Current Gaming | Final Fantasy V
Jan. 16th, 2024 01:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bookofdanielvol2My birthday present to myself last year was an SNES repro cart of Final Fantasy V, which I've never actually finished, despite having several versions of it already (PlayStation, GBA, Pixel Remaster). I wanted to finish it for the first time in its original form before doing the PR version, and also just to complete the set of SNES Final Fantasy carts.
I'm up to the merged (third) world, just completed the pyramid dungeon and got Lenna and the airship back, so I think I'm around 2/3 through. I've enjoyed it overall, but there are several things that definitely hold me back from putting it on the same level as its immediate predecessor or successor (which is admittedly a tall order; FF4 is a classic, at least in its uncut form, and FF6 is very possibly my favorite game of any genre of all time).
The story is definitely inferior, lacking the emotional weight that FF4 and especially FF6 had, and I think Bartz/Butz is a much weaker protagonist than Cecil or Terra, not having nearly the same amount of depth or connection to the player, and in his more annoying moments resembling Tidus from FF10 more than anything. Additionally, I think the overall design of the game lags behind those two games, with dungeon designs especially leading to frustration on more than one occasion, and causing issues with difficulty balance (the aforementioned pyramid stage at the beginning of the merged world, for instance, features a notable spike in difficulty just as the game's narrative takes Lenna out of the party temporarily, leaving you to deal with it at a disadvantage with only three active characters).
Of course, there is a lot to like too. The narrative, if not as epic as 4 or transcendent as 6, is fine enough in its own right; a standard but not unenjoyable fantasy story, and the job system - the game's biggest hook - is a lot of fun to play with and customize the characters to the player's liking. Personally, I've established Butz as the main physical fighter albeit with a bit of a magic twist, with him spending much of the game so far as a Mystic Knight but currently training as Hunter; Lenna as the primary mage, currently largely switching between Summoner and Time Mage (with the opposite's magic type set as the secondary ability; Faris as a primarily speed-based melee fighter, having already mastered the Ninja class, and currently taking a break from Thief to start also working on Hunter, and the Galuf/Krile slot adapting as needed, having had a concentration on Blue Mage but also spending notable amounts of time as a Monk, Red Mage, Black Mage and White Mage.
Squaresoft - as it was then known - had an unbelievable run from the SNES era through their first year or so on PlayStation (an overall range of about 1991-97, producing banger after banger notably including FF4, Secret of Mana, FF6, Chrono Trigger (which is also on the short list for my all-time top-ten, along with FF6), Super Mario RPG (which, yes, was developed by Square), FF7, and Final Fantasy Tactics (not to mention a few excellent games that they published for other developers, like the first Breath of Fire and one of my all-time favorite fighting games, the first Bushido Blade). During this time they also put out a few very good if not quite legendary titles like the criminally-underappreciated Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest and Secret of Evermore, and I think that category is where FF5 fits - not quite legendary, but nonetheless a strong installment in an excellent run.
As to the Final Fantasy series overall, I pretty much fell off it after 10. While I loved 7, I absolutely hated 8, haven't given 9 a fair chance as of yet (and I should, as it's probably a far better game than I've credited for) and, while I liked a lot about 10, especially the battle system, there was a lot of poor writing, poor voice acting and general silliness that put me off the then-current direction of the series. Maybe I should also try to find time to give 12 a shot at some point, as I know many like it, but especially when it started moving in its current action-RPG direction I lost what little remaining interest I had in the series (and I have zero interest in MMORPGs, so I'll probably never play 11 or 14, and still have no idea why they were made part of the main line instead of an online side-series). But we'll always have the early NES classics and that sweet spot between 4 and 7, right?
I'm up to the merged (third) world, just completed the pyramid dungeon and got Lenna and the airship back, so I think I'm around 2/3 through. I've enjoyed it overall, but there are several things that definitely hold me back from putting it on the same level as its immediate predecessor or successor (which is admittedly a tall order; FF4 is a classic, at least in its uncut form, and FF6 is very possibly my favorite game of any genre of all time).
The story is definitely inferior, lacking the emotional weight that FF4 and especially FF6 had, and I think Bartz/Butz is a much weaker protagonist than Cecil or Terra, not having nearly the same amount of depth or connection to the player, and in his more annoying moments resembling Tidus from FF10 more than anything. Additionally, I think the overall design of the game lags behind those two games, with dungeon designs especially leading to frustration on more than one occasion, and causing issues with difficulty balance (the aforementioned pyramid stage at the beginning of the merged world, for instance, features a notable spike in difficulty just as the game's narrative takes Lenna out of the party temporarily, leaving you to deal with it at a disadvantage with only three active characters).
Of course, there is a lot to like too. The narrative, if not as epic as 4 or transcendent as 6, is fine enough in its own right; a standard but not unenjoyable fantasy story, and the job system - the game's biggest hook - is a lot of fun to play with and customize the characters to the player's liking. Personally, I've established Butz as the main physical fighter albeit with a bit of a magic twist, with him spending much of the game so far as a Mystic Knight but currently training as Hunter; Lenna as the primary mage, currently largely switching between Summoner and Time Mage (with the opposite's magic type set as the secondary ability; Faris as a primarily speed-based melee fighter, having already mastered the Ninja class, and currently taking a break from Thief to start also working on Hunter, and the Galuf/Krile slot adapting as needed, having had a concentration on Blue Mage but also spending notable amounts of time as a Monk, Red Mage, Black Mage and White Mage.
Squaresoft - as it was then known - had an unbelievable run from the SNES era through their first year or so on PlayStation (an overall range of about 1991-97, producing banger after banger notably including FF4, Secret of Mana, FF6, Chrono Trigger (which is also on the short list for my all-time top-ten, along with FF6), Super Mario RPG (which, yes, was developed by Square), FF7, and Final Fantasy Tactics (not to mention a few excellent games that they published for other developers, like the first Breath of Fire and one of my all-time favorite fighting games, the first Bushido Blade). During this time they also put out a few very good if not quite legendary titles like the criminally-underappreciated Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest and Secret of Evermore, and I think that category is where FF5 fits - not quite legendary, but nonetheless a strong installment in an excellent run.
As to the Final Fantasy series overall, I pretty much fell off it after 10. While I loved 7, I absolutely hated 8, haven't given 9 a fair chance as of yet (and I should, as it's probably a far better game than I've credited for) and, while I liked a lot about 10, especially the battle system, there was a lot of poor writing, poor voice acting and general silliness that put me off the then-current direction of the series. Maybe I should also try to find time to give 12 a shot at some point, as I know many like it, but especially when it started moving in its current action-RPG direction I lost what little remaining interest I had in the series (and I have zero interest in MMORPGs, so I'll probably never play 11 or 14, and still have no idea why they were made part of the main line instead of an online side-series). But we'll always have the early NES classics and that sweet spot between 4 and 7, right?
