. Boosts were very welcome for late game, which expects some level of grinding if you want to really push the job system to its limits, and with how stingy that final dungeon is with save points, I'm not sure if I wouldn't finished the game without quick/auto saves. Visually, it's simply gorgeous, a very faithful modern recreation unless I get insanely picky with comparing every single texture something something system limitations create art (this is unironically true, but there's something to be said for how much love they put into these pixel remasters). Aaaand as always, I can't get enough of these minimaps, having to bumble my way around these artificial labyrinths with my terrible sense of direction (not helped by random encounters!) has always made dungeons in older rpgs pretty unpleasant for me.
The lack of the GBA content is a shame, as from what I've read it seems really cool, but honestly I'd take these QoL improvements any day, I don't have the time and patience I used to. Not to say that we should really need to pick one or the other, but... ah well, no point getting too caught up in what could have been.
But yes, FFV is amazing, and imo it's a travesty that it's the least recommended of the SNES titles (from my experience anyway). Give this game a shot if you're insane enough to have read this entire review without doing that!
One of my all-time favorites. The main theme has the power to unlock a cascade of memories that always makes me deeply emotional. Final Fantasy V is a gem. It weaves a simple yet heartfelt story with remarkable composure. It boasts one of the most enjoyable gameplay systems ever seen in the Final Fantasy with a huge array of combinations and features charming characters like Ghido, the original warriors, Gilgamesh, and even its villain.
In my opinion, Final Fantasy V is often underestimated due to its perceived lack of 'complexity' compared to other entries in the FF franchise and other JRPGs. However, it possesses a subtle elegance and lightheartedness reminiscent of the best Dragon Quest games. While the second world/arc may feel like a bit of a downtime, everything else in the game is simply outstanding. The bigger and bigger stakes after each crystal (and world!), the battle on the big bridge, the exploration of new worlds, the epic confrontation of Galuf against Exdeath, and the captivating library segment and many, many more all exude charm and brilliance.
In my opinion, Final Fantasy V is often underestimated due to its perceived lack of 'complexity' compared to other entries in the FF franchise and other JRPGs. However, it possesses a subtle elegance and lightheartedness reminiscent of the best Dragon Quest games. While the second world/arc may feel like a bit of a downtime, everything else in the game is simply outstanding. The bigger and bigger stakes after each crystal (and world!), the battle on the big bridge, the exploration of new worlds, the epic confrontation of Galuf against Exdeath, and the captivating library segment and many, many more all exude charm and brilliance.
Honestly, a huge letdown after 4.
Got to the point where you leave Bartz world and just have zero desire to continue.
Got to the point where you leave Bartz world and just have zero desire to continue.
More games need to just unapologetically steal the job system from this game and I'm not kidding
hoooo boy i was kind of afraid i'd have this opinion
whenever a game in a really big franchise like this is well liked by some hardcore fans but never really picked up by audiences at large it makes me concerned, because you know there's a reason why that entry never took off. final fantasy v is that game and now i get why it isn't more popular.
obv there's a lot to enjoy here. music is gorgeous, story is fun, there's a few EXCELLENT characters, and the game is massive in scope compared to every game before this. still, ultimately you have a game with a worse story, cast, setting, and general visuals than the game which precedes it. what is the draw here exactly? gameplay! lets talk about it lol
final fantasy v is defined by its job system and sometimes it works, too often for me it felt lacking though. there's just so much trial and error gameplay where you'll enter encounters which have very specific requirements for what sort of abilities you need to clear them with no way of knowing until the encounter begins. if things go well then cool, otherwise instant game over or potentially prepare for a long and obnoxious struggle to victory. and on that note, more than any other final fantasy game i've played, the amount of shit going on in this game which imposes no challenge or test other than that of my patience is obnoxious. idk why half of every monster formation towards the game's conclusion needed a confuse ability goodness gracious. anyway, there are certainly times when it can be fun to figure out some killer job abilities that just obliterate whatever the task at hand is, and i'm sure whenever i replay this game with all the information i know now i'll have a quite different experience, but i think a lot of the game design here was a little too trial-and-error-y for my tastes
i think final fantasy xii and x-2 spoiled me with their job systems. random note but i was surprised how easy the final boss was here, after all the nonsense to get to him lol.
anyway when in doubt remember to fall in love or something you might learn a thing or two about yourself
whenever a game in a really big franchise like this is well liked by some hardcore fans but never really picked up by audiences at large it makes me concerned, because you know there's a reason why that entry never took off. final fantasy v is that game and now i get why it isn't more popular.
obv there's a lot to enjoy here. music is gorgeous, story is fun, there's a few EXCELLENT characters, and the game is massive in scope compared to every game before this. still, ultimately you have a game with a worse story, cast, setting, and general visuals than the game which precedes it. what is the draw here exactly? gameplay! lets talk about it lol
final fantasy v is defined by its job system and sometimes it works, too often for me it felt lacking though. there's just so much trial and error gameplay where you'll enter encounters which have very specific requirements for what sort of abilities you need to clear them with no way of knowing until the encounter begins. if things go well then cool, otherwise instant game over or potentially prepare for a long and obnoxious struggle to victory. and on that note, more than any other final fantasy game i've played, the amount of shit going on in this game which imposes no challenge or test other than that of my patience is obnoxious. idk why half of every monster formation towards the game's conclusion needed a confuse ability goodness gracious. anyway, there are certainly times when it can be fun to figure out some killer job abilities that just obliterate whatever the task at hand is, and i'm sure whenever i replay this game with all the information i know now i'll have a quite different experience, but i think a lot of the game design here was a little too trial-and-error-y for my tastes
i think final fantasy xii and x-2 spoiled me with their job systems. random note but i was surprised how easy the final boss was here, after all the nonsense to get to him lol.
anyway when in doubt remember to fall in love or something you might learn a thing or two about yourself
FFV feels like a refinement of everything that they set out to do with FFIII. An improved job system with tons of jobs, no limitations on swapping, a more coherent but still traditional plot focusing on the 4 warriors of light and the crystals, and a sizable world to explore.
As it compares to IV, it is obviously more open in the gameplay regards. It is a bit of a step back when it comes to story and characters (both allies and villains), but I ended up being attached to the main squad all the same by the end. There are certainly a lot of standout moments too, with Gilgamesh being one of my favourite FF characters thus far. The new orchestrated soundtrack is outstanding too, I hope it becomes available for streaming soon.
FFV in my mind is the pinacle of "classic" Final Fantasy with just about every aspect refined. I went out of my way to do a lot more side stuff in this one just because I didn't want it to end yet. Definitely play this one if you enjoy the traditional formula.
As it compares to IV, it is obviously more open in the gameplay regards. It is a bit of a step back when it comes to story and characters (both allies and villains), but I ended up being attached to the main squad all the same by the end. There are certainly a lot of standout moments too, with Gilgamesh being one of my favourite FF characters thus far. The new orchestrated soundtrack is outstanding too, I hope it becomes available for streaming soon.
