Final Fantasy V
SCORE: 66
The Final Fantasy franchise is the most well known role playing game franchise in the United States of America. When the RPG Master heard about Final Fantasy V finally being released in the United States, this game was reserved under my mantle. Square Enix finally did something that role playing gamers have been petitioning for years now - release these old school treasures in America. The real beauty of this game is the job system which is simple, easy, and highly adaptable. A warrior can cast white magic, black magic, blue magic, etc. The player must figure out which jobs work best for different situations as the story progresses. The stats of each character change on the fly as jobs are changed. The down side to that is if a character goes to a job that has much higher hit points (for example), only the max is increased. Spells or items must be used to bring the characters stats up to the max.
Final Fantasy V has classic old school graphics. They were decent for the time period, but that has been a long time ago. Graphic hounds are going to be sorely disappointed with the graphical content, and meager animations. Retro gamers will eat the graphical style up on the other hand. There are images of violence as players fight monsters, and occultic style images in the magical content of the game.
The Final Fantasy series has had great orchestra style music for quite a few years. Final Fantasy V uses quite a few remixes of the earlier Final Fantasy sound scores. The major drawback to this area is the mild language, and a few shocking adult only moments. One female character cross dresses as a male character, and that is one of the more shocking moments of the game. Characters talking about drinking themselves into a stupor are not very family friendly, with how many families that have been destroyed by such acts of selfishness.
Role playing video games last much longer than most other genres, but usually have much less replay value. Final Fantasy V has some additional content after the game is beaten that was not in the original.
Sadly the RPG Master does not feel this Gameboy Advance version of the game is worth your hard earned dollars due to the plethora of adult only content.
Final Fantasy V controls quite well, and the design of the dungeons is quite well. Leveling up by fighting the same monsters over and over again does feel like a chore, but back in the day this was a lot of fun. If a dungeon is too difficult then just level up for a bit, and then tackle it again.
It really is a shame that
so much adult only content was included in this game. This game is
another example of how the ESRB is completely off their rocker. At the
very least the content should make this game rated a ‘T’ for Teen. Many
times it is difficult to distinguish the good guys from the bad, since
the player has to play with some despicable characters. It makes sense
why Squaresoft did not release this game in the past, and the only
saving grace is the fascinating job system.
- RPG Master
Graphics: 70%
Sound: 62%
Replay/Extras: 75%
Gameplay: 74%
Family Friendly Factor: 50%
System: Gameboy Advance
Publisher: Square Enix
Rating: 'E' for Everyone
{Alcohol Reference, Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Language}
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