Final Fantasy V § Entries:

Final Fantasy 5

final fantasy v gba walkthrough

Final Fantasy V 5 Original Soundtrack (imported)

Final Fantasy V is the Super Nintendo Final Fantasy that did not make it to the USA in the 1990’s. A shame too, because it’s been my favorite Final Fantasy having played all 13. Strange, sure, but there was such appeal for me being able to play it on emulator in the late 1990’s. The move to playstation was not a move I liked (well, a better way to put it is I loved the sprite-based FF’s and other RPG’s of the 16-bit generation). So it was a treat to be able to play a ‘new’ (to me) classic SNES Final Fantasy even though that era has passed by 1998 or whenever the patch was complete.

Final Fantasy 5 is light on story, and that’s cool with me. Not to say it’s hard to follow or completely non-existent. FFV is more about adapting your characters to different situations, having a balanced / experienced party with about 20 classes to chose from. Many boss battles are challenging, doubly so considering there is often a ‘trick’ to beating bosses (mostly having to do with which class you have). So you’ll probably die more often than you’re expected but that’s sort of the feeling out process, enabling you to see what your party will need to be comprised of to get over various hurdles.

Four characters are in your party for the majority of the time (you do come across a fifth eventually but only 4 at a time). Butz is the hero, son of Dawn Warrior Dorgann. He meets Lenna, princess at Tycoon Castle, and Galuf, a strange man who seems to have come to the world on a Meteorite. Faris is a pirate who joins – only to find out later she is a female, and sister of Lenna. Moreover, we also find out more about this Galuf fellow, and he has an extensive history with the main villain of Final Fantasy V, Exdeath. Exdeath revives early on with the crystals being destroyed, and the last 2 / 3rd’s of the game involve trying to accumulate the power to take out Exdeath.

The end game really sets Final Fantasy V ahead of it’s time. FF5 has two crazy tough bosses, Shinryu and Omega. Extremely tough optional bosses that test your ability to craft strategies to take these beasts down. I’d argue Shinryu is harder than any other boss in the FF’s, including Ruby Weapon. Fighting Shinryu is less mechanical than the Weapons in VII, and Shinryu’s blazing speed keeps you on your heels.

One thing I’d like to talk about though is the admirable job the amateur translators did for the SNES Final Fantasy V. It wasn’t perfect mind you, but it was to the point and without much riff-raff. The GBA translation conversely is a horrible job by Square, with the translation being littered with corny jokes *groan*. And not just in this particular game – the translations have just been over-the-top brutal for Square Enix since the turn of the century.