|
Final Fantasy V
|
|
|---|---|
Super Famicom cover with the character Bartz and his Chocobo Boko |
|
| Developer(s) | Square TOSE (PlayStation, GBA) |
| Publisher(s) | Super Famicom JP Square PlayStation JP Square NA Square Electronic Arts PAL SCE Europe Game Boy Advance JP Square Enix NA Nintendo of America EU Nintendo of Europe |
| Designer(s) | Hironobu Sakaguchi Hiroyuki Itou |
| Writer(s) | Yoshinori Kitase |
| Artist(s) | Yoshitaka Amano Tetsuya Nomura |
| Composer(s) | Nobuo Uematsu |
| Series | Final Fantasy series |
| Platform(s) | Super Famicom, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance |
| Release date(s) | Super Famicom JP December 6, 1992 PlayStation JP March 19, 1998[1] NA September 30, 1999 PAL May 17, 2002 Game Boy Advance JP October 12, 2006 NA November 6, 2006 EU 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: A (All Ages) ESRB: E (Everyone) PEGI: 12+ |
| 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 (now Square Enix) in 1992 as a part of the Final Fantasy series. The game first appeared only in Japan on Nintendo's Super Famicom (known internationally as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System). It has been ported with minor differences to Sony's PlayStation and the Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. An original video animation produced in 1994 called Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals serves as a sequel to the events depicted in the game.
The game begins as a wanderer named Bartz investigates a fallen meteor. There, he encounters several characters, one of whom reveals the danger facing the four Crystals that control the world's elements. These Crystals act as a seal on Exdeath, an evil sorcerer who once threatened their world. Bartz and his party must keep the Crystals from being exploited by Exdeath's influence and prevent his resurgence.
Final Fantasy V has been praised for the freedom of customization that the player has over the characters, achieved through the greatly expanded Job System. Despite the lack of an early release in territories other than Japan, the Super Famicom version sold more than two million copies.[2] The PlayStation version has earned "Greatest Hits" status, selling more than 350,000 copies.[3]
Contents |
Final Fantasy V includes many standard role-playing elements, as well as renovated features introduced in earlier Final Fantasy games. Characters grow in strength by gaining experience points from random encounters with monsters on the overworld or in a dungeon. Experience culminates in a "level up" in which party members' attributes, such as hit points or magic power, increase. A menu-based management system allows the player to equip, heal, and change each character's selected job outside of battle, as well as to save the game's progress. The player can traverse the overworld by foot, Chocobo, wind drake, or airship depending on the situation. Most towns scattered across the world contain inns for resting, shops for purchasing equipment, and people from whom the player can gain information. The player may also embark on several side quests that become available as the story progresses.[4]
The main feature of the gameplay of Final Fantasy V is the Job System designed by Hiroyuki Itō. Players can choose jobs for their character to learn. This system allows each character to gain special abilities and potentially master up to 22 unique jobs (26 in the Game Boy Advance version). Each character begins with a default "Freelancer" class, and as the player acquires crystal shards, new jobs become available.[5]
A separate form of experience—Ability Points (ABP)—is used to improve characters' job levels, while they continue to earn regular experience points.[5] As job levels increase, new skills become available for that character to use in a new form of customization: characters learn job-specific abilities that may be carried over to a new job. For example, a character with the job of Knight who has also earned job levels as a Black Mage may set Black Magic as a secondary command; this would allow the use of both Black Mage and Knight abilities in battle. The nature of these abilities varies; while some may allow for selectable commands in battle, others may be innate to the class or automatically activated when conditions are met, such as the Thief's "Caution" skill, which prevents rear attacks from enemies. This system allows for deeper customization of characters.[6] While many of the jobs have appeared previously in the series, Final Fantasy V introduces a number of new classes including the Blue Mage, Time Mage, and Mime, adding new elements to combat.
Final Fantasy V is the second Final Fantasy game to use the Active Time Battle (ATB) system, in which time flows continuously for both the player and enemies during combat.[5] This system was first established in Final Fantasy IV by battle planners Hiroyuki Itō and Akihiko Matsui.[7] In that game, however, there was no way to visibly anticipate which character's turn would come 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—or "ATB Bar"—which fills according to a character's speed. When the selected character's turn arrives, the player can execute one of several commands, such as attacking the enemy with an equipped weapon, using a special ability or item, or changing the character's row position. The ATB mechanic with a gauge, as seen in Final Fantasy V, has been used in nearly every following title in the series, as well as in the Nintendo DS remake of the afore-mentioned Final Fantasy IV and other Square games such as Chrono Trigger.
