GAME REVIEW: Final Fantasy V (Pixel Remaster)

Although the Final Fantasy series has been around since the NES, it began its rise to iconic status during the Super Nintendo generation. The game that began that trend was Final Fantasy IV, which became Final Fantasy II during its first US release. One of the greatest RPGs of that console generation was Final Fantasy VI, which was first released as Final Fantasy III. However, there was a SNES-era Final Fantasy game that came out that was never released in the West until the PlayStation 1 era—the oft-neglected Final Fantasy V.

Final Fantasy V is a game that, while it did not hit the heights of other FF games of that era, still contributed to the development of other games in the series. Final Fantasy V refined the Job Class system that would later define games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Bravely Default. This system allowed the player to customize the main characters into any two combat roles, including a main Job and a secondary Job. The monster designs in FF5 are among the best of the series, mainly due to the early innovations of game designer Tetsuya Nomura, who would go on to develop such games as the Kingdom Hearts series. This is a game centered around crystals and a “save the world” plot standard to Final Fantasy, but it attempts to twist the formula somewhat. Moreover, the storyline is the first attempt to work with themes that the series would be known for, such as environmentalism and the dangers of human blindness and excess. Later games would eventually refine many of these elements, but Final Fantasy V either introduced or refined them.

This game perhaps deserves the Pixel Remaster treatment most of all the games of that era. Regrettably, Final Fantasy V’s record of previous ports and releases has not always been consistent. Its best ports prior to this are on older and discontinued consoles, such as the Game Boy Advance. The most recent PC port was the 3D version, which was a disappointment—it was primarily a port designed for mobile, and it was not optimized for PC or other platforms. The result was a more visually muddled and clunkier game than even the PS1 port in Final Fantasy Anthology. The Pixel Remaster, then, provided Square Enix an opportunity to revisit and refine the game and make a version of Final Fantasy V that was worthy of the original game.

Fortunately, the Pixel Remaster is a significant improvement on those previous releases, and it is easily the best PC version of Final Fantasy V to date. On first glance, the FF5 Pixel Remaster is consistent with previous remasters of earlier entries in the series. If you like the graphical style and the menu redesigns of those games, you should enjoy what they’ve done with FF5, as it is very similar. The sprites and character designs look much more consistent with SNES-era Final Fantasy, with more color and depth than the 3D version released on PC. The background detail is also superb, with excellent texturing in terms of the water effects. The monster designs, still one of the stronger points of this game, look even better during the battle sequences. The music is vastly improved, taking some excellent classic Nobuo Uematsu tracks and making them even more powerful. While not a completely flawless presentation—the fonts have the same issues as previous Pixel Remasters—it is a much improved one.

The combat and customization benefit rather nicely from the remaster. The strength of Final Fantasy V is in the versatility of its Job class system, and this version makes it fun to explore those options. While the menus are standardized in format with the previous games, the format works rather nicely for this game and its individualized mechanics. The menu system allows for relatively easy Job class changes, both in terms of main Jobs and secondary abilities. The menu designs look a bit more like traditional menus from 16-bit FF games, in no small part due to coloring and box designs. In battles, the clunky mobile menus are gone, replaced by more traditional gameplay reminiscent of the SNES era games. While there are attempts to modernize the look of the turn-based combat menus, the combat feels more like a traditional Final Fantasy of that era.

This is not to say that FF5 is flawless even with the improvements. In terms of the story, Final Fantasy V doesn’t have that much to stand out from other RPGs of its generation. Final Fantasy IV offered a compelling story of redemption and the costs of war. Final Fantasy VI was a creative tour-de-force that offered a variety of memorable characters in a steampunk fantasy setting. However, FF5 doesn’t offer the same depth in terms of its characters, and its basic themes were addressed more effectively in later entries of the series. To be fair, the pirate Faris is easily the most interesting of the playable characters, and Gilgamesh is a memorable antagonist. The story of FF5 could best be described as good enough, elevated mainly by the fun, flexible combat system and the creative monster designs. The Pixel Remaster keeps the basics of that story intact, respecting the original vision of the game in both its positive and negative aspects.

There are also some blemishes in terms of the Remaster itself. The fonts still don’t quite have the classic look that would appeal to an old-school fan, but these can always be modded. There is the occasional bit of awkwardness in the translation, though for the most part it’s nothing that would be too noticeable. The dialogue boxes are the one area with a noticeable downgrade, going for colored names over the Yoshitaka Amano portrait designs used in other ports. Still, these are very small concerns and nothing that would make me prefer most other versions of FF5 over this one.

In the end, Final Fantasy V emerges as one of the best of the Pixel Remasters, and a version that very much needed to be made. This game has not been ported as often as other Final Fantasy games, and when it has, it hasn’t always lived up to its potential. The Pixel Remaster of FF5 is perhaps the best version of the game since the Game Boy Advance version, and certainly the best one ported to the PC. Hopefully this version will also be ported to consoles, especially the Switch, as Final Fantasy V belongs there. In the meantime, the Pixel Remaster remains the best way to play this game on PC, at least for the moment.

Score: 4.5/5

Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: PC

Author Profile

Steve Sellers

Steve Sellers had been a fan of superheroes ever since Superman: The Movie. But it took the JSA, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Dragonlance, Lord of the Rings, Twilight Zone, and Chris Claremont's legendary run on the X-Men to make him a writer and a longtime fan of comics, fantasy, and science fiction. Steve is the co-creator of WHITE DRUID & MICHAEL NERO and GUARDIANS OF ELAYIM for Omen Comics, and he is also the creator of BLITZ and SHOCKWAVE for Revelation Comics (an imprint of Omen Comics).