I think this is one of the best jrpg gameplay experiences I had. Variety and freedom in combat is simply OUTSTANDING
This is my second final fantasy (first was ff4) and what can I say that did not be said? This game franchise is awesome.
Combat
Ffv uses job system that is different than ff4. What job system means is, there is multiple jobs that you can select for all of your characters. You can make everyone a magician or bard or dancer or knight or samurai or monk etc. Also once you level up a job, you unlock more skills that job has. There is so many variants and neat thing is this is not the greatest part. This time, game lets you equip one more learned skill on top of your selected job. Do you know what that means? You can mix jobs together! Possibilities are endless! Knight that can sing magical songs, magician that can punch really hard, monk that can dance and many many many more...
That is also probably it's greatest downfall for beginners. Because more options makes the game more overwhelming as well, also game sucks at teaching you what jobs does what and what skill can be unlocked with them, there is an optional teacher that shows how things work but on a surface level. So that results with you looking at a guide to learn which skill does what so you can do your dreamy build. I have to say this kind of turned me off at first. Then I decided to push on after seeing a lot of positive reviews and I am glad I did, because this game made me grind voluntarily just to see which skills, which combinations, which techniques to execute and experiment with and that is the biggest compliment I can give it for (because I hate grinding)
Story
Compared to the gameplay, story is much more basic, even more than ff4 I think. Yes when we look at the surface level they are similar good guys vs bad guys story but what ff4 does different is, it makes the character's much more fleshed out, for some reason ffv doesn't try to flesh them out the level ff4 did, main characters only get only 1 or 2 small chapters about them what it more cares about is it's goofy moments. There is a lot of goofy comedic moments in this game even more than ff4 and new expressions characters have helps in that regard greatly. Unfortunately and that is, unsatisfactory enemies and not connecting to the characters. What I mean is, when the story is not that serious, it's hard to invested for the fight of the big baddy. I didn't had any motivation to take him down, because I felt it's not gonna improve my experience. Then I forced myself and finished it, so just to not miss out anything, but I don't know if it was worth it. Felt like marking the checklist for me, so I get it when people say they like ff4 more. But I don't agree ffV is lesser than that, after all everything comes to personal taste and question is this: do you rather see an engaging story or gameplay focused story. Even if I like the engaging stories, ffv fun story is really entertaining one as well, so don't worry about any disappointment or anything like that.
World
Like the ff4, there is optional town's to visit, small side quests to see, but this time there is more of them like optional summon fights or finding hidden pianos or hidden special items or learning magic songs from town people.
Also like ff4, there is boats to ride, flying ships to control, animals to master. Only not nice thing is, this time there is two worlds in this game and repeating same things to get a flying animal for the second world kind of felt repetitive to me, It felt a bit like padding to me.
Other than that, I found dungeons pretty fun. Every one of them had a gimmick like locked doors that opens with corresponding buttons, river that lets you down from floors, sand places that moves you away and many many more. There wasn't an aggravating one like ff4's stupid magnetic cave I think.
So ff5 still good as ever when it comes to world so nothing to worry about that
Conclusion
This game is good. So if you enjoy light hearted cartoon like stories like me and also like freedom in combat, you probably gonna like this game. I recommend it.
This is my second final fantasy (first was ff4) and what can I say that did not be said? This game franchise is awesome.
Combat
Ffv uses job system that is different than ff4. What job system means is, there is multiple jobs that you can select for all of your characters. You can make everyone a magician or bard or dancer or knight or samurai or monk etc. Also once you level up a job, you unlock more skills that job has. There is so many variants and neat thing is this is not the greatest part. This time, game lets you equip one more learned skill on top of your selected job. Do you know what that means? You can mix jobs together! Possibilities are endless! Knight that can sing magical songs, magician that can punch really hard, monk that can dance and many many many more...
That is also probably it's greatest downfall for beginners. Because more options makes the game more overwhelming as well, also game sucks at teaching you what jobs does what and what skill can be unlocked with them, there is an optional teacher that shows how things work but on a surface level. So that results with you looking at a guide to learn which skill does what so you can do your dreamy build. I have to say this kind of turned me off at first. Then I decided to push on after seeing a lot of positive reviews and I am glad I did, because this game made me grind voluntarily just to see which skills, which combinations, which techniques to execute and experiment with and that is the biggest compliment I can give it for (because I hate grinding)
Story
Compared to the gameplay, story is much more basic, even more than ff4 I think. Yes when we look at the surface level they are similar good guys vs bad guys story but what ff4 does different is, it makes the character's much more fleshed out, for some reason ffv doesn't try to flesh them out the level ff4 did, main characters only get only 1 or 2 small chapters about them what it more cares about is it's goofy moments. There is a lot of goofy comedic moments in this game even more than ff4 and new expressions characters have helps in that regard greatly. Unfortunately and that is, unsatisfactory enemies and not connecting to the characters. What I mean is, when the story is not that serious, it's hard to invested for the fight of the big baddy. I didn't had any motivation to take him down, because I felt it's not gonna improve my experience. Then I forced myself and finished it, so just to not miss out anything, but I don't know if it was worth it. Felt like marking the checklist for me, so I get it when people say they like ff4 more. But I don't agree ffV is lesser than that, after all everything comes to personal taste and question is this: do you rather see an engaging story or gameplay focused story. Even if I like the engaging stories, ffv fun story is really entertaining one as well, so don't worry about any disappointment or anything like that.
World
Like the ff4, there is optional town's to visit, small side quests to see, but this time there is more of them like optional summon fights or finding hidden pianos or hidden special items or learning magic songs from town people.
Also like ff4, there is boats to ride, flying ships to control, animals to master. Only not nice thing is, this time there is two worlds in this game and repeating same things to get a flying animal for the second world kind of felt repetitive to me, It felt a bit like padding to me.
Other than that, I found dungeons pretty fun. Every one of them had a gimmick like locked doors that opens with corresponding buttons, river that lets you down from floors, sand places that moves you away and many many more. There wasn't an aggravating one like ff4's stupid magnetic cave I think.
So ff5 still good as ever when it comes to world so nothing to worry about that
Conclusion
This game is good. So if you enjoy light hearted cartoon like stories like me and also like freedom in combat, you probably gonna like this game. I recommend it.
