INTRODUCTION

Final Fantasy V (FFV) was released in 1992 for the Super Famicon but was unavailable outside of Japan until the release of Final Fantasy Anthology for the PS1 in 1999. The reason why it was withheld initially is that it was believed to be too difficult for players that were unfamiliar with RPGs. Today it is also available as remakes on the GBA and iOS as well as through online stores. These remakes contain updated graphics and a challenging bonus dungeon. Like other entries in the series, FFV is an RPG with a lengthy adventure through an enormous world.

This game features a job system similar to that in FFIII that isn't seen again until FFX-2. This particular system allows each character to be assigned a "job" such as Knight, Monk and Black Mage anytime outside of battle, which alters their status and battle commands. Each job can increase in level by defeating enemies to gain ability points (ABP), however rather than improving the performance of that job (as in FFIII), raising job levels results in learning abilities. The unique basis of this system is that these abilities can be used with any job, allowing for unique customization such as Black Mages wielding swords, Knights fighting unarmed and Red Mages using blue magic. There are over 20 jobs and 100 abilities in total and, impressively, most of these are actually very useful. Even those which sound less exciting such as the jobs Bard and Dancer, and their abilities "Sing" and "Equip Ribbons", are functional in many parts of the game.

REVIEW

The visual quality of the game is mediocre. Outside of battle, the character sprites and landscapes are the familiar early-SNES quality which could be described as effective but not impressive. Although, the character sprites in battle are unique to the currently assigned jobs and contain exception detail. The enemies remain as simple still plasters, leaving only the magic and attack animations to try to provide a visualization to the flow of the battle.

The music in FFV contains several outstanding tracks that fit in with the best from the Final Fantasy family. Unfortunately, there are many other tracks feel significantly less interesting.

The game's story pays homage to the original of the series by featuring a generic story centering around four characters becoming the warriors of light. Unlike the original however, these characters have detailed backstories which gives weight to the plot. Surprisingly, the game contains a significant amount of humor, including both "old-man" jokes as well as characters being infatuated by one another, adding an welcome air to an otherwise straight-faced plot.

The gameplay of FFV consists of exploring areas, battling enemies and managing characters. Unfortunately, the dungeon designs feel uninspired and are weighed-down by a high rate of random encounters, which sets battles just seconds apart. These encounters only provide a significant reward in terms of experience because increasing mid-to-late job levels via ABP can require over one hundred battles. Since the real joy of the gameplay stems from the customizable job system, it may be preferable to avoid battles which hardly contribute to this. The bosses battles are rarely interesting because of their simple behaviors. Defeating most of them requires only repeated use of your most powerful available attacks alternated with some healing, rather than any real strategy. Until the bonus dungeon, only few bosses have any distinctness, such as multiple parts, mid-battle stat modifiers or healing spells. Most bosses just use powerful attacks and inflict status effects.

In addition to exploring and battling, a large part of the game consists of managing the character's jobs and equipment. Although there is not much freedom in equipment until the end of the game, the job system is made with great detail and pacing. Not all of the jobs are available initially but newer ones are obtained more quickly than the older ones are fully explored, which extends throughout the entire game. Some of the jobs are more useful towards the beginning or end, some provide abilities more quickly or slowly and some are more useful for their stats bonuses. All of the classes have a surprising depth to them, such as the Thief, which in addition to using the steal command in battle, helps to obtain to secret items out of battle by revealing hidden passages in dungeons and towns. This job system is extremely well-made, the only concern with it is that some job levels require very large amounts of ABP.

OUTRO

All in all, FFV provides the complete Final Fantasy RPG experience. The main feature setting it apart is the developed job system that allows for detailed customization of the entire party. There are only minor concerns with the game in that many areas that feel uninspired and that most battles never become enjoyable beyond the ABP they provide upon victory.

4.5/5 Continuing my journey of playing all Final Fantasy games (previously unplayed) in order, I've now completed the fifth entry in the series. Safe to say, so far of the old school final fantasy games, this one is my favorite! This review is around the Pixel Remaster edition that has recently-ish come out.

