FF5 Revisited!

[Gamblet]

Pretty good.

By the way, what does the Mexican ability do?

[Citizen Bleys]

Black magic. One of the many jokes that got cut from this playthrough because they weren't funny enough. Or in that case, at all.

[Raistlin]

Which game had the lamer tree: FFV or Suikoden IV?

I also like how the way to escape from the awesome spell which sent them to Hell was to basically... walk out.

Great job, Bleys! This was highly entertaining. I look forward to your planned FFXI work.

[Citizen Bleys]

In case anybody missed it, there's a link in the first post to The Devil's Jockstrap homepage where you can get the IPS patch to play this spoof yourself; you'll need a working ROM with RPGe's translation of FFV

My goal in this thread was to create a playthrough that you could follow along with and understand and laugh whether or not you've ever played FF5 or FF5Spoof; I've screencapped most of the funny parts, but there was a lot left out; I budgeted 1 hour of gametime per night during the work week, so a lot had to get cut. Some was cut because I didn't think it was funny enough, but there was quite a bit of good stuff that either wasn't right for this format (menu items, spell replacements, item replacements, sight gags etc.) or would have required too much time to get it all for me to accomplish a 5-day-per-week update cycle with enough funny per update to make it worth peoples' attention.

The whole plot was included in this runthrough, but it would be well worth the effort for anyone who hasn't played Tzepish's masterpiece; Every other spoof I've seen has just been (insert game here) + poop and gay jokes, but Tzep set a more ambitious standard, and tried -- successfully -- to create what is in my opinion the greatest ROM hack ever produced. I've sunk a month into this thread, but Tzep put ten years into making the hack, and it shows.

[Jiro]

It truly shows; every little bit of detail to create his own plot line, not just a nonsensical grouping of trout jokes.

[Tzepish]

Hi guys, Tzepish here, author of the spoof. Thank you so much, Citizen Bleys / Bastard Son, for creating this thread and sharing FF5Spoof with more people who might enjoy it. Not only have you expanded the audience for the spoof, but you've also provided an excellent and useful summary (with your own hilarious commentary!) for those who would enjoy experiencing the spoof but don't have the time to play through it themselves.

I figured I might as well address some of the questions and comments that came up in this epic thread.

* Faris is Jewish: This was meant to be an innocuous thing, where Faris admits to something different from what the player expects (that she's a women), but is still a minority and equally harmless. Later I played with having Faris "admit" to more and more outlandish things, which might have retroactively made the initial joke look bad. If I were to do it again, I'd keep Faris the same, but I'd cut the Jewish thing. Not that it's particularly anti-semitic, it's just... stupid.

* A pet peeve I'd change: I'd rename the "Wakarimasen" monster (which means "I don't understand") to "Wakarimasu" (which means "I understand"). It's the same joke, but the difference is Wakarimasu fits as a monster name and doesn't have to be abbreviated.

* Ifrit in the bookstore: Indeed I had run out of ideas, and a better idea came up in this very thread (that he's a particularly careful fire demon, seeing as he's surrounded by very flammable books). I wish I had thought of it, but oh well!

* All your base are belong to us: This was actually new and funny when I wrote it into the spoof... problem is, I didn't release it until ten years later. Whoops. I decided to keep it because it's a window into the timeframe in which it was written. I *did*. however, update a joke to reference Youtube instead of Kazaa before release, and I updated references to the XBox and the Gamecube to the XBox 360 and the Wii.

* Digger Nick: Yes, this is clearly the most offensive thing in the spoof, and yes, I do in fact regret it. It's Dave Chappelle without the satire, intelligence, or context. You have to set your brain to "lowest common denominator" mode to enjoy any of the Digger Nick stuff - I recognize that it can be funny, but it makes me wince, still. FF5Spoof is a complete project, and I have no plans to release another version, "now with less Digger Nick!", as much as I'd like to.

* Galuf steals Cara's body: Not only do I feel that this is *very* funny, but it fixes a bug in the original, where Cara starts spouting some of Galuf's dialog (with Galuf's name) if you don't visit the castle with the 12 elite weapons until after Galuf's death.

* The 12 Elite Weapons of de Ownage: Each is named for someone who helped me with the spoof. They are all credited in the credits.

* Tzepish / Exdeath turning into a tree: His "it was the first thing I could think of!" was deliberately making fun of the fact that Exdeath turns into a tree in the original. How lame is that?

