Finally finished this for my 550th log- only took uhhh a year and some months.
Perhaps the most eclectic FF so far. Even compared to earlier FFs it really stands out from the prior FFs but also I can't imagine any of the later games have a tone quite as odd as Final Fantasy V. It jumps from the usual epic grandeur of the series, traveling on Chocobos and Airships, dungeon crawling, building your party and conquering titans. However, it just as easily swaps to these cheesy as hell moments during cutscenes where our cast spouts TMNT and Power Ranger references. Bizarre that this stuff got brought over from the GBA and Smartphone versions but I guess this is just how the tone of FFV will go. Part of me wonders what the game would look like without most of these and I would groan but in truth this game has always felt like some sort of enigma to me. FFs in general have always had a weird vibe in my head with regards to my understanding. I never played any apart from 4 DS as a teen (didn't beat) and then several years later I decided to try this out on the GBA port. If I remember correctly, around the same time I would have been finishing Dragon Quest III so perhaps I was looking for another class customization heavy JRPG? I didn't get too far but since then I've always had a fondness for this one in particular and had since wanted to sit down and fully commit myself to FFV. Over the course of a year and several other FFs later this pixel remaster came out and I put in the time but I did sit down and come back to this one more than I had hoped for. Thinking on Final Fantasies as a whole for a moment, there's only a few of them that really 'stand out' as titans metaphorically, the ones that jump to mind as the name Final Fantasy is brought up. FFIV, VI, VII, and X are usually the strongest in my mind, not so much in terms of quality but typically as the ones most 'stand-out' and typical to the franchise. FFs I-III try to establish a winning formula with what RPGs can manage and do for the times, while 4 sticks to a dedicated cast and decides to tell a focused story, VI and VII remain titans of the franchise with little need for explanation as to why and onward it's kind of a grabbag, although X for some reason always had a fragment in my mind even as kid for some reason. 8, 9 and 12 I don't know much about although they usually fill out a chunk of my mind as wildly differing branches of what I know about Final Fantasy. I could also talk about XIV however as I've yet to dive deep into it I barely understand what's going on whenever people talk about that game considering its 6 versions in. I bring this up because V feels like this really weird side path between Final Fantasies IV and VI, so seeing as how gamers in the west during the 90s going from the former to the latter makes a lot of sense but going from the former to V is an odd path to take when tackling this linearly. You don't transition from tropey but large scale drama to generation-defining epic as smoothly as V, this klutz of a fantasy, decides to place its sweet self between the two entries.
I can't really complain though, this game can get really neat. Neat might be the best descriptor I can give- as its customizable classes aren't necessarily new, considering III DOES exist despite how often I forget it does, AND it often falls into the pitfalls that other class-heavy japanese rpgs do. Yet, this thankfully improves upon III's systems and provides enough tools that it doesn't leave you to dry as often as I convinced myself it would. What I mean by this is that I'm kind of an idiot in a lot of ways. But also! this game does like to play around with its bosses more often, and considering how many options you might have when it comes to classes it might be easy to place yourself in a corner. Quite often bosses would seem way more daunting than they were worth because I didn't take into consideration how many simple ideas just work. A lot of these bosses feel like puzzles, and sometimes the solution is as simple as 'Spellblade + Thundaga is way more powerful than you think' but the game has so many complex build options that I tend to skew into just 'but this thing had bigger number in normal random battle' which would lead to my demise in certain bosses. Other bosses just don't care about having resistances. One particular boss (or trio of bosses) I didn't wanna deal with turned out to be susceptible to Odin's Zanketsuken! Brilliant! This does lead to quite a few moments of complex, fairly frustrating encounters in which I kinda wished my own creativeness would just prevail rather than needing to untangle and cobble together some other strategy because I might have missed a certain blue magic or I don't have an adequately leveled black mage. Or maybe I'd rather perish a slow and arduous death than try to wrap my head around the intricacies of the beastmaster class for 5 minutes. It's not too often but I have the brain disease that makes me want to keep a character as one class as long as they can so that they can be extremely great at one thing, but also to have these classes kept to these characters so as to check out as many classes as possible. Unfortunately there are times where the best solution is to just break this disease and have two characters have the same class (or maybe I accidentally made Faris both the best DPS and the best Mage without realizing it- uh oh).
