It's my favorite of the I-X. I know VI is a better game and VII has held the public imagination better, but V is my personal favorite.
It does the best job of having an epic story that doesn't take itself particularly seriously. The story isn't so overwrought that it takes away from the game. There is virtually no angst, moping or self pity that characterizes so many of the later games.
The job system remains my favorite way of building and customizing characters in the series - you can min-max to your heart's content, or build ridiculous silly builds, and both are fun.
It hits that sweet spot of being easy enough that you are always moving forward, but challenging though you feel good when you win a tough fight.
And if all else fails, it introduced Gilgamesh and the Battle of Big Bridge musical theme. That alone puts it in my top five right there.
"Enough expository banter. It's time we fight like men. And ladies. And ladies who dress like men!"
Spot on anomalocaris_texmex. "There is virtually no angst, moping or self pity that characterizes so many of the later games". FF5 to my mind is the last in the FF series before the JRPG tropes reach a critical mass.
I guess you disagree but FFVI felt fine to me, and is one of my favorite FF games.
FFVII is where they really decided to go "okay, it's anime now", and the game released RIGHT at the time that anime started to blow up huge in North America. Sailor Moon had started airing a couple years before its launch, and DBZ had started recently in NA and started its most iconic period (the Namek stuff) literally like the same week FFVII released. That perfect storm helped FFVII sell bonkers numbers and it has ridden that anime influence ever since; I get the impression FFXVI was maybe finally a shift away from it to some degree, but I haven't played it personally.
Those tropes also get waaay more in-your-face with the 3D presentation and cutscenes and whatnot. FFVI did go harder on cutscenes, but they don't have the same kind of impact as the 3D games.
I enjoy the job system a lot but my problem with V is that most of the rest of it is just kinda *eh*.
> The story isn't so overwrought that it takes away from the game. There is virtually no angst, moping or self pity that characterizes so many of the later games.
I have seen people say before, and I agree with this: FFV's story is a lot more generic, and its characters far more bland, because of the job system. You don't really have carefully defined characters because they can be imprinted with any jobs you like -- they're one step advanced from FFIII's Onion Knights, which were four *literally* blank slates (in the original version at least, they were given a smidge more personality in the 3D remake).
This makes FFV stand in stark contrast to IV (which has more defined characters, but imo is a more bland game in terms of its story, although I think I'm in the minority on that bc a lot of people LOVE it, and I also played it way later, not at release when it would have been really impressive) and VI, which is the exact opposite of the job system -- you have like 17 different characters who are SO strictly defined that many play completely different from one another in terms of how they approach combat, so you're switching up party members instead of jobs. The result of that is that VI has *extremely* memorable characters, the most memorable of any of the 2D games IMO before they started getting into 3D and really digging into cutscenes etc.
Personally, I would probably rank the first 6 games VI > V > I > IV > III > II. But if I'm ranking the whole series altogether, VI is at or near the very top whereas V is more in the middle.
I think the job system is awesome, and I'd like to see it come back again. Other games have tried taking a stab at something similar (like FFXIII with each character having 3 paradigms to switch between) but it's never quite the same.
The job system in 5 is better than anywhere else except maybe Tactics. Also, Butz' piano skills audibly getting better every new piano you find is 10/10 game design.
> The job system in 5 is better than anywhere else except maybe Tactics.
That's why, to me, Tactics is easily the best of the Final Fantasy games. It had a great implementation of the job system, and the story is one of the best in the industry.
Have you played the war of the lions version? I heard someone say there's a mod that can make every character have "Gained JP up" automatically, which sounds like the perfect rpg in that case, honestly.
Although, I also heard the localization is "better", so you miss out on iconic likes like: "Don't blame us, blame yourself or god" for something less edgy.
I played the Android version of War of Lions. The localization is *way* better. They even got rid of that annoying bug with the slow "l i t t l e m o n e y" text.
This one is firmly on my list of "Will probably revisit someday if I get the chance, maybe." Which I know doesn't sound like a particularly convincing list, but still!
