boco my beloved...

the second mainline final fantasy on the super famicom and for the first time since the series' beginning, the presentation has not changed at all!

what did change? progression!
we are back to 4 party members you improve how you want to, who are solely your responsibility.
no more characters leaving on short notice, taking some of your strongest equipment with you, thank god.

this, along with the new job system, makes for a wonderful party building experience along your journey!
new job system? you shouldnt be surprised, every single entry has experimented in new directions so far, but this experiment sure made me happy.
it's a mix of ff3's short term job selections and a bit of ff2's slower, long term improvement of abilities.
each character can be assigned a different job you have already unlocked at any time and can rank up jobs they gained enough "experience" with. what for?
well, each character can also have an aditional ability from a job they ranked up with, each rank granting an additional option, or improving certain existing ones.

like a rank 3 knight unlocks the ability to two-hand weapons to deal double damage, change them to the berserker which is the only job able to use axes, the most damaging weapons for most of the game, and now you have a single party member who does enough damage for four, leaving three characters up for utility!!

and all this has a big impact on your overall party strength. time i would have spent in previous games grinding, i spent here thinking what short term risks i would take during normal progression through dungeons, ranking up a, to my party, redundant job, for an ability that would improve a character in the long term. the previous example of job switching was actually an anecdote of how i saved myself from possibly hours of grinding.

well, what else is important in the series?
world exploration?
yea that's fine, nothing special, until the story happens and then more story happens and the limitation of the overworlds visuals actually hamper your ability to find where the fuck you have to go next, with how everyplace looks exactly the same. still only a single sprite for castles, towns, temples and such, each.

lastly, the preparation for the final dungeon of the game is an agonizing two to three hours full of complete rng, unless you know the exact counters for things like random removal spells which are unrecoverable from inside of battles and abushes with groups that can consistently wipe out your entire party in the two turns they get to make before you get your first action. god.

this wouldn't be so egregious if it wasn't for the still, after 5 games, lingering problems of the non-existence of spell and item descriptions.
the games script has no texts that could prepare you for most of those mentioned bullshit encounters. so just do these parts over and over until you're lucky, or... "ask your classmates" who already figured it out.

please game, just let me make semi-informed decisions, then i'll let you not have quicksaving, thank you.

so, final fantasy 5 is mostly a really great experience, with a decent story and only a few spots that could really use some trimming. most of the problems with the first game have been fixed at this point in the series, and i'm eager to find out how this continues!

final fantasy for people who havent played rpgs before.

seriously, have you ever played an rpg and thought: "this is way to slow, so boring!" and also "why is this so complex? i dont know what to spec into!", i like the genre by now and i still do this.
you'd imagine that a similar game without the mechanics everyone's complaining about would be better, right?

well, this game is a perfect example showing that gamedesigners actually do kinda know what you as the players want.

theres no party dynamics, since you only control two characters at max, and there are no classes, everyone has strong physical attacks, offensive spells and defensive spells.
the spell variety is non-existent, either "do damage" or "heal damage", no status effects, buffs or anything to add the slightest amount of depth.
this culminates in the two kinds of battles you'll have throughout the 10-ish hours of playtime:
-"random" battles that have you spam the a button to do a basic attack
-boss battles. cast spells instead.

this is what players, who skip every dialogue, must feel like. just gotta keep pressing A to get to the fun part again...

if "being able win every fight by applying one of two combat algorithms" isn't a sign of a bad rpg, then i'd still have a bunch of other problems with final fantasy mystic quest.
like it thinks, being funny is a valid substitude for a story to keep people narratively engaged. no.

i'd rather struggle and complain, than be bored and complain.

the music is ok.

final fantasy on a new console.
this opened up so many possibilities and wait this just feels exactly like the famicom games???

so yeah this looks and sounds bad, but what the team improved on is both the story presentation and combat.
both of which also hampered my personal enjoyment with this adventure.
no longer are you improving and training your personalised party of heroes, but instead you follow the steps of a real written character with their own goals, and a bunch of side characters who'll regularly leave and join the party as they desire, always effectively resetting the progress you have made with them.
since the main character is the only constant, going out of your way to grind feels like a waste of time and not the least bit satisfying, even if the devs still expect it from you (but definitely not as much as in the famicom trilogy)
in the first half, your "lent" party members do a good job of carrying your likely underleveled hero, but that will end, when you least expect it.
secondly the improved combat. this one introduces the ATB System, which means: no more turns, we battle in """"real-time"""" up in this bitch.
i wish this system had better feedback for how and when battle time continues and how it affects the battle. instead, the team decided there have to be five seperate signs, that one character is ready to act. the character flashes, beeps, takes a step forward and their name lights up in yellow, in case you haven't noticed the action window popping up. lol.
well, much worse is the introduction (?(im not sure if the previous games had this already but either way it works differently here)) of counter attacks.
some enemies have specific, consistent attacks, they will always do directly after having been hit in a certain way, be it black magic, a physical attack, etc.
this, is important. this, is also not communicated to the player. a counter attack looks like any other attack, so the chance you'll realise this is pretty slim. (this time around, this was the thing that made me use a guide (i feel miserable))
me and i assume most players will default to doing as much damage as quickly as possible which is a death sentence with pretty much all of the late game bosses.
a shame, since actually using the neccessary tactics is really fun.

aside from those aspects, i wouldnt call it too special but at least its not the most egregious experience.

this is the most playable famicom final fantasy.

jobs are back, this time allowing you to change them for a low cost of 'job-points' during your adventure.
combat is much faster and more engaging, with more complex bosses, even some gimmick fights, one of which was very memorable.

the story is less smart than the first one's, but definitely "more". theres just a longer script with more things actually happening on a moment to moment basis making this the better experience.

the magic's still fucked i cant believe it i still needed to use a fucking guide.

an early departure from the rest of the series, having a completely new "learning by doing" leveling system.
jobs are gone, replaced by blank characters with certain natural proficiencies, each of them being able to use every weapon, armor and spell and using each kind of skill slowly improves it.
hitting someone with a spear, improves your spear skill, even hitting your party members, which is a valid tactic i've happily used to level up faster, as it works well with increasing a characters max health by getting them hit often.
sadly, a third of the magic system is still bugged, making me use a guide again.
so far the final fantasy i've been invested in the most, always comparing and checking stats to maximize my effectiveness.

it sure is an rpg on the nes. extremely slow combat and progression but the openness to create a custom party is pretty neat, although thats one of the pitfalls you can fall into, potentially fucking yourself over, as you cant change your jobs later.
furthermore the most interesting spells sadly have very specific use-cases which is made worse by a large portion of those ambiguously named spells being inherently bugged, not affecting the enemy, and some even making fights harder for you. the entire spell system practically forced me to use a guide.

at least the plot is surprisingly good, as long as your here to kill chaos.

i'm here to kill chaos.