[REVIEW] Final Fantasy V (PSX) — Video Game Discussion

CJC 13 Sep 2012, 02:03

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]
Mechanics
Don't get me wrong, it's a Final Fantasy game and it tries to expand the system, but... it was just executed so poorly. First, the class leveling system is a train-wreck. Given the low rate at which ABP is acquired, it seems the amount required to gain a class level was set incorrectly. For example, the first level of a class might say 0/10, but the second level changes to 0/20. Then they start to balloon to values like 0/400 or 0/999. Since, until the last stretch of the game, each fight only gives 1 or 2 ABP, it seems like the progress should have carried over from level to level (Such as 0/10, 10/20, 20/400, 400/999). In order to master all the classes I had to farm a specific region for literally twenty hours. It just sucks all the fun out of the game.

Second, the way classes interact with each other seems like a waste. For example, most classes have skills that unlock their equipment for other classes, but in order to use them the character has to give up their second input action. This makes learning the 'equipment' skills pointless, since the best class (Bare) has them all automatically. If they had unlocked that equipment for other similar classes (Like say, learning the EQShield from Knight would let you use shields for a Samurai automatically), then they might have been worthwhile.

I know, I'm attacking the class system a lot. And I've got more. A lot of the class abilities overlapped with each other, to the point that they were completely pointless (Flee and SmokeBomb did the exact same thing. Examine and Scan [High-Rank Blue Mage abilities] do the same thing as a Scan spell [learned by a level 1 White Mage]. And sing and dance? We really needed two of them?)

First World
The Ship Graveyard was actually quite interesting. The Fire Ship had a nice combination of puzzle and maze, and the Library of the Ancients had that excellent pairing of combat fear and maze that really held my attention. After the twenty hours of farming I had to do for the classes, the rest of the dungeons didn't pose any physical threat, but they were still interesting on an aesthetic level.

Second World
While the dungeons and monsters weren't much different than the first world, they lost all their punch. The mountain, the barrier tower, they were all very linear and lacking in any sort of sophistication. Those that were intended to be complicated (like the forest) just turned into the tedium of searching for one specific spot in a large span that you couldn't see through at any real distance. Thankfully the second world was brief. I don't think I could have stomached more than a few hours in this portion of the game.

Third World
The third world was a textbook example of excellence. The dungeons were just so expertly executed that I don't think I could ever forget them. The pyramid in particular was incredible. I felt like I couldn't stand still, or more snakes would pop out of the walls and attack. Opening caskets would be met with mummified remains that would subsequently pounce on you. I don't know, being able to see the enemies on the map and having to maneuver around them just felt right, like that was the natural state of a final fantasy game. What they should be like all the time. The other dungeon that really spoke to me was the final one, in the N-Zone. Assembled from recycled elements of other dungeon themes, it really felt like I was adrift in this alternate reality that was strung together not by space but rather by association. While this area included random battles, it also utilized the 'visible' threats, which is probably why I liked it so much.

Overall, the game itself was well constructed, but the game system it used needed a few more drafts. Well, a few dozen more drafts.
[/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]
Bartz
Bartz was not believable as a human being. He was supposed to be this vagabond wanderer, but he immediately allowed himself to be anchored to two complete strangers for no reason beyond "Hey, there was an Earthquake!" (I may be mis-remembering; I did have twenty hours of farming to do between the beginning and the second world, see the Gameplay review). His motivations were consistently unclear for the entirety of the game, despite his alignment as the 'focus' character. His graphics did not help this situation, as most of them were regurgitated elements from earlier games. Overall, he would be easy to forget.

Reina
I just don't like her. Whiny animal lover with a martyr complex, who stupidly exposes herself to poison REPEATEDLY in the course of the story. It's literally part of the plot. And she's so frail she could stub her toe and she'd faint from it.

Faris
Faris is average. Yeah, she's a bad-ass pirate and what not, and she got away with the ambiguous gender thing for a whole two hours, but whenever she interacts with her father she gets all needy. To be frank, she's inconsistent and it's annoying.

Galuf
Who'd think that the guy with amnesia would be so heartwarming? Galuf is great comedy relief, acts as mister narrator in well-timed bursts, and overall had the best art elements of all the characters. It was hilarious when he'd remember just one fact, and then subsequently shrug and say he didn't know any more. The game suffers when he completely recovers his memory, and even more for his loss in the second world.

