I'm a native spanish speaker and I learned english thanks to this game. The movements and expressions were enough to make me understand the tone of the story and keep me engaged despite not being able to read everything effectively. I started using my english notebook from school as a guide for the game. I got the most rewarding feeling when I found myself reading and understanding everything
I just found this video and channel and wouldn't you know, it's on one of my absolute favorite games of all time! In 1991 I was 12 years old and had played FF1 when it came out, but of course didn't have access to 2 or 3 so this was my second FF game. This does a great job putting into words several of the things that impressed me at the time and which I still appreciate now.
@@stormRed That would be pretty cool! Maybe one of the Patreon PlayFriends should suggest a League of Legends animation analysis or something-you know, a topic in Skyen's wheelhouse where a collab would make sense.
As a low-res RPG developer, I wanted to say a big thank you for this series! These are such fascinating looks at the mountains of personality packed into simple actions like spinning a character or giving them a slightly different pose. Doing more with less is the name of the game in these early games, and I adore how much care and respect you've packed into these deep dives. Thank you! :>
Still can't get over "Learning that this game's creative direction was in the hands of Mr. Story and the theater kid kinda tells you all you need to know". It's a good summary of what makes FF4 different from its predecessors _and why it wound up that way._
I feel like a lot of times when we talk about advances in animation in games, the conversation starts and ends with advances in the hardware. So it's really cool to see you talk about these early games, not just in terms of how many pixels or panels they could use, but also the new and clever ways they found to use them and how they developed the craft of using animation as a vehicle to communicate plot and character.
This has to be my favourite episode of New Frame Plus to date. (Well, maybe it ties with the one about Sonic the Hedgehog animation.) The only version of Final Fantasy IV I ever played was a 3D remake, so I never got to see these simple, efficient, expressive little animations that were so impressive. It makes me smile to see the characters like this. On a personal note, I've known some friends, and some friends of friends, who have thought about doing a game jam, or even forming an indie studio. Things keep getting in the way, nothing ever materializes, so I've been trying to teach myself as many game-making skills as possible. I have almost no talent in animation, but seeing how much they could do in this game with so little is encouraging. I may be able to figure out game animation after all. Whew.
I don’t remember where I read it, but supposedly, FF4 started as a NES title. Development didn’t move to the SNES until pretty late. Makes me wonder how much improvement would there have been if it started a a SNES title since day 1.
You are half correct! There originally was a FF4 in development for NES and plans for FF5 to be the first SNES release. But Squaresoft eventually decided to scrap the NES game and rename the FF5 they'd started work on to FF4 (which is what we have now). Alas, the NES FF4 they'd started work on never came to be, although I understand they pulled a lot of their ideas for it into later releases.
I don't think it is. I think it's just a case of the developers being cautious. Sticking to what they know works on this new hardware and only using the new things that are relatively easy to impliment. I like that. That they made a good product first and didn't make it all fuggly just to prove "See guys, it's on the SNES now!"
I think a cool thing about the combat characterization in FF4 is that a lot of this feels relatively unspoken. An example I like is Cecil, who I read as very very reckless due to not only some of his story actions but also how in both of his jobs, his main skills lead to him losing HP, Darkness literally costs HP, and your goal with Cover is to take damage. The key difference between these two feels like it also coincides with Cecil's growth, as his recklessness goes from outwardly destructive, to defensive. This clearly shows us a character who wants to protect those around him at any cost with nothing but gameplay and that's cool as hell.
It's a thing that sprites have over 3D models. To "realistically" show Paloma being an energetic bundle of kid, he'd be fidgety in a constrained way, hoping at most 1 foot. Not the jumping 6 or 9 feet sprites get to get away with. Our brains normalize the cartoony quirkiness, but less so for 3D models.
@@AkaiAzul Somewhat realistic models like FF 8+ have, yeah. Simplified or stylized models like SM64 or Crash Bandicoot 4? Nope, cartooniness works perfectly fine there. It's not the tech, it's how you use it.
This would break up the series rhythm, but doing one on Chrono Trigger after FF5 and FF6. Square employees wanting to be unfettered by the standard FF design and right at the end of life cycle for the SNES where they have mastered getting the most out of the system. Aside from that the FF6 one is going to be an intense video to compile, looking forward to it.
FF6 is one of only a very small number of games to use background mode 6. Many think it's opening is mode 7 but it's actually mode 6. Mode 6 is like a more limited form of mode 7 but with an additional background layer which was extremely limited to only 4 colors and only 1 scroll direction. Very few people used it as mode 7 allowed for far greater manipulation and mode 5 was far more flexible with both background layers able to have full color and move in different directions independent of each other.
The SNES Mode 7 wasn't the only one out there. BBC Micros had a Mode 7 too, which was used for teletext displays. I suspect there were probably others out there too.
If you look up the technical details, there's actually something of an intuitive order in each mode's index number. For starters, the higher the index, the fewer layers you have to work with _but_ the more colors (and effects) you can do with each layer, including: * "Direct Color" (modes 3,4,7 only): Allows a background layer to directly access a full 11-bit RGB color space, bypassing tiles and color palettes entirely. * High Resolution (modes 5 and 6 only): Doubles the horizontal resolution to 512 pixels (in same physical screen size), and can double the vertical resolution to 448 pixels (interlaced). * "Offset per tile" (modes 2,4,6 only): Allows columns of the background to be scrolled independently of one another.
every time someone brings up the snes, i am reminded just how fantastic that console was... Live-A-Live, SMW, Super Metroid, FFVI, Yoshi, Earthbound. What a fantastic lineup
Don't forget Chrono Trigger, SMRPG, F-Zero, A Link to the Past, Killer Instinct, DKC trilogy. All of these still stand the test of time as some of greatest games ever made!
And ilusión of gaia,secret of mana,Kirby súper Star and dream land 3,the megaman Xs and 7,Castlevania IV and bloodlines,FF mystic Quest.... The 16-bits games seriously hits different
@@dovahkiin53839 The PSP version is IMO the best one that exists. It works great through emulation, though if you want to find a legit copy it's a bit harder than getting it on Steam
I played and completed 4 for the first time this year, making it the first 2D Final Fantasy I've ever finished. I've dabbled with the original in a "Hey this is a novelty!" sort of way, and tried several times to get into 6 but just not clicking, so with the new pixel remasters I decided to get 4 and 6 as they're the ones people seem to rate the highest. I didn't really have any sort of expectations coming into 4 but it absolutely blew me away. It might seem strange considering how primitive it is compared to most modern RPGs, let alone modern Final Fantasy titles, but that simplicity is in itself such a masterclass in how little you need to put into a performance to really infuse it with character and charm. It's hard to know what exactly my reaction would have been to the original version, considering I played the pixel remaster with it's redone (but in my opinion very faithful) sprites and quality of life improvements, but regardless it strikes me as having a timeless feel alongside games like Super Metroid where it utilises the tools it has with such artistry that it never really shows its age.
