{"id":259,"date":"2007-11-24T04:48:57","date_gmt":"2007-11-24T09:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/archives\/259"},"modified":"2016-07-13T11:50:10","modified_gmt":"2016-07-13T18:50:10","slug":"final-fantasy-v","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/archives\/259","title":{"rendered":"Final Fantasy V"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Like many people, I came to the <em>Final Fantasy<\/em> series late.  I was in fact completely unaware of its existence until <em>FF7<\/em>, which got a bigger marketing push than usual and was available for PC.  I played that when it was new, and the PC version of <em>FF8<\/em> well after it became old, and somewhere in between I started playing through the Playstation remakes of the earlier games.  I&#8217;m up to episode 5 by now.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m doing this mainly because I&#8217;m a completist (obviously), but also because it&#8217;s fascinating to me to see how the franchise evolved.  <em>Final Fantasy I<\/em> was basically just another <em>Ultima<\/em>-style <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_259_1('footnote_plugin_reference_259_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_259_1('footnote_plugin_reference_259_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_259_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">1<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_259_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\"> &#8220;Ultima&#8221; means &#8220;final&#8221; in Latin.  Coincidence?  Probably.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_259_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_259_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> tile-based fantasy RPG in a quasi-medieval setting, with monsters lifted straight from <em>D&#038;D<\/em>, turn-based combat, ciphers for heroes, and a shadow of a plot organized around defeating four elemental &#8220;fiends&#8221;.  How did it get from there to what I know from the later episodes &#8212; the playful mishmash of genres, the bizarre monstrosities, the lengthy examination of player character backstories?<\/p>\n<p>Piece by piece, that&#8217;s how.  By <em>FF5<\/em>, we have distinctive characters and most of the basics of <em>FF7\/8<\/em> gameplay (including the &#8220;ATB&#8221; combat system), but the milieu is still standard high fantasy, and the plot is still based around the four elements.  The monsters are starting to get weird, though.  The real acid trips tend to come at higher levels, but I&#8217;ve already encoutnered skullclouds and cats that fly by means of batwings strapped to their forelegs.<\/p>\n<div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_259_1();\">&#x202F;<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_259_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_259_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_259_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">References<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_259_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_259_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_259_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\"> &#8220;Ultima&#8221; means &#8220;final&#8221; in Latin.  Coincidence?  Probably.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_259_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_259_1').show(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_259_1').text('\u2212'); } function footnote_collapse_reference_container_259_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_259_1').hide(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_259_1').text('+'); } function footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_259_1() { if (jQuery('#footnote_references_container_259_1').is(':hidden')) { footnote_expand_reference_container_259_1(); } else { footnote_collapse_reference_container_259_1(); } } function footnote_moveToReference_259_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_259_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } } function footnote_moveToAnchor_259_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_259_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like many people, I came to the Final Fantasy series late. I was in fact completely unaware of its existence until FF7, which got a bigger marketing push than usual and was available for PC. I played that when it was new, and the PC version of FF8 well after it became old, and somewhere [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[144,189],"class_list":["post-259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rpg","tag-final-fantasy","tag-final-fantasy-v"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3671,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions\/3671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}