The backstory of Final Fantasy V is revealed during the course of the game. One millennium before the events of the main story, a powerful mage named Enuo imperiled the world using the power of an evil entity known as the "Void". The people of the world 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.[9]
Nearly 1,000 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. The evil mage Enuo had been sealed inside a tree in the Great Forest of Moore, and the tree soon transformed into an evil spirit. 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"(Named Galuf, Xezat, Dorgann, and Kelger) defeated and sealed him within the parallel world using its Crystals, and peace returned for another 30 years.[10]
Final Fantasy V features five player characters, only four of which are playable at a given time. Bartz Klauser is a traveling adventurer who becomes involved in the game's events when he investigates the site of a meteorite strike. Lenna Charlotte Tycoon is a princess of Tycoon who follows her father to investigate the Wind Shrine, she is knocked unconscious and saved from a group of goblins by Bartz. Galuf Doe is a mysterious old man discovered unconscious near the meteorite who suffers from amnesia. Faris Scherwiz is 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. Krile Mayer Baldesion is 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 30 years prior, 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, who would later appear in other games such as Final Fantasy VIII.[11]
Butz is ranked third on Game Informer’s list of "the top 10 worst character names."[12]
Final Fantasy V begins on a day when the world's wind currents begin to slow down. Concerned, the King of Tycoon flies off on 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, Bartz decides to investigate the meteor's crash site, 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 who is unable to remember anything except his own 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. He explains to them that they are charged as the chosen warriors, who must protect the Crystals to prevent an ancient evil from being revived and devastating their world.[13]
They find that the four elemental crystals on the planet are actually the seal binding the warlock Exdeath, who was once bent on destroying their world. Unfortunately, each crystal is being exploited for its powers, and this, accompanied with their pending destruction, is causing them stress that will eventually make the world itself uninhabitable.[14] 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 quickly departs with his granddaughter. With the help of the engineers Cid and Mid, whom they met at Karnak and the Library of Ancients, Bartz and the others resolve to travel to Galuf's world, Exdeath's true target. The warlock is already wreaking havoc when they arrive, battling armies of men on the Big Bridge. 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, where Galuf is king.[15]
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 himself in the process. Making their way back to Ghido's sunken island, they regroup with the turtle sage, who explains Exdeath's origin as the mage Enuo, and the significance of the Moore Forest in which Exdeath was born. Bartz and his party resolve to reach the Guardian Tree to dispel the seals within it. However, Exdeath, having claimed the power of the Crystals, immobilizes them. Krile arrives on her wind drake to stop Exdeath temporarily, but the warlock imprisons her in a ring of fire. Galuf summons the strength to break free, 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.[16]
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 by dividing the worlds. Exdeath has acquired this power, and he uses it across the newly combined world, consuming entire towns and kingdoms. After collecting an ancient book entailing the seals on the Tablets, which hold the twelve legendary weapons within Kuza Castle that were 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 evil spirits. 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 absorbed by the Void and becomes Neo Exdeath, intent on negating all creation in his wake.[17] The party destroys him, and, using the power of the Crystal shards, vanquishes the Void to return form to the shattered Crystals of the original world. The game's 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 the final battle, 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. Instead, the survivor or survivors will visit the Guardian Tree, and find that those who were lost in the battle have returned to life.
