A while ago I was going through old Final Fantasy commercials here on the blog, but I only got as far as the sixth instalment of the series. I'm back today with another commercial on Final Fantasy VI, although this commercial is actually for Final Fantasy III on the Super Nintendo. The video for said commercial will be posted at the end of this article.
This commercial is actually quite interesting and very well done. The advertisement centres around Mog who is recruiting monsters to appear in Final Fantasy III, although in the end he recruits none because not even the Grim Reaper himself could make the cut! It's actually quite a genius marketing idea because it gives the impression to the viewer that this upcoming game is going to be difficult and BADASS as hell.
This is certainly one of my more favourite commercials. I like the look and artistic design of the puppets, and I know some friends who would agree with me on this. In my opinion, this commercial just screams "this is a Final Fantasy game of the 90s", and it shows no hesitation of holding back.
April Fools has come and gone. Pranks have been pulled with laughter and tears abound but Google's prank has taken the day, (and many old-school gamers' hearts). Yesterday, Google released a fake advertisement of an upcoming product for the Nintendo Famicom: Google Maps 8-bit. Built like a Famicom cartridge and featuring a style ala Dragon Quest, Google Maps 8-bit uses its own line to connect to the internet. Of course, this product isn't real, but you can check out what our world would like in Dragon Quest. Just go to Google Maps and click the 'Quest' option in the upper right-hand corner - and voila! 8-bit conversion complete! EDIT: Unfortunately, this feature seems to be no longer available.
I thought this was a really cool, (yet cruel), prank. I own a Famicom and if this product was real, I would buy it immediately. Unfortunate as that is, the internet version is sufficient to satisfy my Famicom fanboy-ism. Either way, Google has excellent taste and I have even more respect for the Google team.
AND YES, this does mean there will be more Dragon Quest related posts in the future! I've been experiencing this great series as of late and I plan to share my experiences with these games.
It's been a few days folks, but I am back once again! Today is our eighth commercial and while our look at Final Fantasy V commercials were somewhat lacking, the next three commercials for Final Fantasy VI are quite unique. The commercial I have for you today is another personal favorite of mine, and I'm glad to finally talk about this one. So what are we waiting for? Let's delve right in!
Wow, now that's what I call a commercial! Beautiful actress possibly portraying Terra (Tina in Japanese)? Check. Gameplay footage? Check. Classic Final Fantasy nostalgia? Major check! This commercial really hit all the chords for me. From the music to the editing of gameplay and appropriate Tina actress, it's quite well done. So what's the commercial about? Well, it just seems to be Tina standing in the wind, (maybe she's thinking about her adventure?), as scenes from the video game itself play in and out during the advertisement. Is the game represented well? I think so! The game is advertised well, since not only do we have gameplay but Tina is prominently displayed. Her expressions are important, as well as the dreary setting of the commercial. Tina looks sad in this video; maybe even depressed, which I think is symbolized by the background, (grey clouds; a moody, stormy atmosphere). Final Fantasy VI is not a 'cheery' game, (it does have its comical moments, though), and in fact, many scenes are quite despondent and tragic.
The music is very fitting, I think. The title of the song is "Roaming Sheep" and it's actually from Final Fantasy III. The title is very appropriate for the game, because it effectively describes the characters and the setting in two words. The characters in the party of FFVI could be viewed as 'roaming sheep', because many times throughout the story, the characters are constantly separated and re-grouped, usually making them vulnerable in a dangerous and dark world - similar to a herd of sheep in a world of wolves.
NOTE: The video below is the track played in the commercial, "Roaming Sheep", which is from Final Fantasy III on the Famicom.
Overall, I really like this commercial! It fits the game quite well and it gives me the energy to want to play Final Fantasy VI again. Great commercial for a great game. I give this one an 8/10.
This is the Onion Knight signing off. Have a good day!
Greetings readers! This is your adventurous writer, the Onion Knight! This is the seventh installment in our look at Final Fantasy commercials. Today's post is going to be a little special because not only will we be looking at two commercials, I also had to dig deep into the depths of "YouTube Hell" to find these hidden gems.
These commercials, like the previous post, centre around a chocobo. The exuberant bird runs around a hole placed in the ground as monsters, (presumably from FF V), jump out of the hole; monsters such as Iron Giants and Bombs. Nothing else can be described since that is all that happens.
