I feel as though Final Fantasy V often gets the short end of the stick in terms of recognition, being released in between two games that many consider to be classics, but trust me when I say that it had far exceeded my expectations. It's silly, stupid, and ridiculously fun. What it perhaps lacks in maturity it makes up for (if you really believe that that's something that needs to be made up, anyhow) with good humor and sincerity. Each party member has their moments- many in which are heartfelt, believe it or not- and good rapport with the others. This is all backed by a good soundtrack and some neat sprite work- the latter which seems to feel relatively untouched by the remaster, save for the saturation, and the former which I had set to the original. Similarly, the gameplay is very engaging. The ATB system works in favor of the pacing and the mismatching of jobs and abilities allows for some fun strategies. I won't lie and say that the ending doesn't drag or that the final boss isn't almost entirely dependent on RNG, but I believe that the rest of the game is well worth overlooking my frustration. If you're looking for a simple and sweet RPG, then I'd wholly recommend that you give this a shot.

Não é tão bom quanto o IV, mas continua incrível!

Gostei principalmente dos personagens, Gilgamesh é um "vilão" carismático e super memorável. Enquanto os personagens principais: Bartz, Lenna, Faris, Galuf e Krile formam uma ótima equipe, cada qual melhor do que o outro.

E também adorei o novo sistema de profissões, pois agora é possível misturar habilidades de diferentes profissões e fazer algumas builds poderosíssimas (criei um cavaleiro místico com empunhadura de 2 mãos que dava 8k por ataque).

Ah... the SNES FF that avoided us in the 90s. I have no idea why Square didn't localize this one back then, but because of that I never got around to playing it, despite being a big FF fan in the 90's/early 00's. Anyway, I finally got to try it thanks to the Pixel Remaster, so... yay!

Final Fantasy V is a pretty standard FF game, with a medieval setting with hints of modernity and the classic ATB turn based system. Compared to other FF games from that era (like IV, VI and VII), V strays more on the silly side with characters and plot. Because of this, it takes a little bit for the game to land, since the first few hours are very vanilla. One of the most notable aspects of FFV is its job system. Characters don't have defined roles, instead you assign jobs (like White Mage, Knight, etc) to them. Each job has a set of abilities that you can learn to eventually customize your characters a fair amount. Thanks to this system, you can take Lenna, the usual princess trope, and turn her into a badass Ninja Mage instead of the usual healer role she'd have in a regular FF game (which is, ironically, the role I gave her). At the beginning of the game you are limited to a small amount of jobs but the system really opens up as you progress through the game.

Overall, I think this game is great. After its slow-ish start, the plot becomes pretty good and features some awesome moments (like that scene with Galuf). In terms of gameplay, the job system makes it stand out from other FF games thanks to the ability to customize your characters. I don't think FFV manages to move VI and IX from their spots as my favorite FFs, but it's definitely up there as a very high quality entry in the franchise.

I’ve been slowly making my way through the classic SNES Final Fantasy trilogy via the Pixel Remasters after I realized how egregious of a blindspot they were to me, someone who proclaims to be a true lover of the JRPG as a genre. Last year I went through FFIV, the first of this trilogy, and found it to be much more linear than I expected, directly pointing you where to go and hurrying along from arc to arc, all while rotating out party members to keep the RPG mechanics fresh. Of course the story is good and the sample platter of party members makes for a variety of different play styles and strategy, and the game does eventually open up and allow for a bit of roaming, but overall I was generally just happy to See What All The Fuss Was About, and I came away from FFIV with a pretty good idea of why some folks might call it their favorite RPG or even their favorite game.

So imagine my surprise when FFV just about pulls a 180 in its approach to design and structure, tightly limiting your party members, but making them blank slates in a mechanical sense, not to mention offering many extended sequences of total freedom before you step into the next cutscene trigger. Even sections with few possible destinations are made to feel open by encouraging players to wander off into the weeds a bit, experiment with this or that job, go for a rare steal, try and learn some situationally valuable blue magic maybe.

That’s not to say that there’s no urgency to the affair, the storyline of FFV is basic, but effective. The initial act lays the groundwork of a patchwork group of adventurers who come together to look into why the world is unraveling at the elemental level, starting with wind disappearing entirely. Cutscenes across the game tend to last ~4-5 minutes max and sometimes feature only a handful of lines of dialogue, using pointed and meaningful lines to communicate a lot quickly. Though there is a twist or two to be found here, the story mostly sticks to the basics, instead embellishing its world with interesting dungeons and implied lore. Who built this giant floating mechanical fortress? What kind of magic is animating the books in this library? Naturally, I had grown quite attached to a number of characters by the ending, but a large part of that is due to how FFV so smartly intertwines its story with its mechanics.