I always felt like Final Fantasy 4 was what they were aiming for with Final Fantasy 2. But they didn't have the experience or tech to pull it off. Funnily 4 became 2 in the US.
I don't know why but whenever I am asked which is my favorite Final Fantasy game, I always answer 4. I have so many memories of this game in its various incarnations.
Yes the leap from 1 to 4 was that much more spectacular given it seemed that it was from 1 to 2. Also it had a rich plot but less dark than vi. This was a highlight of my high school years
I was just thinking about this series recently and was curious if there had been any new ones I'd missed, so this is awesome to see! I must say, I hugely appreciate you breaking these up into every individual game instead of simplifying it down to "the NES era", "the SNES era", etc., since it really lets you notice and appreciate the subtle improvements that'd get easily glossed over otherwise!
As someone that grew up with FF4 (aka 2) for the SNES, this video made me so happy to watch. I was always fascinated by the music, characters, and animation from the game as a little kid and even learned to read from it. Asking my parents constantly what certain words meant. This game holds a special place in my heart and every remake and port of it is always an instant buy for me. I even enjoyed the sequel. The FF4 references in FF14 always bring a smile to my face as well.
This is one of my favorite RUclips series. I know very little about animation, but your presentation makes me feel like I know a lot. Another amazing entry. Looking forward to FFV!
0:45 Dan we notice and appreciate the effort you put in to use original hardware, it's so nice to see Yuna's original face! (Ooh actually in the X video a comparison of original and remaster facial animation would be interesting since they botox-ed up all of the faces in the remaster, really kills a lot of the expressiveness in the acting) Great video as always!
The number of people who have told me "oh you just remember it looking better cause of nostalgia" is infuriating, I really would love a video to point to that breaks it down
EXTREMELY Happy about this series! Thank you! I've only played FFXIV, the (critically acclaimed) MMO. And watching your tour though these older games is giving me sudden flashbacks to moments in XIV's story, and monster design! I can't wait for you to explore XIV!
This might easily be my favorite video of 2022. There is just so much nuanced information packed into this presentation that I can honestly say that I learned much more than I anticipated. I can tell that you have a honest passion about this series and it shows in the writing and editing. Can't wait until the next video.
Ah, IV.... the closest one I've come to beating (outside of the very easy 15). I have fond memories of getting through it, even if I did bounce off the final dungeon for lack of groking how to get through the last dungeon. And I probably could have cheat coded through there, but for some reason I never wanted to do that to IV.
Dan really feels like he's been so liberated and happy on RUclips since parting ways with Extra Credits. His commentary style was what made me like those videos a lot of the time and now he's everything I liked about him without the rest of what I didn't like about EC *and I am here for it*
Also want to point out that these sprites were created with the CRT in mind, which had a unique effect on making the art form really shine. Thanks for the vid.
This is my favorite Final Fantasy game. I still remember my 10 year-old self crying during [redacted]'s sacrifice, knowing that I was crying over a fictional collection of colors on a screen, that it was stupid and I shouldn't need to cry about this fictional tragedy, and being unable to stop because I really liked [redacted] and was going to miss [redacted]. That was when I knew that I loved this game. When [redacted] reappears at the end of the game I learned that writers were jerks trying to break my heart. Thank you for doing this. Thank you for sharing this. And thank you for reminding me how much this game matters to me - and how important games can be.
Oh but when [redacted] lost himself in his desires and ended up making the largest sacrifice leading to [redacted]'s end, that moment still moves me to this day. It is such an elegant way to tell that plotline without bogging it down.
This series is super cool and has me thinking about the animation in some of my favorite RPGs, like Breath of Fire, which has a drastic jump in detail on sprites between games, until the ps1 games where they're absolutely gorgeous even to this day with amazing art and animation with cool little details
Having grown up in the early 2000s, I got to experience the first 4 FFs mostly in order with the Advance/DS ports, and FFIVA definitely stood out to me even as a kid with how much harder it leaned into it's story compared to when I had played I and II. Looking back on the games through your analysis, it really does amaze me how such a small amount of animations were able to sell all the various emotions, actions, and story beats. I liked how the usage of scripted event battles for comedic purposes spilled over from fights like Dr. Lugae into the secret developer room you could find at the Dwarven Castle.
Крайне приятно удивлен сценой свадьбы. А ведь все могло обойтись лишь всплывающем текстом и мне было бы абсолютно все равно, так как не играл в Final Fantasy. Но, показав действие свадьбы через пантомимы персонажей, игра создала милую сцену понятную любому человеку
FFIV was my first FF ever, it holds such a special place in my heart, I've played and ALMOST finished every version (3D Phone and PC and the GBA yet to be finished) and I resound so much with Cecil as I, too, fought my own darkness and accepted the Light by defeating my depression. It's a game I often revisit either normally or through the randomizer. And I won't lie, this video did bring me to tears, and was singing along the music I've become so familiar with. THIS is the game who introduced me to the franchise and JRPGs plus it gave me my love for the Dragoon.
11:47 actually I was thinking about how much I'm enjoying your roundabout approach here. Your love for the series oozes from the video and I adore that. It feels like I'm at the intersection of your passions and it's impossible to avoid a good time
This may be my favorite FF. This and VI of course, I vacillate between them but secretly I think this one just got to me first. As a kid I knew there was something special about it. I couldn't tell you what but I definitely picked up on it, it just had so much life.
This is great. It's one of those videos where I start feeling like "oh, no, is the video almost over!?" and then I check the progress bar and _rejoice!_ Very excited about the next two entries. They're the oldie Final Fantasy games I've (started 😅) playing the most!
It's video series like this that make me think long and hard about what it means to be a fan. I love Final Fantasy. I love them all, even XIII (less so for XIII's sequels, but they have their charm) I hope you make a bonus video on spinoffs like Tactics, Crystal Chronicles, and Type-0. Gorgeous games in their own right that deserve the "New Frame Plus" treatment.
I'm really curious what he's going to make of XIII, once we finally get there. Everything about it is so divisive. Personally, I love how complicated and messy the characters are, which I think really comes through in the animation, but I know some people can't connect to its cast at all.
@@jasonblalock4429 honestly i think the biggest problem the XIII trilogy had was that it came of right after XII which seemed really expansive with the semi-open world vibes some of the areas gave off between the major dungeons of the story, like if you swapped around the release order of XII and XIII, i could almost garuntee that it would have been less divisive. It also doesn't help that being a trilogy means that by the and of the first game some characters still hadnt really wrapped up their entire character arc and in some cases wouldn't til the finale in LR.
