11:03 - It ain't a Final Fantasy 6 video until Sabin suplexes the train. You get a thumbs up :p

As someone not hugely familiar with Final Fantasy, I adore how you’re not just tracing the evolution of animation in the series from a technical standpoint but using that as a lens to explore its evolving approach to story and character. Because the technical side is only half of it, right? Where things get really interesting is in how those animations are used to convey character and tell stories. As a result, I’m learning more about a pillar of gaming history that I’ve mostly disregarded in the past, and at the same time learning about that fascinating middle ground between art and science that animation occupies. Looking forward to the next one!

So, I'm a writer. And it may not be obvious, but these videos apply to writing narrative fiction. When you talk about animation, I'm picturing in my head how to apply this to the characters in my stories, how to "animate" them with words, give them life and meaning through action. Describing how characters smile and frown and pace and shuffle as they talk or travel is a powerful way of bringing characters to life from the page. The tools you're giving me as a writer are amazing.

Well darn, now I want a Chrono Trigger video too!

(23:30) I will go you on further. The combat screen is where we're used to dangerous things happening. Sure, you can take some hits outside of combat, but combat is where the high risk stuff is, like boss fights. The esper wasn't REALLY dangerous, until it became a combat screen, and she's alone.

I'm so psyched whenever I see another video in this series has dropped

7:54 I had to re listen to this three times before realizing he's saying "But Dan", and not "BUT DAD" 😅

4:06 Mog, Umaro and Gogo are mostly chilling and/or there for the ride. Heck, you find Gogo in a random cave and he's like "Yahaha, you found me! I'll be in your party now!"

I've always said it cannot be understated how vital Kitase's contributions to this franchise were ever since Sakaguchi gave him the reigns starting with 6, and then moving onto 7 and 8. The cinematography and blocking you mentioned made such a huge leap forward in 6 *because* Kitase has a degree in cinematography. The man has a filmmakers background, and it shows in the three games he directed, even in the sprite-based FF6, before being given actual lighting and an actual camera to work with in 7 and 8 (it must have been like a kid in a candy store for Kitase once they moved into 3D). I mean, just look at how perfectly storyboarded FF7's opening is. That intro is iconic for a reason. Kitase has always been undervalued by the fanbase, as he is as crucial as anyone to the overwhelming success of this franchise.

It's hard to overstate just how big Final Fantasy VI (or Final Fantasy III as I knew it at the time) was on it's release. This was a huge step up, and as much as Final Fantasy VII was breathtaking, there was a magic in Final Fantasy VI's 2D art that it couldn't _quite_ carry over.

Setzer certainly doesn't leave the best first impression, but the way the game shows his memories as you walk down the long stairway in Daryl's Tomb is perhaps one of my favorite Final Fantasy moments ever, especially with the payoff at the end.

8:48 - I think we can all agree that "Evil Toot" is the best attack name ever.

Kazuko Shibuya's work in this game is nothing short of high sorcery. I can't believe how effective these animations are at telling such a serious story.

I forgot how hard during the epilogue @25:15 Terra walking to the front of airship and letting her hair down to blow in the wind meant to me, until her her hair fell and instantly i got chills from the memories and how it's the only time in the game that animation is used

FF6's increase in overworld sprite size (to 16x24) also has a secondary effect: everything _else_ in the overworld gets "scaled up" to match their increased size. A "door" in prior FF games used to be just 1x1 tile large (16x16) but now it is at least 1x2 tiles (16x32). Plus the much-improved appearance of overlapping background objects, whether due to specialized tile bitmaps or actual layering of multiple tiles on top of each other (e.g. 15:38, notice how the actual wall texture is visible through the posts at the top of the bed, or behind the armor statue out in the hall) -- this ultimately conveys the "camera" as being "closer" to the scene/action than ever before.

Speaking of combat screen storytelling, I'm a little surprised you didn't bring up General Leo's death. How do you add impact to the death of a relatively minor NPC? By making him playable for a single battle, just so the player can share in his horror as Kefka curbstomps him. A bunch of bespoke animations, just for that one battle, so the player will give a damn. Not to mention the player is probably assuming that Leo is going to become yet another party member but... nope.

My dude, that transition between Xenogears and FFT at the end of the video was so absurdly clean.

