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Caves of Narshe Forums > Final Fantasy V > why does ff5 get such unwarranted hate?


Posted by: Magitek_slayer 22nd August 2011 13:04
I know the story isn't all that special,but when i played this game around 1998 ish? on psx from the anthology version,the sound was pretty good,i think better than the snes version in terms of sound quality.

Bartz was likeable and so was galuf and even faris.

Plus:There was that really good gameplay with introduction of the job system.

I actually really really like the job system in this game with having so much variety of ways to play.

I could be a magic using knight or a ninja thief or a ninja monk,and the amount of combinations go on and on.

Plus,there are some pretty sweet tunes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIykpxXjGbg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aet2svFh-w&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhKlEFPz_lQ

I like home sweet home quite a bit and deep blue sea and the airship theme and even the flying dragon theme.

Its not my favorite game,but i still like ff5 and think sometimes people are too harsh.

There was also something about that airship theme that stayed with me,what is it about the theme? i actually had the theme in my head and was whistling the theme all day.



Posted by: Dr. Delinquent 22nd August 2011 18:22
My guess is a lot of people were upset because they decided to focus more on gameplay than story, which could understandably upset people, but like you pointed out, the job system was amazing. In fact, it's one of the most beloved things in the franchise to most people. (at least in my experience)

Posted by: Kane 22nd August 2011 19:00
I didn't realize there is FF5-hate. From those people I've discussed it with, I have generally seen a positive reaction to it.

Posted by: Magitek_slayer 22nd August 2011 19:38
Quote (Kane @ 22nd August 2011 19:00)
I didn't realize there is FF5-hate. From those people I've discussed it with, I have generally seen a positive reaction to it.

I tend to see people who either ignore it or say:forget it its not ff7 and or ff6 or ff9.

I have seen in some areas where people will mention ff5 when they mention ff tactics,but not much else.

It does have some people who really like it and i happen to really really like the job system.

One of these days i might finish ff tactics as well.

Posted by: laszlow 25th August 2011 03:31
Quote (Magitek_slayer @ 22nd August 2011 14:38)
Quote (Kane @ 22nd August 2011 19:00)
I didn't realize there is  FF5-hate. From those people I've discussed it with, I have generally seen a positive reaction to it.

I tend to see people who either ignore it or say:forget it its not ff7 and or ff6 or ff9.

I have seen in some areas where people will mention ff5 when they mention ff tactics,but not much else.

It does have some people who really like it and i happen to really really like the job system.

One of these days i might finish ff tactics as well.

Look, I think that this is simply another case of your false perception of no-one seeing eye to eye with you on... things. I don't think FF V receives much unwarranted hate, if any. Really, I've thought of FF V fans being the "oh, I was into this before the that stupid pirate accent version" sorta-elitist indie nerds if anything, and crying foul if someone says that FF IV or FF VI is better. FF V is overshadowed by FF IV and FF VI, which have gotten more releases / exposure and are more popular games in general, but it's not bad and doesn't have as many haters as you seem to think it does.

Posted by: Magitek_slayer 25th August 2011 09:53
Quote (laszlow @ 25th August 2011 03:31)
Quote (Magitek_slayer @ 22nd August 2011 14:38)
Quote (Kane @ 22nd August 2011 19:00)
I didn't realize there is  FF5-hate. From those people I've discussed it with, I have generally seen a positive reaction to it.

I tend to see people who either ignore it or say:forget it its not ff7 and or ff6 or ff9.

I have seen in some areas where people will mention ff5 when they mention ff tactics,but not much else.

It does have some people who really like it and i happen to really really like the job system.

One of these days i might finish ff tactics as well.

Look, I think that this is simply another case of your false perception of no-one seeing eye to eye with you on... things. I don't think FF V receives much unwarranted hate, if any. Really, I've thought of FF V fans being the "oh, I was into this before the that stupid pirate accent version" sorta-elitist indie nerds if anything, and crying foul if someone says that FF IV or FF VI is better. FF V is overshadowed by FF IV and FF VI, which have gotten more releases / exposure and are more popular games in general, but it's not bad and doesn't have as many haters as you seem to think it does.

