The Animation of Final Fantasy

[@UkuleleRoots1]

I'm ready for the slow descent into "oh boy, I may have bitten off too much"

[@AxxLAfriku]

GAGAGAGAGAGA! I will now count to 3 and then I am still the unprettiest KZbinr of all time. 1...2...3. GAGAGAGAGAGA!!! Thank you for your attention, dear kai

[@WizardOfDocs]

I think that will take longer to set in. He’s pacing himself so much better than he did with Sonic (though that’s not stopping me from wanting more at once :P )

[@dragonsswarm1987]

Same

[@makomachine7643]

Like, Dan just committed to like possibly 15 videos here I could see it if it was split into themed sections but nope, each edition of Final Fantasy

[@WizardOfDocs]

@@makomachine7643 true. Maybe the happy medium is a couple games at a time? Like one video per console for the Nintendo ones, and then I don't know what goes where.

[@KnightKingu]

Man I do miss just listening to Dan talk about literally any game topic ever

[@ChesireWaltz]

Right? Always a treat, I don't even care what the subject is, I just wanna hear what he has to say on it. And when it's a game I already love? So much the better.

[@SystemBD]

Then, you should watch the playthrough he is doing right now of Psychonauts 2: m.kzbin.info/aero/PLvFQJa1XAXzxwZKxxLj5B7JUAgW2RQQSS He is having a good time and his love for the game (and its animation) is clear for anyone to see.

[@cCTim076]

I still remember the two hours worth of quality sonic content that I watched at 2 in the morning, and I've never even played any of the games

[@dragonsswarm1987]

Same

[@Matheus-mf9nz]

Yeah, and the other Dan also...

[@paddlesawtactic9788]

I love the ko'd pose. The way the characters are completely sprawled out with their legs in the comedic scorpion position... I don't know, it just gets me.

[@Ramsey276one]

And later on, in upcoming games ... WHO DROPPED A WHITE RUG??? XD

[@Daeranilen]

It looks like they just faceplanted onto the floor! With their small proportions they feel a little like toddlers who tripped or threw themselves onto the ground in a fit.

[@Aeiouaaaaaaaaa]

Same. They’re so comically cute it’s kind of endearing

[@StarkMaximum]

Peak "oof" energy.

[@mikasasukasa8790]

Playing games with such limitations and repetition back then *really* made you appreciate and get excited when you saw something new. "WHOA! This sword is red!!!" with not an inkling of sarcasm behind it.

[@JochemKuijpers]

Cool sprite rendering fact (at least I think so): Notice how Dan said that the sprite layer could only have 3 distinct colors per 8×8 sprite, but if you look at e.g. the black wizard, you'll notice some characters have 4 distinct colors in the overworld sprite? And actually, all the battle sprites have 4 distinct colors everywhere! Here's how that's done: - For the overworld sprites, the head and body are not part of the same 8×8 square, so the head can have a different color palette. You can notice in the black wizard sprite, one of the walking frames puts the yellow hat slightly below the head sprite and into the body sprite, so the closest matching color (the pink-ish color) is used for the lowest line of pixels (see 8:35). - For the battle sprites another trick is used! The background is black already, so there's no real point in drawing black pixels on top. So actually all the black pixels in the combat sprites are transparent instead of black! That leaves the 3 (non-transparent) pixels for 3 distinct colors. That's why the battle sprites look a little more fancy. You can see this at 7:14 when the black background is replaced by a blue background, and indeed the black pixels of the battle sprites (reused in this screen here) are blue instead. You can also see the black pixels flash yellow when the background of the battle arena flashes yellow later on.

[@NewFramePlus]

This is correct! It's one of my favorite clever tricks of theirs that I didn't find a good place to mention. :D

[@JochemKuijpers]

@@NewFramePlus I was waiting for you to say it the entire episode, so I just had to comment when the episode was over. 😄

[@Healermain15]

Well spotted, I never noticed that! I just realized Black Belt's hair also shortens in his walking sprite for the same reason, hats off to Kazuko Shibuya for doing so much with so little!

[@friendlyninja5048]

I thought something was off about how the sprites looked against the blue background, but just attributed it to colors blending together on CRT TVs or some kind of optical illusion. Don't know if I'll be able to unsee that now!