Do both of these commercials represent the product well? They certainly represent the series, but the commercials themselves are not very interesting nor exciting. In fact, these commercials remind me of those cheesy toy or children's show advertisements you would normally find on a Saturday morning. Still, the commercials do present the game as a Final Fantasy game; a statement that holds weight when compared to earlier commercials we've looked at thus far.
I don't really have much to say on these two, since not much happens and there's not enough substance to really dig into. At least, not from what I can see. Overall, these commercials are mediocre and slightly hint in the beginning that the game being advertised is specifically Final Fantasy V. The only connection I can make is the chocobo - since chocobos (Remember Bartz's pet chocobo, Boco?) are prominent in FF V more so than any other Final Fantasy title before it.
So here is my question: why are both of these commercials so similar and how are they different?
Welcome to the Grove folks! I am your illustrious writer, the Onion Knight, and today is our sixth commercial. Last time, we travelled to Europe and discovered that, sometimes, a Final Fantasy commercial is actually a Zelda commercial. Now we have left our European friends and return to the land of Japan. Today, we'll be looking at a Japanese commercial for Final Fantasy IV on the Super Famicom. If you thought the English ad for Final Fantasy II on the Super Nintendo was weird, this next commercial blows the competition out of the water - in terms of strangeness.
The first thing you'll notice (I hope you notice) is that the commercial has the chocobo theme playing in the background. Nice! It's such a classic theme and it fits the outlandish mood perfectly. Next, an ostrich, (an ostrich?! NOW I've seen everything), runs along a beach while a person laughs in the background. Wait, what?
What... just happened?
Why is the chocobo theme... ostrich... choco- OH! I see what Square did there. Clever!
The chocobo, of course, is an animal in the Final Fantasy world based upon a real bird: the ostrich. So they used an ostrich to represent the chocobo in the commercial, thus the theme. Well, the theme makes more sense than ever!
This is what a typical chocobo looks like in FFIV.
Overall, the commercial is good and I personally like this one. It's something only Final Fantasy fans will understand, while others will become perplexed, which usually leads to interest of the game - advertised as Final Fantasy IV for the Super Famicom.
Hello readers! Welcome back to the Final Fantasy Grove. I am your writer, the Onion Knight, and today we are looking at our fifth commercial! Gee, is it really day #5 already? Time just flies, doesn't it? Any German speakers in the house? I've managed to find an interesting television snippet that comes from the far-off land of Germany! This is a commercial for the Game Boy game, Mystic Quest. This is not to be confused with the Super Nintendo game of the same title. The Mystic Quest seen here is actually Final Fantasy Adventure; the game was simply re-named in Europe. Although, everything is not all that looks, and today's post will discuss an element of controversy.
Of course, the commercial has German audio, not English. The ad starts with a scruffy, curly-haired man, (Richard Simmons?!), climbing a cliff face. When he reaches the top, he runs toward a sword as lighting rains all around him. He pulls out the sword and lifts it into the air, and the commercial cuts to that of the Game Boy, and the title, Mystic Quest, is displayed. So where does the controversy come into play here?
After viewing the ad, I began reading the YouTube comments. Even though they were all in German, (a language I do not understand very well), one comment caught my interest:
"OMG! Das Schwert ist aus Zelda! Wie peinlich :-)
Aber das SPiel ist trotzdem eines meiner Lieblingen"
Final Fantasy Adventure in Europe
Notice that I highlighted the word Zelda. Being a video game commercial, I immediately thought of the Legend of Zelda franchise. I was a little confused, so I replayed the commercial and that's when I noticed it - the sword. What's so special about it? I knew I had seen the sword somewhere before, because it's the exact same sword seen on the cover of Zelda: Link's Awakening. To throw further in further speculation, the Triforce symbol (an important icon in the Zelda series) is on the sword. Readers, do you know what this means? It means that this commercial was originally an ad for a Zelda game, not a Final Fantasy game. Therefore, the game is (somewhat) falsely advertised. The only 'relatable' Final Fantasy element is the sword, which is false itself since it's clearly a sword from the Zelda series.
I don't really have much else to say about this one. It's not actually a Final Fantasy commercial, so the only thing discussable is the illegitimacy. Tomorrow, we'll have a true Final Fantasy commercial for sure.
Hey guys, how's it goin'? Onion Knight here and this is the third day in our commercial extravaganza! Yesterday, we looked at an odd (and unexciting) advertisement for Final Fantasy II. Today, we'll talk about a Japanese commercial for Final Fantasy III. This will be the last 8-bit commercial I'll be looking at, which saddens me because I love talking about the older Final Fantasy's. O, but alas, thou must move on.
