“It's amazing how, over time, a person's perspective can be altered.”
-William Frederick Durst

I knew next to nothing about Final Fantasy V going in: It’s lighter in tone, it has a “job system”, and it didn’t initially release in the west. VI is the one people talk about.

Coming hot off the heels of the first four entries, I was ready for anything. Final Fantasy V is indeed lighter in tone for the most part, with plenty of jokes and banter, and a surprising amount of down-time with the party.

If this had been my first Final Fantasy game I might have wanted a meatier, darker story, but I also don’t want to put games in a box. A figurative box. Some games come in a box. Final Fantasy V almost certainly came in a box on release. This franchise has displayed a dedication to variety that I think is pretty rare in the industry, and each Final Fantasy is its own beast. This one is a goofy one, and I thought it worked.

The near-constant swapping of party members in past entries wasn’t necessarily a negative, but it was refreshing to play through a game with a highly consistent cast of core characters. The personalities at the center of the story kept me engaged, and I think I’m personally a character-focused player. While the plot definitely has its moments, I feel the smaller beats of levity are where the game shines. The game is luckily filled with them!

“I'm OCD beyond comparison.”
-William Frederick Durst

The job system takes said characters and turns them into first-year college students, swapping disciplines on the fly, encouraging and facilitating a massive amount of experimentation with the gameplay. This exacerbates some experience point issues shared by past entries, but I will say that grinding for specific upgrades is easier to swallow (for me) than just general leveling.

I wanted to rank everything up. I wanted to get everything. I wanted my endgame characters to be the most versatile ever. This came at the cost of the game’s narrative pacing, as I spent way more time fighting random monsters than I did progressing the story. By the end, my team was beastly but my interest in the plot had waned slightly.

But it can’t be overstated just how fun the experimentation with the job system is. Each job is distinct enough to seemingly be viable for the whole game, yet there’s a definite progression as you unlock more and more of them.

“I'm definitely on the incline to a peak.”
-William Frederick Durst

I enjoyed my time with Finally a Fantasy V more than I did with the already solid Final Fantasy IV. I thought IV was better than III. III was better than II. II wasn’t as good as I but the point is, I’m feeling the winds of quality blowing toward Final Fantasy VI. Will it be the series best it is often hailed as, or will I be left yearning for my time with Bartz and the gang?

“I stopped predicting the future a long time ago.”
-William Frederick Durst

One of my all-time favorites. The main theme has the power to unlock a cascade of memories that always makes me deeply emotional. Final Fantasy V is a gem. It weaves a simple yet heartfelt story with remarkable composure. It boasts one of the most enjoyable gameplay systems ever seen in the Final Fantasy with a huge array of combinations and features charming characters like Ghido, the original warriors, Gilgamesh, and even its villain.

In my opinion, Final Fantasy V is often underestimated due to its perceived lack of 'complexity' compared to other entries in the FF franchise and other JRPGs. However, it possesses a subtle elegance and lightheartedness reminiscent of the best Dragon Quest games. While the second world/arc may feel like a bit of a downtime, everything else in the game is simply outstanding. The bigger and bigger stakes after each crystal (and world!), the battle on the big bridge, the exploration of new worlds, the epic confrontation of Galuf against Exdeath, and the captivating library segment and many, many more all exude charm and brilliance.

Final Fantasy V was the forgotten 16-bit FF game that never came to the west but got a cult following over the years. I never got around to playing this game even though I had the FF anthology way back when, the pixel remasters felt like a good time to give it a go. What I found is a FF game that doesn’t have the level of storytelling found in FF6 but it does have some deep RPG systems and a rich world to explore.

FFVs claim to fame is the job system, often claimed to be the best FF RPG system. It does live up to the high praise, the amount of customization and freedom this system gives to the player is impressive. With the push of a button I can change my white mage into a beasttamer who can capture enemies and learn to control them. I can go from a ninja to a bard, all stats adjust instantly to fit that job. The genius part is how as you level up the jobs you learn new abilities not just for the job you are using but certain command abilities once learned can be added to an ability slot on any other job. Now you are mixing and matching abilities from multiple jobs while using the stats of the base job you want. It also for so much control over every single class and ability the game has to offer.

The flip side to this is that the game only has a party of four. I prefer large diverse parties in my FF games but these four party members are so mailable that can be every single class. I did specialize each of the four, so that they each would cover 3 or 4 different classes that would compliment each other. For instance my white mage was also the summoner so that she would have powerful spells I could use when no healing was needed. Certain classes weren’t all that useful as a base class but have one or two abilities well worth getting so I would make sure to use them until I gained the ability then switch back. There are over 15 jobs to learn, they are unlocked as the story goes so it doesn’t throw them all at you at once. It’s paced extremely well to open the layers of depth in a way that never overwhelms.