Perhaps hate is the wrong word,but when i played ff5,i really don't get what people dislike about its gameplay.

I thought ff tactics was supposed to have similar gameplay?

Hmm its a bit different though because it seems like ff9 took from ff tactics that whole idea of using items to learn skills.

Still.. I do think it does get overshadowed often and people look past it because its story isn't as compelling and its characters are slightly less developed.

Its still a really good game.

Posted by: ZidaneTribal 25th August 2011 13:58

I don't hate it. But those who dislike it, they usually mention that they felt like the characters didn't have much of a personality and they felt like stereotypes ( Hero, Princess, guy with memory loss, villian who wants to destroy the world just because )
And yeah they're right, compared to FF4 the characters in FF5 are a huge step backwards. I think after playing FF4 and seeing the massive improvement in character development, people got disappointed.

Posted by: Magitek_slayer 25th August 2011 16:49
Quote (ZidaneTribal @ 25th August 2011 13:58)
I don't hate it. But those who dislike it, they usually mention that they felt like the characters didn't have much of a personality and they felt like stereotypes (  Hero, Princess, guy with memory loss, villian who wants to destroy the world just because )
And yeah they're right, compared to FF4 the characters in FF5 are a huge step backwards. I think after playing FF4 and seeing the massive improvement in character development, people got disappointed.

I hope if ff5 does get a remake,that its really good and ported to the new nintendo console so it would be in 3d.

I also hope that they keep the atb.

Anyways:

Who would you guys have as bartz galuf faris xdeath in voice acting?

Moderator Edit
If you want to ask that, make a new topic. If anyone responds to that, I'm closing this topic. CRASHING YOUR PARTY BRO. -R51

Posted by: Death Penalty 26th August 2011 00:38
I would say that I'm probably the closest thing to an "FFV hater" that exists on this forum. Except for the fact that it isn't hate at all, it's just that I don't like the game.

Why don't I like the game? Well, it has the least impressive video game story that I've ever played in my life, first of all. Secondly, it has the least developed characters out of any video game that I've ever played. The soundtrack has a couple decent songs, yeah, but it isn't as solid as the soundtracks for, say, 6 through 13. The battle system is fine, but I care much more about the three afore-named categories. Besides, I didn't find its battle system all that amazing in the first place; I'd just as soon face the strategic boss battles of FFX or the fast-paced action of FFXIII.

Posted by: Magitek_slayer 26th August 2011 06:59
Quote (Death Penalty @ 26th August 2011 00:38)
I would say that I'm probably the closest thing to an "FFV hater" that exists on this forum. Except for the fact that it isn't hate at all, it's just that I don't like the game.

Why don't I like the game? Well, it has the least impressive video game story that I've ever played in my life, first of all. Secondly, it has the least developed characters out of any video game that I've ever played. The soundtrack has a couple decent songs, yeah, but it isn't as solid as the soundtracks for, say, 6 through 13. The battle system is fine, but I care much more about the three afore-named categories. Besides, I didn't find its battle system all that amazing in the first place; I'd just as soon face the strategic boss battles of FFX or the fast-paced action of FFXIII.

Most of that is true,except that the worse story is ff1 and ff3 on the nes,The characters have no backstory at all.

Posted by: Tchy 19th September 2011 04:01
Well i don't hate ff5 at all instead i like it the only bad detail was the story but everything else is fine

Posted by: Cactuar1 19th September 2011 08:00
FF5 was one of the greater one's in the series. The whole game is so much fun to play. I can't imagine why anyone would or could hate it.

Posted by: Glenn Magus Harvey 19th September 2011 17:10
I'm a big FFV fan and I think it just got eclipsed by FFIV and FFVI. I, however, prefer FFV over FFIV, and I even prefer the plot and soundtrack of FFV over those of FFIV.

