Final Fantasy V is celebrating its 30th anniversary in Japan today! Geez.
Released on the Super Famicom on 6th December 1992, Final Fantasy V was a return to the Job System set-up of Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy III on the NES. It's also sandwiched between what many consider two of the best Final Fantasy games ever — Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI — and because of its lack of an official English localisation on the SNES (fans had to wait until 1999's PS1 rerelease), it doesn't always get the love it deserves.
While its story may be on the simpler side, Final Fantasy V is rightly lauded for its massive Job System. Simplifying things from III, Final Fantasy V gives you 22 jobs (and four additional ones in the GBA version) to play around with, and plenty of them are new. While classics like Knight, Black Mage, and Monk all return, but a few now-iconic classes were introduced in this entry such as Blue Mage, Samurai, Chemist, and that bell-ringing classic Geomancer.
In Final Fantasy V, jobs were easier than ever to level up and swap between, and you could learn skills from those jobs and equip at least one skill on another job — with Freelancer being able to equip two. It's endlessly addicting, especially as there's no penalty for swapping between jobs.
In recent years, this Super Famicom favourite has been getting some new-found attention. Though the game is perhaps most famous nowadays for the hugely popular event Four Job Fiesta, where players are randomly assigned four jobs and they can only play as those four jobs for the whole game.
Square Enix itself has gotten involved in the celebrations, sharing this incredible acoustic arrangement of one of the game's most iconic pieces of music, 'Battle at the Big Bridge'.
Of course, if you're a Final Fantasy fan, you're probably aware that the entire series is approaching a huge milestone in the next couple of weeks — and we might be joining in the celebrations there too — but we wanted to celebrate Final Fantasy V too. Most recently, Final Fantasy V was rereleased in Pixel Remaster form (which we're still waiting to see on Switch, Square!).
So, happy birthday to what is one of the most influential games in the series — Final Fantasy V! Let us know what you think of this classic in the comments, and join us in begging for those Pixel Remasters on Switch — again!
Comments 43
Fantastic game and series, would love to see the pixel remasters on Switch and PS5
The music for this game was amazing, which is to be expected. But the plot and characters were not nearly as memorable as other entries in the series.
The job system and gameplay though? Easily the best out of all the NES/SNES trilogies. They took everything that worked from FFIII and made it sing.
I feel similarly about X-2. Not saying FFX was perfect, but X2 felt like a cheap cash grab... except for the fantastic Dress Sphere battle system which immediately took me back to how well FFV handles their job system.
I waited way too long to play this one and really loved it. I mean, sure, I played it with the ability to speed up which did help quite a bit with grinding. It’s still brilliant though, the focus on gameplay reminded me of Dragon Quest IX.
I enjoyed this game. Not as much as FFIV (my first FF) or FFVI (the gold standard), but it was a fun game. I remember playing through this game before the first release of the official translation in Final Fantasy Anthology on PS1, when the only way I could play it was a fan translation on an emulator.
Just couldn't get into V. I loved the job system, but I really struggled to get interested in the characters and story.
Maybe I'll give it another shot if it comes Switch.
@Nikhogan
Yeah especially considering the last time the game was released on something other than mobile/steam was back on the GBA (at least in the west, wiiu VC got it iirc) though i think the psone version did come to psn a good while back but that version has issues with load times.
playing the pre-VII games on anything other than mobile/PC can be a challenge so i definitely feel like they are overdue for a modern console release.
also ffv was my favorite 2d FF game by far.
Wasn't that the one with the villain named X-Death??
Great game, one of my all time favorites, pixel remaster versions are poop. Good day.
@Tasuki Yes. Yes it is.
2nd best Final Fantasy of the golden era, next to VI
Did we ever get a reason why they skipped releasing this in the west?
@Tasuki @CharlieGirl It kind of is and isn't at the same time. While they did embrance the romanization as Exdeath, his japanese name is written Ekusodesu which is the very same as Exodus from Ivalice games (which he himself is a reference to Exdeath). So whether it was a mistranslation or not it's up to anyone's guess
Somehow I never finished this game, despite that the other SNES FF games were a good part of my teen years.
@Bobb As I just commented, I never finished it, but I have played up to the "third world" and I think I found a good reason Nintendo of America might have rejected it: the revelation that Exdeath's castle is made of the bone and guts of his victims. I know it's cartoon morbid, but in 1993 NoA was NOTORIOUS for forbidding anything that wasn't in line with, well as EGM once called them, the Walt Disney Pictures of video games.
Also, the way that Faris' gender reveals were done in the early part of the game might have also been a little too spicy for that era of NoA.
@Tasuki
Yeah in the psone version Exdeath was named X-death iirc.
though that psone version also had some other oddities like Wyvern being mistranslated as "Y-burn" Karlabos became "karl-boss", Sucker (and octopus enemy) called "soccer" among other strange things.
i think it may have been around the time square started doing in-house translations but had a very small staff dedicated to it during the earlier days of the psone.
@Diogmites What is weird is that Square still held some serious interest in releasing the game for some time.
Even after the original plan to localize it in 1993 failed, they considered releasing it after FF6 as "Final Fantasy X-treme" (though reportedly it could've come at the cost of Chrono Trigger. I'd probably have loved FF5 at the time, but the thought of a childhood were I missed out on Chrono Trigger is .)
It was rumored they considered porting it to PC in 1997, among a few other games, but when Eidos got publishing rights, its understandable that FF7 was the only one they wanted to see to its completion.
It's arguable the SNES fan-translation is what pushed Square to finally complete an English localization on the PS1 (even if that one is kind of... ) in 1999.
This and VIII are my favs 😩👌❤️
@Mgalens @CharlieGirl OK that's what I thought. Found it hard to get into the game with a villain named X-Death.
