The Animation of Final Fantasy V
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- It's time for animation to start pulling more narrative weight in these games. Welcome to Part Five of this retrospective journey through the animation of the Final Fantasy series!
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Watch the whole series! ► • The Animation of Final...
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PATREON ► / newframeplus
TWITTER ► / danfloydplus
LET'S PLAY CHANNEL ► bit.ly/2lmGte8
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Written and produced by Daniel Floyd
Special thanks to:
-Carrie Floyd
-Ethan Budzynski
-Bryce and Robot
-Soraya Een Hajji
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♪ Featuring selections from the Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster official soundtracks.
#FinalFantasy #animation #FF5
Apologies for the confusing repeat! The first upload had a couple tiny errors I wanted to fix.
BUT while, I have you here: let me give a huge shoutout to both Ethan Budzynski and Bryce and Robot for the custom translation hacks featured in this episode's footage!
Ooh, is this the director's cut with the extra 2 seconds of content?
I'm not complaining more videos from you is never a bad thing
having already watched the previous upload, what were the errors?
don't reuploads like these tend to kill performance in the eyes of the algorithm?
@@NICK.... yes, but it can be overriden by engagement. So.... leaving another comment for the algorithm!
Fun fact, Bartz's sprite (2:23) was the base for the playable character in Terraria. In the original Terraria beta it was nearly the exact same sprite, but they made it more distinct later on. If you follow this to its logical conclusion, Terraria is anime.
Terraria would be a shounen anime that is also slice-of-life since it is about living your life but is also about fighting increasingly harder bosses.
Terraria is my favorite Final Fantasy game
The merchant was also Galuf in early test footage.
I suddenly have the urge to play Terraria
i was wondering where i recognized him from!
Said it before and I'll say it again:
Galuf throwing his amnesia away is a top-tier Final Fantasy moment. So goofy but completely earnest. It rules.
the fact that they managed to convey the idea of him remembering something without just... saying he did is very impressive considering the tools they had to work with, no matter how goofy the execution may be
Seems kinda similar to your previous work
The point of pantomime is very interesting to me because I used to play these kind of games as a kid without understanding English. Not FFV specifically (which I played slightly older, with a TOTALLY LEGIT translation patch), but I played a lot of Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG as a kid and, even though I basically couldn't understand anything in the dialogue boxes, I could still follow along with the story and characters despite that. Of course, I missed tons of details and nuances which I only discovered later, but it is now surprising to me how much I understood of those story heavy games even though I couldn't read.
This is pretty much the highest praise a SNES JRPG can receive when it comes to animation
klonoa which made me and my dad cry back in the day, with our crude english that could only get some basic words.
I'd be willing to bet the creators of those sprites would take this as the highest compliment.
@@Canalbiruta Klonoa is one of the few games that's probably better in a language you don't know. The world building is confusing and the plot is pretty all over the place, but the broad strokes make for a decent story
Mime is the only universal language.
Hey I've seen this one before! It's great!!
Do you also come from the future?
What's a "rerun?"
What do you mean you've seen this? It's brand new
Oh nooooo, I get to watch this amazing content again? I get to sit and appreciate the nuances of animation in my favorite gaming franchise by one of my favorite animation channels?? Oh nooooooooooooo
Fun Fact: Final Fantasy V also features multiple ending variants. Depending on which characters are alive at the end of the final boss battle you get a slightly different ending.
Said it last time, will say it this time - Thanks so much for the love and effort packed into this video. Truly a formative FF for me
"We're in a post-Final Famtasy IV world, and this ship runs on characters now"
Truer words have never been spoken about this franchise
As someone who really appreciates the hard technical work that goes into pixel art (despite not being an artist), I really like this series. Do you think you'll go over the pixel remasters as well? There's some small changes to the sprite work in each of the remasters, especially one scene of FF6 in particular.
Possibly at some point! For now, these are coming out slow enough that I want to try to stay focused on the core series where I can
I feel like FFV gets overlooked a lot in the grand scope of the series, but it does so much well and is for my money one of the most fun ones to replay.
A bit derivative but I'm here for it
FFV is one of my favorite games of all time. The gameplay of the job system, of course, it a major factor. But, for me, it's also the fact that the game is just fun. I never really thought about how much the animation in this game really adds to the fun, but it really does. Everyone is so expressive in that sort of over exaggerated way all over the place. It's just such an always enjoyable ride.
The Butz->Bartz name joke is sooooo good. :D
So is the rest of the episode, but you know, that bit's probably my favorite.
When something smells, it's usually the... Bartz.
