The Divisive FINAL FANTASY V

Final Fantasy V took a long time to make it outside of Japan, not appearing on Western shores until 1999. It was an elusive thing that observers of the Japanese gaming scene could only assume would have a story to rival the heartbreaking beats of Final Fantasy IV (released as FF II in North America in 1991) while serving as a fitting precursor to the visual feast of Final Fantasy VI (released as FF III in North America in 1994).

When the English version of Final Fantasy V was finally released, it was plagued by a translation that failed to match the quality of the product it accompanied. It also faced lofty expectations given how beloved Final Fantasy VI and VII had become in the intervening years. Fans lauded Final Fantasy V as both the best and the worst in the series, and the way it was introduced is widely cited as a major reason for this. I am playing Final Fantasy V as a modern gamer who has only played one other Super Nintendo game (Final Fantasy IV) before, and I think that there's more to this divisiveness than a bad translation and a delayed launch.

In the Beginning

The introduction that leads us to our new main characters is the grandest and most exciting that we have seen so far. We start playing as Bartz as he rides his Chocobo with his best friend Boco, down a windy cavern as meteors rain from the sky. He is quickly joined on his quest by a noble princess, an amnesiac warrior, and an adventuresome pirate. I had just played Final Fantasy IV, where one of my largest complaints is that Cecil is not enough of an anchor as a character to facilitate a story of fleeting friendships in a game of that length. I was so drawn to the group in Final Fantasy V because it gave me my four rocks to get really invested in, to build my party around, and watch them really grow.

Reading many testimonials on why fans love this game revealed a common thread. Those who can endlessly play Final Fantasy V are addicted to not only the emergent gameplay of its brilliant job system, but also its ability to become a puzzle as you plan around the game's innate limitations of two ability slots. I had decided early on that one character would be my physical tank, one would be my healer, another would be my melee damage dealer, and the last would take on the ranged damage-dealing roles. This limitation that I had placed on myself caused me, subconsciously, to avoid the most enjoyable parts of the game. But I didn't know that at the time.

During the first Act, I thought that Final Fantasy V was the ultimate version of the series, the masterfully crafted final draft that got it perfect the fifth time around. Having jobs that could multitask together to create interesting heroes was so fun to play around with, and the exploration was intuitive and exciting. All the way up to and through the Soul Cannon and each meteor, my team proceeded through the first world as they finally rode that meteor all the way to Castle Exdeath.

Bartz and company crash down into an alternate dimension where Exdeath’s castle is being sieged by the remaining Warriors of Dawn. Exdeath kidnaps them and uses them as a bargaining chip to get Galuf to halt his advances on Big Bridge. An obligatory prison escape scene later, and we are in the most iconic moment of the whole game. Nobuo Uematsu’s legendary track Battle at The Big Bridge rips as our party makes their daring escape, where they are stopped by the iconic super boss legend, Gilgamesh. All the way until the end of the game, I loved catching up with the crazed warrior for a spar until his ultimate sacrifice to help the gang get to the final save point. Of course, his death is only the beginning of his multiverse-hopping adventures, so don’t feel too sad about the comic relief's demise.

Everything Changes

The quest to take down Exdeath will lead the party to seek out the sage Ghido, a turtle with an impatience for youngsters. In the meeting with the great sage, we learn that Exdeath is actually a tree that has turned into an evil sorcerer after absorbing a lot of evil, or something. When people say that the story takes a backseat this time, I can see that many of the nuances fail to weave the epic tale of good and evil that some of the other titles create. I will say that Final Fantasy V creates a party that feels more like a group of friends than ever before, and even better than some modern titles. It’s not the dialogue, but these wide transition shots where our party is emoting or running to check and see if the other is okay. The artists spent a great amount of time and resources animating our four heroes, and it’s the most impressive part of the storytelling.

Eventually, we make it to Exdeath’s castle, which, in an impressive turn of events, ends up being made entirely of a fleshy material. Very Silent Hill chic, Sakaguchi. My impression of the game flipped on its head here. Every fight suddenly kicked me in the teeth, and if it weren’t for a crazy, random scenario during my fight with Exdeath, I think my playthrough of Final Fantasy V might have ended right then. The villain cast a zombification spell on Lenna, making her invincible with a reflect ring that reflected all of his spells at him. In the dumbest way possible, I managed to reach Act 3.

I dreaded Act 3 of Final Fantasy V. I loathed opening it up and hated making progress. Every day that I spent playing, I eventually caved into turning off encounters using cheats that were included in the Pixel Remasters and throwing gil at boss fights to get past each aggravating, gimmicky encounter. Why couldn’t I make it past these parts without dying repeatedly? I was training my white mage to use combat skills to stay relevant. I taught my knight how to avoid all hits. I taught my DPS to cast insane debuffs, yet it was never enough. Each challenge brought me closer to my breaking point.