Lives and dies with how much job customization you like in your JRPG's if you love doing that, you will love this game. Do not come expecting much more than that however.
There's a common misconception that Final Fantasy games are radically different from each other; that every numbered entry is a completely different experience with zero carry-over between them. But in actuality, Final Fantasy games borrow a lot more from each other than you think. FF7's Materia are just FF6's Espers turned inside-out. FF4's Active Time Battle system was reused in five consecutive entries after its introduction. The first boss of FF4, 5, 6, and 7 are functionally identical to each other. And FF5 is a refinement of not just the Job system introduced in FF3, but everything the franchise was known for up to that point.
Final Fantasy V is the definitive Final Fantasy of the fourth generation. If you're only vaguely familiar with the franchise and try to envision it in your head, FFV is the closest you get to that vision. Everything there is to know about the series can be found here; common recurring classes, the enemies you'll come across, items & equipment you'll get your hands on, even some common boss mechanics. It's all here, in one of the best damn entries of the franchise.
If you've never played Final Fantasy... start with the first one. But if the NES grates on you... skip to IV. But after you finish IV, play Final Fantasy V. You will not regret it.
Final Fantasy V is the definitive Final Fantasy of the fourth generation. If you're only vaguely familiar with the franchise and try to envision it in your head, FFV is the closest you get to that vision. Everything there is to know about the series can be found here; common recurring classes, the enemies you'll come across, items & equipment you'll get your hands on, even some common boss mechanics. It's all here, in one of the best damn entries of the franchise.
If you've never played Final Fantasy... start with the first one. But if the NES grates on you... skip to IV. But after you finish IV, play Final Fantasy V. You will not regret it.
Final Fantasy 5 continues the trends from FF4 but brings back the job system in a big way. The sheer amount of different classes you can play as and level up is surprisingly big. No two people will play it the same. Your characters and change jobs back and forth to your playstyle or strategy. FF5 might not be have the best story of the 2D FF's but it is definitely the most fun to play. Fighting feels great and the balance is better than ever. Dungeon design is leagues better too. This might be my favorite 2D FF.
(Replay) The public consensus turns a blind eye to this game, and I truly can't fathom why. This game is the culmination of all Final Fantasy up to that point.
Absolutely peak gameplay, the best in the series. It's tough as nails, rewarding, complex, and outright requires you to plan and get as creative as you can. You never have to grind at any point, you just need to figure out what you could change about your strategy and then carry it out. If you primarily care about gameplay, this is the #1 must-play Final Fantasy for you.
The story, often hated on for being comparatively very simple or even childish when it's right next to VI, VII, IX, etc, is very much still good in my opinion. Not great, and not without its flaws, but it's cute, the characters are extremely enjoyable, Exdeath is peak, and the graphical leap since IV allows for some extremely well-directed cutscenes with perfect animations.
The soundtrack is also amazing. It's Uematsu. I don't need to elaborate.
I firmly believe FFV to be the best in the series in every single aspect up to that point. It can't touch the following classic entries for story, but in every other area it absolutely measures up, and in gameplay, clears all of them.
Very happy I replayed as I had forgotten most of it and happy to say it has risen above VIII for me. The most underrated FF by a lot.
Absolutely peak gameplay, the best in the series. It's tough as nails, rewarding, complex, and outright requires you to plan and get as creative as you can. You never have to grind at any point, you just need to figure out what you could change about your strategy and then carry it out. If you primarily care about gameplay, this is the #1 must-play Final Fantasy for you.
The story, often hated on for being comparatively very simple or even childish when it's right next to VI, VII, IX, etc, is very much still good in my opinion. Not great, and not without its flaws, but it's cute, the characters are extremely enjoyable, Exdeath is peak, and the graphical leap since IV allows for some extremely well-directed cutscenes with perfect animations.
The soundtrack is also amazing. It's Uematsu. I don't need to elaborate.
I firmly believe FFV to be the best in the series in every single aspect up to that point. It can't touch the following classic entries for story, but in every other area it absolutely measures up, and in gameplay, clears all of them.
Very happy I replayed as I had forgotten most of it and happy to say it has risen above VIII for me. The most underrated FF by a lot.
I prefer games that are designed.
Final Fantasy games, objectively, are really well done, at least from the fourth-generation games, as I didn't play any newer iterations yet. But let me start of this review by saying that I realize that 3 to 5 so far have not been for me. On the one hand, I think it has a lot to do with how the game has clearly a younger audience in mind, especially in its story presentation, so perhaps I would have fallen in love with the franchise like so many others, if I had played these games at a young age myself. On the other hand, young me was more interested in sports, fighting and platforming games, so I probably wouldn't have.
But having said this, if you are one of those who loves Super Famicom Final Fantasy games, I'm hoping you understand that I think fundamentally, Final Fantasy games are good, I just didn't gell with them yet. Final Fantasy IV I actually did beat, but both 3 and 5 I didn't, so let me go over why in this review.
As with IV, there are pre-named characters in this game's story and there clearly is a lot more attention being paid to it since IV then before. The production values are also off the charts here, and the game has added some QoL features to make life much easier than in III, which was the last game that had the well-known 'job system'. In this game, the job system is actually well explained and you quickly get a grasp of how it works. Many other features of this game are explained as well, making it less important to constantly look up a guide or the game's manual to figure stuff out.
The job system is something I want to quickly talk about here, as I finally understand why people rave about it. In III, I thought the job system was really lackluster and more of a gimmick forced on me than something I enjoyed using, while in V, it's really good. It's actually wild how many options it gives you to customize and mix&match your characters it gives you. From what I've seen, it only gets deeper the further you are in the game.
While that is great, to me it only affected my enjoyment of the game so much, as the gameplay itself is the same as in FF III, meaning it still uses constant random encounters that mostly either are too easy or too hard, though mainly the former, it still asks you to grind, and I don't want to know how much you need to grind for the final few dungeons, it still has a few enemy attacks that just make the gameplay straight up not fun for me (more on that in second) and it still uses the ATB system, which I'm not a fan of.
In terms of enemy attacks, the one in FF IV I disliked the most was the one that allowed your enemies to literally one-hit kill you regardless of your HP or whether you are guarding or not. I don't remember the name, but I found that to be a non-sensical thing, especially because it worked pretty much all the time.
