Collection essentials #188: Final Fantasy V (SNES)

The fourth Final Fantasy game had sacrificed the “job system” from the third game which had allowed for frequent customization of one’s party members. This was done in part so that the many characters of IV would be locked into a class which was part of their identity as a character, since IV had a much more developed story and cast than the previous games. Final Fantasy V goes back to having a job system, and tries to do so while implementing various improvements from IV while not compromising the identity of its characters. Did it succeed? You’d better be darn sure it did.

Like the third game, FFV lets you freely switch the class (or “job”) of each character at a given time outside of battle. The more time a character spends in a job, the more they will master it. And the great innovation that this game makes is that, while in one job, a character may assign a set of skills from one of the OTHER jobs that they have a level of mastery in! The higher the level of mastery, the more/better those skills will be. This was an ingenious addition and makes for very dynamic and fun gameplay.

FFV’s story, while serviceable, is not one that I find terribly memorable. But I thought they did a good job with the main characters. The main cast is smaller this time around, focusing on a small team of four. You play as the hero Bartz, a princess he has a crush on named Lenna, an old man with amnesia named Galuf, and a pirate captain named Faris whom the party learns early on is a woman, much to their surprise. Dialogue among the characters is colorful and amusing. But this is one RPG where, in my opinion, you’re really playing it for the gameplay more than the story and characters, and any fun dialogue is simply a nice bonus.

As you can tell from the photo, the initial release of Final Fantasy V sadly did not see a release outside of Japan. Supposedly Square was concerned that the game would be too difficult and complex for the international market. I tend to think they made a mistake with that judgment, but we’ll never know. Final Fantasy’s popularity grew later in the ‘90s due to a certain entry on the following generation of consoles, so it’s no surprise that this was one of the first video games ever to receive a “fan translation” patch that can be applied to change the in-game text to English after the game’s rom is “dumped” onto a computer. The following year, FFV would see its first international release with a port to a then-modern console. That port is how I first tried out the game in 2004. However, I opted to get the original Super Nintendo release (the very copy shown in the photo) and play through the game in Japanese with a printed-out translation guide, since the original version was far superior.

As you can probably tell, I think highly of Final Fantasy V. It’s been many years since I played through it, so it’s hard for me to say where exactly I’d rank it in the series. I don’t think very many fans call it their #1 favorite, but it’s good enough and has unique merit to the point where I wouldn’t blame anyone who would consider it as such. In modern times, there is a “Pixel Remaster” version available on modern platforms which I haven’t played (yet), but it does seem like a fine way to experience the game. If you enjoy RPGs, I highly recommend giving it a try. It’s a classic and a bonafide essential.