FFV in my mind is the pinacle of "classic" Final Fantasy with just about every aspect refined. I went out of my way to do a lot more side stuff in this one just because I didn't want it to end yet. Definitely play this one if you enjoy the traditional formula.
Good story
Good characters
Good locations
THE JOB SYSTEM
and as always, pixel remaster makes everything better.
Good characters
Good locations
THE JOB SYSTEM
and as always, pixel remaster makes everything better.
Much better than I remember it being. I'd also consider this the first good Final Fantasy game. It does everything that its predecessors do but better. The job system returns and has actual depth and amazing customizability options. Dungeons have some actual depth with puzzles (kinda) and interesting designs, for the most part. The ATB is back but works much better with this game's combat system than the 4th's. Levelling up means nothing really since the main way to get stronger is levelling up classes. And this leads to some addicting gameplay loops, wanting to max out all jobs for all 4 of your heroes. The music is great and has a lot of standout tracks. And while the writing in this game can't really be taken seriously because of all the awful humour. It has some key moments that would cement this franchise as the classic JRPG franchise it is. Mainly 'Battle on Big Bridge' and anything to do with Gilgamesh. I do feel this game is overlooked but the pixel remasters have made it more noticeable thankfully.
7/10
7/10
While the job system can lead to a lot of complexity (or just break everything like a piñata), FFV is an otherwise simple JRPG. The cast is likable all around, even if there's not that much to them. The villain is straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon and his dialogue is at least 20% evil laughing. That said, sometimes you just want a bad guy whose motivation is that he’s an asshole and by that standard, I’ve seen worse.
“It's amazing how, over time, a person's perspective can be altered.”
-William Frederick Durst
I knew next to nothing about Final Fantasy V going in: It’s lighter in tone, it has a “job system”, and it didn’t initially release in the west. VI is the one people talk about.
Coming hot off the heels of the first four entries, I was ready for anything. Final Fantasy V is indeed lighter in tone for the most part, with plenty of jokes and banter, and a surprising amount of down-time with the party.
If this had been my first Final Fantasy game I might have wanted a meatier, darker story, but I also don’t want to put games in a box. A figurative box. Some games come in a box. Final Fantasy V almost certainly came in a box on release. This franchise has displayed a dedication to variety that I think is pretty rare in the industry, and each Final Fantasy is its own beast. This one is a goofy one, and I thought it worked.
The near-constant swapping of party members in past entries wasn’t necessarily a negative, but it was refreshing to play through a game with a highly consistent cast of core characters. The personalities at the center of the story kept me engaged, and I think I’m personally a character-focused player. While the plot definitely has its moments, I feel the smaller beats of levity are where the game shines. The game is luckily filled with them!
“I'm OCD beyond comparison.”
-William Frederick Durst
The job system takes said characters and turns them into first-year college students, swapping disciplines on the fly, encouraging and facilitating a massive amount of experimentation with the gameplay. This exacerbates some experience point issues shared by past entries, but I will say that grinding for specific upgrades is easier to swallow (for me) than just general leveling.
I wanted to rank everything up. I wanted to get everything. I wanted my endgame characters to be the most versatile ever. This came at the cost of the game’s narrative pacing, as I spent way more time fighting random monsters than I did progressing the story. By the end, my team was beastly but my interest in the plot had waned slightly.
But it can’t be overstated just how fun the experimentation with the job system is. Each job is distinct enough to seemingly be viable for the whole game, yet there’s a definite progression as you unlock more and more of them.
“I'm definitely on the incline to a peak.”
-William Frederick Durst
I enjoyed my time with Finally a Fantasy V more than I did with the already solid Final Fantasy IV. I thought IV was better than III. III was better than II. II wasn’t as good as I but the point is, I’m feeling the winds of quality blowing toward Final Fantasy VI. Will it be the series best it is often hailed as, or will I be left yearning for my time with Bartz and the gang?
“I stopped predicting the future a long time ago.”
-William Frederick Durst
-William Frederick Durst
I knew next to nothing about Final Fantasy V going in: It’s lighter in tone, it has a “job system”, and it didn’t initially release in the west. VI is the one people talk about.
Coming hot off the heels of the first four entries, I was ready for anything. Final Fantasy V is indeed lighter in tone for the most part, with plenty of jokes and banter, and a surprising amount of down-time with the party.
If this had been my first Final Fantasy game I might have wanted a meatier, darker story, but I also don’t want to put games in a box. A figurative box. Some games come in a box. Final Fantasy V almost certainly came in a box on release. This franchise has displayed a dedication to variety that I think is pretty rare in the industry, and each Final Fantasy is its own beast. This one is a goofy one, and I thought it worked.
The near-constant swapping of party members in past entries wasn’t necessarily a negative, but it was refreshing to play through a game with a highly consistent cast of core characters. The personalities at the center of the story kept me engaged, and I think I’m personally a character-focused player. While the plot definitely has its moments, I feel the smaller beats of levity are where the game shines. The game is luckily filled with them!
“I'm OCD beyond comparison.”
-William Frederick Durst
The job system takes said characters and turns them into first-year college students, swapping disciplines on the fly, encouraging and facilitating a massive amount of experimentation with the gameplay. This exacerbates some experience point issues shared by past entries, but I will say that grinding for specific upgrades is easier to swallow (for me) than just general leveling.
I wanted to rank everything up. I wanted to get everything. I wanted my endgame characters to be the most versatile ever. This came at the cost of the game’s narrative pacing, as I spent way more time fighting random monsters than I did progressing the story. By the end, my team was beastly but my interest in the plot had waned slightly.
But it can’t be overstated just how fun the experimentation with the job system is. Each job is distinct enough to seemingly be viable for the whole game, yet there’s a definite progression as you unlock more and more of them.
“I'm definitely on the incline to a peak.”
-William Frederick Durst
I enjoyed my time with Finally a Fantasy V more than I did with the already solid Final Fantasy IV. I thought IV was better than III. III was better than II. II wasn’t as good as I but the point is, I’m feeling the winds of quality blowing toward Final Fantasy VI. Will it be the series best it is often hailed as, or will I be left yearning for my time with Bartz and the gang?
“I stopped predicting the future a long time ago.”
-William Frederick Durst
Finally finished this for my 550th log- only took uhhh a year and some months.
