Final Fantasy V

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Final Fantasy V
Super Famicom cover depicting the character Bartz and his chocobo Boko
Developer(s)	Square Co., Ltd.
Publisher(s)	Super Famicom JPN Square Co., Ltd. PlayStation JPN Square Co., Ltd. NA Square Electronic Arts PAL SCE Europe Game Boy Advance JPN Square Enix Co., Ltd. NA Nintendo of America PAL Nintendo of Europe
Designer(s)	Hironobu Sakaguchi (game director, original concept) Yoshinori Kitase (field planner, game designer, scenario writer[1]) Nobuo Uematsu (composer) Tetsuya Nomura (monster designer[2]) Hideo Minaba (art director[3]) Yoshitaka Amano (image designer, title logo designer)
Series	Final Fantasy series
Release date(s)	Super Famicom JPN December 6, 1992 PlayStation JPN April 13, 1998 [citation needed] NA September 30, 1999 PAL May 17, 2002 Game Boy Advance JPN October 12, 2006 NA November 6, 2006 PAL April 13, 2007
Genre(s)	Console role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single player, limited multiplayer
Rating(s)	PlayStation ESRB: T (Teen) USK: 12+ OFLC: M15+ ELSPA: 11+ Game Boy Advance CERO: All Ages ESRB: E10+ (Everyone 10 And Older)
Platform(s)	Super Famicom, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance
Media	Super Famicom 16 megabit Cartridge PlayStation 1 CD-ROM Game Boy Advance Cartridge

Final Fantasy V (ファイナルファンタジーV, Fainaru Fantajī Faibu^?) is a console role-playing game developed and published by Square Co., Ltd. (now Square Enix Co., Ltd.) in 1992. The game initially appeared only in Japan on the Nintendo Super Famicom (known internationally as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System) and was later ported by TOSE with minor differences to the Sony PlayStation and the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. An anime OVA produced in 1994 called Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals serves as a sequel to the events depicted in the game.

The story begins with a wanderer named Bartz investigating a meteorite strike. There he encounters several characters who reveal the danger facing the four Crystals that control the world's elements and allow its prosperity. These Crystals act as a seal on Exdeath, an evil sorcerer who once threatened their world. It is up to Bartz and his party to keep the Crystals from being exploited by Exdeath's influence and to prevent his resurgence.

Final Fantasy V would be the last game in which series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi would be director. Despite its lack of early release in territories other than Japan, the game is widely known and praised for its expansion on the series' Job System.

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Job System 1.2 Other features 2 Plot 2.1 Setting 2.2 Characters 2.3 Story 3 Development 3.1 Musical score 3.2 Early localization attempts 4 Rereleases 4.1 PlayStation 4.2 Game Boy Advance 5 Reception and criticism 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Final Fantasy V presents its gameplay in the standard series and role-playing approach. The player is able to traverse a large overworld in four directions either by foot, chocobo, wind drake, or airship depending on the position of the story. Random encounters with various enemies occur on the overworld, as well as in several dungeon or dungeon-like areas, giving the player ample opportunity to gain experience and improve each member of his or her party's attributes such as hit points, strength, constitution, and magic power. Towns scattered across the world are normally inhabited by characters with which the player can interact and gain information from, inns for resting, and shops for purchasing weapons, armor, magic spells and disposable items. A menu-based management system allows one to equip, heal, and change each character's selected job outside of battle, as well as save the game's progress on the overworld or at special locations within dungeons. The player may embark on a few side quests that become available as the story progresses.^[4]