The character size becoming standard in and out of battle becomes interesting immediately. In FF7, they go back to having lower-detail characters outside of battles and full size full detail characters in battle. But with 3D models instead of sprites. It’s interesting to see that progression happen again in 3D.

Haven't watched the video yet but I just wanted to say I tuned in to the stream where you worked on fixing the sprites ages ago and wanted to comment that I really appreciate just how much work you put into these videos to add all that polish and care, it doesn't go unnoticed

I know it was probably not deliberate that this video dropped the same year as the game's 30th anniversary (or, indeed, anniversaries, considering both western and JP releases) but I can't help but appreciate that it did nonetheless. Still doing us all a service with this series, Dan.👍👍

23:08 putting it in terms of cinematography is so neat, I wouldn't have thought of that but that's so cool. As you say Dan, very clever!

"You... naughty gamer, you~" "You NAUGHTY gamer, you..!" I love that Dan never fails to include comedy within his analyses. The fact that I get to laugh as well as learn something is such a treat.

Dang it, Dan. I was not expecting to cry over an animation video! But it's just so incredible to see really the evolution of such a beloved medium through this series. And seeing the level of mastery these artists achieved even with the crudest tools, when compared to what they have now, at least. This has been such a lovely journey. And what a place to say goodbye to 2D pixel animation: at its peak (I mean, moreso after you mention Chrono Trigger)

"2D sprites over 3D backgrounds" is such an underrated visual style. I Can Not get enough of it. I wish we'd gotten at least one big mainline FF like that.

Funny you mention both Chrono Trigger and Xenogears as examples for how Final Fantasy 7 could have looked had they stuck to 2D character animation. As far as I know, both games had actually been pitched as FF7 early on before they became their own stories entirely.

23:23 - not only is it clever, it fits into something I've thought about with game music and cohesion. It's been a while since I encountered this context in the wild, so I won't describe it perfectly, but I've seen people say that they prefer 8/16-bit music over orchestral in some contexts where both are an option. I believe one significant reason for this is cohesion. In old games, music and sound design were inherently linked by both being results of the same, very distinct-sounding engine. In modern games, because there does not _need_ to be any connection between the way music and sounds are designed and produced, it's possible for them to clash. Sound design, across sfx and music, inherently tended to work together and be cohesive on old sound engines. On modern ones, that choice must be made deliberately and carefully. Furthermore, there was always a similarity in style between pixel art and 8/16-bit sounds because in broad strokes, art (visual or audio) running on those systems involved relatively large, descrete entities being placed together to imitate a "real," smooth analogue. That's imprecise - that similarity is not exactly the reason why there's cohesion - but it's close enough for my purposes. Old games had a relatively easy time being cohesive across all sound and visuals, because the tools they had to work with were well-suited to be put together. Nowadays, we have a large selection of tools, and so we need to be careful to select ones that can be cohesive, and use them accordingly. Modern successes include the Ori games, whose sound and music design are unrelated but both derive from the visual style, relating everything accordingly and making the games cohesive across each of those three elements. Hollow Knight is another good example, where its sfx work perfectly with the visuals (*according to me, who knows nothing about the art form), and its music is then cohesive with the sfx, which transitively makes it cohesive with the visuals (this transitive relationship won't always exist, but it will often). For a specific example of why audio/visual cohesion matters, one can imagine a person who prefers the FF pixel remasters' rearranged music over the originals, but who prefers listening to the originals in-game because of the cohesion between the original instrumentation and the pixel art, which is lesser in the new instrumentation. As for the scene I'm commenting about? One can imagine using some special camera for that cutscene, which has the same benifits as the battle cam, but which allows for this idea to be expressed perfectly - even better than the battle cam does. If such a camera were to be used, I contend it would make the scene worse. The use of the battle cam, this preexisting thing which is used in many places, is more than merely 'good enough.' It works very well, _and_ fits in with the way the camera works in the entire rest of the game. It doesn't distract you, it doesn't do anything out of the ordinary, it's just a clever use of what you're familiar with that fits the scene and game very well. Introducing some special thing which the player would need to understand before engaging with the cutscene would would take them out of the game for a second. The battle cam doesn't. It fits the game and that cutscene far better than the more fancy alternative would. If you had to chose between using music X and music Y, where both suit scene A, and Y is a better piece of music than X (let's pretend this is objective), but X is more cohesive with the visual and sfx design, you should pick X the vast majority of the time. Cohesion matters. Even within visual parts of the game, you can still distract by trying to be too fancy, or deviating from established norms. It's far better to stick with what the player understands and knows than to introduce something new, unless there is a good reason or a large benifit to introducing the new thing. There may well be an Occam's Razor of game design, being something along the lines of "It is better to do very well with few things than it is to do perfectly with many."