In FF V, the thing that annoyed me the most was the "sap" skill that some enemies apparently have. From what I gathered, you couldn't even tell whether you were inflicted or not, and there is no telling when it would disappear, and I think no way to remove it, especially since it is easily inflicted on all party members at the same time. What it does is reduce the HP of all party members in a really quick way, which means you need to constantly heal against it until the effect runs out.
This issue gets exacerbated by the ATB system. The ATB system basically means that while this is a turn-based game, the enemies will not just wait out your turn. As their attack meter fully charges, they will just steal a turn, if you wait too long. And "waiting too long" is literally a couple seconds of thinking of what to do. To me, this places it between a true turn-based system and real time combat, both of which I enjoy a lot. The ATB system, I do not. Especially when I got sapped, turning on the proverbial jets to pick the skill I want got really annoying. The first boss that does this that you are fighting also has a bar that charges twice as fast, so as your party's HP is rapidly going down, getting hit is not a great thing to happen. There are only so many revive items I can use. And having to 'hurry' is not something that adds literally anything to combat. I either know what to do but can't do it quickly enough, or I don't know what to do and have to look at my options and strategize, which I can't do in a short amount of time. There is an option to turn the ATB system to "wait", but all this does apparently is have the enemy wait if you go into a specific menu like "Black Magic". Staying in the general command screen still lets the enemies steal a turn.
Finally, I want to go over the story. I played roughly 10 hours, so I got about a third of the way through the game I would imagine. So far, all I have seen about the story clearly tells me that it was written for a young audience. I don't mind this at all, that's most people who would play it at the time, and many people got emotionally connected to the cast with this story. Playing this now however, I can't say I enjoyed it simply because I'm clearly not the target audience. The game's way of endearing you to its characters is through multiple contrived events instead of genuine chemistry built up between the characters through its writing, which is understandable due to the Super Famicom's storage space but again, speaks to the target audience of this game's story.
So overall, again, I think this game is good and I can see why many people would enjoy the job system even today, but I can't say I enjoyed this game personally, both in terms of story and gameplay.
(This is the 82nd game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)
But having said this, if you are one of those who loves Super Famicom Final Fantasy games, I'm hoping you understand that I think fundamentally, Final Fantasy games are good, I just didn't gell with them yet. Final Fantasy IV I actually did beat, but both 3 and 5 I didn't, so let me go over why in this review.
As with IV, there are pre-named characters in this game's story and there clearly is a lot more attention being paid to it since IV then before. The production values are also off the charts here, and the game has added some QoL features to make life much easier than in III, which was the last game that had the well-known 'job system'. In this game, the job system is actually well explained and you quickly get a grasp of how it works. Many other features of this game are explained as well, making it less important to constantly look up a guide or the game's manual to figure stuff out.
The job system is something I want to quickly talk about here, as I finally understand why people rave about it. In III, I thought the job system was really lackluster and more of a gimmick forced on me than something I enjoyed using, while in V, it's really good. It's actually wild how many options it gives you to customize and mix&match your characters it gives you. From what I've seen, it only gets deeper the further you are in the game.
While that is great, to me it only affected my enjoyment of the game so much, as the gameplay itself is the same as in FF III, meaning it still uses constant random encounters that mostly either are too easy or too hard, though mainly the former, it still asks you to grind, and I don't want to know how much you need to grind for the final few dungeons, it still has a few enemy attacks that just make the gameplay straight up not fun for me (more on that in second) and it still uses the ATB system, which I'm not a fan of.
In terms of enemy attacks, the one in FF IV I disliked the most was the one that allowed your enemies to literally one-hit kill you regardless of your HP or whether you are guarding or not. I don't remember the name, but I found that to be a non-sensical thing, especially because it worked pretty much all the time.
In FF V, the thing that annoyed me the most was the "sap" skill that some enemies apparently have. From what I gathered, you couldn't even tell whether you were inflicted or not, and there is no telling when it would disappear, and I think no way to remove it, especially since it is easily inflicted on all party members at the same time. What it does is reduce the HP of all party members in a really quick way, which means you need to constantly heal against it until the effect runs out.
This issue gets exacerbated by the ATB system. The ATB system basically means that while this is a turn-based game, the enemies will not just wait out your turn. As their attack meter fully charges, they will just steal a turn, if you wait too long. And "waiting too long" is literally a couple seconds of thinking of what to do. To me, this places it between a true turn-based system and real time combat, both of which I enjoy a lot. The ATB system, I do not. Especially when I got sapped, turning on the proverbial jets to pick the skill I want got really annoying. The first boss that does this that you are fighting also has a bar that charges twice as fast, so as your party's HP is rapidly going down, getting hit is not a great thing to happen. There are only so many revive items I can use. And having to 'hurry' is not something that adds literally anything to combat. I either know what to do but can't do it quickly enough, or I don't know what to do and have to look at my options and strategize, which I can't do in a short amount of time. There is an option to turn the ATB system to "wait", but all this does apparently is have the enemy wait if you go into a specific menu like "Black Magic". Staying in the general command screen still lets the enemies steal a turn.
Finally, I want to go over the story. I played roughly 10 hours, so I got about a third of the way through the game I would imagine. So far, all I have seen about the story clearly tells me that it was written for a young audience. I don't mind this at all, that's most people who would play it at the time, and many people got emotionally connected to the cast with this story. Playing this now however, I can't say I enjoyed it simply because I'm clearly not the target audience. The game's way of endearing you to its characters is through multiple contrived events instead of genuine chemistry built up between the characters through its writing, which is understandable due to the Super Famicom's storage space but again, speaks to the target audience of this game's story.
So overall, again, I think this game is good and I can see why many people would enjoy the job system even today, but I can't say I enjoyed this game personally, both in terms of story and gameplay.
(This is the 82nd game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)
Played on PlayStation, and it was an okay way to play, but the translation was terrible, and some characters were basically butchered. For the time, it was a decent way to play the game legally, but it was always a bit too slow loading into random battles.
First Final Fantasy game ever played and the one that I will defend from everyone criticizing it because "plot bad". It's a classic 90s-like JRPG adventure with lovable character and a really satisfying journey. Don't stick with only emos, graphics and/or PlayStation nostalgia.
