My original plan was to play FF 1-6 this year in order, after falling in love with FFXVI and really realizing what a gap this was for me. I finished FF1 just a few weeks ago, and was surprised how much I enjoyed it and was ready to jump into FF2 but life threw me a little curve ball. I forgot that the final run of GDQ this year was FFV, and at the recommendation of a friend, that I would not want to be spoiled, I decided to jump to this one next so I could watch the run spoiler free (which was 100% the right decision)

This is a fantastic game, very different from what you'd expect from a FF game, so I can see why it's not talked about so much, but it's genuinely great. The Job system is maybe one of my favourite combat mechanics I've ever had in a JRPG period. It made the combat fun for me, trying new styles, and trying to max out whatever I could before my final battle with Exdeath at the end of the game. It's such a shame that this job system was really mostly abandoned from what I've been told and doesn't show up again (albiet it, I've heard 3 has a stripped down version of it).

The story is really good. It takes a while to get cooking, and in the first few hours of my 25 hour adventure, I was wondering if this game was really THAT much of an upgrade over FF1, but once the story gets flowing, the characters fully introduced, and the stakes set, it's clear that this is a decent upgrade.

I think the thing that holds this back from being even higher for me is Bartz. He's a solid character, but as far as FF protagonists go, he's one of the weaker ones for me (which isn't a giant insult, most of the ones I adore have some of the best protagnoists I've played in games). The rest of the cast is great though, with Galuf being a huge stand out, and Gilgamesh perhaps going from a character I couldn't stand, to one I couldn't get enough of by the end of it, totally goated.

Overall though, this was a wonderful game, and while not quite as dire, and dark as some other FF entries (though with plenty of heart break, and tough moments) it's a great game, and worthy of more praise than it gets.

Overall a fairly good experience throughout, with some issues that don't really get resolved. The story was a shorter and simpler story compared to other games in the series. The characters have some development, but feel somewhat one-note for the most part. Most characters only have a few defining characteristics, which leads to them being somewhat interesting, but also to them feeling underdeveloped by the end. While I appreciated the uniqueness of the combat system at first, it grows old by the end with the slow-paced leveling for jobs well into the second act. Many enemies would still give the bare minimum ABP for increasing job level, making learning multiple jobs annoying without using the Pixel Remaster menu that boosts ABP earned in battles. Even then, some abilities require insane amounts of ABP to obtain. The last ability for Red Mage costs 999 ABP to get, and while it is a really good ability, I honestly don't see anyone getting that without dedicated grinding. While the job system does leave a lot of room to customize your group throughout the game, I was disappointed to see that physical fighters seemed to have one strong set-up (dual-wield, spellblade, rapid fire) and not much else. Mages have more options, with solid jobs like White, Black, Time, and Blue Mages, as well as Summoner. While I do think the system is innovative on the job system from the first and third games in the series, I still see it as lacking in strong options later on, and the pacing for upgrades is really not that good. In spite of this, the game was still pretty fun overall. The strong options, while a bit limited in quantity, are cool and fun to use. There are some interesting boss fights throughout the game with unique mechanics, which is cool to see. The music was honestly great, and the pacing of the story was solid until the third act (kinda just becomes confusing on where to go at that point).

boco my beloved...

the second mainline final fantasy on the super famicom and for the first time since the series' beginning, the presentation has not changed at all!

what did change? progression!
we are back to 4 party members you improve how you want to, who are solely your responsibility.
no more characters leaving on short notice, taking some of your strongest equipment with you, thank god.

this, along with the new job system, makes for a wonderful party building experience along your journey!
new job system? you shouldnt be surprised, every single entry has experimented in new directions so far, but this experiment sure made me happy.
it's a mix of ff3's short term job selections and a bit of ff2's slower, long term improvement of abilities.
each character can be assigned a different job you have already unlocked at any time and can rank up jobs they gained enough "experience" with. what for?
well, each character can also have an aditional ability from a job they ranked up with, each rank granting an additional option, or improving certain existing ones.

like a rank 3 knight unlocks the ability to two-hand weapons to deal double damage, change them to the berserker which is the only job able to use axes, the most damaging weapons for most of the game, and now you have a single party member who does enough damage for four, leaving three characters up for utility!!