FFV’s mechanics are defined by its job system, probably one of the most prolific things about it and a system that has seen many different iterations and variations since (and before really, see: FFIII), even outside of Final Fantasy. It’s easy to see why. It’s a versatile system with plenty of opportunities for personalized strategies and player expression. It’s such a simple but elegant way of letting players take ownership of these characters, to really customize them over the course of the game and make them feel unique. Jobs grant characters unique and useful abilities, heavily dictate stats, and even determine the type of gear a character can use. But importantly, they take a lot of investment to really squeeze the juice out of them, meaning it pays to plan ahead and commit to who masters which jobs, striking a balance between ability coverage (everyone is decent at everything) and specialization (everyone has a specific role they’re suited for).

The designers also had the confidence to keep these characters in your roster for the entire game (barring some minor exceptions), a decision that pays off twofold by having players grow attached mechanically while also serving the narrative of this group of 4 adventurers united in a common goal. Instead of trying to top FFIV’s varied roster of colorful characters, V instead prunes the cast down to a few solid archetypes that are characterized not only by snappy and efficient cutscenes, but also by their mechanical functions. For example, I knew Lenna had the best base stats for a magic user and also wanted to get ahead of the inevitable need for a Black Mage, however this investment meant I had a hole in the roster for a healer, and I opted to start training the gruff pirate Faris as a White Mage. This decision, made out of practicality, ended up endearing me to Faris as an outwardly callous person who nevertheless nurtures a soft side for healing, especially as she grew into the role and became more acquainted with the group. The game is littered with these kinds of mechanics as narrative, where FFIV was content to simply deliver the narrative to you.

I found the real secret sauce of FFV to be its encounter design. Part of this is the way it pushes the envelope in the ways it can portray a wide variety of situations in its combat system. Sure, 90% of the time combat encounters are just that, combat focused, but sometimes you run into A Character, someone shouting at you from the other side of the battle, or a creature with a specific agenda. You’ll run into enemy soldiers all too eager to flee from the burning building you’re both in, or machines that scan your party and dole out spells that target them based on their current level. You’ll even run into one of Final Fantasy’s most infamous characters during a certain battle on a certain bridge of a certain size. The enemies may not have the character of an SMT bestiary, but they’re able to express themselves in ways that make them feel like more than just stepping blocks to acquiring power as you progress.

The other part of the encounter design is the meticulousness shown by the designers in giving so many enemies unique characteristics like valuable rare steal items, or blue magic, or specific weaknesses that can allow a prudent decision in job choice to essentially “solve” a dungeon. One of my favorite examples of this was learning a new song for the Bard job that doles out extra damage to undead enemies. I had mostly dismissed the job up until this point but decided to give it a try, especially since the Bard’s ability can fulfill the same utility as a number of spells, but without the MP cost. This decision made the following dungeon a cakewalk for me, demonstrating the usefulness of a Bard as they stopped, confused, and eventually slayed enemies with ease. These kinds of little enemy details made it so I was constantly referring to the built-in bestiary to see how I wanted to approach extended sections, and it made me feel clever when a bit of grinding for a good item paid off and led to a bounding leap for my DPS output, or a piece of equipment with unexpected properties.

Minor spoilers for the finale of the game, but the jobs being functions of the crystal shards you spend the early game gathering leads to one of the most satisfying integrations of mechanics as narrative I can think of in recent memory. After you defeat the final boss the world finds itself coming apart at the seams, and it is through the reforming of the 4 elemental crystals that stability and peace are restored. It’s not explicitly stated (Bartz says something like “Oh wow the shards still had some energy left in them”), but it can be inferred that it was the development of your party’s jobs, the AP you poured into those shards, that re-energized them and allowed the reborn world to prosper. This revelation coupled with some truly deft (though some may say underdeveloped, I quite like the brevity) character work, had me walking away from the game with a song in my heart.

Some final notable things I want to call out, the music is of course extremely good, filled to the brim with classics and enhanced with arrangements made for this Pixel Remaster. I didn’t use them often but I love difficulty adjustment options like being able to turn off encounters or double EXP gain. I also appreciate the aggressive auto save feature, because I sure died a lot! FFV is an RPG that respects your intelligence, and it will put you through the ringer if you aren’t bringing your A game.

When the credits had finally rolled I started to seriously consider that FFV might be my new favorite entry in the entire series, having played 1-4, 7, 10, 13, and 15 extensively. The way it grants so much latitude to a player in terms of strategies while also constantly putting forth varied and challenging scenarios engaged me on a level I simply haven’t been with another FF title, and the way it uses its mechanics to augment its story also endeared me like few others. FFV is an absolute cornerstone of the RPG genre, a truly classic title that marries form and function like few other games.

