It leans into the silly side of FF, enough that it plays like a Saturday morning cartoon (in a good way). The sprite emotes are brilliant, and the job system is masterful. A blast to play. Not the sweeping epic some other entries are, but a different kind of FF.

All steak and no sizzle. The story isn't bad, but there's just not enough of it to spread around the game's girth (ewww). This is one for the grinders and character builders who value gameplay over everything else; I am one of those people, but even I want to feel like my paper doll hobby has some sort of purpose. This is still my favorite main series Final Fantasy, but I'm not going to run out telling everyone that it's better than what we'd get two sequels later.

The job classes are such a great idea but the story is just too silly, too ridiculous and too dull to really keep it interesting to play in.

The job systems were some of my favorite parts of 1 and 3, and this game cranks them up to a whole new level. This would be the progenitor of the tactics games, with a ton of character customizability. It drew away from FF3's need to switch jobs as a puzzle-solving mechanic, and just let players do what they wanted with the characters. The main story is mostly easy, but this one has more optional super-bosses than any other game in the series up to this point.

All about the job system.

This wasn't given to US audiences right away as it was deemed too complex for us. Instead we got Mystic Quest (where's THAT entry? Lemme at it!). The job system and unfolding story of the four (I'll say four) heroes really elevates this game.

A thinner plot compared to other FF games but I'd argue it has better gameplay than most games in the series. This game has something that few FF titles have - actually challenging boss fights. While this can make FFV a bit grindy at times, you can surpass most bosses with the right strategy and the job system adds some pretty cool variety to the sort of strategies you can use, even if this system was implemented better in future games. Also props for introducing Gilgamesh, FF's greatest hero.

The plot is much thinner and less compelling than Final Fantasy IV/VI on either side of it (basically just "you are good guys, here is evil dark lord, go defeat"), but this one is just an absolute blast to PLAY. I poured over those stat screens and abilities and classes endlessly; it's one of the games where I've spent the most amount of time micromanaging. Allowing you to train up/swap over specific abilities is a simple but brilliant addition to the original Final Fantasy class system.