Perhaps the most eclectic FF so far. Even compared to earlier FFs it really stands out from the prior FFs but also I can't imagine any of the later games have a tone quite as odd as Final Fantasy V. It jumps from the usual epic grandeur of the series, traveling on Chocobos and Airships, dungeon crawling, building your party and conquering titans. However, it just as easily swaps to these cheesy as hell moments during cutscenes where our cast spouts TMNT and Power Ranger references. Bizarre that this stuff got brought over from the GBA and Smartphone versions but I guess this is just how the tone of FFV will go. Part of me wonders what the game would look like without most of these and I would groan but in truth this game has always felt like some sort of enigma to me. FFs in general have always had a weird vibe in my head with regards to my understanding. I never played any apart from 4 DS as a teen (didn't beat) and then several years later I decided to try this out on the GBA port. If I remember correctly, around the same time I would have been finishing Dragon Quest III so perhaps I was looking for another class customization heavy JRPG? I didn't get too far but since then I've always had a fondness for this one in particular and had since wanted to sit down and fully commit myself to FFV. Over the course of a year and several other FFs later this pixel remaster came out and I put in the time but I did sit down and come back to this one more than I had hoped for. Thinking on Final Fantasies as a whole for a moment, there's only a few of them that really 'stand out' as titans metaphorically, the ones that jump to mind as the name Final Fantasy is brought up. FFIV, VI, VII, and X are usually the strongest in my mind, not so much in terms of quality but typically as the ones most 'stand-out' and typical to the franchise. FFs I-III try to establish a winning formula with what RPGs can manage and do for the times, while 4 sticks to a dedicated cast and decides to tell a focused story, VI and VII remain titans of the franchise with little need for explanation as to why and onward it's kind of a grabbag, although X for some reason always had a fragment in my mind even as kid for some reason. 8, 9 and 12 I don't know much about although they usually fill out a chunk of my mind as wildly differing branches of what I know about Final Fantasy. I could also talk about XIV however as I've yet to dive deep into it I barely understand what's going on whenever people talk about that game considering its 6 versions in. I bring this up because V feels like this really weird side path between Final Fantasies IV and VI, so seeing as how gamers in the west during the 90s going from the former to the latter makes a lot of sense but going from the former to V is an odd path to take when tackling this linearly. You don't transition from tropey but large scale drama to generation-defining epic as smoothly as V, this klutz of a fantasy, decides to place its sweet self between the two entries.
I can't really complain though, this game can get really neat. Neat might be the best descriptor I can give- as its customizable classes aren't necessarily new, considering III DOES exist despite how often I forget it does, AND it often falls into the pitfalls that other class-heavy japanese rpgs do. Yet, this thankfully improves upon III's systems and provides enough tools that it doesn't leave you to dry as often as I convinced myself it would. What I mean by this is that I'm kind of an idiot in a lot of ways. But also! this game does like to play around with its bosses more often, and considering how many options you might have when it comes to classes it might be easy to place yourself in a corner. Quite often bosses would seem way more daunting than they were worth because I didn't take into consideration how many simple ideas just work. A lot of these bosses feel like puzzles, and sometimes the solution is as simple as 'Spellblade + Thundaga is way more powerful than you think' but the game has so many complex build options that I tend to skew into just 'but this thing had bigger number in normal random battle' which would lead to my demise in certain bosses. Other bosses just don't care about having resistances. One particular boss (or trio of bosses) I didn't wanna deal with turned out to be susceptible to Odin's Zanketsuken! Brilliant! This does lead to quite a few moments of complex, fairly frustrating encounters in which I kinda wished my own creativeness would just prevail rather than needing to untangle and cobble together some other strategy because I might have missed a certain blue magic or I don't have an adequately leveled black mage. Or maybe I'd rather perish a slow and arduous death than try to wrap my head around the intricacies of the beastmaster class for 5 minutes. It's not too often but I have the brain disease that makes me want to keep a character as one class as long as they can so that they can be extremely great at one thing, but also to have these classes kept to these characters so as to check out as many classes as possible. Unfortunately there are times where the best solution is to just break this disease and have two characters have the same class (or maybe I accidentally made Faris both the best DPS and the best Mage without realizing it- uh oh).
My main critical problem against the game itself is there are admittedly a few stinker classes. Buff Dancer! Make Berserker more interesting! There are possible ways that these more niche classes could be overhauled or more functional so as to make them stand out compared to more traditional but practical classes like Monk, Summoner or White Mage. Most of the classes work really well and switching from class to class is a lot easier than in 3, although understanding the upsides of certain jobs takes a bit of faith. 'Chemist is one of the best jobs in the game, trust me' I saw, 'Use Zenigage! It's what makes Samurai good!' the daimyo of Bal wailed. Nonsense, all I need is Krile to grab Berserk and stay a monk and do all the work. Dragoon isn't that good? Then how come I can jump? That's rad. (I should note I typed much of this before beating the final boss- a battle I mostly won on...Zenigage + Chemist using Mix! I mostly just didn't wanna rewrite this entire section) I say much of this as admittedly an apology to Final Fantasy V, similar to other class systems in gaming as my strategizing and planning really isn't as complex as perhaps the game would want me to think on. Maybe it's because Final Fantasy was still just a matter of the turn based combat that the class system would have some oddities I didn't take into consideration which kept me from being wholly engrossed in its system and more so entertained. Maybe I sound cheeky in this regard but I did wish my understanding of the classes for FFV was a bit clearer in-game. Mostly I wish the game was just transparent in what abilities I was getting so I could fully realize the utilities of my party and its jobs, but much of it turned into a party of swiss army knives with a little of columns A-C, a specialty in D and what I would have liked to be a mastery in E but a greater need at the moment for said character to be Column F instead. Perhaps better class planning in later replays would greatly trim the sloppy catalog of abilities I ended on, but that's for a later Polaroid. I mostly bring this up not in scathing criticism or in contradiction to its strongest and generally most acclaimed aspect, I mostly bring about my hiccups in the job system- as I admit I'm not certain how I feel about job systems in general at the moment. After sitting on Yakuza 7 for a while, I came to feel generally positive about the idea, but remembering certain flops and hiccups in how some classes progressed, on top of some other oddities regarding battles. Final Fantasy 3, being the first in the series to structure a job system for later games to build upon gets some slack for how early it is, but of course has its own can of worms in terms of balancing. Tactics, while I have yet to beat it, has an immensely deep class system, but gets into the territory of needing some guidance in unlocking other classes to diversify your team. Here in Final Fantasy V, while I enjoy the ease and speed in getting new jobs- as well as the amount of good jobs versus middling; I do think there's a major balancing problem. How come certain classes end on just 'Equip Axes' while others end on borderline game breaking abilities like Rapid Shot. Red Mage has the idea in knowing that to get the insane ability in 'Dual Cast' locked at a 1159 AP level cap but the Ranger’s ‘Rapid Fire’ is not only slightly more practical but only requires nearly half that in 600 ap. By the end of the game and once several classes are mastered, a lot of it starts to click and regular battles begin to become a joke, and I love it. I really just wish I had better planned who was gonna get what classes, as a lot of the late game was spent wondering why I spent as much time as I had in certain classes. Once I had finally sat down and got that chemist class leveled up I finally saw the appeal in abilities like Mix and Revive, but I don’t know why I spend so much time trying to make Berserker work. Hell, I never even got Black Mage maxed out, which felt strange.
Otherwise the game progresses about as similarly as other Final Fantasy, although the last third is kind of the least interesting part, with a late game party change and some pretty lackluster dungeons until the final stretch.
The pixel remastered soundtrack is pretty great, and some of the remastered effects look really great but I'm still on the fence on how the actual spritework looks part of the time. I am disappointed however that the game lacks much of the bonus combat that was added to the GBA and defunct PC release.
