Final Fantasy 5 Advance for Game Boy Advance
Final Fantasy 5 may have been the first game that was fan-translated. Release-wise, it was stuck in no-games land between Final Fantasy 2 and and 3 US, and for whatever reason, the powers that were (meaning, Nintendo of America) decided that they didn't want to release this game to their U.S. audience. When Square decided to turn to other systems that were willing to publish their games (Sony), they also began to release Final Fantasy games that, up until that point, hadn't been (commercially) seen here. Of course, for many it was a bit of a surprise to have Final Fantasy 1, 2 (4 in Japan), and 3 (6 in Japan), and then all of a sudden Final Fantasy 7 for the Playstation 1 was upon us.
I first played Final Fantasy 5 almost fifteen years ago, after I had heard about the translation project from a friend. I fired up my SNES emulator, and was blown away. This game improved on the Job system from Final Fantasy 3j (another game us Americans didn't see until much later). Characters got better not just by gaining experience, but in gaining expertise in player selected professions. Once jobs were mastered, characters could select other jobs and become more powerful. Classes could be changed at will. And any abilities that the character learned from becoming more expert in their chosen professions could be selected in order to meet the challenges they would surely face.
This said, characters could learn a ridiculous number of skills... and only have a use for a few of them. This is because characters are given only four battle commands, and most classes pick three of those for you. Therefore, you really can only combine two classes at a time, until you use one of the two end-game classes made available to players— the Freelancer (which gives you Fight, Item, and two chosen abilities), and the Mime (which allows the Mimic command and *three* chosen abilities). This hamstrings the possibilities that the game's engine seems to want to give the player, and in my opinion reduces the fun that could be had.
The Custom Classes mod seeks to maximize the choices available to the player within the confines of the Final Fantasy 5 4-battle-command-system. You are allowed the maximum leeway granted by the game's engine to assign commands and abilities that you have earned as you progress through the game. More care must be taken so that you don't employ unwinnable strategies (such as forgetting to set a "Fight" command to your characters...!) Spells and monsters have been modified slightly and hopefully are balanced with the customization options available to the player. Visit the Custom Classes Mod downloads page to download the current version.
If you have any questions on the Custom Classes mod, or any suggestions for how to make this site better, feel free to contact me.
Custom Classes— Info Pages
- Character Classes
- Statistical Considerations
- Where are uncommon spells found? (minor spoilers) * Coming Soon... *
Other Resources
For any other informational needs on Final Fantasy 5, visit ffvspirit.com. It is a clearinghouse of information on game data, and has info on spells, items, a complete walkthrough, and more.
Copyright notice
The content in this portion of the website pertains to "software" known as "Final Fantasy 5" and "Final Fantasy 5 Advance", which is the property of Square Enix. The mod is completely unofficial, and was an amateur fan-made undertaking. I respect the intellectual property of Square Enix, and under no circumstances will I distribute the ROMs for either the SNES or the GBA versions of Final Fantasy 5. The patch available for download is a derivative work and is completely my own. It is offered totally free of charge.