Isaac Newton once said "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants," and it is in this sense that I think it is fair to say that Final Fantasy VI is the best game ever made. It's not that subsequent games haven't surpassed it in whatever respect, but that it represents the largest single step forward that video games have ever taken as 'art'. The animation, art, music, characterization, story, worldbuilding, were all so much more mature than any game that had gone before. So you could say it's not the giant that currently happens to be at the top of the stack, but the tallest single giant that is (and probably will ever be) in the stack.

Thank you for codifying all those subtle animation tricks and marvels that we laypeople just look upon with awe and call "good". I've never really been able to express my thoughts about what exatcly it was about the animated expressions and details of the FF6 cast due to my lack of immersion in the artistic and animation spaces. It is immensly relieving to have an expert in the field go over the technical details that I simply appreciate in amalgam as fine art. Thank you.

24:18 that mode 7 looks amazing

17:34 Fun fact here (in case nobody else has mentioned it yet). This iconic opening sequence was created by none other that Tetsuya Takahashi, the man who later on would co-create "Xenogears", and then founded Monolithsoft, creating the two spiritual successors "Xenosaga" and "Xenoblade".

From belting out opera to just belts, it's gonna be a hell of a transition.

I've only recently fully experienced ff6, my childhood gaming experience was almost exclusively PC and Nintendo handheld, and I was really blown away how much it still holds up. Terra's story is very striking to me, not to mention her theme has been stuck in my head for weeks, and it's really surprising how much the bluring of the combat and town traversal was in 6. The merging of those two animation libraries did wonders to allow each of the characters to be far more animated and allow for the various parts of the ensemble cast to shine even more.

10:45 Celes isn't just looking to the side, she has her palm up, I really love it!

This video just dropped onto my homepage and I was thoroughly captivated from beginning to end. That's not common for me, at least not with videos I'm not actively looking for on my own. Your presentation here is phenomenal. Nice work.

4:06 undeniably some of the characters of all time! To be perfectly honest though, I forgot Mog is playable and that Strago existed at all, but the yeti and mime are locked in my memory.

These videos are such a treat whenever they come out. Not only do we get fantastic breakdowns of the animation and come away with a new appreciation, but they also help me remember how great this series really is and why I love these games so much.

No idea how long I have been waiting for this video. Thank you, Dan.

I love how one simple change in standardizing sprite size opened up their animation potential so much. It's such an obvious thing in hindsight but it took them 6 games to realize that. I also didn't know that they made 6 games in 8 years! Seeing the growth is so incredible.

Clicked faster than smash windup animations🔥🔥🔥

It's such a joy watching these animation videos of yours, it's like they're radiating with your excitement! Can't help but get pulled along for a fascinating ride.

im pretty confident in saying that the cinematography choices in VI were a direct result of Kitase's involvement. he is a filmmaker by training after all

Your videos bring me so much joy, thank you so much

I am genuinely always so incredibly excited to see a new one of these. Thanks for this wonderful series, Dan. I keep learning so much every episode, and I can't wait to hear you dig into FFVII!

You NAUGHTY GAMER amazing video, its alaways fun to learn about this stuff. Im REALLY exited for the next one

I appreciate Dan's style a lot, and this is my all-time favorite entry in the franchise. :chefkiss:

Glad to see you're still making steady progress on this Behemoth of a series. Hopefully you can catch up to the end of the series this decade!

Babe wake up New New Frame Plus Animation of Final Fantasy video just dropped

I never realized they previously had to have different battles and non-battle movements. That must be so relieving for the team who wants to explore more complex story

I love Mega64's video with Sakaguchi so so much. Thanks for all your hard work on this series, Daniel!

I *adore* this series, Dan. Every time a new one comes up I try to watch it as soon as I can. Thank you, and I can't wait for more.