Final Fantasy 5 starts of with you playing as Bartz, a wanderer who comes across a fallen meteor. While investigating, Bartz encounters several characters who reveal the danger facing the four crystals that are controlling the world's elements. These crystals are acting as a seal for the powerful evil being known as Exdeath. You then team up to try and protect these crystals but just as in all of these games, disaster strikes.

Just as in the other Final Fantasy games to this point, you have an overworld to travel in, various towns/villages and castles to explore each with their own people, shops, and other buildings to aid you, chocobos, airships, Cids, and others. This is the second entry in the franchise to use the Active Time Battle (ATB) system, though it's further fleshed out from 4's iteration, with each character having their own active bar. This is the first entry though to use a Job system. This is where the game truly shined in my opinion. Early on, you only have a few Jobs that can be used by the characters. As you level up, abilities tied to those jobs become equippable regardless of what Job you may switch to. You unlock additional jobs as you progress through the game, some being unmissable tied to overall progression in the game, and some being optional and missable if you aren't exploring everywhere. You can really make up some fun party dynamics and whacky characters depending on your creativity and how much you are willing to grind out Job experience. If you aren't careful, you can end up like I did having to reload a save because you somehow got yourself into a loop where no characters can attack!

The story here is relatively standard, but the characters are well thought out and lively. There's tragedy, yet mixed in with humor throughout.

I'm not sure really what all else to say as if you've played an early Final Fantasy game, you pretty much know what to expect. The Job system here was a lot of fun, and I maxed out most of the jobs for each of the characters in my playthrough. I think I finished at around 60 hours playtime, but I did a lot of the side quests, exploring, and grinding out experimenting jobs. If you were to play any of the first 5 Final Fantasy games, this is definitely the one to go for!

As a huge fan of job systems in RPGs, it's fun to go back and finally play some of the older gems that paved the way for the more robust job systems featured in plenty of modern games. Final Fantasy V boasts 26 jobs if you include the 4 optional jobs hidden jobs in the Game Boy Advance and Steam ports, and each job comes with a host of unique traits including innate abilities, skills to learn, and equipment options. Each job generally has one default ability and each character has a spare slot to equip either an additional ability you can use in combat like White Magic or a passive ability like being able to equip swords or counter attack after being hit. It's a little limiting compared to a standard in newer job systems that allowed for two active abilities and several passives to be equipped at once. Despite this, the variety allowed for in party composition is fun and appreciated. It also helps that the variety of bosses and enemies are quite varied, often with a trick or unique gimmick that makes the basic approach of attack and heal ineffective.

As a Final Fantasy entry, FFV often seems overshadowed and rarely mentioned. This is probably in large part due to not originally releasing on the Super Nintendo and only coming to the West years later on other platforms. But it's a shame, as this entry boasts a quick and fun pace that gives the player a lot of freedom to explore the world map while experimenting with different job combinations. There's also a lot of solid music tracks, including the main antagonist's theme, that adds further flavor and personality to the adventure.

At times the game does show it's age with the lack of information available to the player either on how some abilities work, and on how to advance the main story along. In a segment towards the middle of the game in particular there is a sequence where you need to find and speak with a particular NPC to proceed, then do a thing, and find that NPC again only for them to be in a new location that isn't made very obvious or hinted at by other NPCs. This occurs enough times to be annoying, and coupled with the sheer amount of miss-able content, makes game feel somewhat guide dependent.

If any Final Fantasy entry deserves a revisit for a remaster or remake, FF V could benefit handsomely from updating it's job system with more flexibility and options in equip-able abilities, while including more information on job skills and where to go next for the player to better smooth out an already great journey.

I'm not sure why it took so long to realize it, but the first five Final Fantasy games are really only slight variations on the exact same game. Crystals, Light Warriors, evil godlike dude trying to destroy reality, yadda yadda yadda.

But I still love you, Final Fantasy...

While FF4 played a lot like a souped-up FF2, FF5 plays like a souped-up FF3 with its heavy reliance on the job system. It's still the same turn-based RPG that it's been for all of the previous games. The story has a bit lighter tone than previous games; but is still ultimately the same crystal quest.

