Thoughts on Final Fantasy V

I was extremely surprised at how deep the buildcrafting felt in this game. The way you can match different abilities with each other, creating your own superjobs, finding synergies. I even looked up some build guides online and, to me, that’s how you know a game is really good.

The final boss of this game was one of the hardest gaming challenges I had to go through. Granted, I used a somewhat cheesy loadout in the end, but even that required several hours of grinding and then perfect execution. Selecting spells correctly, using them in correct order, making sure I had enough items… It really felt like I was fighting the Elden Beast in Elden Ring all over again!

For posterity, here’s how the job system works. First, you have your base jobs that get unlocked as you progress through the story. Second, there are two sets of experience points: XP is your regular level up juice and ABP is what you need to “master” jobs. As you master jobs, you unlock abilities from those jobs. Then, when you pick a different job, you can keep using the abilities from that mastered job!

This creates some really cool combinations:

• A samurai that can cast Black Magic spells.

• A knight that can summon monsters.

• A monk that can sing!

• A time mage that can also heal!

Then, you also have a job called Freelancer, which does not have any abilities of its own, but it can equip two abilities. It also tends to get passive bonuses from all jobs that have been fully mastered. (There is also a caster version of Freelancer called Mime, which is also very broken and great.)

For the final boss, my team looked like this:

• Bartz: A freelancer who has black magic level 6 and Zeninage. (I love this ability, will talk about it more.)

• Lenna: A freelancer who has level 6 spellblade,rapid fire, and passive dual-wield, which allows her to use two swords at once. (The most broken combo in the game, probably.)

• Farris: A freelancer who has Zeninage and level 5 summoner. (Big multi-damage dealer and can save the healer by summoning Phoenix.)

• Krile: A mime who has Dualcasting, level 6 white magic, and level 6 time magic. (Unbelievable value, being able to cast two spells in one turn is paradigm changing.) (Mime can also mimic the move of the last character that did something, so she could also do Zeninage or cast a Summon spell for 0 MANA!)

For this I start the fight with Lenna enchanting her two swords with Flare. Then, Krile casts Haste on the entire party and starts casting Protect, Shell, and Blink using Dual cast to buff up the entire party. All the while, Farris and Bartz spam Zeninage. By this time, Lenna is ready to start rapid fire, allowing her to hit eight times per turn. The most squishy team member here is Krile. So if she gets killed, then Farris casts Phoenix to bring her back up and still get to deal damage, so there’s no downtime. If any character gets hurt, Krile then casts Curaga to keep going. With Dualcasting, Krile can also cast Arise and Curaga at the same time!

I wish I could say I found this setup, but part of what makes these games cool is that the players share their builds. Buildcrafting! It’s neat!

Anyways, Zeninage! What a wild spell. Basically, it allows you to spend Gils (in-game money) to deal damage to the enemy. Significant damage, mind you. It’s the perfect ability for the final boss, because what else are you going to do with the money after finishing the game, right? Just spam the ability and ignore any debt you might incur!

I’m saying this about every Final Fantasy I play, but I think 5 might be my favorite so far.

Takeaways

• Giving players choices is, as always, the key to a good time.

• Abilities/spells should be designed in a way that allows interesting synergies.

• Discovering synergies should make players feel smart.

• Damage-sponge and one-shotter bosses are frustrating. Letting the player become like that is fun, though.

• “Encourage” the players to buildcraft by making bosses require certain “gimmicky” builds.

  • This is hit or miss, to be honest.

  • I don’t like “kill all bosses at the same time” boss fights.

  • In response to an enemy casting reflect on itself, casting reflect on one of your characters and then casting your spells on that character though… That’s fun. That’s big brain.