Final Fantasy V

Welcome to another round of review in my nonexistent gaming journal. I say that because I don't recall the last time I picked up a game. The only thing I'm left with are the amazing memories of games that remind me why I love gaming so much. Here is to hoping I find the passion or the free time to invest myself in one. We're continuing with the long series of Final Fantasy, moving on with the fifth entry.

Final Fantasy V was pure awesomeness in my book and it introduced me to the chocobo for the first time which I found ultimately adorable, only to find later it was a rip off from one of Miyazaki's movies. Another interesting trivia is Final Fantasy V was the first Final Fantasy to receive a sequel in anime format aside from Final Fantasy VII that had a prequel in an Anime episode, but I'll get to that later on another review. No, the anime was bad, don't attempt to look it up. You'll regret it.

Final Fantasy V may have been compared to the third entry for having a similar combat and job system and although it may have been similar, it only made it more worthwhile and memorable. Where Final Fantasy III introduced the Job system and brought the idea of character customization, Final Fantasy V made it even more complex and versatile. Not only that, Final Fantasy V had memorable moments because it didn't take itself all too seriously and simply had purely awesome events and characters that were either there for comic relief and exploited each other in a not so serious way to drive the plot further. Not to mention the awesome gilgamesh fight.

Where the story was as typical as any Final Fantasy of your typical heroes saving the world by finding the crystals and fighting the inevitable evil that will overtake the world, it was a lot more fun than I remember previous entries were. It really kept me entertained with sideuqests through story progression and characters like Gilgamesh that chase your characters till the ends of the earth until you actually have an epic fight against him. The story follows Bartz as he attempts to prevent an evil force known as Exdeath to awaken from his slumber and eventually rids the world of light. It typically follows the same format of towns filled with shops and inns and spontaneous characters and plotlines that make you question the genre itself when you ride a mist dragon or end up in a ship in the middle of the sea fighting sea creatures. 

What was really memorable though was the job system which, come to think of it now, reminds me a lot of how Final Fantasy Tactics was designed. Where you start as a freelancer and can learn up to 26 jobs and eventually get back to your original freelancer class to implement what you learned from other jobs. That opens up a lot of room for character customization where not only can you use black magic as a secondary ability but you can also mix and match between other classes and passive abilities such as the thief's ability that prevents surprise attacks from random encounters. This strategy works and you can also make your own red mage where you can use both black and white magic opens up a lot of possibilities for your characters. The only downside is if you don't plan early, you will spend more time on grinding your characters to what you want them to be.

Though I don't remember much of it very accurately anymore, I still remember how Final Fantasy V had amazing music not to mention it being a very long game with bonus dungeons. It wasn't all that challenging save for a few fights. Like any other Final Fantasy nowadays, it got ported to other consoles and on Steam, so you can check it out on there. I played it on the Gameboy advance however. I wish I could say more but to me this whole series is a must play aside from the 13th entry in the series which I am sure I will rant about at a later date. Here is to another quick review or an excruciatingly long one about a series I love to miss.