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Current Events > Better game: Final Fantasy IV or Final Fantasy V?

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Bleuets
01/02/23 11:53:08 PM
#1:


I love both but Im gonna go with FFV because of the job system.
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MarcyWarcy
01/02/23 11:55:20 PM
#2:


IV has a really shitty story and is super linear, V has a simplistic but ok story and great gameplay
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Scintillant
01/02/23 11:55:45 PM
#3:


i think IV has a way better story and characters but the jobs in V are pretty fun. I'd give it to IV out of nostalgia.

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Lukey_Bug
01/02/23 11:56:06 PM
#4:


V. I really can't explain it but it's just so good

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The_Popo
01/02/23 11:58:21 PM
#5:


IV by far, IMO

But I totally understand why some would prefer V. The two games have different strengths, with FF4 having a stronger story & characters, while FF5 has the much more in-depth gameplay mechanic.

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Ivany2008
01/02/23 11:58:46 PM
#6:


I've spoken on this multiple times. While 5 may be the better experience, 4 is what I call the standard turn-based rpg. It's the game I mention to people who want to play a turn-based rpg for the first time. It has a straight forward story that isn't too easy or hard, and introduces the basics of the genre.

There are better games in the genre, but not define the genre moreso than Final Fantasy 4/IV.
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pfh1001
01/02/23 11:58:58 PM
#7:


4. I don't give a damn about the job system.
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bevan306
01/03/23 12:00:07 AM
#8:


5 is more fun and has a nice vibe

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MarcyWarcy
01/03/23 12:02:18 AM
#9:


Ivany2008 posted...
I've spoken on this multiple times. While 5 may be the better experience, 4 is what I call the standard turn-based rpg. It's the game I mention to people who want to play a turn-based rpg for the first time. It has a straight forward story that isn't too easy or hard, and introduces the basics of the genre.

There are better games in the genre, but not define the genre moreso than Final Fantasy 4/IV.

how many poor unfortunates have you mislead
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Alucard188
01/03/23 12:02:36 AM
#10:


FFIV because the story is much better.

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Autocraticus
01/03/23 12:10:00 AM
#11:


4 has much better music.
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ChocoboMogALT
01/03/23 12:11:27 AM
#12:


I still insist the love of IV is fueled purely by nostalgia. The story is super basic, not really engaging, and kinda a little insulting to the player. Similarly, the gameplay is super basic - even more than FF2 and FF3.

FFV is pretty goofy, but in an endearing way. The job system is really fun and the big moments are really cool, especially in comparison to FFIV's soap opera.

Both games have amazing music that just sets the mood of each scene. There's a reason people like FF so much, but I think FFV is more technically impressive.

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dj1200
01/03/23 12:12:15 AM
#13:


V

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gunplagirl
01/03/23 12:12:35 AM
#14:


IV defines the genre like no other

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tripleh213
01/03/23 12:14:01 AM
#15:


4

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ellis123
01/03/23 12:15:17 AM
#16:


V. There is a reason that attributes from V continue to be be brought over, such as Gilgamesh or its specific iteration of the job system, while practically nothing from IV has.

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Ricemills
01/03/23 12:17:06 AM
#17:


V
but it loses on nostalgia point because it wasn't released in the US until ps1 version.

maybe the decision to skip it was correct tho, because it was too hard for Americans to understand lmao. that's why FF mystic quest created.


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FL81
01/03/23 12:20:27 AM
#18:


5 > 6 > 4, and pretty clearly too

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MrMallard
01/03/23 12:21:53 AM
#19:


IV is okay. I found myself getting really I to the story, but the whole thing where party members keep coming and going bugs me.

V has a solid base of gameplay and I don't have to exert a lot of effort on the story. I enjoy playing it as a game over IV.

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Smackems
01/03/23 12:22:12 AM
#20:


The_Popo posted...
IV by far, IMO

But I totally understand why some would prefer V. The two games have different strengths, with FF4 having a stronger story & characters, while FF5 has the much more in-depth gameplay mechanic.


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Liu_Kano
01/03/23 12:30:09 AM
#21:


5 is objectively better

4 has both a shitty story and shitty gameplay bereft of any customization whatsoever. People have nostalgia goggles for the soundtrack and the first 3 hours of gameplay.

