I've got a Job for you! - Let's Play Final Fantasy V!

It's time yet again for a Let's Play, and this time we have what would have been a Super Nintendo classic from the early 90s... if Squaresoft hadn't screwed the pooch and skipped releasing it outside of Japan. But it did gain some notoriety over the years after it got ROMhacked and translated (by several different groups, some of which knew what a Circlet was and others of which decided it was a Socklet), and became a bit of a forbidden fruit. It was the missing link between Final Fantasy II (US) and Final Fantasy III (US), and there was an air of mystery about it that made it alluring.



♪♪ Prelude ♪♪

Of course now it has an official translation on GameBoy Advance (and one we don't talk about on PlayStation), so it's not nearly as rebellious or underground as it was back in the day. And yes, the GBA one is the version I'll be working with. But it is still a very fun RPG, and one we're going to play together. How do I mean that? Well, if you haven't played FF5, I'll fill you in.

Like the first and third Final Fantasy (the real third one, not FF3US, which is FF6 AAAAAH numbering anyeurism!), FF5 sports a class system. Like FF3, it sports the ability to change your class at any time. Unlike FF3, it doesn't penalize you for doing so and even encourages it by letting you use abilities from other classes in your currently chosen class. This means we're in for a whirlwind of fun as you get to tell me what classes (or as the game calls them, Jobs) you want me to work with for each update!

I'll give a run-down of each Job when they become available, but for the introduction and first part we won't have access to them. Let's get this party started.

Table of Contents
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
PART GUTS
Part V
Part VI
Part VII
Part VIII
Part IX
Part X
Part XI
Part XII
Part XIII
Part XIV
Part XV
Part XVI
Part XVII
Part XVIII
Part XIX
Part XX
Part XXI
Part XXII
Part XXIII
Part XXIV
Part XXV
Appendix A

LP Complete



♪♪ Opening Theme ~ Premonition ♪♪

We begin at this mysterious castle. And apparently it goes from night to day pretty fast in this world.



And here we have the king of Tycoon and his delightful HiryuuWyvern.



And here's his daughter, Lenna. She wants to know if daddy really has to leave.



From what, errant gusts of wind?



Look ma I'm foreshadowing!



I have to admit, this did look pretty cool back in 1993.



And here we have a ship with Faris, who is a pirate. Our vaguely androgynous character notices the foreshadowing of 30 seconds ago has come to pass. That was fast.



Next up on our list of random people to check in on is some old man creatively named Old Man. He seems worried.



The build-up to this bit of dialogue is really powerful. The background scrolls at a different rate from the foreground as the camera pans up from the bottom of the tower to the top and the music hits an eerie crescendo.



Sure enough, something is amiss. And the crystal goes boom; that can't be good.



And here we have our last subject of interest, who has nothing to say.

Oh dear, incoming meteor!



Time to get the hell out of Dodge. Our unnamed hero is at least conscientous and puts out his campfire.



♪♪ Four Valiant Hearts ♪♪

Wow, world map already. But there's only one place we can go.



Here, to be exact. Yep, it's the meteor. And it looks surprisingly geometric.



Oh exuse me, meteorite. Technicalities...



Hey, our protagonist even cares about the welfare of his steed. What a nice guy.



♪♪ Hurry! Hurry! ♪♪

Further along the path, we see trouble!



♪♪ Battle 1 ♪♪

And we have our first battle!



Well, sort of. At this point, all you have to do in battle his hold down A until everything dies. Rest assured, the combat gets more interesting soon.

♪♪ Victory Fanfare ♪♪



♪♪ Lenna's Theme ♪♪

Well, that was easy enough. And look, it's Lenna!



That sounds like a prompt for a naming screen introduction!



Oh, it was. So...



What shall we name our protagonist? Put in your vote now, and I'll tally them as of 8:00PM PST April 7th for the next update on April 8th!

Next Time: Earthquakes, Pirates, and a Wind Shine, oh my!

ALSO: buy 99 金の針, go to town in Bal Castle Basement. Rinse, Repeat.

[EDIT: Changing my vote to Pantz.]

