Final Fantasy V
Fifth main Final Fantasy title with a deep Job System.
Final Fantasy V, a role-playing game from Square, hit the Super Famicom in 1992 as the fifth numbered entry in the Final Fantasy series. The story kicks off when a drifter named Bartz checks out a fallen meteor and runs into a group of people who clue him in on a threat to the four elemental Crystals that govern the world. Those Crystals are keeping the evil sorcerer Exdeath locked away, so Bartz and his crew have to stop anyone from messing with the Crystals and bringing Exdeath back. The game has been re-released a few times with small tweaks: on Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. A 1994 animated sequel, *Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals*, follows the game's events. In Japan, it hit the PlayStation Network on April 6, 2011. An upgraded port with sharper graphics and touch controls came out for iPhone and iPad on March 28, 2013, for Android on September 25 that year, and for Windows on September 24, 2015. A further enhanced version, part of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series, launched on November 10, 2021, for Android, iOS, and Windows; it later arrived on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 on April 19, 2023, and on Xbox Series X/S on September 26, 2024. Critics have praised *Final Fantasy V* for letting players heavily customize their characters, thanks to a much-expanded Job System. Even though the Super Famicom original only came out in Japan, it sold over two million copies. The PlayStation port earned "Greatest Hits" status by moving more than 350,000 units. Gameplay *Final Fantasy V* keeps many standard role-playing features while building on ideas from earlier games in the series. Players see the world from a top-down view, traveling across an overworld that links towns, dungeons, and other spots. You can get around on foot, by Chocobo, by hydra-guided ship, by wind drake, or by airship, depending on where you are. Towns usually have inns for resting, shops for gear, and people who share info. Side quests pop up as the story moves along. Characters get stronger by earning experience points from random monster fights on the overworld or in dungeons, which leads to level-ups that boost stats like hit points and magic power. A menu system lets you equip items, heal, change jobs, and save your game outside of battle.
Quick Facts
- Title
- Final Fantasy V
- Developer
- Square
- Director
- Hironobu Sakaguchi
- Designer
- Hiroyuki Ito
- Programmer
- Ken Narita
- Artist
- Yoshitaka Amano (promotional artworks) / Kazuko Shibuya (character designs, pixel art)
- Writer
- Hironobu Sakaguchi / Yoshinori Kitase
- Composer
- Nobuo Uematsu
- Series
- Final Fantasy
- Genre
- Role-playing
- Modes
- Single-player, multiplayer
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The backstory of Final Fantasy V is revealed in phases through cutscenes and interactions with non-playable characters. One millennium before the main story, a powerful mage named Enuo imperiled the world using the power of an evil entity called the 'Void'. The people retaliated by using twelve legendary weapons to vanquish Enuo, but the Void itself could not be destroyed. Consequently, the people split the world's four elemental Crystals into two sets, effectively creating two worlds, and the Void became sealed in a dimensional cleft between them. Nearly a thousand years passed without incident, but a sinister force stirred in the second world—malicious demons sealed inside a tree in the Great Forest of Moore emerged as Exdeath, the game's primary antagonist. When Exdeath attempted to claim the world, a group of heroes called the 'Four Warriors of Dawn' (Galuf, Xezat, Dorgann, and Kelger) sealed him within the first world using its Crystals, and peace returned for another thirty years.
The game features five player characters: Bartz Klauser, an adventurer who travels with his Chocobo companion Boko; Lenna Charlotte Tycoon, a princess of Tycoon; Galuf Halm Baldesion, an amnesiac old man; Faris Scherwiz, a pirate captain who initially disguises herself as a man; and Krile Mayer Baldesion, Galuf's granddaughter. During the story, the player characters encounter many non-player characters, including the other Warriors of Dawn, engineer Cid Previa, his grandson Mid Previa, turtle sage Ghido, and one of Exdeath's henchmen, Gilgamesh, a recurring mini-boss.
Reader's Guide
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. This system is an improved version of the one in Final Fantasy III; several older jobs were reused or revamped, and the game introduced several classes to the series, including the Blue Mage, Time Mage, and Mime. Characters earn Ability Points in conjunction with regular experience points to gain job levels, learning job-specific abilities that may be transferred to a new job, allowing for deeper customization. The game is also the second Final Fantasy title to use the Active Time Battle (ATB) system, but it introduced a visible time gauge—or 'ATB Bar'—that shows which character's turn is next, a mechanic used in the four following main titles and remaining a staple of the franchise. Despite being released only in Japan at the time, the Super Famicom version sold more than two million copies. The PlayStation version earned 'Greatest Hits' status, selling more than 350,000 copies. The game has been ported to Sony's PlayStation, Nintendo's Game Boy Advance, and various modern platforms, including an enhanced port for iPhone, iPad, Android, and Windows, and a more enhanced re-release as part of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series.
Did You Know?
- 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 features 22 jobs in the original version, expanded to 26 in the Game Boy Advance version.
- Gilgamesh, a recurring mini-boss in the second half of the game, has appeared in several Final Fantasy titles since.
- The enhanced Pixel Remaster version was released for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 on April 19, 2023.
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