Epic Battle Fantasy 5

I can't remember anymore, but I believe I have been playing the Epic Battle Fantasy series since the second game came out on Kongregate in 2009. It was an absolutely amazing game at the time among all the free Flash games, and I've been following the series since. EBF 3 and EBF 4 are still on my favorite games of all time list. I'm more than a bit late playing Epic Battle Fantasy 5 in 2025, but better late than never. It's more of the same, but better, currently sitting at the 255th spot in the highest rated games on Steam.

EBF 5 is a turn-based JRPG, though it's not made in Japan, but rather mostly by a single guy in Europe. It has very traditional mechanics, lining up your squad of 5 characters against up to 5 enemies. Only 3 of your characters can be on the field at a time, though switching between them is free, as long as the one on the field hasn't acted. You do all your actions, usually choosing one out of a dozen-or-so abilities per character, and then the enemies do all of theirs. Simple stuff. There are also 10 different elements, physical and magical attack and defense, evasion, accuracy, and over a dozen status effects. Both you and enemies can have resistances or vulnerabilities to any of these, and your equipment can heavily modify how well you can deal certain types of damage, or what you're resistant to. New to the series is a capturing mechanic, where almost every enemy can be captured after beating them low enough and debuffing them enough. All of these enemies can then be used (using a special resource) to use their specific ability instead of a character's own.

EBF has never been too innovative with its mechanics, but what it does incredibly well is quality. This is absolutely a case where it's copying other games, but people like it because it's just better than them. In most JRPGs, there is a very obvious problem of too much complexity, and not enough depth. Very many mechanics, things to learn, stuff to setup, and yet not a lot of it actually matters. Not here. At the most basic level and easier difficulties, you can just grab random characters, throw whatever equipment on them, and just kind of hit the enemy with whatever they're weak against. But turning the difficulty up to Epic, and even more so in the optional challenge areas, it really becomes important to utilize most of the features the game offers. Proper gearing against the enemies you're facing, utilizing buffs, debuffs, specific counterplay according to the enemy AI... I especially want to praise the buff and debuff system, because almost all RPGs get this horribly wrong, where buffing or debuffing is a pointless endeavor that wastes your turn, and maybe even mana, because it's always more effective to just attack instead. Again, not here. You have to choose the right ones, but buffs and debuffs have a really long duration, meaning that for those difficult and long boss fights, they will benefit you hugely.

I could talk on-and-on, because there is so much content in this game. Over 100 hours, if you want to complete all the optional stuff, and not much of that is recycled either. In fact, the amount of content is perhaps the biggest downside about this game. The amount of party members, and thus skills and equipment, has been increasing every installment since the second, and I'm feeling somewhat fatigued and overwhelmed by juggling everyone to perform optimally. This is alleviated by regular fights not requiring perfect play, and everyone getting fully replenished between each battle, but I can't ignore it nontheless. I can not memorize all the skills my characters have, nor all the equipment, especially not as they upgrade and gain new effects throughout the game, and this wastes time as I have to go through them every time I want to make a decision regarding them.

But to summarize this review before it gets too long, Epic Battle Fantasy 5 is an amazing traditional turn-based JRPG. While not very innovative, it manages to beat out similar games by being better in just about every regard, and having several times more content to boot. Different difficulty levels and optional gameplay modifiers allow everyone from casual gamers to people who prefer to approach battles as strategy puzzles to solve to enjoy it. I heavily recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed any turn-based JRPG. This will be earning a spot on my favorite games list, replacing the 3rd and 4th installements, because there's enough content and more that I could replay this multiple times before I wanted to go back.