Live Magazine Christmas 2016 ISSUE Live Magazine December 2016 Issue | Page 29

varied than the ones found in Final
Fantasy III. There were no more advanced versions of earlier jobs, such
as a Black Wizard update for a Black
Mage, instead the jobs simply improved as they were used in battle.
The ATB system was also improved
over its original incarnation in FF IV.
Most notably, the game introduced a
visible time gauge in battle that filled
based on the character’s speed
and allowed the player to see which
character’s turn would be coming up
next. This gauge would become another series staple, going on to appear in numerous later Final Fantasy
games in some form.
Final Fantasy V also featured numerous new elements first seen here.
Among these were various jobs
that would become staples of the
series, including Blue Mage, Samurai, and Mime. Another new element
that would become a key part of the
series was the concept of a recurring minor villain, who in this case
was one of the series’ most beloved
minor characters – Gilgamesh, who
himself would later go on to appear
in numerous other Final Fantasy
games.
While the gameplay received numerous notable improvements, the
story and characters were much
more linear and simplified compared
to Final Fantasy IV. The character
development is much more subdued
and lacking in depth, as the game
is largely devoid of events that truly
change any of the characters. The
story’s main problem is very similar,
as it holds very few genuine surprises that would greatly affect the narrative in the long run. Generally, the
narrative feels a lot like a simplified
version of the more popular parts of
Final Fantasy IV.

The music is, as usual, one of the
game’s true highlights, featuring
numerous excellent pieces of music that have become classics of
the series. However, amidst excellent songs such as Clash on the Big
Bridge and Dear Friends there were
also quite a few forgettable tracks
that weren’t quite on par with Uematsu’s usual standards.

tions. His design is silly and overall the storyline surrounding him is
quite bland and uninteresting. Even
his final battle theme is fairly lacklustre compared to most other final
boss themes in the series. It’s really
a shame because the game also
features one of the most memorable minor villains in series’ history in
Gilgamesh.

Graphically, the improvements over
the previous game weren’t nearly
as clear as they had been in Final
Fantasy IV. Minor updates to various
visual elements, such as the number
of details on the character sprites,
were made, but the jump between
the previous two games, as well that
between this one and Final Fantasy
VI, was much greater due to change
in hardware in the first case and a
better understanding of the SNES’s
capabilities in the second.

Does Final Fantasy
V Still Hold Up?

The Best Part
The job system. It offers a huge
amount of freedom and flexibility to
the player, thanks in large part to the
improvements made to the system
from its original version in Final Fantasy III. There are countless different ways to organize and customize
your party, and often you’ll have to
experiment with various job classes
to find the best way to defeat a difficult boss, for example. It opens up a
lot of tactical elements for the battle
system and makes them much more
engaging than in previous Final Fantasy games.

The Worst Part
In general, I’d say the story and characters, but more specifically I’d have
to say the main villain. Exdeath is just
a boring bad guy, with vague, largely
unexplained motivations for his ac-

Mostly, yes. There are many genuinely great elements in Final Fantasy V, but also some that, while not
necessarily bad, are forgettable or
average. Still, most of these are minor issues in an otherwise very good
game that is still a lot of fun to play.
The improved job and the ActiveTime Battle systems are a joy to use
and experiment with, the music for
the most part is great, and visually
it still has a certain charm to it, despite now being almost 25 years old.
Even the story and characters, with
their shortcomings and all, are good
enough to never feel annoying.
Of course, there are certain aspects
that don’t hold up quite as well. As
already mentioned, the game’s main
villain is fairly lacklustre. Exdeath
is among the weaker villains in the
series in general, although I suppose him being an ancient tree that
became sentient and decided to
take over the world is at least quite
unique. It does lend itself to quite a
memorable boss design in the final
battle, if nothing else.
Final Fantasy V is also very clearly
an old-school RPG. There are times
when the encounter rate gets fairly
ridiculous, and the difficulty level
goes through some pretty excessive spikes. The final boss is a very