What sets this game apart from previous games is the third & final world map. You're basically turned loose to do as many or as few sidequests as you want. It's a truly open world once you hit this part of the game. Unfortunately, I didn't have the patience to do most of the sidequests (no Bahamut; no Odin; no ultimate weapons...). Which means (much like FF4), I spent a massive amount of my time simply grinding levels so I could get through the final dungeon. That's not particularly fun.

However, at 30hrs on my playthrough (10-12hrs of which was simply grinding through the final dungeon), FF5 seems like the kind of game that you could seriously get your money's worth by doing different playthroughs using different jobs (if you didn't have other games you wanted to play).

The music's great, as was always the case in classic Final Fantasy. The graphics are okay--- while the monster graphics & spell animations are cool as ever, this game had squeezed the tiny overworld character sprite formula completely dry (luckily, FF6 gets a decent graphical upgrade in this sense). But then, for the game's ending, they're all, "YO CHECK OUT ALL THE MODE 7 GRAPHICS WE'VE GOT UP IN THIS JOINT!"

My end game strategy? Total Pay-to-Win. I just threw about 100,000gil at the final boss until he died. Who said microtransactions were a "new" thing? (constant Curagas, a dual-wielding Chicken Knife Dancer that hits for 15k per turn, and Syldra kickin' some serious butt also helped)

That's it. Go home; the review's over.

Preliminary: I will be playing the Spooniest-tweaked version of the original RPGe fan translation of the Super Famicom game. The original translation is one of the earliest fan translations of an RPG and quite well-known. I can't recall what version I played the version tiem back in 2019, I'm thinking the Anthology port? I don't think much had changed in that except the cutscene, so I'm thinking I will still love this but we will see. Not sure if some QoL things were added for that. I absolutely loved this the first time I played it in 2019 and considered it up there with FFX. Here goes nothing!

Ahhh I love reading about the concept of the Chemist and the Blue Mage. And I love that I hjave the official guide for the Anthology version and will be using that for maps and reference :-p

Early Game

It already feels very cinematic and epic. Even tho it is still SNES like FFIV, and I probly should have much higher expectations now in late 92, this one feels more advanced and appropriate for its time. I dunno, just something genuinely cinematic about this beginning. Perhaps it's how the music and visuals match. And beautiful

Lol

I suppose I should expect genuine cutscenes a la the Ys remakes from years prior, but it's okay. And the music is great but not AS spectacular as I'm hoping to warrant it being on par or better than FFX. Not thrilled that it seems to be ATB based, not fully turn-based, as I discovered while typing this lol. And as per usual, sluggish movement. Still amazing so far.

I love how everything makes sense so far. Like it's clear what I need to do next, they rpesent the spring that heals and the switch to open the door in the cave, and I love other QoL things like Optimum in Equipment. In general the menu system is a step up from many of its contemporaries.

So cozy

I love the completionist drive with the Blue Mage abilities and the different jobs available for each character, it reminds me of the drive I get with FFX to max out every sphere grid no matter their beginning presumed class. This game is truly open-ended in that sense. For this playthrough and the sake of the chronology project, I will try to curb that completionism and just focus on completing the game,... along with some extra stuff too :-p

Some of the initial excitement is wearing off in the Ship Graveyard with some hard to discern navigation and mediocre music. And I wish the game had the QoL feature of remembering your last command. Finally... this Shiva battle. Really hard at this point in the game. I assume I can return to this cuz it's burning me out?

And jeez all these bosses seem really hard. The Active battle feature is definitely a factor and I do really wish it were purely turn-based.

Now, the class system is amazing and I see why I liked this so much the first time. It satisfies that extra number go up itch. And they really successfully executed the optional sidequests and optional bosses aspect whether for summons or steals or just the challenge. However, I keep getting really disappointed and irritated with the game. I never like timed parts in a JRPG, like when escaping this castle that's about to explode. And the music is just outright annoying during that part (I believe I always ahd it muted the first time I played it). Disappointing because I thought this may even surpass FFX, but it's really just the class system I so adore because even the Look isn't spectacular for its time.