and all this has a big impact on your overall party strength. time i would have spent in previous games grinding, i spent here thinking what short term risks i would take during normal progression through dungeons, ranking up a, to my party, redundant job, for an ability that would improve a character in the long term. the previous example of job switching was actually an anecdote of how i saved myself from possibly hours of grinding.

well, what else is important in the series?
world exploration?
yea that's fine, nothing special, until the story happens and then more story happens and the limitation of the overworlds visuals actually hamper your ability to find where the fuck you have to go next, with how everyplace looks exactly the same. still only a single sprite for castles, towns, temples and such, each.

lastly, the preparation for the final dungeon of the game is an agonizing two to three hours full of complete rng, unless you know the exact counters for things like random removal spells which are unrecoverable from inside of battles and abushes with groups that can consistently wipe out your entire party in the two turns they get to make before you get your first action. god.

this wouldn't be so egregious if it wasn't for the still, after 5 games, lingering problems of the non-existence of spell and item descriptions.
the games script has no texts that could prepare you for most of those mentioned bullshit encounters. so just do these parts over and over until you're lucky, or... "ask your classmates" who already figured it out.

please game, just let me make semi-informed decisions, then i'll let you not have quicksaving, thank you.

so, final fantasy 5 is mostly a really great experience, with a decent story and only a few spots that could really use some trimming. most of the problems with the first game have been fixed at this point in the series, and i'm eager to find out how this continues!

Game Review - originally written by Spinner 8

Final Fantasy V was released in the States as part of the Final Fantasy Anthology, complete with Ted Woolsey's script that was done before the SNES Square translation was scrapped. So, at least now you have a choice in ways to play. (editor's note: you have more choices now) I'd recommend the SNES game for two reasons: the translation's better (I hear.. I've played less than half an hour of the PS1 port), and the PS1 load times suck a big one. Remember that rumor before Final Fantasy Anthology was released that Woolsey changed Gilgamesh to Gargamel? Man, no one has any respect for that guy.

Anyways, FFV is pretty straightforward Final Fantasy, except for the Job System that the characters use. You have a large selection of jobs, and there's no penalty in switching from one job to another (unlike FFIII). Battles earn you points that go towards levelling up these jobs, which give you extra abilities. Pretty straightforward, right? Well… well, it is. I haven't played far enough into the game to give it a fair review, but as far as all the stuff most Square whores care about, the graphics are a small step up from FFIV, and the soundtrack is great. And it's pretty fun to play too, since the Job System gives you a lot of flexibility in building your characters, as well as multiple ways to finish those troublesome bosses. It can also be severely abused, which has resulted in multiple FAQs on the issue.

One thing I can't get over, though, is the nodding. It seems like these characters have three different animations: laughing, raising their hand, and nodding. They nod ALL THE GODDAMN TIME. It's fucking maddening.

One of my favourite games of all time, an absolute gem and a huge highlight of the Final Fantasy series. This has the most mechanical depth of all the 2D Final Fantasies and introduces a huge amount of sidequesting and optional extras and powerups not present in IV. Beyond that it has a fantastic variety of dungeons, brought to life with excellent pixel art and music. The Ancient Library, the Ronka Ruins, Exdeath's fleshy castle, all great.

I won't wax lyrical about the Job system because it's already famous, but it's extremely good and the innovations this game offers over Final Fantasy III are huge. It's no surprise that the system is so enduring it pops in up X-2, or forms the foundation for the Bravely games.

This is also the only game where I've found Blue Magic to be super good, I don't think Square Enix captured it again on the Playstation os PS2.

One area where it falls down is the writing and characterisation, compared to IV and VI. The main characters feel thinly characterised, and while there are a couple of big revelations for them early on, they generally don't grow or change much or have strong individual relationships beyond direct familial ties. The supporting cast is small, and undermined by the fact that characters from the first act can't appear in the second act and vis-versa. Sympathetic characters like the Warriors of Dawn are introduced too late, while Cid & Mid are offscreen for too long. It feels much closer to III in terms of storytelling, and that's a big step back.

Still, I love the mechanics and presentation of this game so much I cannot give it less than a perfect score. An all timer, if you like old school JRPGs you've got to give this one a try.

