{"id":261,"date":"2007-11-27T21:21:16","date_gmt":"2007-11-28T02:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/archives\/261"},"modified":"2016-07-13T11:59:22","modified_gmt":"2016-07-13T18:59:22","slug":"final-fantasy-v-common-elements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/archives\/261","title":{"rendered":"Final Fantasy V: Common Elements"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <em>Final Fantasy<\/em> games, somewhat famously, don&#8217;t really form a continuity.  Each game in the series proper <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_261_1('footnote_plugin_reference_261_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_261_1('footnote_plugin_reference_261_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_261_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">1<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_261_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">That is, each game with a title like &#8220;Final Fantasy [number in roman numerals]&#8221;.  There have been a some sequels to particular games, but I&#8217;m not considering them here.<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_261_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_261_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> is its own world.  However, there are some recurring elements, not just of gameplay but of content, that help to give the series an identity.  There&#8217;s an extensive <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Common_elements_of_Final_Fantasy\">Wikipedia article<\/a> on the subject, but honestly it seems a little <em>too<\/em> extensive to me &#8212; yes, most games in the series contain healing potions, but so do most CRPGs.<\/p>\n<p>So, what is there that&#8217;s genuinely distinctive about <em>Final Fantasy<\/em>? First and most obviously, there are some recurring creatures, such as Chocobos, Moogles, and Tonberries.  The only one of these I&#8217;ve seen so far in <em>FF5<\/em> is the Chocobo, a large bird used as a steed, but I understand there are Moogles to come.<\/p>\n<p>Next, there&#8217;s the airship obsession.  This is enough of a <em>Final Fantasy<\/em> mainstay that if you&#8217;ve ever seen a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.giantitp.com\/comics\/oots0388.html\"><em>Final Fantasy<\/em> parody<\/a>, it probably had an airship in it.  I haven&#8217;t found any airships in <em>FF5<\/em> yet, but I&#8217;m sure they&#8217;re coming.  At least, I hope so.  Without one, the only means I have of travelling over long distances without the hassle of wandering monsters is by riding a dragon.  This might not sound worse than an airship, but it can&#8217;t fly over mountains, and is thus limited to a certain mountain-beringed portion of the map.<\/p>\n<p>Then there&#8217;s Cid, the crusty airship mechanic, or at least usually something close to that.  In this game, he&#8217;s a scientist who designed the crystal power amplifiers that are blamed with overworking the four Elemental Crystals and making them shatter. (This never really seemed like an adequate explanation to me.  I mean, a problem like that can&#8217;t be solved by killing things, which means I can&#8217;t do anything about it.  So I have to find the <em>real<\/em> reason the crystals are shattering.  And then kill it.)<\/p>\n<p>These are surface matters, though.  Less often remarked on but just as prevalent are common plot features, notable for being the only thing that identified the <em>Final Fantasy<\/em> movie, <em>The Spirits Within<\/em>, as <em>Final Fantasy<\/em>.  Like the prison scene.  Often there&#8217;s a point toward the end of Act 1 where the player characters are incarcerated, receive some small help in escaping, and then fight the rest of the way out.  I&#8217;ve been through this scene in FF5 already.  It&#8217;s kind of amusing how it comes about.  See, there are these monsters attacking the crystals &#8212; the fact that the crystals are under attack by monsters is another reason why the &#8220;amplifier&#8221; explanation doesn&#8217;t make sense &#8212; and the monsters apparently emerged from huge meteors.  Entering a hollow meteor yourself, you find a tunnel that leads to the site of another meteor.  On the other side, you&#8217;re seen emerging from the meteor, which means you must be a monster.  Luckily, the guards don&#8217;t have the same zero-tolerance policy towards monsters as you do.<\/p>\n<p>Then there&#8217;s the dual antagonist scheme, consisting of a human-scale enemy, such as a conquering empire, who you focus on in the early parts of the game, and beyond that, the real menace, a cosmic horror that threatens the whole world.  This creates an opportunity for a reveal scene where the plot suddenly broadens beyond the initial conflict.  I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s going to happen quite like this in <em>FF5<\/em>, because I&#8217;m fairly advanced in the game now and I don&#8217;t have a human enemy yet.  All I&#8217;ve been doing it racing around after crystals to save them before they explode.  (And I&#8217;m always too late.  Good thing, too, because it&#8217;s the shards of the shattered crystals that give me new Jobs.)  <\/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_261_1();\">&#x202F;<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_261_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_261_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_261_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_261_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_261_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_261_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">That is, each game with a title like &#8220;Final Fantasy [number in roman numerals]&#8221;.  There have been a some sequels to particular games, but I&#8217;m not considering them here.<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_261_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_261_1').show(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_261_1').text('\u2212'); } function footnote_collapse_reference_container_261_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_261_1').hide(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_261_1').text('+'); } function footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_261_1() { if (jQuery('#footnote_references_container_261_1').is(':hidden')) { footnote_expand_reference_container_261_1(); } else { footnote_collapse_reference_container_261_1(); } } function footnote_moveToReference_261_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_261_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_261_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_261_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>The Final Fantasy games, somewhat famously, don&#8217;t really form a continuity. Each game in the series proper 1That is, each game with a title like &#8220;Final Fantasy [number in roman numerals]&#8221;. There have been a some sequels to particular games, but I&#8217;m not considering them here. is its own world. However, there are some recurring [&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-261","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\/261","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=261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3673,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions\/3673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}