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Lukey_Bug
01/03/23 12:43:03 AM
#22:


Big Bridge

https://youtu.be/bO4Q9Evg1WM

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gunplagirl
01/03/23 12:44:04 AM
#23:


Liu_Kano posted...
5 is objectively better

4 has both a shitty story and shitty gameplay bereft of any customization whatsoever. People have nostalgia goggles for the soundtrack and the first 3 hours of gameplay.
Customization means fuck all if half the jobs aren't even worth touching for the sake of passing their skills to another job. And the story of V is just FFI for the third time. FFI cool ranch flavor, wowee.

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MarcyWarcy
01/03/23 1:09:11 AM
#24:


gunplagirl posted...
Customization means fuck all if half the jobs aren't even worth touching for the sake of passing their skills to another job. And the story of V is just FFI for the third time. FFI cool ranch flavor, wowee.

every job is viable, ff4 is shit for kids
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gunplagirl
01/03/23 1:25:13 AM
#25:


MarcyWarcy posted...
every job is viable, ff4 is shit for kids
Viable doesn't mean shit when certain jobs are obviously much more powerful even without any other job skills. That's like saying that eveey melee subclass in DND 5E are fine when at best most of them are not optimal outside of hypothetical and at worst they're actually a worse version of an unoptimized subclass. Meanwhile it's obvious that in terms of single target and are damage, mages win. And in terms of tankiness, the ability to use spells like shield gives mages a higher AC and better mental saving rolls so their tankiness is actually nominally higher even the most min maxed hypothetical melee tanks.

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Ivany2008
01/03/23 5:54:30 PM
#26:


MarcyWarcy posted...
how many poor unfortunates have you mislead

I can't help that you can't read.
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RndmNmber1
01/03/23 6:07:53 PM
#27:


FFV had more sales in JP than FFIV JP+US combined.

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FL81
01/03/23 6:10:31 PM
#28:


it is a crime that FFV wasn't initially released for the US markets

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Gamefreak1000
01/03/23 6:16:15 PM
#29:


Beat FFV yesterday for the first time. Really fun game, I enjoyed it a lot. I do have more respect for IV though as it was the first time Square tried to put an actual story in their games (relative to the NES entries at least) and I think the soundtrack is better, but V is overall way more fun and I think a better game.

gunplagirl posted...
Viable doesn't mean shit when certain jobs are obviously much more powerful even without any other job skills.

Completely disagree. The point of having viable classes is you can still clear the game relatively smoothly even if you're playing sub-optimally. I wanted Leena to be a Dragoon simply because Dragoon's are awesome. Prior to the Earth Crystal, she was a two-handed Knight/Mystic Knight. Once I made her a Dragoon, she performed notably worse. I didn't really care though, because I wanted a Dragoon, the rest of my party was strong, and the game is easy enough as it is. I also eventually did find a secondary ability that worked well on Dragoon (Jump/Revive combo) completely by accident. Leena was still weaker than when she was two-handing a sword, but it ultimately didn't make a difference because Dragoon is still viable, even if weaker. It's an important thing for every job to be decent so that the player can clear it with whatever party they want, and much preferable than forcing the player to swap off a bad class they find cool just to beat a boss.


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MarcyWarcy
01/03/23 7:32:20 PM
#30:


gunplagirl posted...
Viable doesn't mean shit when certain jobs are obviously much more powerful even without any other job skills. That's like saying that eveey melee subclass in DND 5E are fine when at best most of them are not optimal outside of hypothetical and at worst they're actually a worse version of an unoptimized subclass. Meanwhile it's obvious that in terms of single target and are damage, mages win. And in terms of tankiness, the ability to use spells like shield gives mages a higher AC and better mental saving rolls so their tankiness is actually nominally higher even the most min maxed hypothetical melee tanks.

it sounds like you're an absolute bore to play dnd with and thats all i got out of that post
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FatAnimeBooty
01/03/23 7:34:04 PM
#31:


gunplagirl posted...
IV defines the genre like no other
Dragon Quest 1 and 3
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Shotgunnova
01/03/23 7:35:41 PM
#32:


IV

For as big a FFT fan as I am, I've never been big on FF5.

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harley2280
01/03/23 7:35:48 PM
#33:


V, because the villain is literally a splinter in someone's hand for part of the game.

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Tyranthraxus
01/03/23 7:36:29 PM
#34:


ellis123 posted...
V. There is a reason that attributes from V continue to be be brought over, such as Gilgamesh or its specific iteration of the job system, while practically nothing from IV has.

4 is literally the first ATB game.

Meteor debuted in 4.

