Final Fantasy Retrospective (Part 2, or "Wow, it's been 2 months since an update")

Alright, been awhile. Anyways, here's the not-that-long-awaited part 2.  

Final Fantasy IV (1991 SNES, 1997/2001 PSX, 2005 GBA, 2007 DS)

Alright, now onto the good stuff.  Final Fantasy IV is a stellar game, plain and simple.  This game has strong characterization.  You play as the captain of the Red Wings of Baron.  The Red Wings, are an elite airship army for the nation of Baron.  After a few incidents in the plot, Cecil is questioning his loyalties to his king.  Eventually, he goes through a transformation to purge himself of the blood on his hands and becomes a Paladin.  

This serves two purposes: The plot reason is to help Cecil come to terms with his life and indicates a full realization of what he must do and who he is, as a person.  Gameplay wise, it changes Cecil from this HP siphoning damage dealer to a naturally protective support character.  When an ally has low HP, Cecil will automatically guard them.  

This all aside, the game is a pretty damn good.  Depending on the version, it can vary from hard, or fairly easy.  The SNES version is actually considerably harder than the DS remake.  The SNES version required a considerable amount of grinding vs the DS one.  

Good soundtrack, good characterization, good story.  Final Fantasy IV gets a recommendation from me if you're looking for a good JRPG.

Seriously, that’s all you get for FFIV.  Intentional yo.

Final Fantasy V (SNES: N/A {in N.A.}, Playstation: 1999, GBA: 2006, PSN: TBD)

Alright, now we’re a little obscure.  Final Fantasy V is one of the unheard of games.  Until a few years ago, I had never played it myself. 

If there is one thing you take away from this little recap it’s this: I love their Job System.  It’s absurdly fun to mess with.  Seriously.  Want to play a Ninja in heavy armor?  Well level as a Knight for awhile, learn “Heavy Armor” then just equip the ability when you turn Ninja.  Ta-daaaaa.  It is the precursor to the job system in Final Fantasy Tactics, which is a good thing (That had a stupidly fun job system as well).

Anyways, this game has a decent-to-good story, and the gameplay/combat is more fun than normal because of the way you can build your characters. 

Also introduced in this game is Gilgimesh, who later becomes a recurring character in later Final Fantasy titles.  Also, his theme music, Clash on Big Bridge, pretty awesome. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CMTXyExkeI

or for a more epic version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHbYIbleQP8

The story involves stopping Exdeath, the big bad, from sending the entire world to the Void, nothingness, fates worse than death, unlife, et al.  It’s up to you, Bartz, your faithful steed Boco (a chocobo, naturally), a crass pirate, a princess, and a badass grandpa (Thanks TVTropes). 

If you’re going to pick up and play this game, grab the GBA version.  It’s received higher scores than the PSX counterpart.  The PSN version hasn’t been released Stateside as of yet.