It's time we fight like men. And ladies. And ladies who dress like men.
#3
Final Fantasy V
a.k.a. The one with all the jobs.
541 points • 18 mentions • Highest rank: #2 (Lokii, Peklo, Pudik)
Released on December 6, 1992 (Japan)
Producer: Shinji Hashimoto
Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi
Composer:
Nobuo Uematsu
For the longest time, V was cursed. It was released in 1992, but didn’t make it to the US until 1999 (or 2002, in the case of Europe). When it came out it was skipped from localization in favor of VI, and a later localization project under the name of “Final Fantasy Extreme” was canceled mid-development. When V finally came out using X-Treme's localization, it had names like “Y-burn” amd “X-Death”. We didn’t get a decent localization until the GBA version came out in 2006.
And it’s a shame it took this long because the game is great.
Final Fantasy V is a systems game. There’s a story there about four warriors having to fight an evil tree who wants to return everything to the Void. It’s OK. And yes, I’m being glib about a story that features dragonriders, a non-gender-conforming pirate and a guy who uses meteors to travel around, but the job system is that good!
V is when the job system reached its peak. Instead of a linear progression like III or set jobs like IV, in V each character can switch to jobs at any time once unlocked. But when switching, they can equip an ability from another job - the more leveled the job, the more powerful the equipped ability. This allows you to mix and match jobs and, in a game where every job is viable, that leads to a lot of fun and even some nice almost game-breaking builds.
The game also had a reputation for being hard, or that it was “too different” from other Final Fantasies, mostly because Square gave that as a reason why it wasn’t localized after IV. But in fact the game isn’t hard, but it does give you lots of rope to hang you with as it lets you do whatever you want with your build - but worst case you just need to grind some AP to get past the next boss, and it shouldn’t even be necessary unless you’re crazy enough to, dunno, make a party with four berserkers. And it isn’t that different when you look at the series as a whole - it all was leading to here.
So, yes, this is the game that gave us Gilgamesh and Boco the Chocobo and Clash of the Big Bridge and so many other things, but this job system rules so hard it eclipses everything else.
Something Old
V takes the job system and makes it even better. Most jobs come from III, but there are a couple of new ones. Curiously, the emblematic Onion Knight is left out, with a new job, Freelancer, taking its place as the character’s first (and if you play your cards right, final) job.
By the way, while moogles weren’t introduced in V, this is the game that would make them popular. Most games after V would feature moogles in one capacity or another.
Something New
You mean besides the Job System, something so influential it still is echoing down the series?
Well, how about superbosses? V gave us our first taste of them, and we liked them so much that superbosses have been retroactively added to most re-releases of earlier games. In V’s case they were two brutally hard optional enemies who could still be defecated by playing intelligently (or giving dual wielding to a dragoon and jumping like mad, but hey). Shinryu and Omega (hey, there’s that name again!) would become so popular they would get guest appearances in future titles.
Something Blew
Just as with IV, V is so influential it’s hard for me to think of something that didn’t get reused sooner or later. Even jobs that never appear again in the series (like Beastmaster) either appear in spin-offs or are inspiration for other jobs. And while the job system as such would never be used again as is, it’s hard to deny its impact on the series (and in spin-offs - Tactics took a lot from here and dialed it up).
Heck, even the foes introduced here have been used again and again. Gilgamesh and Omega practically live from this, appearing in other Final Fantasies.
Score
22 / 22 jobs