Juego muy hermoso, siendo sincero. Me recordó en cierta parte mi experiencia con Final Fantasy VI. Su ost es muy buena, la historia al igual que la del 4 son bastante buenas, obviamente no llegan al nivel del 6, pero veo un claro avance de lo que los desarrolladores querían llegar a hacer. Me encanta Final Fantasy, quiero jugarme ahora sí al 7. La mecánica de las profesiones, si sabes cómo utilizarlas y combinarlas puedes hacerte un monstruo de ataque o magia. Aprendiz y Mimetizador están bien pensadas, un poco rotas pero lo veo bien. Creo que lo de las profesiones inspiro a FFVI para la cantidad de personajes que hay ahí, cada uno teniendo diferentes habilidades. Supongo que lo quisieron hacer así para no repetirlas ni sentir que tiene menos contenido. Mi paso por la primera trilogía importante para la saga (IV, V, VI), ha sido prolongada de gran manera, pero he disfrutado muchísimo esos 3, solo me faltó el III, pero quiero jugarme mejor a los siguientes (7.8.9). Creo que al final se va a convertir esta saga algo como Castlevania, que ha sido importantísimo para mí los juegos de Castlevania, así que los FF no dudo en que también lleguen a ser importantes. Ninguno de los dos se le va a comparar a los Oddworld eso si JSHJDHJK
It took three decades and a lot of false starts, but I finally made it all the way through FFV… and it was worth the wait. Not as narratively rich as FF4 or FF6, but the unfathomable mechanical depth offered by its job system more than makes up for this fact. Also: evil trees and wizard turtles are both hilarious and awesome. Great game.
The job system does most of the heavy lifting here. Builds aren’t as flexible as they would eventually become in 7, Tactics, 12 etc. though you can get pretty creative in 5; there’s still plenty to sink your teeth into.
I would say everything else is just varying degrees of decent.
The story is serviceable (with some funny moments peppered throughout, at least in the GBA localisation), the way it’s structured is perfectly adequate, the visuals are functional, and the music is good—sometimes great—albeit not quite up to the standard that Uematsu set for himself on many other games, and there also just isn’t enough of it; perhaps it’s to be expected for a SNES game, but you’ll encounter a ton of repeating tracks.
That’s about all I have to say about FF5. I like it. I’ll replay it some day.
I would say everything else is just varying degrees of decent.
The story is serviceable (with some funny moments peppered throughout, at least in the GBA localisation), the way it’s structured is perfectly adequate, the visuals are functional, and the music is good—sometimes great—albeit not quite up to the standard that Uematsu set for himself on many other games, and there also just isn’t enough of it; perhaps it’s to be expected for a SNES game, but you’ll encounter a ton of repeating tracks.
That’s about all I have to say about FF5. I like it. I’ll replay it some day.
hella replayable which is more than you can say about most games these days tbh
i can't say anything witty just play this game and do whatever goofy build you want for your characters and have fun
The job system FUCKS
Stick it in my Butz
Diría que es el Final Fantasy más infravalorado.
Si bien no tiene un argumento tan trágico y los personajes tiran mucho del humor... El gameplay se me hizo divertidísimo, el cambio de trabajos, las combinaciones y los combates me engancharon de tal manera que lo completé entero, con todos los trabajos de todos los personajes a tope. También me gustó muchísimo el mundo tan colorido que tiene, aunque tiene sus escenas oscuras, los personajes no tienen mucha profundidad, pero son divertidos. (El pelo rosa de Lenna es mi cosa favorita del juego). Además también tiene una de las escenas con uno de los temas y personajes más emblemáticos de la saga: ¡Gilgamesh!
Si bien no tiene un argumento tan trágico y los personajes tiran mucho del humor... El gameplay se me hizo divertidísimo, el cambio de trabajos, las combinaciones y los combates me engancharon de tal manera que lo completé entero, con todos los trabajos de todos los personajes a tope. También me gustó muchísimo el mundo tan colorido que tiene, aunque tiene sus escenas oscuras, los personajes no tienen mucha profundidad, pero son divertidos. (El pelo rosa de Lenna es mi cosa favorita del juego). Además también tiene una de las escenas con uno de los temas y personajes más emblemáticos de la saga: ¡Gilgamesh!
Final Fantasy V might feel very "standard" in its aesthetics, presentation and storytelling so far as 2D Final Fantasy is concerned, yet it still manages to be such a captivating RPG for its time due to the sheer complexity of its excellent gameplay mechanics. The amount of customization and strategy allowed by the game's take on the job system makes it a joy to play, and eventually replay, while trying different combinations of classes and gameplay styles that rewards both careful planning and liberal experimentation depending on the mood of the player. Had Final Fantasy V had a more challenging difficulty or well-considered job balance, it would be close to perfect. But with Nobuo Uematsu's beautiful score and the aesthetics of Kazuko Shibuya, it is certainly hard not to love Final Fantasy V regardless of its few flaws.
Like i had before with Dragon Quest 3, i had to double check the year this game came out with how it nailed what it meant to do the best it technically could.
The more story driven final fantasy titles (like 4 and 6) feel a bit too restrictive as far as experimenting goes. Understandably so, if your characters can become anything there will be sacrifices in the story department. The story was not even that bad. FF 1, 3 and 5 all have the same story idea, but it evolved in each game. At least here the main characters (while still not that interesting) have personalty and are not just faceless dolls. They really tried to have some humor in it as well. The main plot while somewhat predictable actually did hold my interest, and it becomes better the farther in. It's the best told version of the ' the crystals lost their grace and slowly kill the land' tropestory old FF became famous for.
While i like complexity in my combat, the saga games are a bit to complicated for my taste, and the more story driven FF like i said a bit to restrictive. This game felt like the perfect balance. I can experiment however i want and the possibilities feel endless for someone like me that wants to do as much as possible in a single playtrough. But i don't get overwhelmed like in saga, where i sometimes feel like i need a college course to see all in and outs of what i can do. There is a lot of player choice but it's not overly complex at the same time. And nothing feels overly OP in comparison to all the rest, like more than 80% of games where balance is important.