[edit] Job System

The main feature of Final Fantasy V's gameplay is the Job System designed by Hiroyuki Ito, originally present in a different form in Final Fantasy III. This system allows for all characters to gain special abilities and potentially master up to twenty-two unique jobs. Each character begins with a default "Bare" or "Freelancer" class, and as they travel to new Crystal locations, they acquire a new job with each elemental crystal shard.^[5] A separate form of experience entitled Ability Points (ABP) was created for the advancement of characters' job levels, while they continued to earn regular experience points.^[5] As job levels increase while fighting, new skills become available for that character to use in a newly introduced streamlined method of 'multi-classing,' allowing each character to learn job-specific abilities and carry one or two over when changing their job. For example, a character with an adequate amount of ABP in the Black Mage job that is concurrently holding the job of Knight can utilize Black Magic as well the abilities of a Knight. These abilities also vary in type; while some may allow for selectable options in battle, others may be innate to the class or automatically activated when chosen as a secondary ability, such as the Thief's "Caution" skill, which prevents rear attacks from enemies. This allows for further customization of characters.^[6]

Four additional jobs (Cannoneer, Prophet/Oracle, Gladiator and Necromancer) were added in the GBA version.

[edit] Other features

Final Fantasy V also formally introduced the Active Time Battle (ATB) system, in which time flows continuously for both the player and enemies during combat.^[5] This system was actually established in Final Fantasy IV by planners Hiroyuki Itō and Akihiko Matsui.^[7] However, the system was not named at the time and there was no way to visibly anticipate which character's turn was coming up next.^[8] In Final Fantasy V, the player can see which playable character's turn is next in battle, in the form of a time gauge which fills according to a character's speed statistic. When the selected character's turn arises, the player can execute one of several commands, such as attacking the enemy with an equipped weapon, using a special ability or item, changing the character's row position, or having the entire party retreat. The ATB mechanic established in Final Fantasy V has persisted in nearly every game in the series under one name or another, as well as other Squaresoft games such as Chrono Trigger.^[7]

Other conventions like the Blue Mage, Time Mage, and Mime character classes were introduced, adding new elements to combat. Final Fantasy V is the first game in the series to contain timed events, in which the player must complete certain tasks under a time limit that depletes both in and out of battle.^[9] In addition, two "super bosses" are present near the game's finale, namely Omega and Shinryu (Dragon Lord), both of which can rapidly wipe out the party – even if every member has absolute maximum status points – and special tactics are required to defeat them. While these optional battles are manually initiated by the player, the reward for defeating each one is little more than the simple satisfaction of having done so.^[10][11][12] Such battles, usually with monsters called Weapons, would later become a mainstay in the series.

Like with the remake of Final Fantasy IV, the GameBoy Advance remake of Final Fantasy V also sports new features. These include new job classes (Gladiator, Cannoneer, Necromancer, and Oracle) -- bringing the total to 26 new classes -- a new 30-floor dungeon, and a music player accessible upon finishing the main game. The GBA version also adds more spells to the game, fixes most glitches, various graphic problems, and the content is much improved.

[edit] Plot

[edit] Setting

Main article: List of Final Fantasy V locations

Final Fantasy V takes place within three distinct worlds; one on which the player begins the game, another that is traveled to after a specific story arc; and another world, which is actually a mix of the other two. Character dialogue reveals that one millennium before the events of the main story unfold, the worlds existed as one. A powerful mage named Enuo, using the power of an evil entity known as the "Void," imperiled the world. Its people retaliated, using twelve legendary weapons to vanquish Enuo. Because the Void could not be destroyed, the people split the world's four elemental Crystals into two sets, which sequentially caused the world itself to split. The Void then became sealed in a dimensional cleft between the two worlds.^[13] Nearly one thousand years passed without incident and both worlds prospered due to the powers of their Crystals of Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth. Several kingdoms and towns developed, and travel by ship acted as a prominent means of commerce and communication.

At some point, an evil spirit was born in an ancient tree in the Moore Forest of one of the worlds. The being emerged as Exdeath, the game's primary antagonist. As he attempted to claim the world for himself, a group of heroes called the "Four Warriors of Dawn" defeated and sealed him within the parallel world using its Crystals, and peace returned for another thirty years.^[14] Final Fantasy V opens after this three-decade period.

