Final Fantasy V

"A great roleplaying classic"

Introduction-Final Fantasy 5 was released in Japan,in 1992, by world renown gaming company square-soft, this now classic rpg was released as the 5th game in the popular Final Fantasy series, a series already known for its dramatic and spellbinding storylines along with intuitive gameplay elements. With the advanced gaming capabilities of the snes having been pretty well tapped into by this year, as indicated with FF4,square was ready to take its beloved rpg to a new level in both graphical enhancement and innovativeness. The adventure was a big success on the super famicom, but unfortunately, us U.S gamers were unable to experience the majesty that was ff5, and were instead left to be content with ff4, or ff2 as it was known here. But now, all of that has changed with squaresoft's release of FF5 to american gamers, bundled within its ff anthology collection. Now u.s. gamers can finally join Butz, Rena,Faris,Galuf and Boco in thier fantastic oddysey to save thier world.

Gameplay- FF5 is quite an enjoyable game to play. With use of the ps1's control pad (does not support analog) walking abroad the game's overworld is made simple and character responive. Granted, you may find overworld travel within the game to be pretty slow, especially if you're new to classic rpgs such as this, and getting from one town to the other can be pretty tiring for those gamers who aren't very patient. Fortunately that's made-up for with use of airship and boat which you'll eventually aquire within the game. It's then that you'l find overworld control to be fast and responsive, allowing for easy manuever of the aquired vehicle. Having an airship will make getting to that next destination not only enjoyable, but fast and exciting as well. Control Layout is pretty simple. A note*This is a turn-based rpg, so you'll find yourself engaging in alot of battles that just happen randomly as you're traveling around the overworld. In turn-base combat, you basically have a vertically split screen in which your characters, Bartz, Galuf, Rena and Faris are aligned on the right half of the screen and your enemies, which are usually fearsome monsters, aligned on the left half of the screen. Now back to the control layout. The ps1's analog (or control pad) selects your method of attack, the x button executes that attack, whereas the o button cancels your selected attack. Square button has no effect during battle, and i don't think it serves any purpose in the gameplay. Controls themeselves are pretty smooth.

Npc text is swiftly and smoothly cycled through with either the triangle, square, x or o buttons, and text itself flows very smoothly and is easy to read with moderately large letter caps, whch makes reading the game's text pretty fun. The game's inventory is pretty well organized and makes cycling through items, getting updates on character status, upgrading weapons and magic as well as configurating the game's sound, npc and battle text fun and simple. This is a swords and sorcery based rpg so theres lots of magic and weapon upgrading in order to be successful in the game. Magic is organized in several sub-categories according to white, black, time, summon, sword, blue and songs. White magic is for healing spells, black magic is combatant spells, time magic incorporates times which may falter the enemies own attacks and spells, sometimes even the enemie itself. Summon magic deals with boss characters or sometimes special creatures found throughout the game. By defeating these enemies, you aquire them to usue throughout the game at your will under summon magic. These cratures are often very powerful, such as Bahamut, Shiva and Odin, and can perdorm devastating special attacks upon foes. Thus its best to use these summons during difficult boss battles when aquired. Sword magic incorporate magical effects useable by sword types, mythril, steel, bronze, silver etc. Blue magic is much like time dealing with status effects and song magic is magic which allow for magical attacksto be executed in the form of songs usually aquired by bard characters.

Returning to ff3's (japan) character system, there are tons of character jobs, or clases to choose from in which Bartz, Rena, Faris and Galuf an specialize in, which include thief, bard, blackmage, whitemage, fighter, summoner, dragoon, sorcerer, wizard, alchemist, ninja, and alot more. Whatsbetter is that the 4 characters may change job's at will, making for alot to experiment with as no game's quite the same twice.

Story- As in the case of all ff games, the story of FF5 has to do with the 4 elemental crystals of wind, water, earth and fire. A grand tale, It starts out a little slow admitably, however, one of the cooler things about the game is at first not knowing everything that's going on, which is actually almost half of the game, But it quickly picks up. The crystal of wind has shattered, thus causing the wind to stop. The king (Rena's father) mounting a mighty dragon, sets off to investigate the cause of this phenomenon as in the game's opening castle scene. Worried about her father, the princess Rena sets out after her father although ordered to stay at the castle. Along the way she is attacked by goblins in a nearby forest. Hearing her shrill shry, a boy wanderer and his yellow chocobo Boco come to her rescue. After making quick work of the Goblins, Rena tells Butz that her father is investigating the wind crystal and that she wants to go there to make sure that he's okay. And, exactly where the goblins attacked Rena, they find a large meteor as well as an injured old man named Galuf. Unforunately, Galuf has a terrible case of amnesia, and doesn't remember who he is or anything about his past. Butz decides to go about his own way, while Rena, deciding to help Galuf with his amnesia, takes him along in her journey to the wind shrine, where the wind crystal has shattered. Later in his travels however, Bartz, fleeing from a ground fissure caused by the meteor landing, finds the old man and Rena once more attacked by monsters, defeating the creatures and saving the two once more. This time Bartz decides to join the princess and Galuf in thier journey to the wind shrine. Realizing that the road to tule (one of the game's towns) is now barracaded by large craters created by the earthquake, the party decides to pass through a nearby cave where they encounter rougue pirates lead by the nefarious leader known as Faris. after sneaking into the ship's base, they party attempt to steal the pirates ship enroute to Tule when they are confroted by Faris himself. Faris prepares to seize the three when Rena convinces him otherwise and to lend her his pirate ship that she and her comrades may aid her father. Faris refuses at first, but eventually decides to cooperate, perhaps even for his own personal reasons. The party, arriving at the wind shrine, find it ridden with monsters. Battling thier way to the top they find Rena's father unconcious beside the shattered crystal. As the dying King of Tycoon lies motionless in princess Rena's arm's, the 4 realize that the remaining three crystals must be saved, and that they are the only ones who can save them....Thus embarking on a journey spanning many lands and even worlds to save thier planet.

Graphics/sound- Being a snes game, the graphics in FF5 are 2-d mode 7 faireand allows you the isometric, birdview perspective during gameplay. Character models are moderate size, although not very much detail is shown. However its never too difficult to identify with geography or differentiate between npc or monster. The game boasts lots of color although not with a particularly high resolution. Magic and summon effects are pretty good, and a little better than in earlier games in the series. Summons are pretty impressive for a snes game with lots of screen flashing when a particular attack is executed, nothing too flashy however, but pretty good overall. However, on a positive note, the game's beautiful musical selection really brings it to life,setting the mood from dramatic to daring , heroic to adventurous, tragic to foreboding etc. Sound effects are okay, considering that most of the battle and town music are simply midis and although sound effects can be a bit bleepy or blotchy, these are very insignificant flaws overriden by a miriad of wonderful qualities which FF5 has.

Playtime/Replayability- Rpgs are usually quite enduring in terms of length, and Final Fantasy 5 is just as long as any rpg, both in story and in size. FF5's story spans several worlds each boasting its own set of towns and dungeon areas in which you must explore in progressing the game. Its a pretty big game, and one in which you certainly won't finish for months, There's alot to see and do, so prepare to spend a good 40 hours or so when you find it. And even when you do complete the game, you can always go back and do it again as a new set of classes, making for pretty high replayability.

Final Recommendation- Final Fantasy 5 is really a great game, and worthy of any gamer or rpg gamer's collection. It further introduced me to how wonderful rpgs can really be. This is a great place to start for FF enthusiasts as well, and it ranks amongst some of the better rpgs out there. So i encourage you, go out when you can and find this gem, you won't soon regret it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/07/05