Final Fantasy V on GBA hold's on it's own to fans of the series have missed out on.
Game Title: Final Fantasy V Advance
Platform: GameBoy Advance
Developer: Sqaure Enix
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Role Playing
Age Rating: 12+ PEGI
Release Date: JP October 12, 2006, NA November 6, 2006, EU April 13, 2007
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Game Score: 7.0/10
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Summery:
Final Fantasy V on GBA hold's on it's own to fans of the series have missed out on.
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To many gamers who grew up in the 16-Bit gaming, chances are that unless you lived in North Amercia or Japan you've proberbly played Final Fantasy IV or Final Fantasy VI which were handled differently. Final Fantasy V on the otherhand never saw a release outside Japan but was Fan-Translated until it was released on PlayStation under the Anthology collection. This Fifth Fantasy finally makes it's way to the GBA aong with Final Fantay III for the DS which comes out in Europe next month. Just like with the Fourth game Final Fantasy V on GBA holds well on it's own to fans of the series have missed out on.
The storyline's preditable for the most part but thanks to the Improved Translation the story becomes easier to understand while retaining some corny lines like "Jesus Chirstmas" and "Ho? Let's return the trouble...and make it double! Come on!" The storyline follows Bartz an adventurer wh travels with his Chocobo friend he meets up with other characters like Lenna a Royal Princess, Galuf who suffers with amersia and Faris who is a priate. They become involved in a stuggle with their World's Crystals which have fallen apart by the hands of a villian named Exdeath. Bartz's crew needs to reach the crystals in time and gain the power needed to destory Exdeath. Bartz's world is full of intersting characters that you'll see later on the game but if you played earlier gams in the series then the plot won't hold any surprises besides the Improved Dialouge during the cutscenes.
Final Fantasy doesn't just take place on one world but three inwhich the 3rd world fusing the 2 worlds together. Like previous installments of the series you cross between different landmarks, stopping to a friendly town to rest up, shop for Items and Eqiupment needed for your next Quest and also interact with NPC's which can give out some clues to your next objective or to give you some handy skills which I'll go back to. Each Dungeon you'll find random encounters to fight against, secrets with hidden treasures to find along with a boss encounter to fight against at the end. Exploring the dungeons becomes a chore thanks to the Very Frequent Random encounter ratings but however it becomes nessersory thanks to a huge ammount of grinding you're going to do in the game in orer to advance. As you play through the Storyline you'll unlock different Jobs for your characters to try out on, these range from Knights who can block attacks to shield weak allies, Mages who can use powerful Magic to Support and Heal your party and damage all targets, Dragoons have a Mighty Jump attack which allows them to avoid any attacks and cause extra damage with Lances while Monks can use Deadly Kicks to damage all enemies and many other classes. You can change Level these classes by Earning ABP (abilities) and after Levelling that particular class they will gain abilities such being able to make Mages carry Swords and Armour and being able to make Melee attackers use Magic or Kung Fu only attacks. This makes all the classes customizable since you can set up one additional ability which is helpful or you can use the default Freelancer in which can use 2 different abilities that you learned from using other Jobs. Gaining ABP is a Nightmare since you only gain a small amount of ABP so you'll most likely that you'll spend an hour or 2 grinding till you get enough ABP just for an ability which ultimately becomes incredibly tedious and boring. Dispute that it adds different ways that you can include multi classing which is really useful for many of fights in the game. You also get a handful of different sidequests that unlock after playing through parts of the storyline and also GBA exclusive areas when you finish the Main Game so the game adds more time to the Gameplay besides the amount of grinding that you're going to do if you ever want to progress.
If you played Final Fantasy IV on GBA or any of the PlayStation titles then you'll be familiar with the series ATB (Active Time Battle) system. All characters and monsters take turns in selecting attacks to deal damage to the enemies, use a Magic Spell or use Item to recover from enemy attacks. The meter shows which turns are going first for your Party Members but also Monsters have some abilities which take plenty of time for them to unleash. The battles in Final Fantasy V are impressive and it has many customizable options but however the difficulty in the game can be really brutal, mostly because of the enemies can inflict more annoying status effects like Zombie and also one which erases one character out of the battle. It doesn't help that an Item called Remedy which restores any status effect doesn't exist in this game so you're pretty much left with other Recovery Items to waste all your turns with or you can just stick with some Magic spells that can help you with this. You can buy different Magic Spells in stores which are Categorized into Black Magic, White Magic and Time Magic. Even if you're well prepared you're still going to have a hard time with most bosses later on, when you're constantly being battered by bosses you'll might want to backtrack and grind simply to stand a chance, this stretches out the length of the game and ultimately becomes boring after a while. Overall Final Fantasy V's Gameplay hold's greatly well thanks to it's easy to pick up Battle system and Challenging Boss Battles that will test your limits and the adventure will last roughly 40 to 60 Hours of Playtime.
Final Fantasy V Advance looks at the same way Final Fantasy IV did on the GBA but otherwise it looks the same as it was on the Super Famicom but still it's a great looking game on Nintendo's old GBA handheld. The character sprites are well animated and share nice details on the field and during battles just like with the Dungeons and the Battlefields which sometimes share different animations. Each character has different costumes for each different job they use and they all look great. The Monsters are also great to look at including some of their palette swapped counterparts. The Magic Spell effects are the same compared to other 2d games in the series. The Frame Rate for the most part stays smooth for the most but in some locations it tends to drop down and the onscreen test can a little scruffy. The Soundtrack in the game is still memorable and impressive but however doesn't sound as good in comparison but the Sound Effects are still good netherless. Final Fantasy V Advance simply presents itself as it did 15 years ago on the Super Famicom.
It's a classic J-RPG that hasn't had a proper chance to shine outside Japan but at least the amount of Fan service. Impressive Soundtrack, tough and challenging Battles and an Improved Translation make Final Fantasy V a worthy pick up even if you get rid of your old GBA for a Nintendo DS. Sure it's held back by the amount of grinding needed to advance which extends the Gameplay length which becomes tedious most of the time. If you're a hardcore fan of the series you shouldn't miss this chance to pick up one of the lost chapters of the series.
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The Good Points:
1. Plenty of Jobs and abilites to unlock and many different ways to customize
2. While obscure the storyline provides some great and funny moments
3. Extra content inculded and Imrpoved Translation
The Bad Points:
1. Having to Level up different classes can become tedious
2. Most Bosses later on become a pain to deal with
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (BlaZer91)
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