Krile
I probably hate her because I liked Galuf, but I can't stand Krile. Children have no place in deciding the fate of the world. Also, she was psychic and talked with animals. Yuk! I gather she's the obligatory 'cute' character in this JRPGs, but that doesn't make her any more palatable. At least she didn't speak in the third person. And she wasn't a total wuss like Reina.

Gilgamesh
Had a great theme, was as funny as Galuf, and was an engaging boss fight in his many appearances, up to the end of the game. His change of heart was a little out-of-character, but not entirely unbelievable.

X-Death
X-Death started off as wizard who became obsessed with power and tried to conquer the world. He was so bad-ass he not only needed to be sealed away, it had to be on an entirely different planet. When those seals were weakened, he was able to possess people with sheer force of will, even though his body was locked up beneath the earth.
By the second world, it was revealed that X-Death wasn't a wizard, but the physical embodiment of some ancient evil. I rolled my eyes and dropped my opinion of him from 9 to 4. Suddenly you can't just be a power-hungry man, you have to be the incarnation of some ancient evil? Gag unto me with a spoon!
In the third world, X-Death's motivations shifted to controlling this ancient power that had been locked away a millennium before. So yay, back to evil wizardry earned him a +3, putting him at 7. But... upon acquiring this power he transformed into... a tree. And I lost all respect for him. He dropped to 0 there, and would have stayed there had the power not possessed him and made him an avatar of erasure. That won him another 3 points, which is where he ended.
So I guess my problem with X-Death was the same as my problem with Faris. He was way too inconsistent.
[/spoiler]

Plot: First World 2/10, Second World 1/10, Third World 6/10, N-Zone 2/10
[spoiler]
First World
I found it difficult to care about the plot the characters were telling, probably because the characters weren't very likable. There was an entire overtone of 'abusing nature' that just felt like a public service announcement. Having the crew repeatedly come across the crystals, only to have them shatter JUST before they could be saved... it got old at the Water Crystal (And that was only the second one).

Second World
"Galuf's gone back home to face X-Death! Let's follow him!"
"Why?"
"I dunno."
Heaven forbid the characters should follow Galuf to, you know, help fight X-Death. When asked why they came, Bartz simply replies with "I don't know, I had nothing better to do". Wow, way to be heroic.
The second world existed specifically for the purpose of dumping plot. Galuf is a king now (Well THAT'S a bore!), and they're all fighting to get into X-Death's little tree-fort bubble. We get to meet all of Galuf's old friends, who then immediately die. And then Galuf dies too. What a throw-away the second world was.

Third World
It turns out the two planets were actually one, split to create a pocket dimension that sealed away this devouring energy called Void. It was a lovely play on the 'five element' model that rarely sees use in these games, the high element that is an amalgam of the other four is trying to wipe the world clean, so we pull a rabbit out of our hat to do away with it.
X-Death wanted to harvest this infernal force, and so arranged to merge the worlds so that he could gain access to it. The third world is very much like the first, with only a few elements of the second world incorporated. This was actually really intriguing. He even goes so far as systematically sucking cities into the void, to build his control of the phenomenon. The plot becomes a race against the ever-powerful wizard to gather ancient powerful weapons before he consumes the entire worldd.

N-Dimension
But as you breach the N-Dimension it is very bluntly stated that X-Death wants to 'build a world of monsters'. What does that have to do with anything? I mean, I could see using ultimate power to subjugate the masses. There are also those megalomaniacs who want to simply destroy everything... though I didn't see X-Death as that kind of villain. But making a world of monsters? What does that achieve? And these 'monsters' that he is supposedly building the new world for throw themselves at you like suicide soldiers for no good reason. While the gameplay in the N-Dimension was riveting, the motivation of its inhabitants was not.
[/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 13 Sep 2012, 02:24

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 13 Sep 2012, 02:29

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 13 Sep 2012, 03:54

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 13 Sep 2012, 04:41

@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 13 Sep 2012, 07:14

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 13 Sep 2012, 18:16

CJC wrote:@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 14 Sep 2012, 12:29

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 29 Sep 2012, 16:00

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 :\