Fainaru fantajî V

Most people were introduced to the Final Fantasy franchise via Final Fantasy 7, but that wasn't my case. This was, in fact, the very first game of that series I ever played, and probably because of that, my perception of the franchise was always associated to medieval fantasy (Something which was reinforeced when I played Final Fantasy 4)

Final Fantasy 5 is probably the most underrated game of the series. I know many fans of the franchise prefer darker, more apocalyptic stories, but this game had its share of dark and dramatic moments.

And some parts from it were incredibly difficult! The final boss was probably one of the hardest enemies ever made in any RPG game, as far as I know.

I remember needing a lot of help of my older brother to finish this game.

But it was a fun, captivating game. It had a whimsical magic which I wish the series still retained. Alas, people only want more and more darkness.

Final Fantasy V was first released in Japan but it came to the outer world nearly ten years later. After I've played this game with SNES emulator it's easy to understand why.

First the good news. Final Fantasy V has an excellent job system that is more developed version from Final Fantasy III. There's a wide selection from different jobs including common fighter, thief and couple of mages and uncommon dragoon, samurai and many others. What even better, all special skills are saved even if a player decides to change classes. Only down side is that some of the classes, like geomancer, mediator or dancer, are completely useless.

The bad thing in this game is the atmosphere. Story about stopping evil Exdeath from destroying elemental crystals and the everything else just feels to make excuses to point colorless characters to go in different places. Although it's revealed enough their past that they are somehow interesting they have not any characteristics to make them feel close. Plus white-armored Exdeath with no clear motivation for wanton destruction is probably one of the dullest main villains ever in any media. Only good character is Exdeath's first-in-command Gilgamesh who has charisma and funny dialog. Even the music has decreed from Final Fantasy IV's excellency to mediocre.

Final Fantasy V is good as hack'n slash game but because of its sterile story, characters, music and even graphics it feels like work of engineers rather than artists.

Yes, I admit, there are some of the Final Fantasy games I like before FFVIII and the other latter titles came out. But Final Fantasy V sticks to me like bees stick to honey.

The story is in three parts: Butz's world (trying to save the crystals), Galuf's world (Galuf trying to stop the main evil himself) and Ex-Death's world (Destroy the Void and the evil mage himself). Without spoiling any of the plot or characters, you'll be pleased with the story and the likable cast of characters. Who says you need a big cast when you can have a few wonderfully developed cast. Not to mention the job system is very fun and addicting. You can even mix and match abilities.

The only flaw is the graphics and sound. The graphics look EXACTLY like FFIV's graphics. And even though the soundtrack was good in some spots, but a lot of the music sounded way too happy and perky. Sounds more like a kiddy game music than it does earth in distress music.

Just too bad this FF got overshadowed by FFIV and FFVI and was never released in America in trhe SNES days. It's far superior to FFVI in story, gameplay and characters. Play it and give it a chance.

It took me nine years to finally play through and win this Final Fantasy game. That right there should tell you this one is a bit different. The story is your standard Final Fantasy fare. A traveler, a princess, a pirate, and a mysterious man with amnesia go on a quest to try and stop the destruction of the elemental crystals: Earth, wind, fire and water. They are also searching for the father of the princess. In the end an evil entity named X-Death is set free and he has plans to capture a terrifying power that threatens not one, but two worlds! What sets this one apart and causes it to be sort of a pain too is the job system. Similar to that found in Final Fantasy X-2, but more involved you switch between classes, gain their powers and in the end decide what powers will help you totally tear X-Death apart. The jobs though can take awhile to build up, now that I have a very good sized music collection it is not so bad, but it gets rather boring just leveling up with the same old music playing. The final boss in this one was somewhat tough too, until I read a strategy on beating him, then adding a few of my own touches it was a breeze. So in the end I liked six a bit better, however, this one was a rather good entry into the final fantasy universe. I think it is also the first one to feature Moogles, however, I may be wrong on that point. You also have a wide array of vehicles in this one to use to, from chocobos to airships, and even a submarine. However, the story is a bit short, I won it in thirty hours and I spent a good ten or more of that leveling.

My potentially blithering hot take is that this is the best of the first five Final Fantasy titles. Its story is nothing to write home about, but that has little to do with my assessment of the game as its story is about as good as any of the first five (the epilogue is uniquely awful, though- it's essentially an incredibly tedious clip show of all of the greatest hits of the adventure). Final Fantasy V, like its predecessors, has two-dimensional characters that lack complexity and have no arcs. Also like its predecessors, the plot amounts to a series of bland fetch quests and has little in the way of textured world-building. Something something crystals something something balance something something entity wanting to destroy that balance and take over the universe. It took awhile for the world in each Final Fantasy title to actually feel like a place with its own history and internal logic. The exception to this blandness is, as usual, Nobuo Uemtasu's whimsical score, the endlessly creative creature designs, and the splashy backgrounds. Those elements do quite a bit of heavy lifting to really convey that unique Final Fantasy vibe, but they feel separate and irrelevant to the main narrative.

Where the game rises above the previous titles is in its job system and difficulty curve. The job system allows for your character to gain abilities in different jobs and then mix and match those abilities to create fun synergistic combos. Throughout the entire game I was constantly adjusting which classes I wanted to level up based on which combinations seemed to be more successful. The game even somewhat forces experimentation because different bosses require different strategies to overcome. My only complaint about the job system is that some abilities take eons to obtain, especially in the first two thirds of the game. If you are playing blind, you also risk putting in many hours of grinding only to find out that the next ability your character receives was not worth the effort. Still, the amount of creativity and strategy that the game allows for is impressive considering that each job allows for only one extra ability you have earned from another job.

Two aspects I was consistently delighted by were the substantial difficulty of many of the bosses and the best difficulty curve of the first five games- the game's difficulty is incredibly even and gradual (with the requisite spike in the end, of course). I never had to grind and usually just had to play around with my party job and equipment setup in order to overcome a boss. Even the last boss was beatable by just learning from each defeat and making adjustments. I got a little lucky on my final attempt because Neo-Exdeath missed a lot, but the battle didn't feel like pure luck at a lower level like the final boss of FF IV did (I had to lower the active time battle speed settings to win that one).

Final Fantasy has a nothing story, but it was the first of the original five 2D Final Fantasy games where I didn't feel like I was rushing at the end to get it over with. The level design was quite varied and each featured different types of puzzles instead of long, boring hallways like in the first four games. It's just a shame that the story was so perfunctory because that is the only aspect that would hold me back from wanting to replay it someday. I often found myself glazing over during the dialogue scenes and frequently lost track of the plot due to disinterest. The gameplay, however, was a treat.