QuickNavigation - FF Odyssey Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals (Last updated on 11/14/2007)

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By: wsim

Introduction

     Released in Japan in 1994 and around 1998 for the North American market, Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals is a 4 episode OVA, each consisting for 30 minutes per episode. It was supposed to be a sequel of FFV and the storyline takes place some 200 years afterwards. With that, we head towards the actual episodes.

Full Story (Spoilers)

Episode I

Chapter I: The Wind Chapter

     A sequel to Final Fantasy V, the Legend of the Crystals OVA takes place some 200 years after the end of FFV in which 3 of the 4 elemental crystals has been stolen from the Planet R and only the Wind Crystal remains. To prevent the loss of this last elemental crystal, Lenaly and her grandfather try to protect it while trying to avoid the arrogant and reckless Pretz. After an attack by a giant spider, Lenaly’s grandfather is too exhausted and tired to continue in protecting the remaining crystal and has to reluctantly trust Pretz in helping his granddaughter protect the Wind Crystal. Although, it may seem difficult as the sky pirate Rouge has other ideas in adding to her collection.

Review:  Starts off rather slow, though it does make sense. Currently, there isn’t too much that is lacking but the humour seems a bit lame in my opinion. Maybe it’s just me but I didn’t like the jokes that much or the way the episode ended.

Rating: 6/10

Episode II

Chapter II: The Fire Chapter

     The two heroes end up being captured by Rouge’s pirates and in the process, members of the Kingdom’s air force end up being caught as well. After experiencing a lot of torture, Pretz still doesn’t give in to revealing the location of the crystal to Rouge. The spirit of the original guardians of the crystals comes out from the crystal to explain the group of their destiny. Rouge overhears the conversation and pushes to try and obtain the final crystal but little does she know that there is a force who vows to complete their recently acquired set of crystals.

Review:  The pacing is not like the first episode as it does pick up and gets a little more interesting. Still, there are some aspects that I think are kind of needless and make me hate this episode. Space robots? I wonder where the hell did that come from, otherwise, the episode doesn’t stray too far away from it’s FF roots.

Rating: 6/10

Episode III

Episode III: The Dragon Chapter

     After escaping the space robots, following the assault on Rouge’s Island paradise, Pretz, Linaly, General Valcus and Rouge head to the Kingdom of Tycoon where the Queen requests their presence in concerns to the wind crystal. The Queen tells the crew that if they fail to find the other 3 elemental crystals, Planet R will fall into chaos and to add to the unfortunate situation, Mid makes an appearance to tell the good guys more about the crystals and what his grandfather had to do with them. After explaining the origins behind the crystals and what happened to his grandfather, Mid also explains that this mystery warlord killed him as well, as he is now appearing to them in the phantom spirit. The mysterious warlord has the secrets of the crystals by using Shido, who is Mid’s grandfather’s, brain. The crew must travel to the Black Moon and recover the crystals from the warlord. However, the robots attack Tycoon and thus, Rouge along with General Valcus, lead the Tycoon army to battle the robots, while the rest head to the Catacombs below Tycoon to find the dragon in order to head off to the Black Moon. However, they reach the Dragon but the warlord appears, clearly more powerful than the heroes. He kidnaps Linaly and then leaves with his army. But somehow, after Linaly’s capture, the little Dragon grows up extremely quickly, becoming a menacing beast.

Review:  Things are looking pretty weird. Yes, the reference to Mid and all the FFV stuff is nice for FF fans, but as an anime OVA episode itself, it seems mildly mediocre at best and the flow and general direction of the OVA is rather inconsistent. Nevertheless, I believe this is probably one of the best episodes of the 4-part OVA.

Rating: 7/10

Episode IV

Episode IV: The Star Chapter

This is the final chapter of the story. It begins as the dark warlord, outlining his plan to become DeathGyunos while his robot minions prepare the device in which the crystals will do so, including the green gem that Linaly has. Mid leads the good guys to the Black Moon with the Dragon as they encounter the warlord in his new form, DeathGyunos. But they outsmart him and they ram their helicarrier into him. After the explosion to follow, it appears that DeathGyunos has been seemingly defeated, so Pretz searches through the debris to try and find Linaly. They do find her and all of a sudden, DeathGyunos rises once again! DeathGyunos finishes off the spirit of Mid and then the Wind crystal switches from Lenaly to Pretz. Finally, DeathGyunos is defeated after a swarm of chocobos summoned by Linaly and then finally put to rest by Pretz and his big sword, powered by the Wind crystal. The crystals are returned to their rightful places and everything is back to normal as everyone lives happily ever after.

Review:  You really wonder what they will think of next? The motives behind the villain are not the most sophisticated and the fact is that some of the events in this final episode range from the absolute awkwardness to the really dumb. The ending is not very good in my opinion and after seeing this episode, you’ll realize that it’s not really as good as the ones that preceded it. The pacing is too fast for any real sort of character development and honestly, there are much better OVAs out there than this mediocre piece of work.

Rating: 6/10

Overall Impressions

     I’m not sure why, but this doesn’t seem to be as good as I would’ve liked it to be. There are some alright aspects to the anime itself, yes, there are a few odd references to Final Fantasy in the fact that it does revolve around the crystals and chocobos running around. The humour seems kind of awkward, I didn’t find it that funny for the most part but nevertheless, some parts of the anime make sense. But as it goes on, you realize that there is a real lack of character development and you won’t know that much about them in full. Space robots? Things are just getting wackier and wackier as the OVA wears on. While it is nice to see some references to FFV like the Kingdom of Tycoon and Mid and so forth, the overall storyline seems rather rushed or should I say lackluster at best. There are a few lame moments, especially in the final episode and as a Final Fantasy fan, this anime is kind of a disappointment. I’m not sure if it’s either with the characters or storyline itself, but if you came into this OVA with low expectations, you might like it.

     But, if you put any sense of hope that it is going to be pretty good and you have played the Final Fantasy games, you probably would be best to skip this one. The OVA just got too weird and some of the humour is incredibly lame to say the least. At least in my opinion, though everyone is different. Seeing chocobos are great for any Final Fantasy fan but the overall OVA seems to lack a definite direction and if you are expecting something more dark and mature, this is not for you. The animation is rather colourful and the violence is more cartoonish, it seems to be more geared towards “kids” though. If you like that stuff then you probably won’t mind the animation very much. At the very best, I find this a particularly mediocre OVA, there are much better OVAs out there that you should not miss, compared to this one.

OVERALL SCORE:  6.3/10