Final Fantasy 5 - Final Thoughts
Now, as usual, we'll begin with the game stats.
Final Fantasy 5 Game Stats
Hours Played - 38-1/2 hours
Final Party and Their Stats
- Bartz Level 42 - Bare with Sword Magic and $toss. (Learned 34 Abilities)
- Reina Level 41 - Bare with Summon and White Magic. (Learned 38 Abilities)
- Krile Level 43 - Bare with Time and Black Magic. (Learned 42 Abilities)
- Faris Level 42 - Bare with Sword Catch and $toss. (Learned 35 Abilities)
Honestly, I didn't find it to be that impressive of a team, but I managed to beat the game. So...go me!
I'll be going over the usual two main points...game play and story. Starting with the game play, it's your basic 2D Final Fantasy RPG. It uses the Active Time Battle style of battling. The system for characters is a reconfigured version of the Job System from Final Fantasy 3. However, I find in this case that I greatly prefer how 5 did it as opposed to 3. FF3's selection of jobs ended with half of the jobs being nearly useless before the game was over. FF5 on the other hand only had a few useless jobs, but almost every job had at least one really good ability to gain. That and the Abilities allow for more customization in turn allowing for more powerful and unique character combos. Outside of the revamped Job System, there really wasn't anything different about 5. I also greatly approved of only having to buy magic once. FF3 forced you to buy separate "orbs" or whatever that was equipped on a per-character basis. It wasn't too bad until you hit later on where spells were 20,000 gil apiece. Anyways, I really enjoyed the game play and the job system in this one, but it isn't totally perfect either...
As for any downsides to 5's game play...My only real complaints are pretty small. The amount of ABP (Ability Points) you need to level your jobs goes up with level, but many jobs hit a point where gaining the extra (and usually) final level gives you a really crappy ability. A good example of this is the Time Mage. The final job level of Time Mage gives you the "Equip Rod" ability. I see no use for this ability whatsoever, and it's also the very last skill you learn...for 500 ABP. Most battles (right up until the very, very end) only hand out around 5 to 10 ABP. Sure, the bosses give more, but that's beside the point. The only other things I'd say are missing are the ability to more easily find Enemy Skills for Blue Magic (Used a guide and maybe got half of them...) and the inability to skip a person's turn. I don't think they really did this until the 3D Final Fantasy games (like 7), and many of the older ones only got this in the remakes. It's really only mildly annoying at worst. That's all I got for game play complaints, and I'd definitely say it was great fun outside of these small things. Now....time for story!
Here I am on Final Fantasy 5, and let me tell you...the crystal thing is getting pretty old. Apparently the first...pretty much all of the initial Final Fantasy games involved elemental crystals and their being taken/destroyed/etc. Each one did it differently, but in the end, they all had crystals. I guess that was just Squaresoft's thing back in the day (That's right...before the Enix!). Minus the crystals thing, it was another good story. A fun fact, apparently this was one of the first fan translations to make it really big. People even complained about the more official translation seeing as they made Faris sound overly pirate-y and such. I didn't mind it so much, but it was kinda weird how she'd go back and forth from it sometimes. Not a big deal really...just probably could have been done better. The story was pretty cool and had some interesting stuff behind it. The twist of Faris being a girl and not a boy. Faris and Reina being siblings (dun dun duuuuuuun!). I won't say anything else as to not ruin any of it...Although I probably already did in a previous post. We also got to deal with the idea of two worlds and the Void again (refer to FF3 story). Although they changed the idea of light and dark world to just two separate worlds that USED to be one. The biggest part of all this...I enjoyed the characters. Despite the seriousness, there was quite a bit of little jokes throughout the game. Overall, I enjoyed the story and the characters.
So if I had to say a flaw in this game...I'd probably point the crystals thing again and Exdeath himself. The Crystals-based story was done quite a bit here, and they never really ventured from it. Some of them put them in the background a bit, but I'm pretty sure they all had crystals at one point or another (minus FF2...but I didn't like that one). My only complaint with Exdeath is mostly his back story more than anything else. He was an evil spirit sealed in a tree, but then he escaped and became an evil wizard. Yet...his overall look is that of a large man in what looks like super evil-y armor. He's not a bad villain persay, but I don't like/loathe him as much as others. Overall...he's kinda meh in comparison. He does get down to business though. Just straight up destroys everything he can...
So now for a small recap...
Love the job system and game play, but it isn't perfect.
The story is good, but it feels done before (previous ones).
I'd say it's pretty good, but I can see why it isn't top ranked among anybody.
I'd say give it a shot if you like Final Fantasy Tactics and its Job System. This version feels like the "beta" of it.
That's it for Final Fantasy 5. I'd recommend, but I wouldn't say go out of your way.
Up next...Final Fantasy 6! The final 2D fantasy in the lineup...and seems to be considered as the best one!
Stay tuned.
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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