06-21-2013, 03:48 AM
About 5 hours into Final Fantasy V. It's been a good while since I've played a game in this series, and I plan on beating all of the original games soon enough. So far I've beaten 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 10.
Of those, 1 wasn't legit. 7 is KINDA legit (up to Disc 3, at least). I'll replay them both some time.
I recommend 4 as a starting point to get into old school RPG's in general. Beware, the final dungeon will kick your ass.
But 6 is hands down the best game of the series. The only drawback is the middling difficulty. Everything else is excellent.
7 is a good game, but is certainly overrated.
8 and 10 are decent games AS games, but their much maligned stories are just as terrible as everyone says they are.
Back on topic, when I started 5 I was dreading that the gameplay would have the main problem that 7 and 8 cemented into the series, that continued with 12 and 13: Interchangeable blank state characters with little to no practical individuality.
7's Materia system had this problem, but 8's Magic Junction is the most extreme example. In both games, the only thing that truly distinguishes your character is their limit breaks, which you'll rarely use (unless you cheat). Outside of that, any character can have any skill or command or spell or ability.
It didn't help too much, but 7's characters DID all have unique base stats, and made them lean toward different roles, to some degree. But after halfway through the game it's not enough.
But in 8's case, your characters really are completely interchangeable outside of their limit breaks. The game itself WANTS you to treat them this way. You change characters stats with the magic you carry, and because of it, any character can take any role, and you can literally swap a character's stats with another, which happens many times throughout the game.
But having spent 5 hours of play, I've realized something about FF5. The fact is that your characters are all blank states from the beginning and all have access to any class you unlock. But the reality is that your characters BECOME individuals by the choices you make and the experience they gain in each individual class.
Characters unlock abilities the more they use a specific class, and eventually it turns into the point that characters will have abilities the rest can't access. And the classes that characters master permanently change their base stats, as well. Dual-classing characters is what the game expects you to do, and the ability to do so is dictated by the experience you build in each class. It's a very nice system.
And I have to give points to the Blue Mages here. The majority of the time, I despise Blue Mages. They're usually the busywork class that takes serious effort to make useful. It all comes down to the horrible idea that the blue mage must be hit with the enemy skill in order to learn it. In FF7 and FFTA it's insufferable, but some games change the method of gaining the skills and it usually results in something much more bearable.
8 had Quistis learn different Blue Magic (her limit break, by the way) through consumable items you find throughout the game.
But 6 had Strago, who learns Enemy Skills simply by watching an enemy use them! He just needs to be there and able to see it!
5 happened to be the first game to do Blue Mages, but two things keep it from being the nightmare I suffered in 7. Dual classing makes it possible for a non-Blue Mage to have the ability to learn attacks that harm them, and the best one: Blue Magic is a shared pool. Unlike 7, when one character manages to learn a skill, all other Blue Mages have access to it!
It's actually pretty easy to acquire Blue Magic is this game! There are still some that are tricky busy work, but with a guide I was able to acquire all of the blue magic available to me at this point in the game in about 20 minutes.
To wrap up and stop yapping, FF5 isn't bad at all. I just defeated the Liquid Flame and I'm waiting to finally meet Gilgamesh.
Of those, 1 wasn't legit. 7 is KINDA legit (up to Disc 3, at least). I'll replay them both some time.
I recommend 4 as a starting point to get into old school RPG's in general. Beware, the final dungeon will kick your ass.
But 6 is hands down the best game of the series. The only drawback is the middling difficulty. Everything else is excellent.
7 is a good game, but is certainly overrated.
8 and 10 are decent games AS games, but their much maligned stories are just as terrible as everyone says they are.
Back on topic, when I started 5 I was dreading that the gameplay would have the main problem that 7 and 8 cemented into the series, that continued with 12 and 13: Interchangeable blank state characters with little to no practical individuality.
7's Materia system had this problem, but 8's Magic Junction is the most extreme example. In both games, the only thing that truly distinguishes your character is their limit breaks, which you'll rarely use (unless you cheat). Outside of that, any character can have any skill or command or spell or ability.
It didn't help too much, but 7's characters DID all have unique base stats, and made them lean toward different roles, to some degree. But after halfway through the game it's not enough.
But in 8's case, your characters really are completely interchangeable outside of their limit breaks. The game itself WANTS you to treat them this way. You change characters stats with the magic you carry, and because of it, any character can take any role, and you can literally swap a character's stats with another, which happens many times throughout the game.
But having spent 5 hours of play, I've realized something about FF5. The fact is that your characters are all blank states from the beginning and all have access to any class you unlock. But the reality is that your characters BECOME individuals by the choices you make and the experience they gain in each individual class.
Characters unlock abilities the more they use a specific class, and eventually it turns into the point that characters will have abilities the rest can't access. And the classes that characters master permanently change their base stats, as well. Dual-classing characters is what the game expects you to do, and the ability to do so is dictated by the experience you build in each class. It's a very nice system.
And I have to give points to the Blue Mages here. The majority of the time, I despise Blue Mages. They're usually the busywork class that takes serious effort to make useful. It all comes down to the horrible idea that the blue mage must be hit with the enemy skill in order to learn it. In FF7 and FFTA it's insufferable, but some games change the method of gaining the skills and it usually results in something much more bearable.
8 had Quistis learn different Blue Magic (her limit break, by the way) through consumable items you find throughout the game.
But 6 had Strago, who learns Enemy Skills simply by watching an enemy use them! He just needs to be there and able to see it!
5 happened to be the first game to do Blue Mages, but two things keep it from being the nightmare I suffered in 7. Dual classing makes it possible for a non-Blue Mage to have the ability to learn attacks that harm them, and the best one: Blue Magic is a shared pool. Unlike 7, when one character manages to learn a skill, all other Blue Mages have access to it!
It's actually pretty easy to acquire Blue Magic is this game! There are still some that are tricky busy work, but with a guide I was able to acquire all of the blue magic available to me at this point in the game in about 20 minutes.
To wrap up and stop yapping, FF5 isn't bad at all. I just defeated the Liquid Flame and I'm waiting to finally meet Gilgamesh.