Hello and welcome to ToriJ's Video Game Reviews. As many of you know
there have been a lot of Final Fantasy releases over the years. A lot.
Originally, this was because there were a lot of FF games that hadn't
yet been release outside of Japan. Among them was Final Fantasy V which
was packaged with VI in Final Fantasy Anthology for the Sony
Playstation.
The game stars a young adventurer named Bartz, who was just minding his
own business when all of a sudden a meteor crashed into the Earth! How
did Sephiroth make it into this game?
When he goes to investigate what happened, he runs into Reina, Princess
of Tycoon, and an older gentleman named Galuf who is suffering from...
Can you guess it? Amnesia! Amnesia seems to spread in video games like
the flu. Add one purple-haired pirate and you have an epic adventure, so
let's dive right into Final Fantasy V!
Stuck between
a rock and an airship.
FFV plays as your typical classic 2D Final Fantasy game with the added
feature of a run button. More like “The Flash” button. This has you
moving so fast you'll be bumping into things left and right! What's the
point of adding it in in the first place if you're just going to be
hitting walls?!
Bartz is the only character you can name in the game. You don't even get
a default name either, you just have to fill in the blank yourself.
They improved upon the rather complicated row switch system from FFIV by
simply having it where you can click on their sprite in the menu screen
and move them up or down. Don't know why it was ever made so
complicated to begin with.
Oh, and if you want a lesbian moment in your game, just switch to Reina
as your party leader when you find the inn with the dancers, and sit
back and enjoy. I have no shame.
Always a
fucking dragon!
Final Fantasy V brings back the Job System that was introduced in Final
Fantasy III and sets it up to where you can assign your character a
specific class to learn the abilities of that class before moving on to
the next one. This is actually pretty cool. Instead of being limited to
just one class you can modify your characters as you see fit.
The game is also responsible for introducing classes such as the Blue
Mage, Time Mage, and Mime into the series. With the Blue Mage in
particular going on to be featured in several different Final Fantasy
games after this one.
There are twenty-two jobs in the game overall. Apart from that, the battles plays more or less the same as Final Fantasy IV.
While I'm not the biggest fan of random encounters with how disruptive
they can be to the gameplay, I found myself strangely relaxed whenever a
fight occurred in this game. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I
think it has to do with the music. The music is very relaxing as well as
the whole battling experience. Until I'm losing, that is.
I'm going to
go riding off by myself with no reinforcements. I'm sure there will be
no negative repercussions.
The story is fairly straightforward, the four elemental crystals are in
danger, thus threatening to destroy the earth along with them, and it's
up to our heroes to save them. This is a nice throwback to the original
Final Fantasy which had a similar story.
Final Fantasy V possesses a lightheartedness about it that was common to
the older entries, but I think it's even more apparent in this game
when you compare it to IV and VI.
While the game does have some serious moments it doesn't take itself too seriously. Straight down to its characters the game is just having fun with itself and it takes you along for the ride.
Speaking of the characters, they're all pretty likable and we have an
even ratio of males and females in your party. Unfortunately, that is
something even future titles wouldn't get right.
Out of the four main party members, I find Galuf and Faris stands out
the most. Galuf can be found making a joke or two and Faris is just all
around entertaining. Every time she opens her mouth I can't help but
hear Barbossa's voice. I keep waiting for her to say, “We have an
accord!”
Then there's the translation. How can I put this delicately... The
translation blows! The dialog, with the exception of the aforementioned
pirate speak, is just so plain and dull that it doesn't suck you into
the story at all. I'm well aware that I'm playing a game here. Not
that's that always a bad thing, I'm just saying it hurts the narrative.
On the subject of the translation, I don't mind the name change with
Reina. The pronunciations of the two names are close enough, doesn't
bother me. That's the least of the translation's worries.
I've been told time and time again that the Game Boy Advance version has
the best translation, so I guess when in doubt seek out that one. I
never played it so I can't really compare them.
GODZILLA!
And that's Final Fantasy V. There really isn't much more to say. It's a
fairly straightforward game. Probably the most straightforward Final
Fantasy I've ever experienced. Not meaning this to sound like a
criticism it's really easy to just pick up and play. Especially if
you're familiar with any of the other classic Final Fantasy games.
This game was the end of an era, saying goodbye to the old team and
introducing a new one that would go on to make Final Fantasy VI. If the
PlayStation version is the only one you can get your hands on, it's only
five bucks on PlayStation Network, you're not losing much even with the
poor translation, it's well worth the price.
Try
it
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