I really feel this is the best of the old (1-6) final fantasy's gameplay wise. This job system even echoes through the ff14 mmo. A surprising amount of jobs there (almost all of them) already were possible to play here, which is a testament to this game's enduring brilliance. The whole idea of the blue mage and beastmaster control to make it learn certain spells is someting i enjoyed immensely in ff tactics when i was younger ( i never played ff5 before now). Nice to see it's origin. it's such a creative design and wasn't done before.
I wanted to try out the pixel remaster of FF3 (i did not like the DS version) since it's easier to change jobs there, but it only ever will be a beta version of this game as far as gameplay goes. This game ruined ff3 for me before i could finish it, that's why i normally play series in order of original release. Maybe when it's 80% off on steam.
The more story driven final fantasy titles (like 4 and 6) feel a bit too restrictive as far as experimenting goes. Understandably so, if your characters can become anything there will be sacrifices in the story department. The story was not even that bad. FF 1, 3 and 5 all have the same story idea, but it evolved in each game. At least here the main characters (while still not that interesting) have personalty and are not just faceless dolls. They really tried to have some humor in it as well. The main plot while somewhat predictable actually did hold my interest, and it becomes better the farther in. It's the best told version of the ' the crystals lost their grace and slowly kill the land' tropestory old FF became famous for.
While i like complexity in my combat, the saga games are a bit to complicated for my taste, and the more story driven FF like i said a bit to restrictive. This game felt like the perfect balance. I can experiment however i want and the possibilities feel endless for someone like me that wants to do as much as possible in a single playtrough. But i don't get overwhelmed like in saga, where i sometimes feel like i need a college course to see all in and outs of what i can do. There is a lot of player choice but it's not overly complex at the same time. And nothing feels overly OP in comparison to all the rest, like more than 80% of games where balance is important.
I really feel this is the best of the old (1-6) final fantasy's gameplay wise. This job system even echoes through the ff14 mmo. A surprising amount of jobs there (almost all of them) already were possible to play here, which is a testament to this game's enduring brilliance. The whole idea of the blue mage and beastmaster control to make it learn certain spells is someting i enjoyed immensely in ff tactics when i was younger ( i never played ff5 before now). Nice to see it's origin. it's such a creative design and wasn't done before.
I wanted to try out the pixel remaster of FF3 (i did not like the DS version) since it's easier to change jobs there, but it only ever will be a beta version of this game as far as gameplay goes. This game ruined ff3 for me before i could finish it, that's why i normally play series in order of original release. Maybe when it's 80% off on steam.
Pretty bad graphics and not the most interesting story, but an incredibly fun job system and some cool environments. Give this one a try.
They forgot to write a story for this one, but it's alright because the job system is so damn fun.
PEAK FICTION!!! the ff game with only 5 party members so they all get even development alongside the world, nothing has topped this for me so far since i played it as a kid
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.
This is a weird episode of Captain Planet
decent game but his name is "Bartz" the the zimpsons character, awkwaaard
This review contains spoilers
This is considered to be one of the the black sheeps of the Final Fantasy franchise. Would I say it's underrated? Not really. It's more like overlooked. I don't usually see many people talk about this game, it gets overshadowed by the other games. So you know what? I wanna talk about it, cause I do enjoy this game a lot despite its flaws.
Usually I talk about the story before the gameplay but this is a pretty gameplay heavy game, so I'll dive into that first.
{ Gameplay }
The Job System makes a return from Final Fantasy III but it has been so refined that the game is a real joy to play despite how underwhelming the storytelling is, like with Final Fantasy X-2.
Any character can be practically anything that you want them to be. And while some are more keen to physical or magical prowess, you have total control on how you want to make them. As you play through the game, you unlock more Jobs, and some of the best Jobs in the game are unlocked via side quests.
The Jobs have been expanded from the ones in Final Fantasy III. You no longer have to pay Job Points in order switch them, and now, each Jobs have Passive Abilities to go along with battle actions. This includes things like:
Thief: Can sprint, find hidden passgeways, reduce the chance of back attacks
Ninja: Can equip 2 swords, and increase the chance of preemptive strikes
Geomancer: Can avoid trap doors and pitfalls, and makes the party immune to damage-inflicting terrain like spikes and lava
As you level up each Job, you unlock more actions to use in battle. And each Job comes with one initial ability and an open slot to equip any OTHER ability that you earned. Either one to use in battle or any other passive ability.
I can't stress how insane this is in terms of customization. You can essentially play the game however you want to. There is so much mixing and matching to do here.
You could do things like:
- Give the Sorcerer the ability to equip the the Knight's 2-Handed ability so you can hold a sword with 2 hands for more damage, or learn the X-Fight ability from the Hunter Job so you can attack 4 times in one turn.
- You can have a Mime Job equip Black, White, and Time magic at once (since they get 3 open ability slots).
- You you can use a Ninja and have them use the X-Fight ability since they have 2 Swords equipped by default, meaning you can attack EIGHT times in one turn.
- Or have a White, Black, Blue, or Time Mage have the Red Mages x2 Dualcast ability, which allows you to cast spells twice in one turn.
There are literally dozens of combinations that you can give to your party. It's amazing.
And there are no bosses, aside from a couple of them, where you must use specific Jobs in order to beat them, unlike in Final Fantasy III. You can use whatever combination you feel is best for you. Some Jobs are more overpowered than others, but unlike FFIII, FFV provides free reign to the player.
And this freedom makes this game one of the most replayable games in the series. And what makes a game like this so fun is the reward for mastering its mechanics. The reward comes from leveling up those Jobs. It's like how I feel about the Junction System in Final Fantasy VIII.
I know people either love or hate the Junction System, but me? I am a fuckin' geek. I love micromanaging my characters, seeing these tangible improvements to each aptitude. I love being able to customize my characters the way I would like them to be. I like to see just how much power I can gain, it's much more exciting than just gaining experience points and gaining levels.
Every time a Job levels up, there is always a payoff for doing it. Some abilities are much more useful than others, but having that flexibility encourages experimentation.
Each Job have different speeds of advancement. And the amount of Ability Points required increases as they level up, but, the more you level up the Job, the better the rewards are.
And if you reach the max level to a Job, you MASTER it. The Freelancer, which is the base Job, is able to get the highest stat adjustments to all Jobs they have mastered. Essentially, huge boosts in their stats, which automatically makes them the best they can be. They also get 2 open ability slots.
So basically, by the late game, there are an endless amount of possibilities to mess around with, it's mind-blowing.