As for the characters, I felt that they were less annoyingly pigeonholed in part because you could change their character classes, and I guess they had more basic characterization to reflect this. So, you never had, say, Lenna the princess who sucks at fighting but is stuck with being an animal-mancer and white mage or something.

As for the plot, it was much more straightforward and well-organized and compact than FFIV's, which I felt tried to do too much and had a few crazy plot twists too many, so it felt like a rough attempt at coming up with an interesting fantasy story.

As for the soundtrack, I...well, I prefer FFV's over FFIV and even after spending several hours discussing this track by track years ago with gozaru, I still haven't figured out why.

Posted by: IronRoto 11th December 2011 21:37
Quote (Death Penalty @ 25th August 2011 18:38)
I would say that I'm probably the closest thing to an "FFV hater" that exists on this forum. Except for the fact that it isn't hate at all, it's just that I don't like the game.

Why don't I like the game? Well, it has the least impressive video game story that I've ever played in my life, first of all. Secondly, it has the least developed characters out of any video game that I've ever played. The soundtrack has a couple decent songs, yeah, but it isn't as solid as the soundtracks for, say, 6 through 13. The battle system is fine, but I care much more about the three afore-named categories. Besides, I didn't find its battle system all that amazing in the first place; I'd just as soon face the strategic boss battles of FFX or the fast-paced action of FFXIII.

I disagree, respectfully of course. However, I have come to the logical conclusion that you have never actually played FF V. First off, this is more opinion, but the music past X was atrocious, so I don't see why you would include XII and XIII, saying they have good music. The boss music of XIII was absolutely terrible. Second of all there was no strategy in X whatsoever. My favorite strategy was simply pressing attack because that killed everything in a few hits. How you see strategy in that is beyond me. Finally, XIII wasn't fast paced at all. It took me a half hour for some bosses. I wouldn't consider that fast paced, but instead long and drawn out. The chapter with Vanille and Sazh was brutal. Battles with even weak enemies took 15-20 minutes, if not more. XIII also had little character development. XII's and XIII's character development is on par with V's which is quite sad, seeing as how many years later they were released.

Therefore with all due respect, I can only conclude that we played very different games. I feel V is one of the best, while X and XIII are two of the worst (XIII being the worst) in the series.

Posted by: doomer4life 12th December 2011 20:37
Quote (Death Penalty @ 25th August 2011 19:38)
Besides, I didn't find its battle system all that amazing in the first place; I'd just as soon face the strategic boss battles of FFX or the fast-paced action of FFXIII.

Considering that the battle system is pretty much bread-and-butter FF style derived from 1 (adding ATB from 4) and going on to 9, what?

Aside from the battle arena and very early in the game, the boss battles in 10 consisted of me hitting X twice. Once to select 'Attack' and once to confirm what I'm hitting. Boom ~25,000-99,999 damage. Repeat if it has more HP. There is the rare occasion I have to use Armor Break, but this doesn't qualify as 'strategic'. Final Fantasy is supposed to be turn-based RPG (or so we thought) so the term fast-paced action leaves a bad taste in my mouth and isn't worth commenting on. I yearn for the days when casting shell was required to survive a regular boss.

In response to the OP, I think 5 gets hate because it was released after the so-called "magnum opus" in 7. Really. That's it. 7, and then 8 came out and the first time it was released stateside was afterward. If it was released back when 4 came out, people would remember "the good old days playing it on the SNES" but that didn't happen, so you have a bunch of people all nostalgic over FF4 and FF6, and 5 gets sidewashed.

After going back and playing when Anthology came out, I realized how classic it was. People argue about the characters, villain and story but I disagree. Sure, Bartz is a little uninspiring, but he is likable. Lenna is a stock character's wet dream but it wouldn't be an FF without a princess, am I right?. These are made up of course by Galuf and his strong character, as well as Faris, who is almost Shakespearean in her tale. X-Death should always be considered one of the best villains in the series, considering his high fatality count (including Galuf), and his awesome final boss music. The dude screams badass. The story isn't amazing and surely not on par with 9's or 6's but it is enough to maintain interest.