This commercial for Final Fantasy III is interesting, although I can think of one word that effectively summarizes this ad: nice. Why do I say that? That's really all it is. It's nice, but let's move on, pick this commercial into pieces, and see if we can find anything in the deep.
FFIII art cover of the box
The advertisement starts off with a somewhat spooky, but mostly mysterious atmosphere. What the viewers, us, see are rock pillars jutting out above dark clouds, (I would say that could be a reference to the Cloud of Darkness but I'm just looking too much into it). Next, what looks like TV screens manifest onto the rock faces while bolts of lightning shower the pillars. Well, this is something! Certainly a lot better than the FFII commercial we looked at yesterday. "Okay commercial, you've got my interest!" Then, a crystal forms from the lighting storm among the clouds in the sky and another television screen begins to emerge from said crystal. The TV screen separates from the crystal and it then begins to... rotate? Yeah, the crystal TV (Crystal TV? Now I've seen everything) is actually a cube formed of multiple television screens, each showing a different gameplay element from Final Fantasy III. Well that's awesome!
The atmosphere is really nice. As I mentioned earlier, the setting is quite mysterious and keep in mind the clouds - as clouds were a very important element in the setting of the game. Now that I think about it, the clouds probably represent the dark cloud cover that enveloped most of the world, which is discovered after the characters have left the Floating Continent.
Once again, like previous posts, I want to comment on the music. Here, they use the Prelude theme. This theme is great, and once again it's the arranged version! It's also the only piece that plays in the commercial, unlike the first commercial we looked at where the prelude theme was cut short by the Main theme. Well done!
Artwork of FFIII; Yoshitaka Amano. Note the prominence of clouds.
Overall, the commercial is good and caught my interest from the beginning. I really like this one, although not as much as the FF I&II ad. Speaking of which, at the end our extravaganza, I'll probably list my top 3 commercials and I'll explain why I chose them.
I hope you liked today's commercial! Have a good day!
Onion Knight out.
New day, new commercial! Welcome back to the Grove folks. I am your exuberant host, The Onion Knight, and today we are looking at our second commercial in this advertisement fiesta. Last time, we looked at a commercial for Final Fantasy I & II, and since I couldn't find any ads for the first Final Fantasy, we'll be analyzing a somewhat different and unique commercial for the second title.
Final Fantasy II was released in 1988 and this was probably the first TV ad for a Final Fantasy. Keep in mind that the quality of the YouTube video is very low, (perhaps suggesting just how rare and old this ad is), and that the real purpose is to analyze the commercial itself.
Of course, it's all about Final Fantasy II. But what does the commercial tell us about this game? The first thing we see are Square employees coding the game. This is such a strange way of advertising the game, and it might not be an effective strategy marketing idea in today's world. Showing the developers themselves coding and creating the game? Weird, different, and unique is all I can really say about that. Advertising the names of the people who were behind these games was apparently a popular thing to do during this time, however, this method must have been cut short since I haven't see this kind of stuff after Final Fantasy III.
Look at the bottom of the box here. Notice that the creators' names are presented, even the programmer.
So is there anything about this commercial that speaks Final Fantasy? Well, we have the battle theme from the game playing throughout the commercial, and some of Amano's artwork is even shown throughout; the first being Leon, the next Minwu, then Maria, a boss character(whose name I'm forgetting at the moment), and finally Firion. So we've got developers, artwork, and music, but what's my opinion?
Although the commercial is different from anything I've seen, it's anything but exciting and not much information is given in the commercial. Although the developers are shown, we don't know their names or who they are, and nothing is explained about the game at all. All I can gather is that it's for the Famicom, it has artwork, music, and people are making it. That being said, the commercial is still a rare find and something worth noting.
Tomorrow, we'll finish up the last commercial for an 8-bit Final Fantasy, (unless if I come across any more for the Famicom/NES, or any for the Game Boy FFs).
I meant to blog about this a while back, but I've been extremely busy as of late. For you FF fans out there, you may have had this game on your radar for the past while: Final Fantasy Type-0, which was previously known as Agito. It's an upcoming title for the PSP and there's one word that comes to mind- blood.