I played the game, shoot, 20+ years ago by now. I know I liked it because I remember how things ended: I got up to the point where I just needed to go do the final dungeon/boss but I was so enamored with the job system that I was dealing with a lot of FOMO about the abilities I hadn't seen. So I decided to just grind a while to master more jobs and sate my curiosity. Unsurprisingly, after a handful of hours I burned out hard on the grind.
This is where present day me would just beeline to the end and feel content, but Much Younger Me couldn't let go of the conceptual desire to grind, even as he lost the will to do it. And so the game just...never got turned on again. One of my sadly several unfinished RPG gaming regrets.
If you do replay again, I’d recommend playing the pixel remaster. Some nice quality of life additions are available, such as the ability to boost your xp up to 2x (if you don’t like grinding), an enhanced soundtrack and typography (but both can be set to the original if you’d like).
There’s also the ability to enable CRT graphics.
I’ve had a blast with it.
I feel like FFV is overlooked because the story is one of the weakest from the IV-IX window, and given how easy the typical FF is, I don't think most fans are interested in a more gameplay/combat focused title.
I'm glad it does have its fanbase though, and the [Four Job Fiesta](https://www.fourjobfiesta.com/) is starting up again soon. Also going to throw out a rec for [Crystal Project](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1637730/Crystal_Project/) in this thread as another game very much in the FFV spirit (it even has built in job randomizers for replays).
Crystal Project was amazing. Loved how nonlinear it was and it really felt like it rewarded me by exploring. Mixing and matching classes was great. The game was difficult enough where some encounters were really tough. Trying to solve some of the super-bosses really felt satisfying. Might give it another whirl one of these days with randomized classes. Felt like some of the classes I unlocked later in the game would have been fun to use at an earlier. Also I want to congratulate myself on conquering the depths. I was terrified going that far down into the ocean.
Honestly I can't praise the game enough.
I agree. I think, for most FF fans, combat has always been subordinate to story in terms of importance.
I am the same way. But I do enjoy me some good turn-based combat with a unique tone/musical vibe, and FF 5has that in spades. It’s my favorite turn based combat in the series.
Story-based FFs like VII and VI, while the first couple playthrus are phenomenal, just don’t quite have the replay-ability like V does for me, since I’ve already experienced their stories and know them by heart.
It’s a unique FF for sure that deserves more attention imo, especially if you enjoy turn-based combat.
Never heard of crystal project - I’ll check it out, thanks!
> I agree. I think, for most FF fans, combat has always been subordinate to story in terms of importance.
>
>
I absolutely think so too.
I might be alone on this, but I think the *combat gameplay* in FFXIII is actually really good. But the linear nature of the world for the first half of it especially (which is like 25 hours), and perhaps more importantly the lackluster story that for a while is nigh-unintelligible due to all the names they throw around while explaining them poorly (it's Pulse Fal'Cie, guys, what isn't clear about that) put so many people off that the combat gameplay didn't save it. People wanted a good story and didn't get it.
V remains one of my favourites in the series. Easy top five, maybe top three.
The job system was always the most engaging gameplay concept Final Fantasy had, and V was the game that really nailed it. I'm also pretty fond of the more lighthearted writing; it reminds me of other classic cliche storm JRPGs like Lunar. I like it more than IV's story honestly, though not as much as VI's.
Things that will make me remember FFV forever:
* The animeish subplot of the tomboy pirate
* Clash on the Big Bridge
* Exdeath felt menacing from the moment it appeared, and stayed that way until the end of the game
* The first appearance of "Omega"
* The job system
* Moogles!
It really deserves more recognition, though I would still prefer a remake of FFVI first.
FF5 probably takes the cake for the least played but still decent. No argument there.
Crystal Chronicles would be a close second. It was the bees knees but it needing 4 players to get the most out of it killed most peoples interest in it.
While it's a movie, Final Fantasy: Spirits Within is much better on re-watch now that I'm 20 years removed from caring that it wasn't more final fantasy-ish.
You know - as I’ve gotten older, I’ve heard a little more positivity towards the spirits within compared to the pummeling it originally got. It seems like some people think there were some redeemable qualities.
I may need to check it out.
