One video game series I adore is Final Fantasy. I love the RPG genre, and I especially enjoy turn-based RPG's. There are numerous aspects of the Final Fantasy series that I really love that set it apart from other series, but today I'm going to focus on the characters - specifically one character who is the main antagonist of the game he originates from: Exdeath of Final Fantasy V.
Final Fantasy V was originally released in Japan in 1992 for the Super Famicom (Japan's equivalent of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System). It was not released in the west until 1998, when the PlayStation re-release was localized. It was later re-released in both Japan and the west for GameBoy Advance in 2006 and remade for iOS and Android in 2013, which was later ported to Steam in 2015.
Unlike Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI (which were both also originally released for Super Famicom, but unlike FFV were localized in the US for the SNES as Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III respectively) the story and characters of FFV were less deep and the game focused more on robust gameplay with the best Job System in the main series. With less complex characterization, the characters in FFV are often silly and over the top, or occasional kinda bland. As such, the game's antagonist, Exdeath, is outrageously evil in a most hilarious manner.
Exdeath is a being literally made from pure evil: he was formed from malevolent souls that were trapped in a tree in a forest known as the Great Forest of Moore. He appears as a towering figure covered in light blue armor and acts in a maniacal, boisterous manner. He is so evil that he cannot even comprehend positive emotions such as love or kindness. His evil plan is to merge two worlds together to gain access to the Void: a omnipotent force of pure nothingness. In the crossover subseries known as Dissidia Final Fantasy, Exdeath's personality is slightly expanded to greater embrace his desire for the Void, as he is among the antagonists who believe in nihilism and want to destroy everything. Comically, he also tends to talk about the Void ad nauseam in the Dissidia games, frequently mentioning it in story moments and battle matchups; conversely other characters will complain about or poke fun at his obsession with the Void in their battle matchups with him.
Back to Final Fantasy V, Exdeath has several memorial moments in the game's story, including: a one-on-one fight with the playable character Galuf, banishing his hilarious comic relief minion Gilgamesh to another dimension (who later is able to travel to the worlds of other Final Fantasy games and be either a summon or a superboss, depending on the game), and reviving himself from a splinter lodged in the hand of the playable character Krile (Get it? He was a splinter because he came from a tree!). One particularly silly moment, however, is his brief scuffle with the ancient turtle Ghido, which inspires this epic one-liner (or rather, one word one-liner) that I have immortalized in the YouTube video below:
Yes, the video features a screenshot from the GBA version of FFV and a secret voice clip from the game Dissidia Final Fantasy for the PlayStation Portable. Truly, a magnificent line that exudes the essence of Exdeath.
Until next time, fellow Freelancers.
- nssfleahedgehog
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