Final Fantasy V was directed by Final Fantasy series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi who, previous to the release of Final Fantasy IX, called it his favorite Final Fantasy game.[18] The character, image, and title logo designs were created by series illustrator and image designer Yoshitaka Amano, while the monsters were designed by Tetsuya Nomura. 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.[19]
The official English translation of Final Fantasy V began shortly after the Japanese version's release. The game was to be released and titled "Final Fantasy III" in North America, but the project fell through.[20] Translator Ted Woolsey explained in a 1994 interview, "it's just not accessible enough to the average gamer".[21] Rumors later circulated that a second attempt at localization would be made, and the game would be titled Final Fantasy Extreme, but this attempt also was canceled.[20] A third attempt was made to port the game to Microsoft Windows-based personal computers for North American release by developer Top Dog Software, but this too was cancelled.[20] The continual canceling of the localization angered fans and led to Final Fantasy V becoming one of the first games to receive a complete fan translation.[20]
The game's soundtrack was composed by Nobuo Uematsu and consists of 56 tracks.[22] A two-disc album was released alongside the game totaling 67 tracks. Uematsu had originally calculated that the game would require more than 100 pieces of music, but he managed to reduce the number to 56.[23] The song "Dear Friends" would become the title piece in the 2004 concert tour Dear Friends -Music from Final Fantasy-, chosen to reflect Uematsu's appreciation for his music's worldwide fan support.[24] The song "Clash on the Big Bridge" would later be arranged by Hitoshi Sakimoto for the Final Fantasy XII Original Soundtrack in 2006.[25]
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 Nintendo Entertainment System. 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.[26]
Final Fantasy V was ported by TOSE to the Sony PlayStation and re-released 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.[1][27] The PlayStation version boasted two new full motion video opening and ending sequences and a "memo-save" feature, but was otherwise unchanged.[28][5] Fifty-thousand limited edition copies of the collection were also released and included a Final Fantasy-themed alarm clock.[27]
In 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 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.[29] The English version of the game received changes from its original format, including a different interpretation of character names, such as the names "Bartz" as opposed to "Butz" and "Gill" as opposed to "Guido", the official romanizations in Japan.[30] Additionally, Faris's dialogue was altered with a pirate-like accent, which was a deviation from Yoshinori Kitase's original script.[31]
Following the release of the PlayStation 2, Sony reported that the new system had compatibility issues with the Final Fantasy V half of Final Fantasy Anthology.[32] The game experienced a bug where if players attempted to save their games, a graphical error would occur.[32] Squaresoft then released a statement that only the look of the save screen was corrupted, and saving was still possible, and if players wished, repeatedly going into and out of the save screen would make a normal screen eventually appear.[32]
Final Fantasy V was ported a second time by TOSE 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, November 6, 2006 in North America, and April 20, 2007 in Europe.[33] Similar to the Game Boy Advance re-releases of its predecessors, this version features updated graphics, though they are very subtle changes.[34] Additional features include four new jobs (Gladiator, Cannoneer, Necromancer, and Oracle), a new dungeon called "The Sealed Temple", and a new superboss from the back story of Final Fantasy V called Enuo, which was designed by Tetsuya Nomura instead of the games original character designer Yoshitaka Amano.[34][35] Also added was a bestiary, a quick save function, music player, and additional equipment in the style of previous GBA re-releases.[36] Like the Game Boy Advance remakes of its predecessors, Final Fantasy V Advance also features a new English translation.[34] This new translation features some unusual references to US pop-culture, such as dialogue referring to PBS's Reading Rainbow.[37]
| Reception | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
Final Fantasy V has sold 2.45 million units worldwide on the Super Famicom, while the Japanese GBA version has sold nearly 260,000 copies as of December 2007.[2][42] Final Fantasy Collection sold over 400,000 copies in 1999, making it the 31st best selling release of that year in Japan.[43] The North American Final Fantasy Anthology has sold 364,000 copies as of 2004.[3]
As Final Fantasy V was not released outside Japan until 1999 in Final Fantasy Anthology, many English-language reviews were for the Anthology version, which packaged 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.[44] 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%.[45] RPGamer found that the game improved on 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.[46] In March 2006, Final Fantasy V was ranked as number 15 on Japanese magazine Famitsu's reader list of top 100 video games of all time.[47]
GameSpot called the GBA re-release Final Fantasy V Advance "better than ever", citing its strong localization of the script and extensive special features.[39] 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".[48]
A sequel to Final Fantasy V was created in the form of the original video animation Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals. The anime was created by Madhouse Studios with permission from Square, and was released in 1994 in Japan and 1998 in North America. The events in Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals take place two centuries after the end of the game, with another villain trying to steal the crystals and being fought by four warriors, including Linaly Klauser, a descendant of Bartz.
|
||||||||
|
||||||||