Review: Final Fantasy V
With Final Fantasy V, the series continued the trend that seemed to alternate emphasis on either gameplay or storyline and character development. That is not to say that Final Fantasy's fifth offering neglects any important elements altogether; it is a fairly well-rounded game that should satisfy any RPG fan. Unfortunately, it will be remembered to most in North America as the one Final Fantasy title for the Super Nintendo that was not originally translated and brought over the Pacific. Apparently too advanced for the average North American gamer, even more than Final Fantasy IV was perceived to be, three localization plans (attempts to release the game as "Final Fantasy III" and, later, shamefully, "Final Fantasy Extreme") were scrapped in the mid-90s. Had it been released on time, it likely would have been well-received and appreciated for what would seem like revolutionary gameplay features to a Final Fantasy III-deprived North America. Actually, V brought little more than simple mechanical improvements to the series. However, the feel and gameplay of III were adopted, improved, and combined with the battle system of IV to provide some of the most involving battles and character development of the entire series.
As usual, the version of the game that I have used is the original Japanese ROM, patched with a fan translation (by RPGe).
GAME INFORMATION
NEW FEATURES INTRODUCED TO THE SERIES
Final Fantasy V wasn't exactly a revolutionary game; it mostly took the features of III and the battle system of IV and improved them.
UNIQUE FEATURES
Many of the would-be unique features of III and V were actually shared between the two games. Listed here are a few of V's features that do not appear in III or in any of the later games in the series.
CATEGORICAL RATINGS
Character customization returns to the series in a big way. Final Fantasy V takes a step back in time, combining gameplay elements from all of the previous games to take a step forward in terms of quality. III's job system is used as a foundation, but is vastly improved. The MP system from IV returns, but the magic system otherwise resembles that of III: magic is bought rather than learned, and spells fall into levels. The introductions of ability lists 
and ABP collected from battles are the biggest improvements to the job system, but several new jobs are introduced, including some that will remain important to the series. Compared with the limited options of IV, the various abilities each character can learn seem almost endless. Strategy becomes more important than ever, and that can contribute to an RPG's entertainment value perhaps more than anything else. Features such as the ability to customize your characters to your liking, having to change jobs, equipment, and abilities to adjust to difficult boss battles, and charging through timed events while collecting as much treasure as you can and still escaping before time runs out are great for increasing player involvement and are rather essential elements of the modern RPG experience. The main menu system is much improved, both aesthetically and functionally; optimal equipment can automatically be equipped, and effects of new equipment on each statistic are displayed on screen. The fact that items are finally handled properly is hugely important, especially considering the progress made since II.
BATTLE
Many battles in V cannot simply be won with an appropriate balance of all-out attack and healing magic. Dimensional magic, blue magic, summon magic, and various other job-specific abilities play bigger roles in V than non-traditional skills ever have, and that is a very good thing. The innovative Active Time Battle (ATB) system introduced by IV has been re-tooled, and characters and enemies now run on real time gauges. Though initially this may seem a simple matter of convenience, the ability to see when allies' turns are coming up can be very useful in battles where strategy is important. Balance has been improved even more, and everything seems a lot more stable, without as much variance in values as there was in IV and especially the earlier games. The balance between usefulness of jobs is improved over III, but the strong offensive jobs are still the most dominant, with some others being only useful for purposes other than winning battles. Useful support characters can be developed, however, by taking abilities from various jobs that might otherwise seem useless. However, whereas in IV you must do what you can with the characters you are given, in V you can build a super-team of strong attackers and a healing assistant and successfully conquer most of the game's challenges. Of course, whether you choose to do this is completely up to you. With only four party members again, the row system is now very similar to the one found in III.
ENVIRONMENTS
The rich colour palette introduced in Final Fantasy IV is back, but this time the game's atmosphere better matches the brightness of the environments. Battle and parallax backgrounds are greatly improved, and better graphical detail is easily spotted in towns and dungeons, but the types of locations are generally less interesting. Unfortunately, not many of the dungeons feel as epic as those found in IV. V has multiple world maps, just as IV does, but they aren't as varied as IV's underworld and moon. The strength of V's environments is in the cheery, adventurous feeling the game gives off. Of course, this has more to do with the game's content than the visuals or the locations, but these accommodate the game's purpose very well. Graphically, V is an upgrade from IV, and the game is quite expansive as a whole, but the locations are not as epic or memorable as I would have liked them to be. The best new environment is the forest, which captures the feel of an actual forest much better than IV's simple style would have, and features some of the better environmental graphics in the game. V also features a few towers and an engaging pyramid location.
