Final Fantasy V Review (Spoilers)
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!
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.
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.
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.
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