I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on the Super Mario RPG remake, and how it translates SNES-style pantomime onto 3D models
Wow, you pointing out the animation load for one of these characters makes the inclusion of Krile in the story an even more interesting choice, given she's about 4 months extra work; at the very least it's an impressive amount of dedication to making interesting narrative choices even at significant cost.
Indeed; I still think later versions of the game should have expanded on these graphics, and made it so the characters' overworld sprites reflect their job too (and their defeated in-battle sprite). It would help with that visual disconnect between outfits just before and just after battle, lol
@@tamerkohgiven the tone of the game, it's best to think about the job outfits as being sentai or magical girl transformations rather than as physical clothing the characters change into even if the actual design reason they revert is probably just raw cart space and artist time. There's not necessarily any story outright pointing to the transformation explanation, but the characters are also physically holding all the job crystals at multiple points in the story and the idea of them losing the crystal's power when they collapse in battle adds nice spice to how the system works, at least to me.
(I totally get being bugged by it though, it's fair.)
God I love this game so much. Just seeing if makes me happy
When that "The Animation of Final Fantasy" title card dropped I got literal chills. Dan knows how to make animated letters look *sexy*
The Animation of `The Animation of Final Fantasy'
Dan Floyd was a person always interested in games. He was always so interested in them that he would also note the animations that went into the games he played. After making a name for himself on Extra Credits, he split off to start a new project called “New Frame Plus” to dedicate himself to the analysis of animation through all types of video games. At some point in 2021, he decided to analyze the animation of Final Fantasy, a long-running video game franchise going since 1987. However, the project has only been going for around two years and has only covered five games. The editing choices would invariably change. How does a master at editing edit his videos? How does he use his animating skills? Welcome to the first episode of “The Animation of ‘The Animation of Final Fantasy’ “.
I watched it last night. As I said, I played this one around the mid 2000's and the funny and exaggerated animations is what made the game stick in my memory all these years. Looking forward to replay it down the line.
Personal recommendation: join us for the yearly Four Job Fiesta, a restricted run for the joy of squeezing a victory out of a randomized party setup (also it’s a charity event)
Copying my comments for the re-upload!
Excellent work on the sprite upscaling, everything looks gorgeous! Square should be envious. 😀
Has it really been 15 months?? I'd complain, but the fact Dan has a whole other day job (and a whole other channel !!) and these videos are still so high quality makes them worth waiting for. Plus, it makes them feel like a real treat!
-Has it really been one day??- :P
@@coastersplus also true. 😋
Not only is Bartz known as Butz in Japan, he's from the town of Lix.
I've already watched this twice, but I'll gladly watch again :P
Hoo boy, I love this game. It's so underrated.
If you're an RPG fan and you've not made time for Final Fantasy V, please do. It's a super special little game that deserves more love.
a very bold move to make a video on the original AND the 1997 re-release so close to each other, i respect the hustle
Happy to see this one finally make it across the finish line (for reals this time) - and with such a svelte runtime, no wonder it's taken time! Excellent work as always, excited for the eventual dive into FFVI. It's a bit of a shame we won't get to stop by Mystic Quest along the way in this series, but its pretty immediately recognizable how the overworld sprite theatrics of FFV fed into that game's general vibe.
I've loved all of these thus far but, being honest, I'm really charged up for the next one on 6.
me too!!
Already watched the rest of the playlist a bunch of times this past year, not gonna hurt to watch this one again! 😂
As I learn more about early film, I find it really rewarding to compare it to early video games in their progression as a medium, working around technological limitations, storytelling styles, etc. The fascinating thing is that pretty much as soon as you get consistent use of close-up, you start seeing very subtle and naturalistic acting. You see this a lot more by the 1910s ("Shoes" 1916 is an interesting example, and also a counter to the idea that it was all slapstick comedies. Heck, many comedies lacked slapstick). Since film was mostly using human actors (barring animation and animals), I think it jumped over the barrier of relying on pantomime a lot faster than video games could. My favorite thing is that you can often read actors' lips, including for jokes that aren't otherwise indicated.
For example, Miss Lulu Bett (1921) has a gag where a bratty little girl is sneaking downstairs to spy on the action, and her blustery dad tells her to go to her room. She starts going up the stairs sideways with her feet in between the rungs, the way kids do, in the background of the scene. A minute later her dad turns to her and you can see him mouth "I told you to go to your room!" with her retorting "I *am* going!" I think Final Fantasy V or Chrono Trigger could probably pantomime this kind of exchange, but I wonder at what point video games reached the animation level where you could read their lips... maybe not until the 2010s.
Most games especially in the beginning are intended for a younger audiance. You see exageration in children's movies always, not just in animation but in FMV as well.
