Final Fantasy V Advance

[Shadow Fire]

<div align="center"><img src="http://core.the-gcn.com/reviews/FFV-Advance.png" border="0" class="linked-image" /></div><br /><br /><b>Director:</b> Ryuma Nuno<br /><br /><b>Producers:</b> Hiroyuki Miura, Masashi Taniguchi, Shinji Hashimoto<br /><br /><b>Music:</b> Nobuo Uematsu<br /><br /><b>Rating:</b> <img src="http://core.the-gcn.com/reviews/rating/3-5stars.png" border="0" class="linked-image" /><br /><br /><br /><u><b>Plot</b></u><br /><br />Princess Lenna watches as her father, King Tycoon rides away on his wind drake, a Hiryuu. Something is wrong with the wind, and the king must check the Wind Shrine. However, the king doesn't return, and suddenly, the wind comes to a complete stop. Meanwhile, on a ship some distance away from the castle, a young pirate remarks on the wind having stopped. In another location, a young man is sitting by a campfire with his Chocobo. This man is Bartz, a traveller of the world, and noticing that the wind has stopped, he mounts his chocobo and begins to search around for clues. It doesn't take long for him to find Princess Lenna in distress, and quickly, he vanquishes the monsters that are attacking her. The two then meet an old man who is lying unconscious next to a strange meteorite. He can't remember much, although he remembers his name... Galuf. After discussing the importance of events, the three part ways, only to find themselves banding together again, embarking on a quest to save the world from destruction.<br /><br /><br /><u><b>Review</b></u><br /><br />Final Fantasy V Advance is certainly a lot better than the original Final Fantasy V, released on the Super Famicom (SNES). It features a better translation and a few added extras, but apart from that, it doesn't differ too much from the original in gameplay.<br /><br />

To be honest, this game is very confusing, as you're instantly left to fend for yourself in a gigantic world. Sure, your path is limited for a small while, but it's very easy to get lost the further you proceed through the game.<br /><br />

Final Fantasy V uses the Active Time Battle system. Basically, a gauge fills up for each character and when it's completely filled, that character can make a move. As usual, if your characters are all knocked out, or petrified, the game is over. However, a major difference is that this game utilises FOUR battle characters instead of the standard three.<br /><br />

Character levelling uses the standard level-up system combined with the job system. A character can learn different abilities depending on the job they have. For example, a Blue Mage can learn enemies attacks, while a White Mage can heal the party's status abnormalities and restore health. It's quite confusing at first, but eventually, you'll get the hang of it.<br /><br />

Graphics are kinda sub-par, considering how old the game originally was, but disappointingly enough, the graphics for the GBA version weren't greatly improved. This lost a few points.<br /><br />

Music is composed by Nobuo Uematsu, unsurprisingly. Most of it does great justice, though the GameBoy Advance's music driver caused the music to be less desirable than that of the original SNES version. All in all though, it's still pretty good music.<br /><br /><br /><u><b>Overall</b></u><br /><br />Final Fantasy V Advance is a good game to play if you're feeling a modern-retro feeling. It's a good game, but I found that once I completed it, I cast it aside for something less confusing.