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Date |
: Sept 24th, 2001 |
| Genre |
: RPG |
| Developer |
: Squaresoft |
| Author |
: Jin-Ning Tioh |
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The Story
The entire cycle of life in the world is bound by four elemental crystals, each providing their own source of power to mankind, from the wind blowing across lands to water flowing across seas, giving life, to burning hot fires to the very earth itself. The binding force of these beautiful crystals not only gives off this power, but imprisons a much more devastating force away from the world. Unfortunately, an ancient prophecy has come to pass. A sudden wave of meteorites suddenly and without warning rains fire and destruction all over the world, causing the crystals to shatter. The result is the end of the magical forces of the four elements. Worse yet, as the crystals explode one by one, the evil force of X-Death the crystals were made to restrain is released from its years of imprisonment. It is up to the unlikely alliance of an adventurer, a pirate, a wise old man and a princess to find the courage and the strength to face down the trials that they encounter in order to save not one world, but three. Will these unlikely heroes be able to stop X-Death?
The Heroes ( Good Guys )
Final Fantasy V has five main characters, each with their own distinctive personality - Butz, Reina, Faris, Galuf and Krile. Many other characters will help our heroes in their quest to slay the actual evil behind the destruction, such as the ancient turtle sage Gill, who is a rock of stability in the whirlwind of change. The Four Braves Of The Dawn provide support in the second world - Kelga is the reclusive and benevolent werewolf, King Zeza provides military and tactical assistance, and Drogan, Butz's father, watches over the party from above. The King of Bal also fights on the front lines.
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Butz - A free spirit, Butz is an adventurer traveling on his chocobo, Boco, and usually allows fate to decide his destiny. But when he finds himself at the site of the meteor shower, he gets more than he bargained for. He will lead the Light Warriors in their attempt to locate the site of the missing crystals. |
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Reina - The daughter of the King Tycoon, Reina has always lived in the shadow of her father. Her rebellious tendencies lead her to wonder what life is like outside of the castle. But when disaster occurs, Reina leaves with her new found companions Butz and Galuf to search for her father. |
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Faris - A pirate leader who has spent an entire life time on the high seas, Faris is uncouth and uncultured. Unknown to Butz and Galuf, Faris is actually Reina's sister! When you meet Faris, she will be pretending to be a man in order to command the loyalty of her men. She will join your party to help you find the crystals. |
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Galuf - A jolly old man even in the face of adversity, Galuf suffers from amnesia when he is found at the site of the meteor crash by Butz. The only thing he can remember is his name, but not much else. He is willing to help the party recover the crystals so as to restore peace and harmony to the world. |
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Krile - The granddaughter of Galuf, Krile is like him in many ways, being fantastically optimistic and endearing in the face of danger. When Galuf is killed later in the game, Krile will take over his place to help the party save the world from the forces of darkness. |
Classes
Many if not all hard-core fans of the series agree that Final Fantasy V features the greatest system ever to be seen in the series - The Job System. Each character can be assigned one of twenty two possible jobs or classes. Choices range from traditional classes such as knights, dragoons, mages and thieves to the more exotic classes such as chemists, dancers, mimes and bards. Each class has certain innate skills and abilities. Ability points earned from battle increase the job's level and earn secondary abilities. Each class can then equip a single earned ability. This flexibility can lead to powerful combinations - A knight can use the ninja's equip two swords ability and then wield a heavy sword in each hand. A monk can use the knight's wear heavy armor skill to become a defensive powerhouse. This level of flexibility and customizability is what has endeared the job system to many players.
Here is a list of the classes and a description of their abilities. Note that all special abilities and attacks are highlighted.