@@shaunpauldocherty2416 Yeah, I wasn't a fan of the sequels. I felt like XIII was complete in itself, and probably should have stayed that way. Part 2 had some interesting ideas, but the characters were totally flat, and honestly, I bounced hard off Lighting Returns. Didn't even make 10 hours in because there was genuinely nothing about it I was enjoying.
@Kelley Engineering I totally agree about it feeling like a different game with the XIII name slapped on. I was particularly confused why XIII-2 would go to so much trouble charting the next few hundred years of Pulse's development, only to toss it out the window for a totally new environment in LR that has no connection to the old world. I would have enjoyed a game set in the Future Pulse seen at the end of XIII-2. Also, for me, the big turnoff was Lightning with even less emotion. The one thing that made her bearable is that she is actually human underneath, putting up a tough girl facade. Take that away and she's just unbearably boring.
I honestly wonder if it’s true that less is more when it comes to animation? I’ve always heard that limitation breeds creativity and for me, personally, I have always appreciated scenes like that wedding scene because they tell so much with so few tools. I’m always more impressed I guess
Less can be more, but for certain creative goals, more is more. Look at Naughty Dog-you can't do that kind of storytelling with 16-bit sprites. You can get broad stage acting with them, but not subtle performance. I suspect that Dan's gonna make a point out of shifting from theater acting metaphors to film/TV metaphors once the games get high-fidelity enough to show more acting detail than you can see onstage... definitely by 10, no earlier than 8, let's say.
Dan, you are amazing. I have watched you from extra credits, and then to here, and your content has been consistently amazing, one of the single most consistently amazing creators on this platform. Good luck with your continued efforts!
Man, this makes me want to play FF. I can feel how much it means to people just through these vids, even though I've always found them intimidating to get into. Maybe now that I have my steam deck I'll give the series a go 🤔😄
The nice thing about the series is that it doesn't have a consistent canon, every game is an AU (discounting sequel spin-offs). So, you can jump in pretty much anywhere and get the complete story that game intended.
DO IT DO IT DO IT! Been playing since FF1 as a young child. I always recommend the SNES games or FF7 first. These are a great combination of narrative and gameplay while being very approachable (ie, not very difficult). 9 is wonderful but you'll appreciate it better after playing earlier ones first. 10/12 are definitely more advanced.
i'm very sad i didn't get notified of this one. Sad that the almighty algorithm isn't being too kind to these infrequent uploads (and presumably a bit of viewer fatigue). While i normally don't "ring the bell" out of spite, i'm gonna do that until this series is finished (so, probably late 2025, at the earliest). Best of luck in getting the viewer numbers this fantastic work deserves.
I really hope this series isn't gone, I'l not into final fantasy guy but your involved showcase is plainly interesting and the enthusiasm is very contagious. I got emotional at the end of the video even, there's something inspiring about how they worked around limitations to create cool stuff
I'm particularly excited for this to eventually reach 11 and 14, they do some interesting things with animation that other MMOs of their eras didn't (specifically the original version of 14, which used a LOT of motion capture in their cutscenes, which ballooned the budget to a point where they needed to drop it entirely upon rebooting the game)
That’s interesting. Dan talked about motion capture being used in the Sonic franchise in order to save money, so I’m curious how using motion capture in the Final Fantasy franchise caused budget issues.
@@FritzyBeat i mean, there are about a dozen horrible ideas during development that ballooned the budget, but for animation specifically, MMOs, ESPECIALLY the original version of FFXIV (there was basically no story content in the game) have a lot of situations that don’t require bespoke animation. Games get around this by doing exactly what Dan talks about in this video, using a set number of premade animations that express a specific emotion. FFXIV 1.0 did NOT do that. Every cutscene was fully mocap’d by an actor, requiring a massive time investment as well as significantly more work than using canned animations. They were, and continue to be gorgeous, but they really don’t need to exist, and don’t help the story at all. There are a dozen other reasons the game was an expensive mess, and there are entire documentaries on RUclips about the failure of that version of the game. NoClip is a particularly good one, it includes interviews with devs on both versions. The modern, rebooted FFXIV uses those canned animations for cutscenes and quests, as well as more bespoke (and INCREDIBLY well-made) animations for combat.
@@harrylane4 bespoke animations for combat, unless you're playing a caster i mean, i get that the spell effects themselves pull a lot of the weight there instead, but i started out playing whm and it surprised me a ton when i finally noticed that most other jobs _don't_ use like four animation spread across every button
What I think this showcases is how much creativity limitation can bring. Because of all these hardware and animation limitations the designers had to get a lot more creative to show the emotions and message they want to show. Modern day animation can be a lot of eye candy and look very stunning, but that wedding scene as you describe just doesn't get made in the modern AAA scene. I feel like games are trying to adopt cinematic language without knowing how to speak it very well, when we had decades of video game language to draw from.
The way you underlined the importance of story and characters in relation to animation makes me hopeful somehow. An amazing video! Cannot wait for the next one no matter how long it takes you it's gonna be too long. So take your time.
Going from playing FF1 in the summer of '90 to getting FF4(II) for Christmas in '91 was an amazing leap. (Though I love the freeform party and challenge of FF1.) Despite the tiny sprites one could get amazingly lost in the overhead theatre of FFIV. The individual bouncing damage numbers looked slick, not sure why FF6 'locked' the digits together.. Given all the pluses and minuses of the ports I still think SNES is the best version of FFIV. So grateful to have gotten to experience this title when it was new.
Mind blowingly well done as always! I've never played FF other than Tactics advance and all the praise you're giving even the early games in the series really makes me want to go through a few of them. Also: for everyone's sake thank you for doing these videos a game at a time. We're only 4 games in and #5 might push the series over the Sonic video's total run time.
Thank you so much for this. I've always struggled to articulate just WHY Final Fantasy IV means so much to me in terms of story and characters. And I think the extremely nuanced expressions of the characters is a huge part of it. Fantastic video!
god I need to replay ff4. ff14 is bringing in a lot of characters, zones and loose themes from ff4 lately and while I remember the vague plot points, this video is dredging up memories and things that I remember seeing more recently in ff14.
17:06 "You are challenged by your reflection as a Dark Knight who you can only defeat through pacifism." Me who chugged Hi-Potions and just whacked my sword at this thing: "THAT WAS HOW YOU SHOULD'VE DONE IT?!"
