The jobs system. If somebody mentions Final Fantasy V at all, that’s probably what he or she will talk about. And with good reason. The jobs system is a deep, flexible customization system that almost singlehandedly justifies Final Fantasy V’s existence. That being said, while the story feels trite and throwaway, Final Fantasy V is not just an awesome customization system. It also succeeds in being a great game, thanks to solid dungeon designs, fun boss fights, and plenty of set piece moments.
Final Fantasy V’s story is probably not worth the effort of summarizing it, but here goes: you are Bartz, a wandering soul whose best friend is a Chocobo (Chocobos are basically giant yellow birds that look like chickens on steroids). During one of his adventures, he witnesses a meteor crashing into the earth. When he goes to investigate, he meets Lenna, a princess who is searching for her missing father, and an old man named Galuf who has lost his memory. A bit later on, this threesome meets up with your fourth party member, a pirate named Faris, who is entirely too pretty to be a man. The four of them then journey to a place called the Wind Shrine, which houses a powerful artifact called the wind crystal. Upon arrival, you find out that the crystal has shattered. An image of Lenna’s missing father then tells you that the other crystals are in danger and that you need to protect them. It is not until later in the story that you find out that the crystals are essentially a seal protecting the world from an evil entity called Exdeath who, in quite typical fashion, wants rule the universe. Like I said, it’s a pretty trite story. I got the feeling that the developers built the game around the jobs system and just shat out something basic to fulfill the obligation of having a narrative. Honestly, through the course of thirty-something hours, there was not one interesting theme or concept, and despite a few emotional moments, the characterization was very thin.
The story was not a total bust however. The dialogue (at least in the Gameboy Advance version) was frequently amusing and the characters, for all their shallowness, were quite likeable. It’s a shame that charismatic characters like Galuf and Faris didn’t get the development that they deserved.
The game built around the story fares much better. The pacing is very on point, with fun dungeons that never go on longer than they need to, a lot of variety in the locations you visit (Final Fantasy V is much better than its predecessor in this regard), and plenty of exciting set pieces to keep things interesting. The only real problem I had with the game’s progression is that there are many moments when the game doesn’t give you a clear idea of what to do next. Granted, many of Final Fantasy V’s contemporaries had the same issue, but that doesn’t make it any less irksome.
The battle system is your standard Active Time Battle system. This means that you’re not allowed to input commands until your ATB bar has filled up. How fast or slow the bar fills up is dependent on each character’s speed, making the “haste” and “slow” spells essential, and without long drawn out magic animations to worry about, battles feel quick and exciting and do a good job of keeping you on your toes. But what gives the battle component most of its flavor is the infamous jobs system. The game gives you twenty-something classes and lets you assign any one of these classes (though there are some jobs that you will acquire as you progress the storyline) to any character at any time. Some examples are knight, white mage, black mage, bard, samurai, thief, monk, hunter, summoner, blue mage, ninja, etc. Not every class is useful, but most of them are, and it is great fun to come up with combinations that will work best for your current situation. What’s more: you can level up each job with each character, learning new skills as you gain levels (it should be noted that jobs levels and character levels are separate). However, instead of having to keep a character in a certain job to access a skill, you can learn a skill permanently, provided that you enough AP points (which you obtain from defeating enemies). Once you’ve permanently learned a skill, you can set that skill as a secondary ability, no matter what job you’re using. So let’s say you want to build a knight that can also heal. All you need to do is stay in the white mage class long enough to learn the skills you want and then switch back to knight, setting “white” magic as a secondary skill. This mixing and matching of abilities is extremely rewarding, providing an immense amount of depth and flexibility to what is essentially the same battle system found in Final Fantasy IV. In fact, the jobs system makes the gameplay extremely strategic, which is a rarity when it comes to turn-based RPGs. Furthermore, well balanced but challenging boss fights allow you to make the most out of the jobs system.
The visual presentation doesn’t hold a candle to that of Final Fantasy VI, but it is no slouch. The colors are extremely vibrant, the sprite designs for the various jobs are cute and inventive, and there is a good amount of variety in the locations you’ll encounter, samey towns notwithstanding. The Gameboy Advance version features beautifully detailed backgrounds (these are much improved from their SNES counterparts) and the enemy designs are superb, with tons of ornate detail that make them pop despite the lack of animation. Finally, the expressive character portraits (which are exclusive to the SNES version) accompanying the dialogue boxes round out what is a charming visual package.
The sound effects are what you’d expect from a 16-bit RPG, but the music is quite good. Of course it doesn’t compare to later soundtracks in the series and some of the songs are forgettable, but the best songs are extremely spirited and really give you a sense of wonder and adventure. The wind drake theme is especially uplifting.
In typical Final Fantasy fashion, the world is full of extra content and secrets (the Gameboy Advance version has an extra dungeon and a couple extra jobs), but the job system itself is what gives the game its value. You could extend your playtime by dozens upon dozens of hours mastering all the various jobs, making Final Fantasy V a completionist’s wet dream.
Although Final Fantasy V’s uninteresting story prevents it from rising to the top of the Final Fantasy pack, its superb customization system makes it worth any RPG player’s time. You might not remember much of what happened to Bartz and friends, but you will remember your jobs combinations and how you used them in brilliant ways to take down some of the game’s considerable foes.
GAMEPLAY-5/5
DESIGN-4.5/5
STORY-3/5
VISUALS-4/5
PLAYABILITY-4.5/5
VALUE-5/5