I still think the moment they show the Falcon emergy from the ocean in the world of ruin, to one of the best 16 bits ever, is one of the greatest scenes in gaming and left a permanent mark on me. The game is full of cinematic scenes the likes of which we had never seen in a video game at that point, but that one is really the big one for me.

This video came out the same day I’m graduating🎉

Top quality work as always. Really enjoy this series. Thanks to all involved, including the patrons!

your videos take me back to college's Art History classes, giving me new reasons to appreciate these works of Art with a fresher and more focused look. thanks so much

I really enjoyed the pixel animation breakdown. You showed me a whole new side to the video games I grew up loving so much. Thank you so much! Looking forward to the 3D era

This actually moved me to tears. Final Fantasy as a series is so very special to me, in so many ways, and seeing all these subtle and obvious ways the games are made is just magic. I'm not an animator, in fact my analysis of visual arts is muddled a lot of the time, but having all these moments and details explained gives me such a deep appreciation for something that is already close to my heart like very little else. Thank you, Dan, for doing these videos. Hearing you speak about something like this with such obvious love, care, and appreciation is genuinely moving while also shedding light on things I wouldn't have consciously noticed otherwise. I'm truly grateful, and can't wait for the next parts; the run from FF6 to FF10 is my absolute, all-time favourite set of media in the world, and these videos are helping me get to know them better than ever.

5 and 6 are the early Final Fantasy games I haven't had the chance to try yet, so it's interesting and informative to watch this and get an idea of why this game is so influential and fondly remembered. I definitely need to get the switch version at some point soon.

Been doing fanart in FF6’s 16x24 sprite style for years (started off doing a fanart piece of a co-op card game scenario done in the style of FF6’s battle screen), starting just before you started your animation of Final Fantasy video series. This one was especially the one I looked forward to the most. Having had a failed career as an animator (I didn’t have the drive to keep getting better to stay in it), going back to doing sprite work to what probably inspired me to get into animation was my comfort zone. Someday, I might regain my confidence to try to create a game.

The legend has been fulfilled

A thing I wish was highlighted was Kefka as a character. He was given the same tools as the party characters and gets to flex them a lot throughout the story, in scenes and in the battle screen theater. His acting in them really elevated him to not only as a villian but as a character on par with the party

This is easily one of the best video series on youtube. So appreciate your effort and expertise, Dan!

I've been waiting excitedly for this video since I first heard that you were going to do an animation series on final fantasy (so like 7 years or so lmao) absolutely worth the wait.

I follow a lot of channels on KZfaq but this is the only one that I keep an eye out for a new video and make space to watch. Also the only one I’ve ever patronized.

Dan, your videos are a treasure. I've been playing the Pixel Remasters, since it was about time I revisited Final Fantasy, and put on some videos in the background while auto-battling the random encounters, a lot of them about analyzing the early FF games. And it's incredible how succinct your videos are. Some of these videos go for hours, trying to in depth about various things, but the way you dissect the animation and the value it gives to both characters and storytelling really stands out to me.

First: Massive congratulations on getting this done. I've heard through the live streams just how much work you put into getting here! Second: w00t! I'm looking forward to watching this! :D

as someone who never really was ever able to experience this game when it became the legend it did, how you described the animation in this game and how it relates to its proud newfound cinematic storytelling really made me understand how big of a deal this game was to the franchise. incredible analysis.

9:55 Celes definitely has a reserved "lady laugh" to me. But, yeah, this game has absolutely brilliant animation.

I've been in love with FF VI animation due to the environments. Random moving gears and steaming furnaces in the opening scenes transform the city from a picture of one into a digital place. They made sure to have some moving detail in most scenes. A random propeller on the airship, an occasional flock of birds, some moving civilians in towns. Where that wasn't an option, they utilized mode-7 to an astounding effect. The characters weren't just splendidly animated, they had an animated world to inhabit.

Another reason why using the battle screen for that second esper encounter is clever, which isn't directly relevant to the point you were making but which I thought was cool, is that it sets the player on edge. If the game is in battle mode, that means the scene you're watching could turn into a fight at any moment. And while I haven't played the game, it seems to me like that encounter is supposed to be pretty mysterious, and the esper (whatever that is) an unknown quantity, so having that threat of battle hanging over the scene is a great way to make the player feel just that little bit more uneasy about the proceedings.

This game is a bundle of core memories in a cartridge. Such a tour de force of character narrative, graphic design, interactive story experience... now I want to go put 120 hours into it again.