My main critical problem against the game itself is there are admittedly a few stinker classes. Buff Dancer! Make Berserker more interesting! There are possible ways that these more niche classes could be overhauled or more functional so as to make them stand out compared to more traditional but practical classes like Monk, Summoner or White Mage. Most of the classes work really well and switching from class to class is a lot easier than in 3, although understanding the upsides of certain jobs takes a bit of faith. 'Chemist is one of the best jobs in the game, trust me' I saw, 'Use Zenigage! It's what makes Samurai good!' the daimyo of Bal wailed. Nonsense, all I need is Krile to grab Berserk and stay a monk and do all the work. Dragoon isn't that good? Then how come I can jump? That's rad. (I should note I typed much of this before beating the final boss- a battle I mostly won on...Zenigage + Chemist using Mix! I mostly just didn't wanna rewrite this entire section) I say much of this as admittedly an apology to Final Fantasy V, similar to other class systems in gaming as my strategizing and planning really isn't as complex as perhaps the game would want me to think on. Maybe it's because Final Fantasy was still just a matter of the turn based combat that the class system would have some oddities I didn't take into consideration which kept me from being wholly engrossed in its system and more so entertained. Maybe I sound cheeky in this regard but I did wish my understanding of the classes for FFV was a bit clearer in-game. Mostly I wish the game was just transparent in what abilities I was getting so I could fully realize the utilities of my party and its jobs, but much of it turned into a party of swiss army knives with a little of columns A-C, a specialty in D and what I would have liked to be a mastery in E but a greater need at the moment for said character to be Column F instead. Perhaps better class planning in later replays would greatly trim the sloppy catalog of abilities I ended on, but that's for a later Polaroid. I mostly bring this up not in scathing criticism or in contradiction to its strongest and generally most acclaimed aspect, I mostly bring about my hiccups in the job system- as I admit I'm not certain how I feel about job systems in general at the moment. After sitting on Yakuza 7 for a while, I came to feel generally positive about the idea, but remembering certain flops and hiccups in how some classes progressed, on top of some other oddities regarding battles. Final Fantasy 3, being the first in the series to structure a job system for later games to build upon gets some slack for how early it is, but of course has its own can of worms in terms of balancing. Tactics, while I have yet to beat it, has an immensely deep class system, but gets into the territory of needing some guidance in unlocking other classes to diversify your team. Here in Final Fantasy V, while I enjoy the ease and speed in getting new jobs- as well as the amount of good jobs versus middling; I do think there's a major balancing problem. How come certain classes end on just 'Equip Axes' while others end on borderline game breaking abilities like Rapid Shot. Red Mage has the idea in knowing that to get the insane ability in 'Dual Cast' locked at a 1159 AP level cap but the Ranger’s ‘Rapid Fire’ is not only slightly more practical but only requires nearly half that in 600 ap. By the end of the game and once several classes are mastered, a lot of it starts to click and regular battles begin to become a joke, and I love it. I really just wish I had better planned who was gonna get what classes, as a lot of the late game was spent wondering why I spent as much time as I had in certain classes. Once I had finally sat down and got that chemist class leveled up I finally saw the appeal in abilities like Mix and Revive, but I don’t know why I spend so much time trying to make Berserker work. Hell, I never even got Black Mage maxed out, which felt strange.
Otherwise the game progresses about as similarly as other Final Fantasy, although the last third is kind of the least interesting part, with a late game party change and some pretty lackluster dungeons until the final stretch.
The pixel remastered soundtrack is pretty great, and some of the remastered effects look really great but I'm still on the fence on how the actual spritework looks part of the time. I am disappointed however that the game lacks much of the bonus combat that was added to the GBA and defunct PC release.
Overall I was really looking forward to playing this, and all things considered a lot of the game's charms and structure is very enjoyable but sometimes its quirk gets in the way of taking it too seriously- it still has one last push before it reaches the heights of the series' epic status nowadays. Certainly this and other FFs prior have their stellar moments and memorable moments, but with the help of hindsight and some knowledge of FF6- its hard to really compare most of the stuff that came beforehand. This was definitely my favorite thus far, but the third act and some of the cast really keep it from being my favorite of the bunch. Would still greatly recommend it primarily for its unique battling and progression system.