9:45 I dunno, Faras flipping the bird while spellcasting does feel telling lol
can not wait to see you analyse the masterpiece that ff6 is. That game was pretty much the first time an rpg game made me fall in love with simple sprites and yet, 15 years after it's initial release, i was in tears watching many scenes of that fantastic experience.
talk about deja vu
the note on gestures and pantomimes in acting reminded me of ballet mimicry!! in ballet, since there is no other way to express story other than the dancer’s movement and the music, gestures are really the only way to communicate any exposition needed. there is a defined set of arm movements that communicate specific things-one of my favorites being arms crossed, fists clenched and held lowered in front of you, which means DEATH.
they’re pretty silly and not super obviously meaningful without context, but it really adds so much to the storytelling ability of ballet, just as wordless cutscenes in FF games communicate!! these actions are huge and dramatic, often accentuated with giant facial expressions and dramatic blocking changes, but that’s the only way everyone can notice story beats in a wordless medium :)
A video so nice you gotta watch it twice
Final Fantasy V is my favourite Final Fantasy even after playing the majority of the series. The character animations being soo goofy is a part of what makes the game soo charming to me. That and the job system just being fun.
About those somber or sad moments, I think they work so well even within the cartoonish and generally "funny" looking style, because after spending a few hours watching characters in this style, and although at first glance everything might seem non-serious (especially when you're just coming out of a more realistic looking game), this style becomes the baseline on top of which all other emotions are then "modulated" upon.
So, you'll get used to the style and when things turn sad all of a sudden, even though the characters still look funny "from the outside", you're already tuned to another wavelength, and things can seem very sad by contrast.
(PS: sorry, horrible grammar :( )
HOW DID I NOT GET INFORMED ABOUT THIS UPLOAD!!!! I've legitimately watched every other video in this series at least 3 times each while I waited for this one to come out. RUclips be YouTubing, but the bad way.
"Butz"?
Well, you know what they say - "if something smells, it's usually the Butz".
Also, if there was room, I'd name him Laurice.
FFV's animations are really cool. They would've shone even more if the story was actually good.
Already saw the first upload but might as well put this video on mute and let it play until the end
And might as well repeat yesterday's comment: great video Dan, thanks
i like how krile's cat ear hoodie in ffxiv is based on her white mage sprite in this game (and how they decided only krile should have cat ears as a white mage lol)
I was really hoping you'd look at Mystic Quest which came out in between FFIV and FFV.
You said you uploaded it for fixing errors, but tbh I don't remember seeing any at all!
Nevertheless, I will gladly watch this again :D
I’m super curious what changed!
A counting error about how many sprites were needed to animate a single character. He either miscounted, misspoke, or mistyped it as 223 when the numbers put it closer to 243.
I want modern JRPG with this level of expressiveness.
Octopath Traveler 1 body acting was kinda bland, which made most cutscenes very dull, and Bravely Default despite it's emotional story, has very little facial animation to convey stuff. (The solemn visual styles of those games also don't help...)
Ahh, how much i want the modern JRPG that would convey the bright Final Fantasy V feel, like Slayers anime, the one with Lina Inverse. Classic Shounen JRPG.
I know you worried you were coming across as "the sonic animation guy" for a while, but Dan... Speaking as a guy who followed you from nearly the beginning of EC, this series feels like magnum opus material. Relevant, all-encompassing, and something I will enjoy on both an academic and pure entertainment form. When the full series to the modern day releases, the movie-scale full watch of all episodes will be magnificent.
Movie-scale? It's going to be like binging a miniseries. Especially once we get into the PlayStation era and we start needing as much time dedicated to the prerendered cutscenes as the in-game animation.
Cannot believe I missed this one but I'm here now. Love this series of yours
16:37 "Now, if this were Final Fantasy XVI and that were Clive, that style of performance would be cartoonish and completely inappropriate, just the worst kind of overacting."
It would also make the game ten times better and would only be topped by having actual Nicholas Cage portraying the character.
It could work for Strangers of Paradise, given its cheesiness bounding between all-too-sincere relationship powers and 2000s edginess.
...Damn, I guess Dan had Doublecast up before hitting publish
wonderful video, just as usual!
I just... have a small wish. can you do a video like this for Chrono Trigger?
I really love how much appreciation this series is giving me for every one of those titles. I haven't played all FF games and there is such an honest desire to improve, experiment and grow visible so far and I freaking love it.
Time to watch again, for the analytics.
This series of videos is what got me to play Final Fantasy, haha. I like to put them on in the background while drawing.
If I had a nickel for every time a video about a game's animation got me to play that game, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, and quite frankly I'm surprised I wouldn't have more.