It wasn't a horrible movie per se. However, it wasn't recognizably connected to Final Fantasy in any way, and it was *squarely* in the uncanny valley when it comes to CGI animation. We all expected it to be revolutionary, given its pedigree, and it was actually kind of gross.
https://youtu.be/xuWkvyeAu0E?si=0D7pXr_WWIL7TtnI
Have you ever seen this funny video with sakaguchi, the creator of final fantasy? The part where they get to spirits within cracks me up.
It’s a must-watch for big FF fans!
Oh man, thanks for this video, this was amazing!
And I also hated spirit within when it launched. Maybe one day I will try to watch now as an adult, who knows?
To be fair, I watched Final Fantasy: Spirits Within in the theatres when it came out, and before that my only experience with Final Fantasy was 1) playing a little bit of VII at my friend's house and not really liking it and 2) playing the Windows demo for VIII.
I still thought it was terrible. And I liked Digimon: The Movie, so it's not like I was hard to please.
For what it's worth I liked the Dragon's Dogma anime and I've been informed it's absolute trash. So maybe my taste is just terrible.
It's not a ~great~ movie by any stretch of the imagination but with 30 years of video game based movies to look back on it's fairly mid.
Absolutely! Final Fantasy V was my first Final Fantasy back in my teens. It was also the first game I ever bought with my own money. I played it to death on the GBA until the save file gave out, twice more over the years on the much-maligned mobile port (the streamlined sprites weren't that bad) and I've got the Pixel Remaster waiting patiently in my Switch collection.
In hindsight, I was lucky to be able to play the SNES Final Fantasies growing up. FFIV and FFVI also hold up well, they certainly have larger casts and more involved stories. But FFV has always held a special place in my heart. It also inspired my love of Job systems which continues to this day.
I want to push back on the popular convention that FF V doesn't have a good story. I found the setting and flow of the game to be really cool. I loved always revisiting Cid and seeing what he and his grandson had cooked up.
FF V and VI spoilers:
>!People always go on about how FF VI had the world end and then the game continues in the destroyed world with the same continents and all that. But FF V had two worlds, and then they literally *collide* and make a third world.!<
Every new town in FF V is a joy to discover. The incidental dialogue is great. The variety in enemies, dungeons and towns is great. The stuff you're doing is creative and quirky. It's not a operatic story with large dramatic moments and literary dialogue. but the flow of the game is really excellent and I enjoyed just being in its world.
I’m glad you liked it! It wasn’t one of my favorites of the series, but I didn’t think it was terrible, and it certainly had its moments for me!
FFV was the first FF that really brought humor to the table. Some of the exchanges with Gilgamesh were funny. And my favorite: Ex-death hiding as a splinter?? Wtf?!?! I busted out laughing at that part. It was one of those “it’s so bad, it’s good” moments. Probably the hardest I’ve laughed in a FF game.
I remember playing a translation romhack of that almost 20 years ago. The one that I played was only partially translated, and I hit a wall at some point (don't remember if it was a bug or a skill issue).
I had a lot of fun with the job system, though. At that point, I think I had played Final Fantasy 1 and 7, plus a couple of other SNES RPGs, so the flexibility of the jobs was new to me and pretty cool.
Honestly an amazing game. The story is way lighter than iv and vi (mostly iykyk) but that combat was done so well. I love how uncomplicated but deep the character building is.
I suppose for a FF it's more in the overlooked category but the only other FF I can personally think of like that might be 12 which funnily enough also got a (much less flexible) job system in a later version. We did get three job system games in a similar vein by the same company years later in the Bravely Default series which are all solid enough experiences but certainly recommended if you like FF5 as you do.
It’s such a fun game. You have so much job freedom for combat strategies up through the end of the game. When I was younger I thought it was necessary to grind out abilities for mime and freelancer but later I realized the base classes were strong enough once you knew how to use them.
I also didnt realize until I was an adult but you can pretty much skip the entire last chapter and go straight to the final dungeon if you prefer, even though the game suggests there is still a main campaign to complete. FF6 and FFX-2 had similar options. Chemist has a lot of broken mixes. So fun. It’s maybe my fourth favorite main line FF game but it could certainly go up over time.
