Final Fantasy V is not the kind of game you'd see in the current console generation. I doubt any game like it will be produced ever again outside the indie scene because the fact of the matter is that people have expectations of a little more pizazz, something to spice up your standard turn-based, menu scrolling, random battling adventure. Perhaps that even means mostly eschewing the menus altogether. And that's fair. Were we to have the same game made over and over again, it would get stale rather quickly. I'm bringing this up, however, to illustrate how that's not necessarily a good thing, because I am of the firm belief that even now, over twenty years later, Final Fantasy V still holds up as an enjoyable, quality RPG, and it does so on the sheer strengths of its fundamentals. No matter what new additions a developer makes to the formula, no matter how many times they try to reinvent the wheel, the question of whether a game is good is going to depend on whether it has a solid core. And Final Fantasy V's core is about as solid as one can get.

But that's not where I want to start, because it makes more sense to give that core context by digging through the outer layers first. By which I mean that I'm about to discuss Final Fantasy V's story. I suppose it's there. Like many Final Fantasy stories before it (but unlike those that came after), the story of FFV is focused on neither character nor plot, but rather on theme, the theme for this game in particular being sort of a halfway between coming of age and the passing of responsibility from one generation to the next. It plays these themes out well, allowing for several moments that are surprisingly touching. By and large, however, the plot is mostly very standard Final Fantasy stuff. The evil warlock Exdeath is out to destroy some power crystals and drag the whole world into the all-consuming Void, and of course, our heroes must stop him. That's really about all there is to it. Of note, however, is the fact that the game is very light-hearted and filled with jokes, which I can't say I was expecting when I first played the game. It added a lot of life to an otherwise dull plotline and was much appreciated. Those expecting a more serious, gripping tale in the vein of VI-VIII are going to be disappointed. I do want to mention, however, that this game is one of those rare gems in fiction that seriously got me to like just about every character. Though they may not have much depth,  every one of them barring perhaps Lenna is full of personality and makes the story actually work on some levels just because of how likable everyone is. And even Lenna is usually good at making setups for other characters, so it's not like she's wasted either. Of course, they're all total stereotypes at heart: Bartz is the moronic hero, Lenna is the naive princess, Galuf is the wisecracking old man, Faris is the gruff tomboy, Gilgamesh is the cowardly braggart, Exdeath is the over the top ham of a villain (what else could he be with a name like that?), etc. But the personality and life they bring to these stereotypes is enough to make them stand out and still be entertaining. So while I wouldn't exactly call the story good, I would call it enjoyable in spite of itself. And not in a bad way either. It hits that rare mark of "uninspired concept with masterful execution." Which means it certainly won't work for everyone, but the people who it does work for are probably going to love it.

But anyway, as for what we're really all here for, the gameplay of FFV is almost total perfection, as I've been implying before. It is so simple, and yet it works so marvelously well that I am disappointed that it didn't become the standard for how all turn-based menu RPGs function. Basically, how it works is that everyone, of course, has a class. However, no one has a specific class, the system is far more akin to FFIII than any of the other games. Basically, once you've unlocked classes beyond the base Freelancer class, you may change any of your characters to any of the classes you've unlocked at will. Progression is not tied to taking character levels, but class levels. Character levels only get you an HP boost. Take a level in a class and you unlock an ability of that class that may be equipped to any other class. You could have your Black Mages punching enemies to death thanks to Monk abilities, or Dancers blasting your foes to bits with item-based artillery powers you got from the Cannoneer class. Each class has a set number of levels because they have a finite number of abilities, obviously. Level up a class to the maximum and you have "mastered" that class. Mastering a class means that your original Freelancer class gains both the highest stat boosts that that class provides as well as any passive abilities that that class was able to use, eliminating the need to equip this ability to the Freelancer. Say, for example, you mastered the Ninja class. Ninjas have the unique passive ability to Dual Wield, which you can unlock as an ability to equip to other classes. Since you've mastered Ninja, however, you don't need to equip it to your Freelancer because the Freelancer can do it naturally just like the Ninja can now. What this amounts to is that by the end of the game, the Freelancer will be your most powerful class if you've been mastering classes. Freelancers have other benefits that you might not expect from the only class you have at the start of the game as well: they are the only class that can equip any and all pieces of equipment, and they are also the only class to be able to equip two abilities at once. Every other class has its own special ability that takes up an ability slot. Summoners obviously need to be able to cast Summon magic or else they wouldn't be Summoners, right? Because the Freelancer has no special abilities of its own (in the sense of commands that you can activate, that is), you can instead pick any two from whichever classes you want. No restrictions. If you want a Chemist that uses Samurai Bushido arts while wearing a wizard hat and knight armor and using a bard's harp to attack, no one can really stop you. Mimics get a whole three ability slots, but their utility is a bit more limited than the Freelancer because they cannot equip all types of equipment. It's still very good if you want to make use of Dualcast and spam Bahamut for no MP with a party of Mimics by using their Mimic command.

