The last great adventure (Final Fantasy V Retrospective)

One of the best in the saga, and the GBA port, aka Final Fantasy V Advance, is clearly the best Final Fantasy game I have ever played.

FF 5 and FF 12 are my favorites, followed by FF 8

I have never seen anyone break FFV down to this degree. Your video has: 1) Convinced me to play it again 2) Sub to your channel 3) Watch all your other vids 😊

I grew up with this games and it's still my favourite, for all the reasons listed in the video. Great job! :)

Not the best narration voice for a 1+ hour of subjectivisms.


In order to enjoy FFV to its fullest, the player must be on board with the Shonen Jump spirit.
Put it differently: if you see your FFV playing session as an 80's Dragon Ball episode,
everything inside the game will make much more sense
(Even the soundtrack's brassy bravado mimics that heard on anime intros of the time).

Let's not forget Sakaguchi was obsessed with FF being featured in Shonen Jump at this time,
and that Mr. Miyagi lookalike lucky bastard got personal feedback from Kazuhiko Torishima,
Toriyama's Editor and a legend in and on itself if we speak about mass entertainment industries.

For people expecting a tragic story such as Firion's or the grandiose emotional scope of Cecil & co.
FF V is definitely lacking, because it never once aimed to tell such a story.
It doesn't really fit the swashbuckling genre entirely either.

Then there's of course the absurd flexibility of the best Job System of the 16-bit era.
And Battle At The Big Bridge, which FFXII's rendition elevates to ultimate musical classic.
And Gilgamesh's time-travelling nature that establishes a fantastic meta-narrative for the whole franchise.

People should cut out the nostalgia a bit though,
and remember that Koichi Ishii's Secret Of Mana pretty much curbstomped
5 out of 6 Final Fantasies in every department imaginable (Graphics, Gameplay, Sound Quality, Story, Worldbuilding, etc).

That would be an interesting subjectivism video to hear.
I always loved the phrase "We like the same, but for different reasons".

This is one of the best reviews I’ve seen of a video game, and this has really reminded me of everything I loved about it ages ago (I really need to play it again now). Thank you!

Imagine Japan devs saying, "Americans are too dumb for our sophisticated games, let's make Final Fantasy for dummies 101"

Final Fantasy V probably had the best gameplay of the 16bit era, but I have to agree with the critics that it's characters and story are lacking. It's a great playthrough with memorable dungeons, battles and abilities, but it doesn't pull at my heart strings like IV or VI.

Thank you so much for this great video and break down! 5 has been my favorite in the series ever since I played it, and I have never understood the criticisms of its story. I thought it was great

FFV was actually my first FF ever played, with the GBA version when I was just 9 years old. For me, it felt like a natural progression of the only RPGs I had played before, those being Pokémon. Acquiring and leveling up Jobs to gain their moves felt really natural to me coming from that experience, and the addition of a story and characters I actually fell in love with made it so FFV helped to foster my love for the JRPG genre. I consider it to be one of the most important games in my life because of that, as JRPGs are my favorite genre now and have given me so many of my favorite games of all time. It’s always been disappointing to me that V gets so overlooked by so many people, and I will always love anyone giving it its due!

My favorite game ever. As a kid I could never beat it.

When I was just about 5 (I don't remember exactly how old I was but it was around then), my dad loaded up an emulator of FF5. We both sat down and played it. I chose two characters, he chose two characters, and we made choices for those characters. Final Fantasy 5 is why I love Final Fantasy. It's why I love JRPGs. It's why I love the Bravely series (the spiritual successor to FF5, if you enjoyed FF5, you REALLY should play Bravely Default). It's one of the main reasons I enjoy gaming now.
My dad bought me the FF pixel remaster for my 18th birthday this year and I decided to play through the games in order, for two reasons: I wanted to say that I've beaten the games, and I wanted to experience the Final Fantasy games in order. FF1 was alright, and I really only enjoyed getting to experience the game that started it all because its a novelty. I actually enjoyed FF2 more than most do, but I understand why others disliked it. FF3 was fun (after FF5 me and my dad played FF3, although we couldn't beat it), and finally being able to beat it was a wonderful experience. My uncle had tried to get me to play FF4 once, but I never got into it like I did the other games. It held true when I actually played through it, and I still find the story and gameplay quite lackluster by comparison.
Final Fantasy 5 was the only game I went into this playthrough for an alternative reason. It wasn't just a novelty. It was personal, and it was nostalgic. As I played through the game I would constantly pick up little bits of information I remembered from my playthrough with my dad. I remembered wanting to try a blue mage, only for him to stop me because the "learn" system was really difficult to get into (I went through the entire game with a blue mage and rubbed it into his face). I remember the barrier tower. I remember being worried we'd drown when going back to Walse Tower. I remember so many little details. I just beat the game today and it's been such a great ride. I plan on starting FF6 soon, but I think afterwards I might go back to FF5 and see what else I can do in it. This game is my favorite Final Fantasy, and maybe that's the nostalgia, but it can't be understated what this game meant to me and what it still means to me.
Thanks for listening to my little rant 😅