Perhaps the most eclectic FF so far. Even compared to earlier FFs it really stands out from the prior FFs but also I can't imagine any of the later games have a tone quite as odd as Final Fantasy V. It jumps from the usual epic grandeur of the series, traveling on Chocobos and Airships, dungeon crawling, building your party and conquering titans. However, it just as easily swaps to these cheesy as hell moments during cutscenes where our cast spouts TMNT and Power Ranger references. Bizarre that this stuff got brought over from the GBA and Smartphone versions but I guess this is just how the tone of FFV will go. Part of me wonders what the game would look like without most of these and I would groan but in truth this game has always felt like some sort of enigma to me. FFs in general have always had a weird vibe in my head with regards to my understanding. I never played any apart from 4 DS as a teen (didn't beat) and then several years later I decided to try this out on the GBA port. If I remember correctly, around the same time I would have been finishing Dragon Quest III so perhaps I was looking for another class customization heavy JRPG? I didn't get too far but since then I've always had a fondness for this one in particular and had since wanted to sit down and fully commit myself to FFV. Over the course of a year and several other FFs later this pixel remaster came out and I put in the time but I did sit down and come back to this one more than I had hoped for. Thinking on Final Fantasies as a whole for a moment, there's only a few of them that really 'stand out' as titans metaphorically, the ones that jump to mind as the name Final Fantasy is brought up. FFIV, VI, VII, and X are usually the strongest in my mind, not so much in terms of quality but typically as the ones most 'stand-out' and typical to the franchise. FFs I-III try to establish a winning formula with what RPGs can manage and do for the times, while 4 sticks to a dedicated cast and decides to tell a focused story, VI and VII remain titans of the franchise with little need for explanation as to why and onward it's kind of a grabbag, although X for some reason always had a fragment in my mind even as kid for some reason. 8, 9 and 12 I don't know much about although they usually fill out a chunk of my mind as wildly differing branches of what I know about Final Fantasy. I could also talk about XIV however as I've yet to dive deep into it I barely understand what's going on whenever people talk about that game considering its 6 versions in. I bring this up because V feels like this really weird side path between Final Fantasies IV and VI, so seeing as how gamers in the west during the 90s going from the former to the latter makes a lot of sense but going from the former to V is an odd path to take when tackling this linearly. You don't transition from tropey but large scale drama to generation-defining epic as smoothly as V, this klutz of a fantasy, decides to place its sweet self between the two entries.
I can't really complain though, this game can get really neat. Neat might be the best descriptor I can give- as its customizable classes aren't necessarily new, considering III DOES exist despite how often I forget it does, AND it often falls into the pitfalls that other class-heavy japanese rpgs do. Yet, this thankfully improves upon III's systems and provides enough tools that it doesn't leave you to dry as often as I convinced myself it would. What I mean by this is that I'm kind of an idiot in a lot of ways. But also! this game does like to play around with its bosses more often, and considering how many options you might have when it comes to classes it might be easy to place yourself in a corner. Quite often bosses would seem way more daunting than they were worth because I didn't take into consideration how many simple ideas just work. A lot of these bosses feel like puzzles, and sometimes the solution is as simple as 'Spellblade + Thundaga is way more powerful than you think' but the game has so many complex build options that I tend to skew into just 'but this thing had bigger number in normal random battle' which would lead to my demise in certain bosses. Other bosses just don't care about having resistances. One particular boss (or trio of bosses) I didn't wanna deal with turned out to be susceptible to Odin's Zanketsuken! Brilliant! This does lead to quite a few moments of complex, fairly frustrating encounters in which I kinda wished my own creativeness would just prevail rather than needing to untangle and cobble together some other strategy because I might have missed a certain blue magic or I don't have an adequately leveled black mage. Or maybe I'd rather perish a slow and arduous death than try to wrap my head around the intricacies of the beastmaster class for 5 minutes. It's not too often but I have the brain disease that makes me want to keep a character as one class as long as they can so that they can be extremely great at one thing, but also to have these classes kept to these characters so as to check out as many classes as possible. Unfortunately there are times where the best solution is to just break this disease and have two characters have the same class (or maybe I accidentally made Faris both the best DPS and the best Mage without realizing it- uh oh).