I went into this one kinda expecting it to be a weird middle entry in between the acclaimed VI and IV, walked out pleasantly surprised and the game ended up being a personal favorite of mine. The characters and story aren’t the most fleshed out in the world but charming nonetheless. Gilgamesh is easily the highlight of this game, and would go on to be a recurring character in many Final Fantasy games. The main party is nice too, the smaller number of them compared to other RPG parties makes each of them memorable and they each have their little moments. Exdeath is also a cool villain, one of those antagonists from an iconic video game no one talks about but I’m weirdly fond of anyway and half of it is probably because of good theme music. The expansive job system of this game also makes your small party very customizable and the game pretty replayable, and is one of the main things everyone praises about the game. Overall, definitely don’t skip this Final Fantasy game, it’s a nice time.

Wow, the first Final Fantasy game I can see myself replaying in some distant future! And not out of morbid curiosity, I just enjoyed this game a lot more!
First and foremost: the Job system. Yeah, it has flaws, but it is notably more interesting than anything previous games had! 22 Jobs — some better, some worse — all have some merit to try and level up! And I don't want to hear any word that Job system is bad; how about you get multiple jobs and realize that switching them on a fly is pretty awesome. Yeah, I would've loved to know what I am investing my exp and time in beforehand, but I guess that's what Wikipedias and guides are for. Being Normal (Freelancer) or a Mimic at the end of a game pays of greatly.
The gameplay itself is same-ish as the last time, but with some great additions. ATB is cool until it actively ruins your battles close to the end of a game. "Optimize" is now my favorite menu option; it saves time immensely while not being panacea. Sometimes you want to wear slightly worse armor for its special effects. Game remembering your cursor and holding action button for speeding through battle menus help greatly during ATBs. It is a pleasure to play, especially after previous FFs. And yet it comes with a small price: missclicks can happen more frequently and, in some cases, are more deadly. The game is less linear than the previous one but not entirely open for exploration, minus some middle segments and build-up before final area. While the majority of the battles are good, some of them are total ballbusters for no reason. Especially some close to the end of a game. I guess I should've known since it is a Final Fantasy feature at this point but still. It is good that they added superbosses, but I am not touching them. I killed Shinryu and Omega in FFXIV, I'm done. Final battle really impressed me, with presentation and with "harsh but fair" difficulty.
The story... is okay. Overall story and worldbuilding isn't anything special, but the characters are good. Main cast is enjoyable, Warriors of Dawn are funny old folks, Cid, Exdeath isn't great but Gilgamesh is. Some characters are lacking spice, and yet they are not immediately forgettable.
The game looks good. I love Amano's work more, but Nomura's debut is really really strong, his enemy design is marvelous. And again, can't say much about music since i like it all and everywhere.
Can't believe I missed ONE blue spell for full collection, goddamit.

A surprisingly good game. I went in with mild expectations and got blown away by how good this game was. This cast is one of my favourites in FF games so far. Galuf's dynamic with Bartz and the rest of the crew was a joy to watch. The job system in this game was some of the best FF turn based systems I've experienced. Exdeath wasn't as interesting, but Gilgamesh.... how did they make a character this good and I'd never heard about him before? I was in tears laughing every time I encountered this goofball. What a great game. Glad I decided to try it out.

To put it lightly, RPG's that want you to create your own build rather than handing you a pre-made one have been my kryptonite for the longest time. It's why in the past, I've remained the most casual, white bread type of RPG player. The length that this kind of game comes with, the ludicrous amount of possibilities, and the anxiety that the choice I'll end up going with is going to bite me long-term, leading to an outright reset of the entire run... these were all things that overwhelmed me. It's why I couldn't deal with FF7's Materia system, it's why the moment FF6 introduces magic customizability I almost immediately bounced off, and it's why FF4 was - of fucking course - the one I liked.

But, hey, it's good to expand your horizons, and there's a reason why people like these games. What it comes down to is that I have to completely turn off my inner demons, and treat Final Fantasy V as what it is: A game that's meant to last. Once I do that, and once I understand the systems at play, I figure I can head into the later games with a much greater appreciation for what they want out of me, in opposite to what I want out of it.

