[REVIEW] Final Fantasy V (PSX)

[CJC]

Apologies in advance if this is one of your favorite games, as I am not going to hold punches.

Also, I would like to warn in advance that this review will contain spoilers. While they may be in spoiler tags, the preview on the side of the board has a tendency of piercing that veil, so... I'm typing a bunch of stuff to fill up that post preview. Flubba Dub Blib Blob Bleep!


Anyway, this review will be broken into three sub-sections: Gameplay, Characters, and Plot, each in their own spoiler tag (so you can easily find the part you want to read).

Gameplay: Mechanics 3/10, First World 8/10, Second World 2/10, Third World 10/10
-=SPOILER=-

Characters: Bartz 2/10, Reina 0/10, Faris 5/10, Galuf 9/10, Krile 1/10
Villains: Gilgamesh 6/10, X-Death 9/10 (first world) to 3/10 (third world)
-=SPOILER=-

Plot: First World 2/10, Second World 1/10, Third World 6/10, N-Zone 2/10
-=SPOILER=-


Overall, I'd give the game a 6/10. It has a very strong finish, but its flaws are too large to overlook.

[mrz84]

I liked FF5. Its in my top 10 fav Final Fantasy games. I have to agree with some of what you say about 5, but disagree with some others. First off, Gilgamesh has to be one of the most badass FF villains that ISN'T the final boss or a secret boss. His music (Battle on the Bridge) is jsut excellent. The class system I have to agree with you on the leveling of it. There are a few places in the first world whre if you are careful, you can farm for 20 per fight, but you have to be prepared for it or you'll get killed. The characters have their faults, but I like that because that makes them less than perfect (unlike SOME other FF characters fans argue to are, as in perfect). X-Death's tree form in the final battle is a throughback to his creation though, if you pay attention to the story (I don't know whre, its been years since I played the game). Why he had to assume that form for the final battle is beyond me, but meh. I must be a requirement for a FF end boss to have some sorta massive, yet also often hideous form. Meh. The worlds, were interesting in some areas, blah in others. I agree with most of your first world locations. As for the second world, I have to say it was decent, but not a remarkable. The third world though, was awesome. And then there's the N-Zone (some translations have it called the X-Zone, like the infamous spell in some other games such as 6).

Also, I think the funniest thing about this game is that in the original japanese version, Bartz was named Butz. I can see why they changed the name for the US release.

[Brasel]

I read somewhere recently, it might have been wikipedia, that the creators of Final Fantasy made it so you had to grind to level your characters so that you wouldn't finish the game too quickly. I agree that leveling the classes is annoying, but I really like the payoff. I agree that the characters weren't that great, too. They weren't real memorable or well developed like they were in IV or VI. I thought the name "X-Death" was kind of stupid, as well.

Good review.

[vegeta1215]

I played FFV long ago when the translation patch came out. I played through the game normally, switching back and forth between jobs, gaining skills as I went, but by the time I got near the end, I really worked to master every job. You know what that means right? My "regular" job gained every stat boost, every ability, every weapon wielding power, and every command! It's really a blast.

I really liked the little secret base you get, and the tower dungeon where you can't use anything metal (so no swords, no armor, etc) and have to rely on wooden wands and hand-to-hand combat - that was really different. The underwater tower where you get the Mimic job was neat. The optional Omega Machine and Shinryu bosses were really fun too: Two handed thunder magic swords = one dead Omega Machine; Coral rings + two handed jumps with Hiryuu spears = dead Shinryu :)

I don't really fault the game for it's story and characters, cause really, the job system is where it's at. Years after playing the translated version I got FFV Advance, but I didn't play very far. After I learned that there were extra dungeons with a few brand new jobs, I knew it'd take me forever to master everything again, and I don't have that kind of patience for games anymore. Still an awesome game though.

btw, I remember farming ABP in the basement of the castle in world two, around where you get the Odin summon iirc. Also, there's an enemy in The Void (near the end of the game) that gives you lots of gold and like 200 ABP. I think they're called Movers. Little round guys. That's the best spot to master jobs.

