Final Fantasy V

"Well worth the wait..."

Final Fantasy VII was my first introduction to Square's masterpieces. And after I finished Final Fantasy VIII I could not wait until Final Fantasy Anthology was released. The wait was well worth it.

A quick summary of the story…An ancient evil is awakening in the world. Giant meteors have fallen to the planet, bringing with them both friend and foe. Heroes of the past must come forward and help the heroes of the present in order to seal the evil back in its prison.

The Good...
The class system can fall into both the good and the bad. That your character can easily change his/her abilities by changing the class is great. A fighter with the abilities to cast magic and summon monsters is just plain cool. The bad part being that your character has to master a number of classes in order to reap the benefits of each in the end where it will be needed. This is a very time consuming process, one some will want to forgo when you reach the end and decide you can not wait any longer to enter the X-zone.

The classic Final Fantasy music is always beauty to the ears.

The game play is intuitive and easy to learn. Nothing new to RPG players here.

The Bad...
The bad for this game is the same as it is for most role-playing games. At times it is annoying to constantly be running into random encounters, but we also realize that is where the experience comes from.

This game was obviously released some time ago. Therefore all but the most die-hard RPG or Final Fantasy fans are going to consider the graphics horribly dated.

In Conclusion…
This game is a must for any fan of the RPG genre. Although the graphics are older, the story and game-play were more than enough to keep me hooked

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/12/00, Updated 02/24/01