Final Fantasy V

"Although this is not very innovative, it’s sure fun"

Final Fantasy V was the 5th of the legendary Final Fantasy series. It's first version on the Super Famicom was never released in the US, which is a shame because it was supposed to be much better. It was later released on the PSX by itself, although it was only in Japan. Although the PSX version is considered a lousy port I am still proud to own it.

Graphics: 9/10
Yeah, right now these look pretty terrible, but for 1991 these looked pretty darn good. On the world Map the backgrounds look quite good, and Square takes advantage of the SNES's power an makes good use of the Mode 7 effects and sticks them in at about every chance they can, which makes them look more realistic. From the op town view, the SD characters look pretty bad but the battle system is a whole new ball game. In battle the characters are still SD, but they look quite a bit better. Also, their job classes all look excellent. The Dragoon job for the main character, Bartz, is even the same sprite used for Kain in FFIV. The enemies look excellent. They all have had-draw graphics. I must give my compliments to Amano and Numera, because the enemies and character designs are great. Exdeath, although he just looks like a buffed up version of Golblez, still looks cool and Gilgamesh is the coolest looking enemy ever when he transforms.

Story: 8/10
The story isn't a bad story, just seems lousy by comparison with the other Final Fantasies. It's actually a pretty good story for its time, it's just overshadowed because it's predecessor, Final Fantasy IV, had a much better story and characters. If this story basically follows the plot of the first 3, 4 light warriors must fight this ultimate evil, however, this one becomes a bit more complex, like in IV. It deals with an evil entity known as Exdeath. He wanted to conquer the world. Four light warriors were able to confine him and seal him away. Exdeath splits the world into two different worlds, which you must journey through. The light warriors slowly died off and had descendants. You play as Bartz, a descendant of one of the original four. You eventually meet one of the original four, but he has amnesia and doesn't remember he is one until the second world. His granddaughter later replaces him. The story doesn't seem to bad but it does have its problems. For one thing, Exdeath is sealed away into a tree (!?!), so the final boss is a tree. There are also little things, but for the most part, it was good for its time.

Characters: 6.5/10
This is the game's real problem. The characters in it have no personality, which is a huge letdown from FFIV's ''deep'' characters. This really brings the game down at points. I mean, you basically have 4 characters who either just don't really do anything or anything they say is very stereotypical. The ''hero'' really doesn't show any time of emotion except false nobleness, and when he sees his father. The only character that shows any kind of personality is Gilgamesh, and, even though I like his character, it's kind of sad that he's the deepest of the bunch. If the characters were better this could seriously rival VI and IV. On the one-hand, at least it's not as bad as Anthology's where Faris was given a pirate accent, which is rather annoying.

Gameplay: 10/10
Ah, the cream of the game. The gameplay is an experience one can only enjoy by playing FFV. Not even FFIII, which the idea of FFV's gameplay came from, is even near as cool. Basically, the core of the gameplay resides in the job system. Your characters select different jobs from what's available (you find more jobs when you play through the game). When they select that job they learn the skills from it. After they've learned the skills they can equip them to their character command screen and use them whenever they want. The skills you collect can be anything. It could range from an attack, to a character plus like HP+30, to being able to equip a different type of weapon. Allow me to give you an example. Say, for instance, you make one of your characters a Knight. If he learns the skill ''Two Handed'', he will be able to hold a sword with both hands and do double the damage when he attacks. If later that character becomes a Samurai, he could put the skill there and then you would have a Samurai with a katana that did double the damage. When you select a character as long as you keep them in that job they possess one essential skill of the job, which is nice. This adds tons of replay value trying to get that special skill from this class so you can do this move in that class. It's an incredible joy. And, the job system isn't all of the gameplay. You still have the classic Final Fantasy combat, complete with magic, legendary weapons, and summoning. Some classes also have abilities, which add whole new dimensions of gameplay, such as item mixing with the chemist and buying magic for the mages, or even searching for summons. All and all, the gameplay can best be described in one word: classic

Sound/Music: 10/10
The sound and music is nothing short of the excellence of Nobuo Uematsu. The tracks are beautifully recorded and wonderfully orchestrated, even in this port. The songs range from small catchy tunes to songs, which set off something in your mind and make you know that this is one hell of a game. The game has a wide variety of compositions. They do an excellent job deciding where the tracks go to make it fitting. The overworld themes, the battle and boss themes, it's all just great. I think it has the best music of the 16-bit FF era, even better than FFVI.

Replay Value: 9/10
When you've been put into a Final Fantasy with something as complex as the job system, you know that there will be tons of replay value. As I said before, probably the most addictive part of the game is experimenting with the job system. I've spent hours and hours fighting villains for exp points while putting my characters into different jobs and trying to make the ultimate character. It's so addictive even when you are nearing the final boss you'll put your character into your favorite class and give him your favorite skill and start fighting. All of the jobs are very unique, although it would be nice if there were more and could evolve. Anyway, besides the job system there is still the mini-quests, the ultimate fun of the item mixing, and the summons. All I can say to it is wow.

Overall: 8.5/10
This is a very underrated Final Fantasy, which deserves the credit for the people who bother to review it. It is mainly underrated because it was not very innovative at all and seemed to follow the paths of I-III. This would be all well and good but because it came after IV some people considered it a letdown to the series. To me, it's no disappointment and is certainly worth playing. It's probably the hardest of any of the FF's, so you'll probably spend awhile playing through it, but don't worry; I guarantee you'll enjoy it. This is a definite play through for any FF fan, and worth playing through for any gamer period.

Pros:
Good Graphics
Great Gameplay
Great Music

Cons:
Weak story
Weak characters

To Buy or Not To Buy:

This version was released only in Japan, so if you can find it, buy it. It is much better than Anthology.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/27/02, Updated 03/27/02