I have been able to successfully complete another game. YAY!!!! Spread the joy!!! WOOOHOOO!!!
It has taken me years to finally get through FFV, however I am glad to say that I was finally able to do so.
The total time taken for completion was:
43:39 hours.
I am going to set up a counter on the List page to keep a running tally of the total time played, however as of right now, it is:
99:02:28 hours.
This works out to be:
4 Days, 3 Hours, 2 Minutes, and 28 Seconds, or 4.127 Days.
Ok, so I added almost 2 complete days to the tally with just FFV. Not bad at all.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
I think about the fact that it has taken me years to play almost 44 hours of a game and defeat it. It's really weird and crazy when you think about it. If I would have just played 4 hours a day I would have beaten it in a little under 11 days roughly. I just didn't play straight through either. In typical Final Fantasy fashion of me playing, by the time I made it to the interdimensional rift, also known as the very final area, I was almost overleveled and had mastered many jobs (as a side note, overleveled is at least 46, which is strange since I am used to having to be level 90 for one to be overleveled). Thats what is so unique about FFV from other Final Fantasy games. your level raises slowly, however mastering a job is completely separate and faster. Plus it is the most important part of the game in terms of battles. Not your level but your job mastery.
It was nice to get back to what I call the crystal era of the FF series. The crystals have always had a large part in the FF series, and can be found in different forms later on (FFVII uses materia as the "crystal"). The modern games, FFXI excluded, have really gotten away from the crystal motiff. When you look at FFI - FFV thought it is right in your face. Hell, FFI is all about crystals and I sometimes felt as if FFV was a "reboot" of FFI since its quite similar, but you give voiceless, no personality characters from FFI, well, character.
Its fun and so interesting though how different the crystal era is from FFVI and on. It is very japanese and fits the original mold of a RPG that stems greatly from Dungeons & Dragons. To me its like visiting a historic site and seeing how things used to be.
Were things horrible back in the early FF days?
No.
They were what was wanted and needed back then. What we have today, well, its different from the past, however if things were reversed people would still complain.
With that rant over lets look at FFV more. I had issues with it in the beginning. It did struggle to get started with story and your abilities, however with lvl/job grinding one could easily overcome that. Once that asshat Exdeath comes in, that's when the story kicks off. Moving between different worlds, fighting against the Void, multiple forms of the final boss. These are all things that I have encountered before, however it pulls at my gamer's heart. Its what I grew up with. Its what I know. Its what I want.
I would like to also mention how they brought a new character in. The crystal era saw games that only allowed 4 or 5 characters at a time that were playable in battle, FFV included. 4 characters can battle, but you can't switch out any other characters because there were no other ones. So introducing Krile might be a little tough when her grandfather Galuf dies.
Square-Enix (SE) (or Square Soft) could have had you find a new person, or worse toss a new person in there quickly who knows Galuf's abilities. Luckily they didn't. They introduced Krile while you had Galuf still. She had a purpose in the story before she first fought. This helped for me to get to know her. Then Galuf sacrifices himself to save the party and Krile, who is in the scene and not just travelling around the world where you are not. This is good because she is already there and not just suddenly showing up. Then Galuf sends his abilities down to a weak Krile instead of her just knowing them out of the blue. In fact you fight with her at least once before this and she is such a weakling. I believe they handled this quite well to appease people.
So what to say in the end? I am glad I finally beat FFV. I liked the story and how it compliments the series. I believe a die hard FF lover should play it if they haven't already, but if you just don't like the old school ATB battle system and having to grind, then you might want to skip it.
Also, stay away if you can't handle Dragon Suicide. Trust me. It came out of nowhere and totally took me for surprise.
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