The lasting thing about 5 is that even though it doesn't exceed in all areas, it does them all very well and I'd rather have that than a game with lousy characters and story, but awesome battles *cough*FF8*cough*. It is perhaps the most consistent FF game, and it ranks very highly among the list.

Posted by: NeoEx-Death 12th December 2011 21:20
FFV is my favorite RPG. I used to make a big deal about people who didn't like it, except I learned every person has their opinions.

If people hate, let them hate. Yeah I dunno, I don't care.

Posted by: IronRoto 15th December 2011 02:42
Quote (NeoEx-Death @ 12th December 2011 15:20)
FFV is my favorite RPG. I used to make a big deal about people who didn't like it, except I learned every person has their opinions.

If people hate, let them hate. Yeah I dunno, I don't care.

Yes I agree, people can certainly have their opinion. I just find it nonsensical when someone can bash V and then call X strategic, and XIII fast paced, because those two games are anything but that. That just doesn't make sense to me.

Posted by: Cefca 15th December 2011 20:11
Surely FFXIII is at least fast paced for a an FF game battle wise.

Posted by: LilyheartsLightning 16th December 2011 03:24
Quote (IronRoto @ 14th December 2011 20:42)
Yes I agree, people can certainly have their opinion. I just find it nonsensical when someone can bash V and then call X strategic, and XIII fast paced, because those two games are anything but that. That just doesn't make sense to me.

I suppose that would be their opinions?

At the very least, I'm looking forward to judging XIII on Christmas morning. =happy.gif= I'm certainly enjoying V Advance for now, especially the Job system.

Posted by: TrueBOSS 25th December 2011 03:59
Doomer4life hit it right on the head for what happened to Final Fantasy V. Expecting people to like V after VII and VIII wasn't a good idea and is what happened in the U.S. They where good games in there time but we didn't get them until after their time. I found the only way for people to have liked V when we got them to already be FF fans when we got it and at least for my sake. having some nostalgia for the older games. (If VII or XIII where my first final fantasy's then I probably would have hated V)

But technically my FIRST Final Fantasy was Final Fantasy Mystic Quest and then Final Fantasy II and III (in that order) for the SNES (II and III being the American SNES versions for FF IV and VI for the few of you who might not know)
I actually hadn't played V until I had played every game between FF VI and X (including Secrets of Mana, Chrono Trigger/Chross, and FFT) so to some people it's a miracle I liked the game enough to beat it.
And now to my opinions on V itself. The story was awesome expecially in retrospect. V was the most cut and dry as to you are fighting a LOSING battle to save the world.
Here's a general recap on what i mean.
Possible spoilers: highlight to view

1) Every crystal you try and save, destroyed when you get to it.
2) EXDeath wins and gets released.
3) You have to waste time to get to Galuf's world just to catch up to EXDeath.
4) When you get to him, he captures everyone and Galuf has to save your sorry A%^'s.
5) After Galuf saves you. Someone dies every time you try and do anything to EXDeath.
6) When you try and stop EXDeath from getting the crystals in Galuf's world. Galuf himself dies from doing EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER LITERALLY just to save the rest of his friends from getting killed by EXDeath while EXDeath is stealing the crystals.
7) You get to EXDeath just in time to watch him win again and destroy the crystals in Galuf's world.
8) EXDeath starts pulling everything into the xzone and has super monsters time after time trying to assassinate you while you just try to figure out what's going on.
9) You have to put everything the worlds have to offer againsts EXDeath to stop him from winning because if he win's again. The world's end and he win's for keeps.


I know some of the other games are losing battles in their own right but this one is so cut and dry and so much harsher than the others and I feel it's story is the raw version of what all the final fantasy stories where about.
The thing i hated the most about V was just it's gameplay. The battle system WAS good but it got kind of dry and boring sometimes and you had to grind a lot to keep up with the monsters in the next area. which you have to do on most games but I found grinding on this game more boring for some reason than on others. I couldn't tell you why though tbh.
All in all I did like V though and think people who are final fantasy fans need to know this story.