FF4 wasn't available in PAL regions so you couldn't buy it easily in Germany.... and i didn't had an SNES... so this was the first game rom i downloaded from the internet with my lousy 56k modem when i was 15 or soand played it with a dictionary open since there were so many new words i've never learned in school :D so it took me WAY longer to play it (info: my english was good for the time i just wasn't used to read english text outside school ...so ... for fun)
Something I loved about this era of Final Fantasy was how immersive it could be despite its countless limitations. The scripted battles of FF4 are a great example of it. So many of the scripted battles in 4 would be straight up cutscenes in maybe 90% of modern games. When you're watching a cutscene you may be into the story, but you still relax a bit as a player because you know there's nothing you need to do right now. But by using the same battle window for these scenes, sometimes FF4 could trick you into thinking you were still playing the game not knowing that you had in fact been booted out of the driver's seat. The scene where Rydia triumphantly returns to laydown the smackdown on Golbez will forever be burned into my memory because of that. The first time I played the game and Golbez straight up decimated my party, because the game lets it seemingly play out like a normal battle and had you choose character inputs, I was convinced I had done something wrong and was about to lose. But then Rydia comes in to save you and the battle REALLY starts. Now you have a chance to win but most of your party is in the KO state so it's chaotic and thrilling. I absolutely adore this game.
As someone who never managed to get into these kind of older final fantasy games (never had them as a kid, so I got no Nostalgia helping me^^) it is so wonderful to learn so much about them like this. Thank you so much Dan, let's see if you can catch up before they release to many new ones ;-P
Final Fantasy 4 is my favorite video game - one of my favorite _things_ - EVER! I fell in love the first time I played it before the game proper even began, as the camera faded in on the Red Wings descending on Mysidia. Yes Namingway is a rabbit, specifically a rabbit from the moon, an outcast from the Hummingway clan. The moon rabbits are a reference to a Japanese legend.
If I recall correctly, Square's first significant staffing-up was in the production of FF7 so the first six games were made by roughly the same two-dozen or so people. You can see it, in how they gained skill in making and using their sprite art. In 1 where the art is all very utilitarian and there was barely any acting because they barely had a handle on the hardware, then in 2 they use basically the same sprite poses more comfortably with basic posing timing and blocking to get a lot of mileage out of them. Then in 4 you have stronger hardware give them way more space and colors to work with. I think starting so constrained gave them an acute sense of when they needed to make new art or if they could make due with existing art cleverly used.
17:10 You can actually beat your reflection by normal means, too. It's usually a close battle but I've never lost this way. BTW, fantastic video of a personal favorite. Never watched a video of yours but immediately subscribed after!
Not gonna lie, I was really wondering what you could possibly say about this game's fairly unimpressive animation for more than 37 minutes. I was not disappointed! Great video on how to accomplish a lot with very few unique frames. 🙂
My very favorite Final Fantasy! I don't necessarily think it I better than the later entries, I just love this one the most. Probably helps that I played it first when I was 11...
Oh right, FFIV started Active Time Battle. That's what I've known the Final Fantasy Franchise for since FFVI (FFIII on the Super Nintendo) and FFVII. In fact, those were my introduction to the Franchise. 26:40- Actually, they were removed just for Memory Storage for the translations.
That's not true. They can be easily implemented and it causes no issue to the game. They were removed as a conscious effort to simplify the game. Along with half of the game's (admittedly situationally useful, and that's being kind...) battle items.
![NOSFERATU - Official Trailer [HD] - Only In Theaters December 25](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nulvWqYUM8k/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm a native spanish speaker and I learned english thanks to this game. The movements and expressions were enough to make me understand the tone of the story and keep me engaged despite not being able to read everything effectively. I started using my english notebook from school as a guide for the game. I got the most rewarding feeling when I found myself reading and understanding everything
whoah :0
I love this, I’m glad this happened
Same here. FF IV and VI (amongst other games) are definitely responsible for a good part of my English education.
@@howlrichard1028FFVI Made me grow up like 20 years when I was 12. Man...🐴🏖️
Man, you probably had to relearn english if you originally learned from FF4's attempt at the language haha.
God but these videos are just the absolute best! I love this analysis so much!
Awww shucks
@@NewFramePlus Everyone look, it's game recognizing game =P
I just found this video and channel and wouldn't you know, it's on one of my absolute favorite games of all time! In 1991 I was 12 years old and had played FF1 when it came out, but of course didn't have access to 2 or 3 so this was my second FF game. This does a great job putting into words several of the things that impressed me at the time and which I still appreciate now.
Collab when 😛
@@stormRed That would be pretty cool! Maybe one of the Patreon PlayFriends should suggest a League of Legends animation analysis or something-you know, a topic in Skyen's wheelhouse where a collab would make sense.
As a low-res RPG developer, I wanted to say a big thank you for this series! These are such fascinating looks at the mountains of personality packed into simple actions like spinning a character or giving them a slightly different pose. Doing more with less is the name of the game in these early games, and I adore how much care and respect you've packed into these deep dives. Thank you! :>
Do you have anything released? I don't see any game dev mentioned on your channel.
Still can't get over "Learning that this game's creative direction was in the hands of Mr. Story and the theater kid kinda tells you all you need to know". It's a good summary of what makes FF4 different from its predecessors _and why it wound up that way._
What do you mean?
@@speinz9430 those are the types of people who would put the characters first in this scenario
@@speinz9430 I mean what I said. The quoted quote explains who was in charge of the game, and those creative priorities are why FF4 is the way it is.
10:02 - RIGHT??!! Winner quote
With FF4 it looks better than the NES games but it still looks old. It doesn't have the timelessness that FF6 does.
The crossfade between the live "Welcome To Our Town" and the game version was perfect
For real
I feel like a lot of times when we talk about advances in animation in games, the conversation starts and ends with advances in the hardware. So it's really cool to see you talk about these early games, not just in terms of how many pixels or panels they could use, but also the new and clever ways they found to use them and how they developed the craft of using animation as a vehicle to communicate plot and character.
This has to be my favourite episode of New Frame Plus to date. (Well, maybe it ties with the one about Sonic the Hedgehog animation.) The only version of Final Fantasy IV I ever played was a 3D remake, so I never got to see these simple, efficient, expressive little animations that were so impressive. It makes me smile to see the characters like this.
On a personal note, I've known some friends, and some friends of friends, who have thought about doing a game jam, or even forming an indie studio. Things keep getting in the way, nothing ever materializes, so I've been trying to teach myself as many game-making skills as possible. I have almost no talent in animation, but seeing how much they could do in this game with so little is encouraging. I may be able to figure out game animation after all. Whew.
I don’t remember where I read it, but supposedly, FF4 started as a NES title. Development didn’t move to the SNES until pretty late.
Makes me wonder how much improvement would there have been if it started a a SNES title since day 1.