Overall I was really looking forward to playing this, and all things considered a lot of the game's charms and structure is very enjoyable but sometimes its quirk gets in the way of taking it too seriously- it still has one last push before it reaches the heights of the series' epic status nowadays. Certainly this and other FFs prior have their stellar moments and memorable moments, but with the help of hindsight and some knowledge of FF6- its hard to really compare most of the stuff that came beforehand. This was definitely my favorite thus far, but the third act and some of the cast really keep it from being my favorite of the bunch. Would still greatly recommend it primarily for its unique battling and progression system.
Perhaps the most eclectic FF so far. Even compared to earlier FFs it really stands out from the prior FFs but also I can't imagine any of the later games have a tone quite as odd as Final Fantasy V. It jumps from the usual epic grandeur of the series, traveling on Chocobos and Airships, dungeon crawling, building your party and conquering titans. However, it just as easily swaps to these cheesy as hell moments during cutscenes where our cast spouts TMNT and Power Ranger references. Bizarre that this stuff got brought over from the GBA and Smartphone versions but I guess this is just how the tone of FFV will go. Part of me wonders what the game would look like without most of these and I would groan but in truth this game has always felt like some sort of enigma to me. FFs in general have always had a weird vibe in my head with regards to my understanding. I never played any apart from 4 DS as a teen (didn't beat) and then several years later I decided to try this out on the GBA port. If I remember correctly, around the same time I would have been finishing Dragon Quest III so perhaps I was looking for another class customization heavy JRPG? I didn't get too far but since then I've always had a fondness for this one in particular and had since wanted to sit down and fully commit myself to FFV. Over the course of a year and several other FFs later this pixel remaster came out and I put in the time but I did sit down and come back to this one more than I had hoped for. Thinking on Final Fantasies as a whole for a moment, there's only a few of them that really 'stand out' as titans metaphorically, the ones that jump to mind as the name Final Fantasy is brought up. FFIV, VI, VII, and X are usually the strongest in my mind, not so much in terms of quality but typically as the ones most 'stand-out' and typical to the franchise. FFs I-III try to establish a winning formula with what RPGs can manage and do for the times, while 4 sticks to a dedicated cast and decides to tell a focused story, VI and VII remain titans of the franchise with little need for explanation as to why and onward it's kind of a grabbag, although X for some reason always had a fragment in my mind even as kid for some reason. 8, 9 and 12 I don't know much about although they usually fill out a chunk of my mind as wildly differing branches of what I know about Final Fantasy. I could also talk about XIV however as I've yet to dive deep into it I barely understand what's going on whenever people talk about that game considering its 6 versions in. I bring this up because V feels like this really weird side path between Final Fantasies IV and VI, so seeing as how gamers in the west during the 90s going from the former to the latter makes a lot of sense but going from the former to V is an odd path to take when tackling this linearly. You don't transition from tropey but large scale drama to generation-defining epic as smoothly as V, this klutz of a fantasy, decides to place its sweet self between the two entries.
I can't really complain though, this game can get really neat. Neat might be the best descriptor I can give- as its customizable classes aren't necessarily new, considering III DOES exist despite how often I forget it does, AND it often falls into the pitfalls that other class-heavy japanese rpgs do. Yet, this thankfully improves upon III's systems and provides enough tools that it doesn't leave you to dry as often as I convinced myself it would. What I mean by this is that I'm kind of an idiot in a lot of ways. But also! this game does like to play around with its bosses more often, and considering how many options you might have when it comes to classes it might be easy to place yourself in a corner. Quite often bosses would seem way more daunting than they were worth because I didn't take into consideration how many simple ideas just work. A lot of these bosses feel like puzzles, and sometimes the solution is as simple as 'Spellblade + Thundaga is way more powerful than you think' but the game has so many complex build options that I tend to skew into just 'but this thing had bigger number in normal random battle' which would lead to my demise in certain bosses. Other bosses just don't care about having resistances. One particular boss (or trio of bosses) I didn't wanna deal with turned out to be susceptible to Odin's Zanketsuken! Brilliant! This does lead to quite a few moments of complex, fairly frustrating encounters in which I kinda wished my own creativeness would just prevail rather than needing to untangle and cobble together some other strategy because I might have missed a certain blue magic or I don't have an adequately leveled black mage. Or maybe I'd rather perish a slow and arduous death than try to wrap my head around the intricacies of the beastmaster class for 5 minutes. It's not too often but I have the brain disease that makes me want to keep a character as one class as long as they can so that they can be extremely great at one thing, but also to have these classes kept to these characters so as to check out as many classes as possible. Unfortunately there are times where the best solution is to just break this disease and have two characters have the same class (or maybe I accidentally made Faris both the best DPS and the best Mage without realizing it- uh oh).
My main critical problem against the game itself is there are admittedly a few stinker classes. Buff Dancer! Make Berserker more interesting! There are possible ways that these more niche classes could be overhauled or more functional so as to make them stand out compared to more traditional but practical classes like Monk, Summoner or White Mage. Most of the classes work really well and switching from class to class is a lot easier than in 3, although understanding the upsides of certain jobs takes a bit of faith. 'Chemist is one of the best jobs in the game, trust me' I saw, 'Use Zenigage! It's what makes Samurai good!' the daimyo of Bal wailed. Nonsense, all I need is Krile to grab Berserk and stay a monk and do all the work. Dragoon isn't that good? Then how come I can jump? That's rad. (I should note I typed much of this before beating the final boss- a battle I mostly won on...Zenigage + Chemist using Mix! I mostly just didn't wanna rewrite this entire section) I say much of this as admittedly an apology to Final Fantasy V, similar to other class systems in gaming as my strategizing and planning really isn't as complex as perhaps the game would want me to think on. Maybe it's because Final Fantasy was still just a matter of the turn based combat that the class system would have some oddities I didn't take into consideration which kept me from being wholly engrossed in its system and more so entertained. Maybe I sound cheeky in this regard but I did wish my understanding of the classes for FFV was a bit clearer in-game. Mostly I wish the game was just transparent in what abilities I was getting so I could fully realize the utilities of my party and its jobs, but much of it turned into a party of swiss army knives with a little of columns A-C, a specialty in D and what I would have liked to be a mastery in E but a greater need at the moment for said character to be Column F instead. Perhaps better class planning in later replays would greatly trim the sloppy catalog of abilities I ended on, but that's for a later Polaroid. I mostly bring this up not in scathing criticism or in contradiction to its strongest and generally most acclaimed aspect, I mostly bring about my hiccups in the job system- as I admit I'm not certain how I feel about job systems in general at the moment. After sitting on Yakuza 7 for a while, I came to feel generally positive about the idea, but remembering certain flops and hiccups in how some classes progressed, on top of some other oddities regarding battles. Final Fantasy 3, being the first in the series to structure a job system for later games to build upon gets some slack for how early it is, but of course has its own can of worms in terms of balancing. Tactics, while I have yet to beat it, has an immensely deep class system, but gets into the territory of needing some guidance in unlocking other classes to diversify your team. Here in Final Fantasy V, while I enjoy the ease and speed in getting new jobs- as well as the amount of good jobs versus middling; I do think there's a major balancing problem. How come certain classes end on just 'Equip Axes' while others end on borderline game breaking abilities like Rapid Shot. Red Mage has the idea in knowing that to get the insane ability in 'Dual Cast' locked at a 1159 AP level cap but the Ranger’s ‘Rapid Fire’ is not only slightly more practical but only requires nearly half that in 600 ap. By the end of the game and once several classes are mastered, a lot of it starts to click and regular battles begin to become a joke, and I love it. I really just wish I had better planned who was gonna get what classes, as a lot of the late game was spent wondering why I spent as much time as I had in certain classes. Once I had finally sat down and got that chemist class leveled up I finally saw the appeal in abilities like Mix and Revive, but I don’t know why I spend so much time trying to make Berserker work. Hell, I never even got Black Mage maxed out, which felt strange.
