Ah Final Fantasy V. The ultimate gamer's nightmare. This game was not given to the States for several years and probably for a reason. It isn't one of the greatest Final Fantasy games, but it still is better in my mind than some of the earlier games, and even some of the later games. The probable reason it didn't make it: it's nothing very special.
     We'll start off with the story. The story is a shot back to the first three Final Fantasy games. The powers of wind, fire, water, and earth are suddenly disappearing, so you're on a quest to revive them. As you reach the crystals, through circumstances out of your control, the crystal shatters and each of the shards gives you new job classes. It turns out that these crystals are in place to confine an evil man known as X-Death. As you can imagine, he gets free. At one point, you go to a different world, and then, there's yet another world in the end, making a total of three worlds in this game. Despite three worlds, the game isn't horribly long unless you want to get every secret item imaginable. The first three Final Fantasy games are about finding the crystals/orbs getting powerful and saving the world from a horrible darkness or void, and that's exactly what Final Fantasy V is all about, though with much more spice and twists than the first three.
     The graphics of this game are on par with the game prior. They're slightly bigger, which my less than wonderful vision appreciates, but they're less detailed. This is a game of job classes, and the graphics are nice because each character has a unique character design for each job class, however they're not incredibly detailed. The worst job class is actually the 'bare' class, which is the character models themselves. The graphics are very plain, but especially in early Final Fantasy games, graphics are not horribly important.
     The sounds and music of this game are not good, but they're among my favorites... as odd as that may sound. It's typical Super Nintendo midis, so the quality and the amazing factor are missing, and yet some of the songs and the "someone is doing something stupid" sounds are just so amusing that I love them. The music and sounds help to make this a very fun game, but not a serious game.
     The central point of the game is all about the job classes, which is fairly typical of job class games. Typically I play through this game and only use very powerful classes, which are the normal classes like knight, ninja, white mage, black mage, etc. On my latest run through I used some of the less typical classes and found that some of them are fairly useful. The trainer teaches the Control ability, which paired with a coronet (which gives higher chances of controlling enemies) is an extremely useful ability. While some of the lesser classes definitely have their strong points, they're still far weaker than the typical classes. So defeating powerful enemies is possible with bards and trainers is possible, but more time consuming. It's nice to see a game where most of the classes are useful, but there's still too much of a difference between good and bad classes.
     This game is the ultimate gamer's nightmare, as I've mentioned before. I don't mean that gamers will hate this game, but this is the type of game that if you play it without a walkthrough and hope to get everything in the game, you're probably going to be let down. There are so many opportunities to miss out on acquiring a summon, blue magic, or piece of equipment. Some summons are found in random encounters in un-important locations, and these summons can only be obtained at certain points in the game, so if you miss them you're out of luck. Same with blue magic. If you want all the blue magic, you'll probably be wandering around with a blue mage or somebody with the 'Learning' ability just in case you find a blue magic user. And don't get me started on stealing the Genji equipment from Gilgamesh! If you're trying to have menus that don't have giant blank spots, then you're going to need to play this game with a walkthrough and you'll probably be referring back to the walkthrough every couple minutes. Top this off with a guy in the world that will tell you what percentage of secrets you've found in the game and you just might be ripping your hair out. But all of this only matters if you, you know, care.
     Along these lines, one thing that seems missing in this game (to me) are ultimate weapons and armors. They exist, don't worry there, but neither weapons nor armors require much effort to actually obtain. The weapons are not hidden. There is a castle with the 12 Holy Weapons in the last world and you get tablets to unlock them three at a time. So essentially, you're told where they are, you're encouraged to get them all, and you're required to get three of them. It's just... strange. The only real hidden weapons are the Ragnarok and the Brave Blade. For the Ragnarok, you have to beat one of the two strongest enemies in the game. So basically, the enemy you might need the Ragnarok for, is who you get it from. The Brave Blade on the other hand, is somewhat decent. It's hidden and although you don't have to do anything super special, you have to find it. 
     So onto the ultimate armors. Well, there's the Genji equipment, which you'd better be stealing from Gilgamesh. I really can't stress that enough. If you miss it, you miss it. I hate that. Aside from that, it's mostly things you buy in stores. There really aren't any standout awesome armors to be wearing. But I guess this ultimate equipment thing doesn't really matter. It's more just something I'd noticed. Ultimate equipment is very difficult in a job class game, but others have pulled it off decently, so this should be able to as well.
     I won't spoil anything, but be warned that the ending of the game is fairly corny. The whole game is, but what's interesting about the story is that as you go, you get into some typical adventure settings, but Butz and crew are such dorks that they liven up a seemingly boring plot. Toward the end when they start getting serious, it really starts to show how un-special the story is. It's a mediocre story with an entertaining cast of goofballs that are supposed to save the world. Uh oh...
     So how does the game work as a whole? Decently. No one aspect of the game is incredibly thrilling. The combination of several 'meh' qualities does make this game have some distinct likeability. Job classes are always entertaining and keep me changing to learn new things and leveling up to try to master the 'bare' class (mastered by mastering all the other classes... Do this in the last area where AP is prominent, else you'll rip out all your hair). The fact that this game has the highest percent of girls to boys until Final Fantasy X-2 is very interesting as well. The characters are fun. The music is fun. The story is simple. If you play this game, don't expect it to rock your world and change your way of life. It's just a fun little game to play through every once in a while. 

Goatbob's Rating: 
5.5/10 Lamps