Ok I'm a bit less crabby after finally using Shiva and Ifrit summons and seeing the cool animations. And hearing the several celebratory tunes that are so familiar and nostalgic for me. But I think I should mute it after I hear a song a few times in each new place... (tho it repeats a lot). And another positive is just how large the inventory is with up to 99 of each item. Such a nice feature compared to its contemporaries. I dunno tho I guess I was just expecting too much when going into this remembering this as the early FF to parallel my childhood favorites. Plus I'm reading a fantasy graphic novel right now (Lily the Thief... re-reading it, rather heh) and it's making me really want the d&d inspired fantasy elements of a CRPG but with the grinding and gameplay and epic story of a JRPG... with the great class system from FFV... aka it's making me want too much heh.

I liked the music during Galuf's big reveal that he's from another world, and I liked that he felt like the Auron of this game. . Nice and the Crescent Town music and Chocobo Forest music and when flying the chjocobo. That reinvigorated me a bit. And I like how cozy the inn fireplaces are and other little nice touches.

Pretty screen

Mid Game

Welp I'm going to consider the second world Galuf's home world to be mid game even tho I believe there are 4 worlds in total heh. I have all the classes so that seems mid way! Still, I love the leveling and class system, and I feel like the bosses are interesting tho quite difficult and overall the gameplay excels. Some great screens and cozy rooms, but for the most part the Look isn't as spectacular as I had hoped. And the music is super hit or miss, some are so beautiful, some are so nostalgic being early versions or new versions of FF classics, and some are outright annoying and used too much like the Secret Ship Dock/underneath-crescent-island tune that's used left and right. But I definitely have that RPG hook and it's still a great FF with a great class system.

Unlike its predecessors and many that tried to copy it, almost every class feels useful, tho sometimes in a niche way, it just feels well-executed and fun to discover their uses and many abilities. It all feels so robust and full for an SNES game and I guess I just can't say enough good things about it. In many ways, I could see this deserving a 10 for gameplay, but things like not remembering my last command in battle and other basic QoL things make me second guess that. Then again, plenty of my 10 Play games have faults or signs of their times.

Yesss love me some Moogles. And despite its faults, and the plot paling to the in-depth characterization of FF4, the gameplay of it continues to shine. It really executed the addictive completionist aspect very well, with me finding myself Catching monsters just to completionist, getting Blue Magic spells just to completionist, etc. I told myself I can't get a 100% hook becasue so many games ahead... and I think I may resist late game completionism... but I at least have to do all the side bosses right? Gah!

Another optional thing I really liked was how you get the Golem Summon. And ooo I like the optional stealing of Genji equipment aspect.

I think what I liked and now again like about tihs game is that the boss mechancis are interesting and clever each time, rather than the usual huge-hits-high-health or status-ailment-onslaught mechanics. They keep surprising me and hwo there are usually multiple possible avenues to go depending on class preferences etc. I also like how reasonably used status ailments are compared to prior JRPGs.

Holy cow those Yellow Dragons were tough for the Gold Hairpins, they didn't seem as hard for the Blood Sword/Drainer. Hm.

I like that I've wound up with a team made up almost entirely of women. And compared to my initial crabbiness more and more I'm recognizing its great qualities, its addictive nature (maybe I just had to warm up to it), its excellent item system compared to its contemporary JRPGs, its great bosses and mechanics and gameplay, and simply QoL things like hwo fast you can scroll through things. Some of these QoL features appeared in FF4, but still, it's coming together to get me very hooked again :-X If only the music were more consistently amazing, or on FFX level.

This transformed Gilgamesh is a cool sprite

End Game

Wow I got absolutely positively hooked. The music still isn't great but my goodness thsi gameplay. The bosses, the class system, the leveling. I'm so hooked. I have not even been typing here cuz I just eagerly pick it up and get fully enthralled till it's time for our pre-bedtime rituals lol. I hopped over here just to note that I am considering this end game, I got all the Lithographs heading to finish getting the Weapons from the Sealed Castle. And I've been doing all, or at least almost all, the optional stuff.

One thing I forgot to mention before is the beautiful battle screen backgrounds.