Also, a note for the curious: the Katakana for Bartz' name is actually バッツ, or 'Battsu'. I guess 'Batts' doesn't really sound like a name (although it is the verb some NPCs much later on would like to put into action...), though. Fan translations went for Butz, which inevitably leads to my original vote (which was 'Butts').

I love the roll-up shades the King of Tycoon sports so proudly.

As for Bartz/Butz, we can settle on a compromise and call him Prettz. And give him the voice of Tenchi from Tenchi Muyo's English dub.

Pantz

L5Death is equally effective!

Bigger screenshots plz.

Name: Bartz.

Done. Hit Refresh if they're not bigger for you.

Oh man, the 'Hurry Hurry' BGM. Such a simplistic and short song, and yet whenever I think back to the music of FFV this track always stands out right behind Gilgamesh. Not any of the overworld themes, or the emotional scenes, effing Hurry Hurry.

Doo-Doo-DOO-DOO
Doo-Doo-DOO-DOO
Doo-Doo-DOO-DOO
Doo-Doo-DOO-DOO
Doo-Doo-DOO-DOO
Doo-Doo-DOO-DOO
Doo-Doo-DOO-DOO
Doo-Doo-DOO-DOO
Doo-Doo-DOO-DOO
Doo-Doo-DOO-DOO
Doo-Doo-DOO-DOO
Doo-Doo-DOO-DOO
Doo-Doo-DOO-DOO
Doo-Doo-DOO-DOO
Doo-Doo-DOO-DOO
Doo-Doo-DOO-DOO
Doo-Doo-DOO-DOO-Doo-Doo-Doo-Doo
DOO-DOO-Doo-Doo-Doo-Doo-Doo
Doo-Doo-DOO-DOO-Doo-Doo-Doo-Doo
DOO-DOO-Doo-Doo-Doo-Doo-Doo

Oh wait, what? Oh right, names.

Clearly this is the best possible use for Pantz, to cover up unsightly Butz.

Tiger, I just wish TgrBld would fit

I just remembered Bartz' FlamencoDancer costume, and I regret that my go-to Spanish name, "Gonzalo," is one letter too long.

So let's go with "Pancho" instead.

It is, but IIRC it's kind of hard to get before your first trip through.

I love this game, but man, I do not care for those character portraits.

This.


I have a save near the end of the game that I never finished, so maybe this LP will encourage me to finally beat the game. I never really had a good plan for jobs, I just kind of muscled my way through everything up to this point.

Bartz. I would encourage goofy names in the FF5 boss thread.

- Eddie

Muah? Just show up at the Library more or less on schedule. You're almost always at Level 14 / 15 if you haven't been too grind-happy.

Then begin the great Statue / Object d'Art slaughter. Many statues died for this Rapid Fire [/Mon Mothma]

(This is the FF game I'm by FAR the most wonky about. Well, this and FF1)

Pantz is the only possible name.

The GBA translation really is the best one.

I think I've never beat this game on GBA. I have beat it though so either I did on the PSX (a feat I find hard to believe) or I did it using other means...

I'm thinking other means. I'm thinking other means is the way to go cause I'm pretty sure it didn't have those awful portraits.

This is my absolute favorite Final Fantasy for no reason other than the Job System. 'Nuff said.

I say keep his name as Bartz because I'm a purist about things like this. And if you don't have a Samurai at the endgame tossing Gil at Neo Exdeath, I daresay you'd be doing it wrong.

Probably best to leave Bartz with his given name here... I daresay the boss section of this LP will have more than it's share of silly names.

I'm baffled by the suggestion that "Bartz" is in someway NOT just as silly or sillier than some of the other names presented as option.

How about we stick with something a little closer to the Japanese. Battsu, eh? How about. . .

Baht . . . he's money. He's so money.

Or just the classic.

Batman

Pantz

Bartz.

Pancho sounds good, yeah.

Would that make Lenna, Krile, and Faris the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantz?

You spoilered Faris but not Krile?

Also: WHAT THE HELL TYPE OF NAME IS KRILE. This has bugged me for at least ten years now.

Beep boop Japan is bad at making up Western fantasy names

Boop Beep Western fantasy names are uniformly terrible anyway

They should have stuck with Kururu.