Let’s be honest for a moment: In terms of re-issuing Final Fantasy titles, everybody’s pretty hung up on the remake of Final Fantasy VII. It’s only natural. It’s kind of a big deal.
But in recent years, Square Enix have been on a relentless quest to re-issue, port and re-release every other Final Fantasy game ever made. Except for the original Final Fantasy Tactics, obviously. That would be a silly idea…
Today, it’s the turn of Final Fantasy V.
Featuring the old Squaresoft staples of experience points and random battles combined with a comprehensive job (character class) system, it’s fairly standard Final Fantasy fare full of crystals, ancient threats and heroic deaths; but it’s a solid middle-of-the-road series entry all the same.
Final Fantasy V also contains a fantastic retro Nobuo Uematsu score, and beautiful character designs from Yoshitaka Amano:
We’ve seen these ports on handheld consoles like the Nintendo DS and the PSP, and they’ve generally been quite reasonable. We’ve seen them on mobile devices which – given the variety in devices, screen sizes and resolutions, and the horrid nature of using on-screen, touch-screen controls – has seen varying degrees of success; and we’ve seen them on PC.
Twenty-plus year old RPGs on modern PCs make for a bit of a strange animal. They’re often ports of the previous mobile ports, because the mobile resolutions are higher resolution than the console originals, which can lead to some odd effects. Yes, you can have proper controls – which is rather lovely – but it can result in some quirks visually and other strange effects.
There’s also the following extra bits and pieces included in the PC port of Final Fantasy V:
- Enhanced characters and graphics created by veteran character designer Kazuko Shibuya
- Updated controls and a newly optimised active-time battle system for an even more fluid PC experience
- A job and ability system featuring 26 unique classes that allows players to freely customise their heroes to fit their unique play style
- The Sealed Temple, an additional dungeon originally featured in the 2006 version of FINAL FANTASY V for Game Boy® Advance
- Enuo, an optional boss created by renowned designer Tetsuya Nomura
- Full Steam trading cards and achievements
Judging by the early reviews on Steam, Final Fantasy V features these inconsistencies too. It’s probably still a bit more reliable than emulation, though.
You can also pick up Final Fantasy V as an instant download from Amazon.