So, I've beaten Final Fantasy V. And, I must confess, if someone was watching me play it, they would probably want to strangle me by the neck. The thing that harmed my enjoyment the most was my own fault. I somehow managed to find myself in a situation where alongside FF5, I was also in the middle of playing Megami Tensei II, an absolute hellscape of NES RPG difficulty which I couldn't have imagined playing without save states and rewind involved. And as I reached its credits, I realized I still had 15 hours of FF5 left, and despite being in no mood for more turn-based shenanigans, I pushed onward anyway. The thing is, I save stated through Megami Tensei so hard, that mentality rubbed off on how I played FF5 as well, load stating and rewinding before, during, and after every single instance of danger and non-efficient gameplay there was.

In the end, I beat the game, and wrote a 3.5/5 review for it, praising the party customizability options, its wonderful soundtrack, charming sense of humor, but heavily criticizing what I described as "trial 'n error boss fights," under the opinion that a good chunk of bosses rely on "gotchas", requiring specific Job builds that you cannot possibly be aware of on your 1st try, leading either to an inefficient boss fight, or in rarer cases, an instant death. I concluded by saying that FF5 is a bit of a messy game on your 1st run, but in all likelihood, a much better experience on a 2nd run once you know what you're doing. And during my 1st run, I didn't know what I was doing all that often. That review stayed up on Backloggd for about 2 days, give or take.

But... I am here now, rewriting my review of FF5, and changing my score to a 4/5 for two reasons. One being, I felt unfulfilled. That review rubbed me the wrong way from the very start, and I knew exactly why. I became so terminally reliant on save stating my way through games, that I convinced myself that failure was an unacceptable condition. That reflected on my take on the "trial 'n error bosses," essentially saying that if I don't win a boss fight on my 1st try, that boss fight is bad. This couldn't be any stupider of an opinion. Developers don't add failure states into their products because you shouldn't ever see them, nor is the right way to play games "Effortlessly conquer every part of them." It's like solving a crossword, what the fuck is the point if they just give you all the answers? The entire point of a puzzle is to stump you, in the same way the entire point of a challenge is to put you at risk of losing.

The 2nd reason for rewriting my review, is because I have done the unthinkable. Frankly, I don't know if this was the wise thing to do, and it has most definitely contributed to a period of RPG burnout that I'm currently about to head into. But if I didn't do this, this feeling of unsatisfaction would've tortured me for weeks, as it has done so for the several days I allowed it to. Immediately after finishing FF5 and writing out my previous review... I deleted the review, and then began a 2nd run of the game. This time, rewind was disabled, and save states were only utilized just before the start of a boss fight, and nowhere else.

While I haven't yet beaten the 2nd run as of this writing (though i am at the final dungeon by this point), I'm not here because I got bored, or weary, or frustrated. For once in my life, I have wrote a review before finishing my run of a game because I was satisfied with what I've experienced. I think I can now write this review with the full understanding of what makes Final Fantasy 5 a great game.

Suikoden taught me a valuable lesson in RPG's, that the reason why they're called "roleplaying" games is because it's about choosing what type of build you want, rather than succumbing to OCD and thinking the game wants you to try all of them. This lesson, in regards to some RPG's, is a valid one to keep in mind. FF5 taught me a different lesson, a different way to adapt to these sorts of RPG's: You don't have to try every build there is, but that doesn't mean you should be limiting yourself to just one either. With the tools at disposal that FF5 provides, the point isn't to force you out of your favorite build. The real purpose is to get you to find one you like even more.

When you die to a boss fight here, what may be perceived as a "punishment", is actually the game confidently pushing you forward into experimentation. To enforce this, switching Jobs is an instant process, and though you can grind Jobs up to obtain fun abilities, what FF5 cares more about is each Job's starter skillset being unconventionally used to generate surprising and exciting results. There were more than a couple moments where I smiled, or dare I say, pogged out due to strategies that go beyond just mashing the fight button.

FF3's attempt at a Job system was servicable, but ultimately underwhelming, I could never seem to get use out of the more unconventional Jobs, and grinding them up to be of use took too long. What makes FF5 way better is that as you change Jobs, your default stats gained through regular level ups are automatically redistributed to be optimal for the specific Job you're using, thus, they're ready for battle fresh out of the box. This made switching between them a more comfortable process, one that allowed me to enjoy over 19 of the 22 available classes, a sharp increase over FF3, where I only preferred Jobs that were blatant upgrades over the standard knights and mages. Here, nearly everyone is equal in their own unique strengths, and my willingness to step out of my boundaries allowed me to find not just one build that really works, but several. So, you see, FF5 can get away with wanting me to try out lots of different builds. Because it makes it very accessible to do so.