This can even encourage you to replay the game again and see how you could play the game a different way.
Wanna know my personal favorite Job setup?
- Bartz (Primary DPS)
Abilities: !X-Fight and !2-Swords
- Lenna (Primary Magic DPS)
Abilities: !Black and !Summon (sometimes I'll give her !White instead of !Summon)
- Galuf/Krile (Primary Healer/Support, and with Mime equipped)
Abilities: !Time, !White, and !Blue
- Faris (Secondary DPS)
-Abilities: !X-Fight and !Spellblade
I'm curious as to what your favorite Job combinations are.
Also, if you want to know what each Job does what, click on this link. Because there is quite a lot, you'll thank me later.
https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_V/Jobs#Starting_job
There are also additional tweaks done to the battles that can be both good and bad depending on how you look at it.
This is the first game where you can actually see the ATB gauges, letting you know exactly when a character is going to get their turn. However, you can't switch from one turn to another like in Final Fantasy IV.
If you want to skip a turn, you have to use the Defend command (Right D-Pad and A) which puts the ATB gauge back to 0, which can be annoying if you skip a turn but then your enemy hits you really hard and you really need that character to act again.
The game also has the Front and Back Row mechanic from FFIV. If you're in the Front Row, you deal normal physical damage but also take normal damage from physical attacks, and if you're in the Back Row, you take half damage from physical attacks but you can only deal half damage yourself.
Enemies can also be in either the Front or Back Rows, so it's recommended that you attack the enemies in the front before you attack the ones in the back, unless if you use magic or attacks that ignore Rows. It creates the mentality of "Mash A to win" which is prevalent in a lot of RPGs. It can result in some battles being mindless button mashers.
Also, there is no cooldown for magic spells. As soon as you select the spell and the target(s), it immediately pops off, so there is no punishment for spamming your most powerful spells.
Despite these few flaws in the battles, the game is still a blast to play, because even nowadays there are few JRPG games that can top this level of character customization. The amount of different battle strategies and experimentation you have at your disposal is staggering. The gameplay alone is why this game is so good, and is the biggest reason why you have to play it, or just play it again lol.
{ Story, Spoiler Warning! }
This is a first for the Final Fantasy series, but in this game, you don't actually obtain the four Crystals of the Elements. By the time you reach them, they're already destroyed.
It turns out the Crystals were used as a power source for the people's cities and machinery, and were so overused that they ended up shattering. So while this is a story about the crystals, you don't save them. It's already too late. Instead, the four heroes are imbued with the power of these shattered pieces, hence the Jobs.
The main villain Exdeath gets pissed by the actions of the human race so he then becomes the physical embodiment of Mother Nature so to speak, using the power of The Void to rid the world of humanity, so it's up to you to stop him. It's a story about environmentalism.
However, the issue with the story though is one simple word: underwhelming. It's serviceable, but it's the weakest part about this game. The characters barely ever develop. Stories are about weaving a narrative and how a person or a group of people change from beginning to end.
From the beginning of the game to the end, you don't see many changes, if at all in any of the characters. But if I was to choose, I'd say the most developed characters were Galuf and Faris, but even then, it's nothing to write home about, because half of the game with Galuf is spent with him suffering from amnesia and trying to find out who he was.
And early on it's revealed that Faris is a pirate but is also a woman at the same time, which isn't really that shocking. She was originally a princess but she wanted to trade that captivity for her own freedom.
Though later on in the game, Galuf sacrifices himself to save his allies in a 1v1 fight against Exdeath. This was the best part in the game, because it made Galuf into a badass. And he died with dignity.
But then it goes downhill from here, because after that, his granddaughter Krile takes his place and she immediately inherits all of the abilities that he learned. Which not only makes his death inconsequential, but it actually makes the story even weaker, because Krile doesn't develop at all, especially since she is introduced so late into the story.
Interestingly enough, a character even more fleshed out than the party is actually an enemy which is Gilgamesh. He has quite a lot of joyful dialgoue and it actually got some chuckles out of me.
You meet him in the second world and throughout the rest of the game you encounter him time and time again, and by the end of the game, he actually becomes your friend. It's no wonder he is in almost every FF game after this, he's a really cool character.
Despite the weaker storytelling, it's a more humorous Final Fantasy game, which may have been the point, I don't know. One of the funniest and yet dumbest moments in the whole game, hell, in all of Final Fantasy is when Krile gets a splinter inside of her finger. The party then meets Sage, who is a...turtle who was actually one of the old four Guardians of Light who sealed Exdeath away from the world 30 years ago.
Then the splinter flies out of Krile's finger and then it...transforms into Exdeath..and then he says
Mwahahaha... I disguised myself as a little splinter, waiting for this moment...
And then he fuckin' fights Sage via warping around the room like it's a fucking Dragonball Z fight. Pfffftt!!
I couldn't make this shit up if I tried.
{ Soundtrack }
It's great. Like with many other FF games, some of the best tracks in the series are in this game. The Super Nintendo is a powerhouse in terms of making music. Any songs that have drums in it sound incredible. My most favorite songs in this game are:
- To the North Mountain
- Fire Ship
- Exdeath's Castle
- Battle on the Big Bridge (best track)
- A New World
- In Search of Light
- The Decisive Battle
- Battle 2
And the chocobo theme is the greatest fucking chocobo theme in any FF game, I'm dead serious. Go listen to it, it's incredible lol. Go listen to these other songs while you're at it.
The soundtrack in this game pales in comparison to the ones in Final Fantasy IV and VI, but it's still a great listen.
{ Best Version }
The best version of the game that you absolutely should play is the original Super Nintendo version. It's the most accessible and the best way to experience the game.
The easiest way to access it is via emulation, and getting it to run isn't difficult at all. Hell, I can play the game on my Android cell phone with a PS4 controller via Bluetooth with no issue at all. No joke. I do own the PS1 port but I refuse to play it again for good reasons.
It has a shitload of problems. The load times are really bad, the translation is fucking appalling, and the music and sound effects are total shit. They're actually compressed. How does music and sound effects from an SNES game become compressed on a PS1 disc??
This is also a problem with Final Fantasy VI, which is why you should avoid that as much as possible also.