I dragged myself through getting all twelve legendary weapons and most of the side content and stared into the void (literally). I was at the final challenge, and I couldn’t will myself the strength to move forward. This dungeon was filled with back-to-back boss fights, and to that point, every boss fight ended in my repeated failure. This game demands your patience with failure. It wants you to experiment, repeatedly, until you find a winning strategy with the tools at your disposal. I researched every boss, studied them, and was sure that it would be a nightmare to finish the game. I put down Final Fantasy V.

Lessons From Childhood

My experience with Final Fantasy V reminded me of a formative time in my childhood. I grew up briefly in the American Northwest at an elementary school that was privileged enough to fund the arts for its classes. My class was assigned to perform a musical for its yearly project, and all of the students were more or less roped into the performance, whether we had an interest in musical theater or not. I sank into my chair as assignments were being handed out. A more bashful, 9-year-old version of myself told his teacher that he had no interest in singing, especially in front of groups of people. I didn’t have the courage to try something new that day, and I could never have known what I was about to pass up.

During the play's rehearsal, my elementary class had a lot of fun learning songs and dance routines suitable for little kids. All except for me and one of my classmates, who had also opted for a smaller part. What were our parts? We were trees. I had lines to say, I wasn’t just a prop standing on stage. But it was a significant downgrade from the fun that everyone else was having. During the play I sat backstage for most of it, and during the finale, I didn’t sing with everyone during the curtain call. Conveniently, the teachers thought it was because I was shy, but it was because I didn’t feel like I could just jump in at the end when I didn’t put in the work or put myself out there like everyone else.

Then, when I was 12, I had the option to join the school band in my new Midwest elementary school. I had been in so much anticipation to pick up music performance since my time in the 3rd-grade play. I dove headfirst into practice and ended up playing for the next 10 years of my life. I had one bad experience because of how I approached music and the performance aspect of it. But I refused to let that stop me from discovering a new part of myself and a hobby that I love to this day. Little did I know then how this would unexpectedly echo into the future.

Finding My Way Back

After setting down Final Fantasy V, my next few weeks involved watching a ton of Grey’s Anatomy and playing a casual amount of Breath of Fire on a retro handheld (fantastic comfort game by the way, even for someone who’s never played it before). It was at this time that I picked up the book Final Fantasy V by Chris Kohler, recommended to me by Jahanzeb, another writer at SUPERJUMP. I had briefly developed a fascination with anyone’s perspective on a shining quality in this game, and I found it in abundance here. In all honesty, the love for Final Fantasy V echoes the qualities that fans love about a Dark Souls game: Deep build crafting and intriguing boss design that warrants specific preparation. It wasn’t about the difficulty; it was about preparing for an impossible challenge and winning at the end of the day.

Later, I read an FAQ by Apoqliphoth on Fandom that was a hilarious read and quite pivotal to my success in the game. At the end of the guide, Apoqliphoth helped me realize that I shouldn’t have been building a healer or damage dealer; I should have been building a Freelancer.

I never experimented with the Freelancer job in my entire playthrough, and this truly changed the game. All of your abilities and all the equipment were available on one character; this was the freedom that people talked about. Of course, you don’t level up as a Freelancer, but if you only use them to tackle the difficult bosses, then you don’t need the experience. It clicked in that moment. I’m not building a healer or a tank, I’m building Faris and Bartz. I needed to throw everything I expected out the window and relearn these Final Fantasy jobs that I had thought I was so intimately acquainted with.

I fought Neo-Exdeath exactly once when I realized that I didn’t have the tools to defeat him. I spent the entire game skipping summons and ignoring pianos and blue mage spells. I could have made it work. I could have ground out the gil to buy my way through with a few well-placed Zeninages, but I didn’t. Just like the grand finale to my elementary school stage performance, I couldn’t finish knowing that I had missed all of what makes this game a masterpiece. My final save file contains Bartz staring right at the tree in the final boss room.

I hated most of the time that I spent in this game. But I now have a copy of Final Fantasy V on Gameboy Advance that I carry wherever I go. I've started a new save file where I stop to explore, experiment with new abilities, track down summons, accept deaths as reasons to experiment more, and where I find all 8 of those damn pianos. Not as a part of my crusade to finish every Final Fantasy, but in my own time, the way that this game deserves. Final Fantasy V is probably the best Final Fantasy game ever released. Maybe I’ll let you know when I find out.