FFV tells the story of four characters that happen to meet as the world is having cataclysmic events. Bartz is the standard young man from a small town that discovers has a secret heritage and leads the group to save the world. There are princess and a former king that form the party, each are well fleshed out and have small character journeys but it’s not close to drama in 6 or any of the later FF games. The overall story is the standard evil dude wants to break some crystals to absorb the power and take over the world, the twist in this one is there are multiple dimensions of the world.

I love world maps in old FF games and this one is really cool. You will gain multiple ways to traverse the map, each allowing you to reach certain areas but not all. Towns and dungeons are uncovered at a great pace creating a great gameplay loop where it feels you are always growing and have something new to discover. At the mid point the world is shaken up and you enter a whole other dimension which is similar to the first world but all the inhabitants and locations have changed. FF games should feel big, epic journeys and this game captures that grand scale.

The narrative never really reaches the proper heights to really grip me. There are stand out moments, but ultimately I felt I was going through the motions by the end. A lot of RPGs face this issue, it has a reverse difficulty curve where it’s tougher at the start than the end. The first half or even two thirds I was enjoying all that experimentation. Boss battles tested each of my builds. Dungeons had enough tough enemies to keep me engaged in fights. As I got really powerful and found the optimal team setup most of the standard battles became trivial. If not for the creative boss battles that fill the game, the last part of the game would have been a total snooze fest. Usually the stories hold the game if the combat is getting stale but this one didn’t have that. So it doesn’t end as exciting as I’d hope, but the majority of the game was a blast.

The pixel remaster makes all the sprites and environments pop with beautiful colors. There seem to be a few quality of life enhancements with the world map, how sprinting works and balance adjustments. Musically you can use the original 16-bit soundtrack or an all new updated version which I used, another stellar FF soundtrack.

Final Fantasy V is another great entry in this legendary franchise. It’s more focused on the actual character build process than most, and easily the most customizable of the series. While the story is still fun with memorable characters and locations it doesn’t come close to the highs most of the games in this series reach. That and some difficulty balance issues toward the end hold it back from being a FF classic, but it’s still a great old school RPG.

Overall Score: 8.3

Wife’s Reaction:
“The increasing ridiculousness of the villain names is the only way I can track your progress through your multitude of pixelated games.”

Breaking the Crystal Ceiling:
I’m happy to say the Job System in Final Fantasy V lives up to the hype; it helps make the combat better than ever because of all the options available. I spent so much time swapping Jobs and optimizing each character. The Job System needs to return!

Su punto más fuerte es el gameplay. el sistema de trabajos es una locura y está incluso adelantado a su época, te da una libertad absurda para customizar que función y rol cumple cada personaje, haciéndolo de los final fantasy más rejugables si no el que más.

En ese apartado no hay quejas, mi problema están más bien en la historia.

los personajes principales son buenos, son memorables y me acuerdo de sus nombres, pero la historia que les acompaña es... mediocre a más no poder. y eso ha hecho que este sea el final fantasy hasta la fecha que MÁS he tardado en pasarme, lo abandonaba frecuentemente porque la historia no conseguía engancharme nunca.

Final fantasy 2 tenía mala historia, pero por lo menos el juego era más corto y tenía la motivación de estar más fresco en la saga.

Y la historia de final fantasy 4 es mala en su mayoría, pero era mala de una forma que era divertida.

la historia de 5 en su punto más alto está simplemente bien, y en su punto más bajo es demasiado goofy, es decente como máximo y eso me aburrió más que si hubiera sido bastante mala.

pero soy consciente de que esto es sólo problema mío, puedo entender fácilmente como este podría ser un juego confort de alguien.

Tons of fun. The story is in focus here, and it's actually funny in a way games rarely are. They refined the "heroic sacrifice" in this entry, and--importantly--they limit it to one character.

The job system is deep and intuitive, and could be very fun to replay with different combinations in the future (looking at you, Four-Job Fiesta).

I still don't love ATB, but FF has always wanted to be more action-focused than its counterparts, so I begrudgingly accept it.

Easily the best of the pixel games I've played so far.

Gripes I want to get out of the way: while the gameplay is excellent, going for the Platinum meant some unfun grinding and some specific plays (to learn all the blue magic, a few spells require you to be a specific level, etc.). The superbosses can be trivialized with certain team builds, but the initial shock of getting instantly killed by them hit me like a train (I'm certain that was the intention).

That stuff aside, what did I think of the game? I adored it. My favorite cast of characters thus far, I absolutely loved the whole team (and I finally understood the "bad jokes will be PUNished" reference my old friend from high school referenced), Exdeath might be my favorite villain out of all the games I've played, he's sinister but felt actually intimidating. The story is also the best thus far, combining that with characters I felt emotionally invested in made it even better.

