After the very good Final Fantasy IV, which is currently my favourite part of the Classic era (part 6 is still on my To-Play-list), I was quite disappointed with the sequel. Even though the main characters in Final Fantasy V are no longer blank slates like in the early games, they seem rather flat in comparison to Cecil, Kain, Rydia, Rosa and the rest. Despite their relationships, there is never any real chemistry between the characters. The story about a shattered world, war and, for the first time, exploitation by humans is really neat. But even if that doesn't quite reach the level of the story in part four, it's still really good. What Final Fantasy V does really well is the revised job system. This time we can change jobs at any time, level them up and the clever thing is that we can still use the skills we have mastered in a job even if we are assigned a different main job. For example, we can let Lenna practise some white magic first and then let her become a dragoon later, but still let her heal alongside Jump. This makes the set and skills we have at hand incredibly dynamic and allows us to switch skills from time to time to face a dungeon or a special boss with a different tactic. The combat is almost identical to its predecessor and once again utilises the ATB system with all its strengths and weaknesses. I'm still not a fan, as it sometimes makes battles unnecessarily hectic so that you avoid giving your opponent a devastating attack. And again, game number 5 has a problem with bosses that wipe the floor with you out of nowhere. It's fine if an opponent is challenging, but if you can barely react because he's attacking your entire team as a counter with four-digit points of damage, it's annoying. There is often a tactic (don't attack with a certain element because it triggers a strong attack or attack everyone at the same time, etc.) but you usually only find out in the fight with 20% HP remaining. If you're lucky, you'll manage to heal up again and memorise the gimmick. The last bosses in particular are a real struggle, as is typical of the genre, and to be honest this was the first time I had to grind. On the other hand, the dungeons are once again wonderfully and variedly designed and also have occasional puzzles. The story is okay to good and after the pacing gets out of hand around the halfway point, the last third in particular manages to add a lot of tension and urgency with huge stakes after a fateful twist. Final Fantasy V is still a good game, but in my opinion, it's the weakest of the SNES era so far. And as far as I've heard about the sixth game, it will remain so. But I stay curious until then.