Out of all the FFs, this one takes itself the least serious however the gameplay is anything but a laughing matter!
User Rating: 8.5 | Final Fantasy V Advance GBA
Maybe besides FFVI's Kefka and Ultros, I've never seen so much humor in a FF game. The tone of this game is very light hearted and makes it really easy to have fun playing it. *SPOILER* Sure, the newly remerged-together world is at risk of being wiped out of existance by an evil, walking, talking, tree clad in armor but hey why not laugh a little on the way to saving the day? This is also another FF where a party member dies (two kind of)....but the mood just never seems as grim as when the likes of Aria, Tellah, Aries, and darn near the whole cast of FFII dies *END SPOILER*. I can definately see how the job class system has evolved since FFIII. No more useless jobs that are only suppose to be precursors to the real thing and you can also learn abilities along with moves as certain jobs. These abilites that are usually innate to whatever job you master them as, once mastered, can be set to the party member to be used no matter what job class they are (the exception usually being the Berserker class). You can also set secondary job skills for your party members too...something that did not exist in FFIII. This is the game that also first introduces blue magic and the mime job class.
My Breakdown:
- Very fun and addictive gameplay
- Lots of humor and comic relief
- New abilities to set to party members
- New secondary job skills to set to party members
- Brand new job classes that weren't introduced in the original
- Learning blue magic skills is always fun
- A pair of some of the hardest superbosses in the series
- Plenty of bonus content and side quests to explore
- One of the hardest final bosses in the series
What's Not-So-Good:
- FFIV's graphics seemed a little better to me for some reason
- Exdeath looks too much like the previous entry's villian and is so two dimensional (no pun intended)
- After the standards set by the previous entry for storytelling, this game totally deviates from delivering anything as close
What's Bad: Nothing that really stands out
In all, besides the seemingly straight forward and lighthearted story, this game lives up to FF legacy while setting some new standards of its own...the job classes, blue magic, and superbosses. This is definately a must-play for any FF fan out there.