The game is the most violent yet, (one of the bloodiest games I have ever laid my eyes on), and is sure to be one of the more mature games for the PSP. Besides the extreme violence (a chocobo dies!), Type-0 seems to be heavily laced with dark themes and a mature plot revolving around war and politics.
I haven't followed this game very much - in fact, this trailer is the first I've seen of this game, and the sheer violence and moodiness caught me off guard. Come to think of it, even though violence is a huge part of the Final Fantasy series, blood isn't a typical visual element. VII introduced blood while VIII used blood in one cutscene, but Type-0 has brought violence for the series to a whole new scale. Type-0 is sure to be the first Final Fantasy to receive an M rating, (at least in North America). That's my prediction.
And to top off this post, here's the aforementioned trailer in Japanese. Sorry, no Ingles yet!
The other day, a friend of mine gave me two Final Fantasy figurines as gifts. The first figurine I show off is that of Terra from FFVI fame and the second Cloud Strife from the FFVII prequel, Crisis Core. Both of these collectibles are very nice and I'm quite happy to have these two entering my collection.
Pretty much all of the details are in the video above, as well as the un-boxing of Terra and Cloud. Both were made by Trading/Play arts under Square Enix supervision and the production is pretty good, even more so for the Cloud figure.
The Terra statue cost about $20 and the Cloud figure was about $30, the latter being a great price considering Play Art figures generally cost somewhere between $45-$70.
I usually don't end up getting many collectibles of this nature, so there won't be too many posts about figurines in the near future.
Enjoy this video and if you have questions or comments, post in the 'comments' section down below and I'll be sure to reply as quickly as possible!
If you're a personal friend of mine, you may have heard me mention this game or have seen me play it. This is Dissidia Final Fantasy and it's a very good anthology of the series, so to speak. The characters (and villains) you know and love from Final Fantasy have clashed in this title of epic proportions. Currently, there are two iterations in this 'spin-off' series, but I'll be talking about the first one.
In this video, I briefly talk about what the game is like and the battle that is taking place in the video. Here, I'll write a little more detail on Dissidia.
Dissidia is an action-RPG-fighting game. The player can choose from a multitude of characters - a hero and villain representing each game in the series up to FFX. Yes, that means you can create battles between Cloud and Sephiroth, Terra and Jecht, and many more. Even though it's a fighter, it's actually very heavy with RPG elements - with the exception of exploration since there's no world to explore. There are at least a few modes included such as Story mode, Arcade, Versus, Duel Colosseum, and extras like the Museum which allows you to view information of characters. You can also watch and edit replays, which the outcome has spawned many fan videos on the internet. There's also a mode that allows you to battle wirelessly with your friends. I've only had the chance to experience this mode once but it was very fun!
I remember when this game was first being launched, there was a lot of advertising for Dissidia. I saw many posters decorating game stores, TV commercials scanned into my eyeballs, and Square even released figurines of Dissidia as well as potion cans; each character having their face planted on said cans.
Well, that's really all I have to say about Dissidia. All that is left are the fond memories I have of playing this game. It piqued my interest in the Final Fantasy world as a whole, so the game is quite important to me. As I said in the video, it's a very addicting and entertaining game; I've played at least 100 hours. Dissidia has even served as a great way to blow off steam, whether it be taking a break from heavy work or taking a break from stress in general.
If you have a PSP but have never tried Dissidia, I very much recommend it. It's a great entry in the series and it deserves my Seal of Approval.
NOTE: For some of you, the video may be looking very 'shaky', where even the text is moving around. This may have been because I clicked the 'stabilize' option for the video. Click the link for a more static video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoEnH1O3dQg&feature=player_embedded#!
Hey folks! Onion Knight here and I'm bringing you a little vlog I did for the Grove. Although I'm not sure if I can call it a vlog. Maybe an educational video?
I decided the other night, (after many cups of coffee and being deprived of much needed sleep), that I wanted to show off my Final Fantasy collection. Unfortunately, I don't have much technology to work with. The video was recorded with my camera phone (5.0 Megapixels), so the volume of my voice didn't come out very loud, (you may need to turn up the volume).Once I can get access to a better camera, I'll hook up another vlog.
In this first vlog, I show three Final Fantasy games that were released for the Super Famicom (that's Japanese for Super Nintendo): Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI. I also show off the console for a bit, too.
So, watch the video and just enjoy! Remember to leave any comments on the page, and follow and share my blog too!
Remember: It may say Final in the title, but this Fantasy is never over.