[@geneirai]

the thing I like about this trick is you may notice the change but never quetion why the sprite does this because of where the transparent pixels are used, pixel art especially '8bit' pixel art looks easy to produce but there is actually a lot of artistry on display here!

[@uilregit]

Okay I'm not gonna lie I didn't expect the editing efforts that went into this. That sprite layer section must have been a tonne of work. Keep up the good work, very excited.

[@QuintessentialWalrus]

Dan is, as always, the man.

[@Trimint123]

To be fair, I think it was easier than it looks. I mean, we have emulation after all.

[@jasonblalock4429]

Yeah, most 8- and 16-bit emulators give you the option to view/hide any layer of the graphics. Isolating the backgrounds would have been quite easy.

[@javierortiz82]

You can choose to show and hide many of the layers on an emulator, I've done it before, syncing was the tedious part for me lmao.

[@erwinlimawan3158]

Strap in guys, it’s finally here! Arguably Dan’s magnum opus in animation breakdowns. Until he decides to do another Sonic deep dive, at least.

[@RAID3N_2013]

Or a Kingdom Hearts one.

[@bestbacongaming3151]

I WANT TO SEE HIM GO CRAZY CUZ OF SONIC AGAIN HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

[@RudyBlackman]

Or Darkstalkers

[@raze2012_]

@@RAID3N_2013 KH is gonna be magical. Just hearing the disney animation trivia in the LP's is already so engaging.

[@turkeytalker]

PLEASE make sure you do an entry on Final Fantasy Tactics. The sprite animation is SO expressive, especially considering the constraints of the art style.

[@AkaiAzul]

Especially when the sprites themselves don't emote very much at all!

[@shawnheatherly]

I am curious exactly how many if any of the spinoffs will be included in this.

[@Ramsey276one]

Fully agree!

[@Ramsey276one]

@@AkaiAzul the Confusion Dance! XD

[@HanabiraKage]

@@shawnheatherly Personally I'm interested in WoFF analysis, and what sorts of challenges the chibi sprites pose for animators.

[@brunosilva3170]

I love the way they managed to adapt Amano's art style to the bosses' sprites. It's so recognizable.

[@BonaparteBardithion]

It's too bad the character sprites varied so much from the designs. I want to know what happened with Faris in particular.

[@InnocentGuillotine]

@@BonaparteBardithionFaris has concept art from at least three artists so that is a factor to consider, as is telling Lenna and Faris apart at a glance on a very tiny sprite across a Lot of sprites. Yes making them both blonde wouldn't hurt much in the end, but giving them different hair colors helps make confusion less likely.

[@TBSkyen]

This is so good - I absolutely adore dives into how extreme technical limitations shape animation, and I can't wait to get to places like FFV and IX especially to hear about those approaches!

[@StarkMaximum]

Oh man my two actual favorites getting called out at once

[@Tacticslion]

6:00 - THANK YOU for mentioning Kaziko! Her work is incredible and definitely deserves more recognition! I'm one of those who, unfortunately, only learned of her relatively recently, and I'm so glad I did, and only wish I had sooner! Her work absolutely shines even to this day!

[@justtheworst.6795]

I love that Dan named the characters after Carrie and friends, thus (So)raya, Echo, and Lil

[@MewMewDerez]

I noticed that too! Is Echo meant to be Dan Jones (for Dan reasons) or someone else that I'm just totally blanking on?

[@austemousprime]

Damn Dan, I could feel you getting Louder/Angrier subtly speaking of the outrage of Kazuko Shibuya getting credit for her work. That said, I never knew anything about her until now, and I salute to this wonderful person (salutes).

[@benbriggsmusic]

Oh man I am SO excited for this series

[@Gilbot9000]

What an amazing foundation Final Fantasy I made for the series. Ms. Shibuya's work is incredible.

[@0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0]

Props to Brian Celvinger for making lemonade out of 12 sprites.

[@veronicamcghie5238]

I see those KO poses and I immediately think "ah yes, everyone has fallen down because Fighter has made a very dumb joke"

[@pieoverlord]

I always get a bit of whiplash at seeing the male White Mage whenever I see the original game in action.

