Final Fantasy V/Headscratchers

• This is something I just realized thanks to the Degraded Boss page: How is there an enemy in the third world called Ex Death's soul, if Ex Death isn't actually dead?
  • Astral Projection. He's strong enough magically.
  • And Don't forget that he is a Tree that is full of all the Evil Souls, Do the Maths. The Soul that was in Ex Death.
  • During my (ill-advised) forays into Kuzar Castle as soon as I reached there, I only encountered Shield Dragons. Only after defeating Exdeath did I start seeing Exdeath Souls.
  • E-Death ripped of one his branches and stuck it in the ground then killed the result?

• A big to-do is made about Reina's dad's dragon being one of the last of its kind...even though you slaughter what must be hundreds of dragons by the end of the game. WTF.
  • But... they're not adorable winged dragons who enjoy carrying passengers and have adorable high-pitched roars!
    • That and the dragon is a Hiryuu/Wind Drake, which is different from other dragons. Somehow.
    • The other dragons are likely not on the endangered species list.
      • Well, not before the game, anyway.
    • Presumably, the drakes can be tamed by humans and ridden, unlike other dragons.

• How exactly did Bartz manage to travel the world with his trusty chocobo for years when he can't even pass through a cave without dismounting and leaving his lifelong companion behind for a full third of the game? Twice?
  • Actually, as shown by him having gone in anyway, Boko could come along just fine. Its mainly that Bartz was worried about keeping Boko safe.
  • I'm more concerned about how he could have been traveling at all. If I recall correctly, he doesn't seem familiar with any of the places you visit later in the game, with the exception of his hometown; so where has he been all these years? Wandering around in the area immediately surrounding Tycoon castle? And speaking of his hometown, it's surrounded by mountains. How the hell did he leave it without an airship?
  • It can be interpreted as 'there's more than what you see' things. There more or less have to be mountain passes and such to get out of Bartz hometown, but they're just not integral enough to the plot or gameplay to ever include them. As far as where Bartz has been, well, the world is a big place.
  • Actually, if you pay attention, the Lenna says shortly after the first meteor hits that cliffs collapsed and a lot of roads were blocked. This fails, however, when you consider that even before the meteor hits you can't get out of the narrow starting area.
    • Again, it's a 'there's more than what you see' thing. The overworld exists as it does to guide you to the right place in the game. No doubt there's footpaths, and paved roads, through and around the mountains that you don't see because of the scale difference.
    • Also, it's before the shockwaves from the meteor hit that you can't get out of the starting area. the meteor has already hit, which is why you can't get to the area on the other side of it, which presumably Bartz could before.
  • He may have taken a ride on a ship at some point before the wind stopped. As for not knowing some of the places, many of the early game dungeons are in somewhat obscure and dangerous routes (like the canal or the shipwrecks), or places he wouldn't go unless he had reason to be there (North Mountain). It's possible that he's been many places in the overworld, but not the relevant ones, or went to places that have no bearing on the plot and were never shown.
• What the hell is with Neo Exdeath's final words? He wants to destroy all dimensions so he can destroy himself? Is he psuedo-immortal or something?
  • As I understood it, Exdeath worships the void, and therefore, wants to end all existence, including himself.
  • The way I understood it, Exdeath just wanted the power of The Void, but it possessed him instead.
  • Neo Exdeath is more or less the personification of Mu, which makes him the ultimate nihilist. Therefore, his entire goal is to swallow the entire universe into Mu and negate it, "and then I, too, will disappear..."
  • The way I see it, the immortal sorcerer Exdeath was sick of being alive. He wanted to die, but since he was immortal had to figure out a way of destroying everything. Thus, he fused with the Mu and tried to pull of existence in with him.
    • The thing with that is that I don't think that Exdeath is explained to be immortal or anything.
      • It's only mentioned once, in passing, but yes he is.
    • No, I think Exdeath screwed up with the Void. He thought he could control the Void, but in the end, he couldn't, he lost control of all that power. The Void pulled Exdeath in, consumed him, and spat him back out as a personification of the Void's will, not his own. Play with fire, and you're going to get burned.
      • I agree with the above troper. He doesn't seem to be too happy about turning to Neo Exdeath when the void starts to consume him, as he laments, " W H Y ? ? ?"
      • Just who or what is this Mu everyone is talking about? The only Mu I know of is the enemy, but those didn't appear until Final Fantasy III/VI...
    • "Mu" is the power of the void.
  • The way I understand it, Exdeath is insane.
    • No more insane than your average Take Over the World villain. But when he merges with the Void and becomes Neo Ex Death, that's when he really goes bonkers and turns Omnicidal Maniac.

• Exactly how do the characters change their outfits/jobs? It's hard to picture them changing in broad daylight or even some cave with a bunch of big bad monsters swarming about.
  • Of course not. They didn't buy outfits at a shop or anything. They have magical crystal shards, remember? Therefore, the most likely conclusion is that they hold the shards and undergo Magical Girl-style Transformation Sequences. (Which we don't get to see, mostly because people don't want to see the ones involving Galuf.)
    • It's been a while since I played it, but don't characters kind of fall out of their classes when knocked unconscious? That seems to confirm the magical transformation theory. There's precedent, too, such as in Final Fantasy X 2.
      • That's more "postcedent" than "precedent".
    • This poster agrees with the above point and points to the NES version of FF 3. They have complete sprite sheets for all jobs including KO'd sprites and overworld sprites. The FFV job outfits exist only in battle, and they revert to their normal outfits when not fighting or dead. So it's not Gameplay/Story Segregation.
  • A transformation sequence!
    • I'd rather utilize a Super Sentai - style transformation. Helps with the Galuf problem. Faris would likely prefer it too, as it helps maintain the gender illusion a little longer.