Otherwise the game progresses about as similarly as other Final Fantasy, although the last third is kind of the least interesting part, with a late game party change and some pretty lackluster dungeons until the final stretch.
The pixel remastered soundtrack is pretty great, and some of the remastered effects look really great but I'm still on the fence on how the actual spritework looks part of the time. I am disappointed however that the game lacks much of the bonus combat that was added to the GBA and defunct PC release.
Overall I was really looking forward to playing this, and all things considered a lot of the game's charms and structure is very enjoyable but sometimes its quirk gets in the way of taking it too seriously- it still has one last push before it reaches the heights of the series' epic status nowadays. Certainly this and other FFs prior have their stellar moments and memorable moments, but with the help of hindsight and some knowledge of FF6- its hard to really compare most of the stuff that came beforehand. This was definitely my favorite thus far, but the third act and some of the cast really keep it from being my favorite of the bunch. Would still greatly recommend it primarily for its unique battling and progression system.
Beaten: Jan 27 2021
Time: 24 Hours
Platform: Mac
Final Fantasy V is a game I’m of two minds about. On the one, it feels like an attempt to marry the massively complex job system of Final Fantasy III with the fleshed out storytelling and characters of IV, a kind of meet in the middle moment. As that, it’s pretty great! The job system feels much better (imo) here, significantly more flexible and fun than it was in III, and the storyline flows nicely. It’s got a brighter tone overall than the fantastically dour, Shakespearean IV and the downright apocalyptic VI, but still pockets some rather affecting character beats and some like, actually funny jokes? Actually nuts. That being said, it also carries with it some of my least favorite aspects of III, as another in the line of Extremely Technical FF games. There’s a couple ways that this comes into play that kind of annoyed me, like a mild glut of enemies and bosses that revive other enemies as they die, thus requiring you to beat all of them at the same time. The back end of the game is filled with bosses that require certain strategies like this, and while no one in particular really got on my nerves (until SPOILERS twintania END SPOILERS), the boss design as a whole did grate on me a bit. The job system here really lends itself to design like that I’d say, for better or for worse. There’s no punishment, even trivial, for switching up your jobs and strategies on the fly. In this remaster, you can even save right before bossfights, so if one strategy doesn’t work out you can just switch up and try another. You can potentially create whatever job combinations you want! For a wide stretch of the game I even had a ninja holding two lances! Because that’s what you think of when you think ninja, right?
This system is really just asking to be split wide open. Want to be able to chain 8 fire-infused sword attacks per turn? Go for it. The only blocker to that is grinding up your jobs until you’ve unlocked all their abilities, but by the time where you really need all those abilities, grinding for job points is fairly quick. My thing is that I’m just not a huge fan of these kinds of systems. Not only is it asking to be split open, you kind of need to to get through the final portion of the game without losing your mind. Or at least I did. It’s cool, and the possibilities really do seem endless, but I’ll always prefer systems like IV or VI or VII use, which have flexibility in some areas but don’t require that level of breaking the combat system, or at least not to the same extent. It’s still good and fun, it’s just not quite my thing. That only became an issue for me in the last third of the game though. Before that, it was nice and breezy, and I was flying along with the story, using whatever cool job combinations felt nice to me. The story does some cool things with memory and parallelism too, which feels really nice bouncing off characters like Bartz and Faris and Galuf, who are just massive wells of energy and charisma. Lenna and Krile are cool as well, they’re just a bit more reserved, comparatively (they also get some really awesome stuff with that parallelism and kind of form the thematic backbone of the game? big big fan). Honestly, at the end of it, I’m just a bit deflated. I can’t by rights call it a bad game, or an unfun game, because I had loads of fun with it and I think it’s brimming with about as much cool stuff as they could fit into it, but I dunno. I’m not sure how it’ll last in my memory, especially compared to its siblings. It’s definitely cool though.
Time: 24 Hours
Platform: Mac
Final Fantasy V is a game I’m of two minds about. On the one, it feels like an attempt to marry the massively complex job system of Final Fantasy III with the fleshed out storytelling and characters of IV, a kind of meet in the middle moment. As that, it’s pretty great! The job system feels much better (imo) here, significantly more flexible and fun than it was in III, and the storyline flows nicely. It’s got a brighter tone overall than the fantastically dour, Shakespearean IV and the downright apocalyptic VI, but still pockets some rather affecting character beats and some like, actually funny jokes? Actually nuts. That being said, it also carries with it some of my least favorite aspects of III, as another in the line of Extremely Technical FF games. There’s a couple ways that this comes into play that kind of annoyed me, like a mild glut of enemies and bosses that revive other enemies as they die, thus requiring you to beat all of them at the same time. The back end of the game is filled with bosses that require certain strategies like this, and while no one in particular really got on my nerves (until SPOILERS twintania END SPOILERS), the boss design as a whole did grate on me a bit. The job system here really lends itself to design like that I’d say, for better or for worse. There’s no punishment, even trivial, for switching up your jobs and strategies on the fly. In this remaster, you can even save right before bossfights, so if one strategy doesn’t work out you can just switch up and try another. You can potentially create whatever job combinations you want! For a wide stretch of the game I even had a ninja holding two lances! Because that’s what you think of when you think ninja, right?
This system is really just asking to be split wide open. Want to be able to chain 8 fire-infused sword attacks per turn? Go for it. The only blocker to that is grinding up your jobs until you’ve unlocked all their abilities, but by the time where you really need all those abilities, grinding for job points is fairly quick. My thing is that I’m just not a huge fan of these kinds of systems. Not only is it asking to be split open, you kind of need to to get through the final portion of the game without losing your mind. Or at least I did. It’s cool, and the possibilities really do seem endless, but I’ll always prefer systems like IV or VI or VII use, which have flexibility in some areas but don’t require that level of breaking the combat system, or at least not to the same extent. It’s still good and fun, it’s just not quite my thing. That only became an issue for me in the last third of the game though. Before that, it was nice and breezy, and I was flying along with the story, using whatever cool job combinations felt nice to me. The story does some cool things with memory and parallelism too, which feels really nice bouncing off characters like Bartz and Faris and Galuf, who are just massive wells of energy and charisma. Lenna and Krile are cool as well, they’re just a bit more reserved, comparatively (they also get some really awesome stuff with that parallelism and kind of form the thematic backbone of the game? big big fan). Honestly, at the end of it, I’m just a bit deflated. I can’t by rights call it a bad game, or an unfun game, because I had loads of fun with it and I think it’s brimming with about as much cool stuff as they could fit into it, but I dunno. I’m not sure how it’ll last in my memory, especially compared to its siblings. It’s definitely cool though.
