Alex EustisFinal Fantasy V (PS) - 3:26 - Alex Eustis (2006)

Speed run of Final Fantasy V on done on January 4 2006. Available in four versions: low quality, normal quality, and 60fps high/insane quality.

Author's comments:
The fifth game of the Final Fantasy series was not released in the US until its Playstation remake, which is the version you see here. It is nonetheless a spectacular game, featuring a job system quite like the one in Final Fantasy: Tactics. Jobs are switchable between battles, and abilities, once learned, may be carried from one job to another.

I'd like to thank everyone who helped me or encouraged me to make this run. Credit goes to many members of the SDA forum, especially Genji and Mkt2015 for their helpful suggestions. Many thanks also to instructorpepe, whose amazingly comprehensive and accurate algorithms/stats FAQ on gamefaqs.com made this run possible, and Boco, whose tool-assisted run of the first world contained tricks I never would have thought of. Let's not forget Nate, and Radix for editing, and hosting this run, and the verifiers.

For those of you who'd rather not watch the whole run, the last five segments, especially the very last one, are probably the most entertaining.

Like any good speed run, this is the final result of much discussion, research, planning, testing, re-planning, re-testing, practicing, and recording. It's true that my this is my first speed run, and my 2D gaming skills can't stand up to the best of them, but for an RPG the planning is more important to the final time than speedy execution.

The main reason I chose this game is that the flexibility of the job system allows for almost limitless different strategies. By tailoring a strategy for each fight, you can close out most combats within only one or two rounds. Due to several abilities being powerful almost to the point of brokenness, this can be made to work no matter how low your characters' levels are. Really! This means that I never have to grind for levels during the run; this can't be avoided in most RPGs. Viewers may be especially interested in the last few segments, where having the proper strategy wins the day despite the fact that any attack from any boss could kill my characters in one hit.

A word about segments: 25 might seem like a lot to some people, but it's actually exercising some restraint. No amount of skill will sway the random events in the game to your favor; only redoing the segments over and over again can accomplish that. One could continue adding segments pretty much ad nauseum to get a better time. For instance, you never have to encounter any monsters outside if you save every 15 steps or so. Taking this idea to its logical conclusion, you'll have potentially hundreds of completely uninteresting segments. This run aims for a happy medium: it uses luck manipulation when the effects are greatest, but still has a viewable number of segments.

Without further ado, here is the summary of the run by segment.

1: Opening
Mostly plot in this segment. Contrary to what might seem like common sense, "battle speed" doesn't make battles go any faster; it just gives you less time to choose your actions. In some cases, setting the battle speed to fastest means you go after the enemies instead of before them.
In various other versions of this game, the protagonist is named Butz or Bartz by default, but in this version there is no default, so he's just B.

2: Pirate cave and wind shrine
I fought one battle in the wind shrine to get level 2 for Siren. Wingraptor is a pushover as long as you grab the sword for Galuf.
Thank goodness that thieves have every non-combat ability I could ever want, and that their crystal in the first set! The only problem is, their dash ability is a little too fast perhaps, because I can't always control it perfectly. I fumbled around in the crystal room, and forgot what I was doing in the menu screen to boot.

3: Torma canal, ship graveyard
Karl Boss is easy to kill with bolt. It didn't even matter that I forgot to move to the back row.
You can see that goblinpunch is tremendous in the Siren battle. In fact, that's the general pattern for blue magic in this run; each time I learn one, total ownage ensues against several future bosses. Actually, goblinpunch only becomes an uber-weapon when your level exactly matches that of your target, making it only feasible to use on two bosses in the game.

4: North mountain
I fight the two tatus in order to achieve level 3 for the goblinpunching of Garula in the next segment. True to the meaning of "speed run", I defiantly charge through the poisonous flowers.
Magissa gets the distinct honor of being the first victim of rod-breaking. Without the ice rod from Kerwin Town, I would have no way to beat Magissa and her beefy husband who normally comes to her aid. Still, Galuf manages to get himself fried again.

5: Garula, first visit to Karnak
Garula is normally capable of crushing a party of level 3 characters like peanuts. He must be terminated with extreme caution, using the latest in paralyzing weaponry and goblin martial arts.

6: Steamship
I fight some monsters in order to learn exploder, which will come in handy later in the run. I targeted my bolt incorrectly against the mottletraps, though, which cost me about 10 seconds. (It was supposed to hit both.)
When you hit Liquiflame, it changes form, either to a tornado that is about as threatening as a tranquilized kitten, or to a hand that is totally invincible against magic and devastates you with fire2. Guess which form I'm hoping for.

7: Karnak castle explosion
For some reason, the dash system is whacked out in this castle; you move at 2x speed independent of having a thief and/or holding the dash button.
I had to keep restarting in order to not be attacked by any sergeants; they're nearly impossible to run away from and I don't yet have the flee ability. Also, the boss cooperates and teaches me doom claw in a timely fashion. This skill pretty much kills anything it can hit.

8: Ancient library
With ice rods on my side, Ifrit is more bark than bite. I then use his powers to quickly learn level 5 doom from the forced battle. Oh precious, precious lv. 5 doom. Most bosses are normally immune to anything involving a big floating skull, but this spell bypasses that immunity! Of course, it only works if the target's level is divisible by 5, but this can always be attained through a little "level arithmetic," once I learn blackshock and L2 old later on.
Biblos can be doom clawed, as you can see. Lady Luck decided to give me a first strike, which made me very happy. As far as I know, Biblos is the only boss who can be struck first.

9: World touring, Sandworm
I spent all the money I'd been collecting on a bunch of rods and ninja skills, which are needed for various boss fights.
Sandworm's biggest weakness is the aqua rake spell. I have no way to learn it. Its next biggest weakness is the water element, which I exploit by having three ninjas flip out and throw water skills at it. Occasionally three of them wouldn't quite do the trick, so at the last moment I decided to throw in that silly knife attack. Other than that, this long segment is just plot development and fleeing from enemies.

10: Crayclaw, Blackflames, Adamantaim
Clay Claw has pathetic HP for a boss at this point in the game. The battle against the blackflames is for the purpose of learning blackshock. Yes, I could have thrown that skill sooner; it was a silly mistake. Faris takes one (two, actually) for the team in the Adamantaim battle.

11: Airship, floating city, Puroboros
With my characters' levels, the flamethrows will incinerate me if they get even one turn. Ninjas are faster than they are, fortunately. Soul Gun is likewise no problem.
It took me quite a few resets before I could run through the whole floating city at 4x speed without screwing up too badly.
Archeoavis is one of the more durable bosses I have to face. Although it appears to have two only forms, the first is actually comprised of four different forms, each corresponding to a different element. Forms 2 and 4 can be hit by doom claw, so I probably should have used it. This way is pretty much the same speed, though.
You can tell I have no fear of Puroboros based on the fact that I fight them in the same segment as Archeoavis. I have $toss now, which is t3H r0>

This item is part of the collection: Speed Runs

Producer: Alex Eustis
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: Final Fantasy; PlayStation

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Captured by Nate.