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Knight - Equipping heavy and protective armor and wielding a variety of swords known as ' Knight Swords ' which usually excel in their offensive power, the knight is a force to be reckoned with. The knight also uses his protect ability to shield allies from damage when they are low on hit-points. Besides being a offensive power house, the knight also has a strong defensive with the special ability block, which causes him not to receive any damage from enemy attacks at all. |
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Monk - A martial arts master, his attack power rivals even that of the knight, despite the fact that his only weapons are his limbs. The monk also has several abilities, among them countering enemy attacks with his counter ability and using his kick attack, which deals damage to all enemies. To compensate for his somewhat limited armor, the monk has higher hit-points to absorb more damage. |
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Thief - The thief has the best agility of all classes, and sometimes his abilities can prove to be lifesavers. Among them is the steal ability. This can prove useful at times as an enemy maybe holding on to a special item, such as powerful weapons and potions. Then there is the hidden passageway ability, which will highlight any secret passageways with white lines. Another ability which could save your mages a beating up from behind is the alertness ability, which will save your party a surprise back attack. Last but not least is the dash ability. While moving around dungeons, castles, towns, and anywhere but outside on the world map, you will run with twice the speed of your normal walk. This is often the only way to get to certain areas - For example, say a door is a good distance from a switch that opens it for a couple of seconds. If you walk there, the door closes before you get there. If you dash, you can go through the door with a couple of seconds to spare. This is only one actual scenario in which the dash command is extremely useful. |
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Dragoon - Advancing on enemies with special techniques which imitates dragons, the Dragoon often proves to be a great addition to your offensive power. However, although her defense ranks with that of the Knight, her attack power is consistently slightly lower than the Knight. Her jump attack, especially when battling dangerous bosses, more than makes up for such weaknesses though. Not only does it double the damage of a single attack, but it is also the ultimate form of defense, since no attack can reach the Dragoon in the sky. Also, the strength of a jump attack isn't affected by whether a Dragoon is in the front or back row, so if you find yourself consistently jumping in battle, you can put the Dragoon in the back row and half any damage. However, no beneficial things such as potions, healing magic may reach a Dragoon either when jumping. |
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Ninja - The Ninja sports great agility, and his ambush ability allows the party to be the first to strike in a battle. This can often spell the difference between victory and defeat in difficult battles. The Ninja can also throw various items at enemies, such as ninja stars and magical scrolls. Scrolls have various ninja magic written on them, and throwing them unleashes the magic. Various scrolls include Thunder, Fire and Water. These can affect all enemies on the screen. Also, a ninja's two-handed attack is very potent, especially if the weapons in both hands ability is used in conjunction with a Knight, or Dragoon. Imagine, a Dragoon jumping with two spears. It will cause 4 times the regular damage! The only weakness of the Ninja is his strength, which is consistently lower than the Knight or Dragoon, and his armor limitations. |
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Samurai - The Samurai is the Knight's equal in terms of offensive and defensive power, only the Samurai is far more likely to unleash super attacks. Super attacks will cause the screen to flash and cause twice the damage of a normal attack to the enemy. The Samurai can also use his catch blows ability to sometimes catch physical blows with his bare hands and reduce the damage done to zero. However, most unique to the Samurai is his powerful money throwing attack. This is probably the strongest attack available, and will inflict extreme damage to every enemy on the screen. It also depletes your money reserves, but sometimes the sacrifice is well worth it. It is safe to expect that it will ease battles with bosses greatly as well as instantly eradicate most monsters. The money sacrifice and power of the attack increases as the thrower's level increases. This attack can get you out of otherwise mortally threatening situations more than once in one, quick, easy, although somewhat expensive step. |
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Berserker - The Berserker sports the most strength of all the classes. Only the Berserker can wield an axe, which is one of the most potent weapons your party can lay their hands on. On top of all that offensive power however, is his berserk ability. This will double a character's offensive power, but unfortunately, that person will be beyond a player's control, attacking enemies in a raging fury until he or all his enemies are dead. This has its downs however. Characters under the berserk spell are more likely to miss their intended target more than other characters. Special attacks are also wasted on them as they only keep hacking and slashing at an enemy only. Berserkers are automatically gifted with this ability, causing them to always attack their enemies in a frenzy. |
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Black Mage - An essential addition to any party, the Black Mage is handy to have around whether you're fighting monsters or bosses. Black Mages have the ability to cast all levels of black magic , which range from simple elemental spells to spells that can instantly obliterate enemies. Certain spells can also suck hit-points or magic-points from your enemies and add them to the spell caster. Most of the spells can affect all enemies, although doing so lessens the individual impact of the spell. |
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White Mage - A virtual pre-requisite to any and all parties is a white magic user. Whether you are traveling in unfamiliar terrain, going through dungeons or even battling powerful foes, a White Mage is a must. His magical powers cover a wide range - From recovering hit-points by healing comrades, curing conditions like poison, confusing enemies and doubling a comrade's defense rates, to casting other protective, preventive, and recovery white magic. Quite possibly the most inept fighter, he cannot even wield knives. As with all other magic spells, the strength of the spell is proportional to the wisdom of the fighter. Thus, a Knight will cast much weaker magic in comparison to a White Mage. |
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Time Mage - A worthwhile addition to any party, the Time Mage has the ability to cast all time magic spells. Time magic is especially useful when battling unusually powerful bosses or foes. Considering the abundance of both of these, the Time Mage can be very useful to any party. Her magic ranges from speeding up friends, slowing down foes, throwing them into different dimensions, making them grow older and weaker by the minute, dropping heavenly bodies on them, and any number of other mystical and powerful spells. |