You are half correct! There originally was a FF4 in development for NES and plans for FF5 to be the first SNES release. But Squaresoft eventually decided to scrap the NES game and rename the FF5 they'd started work on to FF4 (which is what we have now). Alas, the NES FF4 they'd started work on never came to be, although I understand they pulled a lot of their ideas for it into later releases.
@@NewFramePlus Oooh, could that be the reason FF5 has so many elements from FF3 too? It feels like a direct sequel of it almost
@@NewFramePlus your brain is huge
@@NewFramePlus Ah! I see, good to know.
I don't think it is. I think it's just a case of the developers being cautious. Sticking to what they know works on this new hardware and only using the new things that are relatively easy to impliment.
I like that. That they made a good product first and didn't make it all fuggly just to prove "See guys, it's on the SNES now!"
I’ve been waiting for this! This is my favourite series of yours honestly, watching the evolution of the animation over the years!!
I absolutely adore every installment in this series. Can't help sharing with all my friends. Keep them coming, thanks!
I think a cool thing about the combat characterization in FF4 is that a lot of this feels relatively unspoken. An example I like is Cecil, who I read as very very reckless due to not only some of his story actions but also how in both of his jobs, his main skills lead to him losing HP, Darkness literally costs HP, and your goal with Cover is to take damage. The key difference between these two feels like it also coincides with Cecil's growth, as his recklessness goes from outwardly destructive, to defensive. This clearly shows us a character who wants to protect those around him at any cost with nothing but gameplay and that's cool as hell.
I love just how many characters do the spin-jump excitement thing. It adds so much energy!
It's a thing that sprites have over 3D models. To "realistically" show Paloma being an energetic bundle of kid, he'd be fidgety in a constrained way, hoping at most 1 foot. Not the jumping 6 or 9 feet sprites get to get away with. Our brains normalize the cartoony quirkiness, but less so for 3D models.
@@AkaiAzul Somewhat realistic models like FF 8+ have, yeah. Simplified or stylized models like SM64 or Crash Bandicoot 4? Nope, cartooniness works perfectly fine there.
It's not the tech, it's how you use it.
This would break up the series rhythm, but doing one on Chrono Trigger after FF5 and FF6. Square employees wanting to be unfettered by the standard FF design and right at the end of life cycle for the SNES where they have mastered getting the most out of the system. Aside from that the FF6 one is going to be an intense video to compile, looking forward to it.
+1 Chrono Trigger is just... Incredible. One of my favorite games ever.
Chrono Trigger will be an awesome one to see for sure
FF6 and 7 easily have my favourite character animations of all time. The way they made them so expressive with what was available to them was insane.
FF6 is one of only a very small number of games to use background mode 6. Many think it's opening is mode 7 but it's actually mode 6.
Mode 6 is like a more limited form of mode 7 but with an additional background layer which was extremely limited to only 4 colors and only 1 scroll direction. Very few people used it as mode 7 allowed for far greater manipulation and mode 5 was far more flexible with both background layers able to have full color and move in different directions independent of each other.
I always thought the effects in CT were a bit over the top. Too much of everything, just because they could.
I have heard about Mode 7 before but never really know what it was! I learned something to day! Thank you!
The SNES Mode 7 wasn't the only one out there. BBC Micros had a Mode 7 too, which was used for teletext displays.
I suspect there were probably others out there too.
If you look up the technical details, there's actually something of an intuitive order in each mode's index number. For starters, the higher the index, the fewer layers you have to work with _but_ the more colors (and effects) you can do with each layer, including:
* "Direct Color" (modes 3,4,7 only): Allows a background layer to directly access a full 11-bit RGB color space, bypassing tiles and color palettes entirely.
* High Resolution (modes 5 and 6 only): Doubles the horizontal resolution to 512 pixels (in same physical screen size), and can double the vertical resolution to 448 pixels (interlaced).
* "Offset per tile" (modes 2,4,6 only): Allows columns of the background to be scrolled independently of one another.
Thinking back on it, the FMV cutscenes they added to the PSP release of the game were really only for characterization, and I really appreciate that
i was literally just thinking yesterday "man, it's been months since the last video hasn't it? i wonder when he'll do the next one" and here we are!
I never considered how absolutely perfect the wedding is presented. Great episode!
i was wondering the other day when this series might continue! happy to see a new installment
every time someone brings up the snes, i am reminded just how fantastic that console was... Live-A-Live, SMW, Super Metroid, FFVI, Yoshi, Earthbound. What a fantastic lineup
Don't forget Chrono Trigger, SMRPG, F-Zero, A Link to the Past, Killer Instinct, DKC trilogy. All of these still stand the test of time as some of greatest games ever made!
And ilusión of gaia,secret of mana,Kirby súper Star and dream land 3,the megaman Xs and 7,Castlevania IV and bloodlines,FF mystic Quest....
The 16-bits games seriously hits different
FF4 is my favorite 2d FF game. 4 and 9 are the ones I replay ever few years. Not sure why it’s just so comforting to me to run through this game
Ff4 is a cool game and all but where do I go after I heal Rosa, iim lost right now
@@gaemr_o5147 Head to where the Antlion cave was, and continue heading east above the cave. And you'll reach some mountains with a path you can enter.
Honestly, this video has me interested in playing it- any tips on where to find it for pc or such?
@@dovahkiin53839 pretty sure it’s on steam
@@dovahkiin53839
The PSP version is IMO the best one that exists. It works great through emulation, though if you want to find a legit copy it's a bit harder than getting it on Steam
Dan, there is nobody on the whole gosh darn internet that makes a better funny transition than you. Your humor is a true gift.
He has the wit of a gentleman swordsman.
I played and completed 4 for the first time this year, making it the first 2D Final Fantasy I've ever finished. I've dabbled with the original in a "Hey this is a novelty!" sort of way, and tried several times to get into 6 but just not clicking, so with the new pixel remasters I decided to get 4 and 6 as they're the ones people seem to rate the highest.
I didn't really have any sort of expectations coming into 4 but it absolutely blew me away. It might seem strange considering how primitive it is compared to most modern RPGs, let alone modern Final Fantasy titles, but that simplicity is in itself such a masterclass in how little you need to put into a performance to really infuse it with character and charm.
It's hard to know what exactly my reaction would have been to the original version, considering I played the pixel remaster with it's redone (but in my opinion very faithful) sprites and quality of life improvements, but regardless it strikes me as having a timeless feel alongside games like Super Metroid where it utilises the tools it has with such artistry that it never really shows its age.
You're in for a treat with 6, it's held up very well!
make sure you give ff5 a try too. it's my favorite incarnation of the job system except for maybe ff12. it's so wonderful.