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

After the very good Final Fantasy IV, which is currently my favourite part of the Classic era (part 6 is still on my To-Play-list), I was quite disappointed with the sequel. Even though the main characters in Final Fantasy V are no longer blank slates like in the early games, they seem rather flat in comparison to Cecil, Kain, Rydia, Rosa and the rest. Despite their relationships, there is never any real chemistry between the characters. The story about a shattered world, war and, for the first time, exploitation by humans is really neat. But even if that doesn't quite reach the level of the story in part four, it's still really good. What Final Fantasy V does really well is the revised job system. This time we can change jobs at any time, level them up and the clever thing is that we can still use the skills we have mastered in a job even if we are assigned a different main job. For example, we can let Lenna practise some white magic first and then let her become a dragoon later, but still let her heal alongside Jump. This makes the set and skills we have at hand incredibly dynamic and allows us to switch skills from time to time to face a dungeon or a special boss with a different tactic. The combat is almost identical to its predecessor and once again utilises the ATB system with all its strengths and weaknesses. I'm still not a fan, as it sometimes makes battles unnecessarily hectic so that you avoid giving your opponent a devastating attack. And again, game number 5 has a problem with bosses that wipe the floor with you out of nowhere. It's fine if an opponent is challenging, but if you can barely react because he's attacking your entire team as a counter with four-digit points of damage, it's annoying. There is often a tactic (don't attack with a certain element because it triggers a strong attack or attack everyone at the same time, etc.) but you usually only find out in the fight with 20% HP remaining. If you're lucky, you'll manage to heal up again and memorise the gimmick. The last bosses in particular are a real struggle, as is typical of the genre, and to be honest this was the first time I had to grind. On the other hand, the dungeons are once again wonderfully and variedly designed and also have occasional puzzles. The story is okay to good and after the pacing gets out of hand around the halfway point, the last third in particular manages to add a lot of tension and urgency with huge stakes after a fateful twist. Final Fantasy V is still a good game, but in my opinion, it's the weakest of the SNES era so far. And as far as I've heard about the sixth game, it will remain so. But I stay curious until then.

The job system took a little time for me to get used to, but even before it did, I could tell that I was going to love this game.

I love the Moogles. I love Gilgamesh. I love Boko. I love Ghido the Turtle. I love the dances you can partake in at the bars. I love how Exdeath turns himself into a splinter. I love how there are so many hard enemies and bosses in here throughout the game, and then by the end, you have Bahamut and you can just sweep the floor with him. But most importantly, I now fully understand why Nobuo Uemetsu is considered a musical god. His score in here is simply incredible (it's really nice they give you the option to change between both the new and old soundtrack, because I love both).

Even if this isn't the first Final Fantasy game I've played, I feel like I've finally (lol) been fully introduced to what the series has to offer, and I'm happy to say that I'm going to stick around to see more. And based on what I've heard for as long as I've known about video games, the next one I play chronologically is going to be even better...

Hot Take: This is better than VI.

After finally finishing 1 through 6, my final ranking is as follows:

FFIV
FFV
FFVI
FFIII
FFI
FII

Final Fantasy V plays like an absolute dream. If you're a gameplay first type of person, there is no doubt in my mind that this game will be for you. The combat system is simple to approach, yet surprisingly deep, and it offers up a whole lot of customization so the player can feel like they are creating a totally unique battling party. I would say this is probably my favorite feeling Final Fantasy - the combat is just extremely satisfying and I find the default difficulty to be the right kind of challenging. It doesn't feel overly cheap, it just expects you to learn its mechanics and use them properly. I love it.

Storywise, this isn't going to be anyone's favorite game. It's very cute and cheesy but the overall storytelling is very simplistic and I don't think most people will feel the same connection with characters that they felt with IV. The peripherals around the story are all fantastic though, with my favorite soundtrack of the franchise to date and increasingly creative uses of sprites to convey character emotions.

This game is a classic and an absolute must play for anyone with a passing interest in old school JRPGs.

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

Su punto más fuerte es el gameplay. el sistema de trabajos es una locura y está incluso adelantado a su época, te da una libertad absurda para customizar que función y rol cumple cada personaje, haciéndolo de los final fantasy más rejugables si no el que más.

En ese apartado no hay quejas, mi problema están más bien en la historia.

los personajes principales son buenos, son memorables y me acuerdo de sus nombres, pero la historia que les acompaña es... mediocre a más no poder. y eso ha hecho que este sea el final fantasy hasta la fecha que MÁS he tardado en pasarme, lo abandonaba frecuentemente porque la historia no conseguía engancharme nunca.

Final fantasy 2 tenía mala historia, pero por lo menos el juego era más corto y tenía la motivación de estar más fresco en la saga.

Y la historia de final fantasy 4 es mala en su mayoría, pero era mala de una forma que era divertida.

la historia de 5 en su punto más alto está simplemente bien, y en su punto más bajo es demasiado goofy, es decente como máximo y eso me aburrió más que si hubiera sido bastante mala.

pero soy consciente de que esto es sólo problema mío, puedo entender fácilmente como este podría ser un juego confort de alguien.

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.

My expectations were certainly heightened after Final Fantasy IV, and unfortunately, this didn't really meet them. The story was just... fine, and the world wasn't really interesting in the same way. The job system was more developed than in FFIII, but I still didn't find it that satisfying. It didn't really come together until the endgame where you are basically forced to min-max jobs and abilities, and it was more annoying to me than anything, although that may just be me preferring characters being connected to jobs in traditional turn based jrpgs.

It was still good, still Final Fantasy. But I definitely did rush through the end. I think this one is appropriately rated: good, but it doesn't compare to IV.