[edit] Characters

Main article: Characters of Final Fantasy V

Final Fantasy V features five player characters, only four of which are playable at once. They include Bartz Klauser, a traveling adventurer who becomes involved in the game's events when he investigates the site of a meteorite strike, and whose father was once one of the Four Warriors of Dawn who defeated the mage Exdeath; Lenna Charlotte Tycoon (Reina in the PlayStation version, English translation), a princess of Tycoon who follows her father to investigate the Wind Shrine where she is knocked unconscious and saved from a group of goblins by Bartz; Galuf Doe, a mysterious old man discovered unconscious near the meteorite who suffers from amnesia, and is in actuality Galuf Halm Baldesion, a king and one of the original Four Warriors of Dawn who originally defeated Exdeath; Faris Scherwiz, a pirate captain who captures Bartz, Lenna, and Galuf when they try to steal her ship, and is later revealed to be Sarisa Scherwill Tycoon, the lost daughter of King Tycoon and Lenna's sister; and Krile Mayer Baldesion, the granddaughter of Galuf who journeys with him to the planet and receives all of her grandfather's abilities after his death.

Most of the main characters in the game were involved with or related to people who defeated Exdeath thirty years previous, such as Bartz's father Dorgann Klauser, Kelger Vlondett and Xezat Matias Surgate, three of the original Four Warriors of Dawn. The game also contains several supporting characters including the engineer Cid Previa (keeping the series tradition of having a character named Cid), his grandson Mid Previa, and the turtle sage Ghido. One of Exdeath's henchmen, Gilgamesh, is a recurring mini-boss and would later appear in other games such as Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy XII.^[15][16] Exdeath himself appears as the Totema "Exodus" in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and as a summon Esper in Final Fantasy XII.^[17][16]

[edit] Story

The story begins on a day when the world's wind currents inexplicably begin to slow. Concerned, the king of Tycoon flies off on his wind drake, Hiryuu, to the Wind Shrine which holds the Crystal of Wind, only to see it shatter into pieces upon his arrival. Meanwhile, a meteorite plunges to the planet's surface in the lands near Tycoon Castle. Resting with his chocobo Boko in the woods, the startled adventurer Bartz decides to investigate the meteor crash, where he comes across a young woman named Lenna under attack by goblins. He rescues her and they soon discover an old man in the wreckage unable to remember anything except his name: Galuf. Lenna explains that she is on her way to the Wind Shrine, where her father has gone to discover why the wind has suddenly ceased. Galuf, suddenly realizing that he needs to go there without knowing why, accompanies her. Bartz continues on his way, but is unable to get far before Boko forces him to return and rescue them from more goblins. The three then decide to travel together to the Wind Shrine. However, the path to Tule Village is blocked by the meteor's wreckage, leaving water as the only route. With the help of the pirate captain Faris, the group makes its way to the Wind Shrine, only to discover a missing King Tycoon and the shattered Wind Crystal. The shards, as well as the world's other three crystals, react to their presence. An image of King Tycoon appears and explains to the four of them that they are charged as the chosen warriors that must protect the Crystals to prevent an ancient evil from being revived and devastating their world.^[18]

They find that the four elemental crystals on the planet, the crystals of Wind, Earth, Fire, and Water, are actually the seal binding the warlock Exdeath, who was once bent on destroying their world. Each crystal is, unfortunately, being exploited for its powers, and this, accompanied with their pending destruction, is causing them stress that will eventually make the world uninhabitable.^[19] Bartz and his companions attempt to save each of the remaining crystals – the Crystal of Water at the tower of Walse, the Crystal of Fire at Karnak, and the Crystal of Earth at Gohn – but ultimately fail. As they attempt to save the last Crystal they meet Krile, Galuf's granddaughter, who helps restore Galuf's memory completely. He remembers that he is actually from a distant world, and with the help of the engineers Cid and Mid, whom they met at Karnak and the Library of Ancients, the group resolves to travel to Galuf's world, Exdeath's true target. He is already wreaking havoc when they arrive, battling armies of men on the Big Bridge, including Galuf. Bartz, Lenna, and Faris are ultimately captured. Galuf flies in on his wind drake to save them, defeating Gilgamesh, one of Exdeath's lieutenants, in the process. However, the warriors are blown to a distant continent when a barrier is activated during their escape. Thanks to Krile, her wind drake, and a group of moogles, they make their way to Bal Castle, a place in which Galuf is king.^[20]