Gosh I really wanan fight the optional Omega and Shinryu bosses but if I am reading correctly, people recommend level 70+! But normarl level to beat the game is like 50ish... So I either be completely OP for the final bsos or skip out on the otpional bosses since I had fought them the first time I played it. I suppose that will be my ultimate test: whether I do the optional bosses that I fought before, or resist haha. While reading up about those bosses I love how many different strategies are available thanks to the different classes, with some unique ideas from the Chemist class in particular. But in general this game really did a great job allowing for different ways of mixing class abilities.

BAHAHA while reading those strategies I just now noticed the "Memory" setting in Config >.< It can remember your last command!! This game really does have so much modern QoL! Anyway, the positive is, it seems 50ish is definitely doable with some straetegy Yay! I should be able to do the optional bosses after all!

Yessss I found my old handwritten note for this game from 2019.

This is the first of the early final fantasy, and indeed many jrpgs if not all, that I am not feeling burned out and rolling my eyes at the onslaught of bosses at the end. Instead I am thrilled and excited to try different strategies with different class setups based on what I have mastered/can do. I can see why I rated it so highly back in 2019.

Yay! I managed to beat Omega. I relied on the Love Song (Romeo's Ballad) technique, because uff, any chance it gets to attack and it gets brutal. Still got real spicey at times and was a fun boss battle.

Wow I'm at nearly 60 hours of playtime, and I'm not even overleveled (party members' level 43-45), and I still have a drive and excitement and hook. And unlike most prior JRPGs, I don't find myself doing the easy copout methods with bosses (e.g., GilToss in endgame since no use for the gil now). It's refreshing.

Yesssss

Dang! Twintania was hard! But I managed to beat it on my third try. These final areas keep getting more beautiful but the music ain't getting any more exciting. Smh.

Lol my first attempt at Shinryu and I was wiped out by one Tidal Wave. Coral Rings it is. And ugh I wish I had read it can absorb Holy damage >.< Yesss I finally managed tho. I did a slightly different technique than most, having to use my White Mage that I thought I would be using for Holy instead cast Fury/Berserk on my Knight. And I had first and foremost done the Time Mage with Mix ability technique, where you Cast Quick then Mix Dark Sigh and Bacchus on Shinryu. A Summoner casts Golem and voila. Set. Just had to use the Berserk technique to speed things up ha.

Glad it didn't end with Bartz marrying one of the femme characters. It focused on the right sentimentalities/epic aspects and they seemed to know which songs and areas/screens were best since they used them in the climax/ending. I missed my opportunity to screenshot them riding chcobos and the Wind Drake swinging in. Oh wait I got it on the second time

It was a neat feature where the world map was moving for you (tho they seemed to really love that cuz then they did it really overdramatically/too-much with the The End text lol, it must've been a relatively new feature they loved to show off) And yesss I love when an RPG gives a report of characters at the end, and lol at jobless which I had to use for several for the final battles. Tho I had mostly done specific classes for most battles, including Shinryu and Omega because it added a fun element (since Jobless and Mimic allow for a lot of flexibility).

Look: 9/10 Epitome of that SNES JRPG Look. Not spectacularly better than FF4 or anything but I gave a slight boost for its lack of new innovations for its many great screens, its cozy fireplaces and well general coziness in general, and its great boss sprites. Oh and the way the different characters can look different depending on their Job. (And honestly, after looking back at FF4 screenshots this is warranted since there is a distinct improvement in quality, texture, and the neat movement of backgrounds etc. Oh I had even forgotten to mention the battle backgrounds so yeah definitely deserved)

Sound: 8/10 Some good cozy tunes, but for the most part this really dragged down the game, esp some of the more annoying or in-your-face tunes, and not much improvement well in fact regression from FF4

Play: 10/10 I debated this for a while. But I was absolutely positively hooked again. And the game design and mechanics and boss mechancis are all just so well-done, this is exactly how I want an early JRPG to Play. Even little complains like the command remembering or slow walking had fixes (a setting in the menu lol, and the Thief job/unlockable).