Unless you want to emulate the Advance version, this is the best way to grind jobs for 6 hou-I mean to play this game.
I was really impressed by this title. It's so often overlooked, but the story here is quite epic, and the Job system implemented here is a delight to play around with.
I loved the characters, who all had their own personalities (much like FF4 before it), but were not locked into specific roles (unlike FF4).
I loved the characters, who all had their own personalities (much like FF4 before it), but were not locked into specific roles (unlike FF4).
This review contains spoilers
Bless el día que decidí darle chance a un juego viejo. Siempre dudo porque talvez es muy aburrido o las herramientas de gameplay son muy rudimentarias, pero esta serie de pixel remasters está proving me wrong, y que tuanis la verdad
Me hace tanta gracia ver juegos que tienen el early DNA de los RPGS (y ya siendo la quinta iteración) ver que logran plasmar los conceptos de una manera tan tuanis. FFV lo tiene todo. Dioses que crearon el universo, cristales que lo mantienen safe, un evil guy que quiere destruirlo todo y logra escapar su prison y ahora a - THE HERO OF TIME - eeehhh a the four heroes of light les toca mop up y arreglar el desastre. Un arquetipo extremadamente clásico para contar esta clásica historia.
Darle este juego me hizo darme cuenta que por mucho tiempo me he sentido decepcionado en cierta manera por los RPGs modernos. Nunca lograba “scratch the itch”de la picadura completista. No sé porqué, pero siempre me ha encantado completar los objetivos secundarios o los objetivos de encontrar los coleccionables del juego. Hay algo dentro de mi que siente paz al ver todo completo y ordenadito, entonces para mi fue una grata sorpresa ver que FFV tiene un bestiario de 300 (dependiendo de la version) bichos! Cada uno con sus custom artworks inlcuso. Me encanta experimentar trabajos de amor así tan grandes como este.
No tengo muchas cosas negativas que decir del juego en realidad. Mucha de la crítica que se me ocurre talvez no es tan valida porqué en su momento el tipo de “old school” RPG formula, no es in fact old school. Para 1992 siento que el story telling, los twists and turns, los mundos paralelos y fantasticos eran temáticas bastante frescas y emocionantes y por allá siento que 32 años despues (hoy lol) todavía lo son un poco.
En fin un juego con mucho content, muchos bichos y muchísimo buen ride.
9 Exdeaths, Postdeaths y Neoexpostdeaths
out of 10 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
(Me paso oficialmente al 1-10 rating lol)
Me hace tanta gracia ver juegos que tienen el early DNA de los RPGS (y ya siendo la quinta iteración) ver que logran plasmar los conceptos de una manera tan tuanis. FFV lo tiene todo. Dioses que crearon el universo, cristales que lo mantienen safe, un evil guy que quiere destruirlo todo y logra escapar su prison y ahora a - THE HERO OF TIME - eeehhh a the four heroes of light les toca mop up y arreglar el desastre. Un arquetipo extremadamente clásico para contar esta clásica historia.
Darle este juego me hizo darme cuenta que por mucho tiempo me he sentido decepcionado en cierta manera por los RPGs modernos. Nunca lograba “scratch the itch”de la picadura completista. No sé porqué, pero siempre me ha encantado completar los objetivos secundarios o los objetivos de encontrar los coleccionables del juego. Hay algo dentro de mi que siente paz al ver todo completo y ordenadito, entonces para mi fue una grata sorpresa ver que FFV tiene un bestiario de 300 (dependiendo de la version) bichos! Cada uno con sus custom artworks inlcuso. Me encanta experimentar trabajos de amor así tan grandes como este.
No tengo muchas cosas negativas que decir del juego en realidad. Mucha de la crítica que se me ocurre talvez no es tan valida porqué en su momento el tipo de “old school” RPG formula, no es in fact old school. Para 1992 siento que el story telling, los twists and turns, los mundos paralelos y fantasticos eran temáticas bastante frescas y emocionantes y por allá siento que 32 años despues (hoy lol) todavía lo son un poco.
En fin un juego con mucho content, muchos bichos y muchísimo buen ride.
9 Exdeaths, Postdeaths y Neoexpostdeaths
out of 10 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
(Me paso oficialmente al 1-10 rating lol)
Pretty fun to play, the story was somewhat predictable in some points but was pretty enjoyable, the antagonist wasn't super complex but he fulfilled his role good enough ( Unlike other character in the previous entry). Had fun playing this game and can't wait to get to the next one.
Absurd, enormous, titanic. It took us a looooong time, but we finally have a "definitive" version of one of the best games in the series, and one of the most fun rpgs of all time - the possibility to earn as much as 4x the ABP allows even greater experimentation with the all-time great job system. On this playthrough, I even found out that a bard can be very useful. A bard! Absurd.
You can break the game at your leisure, with scandalous combos like the classic Rapid Fire + Dual Wield, and Spellblade + anything really (Dance has some RNG involved, but it's also a deadly combination).
Or make a challenging playthrough where you restrict what jobs you can use, such as the popular Four Job Fiesta challenge. It's all up to you.
On top of that, what the story lacks in nuance or depth, it delivers on an insane amount of charm and even humour. Ghido is one of the most entertaining characters in the franchise, and Exdeath just chews the scenery anytime he's on screen - the fucker is a sentient evil tree that turns into a splinter at one point of the story, it's truly glorious. Keep your villains with elaborate backstories and "sympathetic" motivations, I sometimes miss just having a douchebag that's evil just because.
This version also offers the best renditions of some of the series' most iconic tracks, such as Dear Friends (this version actually gave me goosebumps), Battle on the Big Bridge, and the best ending theme of Final Fantasy just got better.
The only negative thing I can say is that playing this made me truly sad that this is somehow the last time a mainline FF featured the job system. That is insane to me.
You can break the game at your leisure, with scandalous combos like the classic Rapid Fire + Dual Wield, and Spellblade + anything really (Dance has some RNG involved, but it's also a deadly combination).
Or make a challenging playthrough where you restrict what jobs you can use, such as the popular Four Job Fiesta challenge. It's all up to you.
On top of that, what the story lacks in nuance or depth, it delivers on an insane amount of charm and even humour. Ghido is one of the most entertaining characters in the franchise, and Exdeath just chews the scenery anytime he's on screen - the fucker is a sentient evil tree that turns into a splinter at one point of the story, it's truly glorious. Keep your villains with elaborate backstories and "sympathetic" motivations, I sometimes miss just having a douchebag that's evil just because.