Though I must admit, once you find those few really special abilities, during my 2nd run, it was impossible to resist immediately pursuing them and using them wherever I could. While I still made strides to vary up my build depending on the situation, I frequently came back to X-Fight, the Call ability, Double Wield, and 2-Handed. There's still a part of me that really likes to prioritize high damage numbers over slow and steady progress, which in turn makes me feel like I'm still limiting myself in the ways I'm playing the game. On the other hand, I always have to remember that RPG's are about what works for you, and if I had fun playing it this way (which i did), while keeping in mind other options under other circumstances, then FF5 was still just... really, really fun from a gameplay perspective.

In my scrapped review, something else I complained about was the ATB system, which seemed a little more gimmicky here than in FF4. FF5 is inherently a more strategical game than its predecessor, which had me require more time to think over my options during battle. So the pressure the ATB system adds feels anti-thetical to the whole idea of "think your options through." Additionally, because I changed classes frequently, my menus and the order in which the party attacked kept changing, meaning I kept accidentally tripping up, selecting the wrong things because I was in a rush to outrace the timer before the enemy got their turn in. In this review, I'm still gonna leverage this as a valid critique, alongside the confusion of what the ATB system actually adds to the experience rather than detracts. However, I've found a way to circumvent this issue, and it's as simple as "press start to pause the game, dumbass." From there on, the ATB system becomes significantly more managable.

As for the story, I'm not exactly sure if I've made up my mind on it yet, but despite its seeming shallowness in the standards of today's age, I think I've warmed up to it well enough, that, this... may be the best Final Fantasy story so far? FF1 & FF3 were blank slates, while FF2 & FF4 tried a touch too hard to make me feel emotions for characters I knew for all but minutes. By comparison, FF5 still has a little bit of that "the characters are having bad things happen to them in every step of their journey" thing, but there's a strange certain sincerity to the tone of this game, that makes me feel all warm and cozy just adventuring in it. Maybe it's the characters being more expressive and animated this time around? The fun chocobo dances? Or Bartz's infectious optimism and belief that the solution to every problem is "ah fuck it, let's just do it." Or maybe it's all of those things, and then some. While I'm not sure I buy the idea that the entire game was a deliberate parody of RPG tropes, I can't deny that there's a subtle feeling of fun being had here. Not enough for a deep story, but enough to make you root for these little 16x24 guys. As sometimes, it feels like they're rooting for you.

As for the soundtrack, I'm starting to think that this is where Uematsu really started honing in his craft. FF4 was melodically strong, but had a lot of trumpets. Mind you, FF5 has plenty of them too, but my wish was that the series would start relying less on just this one instrument for every melody it doots out. FF5 is starting to get there, it's starting to lean into other instruments taking priority. "Battle on the Big Bridge" is the biggest example of this, as Uematsu has just discovered an instrument of the gods, the prog rock organ. And within the next games, it becomes very clear that prog rock is what Uematsu is all about. FF5's soundtrack was just a taste of what's to come.

Alright, it's about time to sum this up. Is FF5 a good game? YES!!!!!!!!!! Yes, it is. I needed some time to warm up to it, both for self-inflicted reasons and FF5's specific expectations of how to play it, but once you're in there, it's just really fun. When most people think of RPG's, they tend to think of the story being the main pull, but FF5 was created in an age where gameplay took precedence. And this Job system was the logical endpoint on how to create the most engaging type of RPG gameplay, by removing most manner of restrictions to let you play it in hundreds of different possible ways. The only condition, is that you have to get out of that comfort zone of yours, and let experimentation take course. My instincts fought back at first, anxious over the idea that not all of my time playing the game is being spent on making progress. But there's nothing wrong with that. After all, the nicest thing about RPG's often comes from that feeling of relaxation when you take in and absorb just how much these games give you to do. That, in itself, is progress to understanding the genre. I now feel more than ready to head into the later Final Fantasies, and be able to enjoy them. Thanks for reading this stupid shit.