Posted by: Glenn Magus Harvey 27th December 2011 22:10
Oh, I want to add, it wasn't just eclipsed by the epicness of FFVI and FFVII, or the fact that those got western releases while FFV didn't.

Starting with FFIV, the FF series put a pretty strong focus on plot. This really shined in FFVI onward; all the "modern" FF games have complex plots. Whether they are effective may be up to debate, but they are definitely a big deal in their games.

FFV, on the other hand, featured a relatively cliché and simple plot. While FFV had a gameplay focus as did some of the later FF games, this isn't the big selling point of the series, aside from spinoff games such as the Tactics games.

Posted by: Bas 23rd February 2012 02:40
I want to add something about the story. Dunno where did I caught up that, but it just makes sooo much sense; the FF V story is just a very big parody. I also read this was more likely to understand in japan, from which it parodied the most. Think over it;
Basically a parody of FF I, 4(5) rand() heroes to save the world.
The meanest enemy is x-death. A tree. How ridicoulus can this be? If you think about it, it MUST BE a parody. X-Death hiding as a branch? An imba fighting turtle (Derived from Ninja Turtles maybe?)? Think about, if you take it this way, it all makes sooo much sense. Especially considered the rather friendly and humoristic dialouges in the game.

I must admit, when I played it first at the PSX years ago when I was about 14, I think I didn't like it that much. I had problems figuring out where to go next, but I had the problem with other games as well at that age (FF IV, FF VII train station in the beginning, I didn't check that I can MOVE a train, yeah, laugh on me biggrin.gif, iirc FF VI as well, Vagrant Story) and having had horribly English skill didn't make this aspect easier at all.
I even criticed the colouring style being that pink. I must admit that the job system didn't caught me - for whatever reason, maybe because I got stuck that often and my mom restricted me to play 1 hour only per day (ofc you pals know, "When the cat is away, the mice will play.") and being disrupted pretty often, I think I did quit very many games unfinished back then cause of that.

Today, FF V is one of my favorites. The job system just rocks, it allows you to customize in a very large amount and I also really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really love the weapons and equipments. Really, I do miss that stuff in especially FF IV, FF 7-9.
I do not want to have some weapons with different attack power only, I wanna wanna wanna have effects like in FF V! Really, it just rocks to have so many different weapons.

Along with FF 8 is it most likely one of the FF I had the most playthroughs with.

Posted by: Cecil777 11th September 2012 19:08
I know some people disliked Exdeath because he seemed too stereotypical of a villain, but I thought FFV was pretty good. I've never known anyone to legitimately hate it.

Posted by: justNano 12th September 2012 01:32
Quote (Death Penalty @ 26th August 2011 00:38)

Why don't I like the game? Well, it has the least impressive video game story that I've ever played in my life, first of all. Secondly, it has the least developed characters out of any video game that I've ever played. The soundtrack has a couple decent songs, yeah, but it isn't as solid as the soundtracks for, say, 6 through 13. The battle system is fine, but I care much more about the three afore-named categories. Besides, I didn't find its battle system all that amazing in the first place; I'd just as soon face the strategic boss battles of FFX or the fast-paced action of FFXIII.

I don't think Its fair to hate a game just because the newer games are better to be honest.

The job system is one of the best leveling systems in my opinion.

Also Boko in 5 (Boco) has more character development than anything in FF1.

In relation to character development compared to four i think having four constant characters allows for more solid interaction between them than characters constantly changing every second in four.


Posted by: RavenLalonde 4th June 2013 14:20
Quote (ZidaneTribal @ 25th August 2011 13:58)
I don't hate it. But those who dislike it, they usually mention that they felt like the characters didn't have much of a personality and they felt like stereotypes (  Hero, Princess, guy with memory loss, villian who wants to destroy the world just because )
And yeah they're right, compared to FF4 the characters in FF5 are a huge step backwards. I think after playing FF4 and seeing the massive improvement in character development, people got disappointed.