The Gameboy Advance version is a good version but again, it has compressed music and sound effects, but not to the same butchered degree of the PS1 version. The only reason you would play that is for the extra exclusive Jobs and a couple extra boss fights. You could download a mod for the game on PC that restores the sound quality if that's what you fancy.
And for the love of god, do not, and I mean DO NOT play the mobile port of the game. Holy mother of shit, it's horrible. The graphics and the character models are beyond ugly and the user interface is just... Ugh!! I find it hard to believe that shit even exists, let alone charging people $15-18 to play it. Avoid that shit like the Black Death.
{ Final Thoughts }
A fine but ultimately weak story, an excellent soundtrack, and absolutely amazing gameplay with insane replay value. That's this game in a nutshell. It's a damn great game. If the story was better, the characters were given the Final Fantasy VI treatment, and some changes were given to the battles, then this game would easily be a 9 or even a 10/10.
This is definitely a game that you should play merely for its gameplay.
It's a more light-hearted fun adventure but I think that's the beauty of it. It's a very fun game, one of the most fun games in the franchise. God I love JRPGs.
8/10
Usually I talk about the story before the gameplay but this is a pretty gameplay heavy game, so I'll dive into that first.
{ Gameplay }
The Job System makes a return from Final Fantasy III but it has been so refined that the game is a real joy to play despite how underwhelming the storytelling is, like with Final Fantasy X-2.
Any character can be practically anything that you want them to be. And while some are more keen to physical or magical prowess, you have total control on how you want to make them. As you play through the game, you unlock more Jobs, and some of the best Jobs in the game are unlocked via side quests.
The Jobs have been expanded from the ones in Final Fantasy III. You no longer have to pay Job Points in order switch them, and now, each Jobs have Passive Abilities to go along with battle actions. This includes things like:
Thief: Can sprint, find hidden passgeways, reduce the chance of back attacks
Ninja: Can equip 2 swords, and increase the chance of preemptive strikes
Geomancer: Can avoid trap doors and pitfalls, and makes the party immune to damage-inflicting terrain like spikes and lava
As you level up each Job, you unlock more actions to use in battle. And each Job comes with one initial ability and an open slot to equip any OTHER ability that you earned. Either one to use in battle or any other passive ability.
I can't stress how insane this is in terms of customization. You can essentially play the game however you want to. There is so much mixing and matching to do here.
You could do things like:
- Give the Sorcerer the ability to equip the the Knight's 2-Handed ability so you can hold a sword with 2 hands for more damage, or learn the X-Fight ability from the Hunter Job so you can attack 4 times in one turn.
- You can have a Mime Job equip Black, White, and Time magic at once (since they get 3 open ability slots).
- You you can use a Ninja and have them use the X-Fight ability since they have 2 Swords equipped by default, meaning you can attack EIGHT times in one turn.
- Or have a White, Black, Blue, or Time Mage have the Red Mages x2 Dualcast ability, which allows you to cast spells twice in one turn.
There are literally dozens of combinations that you can give to your party. It's amazing.
And there are no bosses, aside from a couple of them, where you must use specific Jobs in order to beat them, unlike in Final Fantasy III. You can use whatever combination you feel is best for you. Some Jobs are more overpowered than others, but unlike FFIII, FFV provides free reign to the player.
And this freedom makes this game one of the most replayable games in the series. And what makes a game like this so fun is the reward for mastering its mechanics. The reward comes from leveling up those Jobs. It's like how I feel about the Junction System in Final Fantasy VIII.
I know people either love or hate the Junction System, but me? I am a fuckin' geek. I love micromanaging my characters, seeing these tangible improvements to each aptitude. I love being able to customize my characters the way I would like them to be. I like to see just how much power I can gain, it's much more exciting than just gaining experience points and gaining levels.
Every time a Job levels up, there is always a payoff for doing it. Some abilities are much more useful than others, but having that flexibility encourages experimentation.
Each Job have different speeds of advancement. And the amount of Ability Points required increases as they level up, but, the more you level up the Job, the better the rewards are.
And if you reach the max level to a Job, you MASTER it. The Freelancer, which is the base Job, is able to get the highest stat adjustments to all Jobs they have mastered. Essentially, huge boosts in their stats, which automatically makes them the best they can be. They also get 2 open ability slots.
So basically, by the late game, there are an endless amount of possibilities to mess around with, it's mind-blowing.
This can even encourage you to replay the game again and see how you could play the game a different way.
Wanna know my personal favorite Job setup?
- Bartz (Primary DPS)
Abilities: !X-Fight and !2-Swords
- Lenna (Primary Magic DPS)
Abilities: !Black and !Summon (sometimes I'll give her !White instead of !Summon)
- Galuf/Krile (Primary Healer/Support, and with Mime equipped)
Abilities: !Time, !White, and !Blue
- Faris (Secondary DPS)
-Abilities: !X-Fight and !Spellblade
I'm curious as to what your favorite Job combinations are.
Also, if you want to know what each Job does what, click on this link. Because there is quite a lot, you'll thank me later.
https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_V/Jobs#Starting_job
There are also additional tweaks done to the battles that can be both good and bad depending on how you look at it.
This is the first game where you can actually see the ATB gauges, letting you know exactly when a character is going to get their turn. However, you can't switch from one turn to another like in Final Fantasy IV.
If you want to skip a turn, you have to use the Defend command (Right D-Pad and A) which puts the ATB gauge back to 0, which can be annoying if you skip a turn but then your enemy hits you really hard and you really need that character to act again.
The game also has the Front and Back Row mechanic from FFIV. If you're in the Front Row, you deal normal physical damage but also take normal damage from physical attacks, and if you're in the Back Row, you take half damage from physical attacks but you can only deal half damage yourself.
Enemies can also be in either the Front or Back Rows, so it's recommended that you attack the enemies in the front before you attack the ones in the back, unless if you use magic or attacks that ignore Rows. It creates the mentality of "Mash A to win" which is prevalent in a lot of RPGs. It can result in some battles being mindless button mashers.
Also, there is no cooldown for magic spells. As soon as you select the spell and the target(s), it immediately pops off, so there is no punishment for spamming your most powerful spells.
Despite these few flaws in the battles, the game is still a blast to play, because even nowadays there are few JRPG games that can top this level of character customization. The amount of different battle strategies and experimentation you have at your disposal is staggering. The gameplay alone is why this game is so good, and is the biggest reason why you have to play it, or just play it again lol.
