Final Fantasy V Review: Overrated job system, underrated story (Retro Review)
12Final Fantasy V is a game that has left a mark on history through its revolutionary job system and lovable characters. It's a game where crystals shimmer with an untold and foreboding power, where warriors from different walks of life unite against a cosmic threat. While generally underrated and overlooked, Final Fantasy V isn't perfect, and this review will reveal the good, the bad, and the ugly of this timeless SNES classic. Without further ado, RPG Ranked presents… a Final Fantasy V Review: Overrated job system, underrated story.
Battle System - 7
As you saw in the title and will later see in this article, I’m not a big fan of the job system in Final Fantasy V, so I can’t exactly say I love this battle system either. However, I can’t complain about my good ol’ ATB system, and I certainly can’t complain about this game’s extraordinary boss roster. Bosses like the Soul Cannon, Azulmagia, Gilgamesh, Exdeath, Atomos, Gogo, Omega, Shinryu, and the Liquid Flame are all super exciting and well-designed boss fights. I’d argue that this game has some of the best bosses in the series and quite possibly my favorite final boss fight. However, as much as I want to love this battle system for its awesome bosses and fundamental design, I can’t because, well, I don’t love the job system. But I’ll get there soon. Let’s move on to the story.
Story - 8.5
The story in Final Fantasy V is not well-loved, but honestly? Final Fantasy V has more memorable moments than people give it credit for. At its core, Final Fantasy V weaves a narrative that captures players’ hearts not through its overarching narrative but through its individual moments. Each character has a deep connection to their world and feels like real people who have lived real lives before the adventure begins! While I will talk about each character individually in the “Characters” section, each character has a pretty well-done backstory and has a motive to join this adventure. While the main narrative isn’t exactly too remarkable outside of the dimensional insanity, the lore and character stories are intricately written and strike an incredible balance between light-hearted, whimsical humor and earnest storytelling. If nothing else, the plot of Final Fantasy V might just be one of the most entertaining of the series… I’d give it second behind Final Fantasy X because, quite honestly, I love the cringy insanity of Tidus. But I digress. I loved plot moments relating to Cid and the Airship. I loved the Library of the Ancients and the Ronka Ruins lore. I love plot beats like Lenna and Krile’s relationships with wyverns and the absurdity that Bartz and Galuf thought Faris was a man. And best of all? Galuf’s story with the Warriors of Dawn and the noble sacrifices they all made were some of my favorite moments in this game and the Final Fantasy series. While Final Fantasy V’s main narrative isn’t groundbreaking, the game’s characters and tone are charming and balanced between the serious and the silly! And for that, I have to say that Final Fantasy V has a story I will not forget and that I believe should not be overlooked by anyone else.
Music - 8
I adore the music in this game… It is so atmospheric and immersive, perfect for the world of Final Fantasy V. So what holds this back from a 9 or a 10? The instrumentation. I don’t jive very well with these instruments. Everything sounds a little wonky or muted to my ears. Why? I literally can’t explain it. Giving this a score of 8 for this reason is rather stupid, but I don’t think this work is as good as the majority of Uematsu’s, as good as it may be. And it isn’t just me. Looking at online polls for this game’s soundtrack, it consistently ranks lower than every other Final Fantasy game outside of the NES trilogy. I like the bounciness and energy found in this soundtrack, and it is objectively pretty awesome, but I don’t love it all that much.
I’ve always thought this game was the best-looking of the three SNES titles in terms of its original artwork. They still look fantastic to this day! Also, I know this is incredibly controversial, but I thought the graphics in the Steam version were gorgeous (outside of the 2.5D dungeons, those looked ugly), and I think the Pixel Remaster graphics are pretty great. The Steam version had sleek and great-looking sprites outside the bizarre character artwork.
Subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJrxnIF66GddEozYHxePG6g
Check out our website here: rpgranked.com
Check out our merch here: https://www.bonfire.com/store/rpg-ranked-store/
Check out our Twitter here: https://twitter/RpgRanked
Credits:
Presenter: Brighton Nelson
Editor: Brighton Nelson
Artist: Brighton Nelson
0:00 Intro
0:40 Battle System
2:29 Story
5:06 Music
6:02 Art & Graphics
7:33 Characters
9:05 Customization System
19:19 Sidequests
20:36 Quality of Life
22:35 Dungeons
24:06 The Verdict
#finalfantasy #finalfantasy5 #finalfantasyv
Other Videos By RPG Ranked
Other Statistics
Final Fantasy V Statistics For RPG Ranked
RPG Ranked presently has 829 views for Final Fantasy V across 3 videos, with approximately 1 hour of Final Fantasy V video on his channel. This is 1.41% of the total watchable video on RPG Ranked's YouTube channel.