I always felt like Final Fantasy 4 was what they were aiming for with Final Fantasy 2. But they didn't have the experience or tech to pull it off. Funnily 4 became 2 in the US.
I don't know why but whenever I am asked which is my favorite Final Fantasy game, I always answer 4. I have so many memories of this game in its various incarnations.
Yes the leap from 1 to 4 was that much more spectacular given it seemed that it was from 1 to 2. Also it had a rich plot but less dark than vi. This was a highlight of my high school years
1:30 seconds in and I am in tears for a simple soundtrack loop and animation. That is how much this game meant to me.
I was just thinking about this series recently and was curious if there had been any new ones I'd missed, so this is awesome to see!
I must say, I hugely appreciate you breaking these up into every individual game instead of simplifying it down to "the NES era", "the SNES era", etc., since it really lets you notice and appreciate the subtle improvements that'd get easily glossed over otherwise!
As someone that grew up with FF4 (aka 2) for the SNES, this video made me so happy to watch. I was always fascinated by the music, characters, and animation from the game as a little kid and even learned to read from it. Asking my parents constantly what certain words meant. This game holds a special place in my heart and every remake and port of it is always an instant buy for me. I even enjoyed the sequel. The FF4 references in FF14 always bring a smile to my face as well.
Are you really going to go through all main Final Fantasy games?
This is one of my favorite RUclips series. I know very little about animation, but your presentation makes me feel like I know a lot. Another amazing entry. Looking forward to FFV!
0:45 Dan we notice and appreciate the effort you put in to use original hardware, it's so nice to see Yuna's original face!
(Ooh actually in the X video a comparison of original and remaster facial animation would be interesting since they botox-ed up all of the faces in the remaster, really kills a lot of the expressiveness in the acting)
Great video as always!
I played the remaster last year, I wo der if that's what felt "off" about it. I thought it was just nostalgia goggles.
The number of people who have told me "oh you just remember it looking better cause of nostalgia" is infuriating, I really would love a video to point to that breaks it down
EXTREMELY Happy about this series! Thank you! I've only played FFXIV, the (critically acclaimed) MMO. And watching your tour though these older games is giving me sudden flashbacks to moments in XIV's story, and monster design! I can't wait for you to explore XIV!
You should play some of the others, they're really good!
Good analysis, though to be honest I spent most of it going "Oh man can't wait til he gets to V and VI!" I love the animation in those games.
"The super Nintendo bumped that color count up to around 32,000."
Just a bump. A little shove, if you will.
Into the Grand Canyon.
This might easily be my favorite video of 2022. There is just so much nuanced information packed into this presentation that I can honestly say that I learned much more than I anticipated. I can tell that you have a honest passion about this series and it shows in the writing and editing. Can't wait until the next video.
It can't beat Line Goes Up, but it definitely deserves to be in a Top X Video Essays lost with it.
Ah, IV.... the closest one I've come to beating (outside of the very easy 15). I have fond memories of getting through it, even if I did bounce off the final dungeon for lack of groking how to get through the last dungeon. And I probably could have cheat coded through there, but for some reason I never wanted to do that to IV.
Dan really feels like he's been so liberated and happy on RUclips since parting ways with Extra Credits.
His commentary style was what made me like those videos a lot of the time and now he's everything I liked about him without the rest of what I didn't like about EC *and I am here for it*
Also want to point out that these sprites were created with the CRT in mind, which had a unique effect on making the art form really shine.
Thanks for the vid.
I hope to find a video one day describing how artists designed around and utilized the quirks of the CRT
@@JB-mm5ff Oops yeah, I felt like my wording was off
Love your content as usual but I really can't emphasize enough how I agreed that that Fusoya's beard puddle was perfect.
This is my favorite Final Fantasy game.
I still remember my 10 year-old self crying during [redacted]'s sacrifice, knowing that I was crying over a fictional collection of colors on a screen, that it was stupid and I shouldn't need to cry about this fictional tragedy, and being unable to stop because I really liked [redacted] and was going to miss [redacted]. That was when I knew that I loved this game.
When [redacted] reappears at the end of the game I learned that writers were jerks trying to break my heart.
Thank you for doing this. Thank you for sharing this. And thank you for reminding me how much this game matters to me - and how important games can be.
Oh but when [redacted] lost himself in his desires and ended up making the largest sacrifice leading to [redacted]'s end, that moment still moves me to this day. It is such an elegant way to tell that plotline without bogging it down.
@@HighPriestFuneral What illustrates the brilliance of the story is that we are talking about different characters.
"grey and purple" me sitting here in central Europe with my colorful SNES controller "what?"
This series is super cool and has me thinking about the animation in some of my favorite RPGs, like Breath of Fire, which has a drastic jump in detail on sprites between games, until the ps1 games where they're absolutely gorgeous even to this day with amazing art and animation with cool little details
Having grown up in the early 2000s, I got to experience the first 4 FFs mostly in order with the Advance/DS ports, and FFIVA definitely stood out to me even as a kid with how much harder it leaned into it's story compared to when I had played I and II. Looking back on the games through your analysis, it really does amaze me how such a small amount of animations were able to sell all the various emotions, actions, and story beats.
I liked how the usage of scripted event battles for comedic purposes spilled over from fights like Dr. Lugae into the secret developer room you could find at the Dwarven Castle.
Крайне приятно удивлен сценой свадьбы. А ведь все могло обойтись лишь всплывающем текстом и мне было бы абсолютно все равно, так как не играл в Final Fantasy. Но, показав действие свадьбы через пантомимы персонажей, игра создала милую сцену понятную любому человеку
FFIV was my first FF ever, it holds such a special place in my heart, I've played and ALMOST finished every version (3D Phone and PC and the GBA yet to be finished) and I resound so much with Cecil as I, too, fought my own darkness and accepted the Light by defeating my depression. It's a game I often revisit either normally or through the randomizer. And I won't lie, this video did bring me to tears, and was singing along the music I've become so familiar with. THIS is the game who introduced me to the franchise and JRPGs plus it gave me my love for the Dragoon.
Retro game mechanics explained has already done a deep dive into the SNES and NES for anyone who wants more information.
11:47 actually I was thinking about how much I'm enjoying your roundabout approach here.
Your love for the series oozes from the video and I adore that.
It feels like I'm at the intersection of your passions and it's impossible to avoid a good time
This may be my favorite FF. This and VI of course, I vacillate between them but secretly I think this one just got to me first. As a kid I knew there was something special about it. I couldn't tell you what but I definitely picked up on it, it just had so much life.
This is great. It's one of those videos where I start feeling like "oh, no, is the video almost over!?" and then I check the progress bar and _rejoice!_
Very excited about the next two entries. They're the oldie Final Fantasy games I've (started 😅) playing the most!
