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

Reviewed on Feb 17, 2024


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