[@gabo-7]

I love me some 8 bit theatre. Good times~

[@curtisturpin9389]

The saga begins! This was super helpful and informative! Thank you for pointing out the absolutely groundbreaking and massive contribution to Kazuko Shibuya. I might never have learned about her without you pointing it out. Great highlight!

[@ruki4929]

Man I could listen to this guy talk about animation forever - I actually got into animation thanks to your youtube work; props!

[@sayi50ch]

Loved how well the writing flows and how well the music was timed for section changes. Hearing battle theme kick in when examining combat sprites made me smile a bit.

[@sephannoj]

We all know that we're only getting these in a one game per episode format so Dan doesn't end up making a second feature film that ends up longer than the extended editions of Lord of the Rings right?

[@BobbySignor]

Oh ye of little faith. I'm betting FF7 & 8 come out to at least one LOTR Extended edition together, and there are a LOT of FF13 games.

[@Blacklight.2025]

At first I read the title as "The Animation of FF" and was like Dan, my dude, what did you do?! How long have you been working on this?! This surely took longer than the Sonic video, this will be a looong episode, you don't need to follow the steps of that creator that did a 7 hour retrospective on the whole Resident Evil series Then I saw that the video is 15 minutes long and the title is about FF I and was much relieved

[@ChesireWaltz]

I would have been down :x

[@WishMakers]

@@ChesireWaltz Honestly, me too but the last Sonic video was an absurd amount of work. I think it makes sense to be split up over *multiple* this time lmaoooo

[@BonaparteBardithion]

I misread it at first too and I was like: There's no way he's spending 15 mins on all of FF after doing an hour long breakdown of Sonic. Breaking it down definitely makes it both more approachable to the average viewer. It's a lot easier to spend an hour watching a series of videos than to deliberately commit to an hour long video.

[@pocketsnacks]

the knocked out sprite looks utterly adorable

[@jamessicard1705]

YAY MORE NEW FRAME PLUS! I started learning Maya thanks to you

[@jamessicard1705]

I already wanted to do 2D animation for shows and stuff but then I saw your Guilty Gear video and decided I wanna do both

[@Evan-rj9xy]

Same! Dan's Smash Bros videos inspired me to start learning 3D animation in Blender and it's so cool!

[@ummyahok]

@@Evan-rj9xy are you working with IK or FK?

[@sorakun555]

I want to say, Dan, that you have such a soothing voice and a clear passion for video game animation (and design in general). I've been following you since the early Extra Credits days and it's been a joy listening to you talk about pretty much anything. I can't wait for the rest of this series

[@austemousprime]

Why we adore Dan, he really was the Soul of Extra Credits, that series may as well be dead to me at this point.

[@orcuswells649]

Oh man, the music in this video is so timeless and nostalgic. I mean, I’m just 17, but I’ve got such an attachment to this game. Great to see this analysis!

[@wiksolop72]

Me: "Dan, I've never played _any_ of the core titles in the FF franchise." Also Me: "Dan, I am genuinely excited to hear you talk about the limitations and evolution of the animation of the core titles in the FF franchise!"

[@ChronoGamerOne]

I love how you break this down and explain it and thanks for the heads up regarding Shibuya-san. She is an unsung genius who deserves waaay more recognition than she's ever gotten.

[@1gnore_me.]

wow I had no idea that the character art for the first 6 games was done by one person, that kind of blows my mind. happy she's finally getting the recognition she deserves!

[@beardeddragonwood]

I loved this video. Would also live to see a similar treatment of the Dragon Quest games, comparing and contrasting Square and Enix, especially how things changed after the merge.

[@Jikkuryuu]

I had no idea how much I missed that old screen transition (4:53), thanks for including it!

[@Tacticslion]

Man, though, hearing you explains just what lives on which layer in the battle was *incredible* - just imagining the sheer hoops a developer had to jump through to re-envision each layer and how the different effects would interact is pretty fascinating. Thank you for that.

[@Strider_Shinryu]

Excellent start! It's funny because as much as the party lacked in designed character they actually often did end up taking on "characters" of their own during gameplay. Through things like having to choose from a limited selection of spells or randomized stats and dice rolls just always seeming to succeed or fail, your own party really did become special with each play through. The thief who was terrible at running away. The black belt who despite all his training couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. The white mage who always got targeted but was somehow amazing at not getting hit. Etc.