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Summoner - Calling upon powerful entities with his call magic, the Summoner's maximum magic-points grows the fastest of all the classes as call magic takes up a lot of magic-points. Call Magic is very powerful and are great tools to get you out of sticky and potentially lethal situations. Since the sheer power of call magic is most suited for battling bosses, it may be a little wasteful to use it on normal enemies. But if there are magic-point restoring agents available, call magic can make dungeon-roaming and roaming around mindlessly slaughtering hapless enemies for meager sums of experience points much easier. Although most spells for call magic are offense-related, some of them are powerful defensive spells. One calls a golem which totally prevents all physical damage to the entire party. There's also one that casts the magic-reflecting Wall spell on all of the party members. The most powerful spell casts the damage equivalent of the most powerful black magic, Nuke and time magic Meteo combined together on all enemies, just to give you an idea of how powerful the spells can be. A final note: call magic spells are not reflectable, and I doubt if they are weakened by the white magic Shell. |
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Blue Mage - A very decent physical fighter, the Blue Mage comes close to the ranks of the knight in terms of offensive power. There are innumerable special attacks out there that are launched by monsters, and which can be learned with the Blue Mage's learn ability. After learning them, you can use those abilities in the form of blue magic. Even if you can't have Blue Mage in your party for some reason, it is a very good idea to keep the learn ability on at least two of your fighters, so if an enemy launches a special attack, you have a good chance of learning it. A Blue Mage certainly makes inane level-up battles much more gratifying, and because of this the Blue Mage ranks high in my personal list of favorite classes. |
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Red Mage - Also a decent physical fighter, the Red Mage has the ability to cast level one to level three black magic as well as white magic. During the beginning portion of the game, when only level one to level three magic are available in stores, it is highly recommended that you turn a good number of your party members into Red Mages. They have very decent fighting skills, can equip mid-class armor and can chant spells up to level three. Once you go further into the game and gain access to higher spells however, the Red Mage starts to become rather obsolete. I recommend that you bring them up to Class Level three, then change classes. |
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Trainer - A fighter who's strength is heavily dependent on monsters, the Trainer's capture and release attacks center around controlling the enemy to the party's benefit after weakening an enemy to a relatively low level. A Trainer has almost nothing save her monster-handling skills, as she only has a mediocre hit-point and defense rating. In addition, a Trainer's whip doesn't pack much of a punch, although it sometimes stuns enemies. She also doesn't have the wisdom to use magic effectively. However, the Trainer can also take control of an enemy monster with her control attack. This has the obvious benefit of using a monster tactfully against its own party, and also the less explicit benefit of being able to make a monster unleash an otherwise rarely cast blue magic on a particular party member with the learn ability. |
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Chemist - The Chemist's attacks are virtual life-savers to your party. The drink attack allows a Chemist to drink special medicines which are cheaply and abundantly available. They do great things for you, such as double your current and maximum hit-points for the duration of battle, double your strength for the duration of the battle, double your agility for the duration of the battle, and so on. The heal attack has the effect of a Cure spell without using any magic-points at all. Besides this, the revive attack has the effect of a Life spell on all your party members, also without using any magic-points. On the other hand, his knowledge of medicine ability will double the effect of a potion. For example, a regular character can use a high-potion to restore up to 500 hit-points. When a Chemist uses the knowledge of medicine ability however, he can use it to restore up to 1000 hit-points! As a result, the Chemist is useful when you have very few potions left and want to make the most out of them. |
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Geomancer - The Geomancer can at times prove to be a useful class, harnessing the forces of nature with his telekinetic powers. Being dependent on the caster's level and the location of the battle, the Geomancer's natural forces attack is rather unique. Less advantageous places are deserts and open fields. Forests provide pretty nice attacks, which mainly center around hailstorms and conveniently sharpened branches impaling the enemy. Other abilities can prove to be life-savers to any party. A fighter with the drop trap ability allows a party to jump back a step without dropping if they happen to step on a floor section that opens up under their feet. A fighter with the damage floor ability also prevents other party members from receiving damage from lava, spiked floors and so on. |
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Bard - The Bard can prove to be a powerful and effective class with his sing ability. Songs can be collected from people around the world in your travels. Singing songs have powerful effects on both your enemies and friends, ranging from white to time magic, such as Confu ( White Magic ), Freeze ( Time Magic ), Regen ( Time Magic ) and so on... These songs require no magic-points, but the bard does have a decent amount of wisdom, so he is a potential magic user. Attacking with the harp produces numerous effects, but usually it is advisable to stick to singing. |
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Dancer - One of the only fighters who can equip the most powerful magic defense enhancer, the Dancer's dance attack produces strange effects, like the Drain and Absorb black magic, Confu white magic as well as other unique effects, like momentarily quadrupling the dancer's attack power. Regardless, the Dancer is still a rather useless class in both special attacks and raw fighting talent. I'd use it as something to increase the challenge of the battles it you find them too easy. |
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Mime - This is one of the most unusual classes in the sense that it does not have the standard fight and item commands. Instead, the Mime uses the mimic attack and has space for three other special attacks / class abilities. The mimic attack imitates the actions of a party member who just finished his / her turn. If someone uses the black magic Nuke, then the Mime will mimic it, and cast Nuke as well, regardless of whether he has the special attack black magic or not. Since the Mime cannot fight or defend itself, nor can he wield powerful weapons without sticking class abilities like wield sword onto him, he is definitely not made for fighting. The mime's three special attack / class ability slots provide a golden opportunity to make them into the most powerful of wizards. You can stick three kinds of magic onto a mime, or stick two magic types and use the third slot for magic-oriented special attacks such as the Red Mage's two spells in a row or the Dragoons dragon sword. A final note though : Unlike the other classes, which are pretty much forced into your hands, the Mime is hidden, and you must look for it. For this reason, many people end up missing it before going to the final boss and suffer longer, more stressful battles. Do everything you can to find this wonderful class before moving on to the bosses' lair. |
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