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Sections | SquareEnix goes environmental: Final Fantasy V
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To those who insist that video games spread nothing but violence: Shame on you. While the game never does say it, the underlying message seems to reflect on the state of the natural world. SquareEnix takes a stand, as it urges gamers to care more for Mother Nature by creating a catastrophe unlike any the RPG world has ever seen.
The Story
The world is dying. Not from an evil entity or the ravages of war, but from the deterioration of the natural world itself. Life slowly crumbles as the elemental crystals of Fire, Water, Earth and Ice – the 4 essential elements that bring life – decay. To make matters worse, the fifth element, Space, starts hurling meteors from above.
A team of adventurers decides to investigate and subsequently, traces these problems back to another dimension. After transporting themselves to the troubled dimension, the party discovers that the problems are caused by the reawakening of X-Death and his servant, Gilgamesh after the Four Braves of the Dawn sealed them 30 years ago.
The team however, is no match for X-Death and as a result, both worlds merge and chaos ensue as X-Death exercises his powers by dragging reality into a void. The party sets out on a quest to find the 8 holy weapons before heading to the Cleft of Dimension to destroy X-Death.
The Heroes
Final Fantasy V features the smallest cast so far, with only 5 characters to play with. Bartz, the leader of the party, is neither charming nor valiant. A self-styled treasure hunter with a foul mouth and even worse table manners, he seeks the world's fortunes while riding Boco, his Chocobo steed.
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Reina, daughter to King Tycoon, is rebellious and strong willed (as like most of SquareEnix's female leads). She yearns to experience life outside the castle gates like her sister Faris, an uncouth girl who spends most of her time as a pirate. Galuf is a carefree old amnesiac, accompanied by his granddaughter Krile, who shares the same free-spirited nature.
The supporting cast includes Gill, a turtle sage who lends a helping hand once in a while and the Four Braves of the Dawn – the lycanthropic King Kelga and, the militarist King Zeza, King Drogan who observes the world from the air and lastly, Galuf.
The Word on the Street Every week, UrbanWire reporter Colin leaves the comfort of his office and exposes himself to the naked elements of nature in hopes of getting gamers to say what they think of the series. This week… What do gamers think of the Final Fantasy series before the seventh game became mainstream?
“I only remember [playing] the one with a tree as a boss…[I] thought it was really weird…” - Madeleine Chan, 21, NTU undergrad
“…I don't know [why] my boyfriend's likes the small things running [around]…” - Lin Zhiyin, 22, NUS undergrad |
“…there's a series?…I always thought the numbers [were] just a title…” The Villains
Though the main villain may be X-Death, the one most gamers remember is ironically Gilgamesh. The reason for this, besides his stirring musical theme, is the fact that the main villain, X-Death is in fact, a tree. Not just any tree mind you, his powers stretch far beyond any elements, by using his power of Mu, he warps reality by deleting the existence of his intended target. Simply put, what once existed, now doesn't.
System Mechanics
Veterans of the series swear that Final Fantasy V features the best game play ever. The Job System was tweaked for deeper customisation by allowing players to create combinations of the various abilities of different character classes. Players can now choose to be a knight, but at the same time, share a common ability with a wizard for example. The idea of mixing and matching each character for different needs appealed to gamers so much that the system became a mainstay of the series, in one way or another.
Release Notes
Final Fantasy V was intended to be the third in the series for the American market but as luck would have it, the localisation project was canned due to several reasons; one of which included the Japanese developers notion that the game was too difficult for the American market.
Despite all the disagreements that SquareEnix had with Nintendo, Final Fantasy V finally hit the western shores in mid-October 1999. The gambit however, was not without its share of problems. Graphically, the game paled against the other stellar titles that SquareEnix had produced on Sony Playstation console. More importantly, the many arguments before led to extremely poor translation efforts on the part of the localisation team, leaving the game relatively unknown to many players.
Check in next week for Final Fantasy VI , the last game in the series before SquareEnix announces the big break with Nintendo. Also, the game that made the series mainstream – Final Fantasy VII and how its revolutionary Full Motion Video (FMV) captured the world's imagination. Ever wanted to know who will win in an all-out brawl of Final Fantasy characters? Find out all these and more next week…