[@Thraim.]

My favourite Dan telling me stuff about animation. Amazing.

[@mountainmgtow5421]

I remember helping my friend with his Final Fantasy I team.. he showed me his level 25 team of Fighter, Bl. Belt, White Mage and Black Mage. Then, to my horror, I found he had his Bl. Belt equipped with Iron Nunchucks. "Unequip him right now," I said. The next battle his jaw hit floor when he saw his Bl. Belt do 6 hits for 600 damage.

[@chan742]

It's heeeeeere! I'm glad that the FF1 Wizard circle proves that the franchise has always needed the following disclaimer: "Several cutscenes will play in sequence. It is recommended you set aside sufficient time to view these scenes in their entirety"

[@BonaparteBardithion]

This is why cutscenes galleries are nice, though it obviously wasn't an option in '87.

[@justember794]

It's... here? It's actually here? The Final Fantasy series is here! I'm so excited! I'm happy for you Dan, to be in the releasing videos phase of this project!

[@SanjayMerchant]

I think I just realized I've been misreading the White Mage's casting sprite for decades now. He's not opening his arms, he's clutching a holy symbol (or otherwise touching his chest/heart) and raising his hand.

[@kleung8311]

Thank you kindly Dan for the easily digestible information of my one of my favourite game series, I learned lots of great little trivia and gain new found appreciations for Final Fantasy I . The fond name for the NES , nostalgia box, was very endearing and thank you for the shout out recognition for spirit and pixel artist Shibuya Kazuko-san. Despite the limitation of the spirits, the key animation that Final Fantasy I had gave birth the very fun comic "8-bit theater"! Look forward to the next episode of New Frame Plus!

[@Book_Golem]

I can't see those battle sprites without immediately thinking of 8 Bit Theatre. Awesome video, Dan!

[@ICountFrom0]

... playing metroid music, while displaying castelvania.... your going to give some people issues Dan... I love it.

[@gwythinn]

I twitched so hard when I saw/heard that.

[@pedroscoponi4905]

One thing I think is fair to say was there from the very beggining is that the monster pixel art, particularly for bosses, was always spectacular 😙👌 Kinda surreal to think this series is finally releasing, after all those years. And all I've done is hear about it - can't imagine what's it's like for you making it!

[@shaunm6383]

No matter what your topic of Animation is, you never disappoint.

[@ScentedPineForest]

YES, you've been talking about this series for so long and it's finally here! I'm so excited! This episode was really nice and I learned a lot about 8-bit limitations, I'm definitely gonna go check out Retro Game Mechanics now too!

[@spreddable]

This video just talked me down from a breakdown, thank you for continuing to make brilliant educational content and thank you for continuing to be brilliant yourself!

[@kevinkerkhoff6670]

15:08 I always love that it looks like the most work went into that 'The End' screen

[@silversugar2140]

As someone who very recently started trying out pixel art and loved the original FF this fuels me. Thank you!! I appreciate this video so much. I'm definitely gonna be rewatching this, and checking the recommended channel soon.

[@TJ-vh2ps]

It's happening.... it's really happening! The long looked-for Final Fantasy Animation series is finally here! The years of wait are over and our patience has been well rewarded. Thank you for a fantastic beginning and letting the original FF1 music sing!

[@WannabeMarysue]

amazing how we got some of the most iconic sprite comics on the internet out of twelve poses.

[@StarkMaximum]

Sprite comics back then were a lot of staring at sprite sheets and going "hmm. what else could this pose represent?"

[@ZorlockDarksoul]

It begins! Been looking forward to this series for years. So glad for it to finally reach our eyeballs!

[@HewleyxAngel]

As someone who wrote their senior thesis on Final Fantasy as a series and its evolution, it’s always great to see someone really dive into it. Your animation analysis is absolutely fascinating and delightful and has helped me improve my own art. And as someone who loves the series to shreds, my condolences on having to play II next. That said I’m curious if you’ll do any sort of video on like Dissidia or World of Final Fantasy to compare how they did characterization through animation. Also just the hyperrealistic chibis from the end credits of WoFF will haunt me in my sleep for the next thousand years.

