FINAL FANTASY V Ending

Ending #86
Final Fantasy V
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Steam
2015
The 16-bit step child, the "Lost Boy" of gaming, the, um, leper at Square...well whatever I want to call it, this game received no less than five attempts to localize it through the 90s. Square's excuses for halting the American development was the old "it's too complicated for you redneck, fast food stuffing, xenophobic, superficial, warmongering, ignorant, loud Americans." I am paraphrasing. Seeing as Square at the time thought Mystic Quest was already a handful for our simian minds, they canned the project. This would become the first Final Fantasy to get a complete fan translation before an official North American release.
Square eventually would release this game for the Playstation, strip out all the beautiful Amano art from packaging and call it a day.
The Steam version you see here is actually a port from the iOS version which is a port from the GBA version. I mean, why waste good code, right?
If I sound particularly cynical, it's because I feel this game got a bad rap in the states. Granted, it's my least favorite for the SNES, which puts it at third, but is still on my top five Final Fantasy games overall. I love the job system, and the strategies you need to pull off boss battles. At least until you get spell blade / rapid strike then strategy just goes out the window in favor of brute ass stomping.
Graphically, this version is odd. Not bad, just...odd. I notice a lot of people complain of background clipping and tile lines showing (psst...your lines are showing V) and it's evident, even in the ending you can see it clearly, but I got used to it after a few hours of gameplay.
Another thing that gets people's piss boiling is the use of the Yoshitaka Amano art. Look, I have never been a fan of the weird CG-faux-chibi art Square barfed up for the Playstation version. I may be the outlier, but I enjoyed the use of Amano's art as character portraits. It was comical at first to see Bartz look like a white haired prick when he's obviously an angry brunet, but the character portraits grew on me as the game progressed and now, Galuf's is the greatest representation of a cantankerous old man and using anything else is tantamount to blasphemy. Seeing everyone the way Amano had envisioned it made for a wonderful experience and I looked forward to seeing new characters along the way, just to see what they would end up looking like.
Another thing that makes people go Leopold Slikk at the game is the barrel chested orangutan armed sprites in the game. I don't have much to complain about it, I came to terms with this in Final Fantasy VI for Steam. All these things individually are not bad, As a whole, I can kind of see how people rage on the game, but the overall enjoyment outweighs the negatives.
Another thing that turns good people into screwdriver-wielding madmen may be the music. Regardless, any faux pas of the graphics is more than forgiven by the music. Final Fantasy V has some the of the most memorable tunes in the series, and I will always crank the volume when squaring off with Gilgamesh. Again, some will complain that the music was never remastered and they are nothing more than nice midis, but I never expected a digitally remastered symphonic composition here and shame on you if you did. I mean geez, are you new here, have you seen how Square has treated this game in the past?
Anyways, overall I had an enjoyable experience playing this game and at $10 on sale, I'd say I got my money's worth at 86 hours. This title isn't for everyone, it's changed just enough to anger purists and revisionists alike. If you're not jaded and can look past a few faults, this title is worth the time, especially if you're new to FFV or have a fondness of the GBA version.

[@mosesbrown4126]

Upvoted for rant in the "show more".

[@TheMajesticice01]

Definitely a great battle! Wished the music was better. Final Fantasy 6 Dancing Mad is by far the best ever!

[@masazoro8774]

イモムシエクスデスとネオエクスデス戦

[@masazoro8774]

この戦いはバハムートの独壇場