This version also offers the best renditions of some of the series' most iconic tracks, such as Dear Friends (this version actually gave me goosebumps), Battle on the Big Bridge, and the best ending theme of Final Fantasy just got better.
The only negative thing I can say is that playing this made me truly sad that this is somehow the last time a mainline FF featured the job system. That is insane to me.
a confused twink and his band of princesses must save the world from an evil tree
Wife’s Reaction:
“The increasing ridiculousness of the villain names is the only way I can track your progress through your multitude of pixelated games.”
Breaking the Crystal Ceiling:
I’m happy to say the Job System in Final Fantasy V lives up to the hype; it helps make the combat better than ever because of all the options available. I spent so much time swapping Jobs and optimizing each character. The Job System needs to return!
“The increasing ridiculousness of the villain names is the only way I can track your progress through your multitude of pixelated games.”
Breaking the Crystal Ceiling:
I’m happy to say the Job System in Final Fantasy V lives up to the hype; it helps make the combat better than ever because of all the options available. I spent so much time swapping Jobs and optimizing each character. The Job System needs to return!
My thoughts on FFV as a game can be found in my review of FFV Advance, and as this is largely the same game, I'll just offer my thoughts here on the changes in the Pixel Remaster.
The Pixel Remaster looks great and the redone soundtrack is also, generally, very well done. I do wish they had used the HD sprites from the now defunct mobile/Steam version (the only good thing to come from that version visually), but the original sprites do still have a lot of charm and work fine, and the redrawn character sprites are much closer to the original sprites rather than the abominations from the older mobile/Steam version.
On the other hand, it lacks the optional bonus dungeon and jobs of the GBA version. The choice of which is better, at least for a casual playthrough, largely comes down to how much this really bothers you.
The PR version also offers a few QoL improvements, like easily accessible maps and auto-battle, similar to the other Pixel Remasters. These are nice, but I don't think they make or break your choice.
Overall, I think this is a fine first place to play FFV, a game that if you enjoy job systems in RPGs you absolutely should play. I run the Four Job Fiesta and for that, due to various balance changes and bugfixes, I may actually prefer GBA, but honestly, this version is still absolutely fine and I'm glad I tried it.
The Pixel Remaster looks great and the redone soundtrack is also, generally, very well done. I do wish they had used the HD sprites from the now defunct mobile/Steam version (the only good thing to come from that version visually), but the original sprites do still have a lot of charm and work fine, and the redrawn character sprites are much closer to the original sprites rather than the abominations from the older mobile/Steam version.
On the other hand, it lacks the optional bonus dungeon and jobs of the GBA version. The choice of which is better, at least for a casual playthrough, largely comes down to how much this really bothers you.
The PR version also offers a few QoL improvements, like easily accessible maps and auto-battle, similar to the other Pixel Remasters. These are nice, but I don't think they make or break your choice.
Overall, I think this is a fine first place to play FFV, a game that if you enjoy job systems in RPGs you absolutely should play. I run the Four Job Fiesta and for that, due to various balance changes and bugfixes, I may actually prefer GBA, but honestly, this version is still absolutely fine and I'm glad I tried it.
I feel you have to be in the right mindset for this game. Coming after IV but before VI this game takes a more simpler approach to its story in a similar vein to FFI and FFIII being a gameplay evolution to those games as well, but with the main 4 characters not being blank slates, while also improving on the job system that still holds up really well today
There’s nothing wrong with telling a simpler story you just have to understand that going in, it’s a very cute little romp characters have cheeky moments and have little arcs that aren’t much but I wouldn’t call Mario rpg or paper Mario in depth on the writing department minus its humor but those are still great games.
the biggest surprise was Gilgamesh, a character I’ve met in other final fantasy games and I finally got to see his original game and theme and I didn’t expect it to be as good as it was
The battle on big bridge wasn’t just a cool theme but it was a really cool set piece and Gilgamesh arguably has more of an arc than our main characters minus galuf, anytime Gil was on screen there was a smile on my face and no wonder they love bringing him back in later entires
If you wanna know my opinion on other characters
Bartz is fine
Lenna is cute if not flat
Farris is really cool and my personal fav despite
Galuf being better written
And kyrile is kinda eh for me but I’d be hard pressed to say I HATE any of them the games not trying to be FFIV which while one of my favorites in the series especially for its characters is fine and works especially for an anthology series you just have to know that going into this game
Don’t get me wrong either I personally prefer my games with a narrative focus especially my RPGs but I’m fine with them doing something more light hearted and simple especially when the gameplay is this solid.
This game doesn’t require you to be an insane person who loves grinding for stupidly busted builds in rpgs, but being that is super fun and rewarding for me when I can make my characters basically gods because the games mechanics being able to mix and match job abilities with no consequence unlike FFIII really does wonders to player freedom
While still being a balanced game to still have challenge for the player the game wants you to try things be flexible try a different setup if you get stuck in an area, and it’s not too different from just changing your party in a rpg where characters are set classes. But giving players that control is fun. Hell there were jobs I didn’t even use but I’ll be sure to use them next time just to experiment and that’s where the fun is.
It felt rewarding collecting songs for bard and summons for summoner with secret fights
While not my FAVORITE FF game id argue its objectively solid
There’s nothing wrong with telling a simpler story you just have to understand that going in, it’s a very cute little romp characters have cheeky moments and have little arcs that aren’t much but I wouldn’t call Mario rpg or paper Mario in depth on the writing department minus its humor but those are still great games.
the biggest surprise was Gilgamesh, a character I’ve met in other final fantasy games and I finally got to see his original game and theme and I didn’t expect it to be as good as it was
The battle on big bridge wasn’t just a cool theme but it was a really cool set piece and Gilgamesh arguably has more of an arc than our main characters minus galuf, anytime Gil was on screen there was a smile on my face and no wonder they love bringing him back in later entires
If you wanna know my opinion on other characters
Bartz is fine
Lenna is cute if not flat
Farris is really cool and my personal fav despite
Galuf being better written
And kyrile is kinda eh for me but I’d be hard pressed to say I HATE any of them the games not trying to be FFIV which while one of my favorites in the series especially for its characters is fine and works especially for an anthology series you just have to know that going into this game
Don’t get me wrong either I personally prefer my games with a narrative focus especially my RPGs but I’m fine with them doing something more light hearted and simple especially when the gameplay is this solid.
This game doesn’t require you to be an insane person who loves grinding for stupidly busted builds in rpgs, but being that is super fun and rewarding for me when I can make my characters basically gods because the games mechanics being able to mix and match job abilities with no consequence unlike FFIII really does wonders to player freedom
While still being a balanced game to still have challenge for the player the game wants you to try things be flexible try a different setup if you get stuck in an area, and it’s not too different from just changing your party in a rpg where characters are set classes. But giving players that control is fun. Hell there were jobs I didn’t even use but I’ll be sure to use them next time just to experiment and that’s where the fun is.
