I haven ' t played that many Final Fantasy games yet , but so far this one is my favorite . This game often gets dismissed for it ' s story , but actually I think it is pretty effective . It features a strong theme of loss and legacy . Exdeath is a force of pure hatred , the surpressed hatred of all humanity actually . And the heroes are remarkably unsecessfull in stopping him . It ' s a matter about carrying on and overcoming negative emotions , which seems very basic , but it is very effective of potraying it ' s themes . One part is gameplay of course , which almost always is about of overcoming things and FFV offers a reasonable amount of challenge . But this game also features far better writing than let ' s say FFVII . It ' s is amazing how quickly this game can switch moods without ever feeling off . The dialogue is snappy and on point , often hillarious , often highly memorable and never overwritten . Exdeath can alternate between being almost a joke villain to actually pretty scary just as effortlessly as the mood swings . Anyways he is never boring . Oh , and his minion is Gilgamesh , everyone loves Gilgamesh and game knows it . The heroes have simple personalities but grow on you . None of them get ' s anoying . Faris is actually pretty unconventional as a very early transgender character in gaming . I like how she is neither treated as a joke nor feels like the creators are trying to push how progressive they are . She just feels natural . Generally the game just feels right . It is a blown adventure , light hearted , exciting , but without omitting darkness . In some ways the game is extremely dark . The heroes keep loosing everything their homes , the crystals , everyone they love until the very end . And even that can turn in a downer if you don ' t perform well enough in the final battle . But still it manages to keep the overall upbeat feeling , never loosing it ' s humor . Remember the themes I mentioned ? The gameplay usually receives a lot more praise , and it ' s well deserved . Some consider this game grindy , but you don ' t really grind at all , unless maybe if you want a useful blue mage . Grinding here is more of a punishment to bad strategy or poor character building . But it ' s not that unforgiving . You don ' t need dualwielding rapidfire mystic knights to beat the game . The job system allows for limitiless exploration of party building combinations , playstile and self imposed challenge . It is far more sophisticated than cheap materia slots and far more fun , a great toy in itself and you always discover new ways how to utilise it both in and out combat . The equipment is really cool too and a real matter of choice , not just getting stronger . The healing staff you find early in the game ? Still usefull in the endgame , getting confused is not necessarily such a bad thing anymore , but maybe you want something else . If you like to use bone mail it get ' s rather annoying . I also never had too much money . And if you somehow get too much anyways , it has still use in the samurais Zenigage . You make meaningfull and interesting decisions in every part of the game , that ' s truly great gameplay . FFV is what I imagined RPGs to be like before I started playing them and it is the game that brought me back to gaming . And although I ' ve played Final Fantasy before , this is the one that sold me on the series and JRPGs . A true gem !