[@ControllerTape]

Something I discovered when getting into doing HD sprite packs for Mesen was that there actually are even fewer frames of animation than shown here. You say there are two poses for walking up and down, but those actually just flip the bottom half of the sprites, so they’re actually just one sprite each. The walking pose for the battle sprites only change the legs at the bottom, the top sprites stay the same. There are a lot of instances of this across the franchise (and the NES in general), where the different 4x4 tiles could be changed independently to create the illusion of more complete sprites than are actually there.

[@metropolis10]

So fascinating. Loved the balance of details about everything in this video, I think you struck just the right balance.

[@MarsTheMellow]

Oh! I love hearing about two random KZbinrs i happen to watch work together, really warms the heart doesn't it?

[@CommissarMitch]

I am truly fascinated how the 8-Bit era is the definition of Less is More. The developers and artists managed to make this much by so little.

[@zachrodan7543]

HOORAY! you finally got this project out! I had never really thought that much about the challenges present in telling a story with such limited resources...

[@TheOnlyToblin]

A whole series of Dan talking about things he's good at? I am SO on board!

[@syphyt808]

LETS GOOOO love me a New Frame Plus vid in the afternoon!

[@TheChickiboots]

I have been looking forward to this series since you announced it...so glad it's here!!

[@DonWippo1]

When I first read the title I somehow missed out on the "I" and was disappointed: "Oh man only 15minutes for Final Fantasy? I want a feature Film sized Video like the Sonic One!" Now after realizing it is just the beginning of a Season, i am overjoyed. Thanks for creating this Format and blowing our minds with every video you put out.

[@lavendervonstaro4004]

Congrats on 300k! Loved your stuff for years and I absolutely love your in depth look on Animation. Can't wait for the rest of the series!

[@turquoisemaple]

omg i remember dan mentioning this project when i first came across this channel last year, i think! I'm so happy to see this actually happening! i look forward for the next videos!!! :D

[@darkknight072]

The good ole' days, back when your imagination had to fill in the gaps (including the character's background stories and personalities).

[@coastersplus]

Somewhat back again for FFXIV :P

[@EmmettMcMullan]

I was on the verge of tears multiple times during this short and wonderful essay about a bizarre and wonderful game. Thanks, Dan!

[@pyrosianheir]

It's finally here! After all the work you've put in for, what, a year+? I'm very excited to see this series.

[@videoket]

Great visual representation of the sprites, tiling, etc. Wonderful breakdown and editing!

[@SlackwareNVM]

4:34 "Nostalgia brick" is the _perfect_ way to put it ;D

[@Shutwig]

Great video! I can't wait for the 00s decade! keep it up! Also I just wanted to point out something I've not read in the comments: the up and down walking animation is just one sprite each flipped, not two! That's a trick you see all the time in NES.

[@auwdioslave]

Oh boy, here we go! Massive props for tackling this series Dan!

[@no-hr6rj]

my relationship with your channel is as follows: get notification > watch new video rewatch all your old videos > eventually forget about it for a while > repeat

[@GoofballPaul]

I'm glad you're making this a series in which you look at the animation of games one at a time, the hour-long videos are great but this is a much more digestable format, at least for me. :'D

[@bananabike279]

Amazing how they were able to do so much with so little! I never even noticed the victory animation was just the spell casting sprite Can't wait for the next analysis videos on all the other entries!

[@MigsUdon]

I'm always way too happy to see Dan posting on this channel

[@levilukeskytrekker]

The beast has awakened!! I remember you talking about this project years ago, I don't even recall where. Awesomr to see it finally here!

[@ariwl1]

Pretty ambitious series! I'm excited to see you go forward, especially when you get to the SNES era especially 6 where the sprite work really took off as well as the transition to 3D.

[@SpectralTime]

Really appreciating the technical explanation of the start, and I just wanted to say that I’m super excited for this series and I wish KZbin hadn’t hidden it from me for days. Also, mildly curious if or when you will discuss things like the various remakes and re-releases. But I’m not at the end of the video yet so who knows?

[@TheGrandFrig]

A new frame plus for this whole series is a massive amount of ambition that I can't wait to see through! Keep up the good work!

[@christopherlundgren1700]

So excited to see this series finally launch! I know you’ve been working hard on it for a long time now.