Thanks again for a marvelous, well done video. This one brought tears to my eyes!

Anticipation of this video is why I started watching the series in the first place. I think it lived up to my expectations.

thank you so much for this. The animation upgrades are something that I notice but never really thought about and it's just another reason why FF 6 is just the GOAT to me

I never realized how hard this game's animation goes. Great video, as always!

It was really innovative and ahead of its time how, for sprites roughly 18 pixels in height, they were quite expressive and showed emotion. That's living proof that this is the highlight of 16 bit graphic design.

I’ve been looking forward to this game specifically since the first moments of this series. FFVI is my desert island game, my one true love, and it’s because of these characters. The depth of storytelling conveyed through the animation, plot, and music planted every one of these characters in my heart. Great job sir! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Glad I'm not the only one who appreciates the unique animations for entering battle! I think a lot about the way characters are animated in this game. There's a consistent set of expressions which everyone has sprites for, but their specific way of fulfilling that list is individual to each of them. Then the number of ways they can play out a scene with those expressions becomes massive, depending how many ways you can imagine making it work. When it comes to creating new sprite based games, I figure this set of expressions and movements is a very good starting place since, evidently, it's all you need. You can always add more on top of it of course, but if you create this sprite set for each of your characters, you already have the tools to tell any story you can imagine.

I absolutely adore your breakdowns of these games. Your perspective is unique and captivating, and it's obvious you've done your fair share of research -- not just on FF and video games as a whole, but on the various other forms of entertainment which inspired them. As a game dev myself, I learn a lot from watching you. I don't have anything particularly funny or insightful to say in this comment, just wanted to let you know that I'm a big fan. That's all

Good job on this one! The end made me emotional! The term "victory lap" is now echoing inside my head! It makes me want to give it my best! I want to try my hardest!

Been so long since the FF5 video, I was beginning to think I missed this one. I can only imagine how much of an undertaking this video must've been.

I’ve been waiting for this episode for so long and it did not disappoint. You’re great. Wonderful insight, well explained.

I absolutely love that every time I watch any of your videos, it's a bomb of positivity. Even when it's bad, you make it positive (see some sonic games for example). It's just a good time, and gives me an even greater appreciation for game making as an artform.

This series is always a blast, thanks for still making it for us. 😁

Always excited to see a new one of these drop.

You've given me a new appreciation for FF6's strengths in presentation that I haven't considered before. I never really thought about how it could switch from combat to cutscene and right back to combat so seamlessly before, or how it's never really been done again since then.

Awesome to see Final Fantasy VI content in 2004. It's one of my favourite games of all times, and definitely my favourite FF game.

That turn at the end mentioning chrono trigger reminded me of when you said Okami might be the best zelda.

10:00 I read Celes's laugh as an Ojou laugh.

I love this video series! It always makes my day when I see a new entry in my KZfaq queue.

I remember watching my brothers play this one a lot as a kid. I should really sit down and play through it one of these days.

If I could nitpick one thing in an otherwise incredible video: Mog’s battle entrance animation is not him waving to the camera. He’s actually flailing his arms in panic, like “oh shoot, enemies!”. You can even see little drops of sweat - manga code for nervousness.

FF7 would be an immense undertaking. Chibi overworld models, battle scene models, minigames, summon animations and FMV cutscenes.

I was so unreasonably excited to finally see this in my sub feed!

What a fantastic video , nver conciously noticed those animations elements , but while playing you feel them , like Terras blinking eyes. This was my first jrpg and no wonder I was smithen by the posibilities of the genre. This is a reason why a lot of western rpgs of those times and pre 3d didnt hooked me as much , because they use words to describe instead of emoting characters , I know the style is different but what a huge difference it makes to see the actions than rather read them.

i love this series on your channel (and others too tbh), thank you for continuing to put out these videos!

I waited and was not disappointed. I'll gladly wait another 6 months for the next part.

I love this series, it's always teaching more than I expect.

EXCELLENT video, as always. I've been waiting for this one since I saw the first one. (4 and 6 are my two favorites in the pixel art era.) Thanks for putting so much effort into these. It really shows!

Oh, boy! An excuse to rewatch the entire series.

FF6 was the last FF I played and the one I like the most. Thanks for bringing back many warm memories.