MUSIC
The dip in V's music rating is more a reflection of inconsistency than lower quality. The cinematic-quality peaks of IV are missing, but the feel of this game doesn't require or even allow for dramatic pieces like "Red Wings." Like the soundtrack for Final Fantasy III, there are a lot of good melodies that don't reach their potential, and don't tie to events in the game as memorably as some of IV's story or character themes. A nice development in V, though, is the use of more story-related pieces, which are actually favoured here over the more character-based themes found in IV. The sound quality has again improved as well. V's theme, contrary to most of the other Final Fantasy games, is quite upbeat, suiting the game nicely. In fact, most of the pieces are less serious in nature; unfortunately this turns out to result in less memorable songs and quite a few throwaways. The main theme isn't as versatile as some of the others in the series, but musically it is right up there with most of them. The pieces that borrow the melody from this theme are all impressive. "Lenna's Theme" has a classic Uematsu melody, and is a useful story piece as well as a character theme. V's battle themes are certainly not as strong as those in IV, but none of them are actually weak. The world map themes aren't great, either. However, the ending theme, airship theme, and some area-specific pieces are consistent with Final Fantasy's musical peaks. "Waltz Clavier" perhaps is a bit of a hint toward Final Fantasy's musical future, but besides that, has always struck me as one of Uematsu's best works. Lastly, "Battle with Gilgamesh" is a series classic, complete with lively organ arpeggios, some diminished passages I'm prone to liking, and a great trumpet melody.
CHARACTERS
Unlike some of the previous games in the series, V does at least try. Well, the developers and writers didn't necessarily put a lot of effort in, but these characters do talk and they at least have superficial, clichéd personalities. The real trouble with these characters is that you don't feel like you want to know them any more than the game allows (which isn't much); you aren't really interested in them and don't really care about them. In games like this, I expect a strong non-playable character to emerge to entertain and make things more interesting, but none emerge except a certain villain. Faris has potential as a multi-dimensional character but ends up being wasted as someone you know nothing about. Finally, the main hero is an accidental, only mildly motivated one, so that doesn't help. I think that Cid and grandson Mid were supposed to provide comic relief, but I almost dreaded their appearances. They don't really add or subtract to this rating.
VILLAINS
Antagonist Exdeath turns out to be just as silly as his name suggests, but not quite as frightening. Like Zande before him, you know he exists but he doesn't show up until later on. When you do meet him, you discover that all he does is laugh maniacally and, [once he gains the power of the Void, destroy hometowns rather than obstruct your party's progress]. While he is simply a collection of past evils that apparently don't need any reason to be destructive, Exdeath's lack of any real motives, overt or otherwise, prevents the game and plot from captivating the player. You accept that you need to defeat this guy in order to beat the game, but you don't actually hate him; you can't hate him, because he doesn't have a personality. This is a real obstacle, motives or no motives. The game's saving grace of villainy could have been Gilgamesh, who is intriguing without being complex, but ultimately he has nothing to do with anything. He is an overconfident buffoon who provides some humourous moments, but isn't important enough to carry the plot or this rating. In many ways, it feels as though villainy was an afterthought. Sometimes I forgot what the end goal was, because it doesn't seem all that important for some reason.
DIALOGUE
Dialogue is largely plot-related, except for the attempts at humour, which certainly aren't as effective as in IV. Also, almost everything Exdeath says is ridiculous. Basically everything that is said in the game can be taken at face value and there are no hidden meanings or deceptions or anything interesting. Besides the confusing silly parts, it's all pretty bland. It's a shame, because there was a lot of potential for dialogue to reveal something deep about the characters who instead turned out to be too simple. There does seem to be more dialogue than before, though, which keeps it at least a step above III considering the dialogue is usually more neutral than bad.
STORY
V's story is rather poorly executed. It's not overly simple, but it still manages to be dull. There isn't much suspense because, unlike IV, you don't feel immersed in the game, and you just accept things as they come. One thing V did well was to leave some things a mystery at the beginning -- Galuf's identity, for example. You are dropped into the middle of a major event in the plot, and only later do you learn what was going on before and the reasons for all the recent meteorites. Somehow, though, the events don't flow together well, especially after Exdeath appears on the scene. You keep doing things, but you don't seem to make much progress toward your ultimate goal, which remains the same throughout. In other words, it just seems like missions thrown together to make a quest, rather than the game being made up of quests determined by a strong storyline. In this way it is more like III and less like IV. As the game's focus is clearly more on gameplay than plot, this makes sense. It is, however, quite unfortunate that both aspects of this game could not be excellent.
THEMES
Once more, the four crystals feature in V, while perhaps not as strongly as in IV. However, the four elements to which the crystals are tied (Wind, Earth, Fire, and Water) are much more prominent. The idea of the planet losing the four elemental powers was first introduced in Final Fantasy, but it is more emphasized here. The weakening of the powers is a signal that the seal on Exdeath will be broken. Another strong theme that ties in with the environmental idea is that of the connexion between humans and wildlife. It is not broad enough to make me want to say that life itself is a main theme, but the main character and the three female characters are very attached to their pet companions, and seem to have abilities to communicate with them. I suppose the fact that [Exdeath originated as a tree] is an extension of the environmental theme as well. Fragments and splitting of things (crystals, the world, and books, to name a few) come up often, especially in the game's back story, but it's not very strong and could have been utilized much more effectively.
