Final Fantasy 5 -- the unreleased SNES titan beloved by the likes of FF16 director Hiroshi Takai -- is now available in a nifty translation with this pixel remaster.
The first 8 hours of FF5 are pure joy. There's a great sense of adventure and experimentation lovingly stitched into this beautful game. Four motley friends embark on a directionless adventure to save Lenna Tycoon's father from Something. You are given a wonderful combat system that is designed explicitly for creating White Mage Monks with every character. The music, combat, and narrative impart the feeling of a limitless adventure. You are undefeatable. You can do anything. You will get to hang out with Galuf because he is the best one. You will have a good time watching Bartz and Galuf fall in love with Faris. You will think "I'm glad that Sakaguchi got to remake Faris with Seth Balmore in Lost Odyssey." You will enjoy every encounter with Gilgamesh because he understands that Galuf is the best one.
Then something terrible occurs. You will meet a character named Mid. The game will, for some reason, lose all faith in your ability to do things for yourself and will force you to talk to Mid every half-hour to progress the story. Gone is the experience of FF 1 through The First 25% of 5 where you are trusted to explore and take notes for yourself in order to progress. You must talk to Mid to explore the places you have found on your travels. You must talk to Mid so he can tell you its ok to go exploring. The consequences of creating this character have had an unfathomably negative impact on the future of this franchise and perhaps society at large.
Eventually, Mid will go away, and the game will be very fun again. However, the cohesion of the first 8 hours is gone. The pacing will begin to slow, and it never returns. The more time you put into it, the less the world feels less like a living environment to explore. You should finish it though. The questions "why are the first 8 hours of FF5 so good" and "why are the last 20 hours of FF5 so sleep-inducing" are both worth exploring. This title borrows a lot from FF3. While the job system is very fun, I found myself having more fun with FF3's job system. FF3's story is simple, but it's paced like a roller coaster and leaves you feeling satisfied. FF5 will try to make you care about Bartz, but no matter how many times he reminds you that his dad is gone or he is scared of heights, your heart will harbor no affection for him because he talks too much like an 8-year-old's conception of how Sonic the Hedgehog would talk if he was their friend in real life.
You could play the pixel remasters for Final Fantasy 1 through 3 in the time it takes to play 5. You should play this one though. The first quarter of the game is truly spectacular. However, as great as the battle system is, I'm not sure if the latter portion of the game is thoughtful enough to warrant several replays. After all, Dragon Quest 5 was released a few months earlier.
The first 8 hours of FF5 are pure joy. There's a great sense of adventure and experimentation lovingly stitched into this beautful game. Four motley friends embark on a directionless adventure to save Lenna Tycoon's father from Something. You are given a wonderful combat system that is designed explicitly for creating White Mage Monks with every character. The music, combat, and narrative impart the feeling of a limitless adventure. You are undefeatable. You can do anything. You will get to hang out with Galuf because he is the best one. You will have a good time watching Bartz and Galuf fall in love with Faris. You will think "I'm glad that Sakaguchi got to remake Faris with Seth Balmore in Lost Odyssey." You will enjoy every encounter with Gilgamesh because he understands that Galuf is the best one.
Then something terrible occurs. You will meet a character named Mid. The game will, for some reason, lose all faith in your ability to do things for yourself and will force you to talk to Mid every half-hour to progress the story. Gone is the experience of FF 1 through The First 25% of 5 where you are trusted to explore and take notes for yourself in order to progress. You must talk to Mid to explore the places you have found on your travels. You must talk to Mid so he can tell you its ok to go exploring. The consequences of creating this character have had an unfathomably negative impact on the future of this franchise and perhaps society at large.
Eventually, Mid will go away, and the game will be very fun again. However, the cohesion of the first 8 hours is gone. The pacing will begin to slow, and it never returns. The more time you put into it, the less the world feels less like a living environment to explore. You should finish it though. The questions "why are the first 8 hours of FF5 so good" and "why are the last 20 hours of FF5 so sleep-inducing" are both worth exploring. This title borrows a lot from FF3. While the job system is very fun, I found myself having more fun with FF3's job system. FF3's story is simple, but it's paced like a roller coaster and leaves you feeling satisfied. FF5 will try to make you care about Bartz, but no matter how many times he reminds you that his dad is gone or he is scared of heights, your heart will harbor no affection for him because he talks too much like an 8-year-old's conception of how Sonic the Hedgehog would talk if he was their friend in real life.
You could play the pixel remasters for Final Fantasy 1 through 3 in the time it takes to play 5. You should play this one though. The first quarter of the game is truly spectacular. However, as great as the battle system is, I'm not sure if the latter portion of the game is thoughtful enough to warrant several replays. After all, Dragon Quest 5 was released a few months earlier.
kirbb
7 months ago