Fainaru fantajî V

Even the worst final fantasy game is still pretty fun. But this game is still mediocre. It had a lot of hype built up because it wasn't released in the US for several years . But the game it self really isn't that good. The story-line is a loosely strung series of events that eventually involve a generic evil guy in a helmet named exdeath. At one point Butz says "you won't get away with this" and exdeath says "And just what do you think It is that I'm trying to get away with." Indeed Butz doesn't know, and neither did I, nor did I particularly care up to that point. However when he answers that question the game turns around for the better. The story is given a point and there are plenty of secrets to discover. Too bad there is only a little bit more of the game left. The job system is fun but not enough so to carry the game by itself. The game is still decent, but is hardly worthy of the rest of the series. I spent most of the game waiting for something to happen. When it finally did I had to wonder if it was worth the effort.

Most people were introduced to the Final Fantasy franchise via Final Fantasy 7, but that wasn't my case. This was, in fact, the very first game of that series I ever played, and probably because of that, my perception of the franchise was always associated to medieval fantasy (Something which was reinforeced when I played Final Fantasy 4)

Final Fantasy 5 is probably the most underrated game of the series. I know many fans of the franchise prefer darker, more apocalyptic stories, but this game had its share of dark and dramatic moments.

And some parts from it were incredibly difficult! The final boss was probably one of the hardest enemies ever made in any RPG game, as far as I know.

I remember needing a lot of help of my older brother to finish this game.

But it was a fun, captivating game. It had a whimsical magic which I wish the series still retained. Alas, people only want more and more darkness.

Yes, I admit, there are some of the Final Fantasy games I like before FFVIII and the other latter titles came out. But Final Fantasy V sticks to me like bees stick to honey.

The story is in three parts: Butz's world (trying to save the crystals), Galuf's world (Galuf trying to stop the main evil himself) and Ex-Death's world (Destroy the Void and the evil mage himself). Without spoiling any of the plot or characters, you'll be pleased with the story and the likable cast of characters. Who says you need a big cast when you can have a few wonderfully developed cast. Not to mention the job system is very fun and addicting. You can even mix and match abilities.

The only flaw is the graphics and sound. The graphics look EXACTLY like FFIV's graphics. And even though the soundtrack was good in some spots, but a lot of the music sounded way too happy and perky. Sounds more like a kiddy game music than it does earth in distress music.

Just too bad this FF got overshadowed by FFIV and FFVI and was never released in America in trhe SNES days. It's far superior to FFVI in story, gameplay and characters. Play it and give it a chance.

Final Fantasy V was first released in Japan but it came to the outer world nearly ten years later. After I've played this game with SNES emulator it's easy to understand why.

First the good news. Final Fantasy V has an excellent job system that is more developed version from Final Fantasy III. There's a wide selection from different jobs including common fighter, thief and couple of mages and uncommon dragoon, samurai and many others. What even better, all special skills are saved even if a player decides to change classes. Only down side is that some of the classes, like geomancer, mediator or dancer, are completely useless.

The bad thing in this game is the atmosphere. Story about stopping evil Exdeath from destroying elemental crystals and the everything else just feels to make excuses to point colorless characters to go in different places. Although it's revealed enough their past that they are somehow interesting they have not any characteristics to make them feel close. Plus white-armored Exdeath with no clear motivation for wanton destruction is probably one of the dullest main villains ever in any media. Only good character is Exdeath's first-in-command Gilgamesh who has charisma and funny dialog. Even the music has decreed from Final Fantasy IV's excellency to mediocre.

Final Fantasy V is good as hack'n slash game but because of its sterile story, characters, music and even graphics it feels like work of engineers rather than artists.

This game used to be an Japan only Final Fantasy SNES game. Not anymore. You can now play this game on your sony playstation with Final Fantasy Anthology. Alright the graphic isn't very good as the other final fantasy games on the Playstation. Does that really matter? I think not. RPGs is all about the storylines. That's why I play them. The game doesn't have much playable characters like the other final fantasy games. I think that's why they didn't bother to release it in the U.S.

The game also comes with an new CGI video that never before seen in the japan version.