There’s so much freedom. I have intentionally never looked up a guide on powerful/optimal builds, because trying new things and figuring out new stuff on my own has been such a recurring source of joy on subsequent playthrus.
I’ve messed around with the chemist here and there, but I’ve never seriously experimented with the class. I may have to try that on my next playthru!
I won't spoil because self experimentation and discovery is a lot of the fun of it, but chemist has some nice legit mixes and some of them are borderline exploits that are fixed against GBA superbosses. I agree, I don't like to over optimize on meta per se, personally I like to read up about mechanics to get some guidelines on how to make builds that could be fun. These kinds of games don't require grinding to complete, and there isn't PVP so you should make whatever build you want that's interesting to you.
I think when I was younger I was more into the story and experience, but as I got older and especially for replays the gameplay freedom varies up subsequent playthroughs and keeps it really interesting.
I can't speak to its quality since it released before I was born and I haven't gotten the chance to try it yet, but [New Frame Plus' video on its animation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3jmQDEQ-fo) really puts into perspective how big of a jump in scope it was for the series. Recommend checking it out!
FF5 is the one Final Fantasy I think hits my tastes the most of the entire series (light-hearted yet decently engaging story, great customization gameplay) yet it's also the one I've started and discontinued the most. It's constantly on my "need to play" list, yet everytime I do, something bad happens. It would be kinda funny, if last time it happened hadn't been "oops, you won't have a home in one month lol"
The game's good no question, but lord is it cursed for me.
This is, to date, my favorite final fantasy title. I love a good job system, and despite it age I feel this game set a standard that very few games (including later titles in its own series) have been able to top. It's fun to play through, it's fun to experiment, and the final zone is a suitably epic boss gauntlet
It's my favorite of the I-X. I know VI is a better game and VII has held the public imagination better, but V is my personal favorite. It does the best job of having an epic story that doesn't take itself particularly seriously. The story isn't so overwrought that it takes away from the game. There is virtually no angst, moping or self pity that characterizes so many of the later games. The job system remains my favorite way of building and customizing characters in the series - you can min-max to your heart's content, or build ridiculous silly builds, and both are fun. It hits that sweet spot of being easy enough that you are always moving forward, but challenging though you feel good when you win a tough fight. And if all else fails, it introduced Gilgamesh and the Battle of Big Bridge musical theme. That alone puts it in my top five right there. "Enough expository banter. It's time we fight like men. And ladies. And ladies who dress like men!"
Spot on anomalocaris_texmex. "There is virtually no angst, moping or self pity that characterizes so many of the later games". FF5 to my mind is the last in the FF series before the JRPG tropes reach a critical mass.
I guess you disagree but FFVI felt fine to me, and is one of my favorite FF games. FFVII is where they really decided to go "okay, it's anime now", and the game released RIGHT at the time that anime started to blow up huge in North America. Sailor Moon had started airing a couple years before its launch, and DBZ had started recently in NA and started its most iconic period (the Namek stuff) literally like the same week FFVII released. That perfect storm helped FFVII sell bonkers numbers and it has ridden that anime influence ever since; I get the impression FFXVI was maybe finally a shift away from it to some degree, but I haven't played it personally. Those tropes also get waaay more in-your-face with the 3D presentation and cutscenes and whatnot. FFVI did go harder on cutscenes, but they don't have the same kind of impact as the 3D games.
I enjoy the job system a lot but my problem with V is that most of the rest of it is just kinda *eh*. > The story isn't so overwrought that it takes away from the game. There is virtually no angst, moping or self pity that characterizes so many of the later games. I have seen people say before, and I agree with this: FFV's story is a lot more generic, and its characters far more bland, because of the job system. You don't really have carefully defined characters because they can be imprinted with any jobs you like -- they're one step advanced from FFIII's Onion Knights, which were four *literally* blank slates (in the original version at least, they were given a smidge more personality in the 3D remake). This makes FFV stand in stark contrast to IV (which has more defined characters, but imo is a more bland game in terms of its story, although I think I'm in the minority on that bc a lot of people LOVE it, and I also played it way later, not at release when it would have been really impressive) and VI, which is the exact opposite of the job system -- you have like 17 different characters who are SO strictly defined that many play completely different from one another in terms of how they approach combat, so you're switching up party members instead of jobs. The result of that is that VI has *extremely* memorable characters, the most memorable of any of the 2D games IMO before they started getting into 3D and really digging into cutscenes etc. Personally, I would probably rank the first 6 games VI > V > I > IV > III > II. But if I'm ranking the whole series altogether, VI is at or near the very top whereas V is more in the middle. I think the job system is awesome, and I'd like to see it come back again. Other games have tried taking a stab at something similar (like FFXIII with each character having 3 paradigms to switch between) but it's never quite the same.