I could go on but you get the idea. There's no question that 4 had been more influential than 5. "But job system!" You say which was mostly copied from FF3

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harley2280
01/03/23 7:38:45 PM
#35:


Tyranthraxus posted...
You say which was mostly copied from FF3
DQIII*

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MarcyWarcy
01/03/23 7:40:46 PM
#36:


Tyranthraxus posted...


Meteor debuted in 4.

its a high level spell in ff3
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Tyranthraxus
01/03/23 7:41:31 PM
#37:


harley2280 posted...
DQIII*

At the time Square and Enix were different companies so as far as I'm concerned anything they may have stolen from DQ is irrelevant. It only matters when it showed up in FF

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Tyranthraxus
01/03/23 7:52:08 PM
#38:


MarcyWarcy posted...
its a high level spell in ff3

Ah yeah this is right. There were still some new spells in 4 that are still used in basically every other entry though.

It also was the first game iirc to feature using equipped items in combat as items.

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ellis123
01/03/23 7:52:38 PM
#39:


Tyranthraxus posted...
4 is literally the first ATB game.

Meteor debuted in 4.

I could go on but you get the idea. There's no question that 4 had been more influential than 5. "But job system!" You say which was mostly copied from FF3
Meteor was a holy spell in IV until the remakes changed it to be in line with later entries and started as a spell from FFIII, the ATB that most people attribute to the series was one with a charging bar that was implemented in V (though, obviously, popularized in the west through VI and beyond) to the point that all remakes use it, and the job system was fairly different in III beyond the crystals aspect (such as how magic is bought from stores or how you learned skills by leveling up).

Basically, nothing that actually started in IV actually stuck around in the form that it was portrayed, but the same isn't true in V where most of the changes from earlier entries actively stuck. So yeah, in the overall gaming landscape outside of Japan IV was more of a major influence, but as far as the series as a whole it handily goes down to the other games in the series. Heck, I'd even say that II was overall more influential to the overall scope of the series than IV so little of it actually moved forwards without notable modification.

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Gamefreak1000
01/03/23 7:53:41 PM
#40:


Tyranthraxus posted...
"But job system!" You say which was mostly copied from FF3

I'm playing 3 right now as well, and coming straight from 5, the differences are really night and day.

I liked 5 a lot because of its party flexibility and hybrid job system. I think it's really cool that I can train someone in white magic for a bit, then turn them into a physical based class but still have some utility as an off-healer. I mastered every class in FFV just to see what sort of abilities they'd give you.

3 doesn't really provide you any advantages for training multiple jobs, and actually punishes you every time you swap. Characters in 3 are much more set in their field, while in 5 you could turn someone into a white mage out of battle just to heal, then turn them back. It's WAY more unbalanced admittedly, but that's what makes it fun lol. I find 3's job system incredibly stifling by comparison.


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MarcyWarcy
01/03/23 8:05:31 PM
#41:


4 was an attempt by square to bring Final Fantasy more in line with where DQ was going. FF1 and FF2 are kind of interesting in and of themselves, even with how much of a mess 2 ends up being until they figured the formula out later for the SaGa games, but 3 is very clearly a play to cash in on how popular DQ3 was and 4 is an attempt to create a coherent character-based narrative as DQ4 was attempting to do.

The problem is that the gameplay wasn't entirely there and there is very little aspect of choice or experimentation with what they can do, and the story is a unique mess all of its own. People deride 5 for its story but its main problem is honestly more than anything that it is very straightforward and simple. Your characters all have something actually approaching arcs in that, whereas 4's characters feel like stereotypes yanked out of animes and LNs of the time by a writer that has absolutely no idea what to do with them. The result is an overarching plot that is kind of interested but populated with literally disposable characters you don't care about who pop in and out of the story on a dime, and the only thing they ever do to try to make you take care of them is either dramatically kill them or make them dramatically appear to die. Why that is the only narrative device that they have I genuinely dunno but it sucks.

5 is refreshing because it's the first game since 2 that seems to have its own identity where Square isn't chasing trends. They took the busted job system 3 tried and greatly improved it while giving you a lot more wiggle room for experimentation. They also massively scaled back the characters involved in the plot and as a result they all end up being more fleshed out and solidified as people even if the central plot is bland. And with 6, they took another crack at the huge overarching story with many players they tried in 4 and knocked it out of the park, while also making characters more versatile and fun to experiment with using magicite.
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Tyranthraxus
01/03/23 8:28:26 PM
#42:


ellis123 posted...
the ATB that most people attribute to the series was one with a charging bar that was implemented in V

The bar was always there it was just invisible.

ellis123 posted...
such as how magic is bought from stores

This never truly went away despite it being absent in the SNES games. You bought magic from stores in FF7 and FF9 though you could freely change them out at any given time and FF9 offered you the ability to learn them permanently.

