FF5: In Conclusion!

So, Matty. What did you think of FF5?

I was surprised. I loved it a lot more than I thought I would. It's just fun to play.

What? You loved it? No. It's not like all your post titles were "I love FF5" or anything.

I know. Spoilers ahoy, eh? What did you think?

FF5 is a very solid game. I always enjoy it when I play it, but it's not very memorable. I think that's the best way to describe it.

True - I could never really tell you the logical progression of plot in the game, but it's damn enjoyable.

Your translation probably gave the plot a little bit more color than in the rather direct fan translation.

I'm actually rather fond of the Advance translation. It's silly, at times, but it's nicer than the fan trans.

I just don't think I can bring myself to give that high of a score to a game where your nemesis is an evil tree. Although, I remember liking FF10...

If they'd explained why he's a tree, maybe. But you have to admit, the job system makes up for a lot of failings. There's no longer 'one winning strategy'.

That is true. This particular playthrough really forced me to make good use of unusual classes, like the chemist. There are so many ways to fight these different battles, and that is a huge change from even the most flexible of the earlier games.

It's a good precedent that holds through in future games, too.

Well, I mean, the extreme malleability of your characters' abilities is just one end of the spectrum. FF games are always swinging back and forth between that end and the set character classes end, which we see in FF4. I mean, FF4 was a game that was extremely inflexible in that regard. Even FF1 has more customization options for your characters

That's true - but a lot of the future games promise infinite customization. Materia in 7. Junctions in 8. Sphere Grid in 10. That weird chessboard thing in 12. Nine, and to some small part, six, are the only two that really tie you down to archetypes. And you don't notice it in six, because you have sixty thousand characters to pick from.

The Sphere Grid was a little more limiting in that it steered certain characters towards certain class-like sets of abilities. And 6 is extremely flexibile when you take into account espers and their level-up bonuses.

This is true, though I never really cared about what the stat-ups were on my espers.

But back to FF5.

Right. I'm not sure what I'd change in the game if I had creative control. Certainly something more sensible than the giant tree last boss, of course.

It would have been nice to have had, I don't know, a plot that wasn't retarded. Or characters that weren't so incredibly dull. I mean, it's hard to make cross-dressing pirate babes boring, but this game achieves that, somehow.

I don't know - a great evil, sealed by the crystals, trying to harness the power of destruction.... that's a pretty standard FF Plot.

But FF4 outgrew that, and FF5 is a step backwards.

I mean, four was all about an emo paladin-wannabe angsting over all the blood he's shed, all the while some evil force, somewhere, is trying to harness the power of the crystals. Really, the only difference between four and five was character development, in my opinion.

But that's a pretty big difference. To me, FF5 feels like an NES game in terms of the advancement of the plot. There are no twists or turns or whatever. Everything turns out exactly as you expect it to.

I agree, the plot's a step backward. But the way the game handles? I think it's a huge step up. I was a bit bored of how battles went in FF4 by the end.

That's true. FF5 is a longer game than FF4, too, so it has to keep your interest for longer.

Four became a bit like three for me at the end -- the battle system just started to grate on my nerves, and I got tired of wanting to play it. That reminds me -- I was watching the Final Fantasy Retrospective on GameTrailers, and the whole reason that the series started was that the team liked to think "They could tell a good story." Which is somewhat laughable to me, looking back at FF1 and 2. But, then again, Sakaguchi has been a pretty big success, so what do I know.

I think the whole reason that the series started was that Squaresoft wanted to fill a swimming pool full of sweet, sweet yen.

Well, FF1 came out when the company was about to go under. They picked RPGs for the story telling factor, and I'll be honest, I didn't care about the stories until FF6.

I will always hold a high opinion of FF4, and even FF2 to some extent, regarding the story factor.

Those were good stories, but bad gameplay. It's almost not worth playing through the game to get to that bit of goodness at times, though.

Honestly, and this is the gosh-darn truth, I really don't care about gameplay in RPGs. (gasp!) I mean, unless the gameplay is SO bad as to be obtrusive (as it is in the original FF2, and not the Dawn of Souls remake that we covered in the blog), I really don't care.

See, I'm actually a bit of the opposite. If it's got enjoyable gameplay, I'll forgive some plot problems.

Oh, the good gameplay in FF5 certainly makes me forgive the lameness of its plot to an extent. But not to the degree that, say, a great story in FF6 makes me forget the incredibly low difficulty in that game.

The difficulty was fixed a little bit in 6 Advance.

Good gameplay will redeem a lousy RPG and make it okay, but it won't make it a great game. And FF5 is certainly not a great game.

Good gameplay will redeem a lousy RPG plot. A great plot will NOT forgive a horrible interface.

Shut up! yes it will!

We've just got to agree to disagree.

Nyah nyah. I guess it's just that, to me, gameplay in RPGs is not designed to be fun. I mean, you don't actually get to swing a sword at someone. You go to a menu and select "swing sword,"and then your guy swings his sword, and an algorithm determines whether or not he hits, or whatever.

Right, but if you get a fair amount of planning behind how you're swinging....

I mean, I'm not walking down a forest path going, "Oh my god, I can't WAIT until I get a random encounter! Those are the BEST!"

Right, but you'll never go "Wow! I'm so engrossed in this story! I don't care that the game is so ridiculously difficult and uncustomizable! Even if it takes me six hours of battling, I will hit the new plot point!" You'd go 'fuck this!', and turn on Desperate Housewives.

Well, I might. But then again, I actually played Quest 64 in its ENTIRETY.

Which makes your judgement questionable as is.

Look who's talking, Mr. "Tecmo: Secret of the Stars".

Yeah, well, that was just an exercise in self-mutilation.

I had my reasons for playing Quest 64, too. It's a long and horrible story.

Well, I think we can safely say that we've found a dead horse, and we can stop beating it. Are you ready to render your verdict in number form?

Yes. FF5 is a very solid game, and an improvement in every respect on the job system of FF3. I give it a 7/10.

I liked it a bit more than you -- and I liked it better than FF4. I can't forgive all the plot problems, but it was a great game. I'm going to say 8.5/10.

Ohmigod, Matty, guess what game is next! It begins with "F" and rhymes with "Minal Mantasy Mix!"

The one that'll probably get two 10s?

Shh, don't give it away! we want people to keep reading!

Oh. Right. I hate that damn game. Zero!

Yeah! FF6: totally NOT the most awesome game ever. You heard it here!

And if Kammy says it, you know it's true.

That gives FF5 an FFNerds score of 7.75/10. Stick around as the FFnerds finish up the SNES era with Final Fantasy 6! If any of you loyal readers have any requests on which versions we should play, or which challenges we should do (low-level, single-character, etc.,) speak up!