INTEREST
Just like in III, the emphasis on character customization makes the game engaging almost all of the time. The aspect of interaction with non-playable characters and more of a plot in which to feel involved help bring the interest level to a series high so far. This rating would be even higher if the story and characters were more involving, but those weaknesses will be reflected in their respective categories. When playing the game, there is always something to be watching. Every player has ABP contributing toward job levels, and there are many jobs to choose from for different reasons, especially in difficult dungeons and for tricky boss battles. The rating could also be higher if a reasonable amount of ABP didn't take so long to acquire -- though I understand why it does.
FLOW
As mentioned in the "Story" section, the plot flow is somewhat awkward in this game. In terms of gameplay, however, the pacing is pretty good. There is usually some major mission to embark on at any given time, and the experience and ability points gained in regular random battles are usually enough unless you want to learn a lot of new abilities with different jobs. The worst part about the gameplay flow is the amount of time it takes to learn new abilities with jobs, especially in the first half of the game if you are using the same job for a very long time. In a way, this is good because it prevents you from mastering jobs too early on, which could give you an unfair advantage. But I didn't like switching jobs very often anyway because I knew what I wanted and didn't see a point in using a weak job just to gain some ability I would probably never use if I knew I would have to learn the late-level abilities for my favourite jobs later on anyway. My stubbornness caused the leveling process to be quite trying, but it paid off in that I had very strong attacking characters through most of the game. Battles are pretty quick, areas aren't too vast, and encounter rate is reasonable.
CHALLENGE
V is not the most difficult game in the series, but it certainly does feature the most difficult battles of any of the first five Final Fantasy titles. As I wished after playing through IV, some boss battles are a lot more difficult and require more strategy to choose combinations of jobs and equipment that will work best. 
The random encounters are generally not a problem, though, and even plenty of the boss battles require nothing more than a strong physical attacking pattern. Generally, though, V's challenge is the good kind. RPGs in which you have to depend on luck or high levels are not very enjoyable ones. V's two superhard boss battles bring this rating up a bit even though they are not necessary in order to complete the game. They introduced the idea of adding some extra challenge to the player who desired to test his or her super-leveled party, which is being utilized more and more in Square's modern RPGs, and adds hours of gameplay for those who would accept the challenge. What keeps this rating from rising above the level of III and IV is the relative ease of the random encounters and of recovering HP. A huge contributor to IV's rating of 9 was its epic last dungeon. In V, though there are many boss battles to fight, like there are in II, the climax of difficulty toward the end just isn't quite as intense. The challenge of the final battle is at least on par, though.
EXTRAS
The number of optional quests, spells, weapons, bosses, and items in Final Fantasy V dwarfs that of its predecessors. This is the first game in which you can skip some legitimate missions and just beat the game right away, so I am counting these legitimate missions as extras. Like IV, almost all of the summon spells are optional and must be found, usually by defeating the monster whose help you wish to obtain. V has more special equipment to be found, and finding them requires searching in a wider variety of locations. However, there aren't more optional areas to explore than we've seen (besides the aforementioned legitimate game missions), and they aren't quite as interesting in my opinion. As with most of the earlier RPGs, you have to wait until the end of the game to seek out most of these extras. The superhard bosses especially will require you to play many, many hours if you actually want to put up a fight. Taking this rating up a notch is the availability of a large number of abilities to learn and jobs to master. The introduction of Blue Magic to the series begs the player to try to learn all of the monster skills, while the superhard bosses require mastery of a wide variety of skills or extremely high experience levels. There is much to do after the basics have been completed. The only problem is that, in order to accomplish the extras that will take the most time, you will need to fight hundreds of repetitive battles just to master new jobs and level up so you can beat a couple of new bosses. While the improvement over IV is significant, there is still a long way to go in the "Extras" category, as the vast majority of V is concerned with the main story line.
REPLAY
Like fellow Job System games I and III, V is wide open for experimenting with different jobs, trying to complete the game while subjecting oneself to various job-related challenges, and beating bosses in different ways than you did the last time. This category's ratings clearly benefit from strong gameplay and, although a strong feeling of connexion with the characters and plot will help make any playing experience enjoyable, it is the dynamic aspect of character building and the fun of playing through the game in a slightly different way that make a second playthrough so rewarding. The only thing that makes replay a less exciting prospect is that the game starts off a bit slowly, and it takes a little while for the job system really to branch out.
WEIGHTED RATING: 70%
More a game and less a work of art than the one that came before it, Final Fantasy V helped establish standards for player-friendly gameplay and unique character customization systems just as IV helped introduce more life and storytelling into the series. V seemed to add something that was missing to the great RPGs of the past, as the turn-based battles became more interactive than ever. Such a vast arsenal of skills had never before been available for the vanquishing of foes; at the time, this added freshness to a very important half of a genre that was still trying to find widespread popularity. As all Final Fantasy games must strive to do, it must have excited fans for what improvements or innovations might come next. Even though it is a tribute to the style of III, V still represents a natural step in the evolution of Final Fantasy, and provided several blocks for future games to build upon. How will the next entries to the series approach ability learning, graphical realism, optional quests, and strategic battles? Now that two different ingredients for a superb RPG have been separately showcased to great effectiveness in IV and V, can they at last be combined to create an experience on another level of greatness?
Labels: Final Fantasy