Buying your magic in shops was also the defacto system for spin-offs.

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ScazarMeltex
01/03/23 8:30:23 PM
#43:


IV

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SHRlKE
01/03/23 8:30:59 PM
#44:


MarcyWarcy posted...
IV has a really shitty story and is super linear, V has a simplistic but ok story and great gameplay

Why is linear seen as bad?
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JKwaffle
01/03/23 8:32:16 PM
#45:


Lukey_Bug posted...
V. I really can't explain it but it's just so good


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MarcyWarcy
01/03/23 8:34:44 PM
#46:


SHRlKE posted...
Why is linear seen as bad?

Because it's boring. It's okay for a first playthrough but when most people want to replay a game they are going to either find the core gameplay really satisfying or they are going to want to experiment in ways they didn't the first time through. FF4 has almost no wiggle room in either of those respects, which leaves nothing but rereading the story, which is even more of a problem, because like half of the interesting stuff that happens in FF4's story is them trying to surprise you with character deaths and plot twists. That's not going to work twice.
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Tyranthraxus
01/03/23 8:38:54 PM
#47:


MarcyWarcy posted...
Because it's boring. It's okay for a first playthrough but when most people want to replay a game they are going to either find the core gameplay really satisfying or they are going to want to experiment in ways they didn't the first time through. FF4 has almost no wiggle room in either of those respects, which leaves nothing but rereading the story, which is even more of a problem, because like half of the interesting stuff that happens in FF4's story is them trying to surprise you with character deaths and plot twists. That's not going to work twice.

The GBA/PSP version is better in that regard because of the party changing. TAY goes even farther it's got the largest roster of any non-tactics FF game.


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SHRlKE
01/03/23 8:40:29 PM
#48:


MarcyWarcy posted...
Because it's boring. It's okay for a first playthrough but when most people want to replay a game they are going to either find the core gameplay really satisfying or they are going to want to experiment in ways they didn't the first time through. FF4 has almost no wiggle room in either of those respects, which leaves nothing but rereading the story, which is even more of a problem, because like half of the interesting stuff that happens in FF4's story is them trying to surprise you with character deaths and plot twists. That's not going to work twice.

Do you mean becaue of being unable to pick your own team as that was fixed in the pixel remasters.
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MarcyWarcy
01/03/23 8:47:26 PM
#49:


SHRlKE posted...
Do you mean becaue of being unable to pick your own team as that was fixed in the pixel remasters.

I did a playthrough of it again when the remaster was released and that helped a little bit. That was the first time in a long while I've played FF4 without a romhack and it did add a little flavor to it, but at the end of the day, I don't really think the characters in FF4 have interesting enough skillsets to make experimentation feel anywhere near as worth it as it does in 5 or 6
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ellis123
01/03/23 9:23:20 PM
#50:


Tyranthraxus posted...
The bar was always there it was just invisible.
*And*? I never said that IV wasn't the first ATB game, just that the version that people think of came from V. There were also some behind-the-scenes stuffs that changed as well and they also came from V.

Tyranthraxus posted...
This never truly went away despite it being absent in the SNES games. You bought magic from stores in FF7 and FF9 though you could freely change them out at any given time and FF9 offered you the ability to learn them permanently.

Buying your magic in shops was also the defacto system for spin-offs.
You don't buy the magic from the stores in either VII or XI, you buy things that can let you use the spells. That is a pretty enormous difference in terms of playability. Even then you are grasping at random straws because my point was that III had a job system that was not at all like V's, and acting like the existence of something even vaguely similar in later points in the series doesn't mean that the job systems are somehow the same. Doubly so when you are talking about the game that pretty famously got rid of the even barest concept of the characters having a defined "job" and the game that explicitly was going back to having the characters have extremely rigid roles... basically the literal furthest you can possibly get from having either a V *or* III-styled job system.

And magic-in-shops was not defacto for buying magic. Ignoring the fact that, once again, its existence doesn't mean that III and V's job systems were the same outside of the barest of similarities (really just names and crystals) there is an overwhelming amount of spin-offs that don't involve "buying magic" even in the context of the "buying the thing that lets you use magic" that you were talking about. Heck, even in something that had intrinsic value in explicitly bringing that sort of system on board like Before Crisis didn't even have it: it was just something that they used whenever they felt it was relevant.

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