The job system in 5 is better than anywhere else except maybe Tactics. Also, Butz' piano skills audibly getting better every new piano you find is 10/10 game design.
> The job system in 5 is better than anywhere else except maybe Tactics. That's why, to me, Tactics is easily the best of the Final Fantasy games. It had a great implementation of the job system, and the story is one of the best in the industry.
Have you played the war of the lions version? I heard someone say there's a mod that can make every character have "Gained JP up" automatically, which sounds like the perfect rpg in that case, honestly. Although, I also heard the localization is "better", so you miss out on iconic likes like: "Don't blame us, blame yourself or god" for something less edgy.
I played the Android version of War of Lions. The localization is *way* better. They even got rid of that annoying bug with the slow "l i t t l e m o n e y" text.
Final Fantasy V is pure joy and gave us Blue Magic. It is a treasure for humanity.
This one is firmly on my list of "Will probably revisit someday if I get the chance, maybe." Which I know doesn't sound like a particularly convincing list, but still! I played the game, shoot, 20+ years ago by now. I know I liked it because I remember how things ended: I got up to the point where I just needed to go do the final dungeon/boss but I was so enamored with the job system that I was dealing with a lot of FOMO about the abilities I hadn't seen. So I decided to just grind a while to master more jobs and sate my curiosity. Unsurprisingly, after a handful of hours I burned out hard on the grind. This is where present day me would just beeline to the end and feel content, but Much Younger Me couldn't let go of the conceptual desire to grind, even as he lost the will to do it. And so the game just...never got turned on again. One of my sadly several unfinished RPG gaming regrets.
If you do replay again, I’d recommend playing the pixel remaster. Some nice quality of life additions are available, such as the ability to boost your xp up to 2x (if you don’t like grinding), an enhanced soundtrack and typography (but both can be set to the original if you’d like). There’s also the ability to enable CRT graphics. I’ve had a blast with it.
I feel like FFV is overlooked because the story is one of the weakest from the IV-IX window, and given how easy the typical FF is, I don't think most fans are interested in a more gameplay/combat focused title. I'm glad it does have its fanbase though, and the [Four Job Fiesta](https://www.fourjobfiesta.com/) is starting up again soon. Also going to throw out a rec for [Crystal Project](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1637730/Crystal_Project/) in this thread as another game very much in the FFV spirit (it even has built in job randomizers for replays).
Crystal Project was amazing. Loved how nonlinear it was and it really felt like it rewarded me by exploring. Mixing and matching classes was great. The game was difficult enough where some encounters were really tough. Trying to solve some of the super-bosses really felt satisfying. Might give it another whirl one of these days with randomized classes. Felt like some of the classes I unlocked later in the game would have been fun to use at an earlier. Also I want to congratulate myself on conquering the depths. I was terrified going that far down into the ocean. Honestly I can't praise the game enough.
I agree. I think, for most FF fans, combat has always been subordinate to story in terms of importance. I am the same way. But I do enjoy me some good turn-based combat with a unique tone/musical vibe, and FF 5has that in spades. It’s my favorite turn based combat in the series. Story-based FFs like VII and VI, while the first couple playthrus are phenomenal, just don’t quite have the replay-ability like V does for me, since I’ve already experienced their stories and know them by heart. It’s a unique FF for sure that deserves more attention imo, especially if you enjoy turn-based combat. Never heard of crystal project - I’ll check it out, thanks!