My main critical problem against the game itself is there are admittedly a few stinker classes. Buff Dancer! Make Berserker more interesting! There are possible ways that these more niche classes could be overhauled or more functional so as to make them stand out compared to more traditional but practical classes like Monk, Summoner or White Mage. Most of the classes work really well and switching from class to class is a lot easier than in 3, although understanding the upsides of certain jobs takes a bit of faith. 'Chemist is one of the best jobs in the game, trust me' I saw, 'Use Zenigage! It's what makes Samurai good!' the daimyo of Bal wailed. Nonsense, all I need is Krile to grab Berserk and stay a monk and do all the work. Dragoon isn't that good? Then how come I can jump? That's rad. (I should note I typed much of this before beating the final boss- a battle I mostly won on...Zenigage + Chemist using Mix! I mostly just didn't wanna rewrite this entire section) I say much of this as admittedly an apology to Final Fantasy V, similar to other class systems in gaming as my strategizing and planning really isn't as complex as perhaps the game would want me to think on. Maybe it's because Final Fantasy was still just a matter of the turn based combat that the class system would have some oddities I didn't take into consideration which kept me from being wholly engrossed in its system and more so entertained. Maybe I sound cheeky in this regard but I did wish my understanding of the classes for FFV was a bit clearer in-game. Mostly I wish the game was just transparent in what abilities I was getting so I could fully realize the utilities of my party and its jobs, but much of it turned into a party of swiss army knives with a little of columns A-C, a specialty in D and what I would have liked to be a mastery in E but a greater need at the moment for said character to be Column F instead. Perhaps better class planning in later replays would greatly trim the sloppy catalog of abilities I ended on, but that's for a later Polaroid. I mostly bring this up not in scathing criticism or in contradiction to its strongest and generally most acclaimed aspect, I mostly bring about my hiccups in the job system- as I admit I'm not certain how I feel about job systems in general at the moment. After sitting on Yakuza 7 for a while, I came to feel generally positive about the idea, but remembering certain flops and hiccups in how some classes progressed, on top of some other oddities regarding battles. Final Fantasy 3, being the first in the series to structure a job system for later games to build upon gets some slack for how early it is, but of course has its own can of worms in terms of balancing. Tactics, while I have yet to beat it, has an immensely deep class system, but gets into the territory of needing some guidance in unlocking other classes to diversify your team. Here in Final Fantasy V, while I enjoy the ease and speed in getting new jobs- as well as the amount of good jobs versus middling; I do think there's a major balancing problem. How come certain classes end on just 'Equip Axes' while others end on borderline game breaking abilities like Rapid Shot. Red Mage has the idea in knowing that to get the insane ability in 'Dual Cast' locked at a 1159 AP level cap but the Ranger’s ‘Rapid Fire’ is not only slightly more practical but only requires nearly half that in 600 ap. By the end of the game and once several classes are mastered, a lot of it starts to click and regular battles begin to become a joke, and I love it. I really just wish I had better planned who was gonna get what classes, as a lot of the late game was spent wondering why I spent as much time as I had in certain classes. Once I had finally sat down and got that chemist class leveled up I finally saw the appeal in abilities like Mix and Revive, but I don’t know why I spend so much time trying to make Berserker work. Hell, I never even got Black Mage maxed out, which felt strange.
Otherwise the game progresses about as similarly as other Final Fantasy, although the last third is kind of the least interesting part, with a late game party change and some pretty lackluster dungeons until the final stretch.
The pixel remastered soundtrack is pretty great, and some of the remastered effects look really great but I'm still on the fence on how the actual spritework looks part of the time. I am disappointed however that the game lacks much of the bonus combat that was added to the GBA and defunct PC release.
Overall I was really looking forward to playing this, and all things considered a lot of the game's charms and structure is very enjoyable but sometimes its quirk gets in the way of taking it too seriously- it still has one last push before it reaches the heights of the series' epic status nowadays. Certainly this and other FFs prior have their stellar moments and memorable moments, but with the help of hindsight and some knowledge of FF6- its hard to really compare most of the stuff that came beforehand. This was definitely my favorite thus far, but the third act and some of the cast really keep it from being my favorite of the bunch. Would still greatly recommend it primarily for its unique battling and progression system.
BlazingWaters
1 year ago