I think that is strange. Obviously, not everyone has my opinion, but I rather disliked the storyline and most of the characters from FF4, while I enjoyed FF5 for the story and the gameplay. Do not get me wrong; I liked FF4. I just found the characters very shallow; and the story, in my opinion, played like a soap opera. I loved Cecil, really liked Cid, and did not dislike Edward; I hated Kain. Other than that, I thought the characters... okay. FF5 may have had more basic characters and storyline, but I was glad for a story that was simple and characters who were not so melodramatic. Still, it is true that FF5's main appeal is the gameplay, and the story was not intended to be especially amazing.

Posted by: RavenLalonde 4th June 2013 14:36
Quote (Death Penalty @ 26th August 2011 00:38)
I would say that I'm probably the closest thing to an "FFV hater" that exists on this forum. Except for the fact that it isn't hate at all, it's just that I don't like the game.

Why don't I like the game? Well, it has the least impressive video game story that I've ever played in my life, first of all. Secondly, it has the least developed characters out of any video game that I've ever played. The soundtrack has a couple decent songs, yeah, but it isn't as solid as the soundtracks for, say, 6 through 13. The battle system is fine, but I care much more about the three afore-named categories. Besides, I didn't find its battle system all that amazing in the first place; I'd just as soon face the strategic boss battles of FFX or the fast-paced action of FFXIII.

Huh. I disagreed with everything you just said. (No hate happening here either.)
I assume you have not played FF1, FF2, FF3, or FF Mystic Quest (not to be confused with FF Adventure); because those games have storylines so basic it makes FF5 look complex. I think that most of the FF4 characters (excluding Cecil and arguably Rydia) had little, if any, character development. I found the soundtrack one of the most adventurous and playful of any games I have played, although I do tend to consider FF6 as having the best music. The battle system... okay, yeah, later games improved upon it, so I agree with you there. But I found the Job system cool enough that it outranked FF6 for me (and that is saying quite a lot). Anyway, that is just my opinion :)

Posted by: Glenn Magus Harvey 4th June 2013 14:52
Quote (RavenLalonde @ 4th June 2013 09:20)
I think that is strange. Obviously, not everyone has my opinion, but I rather disliked the storyline and most of the characters from FF4, while I enjoyed FF5 for the story and the gameplay.  Do not get me wrong; I liked FF4.  I just found the characters very shallow; and the story, in my opinion, played like a soap opera.  I loved Cecil, really liked Cid, and did not dislike Edward; I hated Kain.  Other than that, I thought the characters... okay.  FF5 may have had more basic characters and storyline, but I was glad for a story that was simple and characters who were not so melodramatic.  Still, it is true that FF5's main appeal is the gameplay, and the story was not intended to be especially amazing.

You too? I also prefer the story of FFV over that of FFIV. I feel that FFIV had too much drama, too many plot twists, and too much...stuff going on, I guess. FFV had a much more straightforward plot, and while one could criticize it for being more cliche, there's a reason cliches work, and in this case I think it's because it comes with appropriate and emotionally powerful dramatic pacing that makes it more satisfying.

And yeah, I also really like Cecil and strongly dislike Kain, and I don't hate Edward.

If anything, I feel that FFIV's characters were more stereotyped than FFV's. The fact that there were so many of them in FFIV probably contributed to how they each got less characterization than FFV's did. So as a result, I found them to be rather one-dimensional, mainly. For example, Edward is a weakling artisty type with a lost love, and that's about it; even Kain, who is so key to the plot, came off as rival for love interest whose spirit is weak and corruptible by evil, and that's about it. With FFV we got to see a lot of bits and pieces of the characters' backstories, such as Butz's or Lenna's parents' connections to the sealing of Exdeath and the Four Warriors of Light and such.