Feel: 9.5/10 If the music were better this would easily be a 10. And the plot could've been stronger tho I don't think it was nearly as weak as many people say it is. There were definitely parts that it just felt like they were dragging their feet with a predictable sidequest or reaction to something, but the central plot was still very strong. EDIT: The fact that I keep thinking about this game and how I wish I could get another fantasy-world game with such an addictive gameplay, or at least an action-adventure, made me return to this and boost it to 9.5. I can always play it muted after all.

Attachment: 9.5/10 This dug its fingers into me and did not let go. I did all the optional stuff except I suppose Master the Mimic Job/explore that job more and get all optional stolen items/make all possible Mixes etc. But in terms of valid side things like optional bosses and sidequests, I did em. And this is THE retro FF I would return to. I want to give it a 10 because it obviously has attached itself very strongly to me, but I guess that will have to wait for a future playthrough. It was really the music bogging it down. (Or maybe I just forgot the early game frustrations/mediocrity and am just super excited because mid and late game were so fun and addictive :-p )

Overall: 9.2/10

Playing through the Pixel Remasters has really shown how each Final Fantasy built on the one before it. IV was a huge step up in terms of presentation and grandeur, despite being a slightly worse game in my opinion than III. Here in V, you can see Square again trying to tell a bigger story with more options for playstyle and more character development.

In that regard, this is indeed a step up from its predecessor and a step closer to VI (my personal favourite in the series). The highs are high.

However, this game has its flaws that drag it down for me. I found V to be a bit of a slog at times, and maybe it was just Final Fantasy weariness, but I had a few stretches where I stopped playing for a while due to a lack of motivation to continue. It took me a long time to finish.

I like the job system, and by the end, I felt like I had built some really powerful characters. However, multiclassing in this game always comes with major setbacks. Just when you start feeling good about your character, they have mastered their job, and it's in your best interest to start working on a new one. But that can instantly turn your character from the best on the team to the worst, as their stats change and they lose some of their abilities. Of course, you can change them back at will, but doing so just for a specific battle is still tedious despite the optimization.

While some sections were super fun and interesting, others dragged on, including the endgame, which was unfortunate.

Overall, I did really enjoy this game, but it falls to the lower end of my ranking. I have now played I - X, and V lands in the number 7 spot. Next up is XII because I'm skipping XI, for obvious reasons.

I went into the final boss with this set up:

• Bartz: Lvl 41 Freelancer w/ Spellblade and Blue Magic
• Lenna: Lvl 40 Mimic w/ Black Magic, Time Magic, and MP +30%
• Faris: Lvl 41 Freelancer w/ White Magic and Summon
• Krile: Lvl 40 Freelancer w/ Dual-Wield and Throw

Enjoyed this on PC, its better than the previous remakes and it's one of the better PC 'ports' i've played... here's a comparison shot of SNES: It's pretty authentic. It took a while to get used to the portrait art. This is the fourth remake/port i've played in the series and I found a lot of things to like. It feels like a bit embellished 16bit at times, there's a lot of wide range of expression through sprites and it has a lot of cutesy factor. Though sometimes certain things might feel slightly off in a 'not 16bit way), it makes up for this with some nice technical stuff at times, such as cutscenes galore and some parralaxy type effects that imitate mode 7 but are more impressive. There's a lot of nice embellishments made here and there time to time (nothing over the top) that emulates SNES style effects but kicks it up a notch. Check out this fog effect. It's really cool. There's a lot of good stuff in the game for those who like old style look and such. The audio is also good. Had to use x360ce to get this working on controller. In general there is a bit less cruddiness than III, IV and afteryears as i prefer the authentic feel 'with restoration'. (though i did like the 3d element there) i'm pleased with this version based on what i've seen of the orig on youtube. As for the game itself, I really like it. In the beginning i found it rather underwhelming and I was afraid I wouldnt like it. I backlogged it a bit, then picked it back up. It picks up pace and starts to progress quicke. There is also enough narrative and events interwoven at times to make it not feel like an endless grindfest. Without sharing anything beyond light spoilers, I'll start with saying that the job system in this game is pretty good, and seems way more interesting than the previous incarnations in the way you can add on abilities from levelling up jobs and use them even after you change your class (you can for example have a white magic active with a black mage 'ability' by levelling up the character to a low level black mage. You can do some cool stuff with some of the jobs too. Like the thief and blue mage, really interesting uses there. I never liked thief but i find its actually not a bad one to use time to time because of the abilities the thief can get and what you can do with 'steal.'

