Earth Crystal, Here We Come!
Posted by Mike Blitz on August 9th, 2008
We make it back to Karnak without incident. Once there we head straight for the pub, where our timing couldn’t be better. Shortly after we speak with a sullen Cid, Mid enters the room and gives Cid a talking to. Thanks to Mid, Cid gets his head back on straight and decides that he must get back in the fight to save the Earth Crystal. He and Mid leave to use the information contained in a book Mid brought with him to fix Cid’s Fireship so that it can sail without wind.
We rest at the inn, restock on potions, and head over to Cid’s ship. Once there, Cid and Mid ask us to wait until they have repaired the ship. We proceed to a lower cabin to rest. Once there, Galuf has a series of recollections that help him figure out part of his past. This got a bit complicated, but I think he said that he remembered coming to earth from another world in order to use the four crystals to seal up some very bad dude by the name of Exodus.
Now, you tell me. If one of your friends, who claims to have lost his memory, starts telling you that he rode a meteor from another world to help imprison some evil creature on Earth, what would you think? Of course, you’d think the guy was nuts. You might even bash him with a frying pan. But not in Final Fantasy V! In Final Fantasy V, the other three members of the party do a little jump in surprise, then accept Galuf’s story as simply as if he said he remembered tending bar at the Carwen pub. Har!
I digress, however: must stay focused on main story. With that revelation out of the way, our party heads back upstairs. Cid’s Fireship has been repaired, and Cid and Mid leave it in our hands while they head back to the Ancient Library to look for more information to help us. We grab the captain’s wheel and set sail south, in search of the elusive Earth Crystal!
Why do I think there is absolutely no chance we’ll be able to save the last crystal? Anyway, Onward Ho!
Status: Killing Stuff with a Purpose!
August 10th, 2008 at 3:39 am
I dunno, you might get lucky, find some super glue and glue back the crystal pieces. By the way, I hope Cid and Mid have taken out all the junk on the Fireship and cast a Mini-spell on the insides, because otherwise, you might have hard time going to the cockpit.
August 10th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Heh, that’s pessimistic, Mike! Though I don’t blame you, after the fate of the other crystals…
Anyway, about that revelation…it’s FF, anything can happen! So of course they’d believe it!
August 10th, 2008 at 11:24 am
FF V is chock-full of “convenient” plot points like that. Things just happen to be in the right place at the right time, people just happen to remember the right things at the crucial moment, and the main party just goes with the flow. *rolls eyes*
The plot development of the game is one of my least favorite ones in the series, I have to say… Everything is just too damn convenient.
August 10th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
You think there is absolutely no chance you’ll be able to save the last crystal because you are beginning to gain an understanding of how Final Fantasy storylines work. By the way, the villian usually goes by the name of “Exdeath”, at least in English translations of the game.
As for the plot being convenient, FFV must seem refreshingly natural compared to FFIV, in which deus ex machinas number in the dozens.
August 10th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Of course, everyone plays FFV for its story, it’s the best of the series!
sarcasm…
August 10th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
As I said earlier, that’s the danger of storytelling with an event-driven engine. Since the player has to trigger the events, everything has to happen when the hero arrives. That’s why the party in FFIV seemed to be total jinxes; whenever they went to a plce, bad things happened.
From FFVI on, they hide the fact a bit better, but there are also a couple of plot arcs in FFVI where the party seems to bring misfortune with them.
Actually that happens in almost all the series, in fact. Even the most impending doom that threatens all life on Earth doesn’t actually unleash until the hero is able to see it (fans of FFVI, FFVII and FFVIII will understand).
August 10th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Yup. Just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I actually liked V’s story though. It had that high-fantasy adventure feel to it.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:35 am
To Jaime:
The difference in FF V compared to the other games is that the playable characters are largely irrelevant to the plot, kinda like in FF XII. They just happen to be the ones experiencing the adventure, when it could really be anyone in the world. That’s how I feel about it, anyway. :/
To Drake:
I think you’ve mixed up your terms there. “High Fantasy” means dragons, dwarves, elves, swords, might & magic etc. The whole FF-series leans more towards the “steampunk” genre, in my opinion.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Sami, maybe later on, but Final Fantasy V does have a High Fantasy setting. So, to some extent, does XII.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Sami, you’re right. In the beginning there was a noticeable difference between the odd numbered and even numbered installments. I, II and III focused in highly customizable parties and generic characters who just happened to be along for the ride (seriously, how much more boilerplate can you be than the four youths in FFIII? In the original they were quadruplets, and in the remake they try to give them backstories and such but that doesn’t prevent them from saving the exact same beginning stats and learning curve). II, IV and VI featured characters much more involved in the story but much more rigid in what each could do.
[SERIES SPOILER. MIKE STOP READING IF YOU WANT TO DISCOVER GAMEPLAY DIFFERENCES BY YOURSELF] VII and VIII were the first to try to mix the storytelling elements with the character customization elements. When people complain that VII’s characters are too interchangeable, in many cases they offer V as an example, but they usually compare FFVII characters to FFV classes, and that’s wrong. If you compare characters to characters, FFV’s characters are as interchangeable as they can be, only there’s nothing to interchange because your party’s fixed. I might make a wild bet and say that’s a purely American phenomenon as FFVII was really building on FFV and American gamers prior to FFVII had only experienced I, IV and VI - which happen to be the only ones with non-customizable characters, while the true predecessors of VII in the “make your own warrior” department were the Japan-only II, III and V.