Thursday, March 17, 2016

Gaming Reviews: Final Fantasy 5: FMV intro and ending



In the year 1999, Final Fantasy 5 and 6 were re-release for the PS1. FF6 was called 3 when it came to America in 1994. FF5 on the other hand, was never released. There were attempts, due to the complex job system and higher difficulty, they plan to call it Final Fantasy Extreme. The early 90s was a time where Squaresoft didn't think we could handle the complex nature of RPGs, so they made Mystic Quest, and remove some battle options in FF4(or 2 as it was originally released.)

There is a fan-translation made on the internet but not everyone uses the internet. The 1st time FF5 was finally released officially was in the Anthology compilation set for PS1.

Seeing FF6 opening made me gush like a crazy fanboy seeing all my favorite character in 3D but with FF5, I knew nothing in that game, so I wasn't excited like I was with 6.

Here's the opening

The opening shows your main characters
The young Princess, named Lenna (or is it Reina?)

The cool pirate, Faris(Too beautiful for a man unless he's...)

The old guy, Galuf

And our hero, Butz...err, I mean Bartz.


After you beat the game, they show a CGI cutscene, showing certain moments in the game in 3D.


There are some thing seriously wrong with the video. For one thing, the video shows the villain's castle creating a force field around itself and planning to throw everything to the distance.
Will you have a reaction like this if a Godzilla-sized force field is going to throw you 50 miles away?



This tanned-skin white hair man in tight black leather is the main hero, Bartz. Judging by the videos, this guy is a silent loner type just like Cloud and Squall. Totally Bartz alright *sarcasm*

Anybody who played FF5 (especially the Game Boy Advance version), or any of the Dissidia games. You will well know for a fact that Bartz is no way a silent loner. He's a goofball.

Here's a video of his encounters with the other characters in Dissidia. Tell me, does he comes across as a silent loner or a goofball. You don't have to watch the whole video but you can easily tell what type of character Bartz is suppose to be.

I guess with the game being a re-release and not a brand new Final Fantasy, they didn't have a budget to afford facial expressions. They must of blew it on Kefka creepy smile on the FF6 videos. They must of hid the lack of expressions better on 6 due to Terra having a blank mind and you don't see Locke's, Setzer's, or Shadow's face clearly.



As you notice, their in-game models they look way different than the ones showed in the CGI video. 
  • Bartz doesn't look like dark-skin male stripper with white hair. 
  • Lenna doesn't wear a princess dress which makes sense because why would someone wear that in battle? 
  • Galuf doesn't look like he skinny to the bones. He's an old man alright but not old and frail. 
  • Faris...Well she has purple hair.


There is official artwork of the game, done by Yoshitaka Amano. He's a very good artist who does alot artwork for Final Fantasy series but sometimes, it will seriously clash with the game's models. The game's videos are more based on the artwork rather than the actual game. Bartz in Dissidia thankfully looks like a mix of his artwork and FF5 game sprite. The white-hair version is an alternate costume.

Final Fantasy 5 is a lighthearted game, full of silly dialogue in a world that's bright and colorful. It be dark when it needs to be. I guess after the post-apocalyptic 6, cyberpunk 7, and the realistic looking 8. The makers of the CGI video thought it be to good idea to make FF5 look dark and gritty with main hero as a silent loner. It didn't work for Legend of Chun-Li, the Super Mario Bros Live Action Movie, the Americanized covers of Mega-Man, and not for FF5.

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