UPDATE: I remembered I went out of my way to steal Red Shoes for each character, but I couldn't remember why. After looking it up, I found that I got them because those (as well as other items) greatly increase the chance of your performing Sword Dance when you use the Dance command, and Sword Dance lets you hit the enemy 4 times. Combine that with some other skills and weapons, and you have a deadly combination on your hands. Trust me when I say there is something to every job ;)

[CJC]

@mrz In the spoiler, I talk about how Gilgamesh was funny and had great music. He got low marks primarily because of his change of heart in the N-Zone.
Also, I know X-Death's origins were tied to being sealed in a tree, so he had wacky tree powers. But that was the part that was ridiculous in the second world, and it just got worse in the N-Zone when he actually turned into a tree.

@Anthony That's a pity that they designed it with that intention, because the dungeons would have been much more enjoyable if I hadn't been worn out from nights of grinding.
Final Fantasy IV and VI had such great characters in part because they were individualized and each necessary for a certain style of play. Perhaps damaged character development is just a natural side-effect of extended customization.
Thank you for the compliment on the review.

@vegeta Oh, Fork Tower? I sent my two wizards up the one side and just blew everything to pieces with Bolt 3 -> Mimic -> Mimic...
The job system wouldn't have been so bad if not for the grinding. I just felt some of the passive abilities should have applied to more jobs than 'Bare' and 'Mime'. For example, armor equip passive should have applied to all classes (So if you master Knight first, your Red Mage could equip a shield), and weapon passives should have applied to all classes of a particular genre (So mastering the EQKatana skill with a Samurai would let you use Katanas with Knights, Berserkers, Sorcerers, Monks [Well, why, but still] Ninjas, and Dragoons).
I farmed the Wind, Water, and Fire crystal jobs on the island north of Crescent. It was 3 ABP per fight, which could be ended with one casting of Ramuh. When I got the Earth crystal jobs, I used the basement in Val (The one you were talking about) to master those. At 5 and 8 ABP per fight with a cast of L5 Doom, it actually went by after only a few hours, as compared to the other classes.
I didn't farm Mimic at all; I used it in Phoenix Tower and got most of it finished from the Magic Jars. So by the time I was in the N-Zone with the Movers, they weren't necessary.

I killed Shinryu with Coral Rings equipped, but not with the jump command. I threw a MagiShuriken, then mimic-spammed it until the dragon was dead. This strategy didn't work on Omega, though, so I ended up running around him.

[Aliem]

That's a pretty fair review, I'd say. I enjoyed the game when I played it, but all the flaws you pointed out are real.

From what I understand, the first "wave" of Final Fantasy games (1-5) were alternating in nature; one would be more puzzle/gameplay based, and the next would be more story/character driven. The first four fit that pretty well, with 1 and 3 not having fleshed-out characters and 2 and 4 having developed characters and a story-heavy plot. Five was kind of a mix. They tried too hard to make dynamic and interesting gameplay (having only played the NES version of FFIII, I can safely say V did the Job system WAY better) but grinding was a huge issue, and a major annoyance. With a meh, decent story and sub-par characters, along with weak gameplay, V is for sure the black sheep of the FF series as far as I'm concerned. An okay game, but sub-par for the series.

[mrz84]

@mrz In the spoiler, I talk about how Gilgamesh was funny and had great music. He got low marks primarily because of his change of heart in the N-Zone.

I know, I read the spoiler. I just thought I'd put in my 2 cents about him. Also I actually kinda liked the change of heart at the end. It was a twist I didn't see coming and I like that.

[Gleeok]

Good review. I agree with most of it except for the grinding part. IIRC What I did was pick a main job for each character and stick with that most of the way; job stats effect the strength of your characters, I believe, so if you get a good mix you don't need to brute force over enemies. But yeah, some of the bosses were HARD. FFV was a little repetitive already, but if your grinding for job mastery then I can see how it could become over the top.

[vegeta1215]

I originally played this game through a translation patch but later got FFV Advance on the GBA. Did anyone else play it on the GBA? I ask because I recently popped the game into my GBA SP, and I have no idea how I ever played it this way... everything is so tiny! I really have to squint to read all the lettering. I guess I'm spoiled by the DS and my new 3DS XL :\