And that's the beauty of FFV. You have so many options on how you want to develop your characters, and you can take them down any or all the paths you want, and by the end of the game, you can use everything all your characters have ever learned all at the same time. It feels immensely rewarding to go down one particular class, master it, and then go into another class and find all kinds of abilities that perfectly complement the abilities of the class you just mastered. Dualcast and any kind of Magic. Rapid Fire, Spellblade and Dual Wield. Mix and Combine. Alternatively, if you're like me, you'll get a thrill of going on gameFAQs, planning everything out in advance and then watching with a smug smile on your face as all the pieces fall into place, just as you had envisioned. 

However, this does bring up the one glaring issue I have with the gameplay, and that's the fact that without looking it up online, you have no idea what abilities a class will give you until you actually get the abilities, which isn't helped by the fact that you unlock a number of classes relatively late in the game. At the beginning of the game, enemies will seldom give more than one ABP each (ABP being ability points, the experience bar for your classes, if you will). Even by the end of the game, you will still get at most, 25 ABP or so from a non-boss battle. Classes take hundreds of ABP to master, with the absolute worst being the Red Mage, taking an unholy 999 ABP to unlock its final ability, Dualcast, which, although undeniably useful, is nowhere close to being worth grinding that much, especially by the point in the game which you would realistically get it. I can understand the sort of childish joy in being surprised by a new and useful ability, but I would readily trade it to avoid the irritation of learning that I spent all that time grinding for an ability I didn't actually need. This lack of foreknowledge will also probably affect your approach to classes, causing you to avoid classes you really should be taking and taking classes that are absolutely pointless. Take, for example, the case of the Ranger. It gets a few nice bonuses, but its Rapid Fire skill doesn't seem particularly useful... until, that is, you unlock it for your Freelancer class to use, combine it with the Ninja's Dual Wield and the Mystic Knight's Spellblade and suddenly your warriors are attacking eight times per move with Excaliburs enchanted with the Flare spell. On the other hand, you have something like the Red Mage, which seems useful at first, but is easily outclassed by the end of the game. Same with the Black Mage. There's little reason to use either of them, Summoner makes Black Magic obsolete (other than for use as Spellblades), and Red Mage makes itself obsolete with the inability to cast any magic over level 3 or outside the standard Black/White tree. Which this game has a lot of. There are Summoners, Blue Mages and Time Mages as well. So because of that, you're advised to look everything up instead of going in blind. It's important to plan, folks.

Graphically, the game looks fine. It could have stood for an update or two for the GBA, but I'll take what I can get. The sprites still look a little pixelly in places and it's obvious they didn't put as much effort into updating this game as they did FFVI for the GBA, but even still, the environments are generally pretty decent and the in-battle sprites all work pretty well. And hey, there's no ridiculous Mode Seven either, so it has that going for it. I jest. Still, it's nothing that will blow your mind, so remember that you are playing a game that debuted on the SNES in 1992. There is some good variety in the environments too. From a ship graveyard to a dragon mountain, to a fleshlike, organic tower, the game does its best to keep itself interesting. I do love how every class has its own individual sprite as well, it really shows how they were putting focus on making your gameplay as diverse as you wanted it to be.

In terms of music, the game is fantastic, I still listen to many of the tracks even now. The main theme, Ahead on Our Way, is something most people recognize from FFVII, so it says something about the quality of the soundtrack of this game that it debuted here. Other tracks are great as well. Everyone knows Clash on the Big Bridge, of course, but the standard battle theme has just as much energy, the final boss themes are appropriately energetic and foreboding, the overworld theme has a strange sort of... upbeat wistfulness that makes it appropriate for all kinds of situations, not to mention very catchy, and the Final Fantasy main theme played on the music box for the final cutscene is almost tearjerkingly beautiful even if the scene itself is a happy one. And then it immediately goes into the credits theme, which is just about as good. This game's soundtrack is seriously underrated among fans, more really do need to give it a listen.

I'll continue to stand by what I said in the opening. The foundation of this game is brilliant. It takes your standard turn-based game and gives you every little toy imaginable to play around and experiment with, and then makes a whole game around it. No other turn-based game I know of gives you that much freedom, not even something like Golden Sun, where you can change class at any time but your core commands remain the same. If you're looking for the definitive example of how to do a turn-based menu RPG correctly, then look no farther.

I couldn't agree more, fantastic play.