Final Fantasy Challenge: Final Fantasy V Part 2. “Enough expository banter! Now we fight like men! And ladies! And ladies who dress like men!”

I’ve heard that quote more than once before I played this game. I have done all of the Hildebrand quests up through Endwalker. I just now realized he’s talking about Faris. She’s a lady who dresses like a man. This is something I really like about the game, even though it hints pretty well at her being a woman before the reveal, I do like that the Wind Crystal Job sprites for Faris have her in more masculine clothing than Lenna. There are hints, such as her having the same color armor for Knight as Lenna while Bartz has the same color as Galuf. Krile has the same color as her grandfather and Bartz, but, you don’t have Krile until you have all of the Jobs (other than Mimic) and it makes sense for her to have similar sprites as Galuf considering she inherits his abilities. Also, after the jump, it’s spoiler territory. I also talk about endgame spoilers for other games in the series, including XVI, VIII and IX and parts of Shadowbringers, so be wary.

So, the second world of Final Fantasy V kind of made up for some of the complaints I had about Bartz’s world. This game still isn’t a narrative tour-de-force like VI or even IV is, but it definitely stepped up in terms of storytelling and developing characters. It’s interesting because now that I’ve played pretty much every other game in the series other than XIII, one of the criticisms I have is that the story tends to fall off in the second half, but not so here. This is where we actually got some real character moments for some of our guys. Galuf, of course, gets the lion’s share, with Krile getting a lot even before she joins the party, but Bartz, Lenna and Faris get a lot more than they had in Bartz’s world. It’s still not a lot, but Bartz’s angst about his father does explain his sort of lackadaisical and easy-going demeanor. He doesn’t want to feel the sadness he went through losing his parents, so he just sort of ignores it, but it manifests in different ways. It’s part of why he’s afraid of heights, for instance. Lenna and Faris get to explore a bit more about their history, after watching their father sacrifice himself to save them and defeat Exdeath. Finally, we get Exdeath.

So, I love Exdeath. Nearly every time he comes on the screen, it’s after doing something horrible and I wind up shouting “Exdeath! You asshole!” It’s great. What’s interesting is that he’s kind of the opposite of what I like when it comes to Final Fantasy villains. I love very human, very relatable villains. Emet-Selch, Vayne Solidor, Shinra, Kefka Palazzo, Kuja and Garland, and a lot of Final Fantasy XIV villains are some really good fantasy video game villains largely because they feel like things bad people in real life would do or be. Sure, many of them have super powers, are wizards or literally turn into gods (or in Kuja’s case, summons the universal embodiment of death), but even when Kefka is literally the god of magic, his apathy and despair feels very human. He got what he wanted and it’s terrible, so the rest of the world will suffer. Exdeath, meanwhile, is just a complete asshole. No redeeming qualities. He’s not even funny like Kefka is. I mean, his actions are hilariously terrible, but he’s not cracking jokes or anything, he’s just so awful that its comical. He’s not even a person, he’s an evil tree. He wants power to destroy everything. He should be down there with, like, Ultimecia in terms of villains I think are lame as hell, but nope, Exdeath rules. He has so much charisma, so much presence combined with zero redeeming features. He’s a very flat character who wants nothing but destruction and it rules. He shows up, chews the scenery, probably blows it all up, kills a bunch of people and just mocks you. The only thing I didn’t like was what he did to my boy Gilgamesh.

So, I have to admit, I was really excited for Gilgamesh. I’ve seen this guy in several other games, but never his initial appearance, but he’s great here. I wanted to see my boy Greg so bad and he didn’t deliver. Cowardly, arrogant and wielding so many dumb weapons while thinking he’s the smartest guy on the planet is hilarious. Plus, hearing Battle on the Big Bridge as it was originally intended was so good. Hell, the whole Battle at Big Bridge is one of my favorite sequences in the game, especially with him running away. I just forgot the steal the Genji Armor from him before he got launched into Final Fantasy VIII. The first time I got to fight ol’ Gilgamesh, I couldn’t help myself and cried out “GREG” with delight to see one of my favorites in his first real appearance.

So, the last thing to talk about is, of course, Galuf’s death. Now, I think Cid’s death in XVI might be the strongest party death in the series, but that one is kind of unfair because it’s so emotionally moving and it’s in full 4k with Ralph Ineson, Ben Starr and Susannah Fielding doing voice work. So, I always considered Tellah’s self-righteous sacrifice against Golbez to be the best, thanks to the story-gameplay integration. However, Galuf’s sacrifice is even better. It has the similar story-gameplay integration, only this time, it’s a noble sacrifice, so Galuf can save the next generation and his granddaughter. He takes on Exdeath on his own entirely at 0 hit points. I just threw comet after comet at Exdeath until he finally died, since Galuf was already dead anyway. I love that after, they tried everything to save him, Curaga, a Phoenix Down and an Elixir, but nothing saved him because it’s not running out of hit points that kills you. God, he just refused to go out. Of course, Exdeath isn’t so easily defeated, he managed to turn himself into a splinter to resurrect himself after he merged worlds, so it wasn’t the end, but Galuf saved the party. He should be commended.

Ultimately, this one is shaping up to be one of my favorite Final Fantasy titles, I think. I think it will fight with IX in that spot. It doesn’t beat out XII, XIV and XVI, and I think that VI and VII will remain in their spots as second and fifth respectively, but it’s still an A-rank game.