Final Fantasy V: Super Custom Classes (Hack)

El parche tiene los siguientes cambios:
1) Puedes cambiar 3 de los 4 huecos, en vez de 1.
2) Cambio de orden de los "job command", pudiendo así quitar el comando "Fight" básico de la mayoría
3) Siempre aprendes las magias azules
4) Más equipamiento para algunos Jobs
5) Puedes usar "Spellsword" en katanas
Todo esto, y un par de cosas menores más, hacen a mi parecer, el juego muchísimo más disfrutable, sobretodo si lo que buscas es customizar las skills de tus personajes al maximo. Hace el early y mid game bastante más entretenido. En late game usé 3 mimos por qué esta roto tener todas las pasivas innatas + las stats + el comando mime, aún así lo podría haber cambiado ya que masterize dicho job en todos. a futuro quiero probar la romhack de GBA, que tiene cosas parecidas a esta romhack, pero cambia como funciona lo de las pasivas y las stats por masterizar una clase, además de las clases que no están en SNES
En cuanto a todo lo demás que no es gameplay, bastante satisfecho, quejas que puedo tener son tan poco importantes que ni las recuerdo.

Como es costumbre, la música es fantástica. No esperaba que tuviera tanto carisma en tema de animaciónes a pesar de lo limitadas que son, y me terminaron gustando los personajes bastante más de lo que esperaba en un principio.

It's odd, Final Fantasy I had a really cool job system, which was then abandoned in Final Fantasy II for its incredibly poor EXP system, then in Final Fantasy III they brought back jobs and built upon them, great! Then in Final Fantasy IV, once again we abandon the job system for EXP, albeit this time done much better. And now again we return to the job system, with it finally being developed to near perfection, it really feels like the culmination of what FF1 and 3 were building up to. The job system allows so much customisation without it being insanely complicated/overwhelming and encourages replayability so much as it grants so much freedom from the very start. "Grinding" in this game is a piece of cake, as your actual EXP level is way less important, as its more based around your strategy of job/ability use, it builds upon the ideas of approaching encounters that started in FF3, with its "puzzle-like" encounters which had very specific requirements to complete, which was then expanded in FF4 having a few different options to solve said encounters, and now at FF5 each encounter has nigh endless possibilities of approaches due to the jobs and combinations. Having jobs by themselves is interesting enough, as seen in FF1, then theres lots of jobs, as seen in FF3 (but now with even more), and then on top of that you can now combine job attributes, then on top of THAT you can combine ALL of your mastered classes using the freelancer job, its amazing. And on top of that, the visuals for the jobs is improved upon too, no longer does your character just turn into somebody else per job ala FF1/FF3, instead every character has a variant for their job, and they all look really cool, graphically speaking this game looks really good, not a huge leap above FF4, but it looks good.

Outside of the jobs, the gameplay has a few minor alterations from FF4, for example you now have a bar to show when you can move in the active time battle system, which is appreciated! The row system (which allows you to place characters at the back for lower attack/higher defence) is now also applied to enemies, but this isnt really a good thing, as it simply encourages you to ALWAYS attack the enemy at the front, as they will always die fastest and do the most damage. Final Fantasy was already moving closer to the "Spam A through encounters" issue after removing the need for you to not select blank spots on the battle field (i.e dont attack an enemy twice if its going to die in 1 hit), but now every single time you wanna simply attack the same space no matter, not the end of the world, but not really a good addition.

The plot is pretty good, definitely the best in the series so far. It has grand moments that actually impact the plot, unlike the annoying fakeouts in FF4. And for once it has a real villain that is actually present in the story rather than just appearing at the end. The characters are really likeable, although the loss of of one party member is then made less impactful as they are instantly replaced by a forgettable, underdeveloped character that never really forms into anything, they just exist as a replacement. It tries to be funny quite a lot, and atleast for me it usually lands, although I can see how for some it would be annoying, but I can appreciate the amount of personality this game has.

The music is, well, Nobuo Uematsu, so of course its amazing.

In conclusion, Final Fantasy V emerges as a standout entry in the series, seamlessly weaving together the strengths of its predecessors while introducing groundbreaking elements. The refined job system, building upon the foundation laid by FF1 and FF3, reaches its pinnacle, offering players unparalleled customization and strategic depth. Its worth playing for the job system alone, and I instantly want to play it again. Perhaps one day I'll try a four job fiesta run.