The job system is mostly great (aside from the superboss builds requiring some busywork), it takes time to max them out and get the perks, but it's honestly worth maxing out every job you get since it pays dividends by the endgame.

Second favorite FF so far (sorry, the action lover has it for 16).

9/10

And now it's time for what most consider to be the magnum opus of the series, 6.

When i say “you cant make a game like this anymore” i dont mean any annoying political tripe or cultural thing, i mean that writers are too scared to have the main villain turn himself into a splinter (im splinter exdeath!!!) for the sole purpose of telling you his master plan and then proceeding to get into a dbz style fistfight with a turtle. The chocobos dont dance to their own theme anymore, you dont get a single small room where you have to slide on your face to hide from enemies (you dont even get the choice) anymore, the list goes on. If any of these stupid wacky things happened nowadays its be a shitty parody game with annoying dialogue that hates itself for being an rpg.
Thats what FFV’s biggest strength is: it loves itself. FFV is a love letter to the series as a whole up to this point, including itself. Its silly and goofy, but the emotional parts of the story still hit hard, and the systems are some the best of any ATB game. (I will defend ATB btw i love this system)
4 is what got me into this series, 5 is what made me fall in love with it.
I am never 100% this game again

It's not a bad game, but it does have a lot of flaws. That said, let's start with the positives. The game looks and sounds great. It also has a pretty charming story, although there's not much to it. The job system is also very cool, even though I didn't use it to its fullest potential. There's a lot you can do with the various classes. That's my problem with this game though: It has so much potential, but doesn't go anywhere with it. The story is laughably thin. You'd think the story would be more substantial, considering it's a SNES Final Fantasy game, but it's barely there. This is especially disappointing, coming from FFIV. Heck, the main villain is called Exdeath. It's so ridiculously stupid. When I first started the game, I was loving it, with pirate ships, adventure and whatnot. I was excited to see the story evolve, but it's a typical, bland cartoony story.

Then there's the pacing. It takes a dive in the second half. The game starts to feel bloated and keeps going on and on after a while, making you wonder when it's going to stop. Not only that, but the game is filled with gimmick bosses. A lot of the time, I was overleveled with good gear, but I still couldn't beat certain bosses. Ahh, but there's a trick to this boss. He attacks you every time you use physical attacks, or he can only be damaged by magic and so on. Felt like so many of the bosses didn't take any skill, you just had to know the right gimmick to take them down. This is pretty disappointing when Final Fantasy bosses have always been great in the sense that you feel like the whole team is coming together with good equipment, taking down bosses, giving you a satisfying feeling, but instead, you just have to find out the gimmick. A lot of bosses were annoying like that.

All in all, not a bad game, but certainly one of the weaker Final Fantasy games. Get it during a sale if you want to try out the cool job system, just don't expect a deep story like in IV or VI.

Absurd, enormous, titanic. It took us a looooong time, but we finally have a "definitive" version of one of the best games in the series, and one of the most fun rpgs of all time - the possibility to earn as much as 4x the ABP allows even greater experimentation with the all-time great job system. On this playthrough, I even found out that a bard can be very useful. A bard! Absurd.

You can break the game at your leisure, with scandalous combos like the classic Rapid Fire + Dual Wield, and Spellblade + anything really (Dance has some RNG involved, but it's also a deadly combination).

Or make a challenging playthrough where you restrict what jobs you can use, such as the popular Four Job Fiesta challenge. It's all up to you.

On top of that, what the story lacks in nuance or depth, it delivers on an insane amount of charm and even humour. Ghido is one of the most entertaining characters in the franchise, and Exdeath just chews the scenery anytime he's on screen - the fucker is a sentient evil tree that turns into a splinter at one point of the story, it's truly glorious. Keep your villains with elaborate backstories and "sympathetic" motivations, I sometimes miss just having a douchebag that's evil just because.

This version also offers the best renditions of some of the series' most iconic tracks, such as Dear Friends (this version actually gave me goosebumps), Battle on the Big Bridge, and the best ending theme of Final Fantasy just got better.

The only negative thing I can say is that playing this made me truly sad that this is somehow the last time a mainline FF featured the job system. That is insane to me.

hoooo boy i was kind of afraid i'd have this opinion

whenever a game in a really big franchise like this is well liked by some hardcore fans but never really picked up by audiences at large it makes me concerned, because you know there's a reason why that entry never took off. final fantasy v is that game and now i get why it isn't more popular.