The part that got me to quit was the endless bomb fight right after Galuf leaves the party. He was my only healer. I never went back to the game after that.

ur right about that hilltop view it looks way worse in the pixel remaster like they didnt even try to make it look half as good

This is my personal favorite FF game, second only to FFVII**

I was surprised when I realized Fenris was supposed to be a man... about five minutes before she was revealed as a woman. For those brief moments I chided myself for forgetting about Japanese pretty boys.

That's 5 minutes I'm not getting back.

I honestly think from a gameplay standpoint, V is absolutely spectacular. The Job System is just way too fun.

I also honestly dig it's more simple and wholesome story and characters. I feel like V overall was like the first game, but done way better. It basically took the Four Warriors of Light and gave them personalities.

FFV is my favourite in the series; I remember being delighted to play it in English back when the only way was through emulation.

FfV was a joy for me, really liked the GAMEPLAY and music, but FF4 is a more important game historically, has better story that's all, taught people how to do rpgs, to add dramatic aspects to them, in that regard ffV was a step back (not a huge one tho) I played it two times and like it more than any FF made after 6 (exception of 9)

Wait, there are people who think FFV was WORSE than IV? The game that codified the job system? This is absolutely baffling to me.

Playing the FFV fan translation waaaay back in the late 90s was like the holy grail for me and my initiation in to the wider world of the internet. I had been online since 95 but my ignorance of just what was possible was finally torn down when emulation started getting bigger and bigger. Man...those were the days.

When discussing the game's translation near the beginning of the video, it's subjective. Square translated THEIR OWN GAME the way they wanted it done, and fans had a shit fit about it. "It's not like the fan translation." The game wasn't made by the translators, it's Square's prerogative to change what they wanted to change, and they did so, and fans bellyached to the point where Square Enix had to compromise and merge elements of both. There was nothing wrong with Square's work.

Still my favorite final fantasy the real one that needs to be remade

Honestly, this video made me want to give 5 a play. I have heard it was kinda boring, but everything you mentioned in this seems incredibly interesting. I love the job system and changed to it. It really does sound like this could be an underrated FF game.

Honestly I think Final Fantasy 5 was a huge upgrade to 3. If I had to rate the first six games I would say 6 and 5 are by far the most superior! It would be 6,5,4,3,1,2. Just beat 1,2,3 pixel remaster and on 4. Looking to get back into 5 and 6 again

FF5 also had a translated release, at least in Europe, for PS1. :)

There are so many things taken from this FF and put into FF14. It was amazing

It's funny, you talk about how people found ff4 limited due to lack of a job system but....

FF4 is my MOST replayed game ever, and i rarely replay ff games, except for 4. While a better system, imo, is FFX, my second favorite final fantasy game, where you're a specific class but can break that wide open later on, FF4 is my favorite game of all time by far. FFV isn't even in the top 20, lol.

I get that people love it and 6, and while both are great, something about 4 makes me want to replay it once every year or two, and it will possibly always be my favorite game and story combined

Lol, stories are the most irrelevant part of the quality of an RPG as a game. If you want a good story just watch a movie.

FF5 is one of the best games of all time, and it's the best of the first six FF games by a pretty wide margin. It's the first entry in the series to successfully integrate the character-driven story of FF2 and FF4 with the epic adventure of FF1 and FF3 (and nails both elements), and it does so with a really fun job system and challenging gameplay. I absolutely agree that it's overlooked because of missing nostalgia. There's also some issues related to the order in which these games were played by many people back in the day. FF5 came up with a lot of new, awesome things that were carried into FF6, but US players saw them first in FF6 and so associate them with FF6. So FF6 felt revolutionary while FF5 felt familiar, when really FF5 was the revolutionary game.