Dan makes a point about character not being expressed in the poses and then chooses as an example the one where Faris is flipping a double bird while prepping a spell.
I cannot wait for my favorite Final Fantasy, VI, to be discussed! incredible work as always, thank you!!
I know this is not at all what's intended but I find it hilarious that enemies essentially punch you out of your outfit if you get KO'd. Anyway, great video!
The way the jobs worked in FFV (the characters only being in their job costumes during battles) always made me think of Japanese superhero shows like Super Sentai and Pretty Cure. I imagined the characters pulling out their crystals and transforming at the start of each fight. And then FFX-2 introduced mid-battle job changing with *actual transformation animations*
Despite 4 & 6 being excellent, FF5 might be my favorite of the SNES trio. There's just something about it...
Well I guess I am watching this one again today :D
Reposting my original comment: yay, finally!
Hey Dan! This series is so compelling and you make these games so interesting that it makes want to play these games. Even though I actually dislike 2D turn-based heavily story-driven games, so I'm actually not going to play them, but you present this in such a way that makes me want to.
omg Dan. I can't wait for FF6, it's the one I've been waiting for since you started this series .. holy crap, *years* ago. Love these videos so much, glad you're doing this!!
I am guessing those tiny errors are the kind that only you would notice thanks to working on it?
In this case, there were a couple incorrect sprite tallies in the script that I should have caught while editing. The inaccuracies were minor, admittedly, and I normally try to stifle my inner perfectionist once a video is live, but I ultimately decided they were errors worth correcting this time.
All rise for the national Danthem!
I've never played any FF game and yet I reeeally enjoy this series. Great job!
I predict the next episode is going to knock it out of the PARK, because fans know they pulled out ALL the stops before saying farewell to the 16-bit era.
@NewFramePlus I know that you’re going to to make a video focus on Final Fantasy 6 on Animations, are you going to be working on a video for Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest as well or just focus on the mainline Final Fantasy titles?
I keep coming back to these Final Fantasy videos!! I very much hope you tackle Crystal Chronicles at some point in your series, but if you end up not doing it, that’s fine too!
9:47 he looks like he’s flipping us off.😂😂😂
Favorite FF game of all time, honestly wasn't expecting you to give it so much respect. Very pleasantly surprised
I can't wait to see you break down FFVI. It's my favorite in the series, and my favorite game of all time!
Making sure that the re-upload gets some traction hopefully
The more impressive feat is when you consider the GBA version, which largely used the same sprites, but added 4 new jobs: Oracle, Gladiator, Cannoneer, and Necromancer. Granted, Galuf wasn't included in these, but that's still unique sprites for 4 different characters for four brand new jobs. It brings the grand total up to over 300!
As you get to FFVI, it would be super interesting to hear your perspective on the animation in Chrono Trigger, given it had a bunch of overlap with FFIV-VI (while also very much doing it's own thing). Heck, the same could be said for Secret/Trials of Mana :v
Here to say yet again that I really like this series of yours and can't wait for the FF6 episode coming next.
As for your point about the exagerated pantomime not really fitting modern high definition games quite as well, you need look no further than Seiken Densetsu 3/Trials of Mana and it's remake. A bunch of scenes were recreated 1-to-1 and, though the graphics are pretty, they all seem a litle sillier now. Not only the gestures, but the original actions and staging do not fit well with the new camera work and ample field of view.
Elliot's kidnapping in the prologue of Riesz's story is a good early example. In the 16 bit version, it sold the urgency of the situation as Elliot was taken offscreen and away from view, suposedly lost forever. While in the remake you can see Riesz shouting for Elliot, completely still, as you see the kidnapper do his goofy little run upstairs.
It's hard not to think "girl, move your legs and run after them!" instead of the original "oh, she lost everything she cared about in the prologue".
I am pretty sure I watched this one yesterday.
FFV was the very first FF game I ever played, on an emulator, with an incomplete fan-made translation, but for a while it was still my absolute favorite game. And while I didn't think about it at the time, the animation and character you got with such limited technology was likely a key part in how much I enjoyed the game and story.
This also spoiled me for when I went back to play some of the earlier FF games, and felt so restricted in gameplay and characterisation, that they felt seriously lacking, and I couldn't enjoy them as much because they just felt lesser.
I'm still really glad I got over that and ended up playing and finishing 4 through 1... in that order XD
Sorry for the Ctrl+C Ctrl+V comment, but
when you told how framing matters in the acting, it reminded me from the NPC's huge gestures when they talked to the playable character on Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 and how it felt awkward due it being framed as medium shot.