obv there's a lot to enjoy here. music is gorgeous, story is fun, there's a few EXCELLENT characters, and the game is massive in scope compared to every game before this. still, ultimately you have a game with a worse story, cast, setting, and general visuals than the game which precedes it. what is the draw here exactly? gameplay! lets talk about it lol

final fantasy v is defined by its job system and sometimes it works, too often for me it felt lacking though. there's just so much trial and error gameplay where you'll enter encounters which have very specific requirements for what sort of abilities you need to clear them with no way of knowing until the encounter begins. if things go well then cool, otherwise instant game over or potentially prepare for a long and obnoxious struggle to victory. and on that note, more than any other final fantasy game i've played, the amount of shit going on in this game which imposes no challenge or test other than that of my patience is obnoxious. idk why half of every monster formation towards the game's conclusion needed a confuse ability goodness gracious. anyway, there are certainly times when it can be fun to figure out some killer job abilities that just obliterate whatever the task at hand is, and i'm sure whenever i replay this game with all the information i know now i'll have a quite different experience, but i think a lot of the game design here was a little too trial-and-error-y for my tastes

i think final fantasy xii and x-2 spoiled me with their job systems. random note but i was surprised how easy the final boss was here, after all the nonsense to get to him lol.

anyway when in doubt remember to fall in love or something you might learn a thing or two about yourself

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

Não é tão bom quanto o IV, mas continua incrível!

Gostei principalmente dos personagens, Gilgamesh é um "vilão" carismático e super memorável. Enquanto os personagens principais: Bartz, Lenna, Faris, Galuf e Krile formam uma ótima equipe, cada qual melhor do que o outro.

E também adorei o novo sistema de profissões, pois agora é possível misturar habilidades de diferentes profissões e fazer algumas builds poderosíssimas (criei um cavaleiro místico com empunhadura de 2 mãos que dava 8k por ataque).

WHY HELLO THERE, my fellow Final Fantasy enjoyers, JRPG consumers, FF IV conquerors and gamers from all around the world

Upon defeating the spirit of raw hatred itself in Final Fantasy IV, I embark on my newest journey: sailing the Final Fantasy V seas as a Freelancer!
As the before installments, FF V is completely standalone and isolated from the previous Final Fantasy games.
As per the now established formula, some concepts are recurring: Chocobos, elemental Crystals, that one guy named Cid who really likes airships yada yada, you know the drill.

Yet again, we have a named cast, starting with our traveling protagonist Bartz and his chocobo companion Boko. Throughout the game you meet other charming characters like Galuf, Lena, Faris and Krile to build up your party. Their interactions are fun, and throughout the game a rather charming and endearing tone is set, much less grave, sad and melancholic like FF IV was. A welcome change, imo, after such a heavy game, a lighthearted one definitely works. Our new villain is a man in a tin suit that laughs in an exaggerated way and mocks the party at all times, unlike the practical Golbez of few words from IV. By the end you truly believe the Final Fantasy was the friends we made along the way with how charming Bartz being a doofus is, how Galuf breaks some tropes, how Gilgamesh keeps appearing (ARGH!), or how Faris' secret is revealed.
That doesn't mean the game is devoid of serious or sad moments, however. These moments are even more accentuated due to the lighthearted tone of the game, so when shit goes down, it really does. I think it is a good example of good storytelling and setting moods.

Gameplay & mechanics! The job system returns from FF III, along with the ATB system from FF IV. Personally, I rolled my eyes the moment I saw the job system but that feeling was quickly tossed aside: this time around, the system is much more improved, less gimmicky and more useful. The penalties for switching jobs are basically nonexistent so it feels a lot like the game encourages you to experiment with various jobs. Some abilities that you obtain by leveling up the job, can be used in the ability slot to use it outside the job, leading to wacky, practical or downright broken setups (Dualcast Summoner, looking at you). Rarely did I feel the need to use a specific job to progress, unlike FF III where some parts of the game were gated by using specific jobs for the boss battle or area.

As far as graphics go, FF V seems more colorful and vibrant compared to FF IV, most likely because the tone is lighter as well. The spritework is also good as expected of a Pixel Remaster entry. Every character has a different outfit for each job (which is very neat), ranging from cool to cute and some even being wacky. As usual, effects are the wildest and flashy.
Not much to say in this department that hasn't been said in previous entries, although it's a shame our protagonists this time around don't have portraits in the party menu.

Music! As usual, FF V gets a really neat soundtrack, remade with real instruments and fully faithful to the original SNES soundtrack. Some absolute bangers present in this entry. In no particular order, my favourites are: Battle at the Big Bridge, The Dawn Warriors, Reminiscence, Beyond the Deep Blue Sea, Sorrows of Parting, Slumber of Ancient Earth and very close to being my top favourite is The Final Battle, what a banger.

I personally recommend this entry in the Final Fantasy franchise. It was probably at this point where they finally nailed a perfect balance between wackiness and serious storytelling, with compelling character interactions and not just a melancholic story that you are looking forward to see unfold like IV along with a job system that encourages the players to experiment and find their own playstyle.
Give it a shot, it's fun.

[job changes to Monk and slices the review with Katana] see you in Final Fantasy VI, adventurer.