Searching for the legendary Dragon Grass to heal their wind drake, the party meets Kelger, Galuf's companion and one the Four Warriors of Dawn, who reveals to Bartz his father's past as one of the Warriors. Galuf and the others also seek help from Ghido, a sage who originally predicted the destruction of the Crystals on Bartz's world, but narrowly escape the island he inhabits before Exdeath causes it to sink. The warriors immediately join up with one of Galuf's companions, Xezat, who is leading a fleet against Exdeath. They infiltrate one of the towers powering the barrier around Exdeath's castle, but Xezat is forced to sacrifice his life in order to help them accomplish it. Making their way back to Ghido's sunken island, they meet the turtle sage, who explains Exdeath's origin as the mage Enuo, and the significance of the Moore Forest in which Exdeath was born. Upon their arrival at the forest, Exdeath begins to burn it down. They eventually reach the Guardian Tree and dispel the seals within it. However, Exdeath, having claimed the power of the Crystals, immobilizes them. Krile arrives on her wind drake to temporarily stop Exdeath, but the warlock imprisons her in a ring of fire. Galuf summons the strength to break his crystal, saves his granddaughter, and fights Exdeath until he collapses. Exdeath retreats, leaving Galuf to die of his wounds, despite the party's efforts to save him. As the four of them leave the Guardian Tree, Galuf's spirit imparts upon Krile all of his abilities.^[21]

The party enters Exdeath's castle and defeats him, but the three remaining crystals shatter and the worlds are reunited. They learn that he seeks the power of the Void, which had been sealed in the dimensional interval called the Rift and kept sealed by dividing the worlds. Exdeath has acquired this power, and he uses it across the newly combined world, consuming entire towns and kingdoms. After having recombined an ancient book entailing the seals on the Tablets that hold the twelve legendary weapons within Kuza Castle, used against Enuo one millennium ago, Ghido proposes that the party collect them as quickly as possible.

Bartz and others seek out the Tablets and break the seals on the weapons, slaying several monsters from the Rift that Exdeath sends after them. The party eventually enters the Rift, where Exdeath has acquired the power of the Void and shows his true form - that of a tree, one that had been possessed by an evil spirit. With help from the original Four Warriors of Dawn and King Tycoon, the party survives the Void and begins a final battle with Exdeath. As he loses strength, Exdeath is overwhelmed by the Void and becomes Neo Exdeath, intent on destroying everything, even himself.^[22] The party destroys him, and, using the power of the Crystal shards within themselves, vanquish the Void and return form to the shattered Crystals of the original world.

The ending varies based on how many people are still alive at Neo Exdeath's defeat. Cid receives a letter from one member of the party talking about what will happen in the future. If everyone survives, Krile will visit the Guardian Tree to mourn for her grandfather, until Bartz, Lenna, and Faris arrive to comfort her and remind her of her duty to protect the Crystals. If anyone in the group dies during the battle, they will be unable to return home. The survivor or survivors will visit the Guardian Tree, and find that those who were lost in the battle have returned to life.

[edit] Development

Final Fantasy V was directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, his last before passing the role onto Yoshinori Kitase and Hiroyuki Itō and becoming a producer for Final Fantasy VI.^[23][5] The character, image, and title logo designs were created by series illustrator and image designer Yoshitaka Amano. The monsters were designed by Tetsuya Nomura^[24] Amano has stated that he counts his depictions of both Faris from Final Fantasy V and Terra from Final Fantasy VI among his favorite Final Fantasy designs.^[25]