Sorry AMEN

I just finished V as Pixel Remaster on Switch, which came out a few weeks ago.
I think this game ties with IV as my favourite RPG.
Great story and characters, and some locations are memorable.

I'm playing through the pixel remaster right now. Haven't had this much fun playing a FF game in a long time. I've always wanted to finish it so now I'm finally going to do it.

I played 5 recently (GBA Emu) and it was okay. I agree in a sense that it has been overlooked by the lack of a decent home console port - something I hope the Pixel Remaster fixes, just need S-E to release more physical copies.

But I still feel 5 lacks an engaging narrative, it just isn't as memorable as 4 and 6. ExDeath isn't very compelling as a villain, I didn't mind the party but found them less distinctive that other FF's. Combat is of less interest to me in JRPG's so the in-depth job system of 5 does little for me.

Also, i see the concept of JRPG's is to deliver a sense of adventure. Which FF has continued to do so since FF1-15. So I can't agree with FF5 being the last FF to offer this. I personally feel FF10 is the last 'great' FF game.

Galuf gotta be one of my favorite Final Fantasy characters of all time, the moment where he storms Exdeath's castle just to save his friends with the four warrios of dawn playing in the background is simply amazing, loved 5

V should be FF IV and IV should be V. V feels like it closes the end of the NES era and IV begins a new direction. Their placement chronologically is a little weird to me.

I will play V again on Pixel Remaster before long to see what I think of it nowadays. It's been a little while since last I played it to judge fairly, but I've always had mixed feelings about it.

Amazing video!

I love V so much. Darn, I love FINAL FANTASY so much!!

how can a person watch this without buying this game i watched and commented subbed and liked yesturday then bought the game off of steam today and i can see why you love this gem so much tysm for the awsome content.

Nice video definitely gonna try it 👍

Haven't played through it since the PS1 version. My memories of FFV are not as fond as those of FFIV and VI (definitely don't agree about the music), but I'm going to give Legend of the crystals (the improved fan translation from 2021) a try.

I've never been a final fantasy fan. I've tried most of the mainline games (except 2-4) and put them all down, but I just completed this game and loved it. I wish they went more in this direction. In the meantime I guess I'll go back to dragon quest and chrono trigger, but I might even give this another playthrough as there a few optional bosses I missed.

This is not a popular opinion...but I still kinda like Mystic Quest. Has some memorable characters and quirky dialog. It's just far too short. Though that can be a benefit too.

Hold up...
This was released in 1992...
Super Marios Bros, the live action movie was released in 93
Mario Bros suggests there are two worlds and the meteor that we believe killed the dinosaurs is in fact responsible for the two worlds being separated. It should also be noted that King Cooper in said movie wants to use something called the rock to merge the two worlds.
I'm convinced one of the writers was heavily inspired by this game.

This video simultaneously got you my sub and sold a copy of FFV Pixel Remaster for Square. Well done, sir 👏

After playing final fantasy 4 (DS) and dropping the game due to difficulty and ridiculous story elements, FF5's lighthearted and comradery-centered story was something I felt far more attatched to, regardless of its flaws and lack of major character development. And as for the characters, I used the gameplay and even my own job choices to frame the characters into whatever was fun or exciting to me. For example: Galuf, signature space grandad, was a Berserker. So all of his combat was just "Raaaaaaagh!!" Therefore, Galuf being a loving, strong willed space grandpa who runs around in wolve's fur - beating enemies senseless with nothing on the brain but axe-swinging destruction, is one hell of an image. It's that kind of fun that your imagination gives you in FF 1 and 3, and I see no reason to have it stop here.
The game is just wild fun, and even more impressive when you try out the Four Job Fiesta just to execute whatever tactics you can to win. This game is one of the best FF's out there, and people don't give it enough credit as you have. Wonderful video.

I wonder if you can try out Might and Magic franchise, especially Might and Magic 6, 7 and 8. (Or especially it's Merged Mod, which combines all three games into one). It has a lot of customization, and it's one of my favorite Western RPGs due to the fact that it plays like a JRPG. Even the soundtrack of Might and Magic games is somewhat JRPG-ish, also having sci-fi twist.