8:00 all these unique poses!! I love how they did the mumbling animation for their mouths differently, especially with the black mage's side view incantation with the one pixel change! Such tiny changes to signal a talking animation, i'm just so impressed by how clever the art team behind this project
Awesome.
FF5 was a hidden gem, and a shame it was never officially localized for the SNES. The PSX port had so many loading breaks that it became a chore to play.
Amazing video.
I'll never have any intention in playing these games, but I sincerely appreciate the effort you put into these videos, and how you highlight the amount of effort put into these games. I was blown away that only two people made all those sprites as I followed along with the math in my head 😮
This kind of pantomime is one of my favorite "features" of the low-res era of gaming. Series like Golden Sun and Harvest Moon just Would Not be the same without these glorious, over-the-top expressions, and I wouldn't have been nearly as invested in them.
You say it would be completely innapropriate, but I bet the current teams could pull it off, even if it's just the core concept and not necessarily the exact execution. I've got a vivid image of a character looking at a smokey, magic cloud as they're telegraphed to be thinking, through dialogue or context or what have you, and something's changed either beforehand or during the scene, with the character gently swiping at the cloud and unfogging a memory as an extension of that.
Or, an action interpretation of "throwing amnesia away"; your character has a fight in their mind against something relevant to their hazy recollection or related issues, and the final blow dealt transitions out of the mind and into reality, where a magic particle effect floats away or flows out from that character's head. Considering the overall quality that is demonstrated in modern game animation, especially with effects, I have no doubt that it's a matter of making such an effect fit snugly, rather than an issue of actually doing it.
I could also easily imagine Jack Chaos telling a wonky flashback to go to hell and hit the Orange Cassidy-esque Crimson Punch on a thought bubble. Excellent series, by the way.
I really enjoy watching these, not only because I grew up with these games and they helped shape me.. but because of my own solo game project (it's a FF Fan project) where I've also undertaken quite a bit of work in the attempt to make a game that is similar to that of FF4, 5 and 6.
It's nice to know that the original artists took a year to pump out that many battle sprites as I know it'll take me about as long to do my own and I don't feel so bad about it now.
Thanks for these and I'm looking forward to your upcoming FF6 video.
I'm kind of curious what kind of animation this series will cover post FFVI or FFVII. FFVII still had to pantomime a lot of actions due to the low-poly models but once characters were realistically proportioned...
FARIS IS BEST BOY!!! 💖
This request is ahead of time. I'd like to know your feeling on how well Square reinterpreted the pantomime of FF7 when recreating it in a way that less pantomime is needed and if you feel that Square did a good job on re-imaging the character's feelings in a way that makes sense to the retelling. I don't expect to have this answer till you do your FF7 video. Its just some food for thought.
Choice to blink or not blink 😉 When I started acting in High School, I wondered who told the actor when to gesture at such a micro level… did the scriptwright say to turn just that way?
Nope, it’s the actor letting their body do whatever while they decide how the character feels about the other character, what’s going on, what they want, yadda yadda yadda. Anyway, cool video.
Just putting things into perspective, if each character has 243 battle sprites (and factoring in that Galuf doesn’t have sprites for the Mimic job because of narrative reasons) the total number of battle sprites for the player characters totals up to 1204.
I come from the future. I have already watched the video. But I won't tell you what is in it. Muhahaha. You need to find out yourself
(Commenting so the algorithm momentum you doubtless lost by re-uploading can be recuperated. I appreciate the dedication to giving out correct information!)
I am so, SO excited to see your breakdown of FFVI. The story in that game was one of the first that really stuck with me as a kid, and I'm interested to learn about the animation behind it!
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know what games Dan has worked on as an animator? I don’t recall him ever giving any examples.
Yo @NewFramePlus, could you make a video discussing the animation of Spider-Man games?
In old RPG's music also plays a big part. Since the expressiveness is severely limited the music has to pick up a lot of the slack.
Since original video got deleted I will say it again.
Why can't Octopath have those detailed animations for being a game made in 2020s?
I appreciated all the little moments in this way more for having gotten to ride along with the footage collection on twitch. And I still learned a lot from the final presentation here. Very well done, Dan 🙌
the acting thing that shows michael caine? I'd never actually seen it, only the peter serafinowicz parody :D
Another holiday, huzzah
I don't remember what I commented on the first upload, but just know this is getting added to the list of Bedtime Dan Storytimes.
I still maintain that FFV is the best representation of what defines FF as a series.
Ya the story is not as spectacular and music nit as amazing as what it
Would become, but it is the sum of all which makes this game the defining moment for the series.
Phenomenal video. Final Fantasy V is such a majestic and whimsical game. It only gets better with age.
I just watched this yesterday, but ill rewatch it, just for you