It felt rewarding collecting songs for bard and summons for summoner with secret fights
While not my FAVORITE FF game id argue its objectively solid
The returns, they do diminish.
Final Fantasy V was the forgotten 16-bit FF game that never came to the west but got a cult following over the years. I never got around to playing this game even though I had the FF anthology way back when, the pixel remasters felt like a good time to give it a go. What I found is a FF game that doesn’t have the level of storytelling found in FF6 but it does have some deep RPG systems and a rich world to explore.
FFVs claim to fame is the job system, often claimed to be the best FF RPG system. It does live up to the high praise, the amount of customization and freedom this system gives to the player is impressive. With the push of a button I can change my white mage into a beasttamer who can capture enemies and learn to control them. I can go from a ninja to a bard, all stats adjust instantly to fit that job. The genius part is how as you level up the jobs you learn new abilities not just for the job you are using but certain command abilities once learned can be added to an ability slot on any other job. Now you are mixing and matching abilities from multiple jobs while using the stats of the base job you want. It also for so much control over every single class and ability the game has to offer.
The flip side to this is that the game only has a party of four. I prefer large diverse parties in my FF games but these four party members are so mailable that can be every single class. I did specialize each of the four, so that they each would cover 3 or 4 different classes that would compliment each other. For instance my white mage was also the summoner so that she would have powerful spells I could use when no healing was needed. Certain classes weren’t all that useful as a base class but have one or two abilities well worth getting so I would make sure to use them until I gained the ability then switch back. There are over 15 jobs to learn, they are unlocked as the story goes so it doesn’t throw them all at you at once. It’s paced extremely well to open the layers of depth in a way that never overwhelms.
FFV tells the story of four characters that happen to meet as the world is having cataclysmic events. Bartz is the standard young man from a small town that discovers has a secret heritage and leads the group to save the world. There are princess and a former king that form the party, each are well fleshed out and have small character journeys but it’s not close to drama in 6 or any of the later FF games. The overall story is the standard evil dude wants to break some crystals to absorb the power and take over the world, the twist in this one is there are multiple dimensions of the world.
I love world maps in old FF games and this one is really cool. You will gain multiple ways to traverse the map, each allowing you to reach certain areas but not all. Towns and dungeons are uncovered at a great pace creating a great gameplay loop where it feels you are always growing and have something new to discover. At the mid point the world is shaken up and you enter a whole other dimension which is similar to the first world but all the inhabitants and locations have changed. FF games should feel big, epic journeys and this game captures that grand scale.
The narrative never really reaches the proper heights to really grip me. There are stand out moments, but ultimately I felt I was going through the motions by the end. A lot of RPGs face this issue, it has a reverse difficulty curve where it’s tougher at the start than the end. The first half or even two thirds I was enjoying all that experimentation. Boss battles tested each of my builds. Dungeons had enough tough enemies to keep me engaged in fights. As I got really powerful and found the optimal team setup most of the standard battles became trivial. If not for the creative boss battles that fill the game, the last part of the game would have been a total snooze fest. Usually the stories hold the game if the combat is getting stale but this one didn’t have that. So it doesn’t end as exciting as I’d hope, but the majority of the game was a blast.
The pixel remaster makes all the sprites and environments pop with beautiful colors. There seem to be a few quality of life enhancements with the world map, how sprinting works and balance adjustments. Musically you can use the original 16-bit soundtrack or an all new updated version which I used, another stellar FF soundtrack.
Final Fantasy V is another great entry in this legendary franchise. It’s more focused on the actual character build process than most, and easily the most customizable of the series. While the story is still fun with memorable characters and locations it doesn’t come close to the highs most of the games in this series reach. That and some difficulty balance issues toward the end hold it back from being a FF classic, but it’s still a great old school RPG.
Overall Score: 8.3
FFVs claim to fame is the job system, often claimed to be the best FF RPG system. It does live up to the high praise, the amount of customization and freedom this system gives to the player is impressive. With the push of a button I can change my white mage into a beasttamer who can capture enemies and learn to control them. I can go from a ninja to a bard, all stats adjust instantly to fit that job. The genius part is how as you level up the jobs you learn new abilities not just for the job you are using but certain command abilities once learned can be added to an ability slot on any other job. Now you are mixing and matching abilities from multiple jobs while using the stats of the base job you want. It also for so much control over every single class and ability the game has to offer.
The flip side to this is that the game only has a party of four. I prefer large diverse parties in my FF games but these four party members are so mailable that can be every single class. I did specialize each of the four, so that they each would cover 3 or 4 different classes that would compliment each other. For instance my white mage was also the summoner so that she would have powerful spells I could use when no healing was needed. Certain classes weren’t all that useful as a base class but have one or two abilities well worth getting so I would make sure to use them until I gained the ability then switch back. There are over 15 jobs to learn, they are unlocked as the story goes so it doesn’t throw them all at you at once. It’s paced extremely well to open the layers of depth in a way that never overwhelms.
FFV tells the story of four characters that happen to meet as the world is having cataclysmic events. Bartz is the standard young man from a small town that discovers has a secret heritage and leads the group to save the world. There are princess and a former king that form the party, each are well fleshed out and have small character journeys but it’s not close to drama in 6 or any of the later FF games. The overall story is the standard evil dude wants to break some crystals to absorb the power and take over the world, the twist in this one is there are multiple dimensions of the world.
I love world maps in old FF games and this one is really cool. You will gain multiple ways to traverse the map, each allowing you to reach certain areas but not all. Towns and dungeons are uncovered at a great pace creating a great gameplay loop where it feels you are always growing and have something new to discover. At the mid point the world is shaken up and you enter a whole other dimension which is similar to the first world but all the inhabitants and locations have changed. FF games should feel big, epic journeys and this game captures that grand scale.
The narrative never really reaches the proper heights to really grip me. There are stand out moments, but ultimately I felt I was going through the motions by the end. A lot of RPGs face this issue, it has a reverse difficulty curve where it’s tougher at the start than the end. The first half or even two thirds I was enjoying all that experimentation. Boss battles tested each of my builds. Dungeons had enough tough enemies to keep me engaged in fights. As I got really powerful and found the optimal team setup most of the standard battles became trivial. If not for the creative boss battles that fill the game, the last part of the game would have been a total snooze fest. Usually the stories hold the game if the combat is getting stale but this one didn’t have that. So it doesn’t end as exciting as I’d hope, but the majority of the game was a blast.
The pixel remaster makes all the sprites and environments pop with beautiful colors. There seem to be a few quality of life enhancements with the world map, how sprinting works and balance adjustments. Musically you can use the original 16-bit soundtrack or an all new updated version which I used, another stellar FF soundtrack.
Final Fantasy V is another great entry in this legendary franchise. It’s more focused on the actual character build process than most, and easily the most customizable of the series. While the story is still fun with memorable characters and locations it doesn’t come close to the highs most of the games in this series reach. That and some difficulty balance issues toward the end hold it back from being a FF classic, but it’s still a great old school RPG.
Overall Score: 8.3
We love you our shining star Exdeath