Final Fantasy V

Japanese SNES box.

Final Fantasy V is a JRPG developed and published by Square and released on 1992-12-06 for the Super Famicom. It is the fifth game in the Final Fantasy canon. The game was later translated to English and ported to other platforms.

Like most Americans, I did not have access to this game when it came out or even know of its existence. However, many years after its release, I found a translated ROM hack and began playing it. I played the game about a third of the way through and enjoyed the story line, but the job system was very difficult for the completionist in me to take, and I became bored constantly trying to level up all my characters. At some point, I lost my save game file and gave up on it, and haven't played it since.

Status

I do not own this game and I have not beaten it.

Review

• Overall: 6/10
• Best Version: ?

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The job system is pretty cool. I like the idea of being able to progress with a class and permanently have access to that class's abilities.
• The graphics have really been improved since FFIV, especially the monster graphics which take advantage of a larger color palette.
• Nobuo Uematsu once again delivers a fantastic soundtrack.
• The lever puzzle in the fire ship was pretty enjoyable.
• I love the head-bob of Boko the chocobo.

Bad

• The job system ultimately hurts character development. In games like 4 and 6, the fact that a character is a mage stays with them for the whole game. You're constantly reminded they're a mage because they're unable to equip powerful weapons and armor, they're physically weaker, and you frequently use them for magic. This puts a certain depiction of them in your head that matches how they're depicted in the story. However, with the job system, every character can change roles all the time, so it's only the story that gives them stability. Of course, when your supposedly delicate princess is a fighting as a berserker, it ruins that depiction of her in your head.
• The classes aren't evenly that balanced. For example, a knight or monk completely dominates over a berserker, and, since you get the knight and monk early on, the berserker start out particularly underpowered with no incentive to develop it. This makes a lot of the weaker classes kind of pointless.
• A large amount of the job abilities you learn are pretty useless.
• The game is every completionist's nightmare. Not only do you level up the players, but you also have to level up all of their classes. This wouldn't be that annoying if ability points were increased with harder enemies like experience points are, but the average battle only yields 1-2 ABP, and bosses only award 5! This takes forever to reach those 999 levels. Thankfully, hitting level caps are not necessary at all.
• Dialog boxes are a little better than the previous game, so you don't accidentally skip them with the D-pad, but you have to let off the D-Pad before you can hit any of the other buttons which is annoying to talk and walk at the same time.
• Since I run far more than I walk, I would rather have to push a button to walk rather than run.
• There is a bug with the NPCs hurrying out of the way when you push them, and they often hurry well after you've passed them, and if you both walk into the same square at the same time, you walk through each other.
• You can easily purchase all of the level 1-3 magic early in the game, but the next several towns you discover will keep selling the same weak magic to you. The game should have paced itself better.

Ugly

• Nothing.

Media

Maps

• 

  Overworld: First world.

• 

  Overworld: Second world.

• 

  Overworld: Third world.

• Final Fantasy V - SNES - Map - Overworld - Third World (Underwater).png

  Overworld: Third world (underwater).

• More maps

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	Final Fantasy V
Japanese	ファイナルファンタジー	Fainaru Fantaji V	Final Fantasy V

Links