One criticism was it wasnt very clear about the bonsues you could get in this game. It was very complicated and really you had to write it down or take a picture then compare, but if you were working for certain bonsues you wouldnt know ahead of itme. To me this almost felt like a kind of trappy grindy trick, to get you to put work into classes you didnt really need to or want to. I like my RPGs to hint in advance or be crystal clear about what i'm unlocking towards if put points in it... But heck if i dont like it i can save in reload. Definitely not the way this game works at all! :P

About halfway through teh game. The difficulty balloons. Your options and dynamics really explode and this game gets crazy complicated... Grinding becomes a sudden thing again. jobs ability become overwhelming and almost feel like a burden and require lots of time focus and directed work. This wasnt for me. This can become overbearing and the battles become more open and chaotic. There were times I felt very handicapped with a jobs system this diverse and I longed for something more straightforward simple or reliable that could at least always work. Too many jobs. Also some of them I just didnt like.

Can't imagine how long this game would take without cheating... Took me at least 40 hours with a guide and the most elaborate cheat table i've yet to see in a game. Clearly, I'm not alone :D

This was another entry in the franchise that I missed the first time around, due to it being skipped over for release in the west when it originally came out in 1992. Instead, its first release in the west came in 1999 with the Final Fantasy Anthology collection. By this time I had already played both both Final Fantasy IV and VI during my childhood (though in the case of VI, not in a very long time), and because I had just played through the first four entries in the franchise I was expecting more; especially knowing the game that was going to follow this one. I have to admit that playing this game directly after completing Final Fantasy IV was probably a mistake. Not because Final Fantasy V is a bad game, but because to me it felt like the franchise took two steps forward, and then one back. I still really liked the game overall, but as someone who is drawn to character development - this one fell a little flat in that department for me. But to be fair, Final Fantasy V is sandwiched between two contenders for arguably the best in the franchise. In other words, tough acts to compete with.

As far as gameplay goes, Final Fantasy V plays like Final Fantasy III and IV had a baby, which makes sense. Battles are still turn based and still by the form of random encounter. The job classes from Final Fantasy III are brought back, but instead of needing capacity points to change classes, players have the freedom to change classes at any point outside of battle. Individual job classes are earned at specific plot points but players must still earn class abilities and levels individually via ability points (AP) earned in battle alongside experience points. The biggest change to the job class system is that players can now combine one class' abilities with another class, drastically increasing the customization factor of the game. The Active Time Battle system (ATB) also makes a return, but with a convenient update. Players could now see how much time between each characters turn via a visible gauge (called an ATB bar). Once a character's ATB bar is completely filled, their turn in battle is available. It's a simple addition, but it allowed players to be more in control of their battle strategy. Luckily, Final Fantasy IV's magic points system was chosen instead of III's magic charges.

For me the story was mostly a miss. It wasn't any more ridiculous than any other Final Fantasy game, but somehow the flow felt a little off. Not to mention, the characters were not even close to as memorable nor as likable as past characters from previous entries. The crystals make a return and are again the driving force behind the plot. The game starts off pretty typical for a Final Fantasy - the crystals are in danger and your party conveniently bumps into each other and decide to band together to try and protect the crystals. While the story isn't even remotely as strong as its predecessor, it does have its moments.

Graphically, the game is a step forward. The 2D sprites appear larger on the battle screen and therefor have more detail. Another addition was the use of simple animations to help convey emotion outside of battle. The graphics aren't anything special, but hold up well. The music was once again scored by Nobuo Uematsu and is a little bit more upbeat than the soundtrack for Final Fantasy IV, but still amazing, and may be one of my favorite parts of playing Final Fantasy V.

While I was initially disappointed with the change in direction to the franchise for Final Fantasy V, I grew to really like it, despite my many gripes. Even if the story wasn't my absolute favorite, the gameplay and customization of the job class system was really fun. I would still recommend the game to fans of the franchise, just maaaaybee not directly after playing IV.