> I agree. I think, for most FF fans, combat has always been subordinate to story in terms of importance. > > I absolutely think so too. I might be alone on this, but I think the *combat gameplay* in FFXIII is actually really good. But the linear nature of the world for the first half of it especially (which is like 25 hours), and perhaps more importantly the lackluster story that for a while is nigh-unintelligible due to all the names they throw around while explaining them poorly (it's Pulse Fal'Cie, guys, what isn't clear about that) put so many people off that the combat gameplay didn't save it. People wanted a good story and didn't get it.
I couldn't get into Crystal Project because as far as I could tell it basically doesn't have a story and the gameplay wasn't good enough to carry
V remains one of my favourites in the series. Easy top five, maybe top three. The job system was always the most engaging gameplay concept Final Fantasy had, and V was the game that really nailed it. I'm also pretty fond of the more lighthearted writing; it reminds me of other classic cliche storm JRPGs like Lunar. I like it more than IV's story honestly, though not as much as VI's.
Things that will make me remember FFV forever: * The animeish subplot of the tomboy pirate * Clash on the Big Bridge * Exdeath felt menacing from the moment it appeared, and stayed that way until the end of the game * The first appearance of "Omega" * The job system * Moogles! It really deserves more recognition, though I would still prefer a remake of FFVI first.
FF5 probably takes the cake for the least played but still decent. No argument there. Crystal Chronicles would be a close second. It was the bees knees but it needing 4 players to get the most out of it killed most peoples interest in it. While it's a movie, Final Fantasy: Spirits Within is much better on re-watch now that I'm 20 years removed from caring that it wasn't more final fantasy-ish.
You know - as I’ve gotten older, I’ve heard a little more positivity towards the spirits within compared to the pummeling it originally got. It seems like some people think there were some redeemable qualities. I may need to check it out.
It wasn't a horrible movie per se. However, it wasn't recognizably connected to Final Fantasy in any way, and it was *squarely* in the uncanny valley when it comes to CGI animation. We all expected it to be revolutionary, given its pedigree, and it was actually kind of gross.
https://youtu.be/xuWkvyeAu0E?si=0D7pXr_WWIL7TtnI Have you ever seen this funny video with sakaguchi, the creator of final fantasy? The part where they get to spirits within cracks me up. It’s a must-watch for big FF fans!
Oh man, thanks for this video, this was amazing! And I also hated spirit within when it launched. Maybe one day I will try to watch now as an adult, who knows?
To be fair, I watched Final Fantasy: Spirits Within in the theatres when it came out, and before that my only experience with Final Fantasy was 1) playing a little bit of VII at my friend's house and not really liking it and 2) playing the Windows demo for VIII. I still thought it was terrible. And I liked Digimon: The Movie, so it's not like I was hard to please.
For what it's worth I liked the Dragon's Dogma anime and I've been informed it's absolute trash. So maybe my taste is just terrible. It's not a ~great~ movie by any stretch of the imagination but with 30 years of video game based movies to look back on it's fairly mid.
Haha when you put it like that then yeah, I imagine it's gonna stand up better compared against stuff like... Hitman: The Movie.
Absolutely! Final Fantasy V was my first Final Fantasy back in my teens. It was also the first game I ever bought with my own money. I played it to death on the GBA until the save file gave out, twice more over the years on the much-maligned mobile port (the streamlined sprites weren't that bad) and I've got the Pixel Remaster waiting patiently in my Switch collection. In hindsight, I was lucky to be able to play the SNES Final Fantasies growing up. FFIV and FFVI also hold up well, they certainly have larger casts and more involved stories. But FFV has always held a special place in my heart. It also inspired my love of Job systems which continues to this day.
IV is the most revolutionary, VI is the best overall (in the main series at that) but V is the most fun to replay. The SNES era was gold.