"FF 4 is where Final Fantasy becomes itself." What a perfect line!
SNES hits Mode 8 switch.
*Transforms into a walking death mech*
It's video series like this that make me think long and hard about what it means to be a fan. I love Final Fantasy. I love them all, even XIII (less so for XIII's sequels, but they have their charm)
I hope you make a bonus video on spinoffs like Tactics, Crystal Chronicles, and Type-0. Gorgeous games in their own right that deserve the "New Frame Plus" treatment.
I'm really curious what he's going to make of XIII, once we finally get there. Everything about it is so divisive. Personally, I love how complicated and messy the characters are, which I think really comes through in the animation, but I know some people can't connect to its cast at all.
@@jasonblalock4429 honestly i think the biggest problem the XIII trilogy had was that it came of right after XII which seemed really expansive with the semi-open world vibes some of the areas gave off between the major dungeons of the story, like if you swapped around the release order of XII and XIII, i could almost garuntee that it would have been less divisive.
It also doesn't help that being a trilogy means that by the and of the first game some characters still hadnt really wrapped up their entire character arc and in some cases wouldn't til the finale in LR.
@@shaunpauldocherty2416 Yeah, I wasn't a fan of the sequels. I felt like XIII was complete in itself, and probably should have stayed that way. Part 2 had some interesting ideas, but the characters were totally flat, and honestly, I bounced hard off Lighting Returns. Didn't even make 10 hours in because there was genuinely nothing about it I was enjoying.
@Kelley Engineering I totally agree about it feeling like a different game with the XIII name slapped on. I was particularly confused why XIII-2 would go to so much trouble charting the next few hundred years of Pulse's development, only to toss it out the window for a totally new environment in LR that has no connection to the old world. I would have enjoyed a game set in the Future Pulse seen at the end of XIII-2.
Also, for me, the big turnoff was Lightning with even less emotion. The one thing that made her bearable is that she is actually human underneath, putting up a tough girl facade. Take that away and she's just unbearably boring.
I honestly wonder if it’s true that less is more when it comes to animation? I’ve always heard that limitation breeds creativity and for me, personally, I have always appreciated scenes like that wedding scene because they tell so much with so few tools. I’m always more impressed I guess
Less can be more, but for certain creative goals, more is more. Look at Naughty Dog-you can't do that kind of storytelling with 16-bit sprites. You can get broad stage acting with them, but not subtle performance.
I suspect that Dan's gonna make a point out of shifting from theater acting metaphors to film/TV metaphors once the games get high-fidelity enough to show more acting detail than you can see onstage... definitely by 10, no earlier than 8, let's say.
Dan, you are amazing. I have watched you from extra credits, and then to here, and your content has been consistently amazing, one of the single most consistently amazing creators on this platform. Good luck with your continued efforts!
Man, this makes me want to play FF. I can feel how much it means to people just through these vids, even though I've always found them intimidating to get into. Maybe now that I have my steam deck I'll give the series a go 🤔😄
Did you pluck everything out of my brain to write this comment or
The nice thing about the series is that it doesn't have a consistent canon, every game is an AU (discounting sequel spin-offs). So, you can jump in pretty much anywhere and get the complete story that game intended.
DO IT DO IT DO IT! Been playing since FF1 as a young child. I always recommend the SNES games or FF7 first. These are a great combination of narrative and gameplay while being very approachable (ie, not very difficult). 9 is wonderful but you'll appreciate it better after playing earlier ones first. 10/12 are definitely more advanced.
that description of the cutscene at the end... this is so fun i love how much they can pull off with all those limitaitons
i'm very sad i didn't get notified of this one. Sad that the almighty algorithm isn't being too kind to these infrequent uploads (and presumably a bit of viewer fatigue).
While i normally don't "ring the bell" out of spite, i'm gonna do that until this series is finished (so, probably late 2025, at the earliest).
Best of luck in getting the viewer numbers this fantastic work deserves.
Yes, been looking forward to this. Endwalker has had me in an FFIV mood
I really hope this series isn't gone, I'l not into final fantasy guy but your involved showcase is plainly interesting and the enthusiasm is very contagious. I got emotional at the end of the video even, there's something inspiring about how they worked around limitations to create cool stuff
Those animations to illustrate the background layers are really cool.
FFIV Still remains one of my favorites. I love this series and I'm still excited for FFXIV when the time comes.
I'm particularly excited for this to eventually reach 11 and 14, they do some interesting things with animation that other MMOs of their eras didn't (specifically the original version of 14, which used a LOT of motion capture in their cutscenes, which ballooned the budget to a point where they needed to drop it entirely upon rebooting the game)
That’s interesting. Dan talked about motion capture being used in the Sonic franchise in order to save money, so I’m curious how using motion capture in the Final Fantasy franchise caused budget issues.
@@FritzyBeat i mean, there are about a dozen horrible ideas during development that ballooned the budget, but for animation specifically, MMOs, ESPECIALLY the original version of FFXIV (there was basically no story content in the game) have a lot of situations that don’t require bespoke animation. Games get around this by doing exactly what Dan talks about in this video, using a set number of premade animations that express a specific emotion.
FFXIV 1.0 did NOT do that. Every cutscene was fully mocap’d by an actor, requiring a massive time investment as well as significantly more work than using canned animations. They were, and continue to be gorgeous, but they really don’t need to exist, and don’t help the story at all. There are a dozen other reasons the game was an expensive mess, and there are entire documentaries on RUclips about the failure of that version of the game. NoClip is a particularly good one, it includes interviews with devs on both versions.
The modern, rebooted FFXIV uses those canned animations for cutscenes and quests, as well as more bespoke (and INCREDIBLY well-made) animations for combat.
@@harrylane4 bespoke animations for combat, unless you're playing a caster
i mean, i get that the spell effects themselves pull a lot of the weight there instead, but i started out playing whm and it surprised me a ton when i finally noticed that most other jobs _don't_ use like four animation spread across every button
I literally just refreshed the page and this masterpiece showed up on my notifications
What I think this showcases is how much creativity limitation can bring. Because of all these hardware and animation limitations the designers had to get a lot more creative to show the emotions and message they want to show. Modern day animation can be a lot of eye candy and look very stunning, but that wedding scene as you describe just doesn't get made in the modern AAA scene. I feel like games are trying to adopt cinematic language without knowing how to speak it very well, when we had decades of video game language to draw from.
I love how the SNES era looks.
never stop doing videos man
The way you underlined the importance of story and characters in relation to animation makes me hopeful somehow.
An amazing video! Cannot wait for the next one no matter how long it takes you it's gonna be too long. So take your time.