I also think that FFV's soundtrack is at least on par with, if not better than, FFIV's.

Though oddly I was never that enamored with FFV's job system. I guess I'm just not that sort of gamer, or alternatively, I wasn't expecting that out of FFV, so it actually served more like a little something to keep the gameplay interesting while I let myself be carried away with the unfolding drama of the storyline.

Posted by: St Khael 4th June 2013 16:09
I actually really enjoyed FF5 both story-wise and gameplay. It felt very unique to me out of the series due to the semi-sci-fi elements tucked away into the story. I could not find a character that I did not like, until the rerelease of the game in which they gave Faris that far overblown 'pirate' accent. Even then I still greatly enjoyed her character.

The game took a huge departure from the rest of the series, in my opinion, and I never have understood why it gets looked down on so often. Yes, the graphics seemed to take a hit when compared to FF4, but I always thought that graphics didn't matter anyway.

Posted by: Locke Picker 5th June 2013 09:52
I liked FFV for the job system, I had alot of fun playing with different job combinations and skills. But I must admit, I found myself not caring too much for the characters or the story, and at first, I didn't understand why. I personally didn't think that the characters were underdeveloped like some do, not any underdeveloped than any previous FF game anyway. And I didn't even think that the story was horrible, yet I found myself getting annoyed and going through the story elements as fast as possible by repeatedly pressing the X button on the controller to get on with it. I realized what the issue was about half way through the game.

the game, unlike all the FF games i've played with the exception of the 1st (having played the remakes of II and III) had detailed facial character pics for their icons in the menu screen. I know it seems rather lame, but it was like I couldn't empathize with the little 16-bit sprites without putting a more human face on them. Not only did the artists for these more detailed pics do a pretty good job using 16-bit technology, but they also managed to put expressions on most of these pictures that seem to encompass what the characters general emotion is.
Possible spoilers: highlight to view
Like Terra's sad expression, slightly looking down, which was engraned in my head when she didn't know if she had the capability of ever feeling love, or edgars picture which seems to exude both cockiness and playfulness which I always pictured him doing while he's hitting on all the ladies. Or even cecil's stoic, determined, and somewhat righteous expression when he becomes a paladin.
Without me even realizing it, until it wasnt there, these pictures helped me care more about the characters, and therefore, care more about the story.

I do think that the story/characters are better than I, II, and III, but I take those titles with a grain of salt, because I personally think that telling a story and developing characters was really limited in the 8-bit era and didn't really start getting interesting until the 16-bit one (with the exception of DQIV-best 8-bit rpg in my opinion).






Posted by: Electricbassguy 23rd September 2013 22:56
I think people disliked it because they started out with the PSX version... bad load times, terrible translation (Sorcerer for Mystic Knight, for one).

It also was not released in the US when it was new... people only saw it after having played Vi and VII, so they were spoiled by the graphics in those two games.

Posted by: Spooniest 24th September 2013 03:08
Why hate on Final Fantasy V?

Americans whose expectations were made by 4, 6, and 7 is my guess. They expected something equally operatic and moody, and were given the opposite: a Disney movie.

Posted by: Docrob 29th September 2013 15:54
IMO the reason 5 wasn't as well received is because by the time it became known in America (ps1) they had already been spoiled by the other final fantasy's namely 6 and 7. Thus gamers and critics responded negatively... A shame this is a great game despite the reviews...

Posted by: Eagle Caller 10th January 2015 17:00
Thank diversity.

Posted by: Zero_Hawk 27th February 2015 00:00
General consensus is the story sucks but the job system is a bamf. The highest rated FF's tend to have a solid mixture of both. FF5 it's mostly just "Look at how awesome the jobs are... oh I guess we need some kind of story too." Gilgamesh is like the only character in the game that doesn't have the personality of drywall.

