Final Fantasy V: INTRO YAY

[auronlu]

Huzzah! It is time. Originally, Final Fantasy VIII occupied my "favorite FF" slot, then X usurped it, then, within the past year or so -- despite liking XII and XIII a great deal -- I fell in love with V. It won't unseat X in my hierarchy of gamer fannishness, but it's definitely in the "games I'll play again and again just for fun" category.

FFV is goofy, it lacks the depth of recent installments, and I have only ever played the PS1 version with a translation flatter than Mr. Data's poetry, but even so, the charm shone through. I'm looking forward to the iOS version with the infamous madcap translation, even if the chibi sprites have been re-drawn as Gumby & Pokey figures.

I realize that my last few playthroughs have gotten a little too ploddingly detailed? as I play games I haven't played before and share my first reactions to ALL THE THINGS. (Even though I still skipped a lot). I'm not quite sure what people want as far as reading my playthroughs.

I really, really, REALLY want to make this one fun. So tell me what you want to see.

...and this time I'm going to try to take notes for the playthrough AS I play it, so I'm not stuck writing up all my thoughts post-play from ten jillion screencaps after the fact.

Comments

[samuraiter]

*cue mental image of Galuf rolling himself up into a clay ball and heading off to the next scene*

....

*followed by a most unfortunate memory of Data asking the Holodeck for the funniest comedian of the 20th Century ... and getting Joe Piscopo*

[sarasa_cat]

There's an iOS version of FFV?! I think I just might need to buy it. Tonight!

FFV and FF2 (Japanese 2, the original 2) are the only main FF games I haven't played.

[auronlu]

The graphics of the iOS version are a strange marriage of Amano's concept art used as anchors for the dialogue boxes combined with the old 16-bit sprites redrawn by the same crew as Final Fantasy Dimensions. That is, they're stretched vertically, like Chibis if they actually had waists and legs. They look odd to me because I'm used to the old 16-bit sprites, but that may simply be because I played the game with original graphics first.

Regardless, yes, there's an overpriced but fun iOS FFV port, which uses the truly inspired translation of the Gameboy Advanced script, which adds a zany air of whimsy to the game.

I think it's worth it for that, and for the main character who reminds me strongly of a female Balthier (not Ffamran).

It's definitely Final Fantasy Lite, as this is one of the more underdeveloped worlds and stories, with fairy tale / fantasy elements of a simple and unexamined sort. Yet there's a joy to this game, and as for game mechanics, the job system is at its best in this iteration.

[irreversibly]

Hi hi! Been reading your FF playthroughs for a while and finally decided to save myself the trouble of looking you up every time, I subscribed to your journal. Just notifying you to avoid any creepiness. :)

[auronlu]

Huzzah! thanks for the note, but I am only too pleased to get more FFfolks in the fold, since a lot of the old fans have gotten sucked away entirely by Tumblr or RL! Please don't be shy, either; there's a lot of good fans in these parts.

[irreversibly]

Thanks, my own reading list has been quite small since I never properly got into DW back when it started up. Everything's so fragmented these days, people here and there in their own little pockets. Looking forward to reading more of your stuff!

[auronlu]

A few other Final Fantasy journals/folks off the top of my head, in case you're looking for more... you're right, everything is too fragmented these days!

moogle_university (this is the comm that inspired my own FF playthroughs, and there's a ton of fans commenting on Sev's and Rina's posts)

seventhe
owlmoose (also Dragon Age)
vieralynne (also Dragon Age)
flonnebonne
samuraiter

There's more FF fans listed on my profile, but the above DW members are pretty fandom-prolific at the moment. :)

[irreversibly]

Moogle university is where I got a link to you from :D
I'll take a look at the links, thanks!

[lassarina]

Personally, I've been really enjoying your snark and screencaps and the occasions when we've gotten a first-look from you, but I'm always delighted to see what anyone has to say about these games. (This weekend I am writing a post. I SWEAR I AM WRITING ONE.) Though I too feel the "ploddingly detailed" which is...causing me difficulty as I try to figure out how to translate to a faster looser write-up style.

[auronlu]

I note that I'm doing something a little different from MU.

From what I can tell, "Let's Play" commentary tends to be more of a blow-by-blow recap and playthrough, as opposed to meta-commentary.

Whichever of the two one is doing, the challenge is how to make that interesting both to those who know the game and those who don't.

[lassarina]

Yes, agreed. I want to do more of the meta-commentary as we move into games I know better (FF4 is definitely the game I know best out of the first five, hands down no competition), in part because HEY LOOK META, but also because I'll die under an avalanche of pixels if I try to recap FF6 like I did the first four games.