{ Story, Spoiler Warning! }
This is a first for the Final Fantasy series, but in this game, you don't actually obtain the four Crystals of the Elements. By the time you reach them, they're already destroyed.
It turns out the Crystals were used as a power source for the people's cities and machinery, and were so overused that they ended up shattering. So while this is a story about the crystals, you don't save them. It's already too late. Instead, the four heroes are imbued with the power of these shattered pieces, hence the Jobs.
The main villain Exdeath gets pissed by the actions of the human race so he then becomes the physical embodiment of Mother Nature so to speak, using the power of The Void to rid the world of humanity, so it's up to you to stop him. It's a story about environmentalism.
However, the issue with the story though is one simple word: underwhelming. It's serviceable, but it's the weakest part about this game. The characters barely ever develop. Stories are about weaving a narrative and how a person or a group of people change from beginning to end.
From the beginning of the game to the end, you don't see many changes, if at all in any of the characters. But if I was to choose, I'd say the most developed characters were Galuf and Faris, but even then, it's nothing to write home about, because half of the game with Galuf is spent with him suffering from amnesia and trying to find out who he was.
And early on it's revealed that Faris is a pirate but is also a woman at the same time, which isn't really that shocking. She was originally a princess but she wanted to trade that captivity for her own freedom.
Though later on in the game, Galuf sacrifices himself to save his allies in a 1v1 fight against Exdeath. This was the best part in the game, because it made Galuf into a badass. And he died with dignity.
But then it goes downhill from here, because after that, his granddaughter Krile takes his place and she immediately inherits all of the abilities that he learned. Which not only makes his death inconsequential, but it actually makes the story even weaker, because Krile doesn't develop at all, especially since she is introduced so late into the story.
Interestingly enough, a character even more fleshed out than the party is actually an enemy which is Gilgamesh. He has quite a lot of joyful dialgoue and it actually got some chuckles out of me.
You meet him in the second world and throughout the rest of the game you encounter him time and time again, and by the end of the game, he actually becomes your friend. It's no wonder he is in almost every FF game after this, he's a really cool character.
Despite the weaker storytelling, it's a more humorous Final Fantasy game, which may have been the point, I don't know. One of the funniest and yet dumbest moments in the whole game, hell, in all of Final Fantasy is when Krile gets a splinter inside of her finger. The party then meets Sage, who is a...turtle who was actually one of the old four Guardians of Light who sealed Exdeath away from the world 30 years ago.
Then the splinter flies out of Krile's finger and then it...transforms into Exdeath..and then he says
Mwahahaha... I disguised myself as a little splinter, waiting for this moment...
And then he fuckin' fights Sage via warping around the room like it's a fucking Dragonball Z fight. Pfffftt!!
I couldn't make this shit up if I tried.
{ Soundtrack }
It's great. Like with many other FF games, some of the best tracks in the series are in this game. The Super Nintendo is a powerhouse in terms of making music. Any songs that have drums in it sound incredible. My most favorite songs in this game are:
- To the North Mountain
- Fire Ship
- Exdeath's Castle
- Battle on the Big Bridge (best track)
- A New World
- In Search of Light
- The Decisive Battle
- Battle 2
And the chocobo theme is the greatest fucking chocobo theme in any FF game, I'm dead serious. Go listen to it, it's incredible lol. Go listen to these other songs while you're at it.
The soundtrack in this game pales in comparison to the ones in Final Fantasy IV and VI, but it's still a great listen.
{ Best Version }
The best version of the game that you absolutely should play is the original Super Nintendo version. It's the most accessible and the best way to experience the game.
The easiest way to access it is via emulation, and getting it to run isn't difficult at all. Hell, I can play the game on my Android cell phone with a PS4 controller via Bluetooth with no issue at all. No joke. I do own the PS1 port but I refuse to play it again for good reasons.
It has a shitload of problems. The load times are really bad, the translation is fucking appalling, and the music and sound effects are total shit. They're actually compressed. How does music and sound effects from an SNES game become compressed on a PS1 disc??
This is also a problem with Final Fantasy VI, which is why you should avoid that as much as possible also.
The Gameboy Advance version is a good version but again, it has compressed music and sound effects, but not to the same butchered degree of the PS1 version. The only reason you would play that is for the extra exclusive Jobs and a couple extra boss fights. You could download a mod for the game on PC that restores the sound quality if that's what you fancy.
And for the love of god, do not, and I mean DO NOT play the mobile port of the game. Holy mother of shit, it's horrible. The graphics and the character models are beyond ugly and the user interface is just... Ugh!! I find it hard to believe that shit even exists, let alone charging people $15-18 to play it. Avoid that shit like the Black Death.
{ Final Thoughts }
A fine but ultimately weak story, an excellent soundtrack, and absolutely amazing gameplay with insane replay value. That's this game in a nutshell. It's a damn great game. If the story was better, the characters were given the Final Fantasy VI treatment, and some changes were given to the battles, then this game would easily be a 9 or even a 10/10.
This is definitely a game that you should play merely for its gameplay.
It's a more light-hearted fun adventure but I think that's the beauty of it. It's a very fun game, one of the most fun games in the franchise. God I love JRPGs.
8/10
Just a cute game all around, really. No towering highs but no abyssal lows, either.
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 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.
grinding those objet d'arts for 3 hours to master every job and have the most broken builds of all time was the moment i realized this is the best ff game
I've played through this game more often than I can count, and I love coming back to it. It's a lot of fun challenging yourself to do runs with different setups, my favorite is probably Blue Mage only. The game offers a lot of customization and exploration of its mechanics thanks to the job system that allows players to mix and match abilities across different jobs to create potent combinations. To append this, the equipment in this game can do very unique things as well, from status effects, to absorption, to procs on weapons and upgrades to abilities and the like. The story is also very memorable, perhaps because of how bizarre the opening section is. The Playstation version has a very amusing translation that has many silly enemy names and Faris talking like a pirate for the entire game. I think my favorite way to play this game is likely the Super Famicom version with a translation patch. The recent remake doesn't really appease me as it was very buggy when I tried it, and the savestate system diminishes the enjoyment of the tension the game has when you traverse between save points.