Hop Top is the love child of Ice Climbers, Galaxian and Doodle Jump. The short burst action always leaves me wanting another game. It took me a long time to master even getting passed the first few levels but the natural osmosis over time through playing is greatly satisfying and rewarding, as failure is almost always on the player as the enemy patterns are fair/predictable with all their own unique behaviours and layouts, similarly the platforms are layed out in such a way that there is almost always multiple ways to progress forward even if you slip up the first jump and have to retry, especially so once you get accustomed to crossing over from one side of the screen to another by warping across ala pac-man and other such arcade games screen wrap mechanics. If the game is a little to hard for you or you just wanna try it and be done with it one sitting you can always cheat and use infinite continues, this doesnt remove all challenge as you still must restart the level ofcourse, I obviously never used this feature as a true gamer, but I imagine for some seeking an easier / shorter time with the game this will suffice without making it mindlessly easy for such a player. Similiarly there is an auto fire option if you dont wish to develop arthiritis playing, although again for me this didnt really serve much a purpose as spamming that button is half the fun, but its still a nice option to have, and it is even a little bit inferior to just mashing, which to some is a controversial choice I suppose, but its either you crank up the auto fire to make it objectively better, pushing players away from even bothering playing the game "properly" (in my opinion anyway) or giving them a very very slight handicap for choosing the easier option, which I think works better since its not exactly game destroying since the type of player to choose this option probably wasnt mashing to their hearts content anyway.

The presentation is stellar, excellent pixel art reminiscent of the era, akin to the more later "arrangement" namco games graphics which looks phenomenal and it really utilises this style rather than using "le retro" graphics as a crutch for bad/lazy art. The soundtrack is similiar, every track is a banger utilising the arcade instruments to their highest potential in short but memorable tracks. Extra shoutout for the kefka laugh cameo and Dancing Mad intro reference leading into Killer Queen, amazing.

Also the addition of the arcade mode emulating the style of the "original" version of the non existence arcade game pre the "arrangement" style is a great touch. SOUL.

One minor gripe I have with the game is that when the game ends, it simply ends. I feel like this game could benefit from a "loop" system like other arcade games where you can endlessly replay the campaign until game over to see how high your score could possibly go. Although this is less a criticism more just something I wish was in the game. Also I wish the main way of increasing the high score was via a time bonus per round as well as traditional point gain via collecting balloons/bouncing high as seemingly the best way to get a high score is just to stall? Which I dont really see the design idealogy behind that as it is rather tedious and without intention usually just rewards you for playing worse and taking longer which doesnt make much sense.

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.