[Classic] And now to start $h|T with the Final Fantasy 5 fans...

FF4 and FF5 seem pretty much the same to me in terms of the ATB for the simple reason that you can't switch between active turns. Therefore whether or not you could see the time bars was irrelevant. FF6 was the first to let you switch between active turns instead of forcing you to use up turns as they came up.

Musically, I won't argue against FF4 being better, but FF5 is pretty good too. I like the main battle theme more and a lot of the music has a mysterious quality to it that makes FF5 feel different from the other FF games. It just doesn't have the epic feel that FF4's has. No doubt that FF5's music was a transitional period which would culminate with FF6's score.

Graphically, what I remember is FF5's various sprites and such being smaller than in FF4, but also more detailed. The grass example doesn't seem to work in its favor but I definitely remember FF5 for having very varied dungeons in terms of visuals and design. From the Fire Ship to Pyramid, FF5 definitely had more visual variety than FF4. More than FF6 as well, though FF6 obviously went for a more consistent world, which is a far cry from FF7 having a place like Gold Saucer right next to North Corel.

Ultimately, FF5 felt more like a Dragon Quest game to me than the other games in the series. It was less cinematic than most FF games and more focused on gameplay elements like the job system and dungeon designs. I like it more than FF4 since the linearity of FF4 is not my preference, but both are among the FF games that I actually care about.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Borg1982

FF4 was also a consistent world.

I agree for the most part, except that the Lunar Whale was one seriously advanced ship compared to the mostly medieval world of FFIV. (The Giant of Babil was crazy as well) The whole Lunarian thing came out of left field but the lack of consistency in that respect isn't something which bothers me much since it was cool to visit the moon.

Originally Posted by Borg1982

My favorite game contains my favorite gameplay system of all time. It is a colossal waste of time to wait with somebody's window. It feels truly active. The moves are executed quickly. If somebody is dead and you want Rosa's turn to come badly, it will come at a fast rate anyway. If you don't want to wait, getting 99 of each item and putting them to use is good. You could even use a Life Potion so that Rosa only has to Cure when her turn comes. Furthermore, to prevent problems such as some chars' death, obviously planning ahead of time (in battle) as to the enemies' attacks is the smart thing to do, as the game is fast and doesn't queue itself as slowly. (Planning ahead of time is smart in all games, of course, I'm not trying to say it's only doable in FF4).

What FF6 did was to (unintentionally?) make things easier by giving you the option of saving turns. The upside is that you actually have more control over a fight, whereas in FF4 you had no choice but to use the current character's turn. The fights in FF4 do move more quickly, however. Just that there's the curious bit about stronger spells taking longer to cast, which is an unexpected bit of realism that didn't appear again until FFT, which had a combat system built around charge times.

What you're describing in terms of character turns being frozen sounds like what I recently noticed while playing FF8. When I attack an enemy, the turn bar of my fellow party member freezes.

There's nowhere I can't reach.