[edit] Musical score

Main article: Final Fantasy V: Original Sound Version

The game's soundtrack is a two disc album that was released alongside the game and composed by Nobuo Uematsu. Uematsu had originally intended the game to include one hundred pieces of music, but reduced the total to sixty-seven tracks.^[26] The song "Clash on the Big Bridge" would later be arranged by Hitoshi Sakimoto into an orchestral version in Final Fantasy XII.^[27] Final Fantasy V: 5+1 was released in 1992 as well, and contained five songs from the original score as well as a previously unreleased Super Famicom version of "Matoya's Cave" from the original 1987 Final Fantasy for the NES.^[28]

In addition, a collection of arranged tracks, Final Fantasy V Dear Friends; a 13-track disc, Piano Collections Final Fantasy V; and a short series of remixes, Final Fantasy V: Mambo de Chocobo, were all released in 1993. Finally, many of the original songs were also included on the North American Final Fantasy Anthology Soundtrack, together with the two-game compilation.

[edit] Early localization attempts

The official English translation of Final Fantasy V took place shortly after the Japanese version's release. According to a 1993 issue of Square's Ogopogo Examiner newsletter, the game was to be released and titled "Final Fantasy III" in North America.^[29] However, its localization never took place, and an English version of Final Fantasy VI transcended it the following year. Translator Ted Woolsey explained in a 1994 interview, "it's just not accessible enough to the average gamer."^[30] Plans were later made to release the game in 1995 as "Final Fantasy Extreme," targeting it at "the more experienced gamers [who] loved the complex character building." For unknown reasons, Final Fantasy Extreme never materialized either.

In 1997, video game studio Top Dog Software was hired by Square to port the original Super Famicom game to Microsoft Windows-based personal computers for North American release.^[31][32] Although a good deal of the game was completed, communication problems between the Top Dog and Square's Japanese and American branches led to the project's demise. That same year, an unofficial English fan translation patch for the Final Fantasy V ROM image was released on the internet by translation group RPGe.^[33][34] It is often cited as the first RPG to be completely translated by fans.^[35]

[edit] Rereleases

[edit] PlayStation

Final Fantasy V was ported by Tose Co., Ltd. to the Sony PlayStation and rereleased in Japan on March 19, 1998 and was included in the Final Fantasy Collection release of 1999, alongside Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI.^[36] The PlayStation version boasted two new full motion video opening and ending sequences and a "memo-save" feature, but was otherwise unchanged.^[37][5] The same year, the PlayStation compilation Final Fantasy Anthology was released in North America, which included Final Fantasy V, as well as the PlayStation version of Final Fantasy VI. This would be the first time the game was published outside of Japan, nearly seven years after its initial release. In 2002, this version of the game was released in Europe and Australia, this time alongside Final Fantasy IV.^[38]

The English version of the game received a few changes from its original format, including a different interpretation of character names, such as the names "Bartz" as opposed to "Butz," the official Romanization in Japan. GP (Gold Piece) replaced gil as the game's currency because, despite the latter being used in the previously released North American and European localizations of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII, it was used to keep in line with the original North American localizations for Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI.^{[citation needed]} Additionally, Faris's dialogue was altered with a pirate-like accent, which was a deviation from Yoshinori Kitase's original script, and Galuf's constant use of profanity was censored by various symbols.^[39][40]

This English translation, although legible and grammatically sound, is often mocked by the fan community due to some bad name translations such as "Reina" in place of "Lenna", "X-Death" in place of "Exdeath", "The N-Zone" instead of "The Interdimensional Rift" and, perhaps infamously, "Y-Burn" instead of "Wyvern".^{[citation needed]} Additionally, some of the translations break heavily with other previously Anglicized Final Fantasy spells and terminology, such as the blue magic "1000 needles" being translated as "Blowfish". Many of these changes have been retconned in the GBA version.