PS: End the Alvies system of suppression

Posted by: chevleclair 27th February 2015 14:12
A system that improved from Final Fantasy III, beginnings of VI's gameplay aspect (such as the memory function), gameplay is actually the last thing one should complain about in V. The music is mediocre, but not bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0JnXdfoYpY

Compared to FFIV's music, it's comparable. Though IV seems more memorable to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7DvsG5U25A

With VI, though, it doesn't even compare.

_________________

As far as story is concerned, it seemed to lack the thematic development of final Fantasy IV, but then again, story might have been sacrificed at the altar of gameplay.

Posted by: Glenn Magus Harvey 2nd March 2015 15:55
Am I one of the few people who actually didn't care that much for Gilgamesh and his theme but loved the story and soundtrack anyway?

Always been more of a fan of Exdeath's battle theme, as far as battle themes go. And then there's also The Prelude of Empty Skies, The Evil Lord Exdeath, Exdeath's Castle, The Day Will Come, Harvest, My Home Sweet Home, The Book of Sealings, Cursed Earths, The Four Warriors of Dawn (a certain track from FF7 sounds reminiscent of), and Dear Friends.

Anyway I've always felt that FF5 had a stronger soundtrack than FF4.

Doesn't mean FF4's soundtrack is bad -- I definitely like it a lot too, but it just felt less memorable. To me, at least.



Edit: By "The Day Will Come", I mean this track. It seems there's some disagreement over the names of this track, Nostalgia, and Reminiscence -- they're switched around in the SPC set I have.

Posted by: His Shadow 15th July 2020 19:46
Essentially if you didn't use the ROM back in the 90s and the fan edit your most likely going to hate it. Also a little trivia one of the female team members who released and did a fan edit of the ROM and brought it to the west fully translated for the first time ever used it in her job application at Bethseda which is known for the Fallout and Elder Scrolls games.

https://kotaku.com/how-three-kids-beat-the-...anta-1794628286

The FFA version was horrible choppy and if you downloaded it even on the PS3 the same issues are there. The music is downgraded its just horrible. The only upset was we got the uncensored content not seen on the orginal US SNES copy

The GBA version also has issues with music and censorship. Basically the GBA version's of FF6 and FF5 were censored and content was removed and censored completely.

The Steam and iPhone versions sadly have the new graphics most people do not like but since its on the PC people have fixed these issues.

Posted by: Glenn Magus Harvey 17th July 2020 21:17
Quote
https://kotaku.com/how-three-kids-beat-the-odds-and-translated-final-fanta-1794628286
Nice article! Thanks for sharing.

Posted by: nectarsis 1st March 2021 11:00
I've never heatd much negative talk...outside of maybe the story being weak(er). Personally its in my top 5 ever.

Posted by: St Khael 4th March 2021 14:37
Honestly? It's one of my favorites. I have always referred to 4 and FF's disney game and this one is right up there with it. The story is light and fun and the system is rather enjoyable. I'll never forget my reaction to
Possible spoilers: highlight to view
the second world
I think I screamed. I played it young via ROM download (because my brother wouldn't let me touch the playstation when I saw 7 and was mesmerized) so I got 4-6 first.

I've never understood the hate either. I just loved it.

Posted by: Eagle Caller 22nd February 2023 07:48
To act as my own Judge there are many things I have achieved. I do not hate FFV yet availability and things like graphics might deter some people. I see nothing objectively wrong with many games.

Posted by: TimberManiac 17th June 2024 19:07
I've barely encountered anyone talking about it at all, much less negative discussion. I got it on the PS1, but never played through it. I think it's the only 2D FF I never completed, but I actually like it best of the 2D era. I think its Job system & combat/world are the perfect balance of fun, colorful & simple. FF VI has a lot more to sink your teeth into, but its daunting in a way that keeps me from feeling cozy when I play it biggrin.gif

I think the OP is correct in this case...most Americans including myself were introduced to the series through moodier entries like VII, VIII or X. Aside from VI, the 2D FF games don't really carry that darker vibe in my opinion. This thread was created well before the pixel remaster of FF V, I should go read reviews and see what the 2023 - 2024 reception has been like.

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