[@JairusC]

This was so very interesting. I'm so glad you're covering one of my favorite game series. Though I'm just a musician and composer, the animation side of things is so very awesome and whenever a video of yours drops I'm always invested. Even that very long sonic video that covered a lot of the games. I'm so excited for more but please try not to die covering 15 and potentially more of these.

[@erethnewman]

I've always kinda enjoyed the blank-slate cast of FF1 and 3. While yes, they don't have any character of their own, it allows for me to fill in the gaps with my own stuff. It's like my own personal dungeons and dragons party, and I can imagine how different characters would react in certain situations. This is further amplified by how you can name them whatever you want. So I usually name my party after a group of my friends. It's fun to imagine what classes each of them would be, and what they would say or do in the fairly open-ended scenarios the games put you in. While I enjoy the more in-depth stories and characters of the later games, I don't think we give enough appreciation to blank slates and how they can make you interact with the game in a unique way.

[@dandandandandanJr]

Hey! It's Frame! Lovely to see you again.

[@BarrakiOfToa]

Happy to see you back again, Dan. We all missed your voice.

[@brandonyohn]

Congrats on finally getting this released! I know you've been working on it for a long time!

[@siruoro6718]

It baffles me how after 2 days this Video doesn't even have 50k views! But the 44k who have watched it rn DO appreciate your work! I was just re-watching all your videos again when suddenly you uploaded a new Video. Keep it up!

[@JathanH]

Google, I've been waiting for this for ages, why did you not notify me? Glad to see the magnum opus coming to fruition Dan. I'm ready for more.

[@cheychc]

So excited for this show! this was a great video, and you put so much effort into the animations to explain everything. Thanks for the great video!

[@Kalernor]

Woah! First the Sonic video, and now we finally get the beginning of the long-awaited Final Fantasy series? Dan and Carrie have are on fire ️‍🔥 You're spoiling us guys, I'm going to be expecting the first Kingdom Hearts video as well now!

[@Sientir]

That audio transition at about the 2 minute mark! *chef's kiss* Also, I am excited for this series. :D

[@Bahumot]

I'm really excited for this series. I grew up with Final Fantasy, and it's fascinating to watch you look back at the animation. I'm especially eager for you to get to 4, and help explain how such simple graphics and thin story evoked so much emotion.

[@TennelleFlowers]

Oh my! Yes! I am so looking forward to this series! I have very little knowledge of how the limitations of nes systems worked or early ff titles, so this was so informative, excellent.

[@Nibbieful]

Over the past couple years I've been doing my own run through of every mainline Final Fantasy game, as well as a few of the sequels and offshoots. It's been quite interesting to see how the games have evolved over time in gameplay, storytelling, and graphics, and I am looking forward to your professional take on the animation in particular. Well made video!

[@shoulderacoffin]

this video/series came at a perfect time for me!! i got into ffxiv last year and in the fast few months have been starting to explore the rest of the ff series! i've been watching a playthrough of ff1 for the past few days because i wanted to see how the franchise started :- D the art and animation in ff really interests me, so i'm so glad you're making these videos!

[@teero121]

i was just thinking about this channel the other day. i wish you would upload more but i completely understand that these videos take time

[@Adrelamusia]

I am so EXCITED for this series! This was super interesting. Can't wait for more advanced chapters.

[@SpadeMate]

I'm only 3 and a half minutes in, but this is really high quality already, and I'm more than excited for this series!

[@alexandergustafsson2276]

That intro was superb! I know I am late to this series but I am also sure that I am in for a treat :)

[@SeafoamSmiles]

All I can say is "Aww hell yeah!" Really looking forward to your examination of the rest of the series entries.

[@gmer412]

New Dan video? And it’s the first in a new series!? About Final Fantasy!!?? SO MUCH HYPE

[@thewanderer5506]

I'm not too deep into FF (only played 7 and 15) but I've always loved its animation. 15 blew me away with how real it looked and felt, can't wait for you to cover it.

[@sirB0nes]

The only animation analysis more long-anticipated than the Sonic retrospective! You also seem to have learned your lesson from that experience about trying to do a full-series retrospective in one big video :-)

[@NestorCustodio]

I feel like this series is going to be somewhat reminiscent of the 13-part Final Fantasy Retrospective that GameTrailers put out so many years ago, and I couldn't be happier. Can't wait to see more of these! ✨