In 2000, Sony published a list of PlayStation games incompatible with their recently released PlayStation 2 console. Final Fantasy Anthology was included due to a graphical error that occurs in Final Fantasy V when attempting to save the game, causing the screen to become "jumbled" and difficult to navigate.^[41] Despite the report by Sony, the game is not completely incompatible and it is still possible to save.^[42]

[edit] Game Boy Advance

Final Fantasy V was ported a second time by Tose Co., Ltd. to the Nintendo Game Boy Advance as Final Fantasy V Advance (ファイナルファンタジーVアドバンス, Fainaru Fantajī Faibu Adobansu^?), which was released on October 12, 2006 in Japan and on November 6, 2006 in North America.^[43] Nintendo of Europe have delayed the release of Final Fantasy V Advance from March 16th, 2007 to April 13th, 2007. No reason for this delay has been given as of yet. Similar to the Game Boy Advance rereleases of its predecessors, this version features updated graphics and an interface optimized for the Game Boy Advance screen. Four new jobs (Gladiator, Cannoneer, Necromancer, and Oracle), a new 30-floor bonus dungeon, and an additional stage called the "Cloister of the Dead," where you must defeat the game's bosses in a lengthy endurance battle, also appears. The character "Enuo" mentioned in the backstory of Final Fantasy V now appears as an optional boss; instead of being designed by character designer Yoshitaka Amano, Enuo's appearance was designed by monster designer Tetsuya Nomura. Also added was a bestiary, a quick save function, music player, and additional equipment in the style of previous GBA re-releases.^[44][45][46] Like the Game Boy Advance remakes of its predecessors, Final Fantasy V Advance also features a new English translation. This new localisation features some unusual references to US pop-culture, such as dialogue referring to PBS's Reading Rainbow, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Simpsons, and even Team Rocket from Pokémon. The game is rated "Everyone" by the ESRB.

[edit] Reception and criticism

The Japanese PlayStation release has sold a total of 157,000 copies to date, while the North American Anthology version has sold 364,000 copies as of 2004.^[47]

As Final Fantasy V was not released outside of Japan until 1999 in Final Fantasy Anthology, many English-language reviews were for the Anthology version, both Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI together. GameSpot issued a score of 8.1/10, stating, "mediocre packaging and emulation quirks aside, it's hard not to like Final Fantasy Anthology."^[6] IGN gave the collection a 9/10 rating, noting Final Fantasy V's dated graphics but "incredibly engrossing" job system.^[48] RPGFan's stand-alone import review observed a somewhat cliché storyline, a lack of character development, and unevolved sound quality from Final Fantasy IV, presenting it an overall 75%.^[49] RPGamer found that the game improved upon the visual presentation, menu system, and overall field navigation of Final Fantasy IV, but that the "maddeningly high encounter rate," "average sound selection," and "washed out" color palette warrant it an average 5/10.^[50] In March 2006, Final Fantasy V ranked #15 on Japanese magazine Famitsu's reader list of top 100 video games of all time.^[51]

GameSpot called the GBA rerelease Final Fantasy V Advance "better than ever," citing its strong localization of the script and extensive special features.^[52] Nintendo Power has said that "while playing Final Fantasy V is a chore on the PlayStation, it's good fun on the GBA because of the vastly improved translation and new features."^[53]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Final Fantasy V website (US Anthology version)
• Nintendo's Official Final Fantasy V Advance website (English)
• Official Final Fantasy V Advance website (Japanese)
• Final Fantasy V at the Internet Movie Database
• Final Fantasy V at MobyGames
• Final Fantasy at Wikia

v • d • e Final Fantasy V

Characters • Locations Bartz • Lenna • Faris • Galuf • Krile Dorgann • Kelger • Xezat • Gilgamesh • Cid • Alexander • Exdeath Legend of the Crystals • Original Sound Version • Anthology • Anthology Soundtrack • Dear Friends

v • d • e Final Fantasy series

Final Fantasy • II • III • IV • V • VI • VII • VIII • IX • X • XI • XII Compilation of VII • X-2 • Adventure • Crystal Chronicles • Mystic Quest • Tactics • Tactics Advance • Others Airships • Class system • Creatures • Crystals • Designers • Items • Limit Break • Magic • Minigames • Music • Races • Weapons and armor