Wow, the "Battle at the Big Bridge" video is insanely well done. Thanks for sharing. First time I've heard the music. How do they play it so fast? Much less together? Impressive.
For the life of me I can not fathom why or how the Pixel Remaster is NOT on Switch.
Blows my mind.
A classic that, while not in the flagship top tier with XIII, VIII and IX with me these days, still firmly shares the "second best one" with VI, VII and X. I still remember all the time I spent grinding classes and I still have no idea how to pronounce Krile's name but know she's awesome. The whole female main cast here is, including the franchise's first badass princesses that paved the way for the likes of Yuffie (hey, she IS her nation leader's daughter), Garnet and Ashe. And it's all the more fitting to celebrate the anniversary of it all in the year whose arguable best JRPG employed a not dissimilar job system among other things! Although I've got FFV vibes from past games as well - they're incidentally one of the multiple reasons that Eternia is shaping up to be one of my fave Tales entries.
Hironobu Sakaguchi
Either give us the Pixel Remasters or 2D HD remake FF1-6 for Switch. C'mon Square Enix you're missing out on some easy money here.
It's been well over a year since the pixel remasters were announced...I was hoping they'd be on switch by now
Plot was a bit simple, but fun! It's star is the amazingly fun battle system and great music though, just amazing! 😁❤️
@KingMike you might have the right of it, though I feel they could have changed the text and sprites to censor both instances if they really wanted.
While LGTB+ rights were only at it's infancy back then, I don't even think that's the case with Faris. She is a cartoony take on "the girl that's trying to pass herself as a boy" not unlike Mulan or Jeanne d'Arc. I know that wasn't your point but the fact they ran into her while getting dressed, but those ate very simple sprites, they could've altered the scene to be anything really.
The castle would be somewhat more annoying overhaul
@AlanaHagues
“A Tycoon of the series”
I see what you did there. 😉
@Tasuki @Mgalens @CharlieGirl
To be fair, the storyline in FFV is, for a lack of better description, super lame. Also, to be fair, being sandwiched between FFIV and FFVI really makes the shortcomings of V’s storyline stand out more.
That being said, the gameplay in FFV is top notch and the job class system is the true star of the show.
I have never played FF V but I want to see a 3D remake of Final Fantasy V like FF III / FF IV NDS style.
The Pixel Remasters are so good. We need them on Switch!
Kefka's Domain was the first game OST set I'd ever bought. I've listen to it countless times. The music was just so good. I think Laughing Mad is still one of my all time fav soundtracks.
I tried replaying the game the first time it rereleased on mobile a few years back. I'd forgotten more than enough about the game that it was almost like playing it again for the first time. I tried really hard not to use a guide at all, just like the first time I played it on the SNES. Unfortunately I missed a key item to form the ultimate team. D'oh. I debated for a while if I would remember to come back when I get the airship or should I start over and use a guide so I could 100% my ultimate team in one-go. This is the hard part of Adulting. Never enough time to just get lost in a game any more like when you were a kid.
Played V with a friend on the PlayStation Origins collection (I believe). Still my favorite in the series. Such an epic story set in a medieval setting. You can see a lot of the groundwork being laid for VI. When Nomura said he would want to do a remake of V after VII I lost it. It really needs to be experienced by more people and a new coat of paint would be welcome.
I just went through the GBA version of the game. It's really great. Although I consider FFVI my favorite game of all time, I think the job system in FFV trumps the gameplay in almost every other game in the series. FFV's story was its biggest weakness, but the jobs are so fun to play around with it's hard to really care.
I played the GBA version relatively recently. I remember liking the job system, butI feel like I don't remember much of the overall adventure compared to the other FFs. And I don't have much inclination to replay it either.
I did like how Bartz's piano-playing skill could be levelled up throughout the game. Always fond of fun little touches like that in RPGs.
My childhood!
Very underrated game in desperate need of a remake along with its brother FF6.
Holy smokes! I’m old!
Best part of V was just how stupidly powerful you could make your characters’ Freelancer class by the endgame with the right mix of maxed out jobs.
But even with OP party builds the game was still decently challenging, especially if you played one of the versions with the powered up Hyperbosses like Neo Shinryu.
Also got to say I love Ex-Death as a villain. Mainly because he’s basically a medieval Bond villain who happens to be a tree.
@Slowdive
I think it has the best gameplay with its implantation of the job system. But the other two members of the SNES trilogy have their merits IMO.
To me it’s like this.
FFIV: Best soundtrack. The bass riffs in all of the tracks are mesmerizing. If you’ve never played it on a proper sound system I recommend you do that. Especially the boss theme. The bass line slaps so hard on that track. Downside is that it’s very janky even in later versions.
FFV: Best gameplay. Absolutely hilarious dialogue. Story is pretty weak though.
FFVI: Best story and characters. Plus really cool monster sprites and Kefka is just a legend. Weakest soundtrack of the three by far though.
This was my first Final Fantasy. A friend introduced it to me as: “Just like Zelda, but the fighting is more like rock-paper-scissors”
Not sure if that description holds up, but it did the trick and convinced me.
It took me a few hours to fall in love with turn based battles, and I never looked back.
Now bring on the FF pixel remasters. They’re long overdue
Story was meh, but the job system was amazing. Blue Mage was one of my favorite jobs.
I most certainly do not wish to see the pixel remasters on Switch. What I WOULD like to see is 2D-HD remakes, and then most of all I want to see them do that to FF6.
That would be an absolute dream scenario!
@KingMike are you the king mike of translation fame? 😉
To me its just odd they wouldn't release any of the recent remasters on the switch.it would be a slam dunk. but then yet, they release a mediocre apple arcade mobile game instead. 😒
@Beefcakeyamato Yes.
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