Going from playing FF1 in the summer of '90 to getting FF4(II) for Christmas in '91 was an amazing leap. (Though I love the freeform party and challenge of FF1.)
Despite the tiny sprites one could get amazingly lost in the overhead theatre of FFIV. The individual bouncing damage numbers looked slick, not sure why FF6 'locked' the digits together..
Given all the pluses and minuses of the ports I still think SNES is the best version of FFIV. So grateful to have gotten to experience this title when it was new.
Completely agree. Always loved the little details like bouncing numbers or the *ching ching* of Cecil's swords. SNES is best!
Mind blowingly well done as always! I've never played FF other than Tactics advance and all the praise you're giving even the early games in the series really makes me want to go through a few of them.
Also: for everyone's sake thank you for doing these videos a game at a time. We're only 4 games in and #5 might push the series over the Sonic video's total run time.
Hyped for discussion on V. I love how utterly stupid its story is, and that’s expressed well with its characters
This is what he should have done with his sonic game animation analysis.
Edit: by this I mean slowly release it over time in episodes.
Please don't skip Mystic Quest in this series...?! It came out between 4 and 5.
This is probably the best breakdown of the wedding scene animation I've ever seen.
Always a pleasant surprise to see an upload
I'm not sure why "Mr Story and The Theatre Kid" got me so hard... but it did XD
I know this is a mountain of a project as it is. But all this talk about the SNES visuals got me hungry for an animation breakdown of Chrono Trigger!
Thank you so much for this. I've always struggled to articulate just WHY Final Fantasy IV means so much to me in terms of story and characters. And I think the extremely nuanced expressions of the characters is a huge part of it. Fantastic video!
A Playframe best-of video AND a New Frame Plus video on FFIV on the same day?! Boy we are blessed.
This is an exceptional video. The sheer amount of things you can do just with blocking and a few movement sprites really is incredible.
god I need to replay ff4. ff14 is bringing in a lot of characters, zones and loose themes from ff4 lately and while I remember the vague plot points, this video is dredging up memories and things that I remember seeing more recently in ff14.
17:06 "You are challenged by your reflection as a Dark Knight who you can only defeat through pacifism."
Me who chugged Hi-Potions and just whacked my sword at this thing: "THAT WAS HOW YOU SHOULD'VE DONE IT?!"
Perfectly timed for FF4 coming to FF14, woot woot!!
FF4 wasn't available in PAL regions so you couldn't buy it easily in Germany.... and i didn't had an SNES... so this was the first game rom i downloaded from the internet with my lousy 56k modem when i was 15 or soand played it with a dictionary open since there were so many new words i've never learned in school :D so it took me WAY longer to play it (info: my english was good for the time i just wasn't used to read english text outside school ...so ... for fun)
Something I loved about this era of Final Fantasy was how immersive it could be despite its countless limitations. The scripted battles of FF4 are a great example of it. So many of the scripted battles in 4 would be straight up cutscenes in maybe 90% of modern games. When you're watching a cutscene you may be into the story, but you still relax a bit as a player because you know there's nothing you need to do right now. But by using the same battle window for these scenes, sometimes FF4 could trick you into thinking you were still playing the game not knowing that you had in fact been booted out of the driver's seat. The scene where Rydia triumphantly returns to laydown the smackdown on Golbez will forever be burned into my memory because of that. The first time I played the game and Golbez straight up decimated my party, because the game lets it seemingly play out like a normal battle and had you choose character inputs, I was convinced I had done something wrong and was about to lose. But then Rydia comes in to save you and the battle REALLY starts. Now you have a chance to win but most of your party is in the KO state so it's chaotic and thrilling. I absolutely adore this game.
As someone who never managed to get into these kind of older final fantasy games (never had them as a kid, so I got no Nostalgia helping me^^) it is so wonderful to learn so much about them like this. Thank you so much Dan, let's see if you can catch up before they release to many new ones ;-P
I did not know the loporrit naming conventions were already a thing in FF4
Final Fantasy 4 is my favorite video game - one of my favorite _things_ - EVER! I fell in love the first time I played it before the game proper even began, as the camera faded in on the Red Wings descending on Mysidia.
Yes Namingway is a rabbit, specifically a rabbit from the moon, an outcast from the Hummingway clan. The moon rabbits are a reference to a Japanese legend.
FF4 is an amazing game and I love all the characters of it. Definitely a wonderful jumping-off point.
If I recall correctly, Square's first significant staffing-up was in the production of FF7 so the first six games were made by roughly the same two-dozen or so people. You can see it, in how they gained skill in making and using their sprite art. In 1 where the art is all very utilitarian and there was barely any acting because they barely had a handle on the hardware, then in 2 they use basically the same sprite poses more comfortably with basic posing timing and blocking to get a lot of mileage out of them. Then in 4 you have stronger hardware give them way more space and colors to work with. I think starting so constrained gave them an acute sense of when they needed to make new art or if they could make due with existing art cleverly used.
Will there be more FF animation essays? All of these have been excellent.
This is still my favorite FF, just barely beating ff6. The story and expressions communicated by the game immediately hooked me when I was a kid.
Hope you don't forget Chrono Trigger in this FF series!
Lovely video, as per usual. Learnt quite a bit!
17:10 You can actually beat your reflection by normal means, too. It's usually a close battle but I've never lost this way.
BTW, fantastic video of a personal favorite. Never watched a video of yours but immediately subscribed after!
Knowing Takashi Tokita worked on FF4 and would go on to direct Live A Live and have a chapter that acted as a dark mirror to Cecil makes so much sense
Not gonna lie, I was really wondering what you could possibly say about this game's fairly unimpressive animation for more than 37 minutes. I was not disappointed! Great video on how to accomplish a lot with very few unique frames. 🙂
This is wonderful, Dan!
Looking forward to your point of view on Super Mario RPG! The expressiveness in the blocking and pantomime in storytelling sticks with me to this day
"All of whom express concern for Cecil's well-being"
Cid: "How's my airship?"
My very favorite Final Fantasy! I don't necessarily think it I better than the later entries, I just love this one the most. Probably helps that I played it first when I was 11...
Oh right, FFIV started Active Time Battle. That's what I've known the Final Fantasy Franchise for since FFVI (FFIII on the Super Nintendo) and FFVII. In fact, those were my introduction to the Franchise.
26:40- Actually, they were removed just for Memory Storage for the translations.
That's not true. They can be easily implemented and it causes no issue to the game. They were removed as a conscious effort to simplify the game. Along with half of the game's (admittedly situationally useful, and that's being kind...) battle items.
I am so, SO glad that FuSoYa's bizarre KO sprite was highlighted.
I burst out laughing the first time I saw that pose - it's just so weird!