• Why the hell does Azulmagia ask your party if they bore the crystal shards? Shouldn't a minion of Exdeath of all creatures know who the enemies were? Then again, this is the same enemy that kills itself when you use Self-Destruct on it. It's even worse when you say No. Screw Paper-Thin Disguise, who needs it when you're dealing with an enemy this stupid?
  • Well, he's a blue mage. And he knows that if they bore the crystal shards, they would be, too. Maybe he wanted to learn some more from them...
• Faris's association with fire and Lenna's association with water fit their personalities, but...Faris has a connection with Syldra, a sea monster, while Lenna has a connection to Phoenix, a fire bird. Furthermore, Faris is a pirate sailor. WTF?
  • What? Where's it say Lenna has a connection with Phoenix?
    • Phoenix is Hiryu.
    • I'm pretty sure Wind Dragon =/= fire bird. I don't remember anything in the game suggesting a link.
      • "The wind drake Hiryu became a phoenix! The phoenix entrusted its power and its soul to Lenna." You know, when you receive the phoenix in the first place!
      • Fair enough. Been a while since I've played through it, and that was with the fan translation, so it might be different from the one you're citing. I concede the point.
  • Perhaps it's to demonstrate how no element works completely independently and how they're interconnected. Or maybe I'm just pulling things out of my ass.
  • The Phoenix, unlike its FF V incarnation, seems associated with revival rather than fire. As for Syldra, as a summon, it does lightning elemental damage, which, if anything, would be associated with Wind magic in Final Fantasy.
    • Syldra actually deals wind damage, despite its animation.
      • This makes me wonder if, if the game was produced now, especially with the respective virtues, Faris and Bartz would have switched elements. (Faris becoming Wind (with perhaps a different virtue?) and Bartz becoming Fire). Granted, the fire-connection itself could've come with gunpowder, but we don't see any cannons aboard ships even as flavor.

• The Steamboat, on the outside, looks like a normal wooden vessel, just, with a smokestack instead of any sails. That's okay. Deep inside the ship, there is a gargantuan fortress consisting of metal rooms, conveyor belts, large air ducts, and elevators and movable platforms. Cid and Mid are brilliant geniuses, no doubt about it, but how could they fit a huge metal city inside of a normal-sized wooden ship?
  • For a while I theorized that the interior of the Fire Ship/Steamboat was a different facility underwater that was just ATTACHED to the ship, but considering that you can return there later (and a few other reasons, such as the ships engine being at the bottom, so therefore it HAS to be a part of the ship), that little theory of mines didn't fly.
  • Here's a better question: How is the fortress inside the boat connected into the nearby castle's cellar? Is that boat really just a building sticking out of the bottom of the sea?
    • It's probably an underwater refueling tube of sorts, that detaches from the ship's engine room when it's done recharging the boat.
• Faris' mug has his rather her hair back but the sprite has Peek-a-Bangs. Why?
  • Because Amano's art, which is used by the mugshots, is often treated more like a suggestion by the actual sprite artists. Nobody in the game (and hardly anyone in Final Fantasy VI) looks like their mugs.
  • There's also the fact that the mug is blonde while Faris' sprite has purple hair.
    • In other words: Its Amano art. It isn't supposed to make sense.

• Why is the one Demon of the Rift that has the least detailed and hard to interpret out-of-battle sprite the one we never get to see a in-battle (more detailed) sprite of?
  • This one has a simple explanation actually. It's because-(Is immediately killed by Leviathan).
  • I'll finish this one. It's because of The Unfought trope.
• Just WHY did Lenna try to convince that Wind Drake to eat the dragon grass by eating some herself? Not only is it suicidal, but if she did die from it, wouldn't the wind drake be even less convinced to eat it?
  • She explains why. She was trying to show it that it was okay to eat; the poison isn't an instant death effect, and when she bites into it she acts like it's tasty as hell.
  • This is actually done when dealing with animals. At least so I've been led to believe.
• Why is Galuf affected by Old, being an old guy himself?
  • Because it makes him older.

• How the flipping ding-dong do you pronounce "Krile?" "Kree-leh?" "Cry-lah?" "Cry-ul (rhymes with Guile)?"
  • I always thought it was "Cry-ul", like "guile".
    • Well, her name in the original Japanese was pronounced something like 'Kururu', so, when romanised, it'd be closest to rhyming with 'Guile' out of those options, at least.
    • "Kururin" is the Japanese name of a well-known Dragon Ball character, and given the usual pronunciation of single ending U's, Kururu should basically sound like his name without the "in" at the end. He's called Krillin in dubs. Thus, Krile might be pronounced "krill".
    • I'd figured, since the game has as much Scandinavian influence as it does, that "Kree-luh" would be the closest pronunciation.

• In the GBA translation of the game, In one of the first inns, entering the room Faris is sleeping in shows Bartz and Galuf walking out giddy as all hell, implying they saw her naked. Yet, it's not until the ship graveyard that she reveals she's a woman, and they're still shocked. What the hell?
  • He was in his underwear.
  • Faris was clothed. They just mistook "him" for being an incredibly pretty bishonen man, and never mentioned it again for fear of their crumbling heterosexualities.
    • What heterosexualities?

• Does anyone else think that King Tycoon and Lenna have a bizarre relationship? After the opening scene, he really doesn't have much to say to her at all in the few scenes he appears in, even when he's about to die. In fact, he talks more to Bartz and Faris in that scene than Lenna herself.