* The ending: The ending was incredibly difficult to write. The ending is different depending on which characters are alive and which are dead at the end of the final battle. Each combination of alive/dead yields a different ending, but each ending borrows heavily from each other, so that each individual scene can be shown in multiple endings. The character who writes the letter changes, and on top of all that, the dialog and scene changes are synced to the music, so they had to be a certain length in order to be readable with the proper timing. I had created a map of how each scene is spawned, and tried to write each scene in ways that would make sense with every possible preceding and following scene, and regardless of who the letter-writer was.

* My favorite part: Karnak and the black crack. It just came together so well, it seemed like it was made for the original game!

Thanks again for this awesome thread. Maybe I'll start working on stuff again.

[Citizen Bleys]

* Faris is Jewish: This was meant to be an innocuous thing, where Faris admits to something different from what the player expects (that she's a women), but is still a minority and equally harmless. Later I played with having Faris "admit" to more and more outlandish things, which might have retroactively made the initial joke look bad. If I were to do it again, I'd keep Faris the same, but I'd cut the Jewish thing. Not that it's particularly anti-semitic, it's just... stupid.

I liked the Jewish thing; setting up an expectation and then doing something different and unexpected is the basis for most good comedy. I don't think anyone reasonable would consider it anti-semitic in the least. It comes across as good-natured fun that adds to the spoof.

Sure, I'm sure some loons would try to call it anti-semitic, but every group and culture on Earth has that minority share of nutjobs who are always looking for an excuse to be offended. I wouldn't hesitate to show the spoof to a Jewish friend, if I knew which of my friends were Jewish.

* All your base are belong to us: This was actually new and funny when I wrote it into the spoof... problem is, I didn't release it until ten years later. Whoops.

Somehow, that reaction makes the joke seem funnier to me.

* Digger Nick: Yes, this is clearly the most offensive thing in the spoof, and yes, I do in fact regret it. It's Dave Chappelle without the satire, intelligence, or context. You have to set your brain to "lowest common denominator" mode to enjoy any of the Digger Nick stuff - I recognize that it can be funny, but it makes me wince, still. FF5Spoof is a complete project, and I have no plans to release another version, "now with less Digger Nick!", as much as I'd like to.

Yeah, that's why pretty much all of the Digger Nick dialogue got cut even though Gilgamesh is one of my favourite characters.

* Galuf steals Cara's body: Not only do I feel that this is *very* funny, but it fixes a bug in the original, where Cara starts spouting some of Galuf's dialog (with Galuf's name) if you don't visit the castle with the 12 elite weapons until after Galuf's death.

Dude, that made the game. Not only does it blindside the player with funny in what we're expecting to be a sad scene (there's the expectation reversal formula again), but it's timed for just when we get over the levity at Galuf burning down the forest in a kind of Leslie Nielsen movie-esque one-two punch. Plus it sets up a lot of jokes later on in the game.

* Tzepish / Exdeath turning into a tree: His "it was the first thing I could think of!" was deliberately making fun of the fact that Exdeath turns into a tree in the original. How lame is that?

That line is twice as funny if you've been reading Tzep/Exdeath's lines in the voice of the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Maybe I'll start working on stuff again.

Hell yeah!

[Jiro]

Goddamn. Not only does he actually show up himself, but he says he's going to do more. This is the best day ever. Cheers Tzepish for putting this together. You might identify faults now but overall, from what Bleys has shown us, it's a damn good piece of comedy.

[Gamblet]

Wow... he.. is ... here!

[Tzepish]

Thanks guys. I *love* seeing the excitement and positive reactions. My website has sort of existed in its own bubble in a dark corner of the internet, so I have no idea how many people have actually enjoyed my projects. This thread has made my day and week :-D

[Quindiana Jones]

Tzepish, I expect you to quit any jobs you may have and remove yourself from all public life in order to make more of these for other games. Much obliged.

[Psychotic]

Thanks guys. I *love* seeing the excitement and positive reactions.

Let me add to them. You are one creative and witty dude and I've really enjoyed seeing your work in this thread. Thank you!

[Goldenboko]

Thanks guys. I *love* seeing the excitement and positive reactions.

Let me add to them. You are one creative and witty dude and I've really enjoyed seeing your work in this thread. Thank you!

One moooooore thing. If you ever feel creative with FF you should totally post it here on our site

[Raistlin]

Tzepish: Wow, it's awesome to see you here. I will echo the sentiments of others in that your FFV spoof was highly enjoyable, and that was just to read! I'm sure it is even more fun to play, which this thread has made me determined to do. I hope you do work on more things, because this was truly great.

[Del Murder]

This is the greatest thread and it is really cool to see Tzepish post. I loved this summary and I agree that Galuf stealing Cara's body was genius and the best part about this thing.