Sometimes forgotten, but among the better Final Fantasy games

Author's Rating:

Pros: Extraordinary job system, likable heroes, classic '90s Final Fantasy gameplay.

Cons: Some vague/weak points in the plot along with mediocre graphics/sounds (even taking era into account).

The Bottom Line: 
Definitely one of the Final Fantasy games worth playing.

Author's Review
When people discuss the top Final Fantasy role-playing games, they tend to bring up I, IV, VI, VII, and X.  These games are all commonly viewed as classics as much for their innovations to the series as for their general gameplay and characters/storyline.  Nonetheless, the franchise has offered some other worthy entries as well, including V.

First released only in Japan on the Super Famicom (equivalent to the North American SNES) in 1992, one reason for V's more minor status among fans could be the lack of marketing it got stateside.  V didn't appear on any North American console until it arrived on the PS in 1998.  The version I'm reviewing, the 2006 GBA release, is another North American port.  I can't speak for the PS version because I haven't played it, but the GBA one is a quality port.

In Final Fantasy V, you start out as the young male protagonist Bartz, who meets up with an amnesiac old man named Galuf and a princess named Lenna when he investigates the rubble of a meteor.  As they continue on, they run into a pirate, Faris, and learn the world's crystals are being overused, causing the giant rocks to fall from the sky.  Their aim is protect the crystals once they learn of their powers and the abuses done to them, but the mystery of the crystals turns out to be more complex than they initially imagined, and the background stories of Galuf and Faris turn out to be quite surprising as well.

Some have criticized the characters and plot of V as being merely average compared to IV and VI.  I concede that point to an extent.  One major problem is that the main villain, Exdeath, doesn't appear until quite a ways into the game.  In fact, even mentioning him seems like something of a spoiler, but I feel it's important to discuss his character as compared to the main villains Zeromus from IV and Kefka from VI.  Besides his late appearance, Exdeath himself isn't a very creative villain.  He pretty much encompasses every stereotype you can think of concerning a basic, evil dark lord: he has neither the variety of guises and tactics of Zeromus nor the twisted humor of Kefka.  Despite Exdeath and the timing of his character in the plot, however, I think the main good characters and the other elements of the plot have enough twists to keep V interesting.

The greatest achivement of Final Fantasy V is the job system.  If you're familiar with IV and VI, you'll remember that your characters are essentially fixed in the kinds of classes assigned to them: you can't really turn Kain into a magic-wielding powerhouse any more than you can turn Terra into a strong fighter.  In Final Fantasy V, though, you can turn characters into almost anything you want thanks to the job system.  Jobs include white mage, ranger, knight, time mage, ninja, monk, and thief, among many others.  Specific jobs become available once you pick up shattered crystal shards.  Some jobs are easy to find and come as a result of getting through the main story, but others will require you to search a bit off the beaten path.

With each job, you can learn new skills as you pick up more ability points from battle successes.  Ability points are earned separately from the traditional experience points.  Depending on your job class, you need to earn a certain number of points to level up your status and get new skills.  Using the thief job as an example, leveling up to one new level lets you learn the sprinting technique while another new level gives you the ability to detect secret passages on the map.  You can max out your job after awhile, but this can take a very long time with some classes, and there's always another job you can try!

The job system is such a big change that there aren't any other especially notable new things to be found in V's battle setup (too much change would have been unsettling, so I applaud the designers for sticking with most of the basics of IV elsewhere).  Once again, random enemy encounters are the norm, and you can still run from battle (although one interesting difference is you don't lose gil when you run this time, which is nice).  In the enemy encounters, battle inputs are turn-based as in previous versions, and the ATB (active time battle) element that was introduced in Final Fantasy IV is back (the ATB system gives a "real time" feel where an enemy can attack you if you don't put in your battle commands fast enough during each turn).

Common controls are very basic and easy to handle in this game.  You move about on lands and in castles/towns in the four basic linear directions (up, down, left, and right) with the directional pad.  Most actions, like buying weapons in stores or enacting battle commands, are done with a simple push of the A button (the B button is generally used to cancel commands and menus).

Graphically, the game looks much like IV: colorful sprites, somewhat detailed backgrounds, and simple magic animations and cut scenes are all here.  Only so much can be done with 2D technology, so don't expect to be wowed in the graphics department.

Nobuo Uematsu's score is solid and fits the changing moods of the game, but not quite as inspired overall as it was in IV and VI: no piece really stands out in my mind except for Bartz's hometown theme, which is very melodic, moving, and nostalgic.  Other sound effects, like from magic spells, are primitive, straightforward and unexceptional, merely suggesting what they should without hitting you very hard.

Another minor complaint I have about the game is there are points in it where the clues given by NPCs (non-playable characters) are too vague and leave you wondering exactly what you should do next to advance the main plot.  This can lead to some productive exploring, but it can also be frustrating if you are left completely stumped as to what your next main move should be even after large chunks of exploration.  This happens just a few times, but it's an annoyance.

Other than what I've mentioned, Final Fantasy V is a fine game.  The experimentations you can attempt with the job system give it a very high replay value, higher than most other Final Fantasies.  I'm now playing the game through for either the fourth or fifth time as I write this (I first played it in late 2007, if I remember correctly).  The degree of challenge is dependent not just upon general leveling up, as it was with other Final Fantasies of this era, but also upon the jobs you try out at different points in the game.  You can do so much more and customize your characters in so many ways with the different jobs that it would take a very long time for you to exhaust the possibilities of V, and for that it gets a big recommendation from me.