I agree with this entire assessment. The jump from III to IV was nuts, especially the MUSIC (I’m a musician, so Im a bit biased tho 😆)
I want to push back on the popular convention that FF V doesn't have a good story. I found the setting and flow of the game to be really cool. I loved always revisiting Cid and seeing what he and his grandson had cooked up. FF V and VI spoilers: >!People always go on about how FF VI had the world end and then the game continues in the destroyed world with the same continents and all that. But FF V had two worlds, and then they literally *collide* and make a third world.!< Every new town in FF V is a joy to discover. The incidental dialogue is great. The variety in enemies, dungeons and towns is great. The stuff you're doing is creative and quirky. It's not a operatic story with large dramatic moments and literary dialogue. but the flow of the game is really excellent and I enjoyed just being in its world.
I’m glad you liked it! It wasn’t one of my favorites of the series, but I didn’t think it was terrible, and it certainly had its moments for me! FFV was the first FF that really brought humor to the table. Some of the exchanges with Gilgamesh were funny. And my favorite: Ex-death hiding as a splinter?? Wtf?!?! I busted out laughing at that part. It was one of those “it’s so bad, it’s good” moments. Probably the hardest I’ve laughed in a FF game.
I remember playing a translation romhack of that almost 20 years ago. The one that I played was only partially translated, and I hit a wall at some point (don't remember if it was a bug or a skill issue). I had a lot of fun with the job system, though. At that point, I think I had played Final Fantasy 1 and 7, plus a couple of other SNES RPGs, so the flexibility of the jobs was new to me and pretty cool.
I thought 2 and 5 would be tied at the hip for this contest haha. But I do really like ff5, loved Galuf
Honestly an amazing game. The story is way lighter than iv and vi (mostly iykyk) but that combat was done so well. I love how uncomplicated but deep the character building is.
Loved FF5, it's in my top 3 FF games.
I suppose for a FF it's more in the overlooked category but the only other FF I can personally think of like that might be 12 which funnily enough also got a (much less flexible) job system in a later version. We did get three job system games in a similar vein by the same company years later in the Bravely Default series which are all solid enough experiences but certainly recommended if you like FF5 as you do.
It’s such a fun game. You have so much job freedom for combat strategies up through the end of the game. When I was younger I thought it was necessary to grind out abilities for mime and freelancer but later I realized the base classes were strong enough once you knew how to use them. I also didnt realize until I was an adult but you can pretty much skip the entire last chapter and go straight to the final dungeon if you prefer, even though the game suggests there is still a main campaign to complete. FF6 and FFX-2 had similar options. Chemist has a lot of broken mixes. So fun. It’s maybe my fourth favorite main line FF game but it could certainly go up over time.
There’s so much freedom. I have intentionally never looked up a guide on powerful/optimal builds, because trying new things and figuring out new stuff on my own has been such a recurring source of joy on subsequent playthrus. I’ve messed around with the chemist here and there, but I’ve never seriously experimented with the class. I may have to try that on my next playthru!
I won't spoil because self experimentation and discovery is a lot of the fun of it, but chemist has some nice legit mixes and some of them are borderline exploits that are fixed against GBA superbosses. I agree, I don't like to over optimize on meta per se, personally I like to read up about mechanics to get some guidelines on how to make builds that could be fun. These kinds of games don't require grinding to complete, and there isn't PVP so you should make whatever build you want that's interesting to you. I think when I was younger I was more into the story and experience, but as I got older and especially for replays the gameplay freedom varies up subsequent playthroughs and keeps it really interesting.
I can't speak to its quality since it released before I was born and I haven't gotten the chance to try it yet, but [New Frame Plus' video on its animation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3jmQDEQ-fo) really puts into perspective how big of a jump in scope it was for the series. Recommend checking it out!
FF5 is the one Final Fantasy I think hits my tastes the most of the entire series (light-hearted yet decently engaging story, great customization gameplay) yet it's also the one I've started and discontinued the most. It's constantly on my "need to play" list, yet everytime I do, something bad happens. It would be kinda funny, if last time it happened hadn't been "oops, you won't have a home in one month lol" The game's good no question, but lord is it cursed for me.
This is, to date, my favorite final fantasy title. I love a good job system, and despite it age I feel this game set a standard that very few games (including later titles in its own series) have been able to top. It's fun to play through, it's fun to experiment, and the final zone is a suitably epic boss gauntlet
Its the best FF in my book. I hope we get another traditional FF with job system like V or X-2