Aspect Analysis - Galuf's Last Stand

Final Fantasy V was a bit of an oddball for the series, in that compared to other titles it didn't take itself all that seriously. Yet, despite that, the game manages to have one of the series saddest moments in relation to one of it's goofiest Characters, Galuf. Spoilers ahead.

The above is definitely true, but as time goes on the game slowly does get more and more serious. Despite the relevance of Galuf to the story and the reveal he is a King, however, he never loses that goofy old man charm he had. You really do grow to like the guy. And suddenly the game hits it's peak when you come face to face with the games Villain, ExDeath.

Now, you have a character that you have come to know as both a goofy old man, a king, and a legendary hero that you have come to love facing off one on one against ExDeath, a villain whose strength far surpasses your parties at this point. In order to save the party, he pushes himself past his limits and forces ExDeath to retreat.

In a move similar to Final Fantasy IV, when hitting 0 HP he doesn't go down and keeps fighting. There are two differences with Final Fantasy IV. The first being in Final Fantasy IV, Tellah was on this kind of route from the games beginning, a tale of a man obsessed with Revenge. Galuf, on the other hand, was a character with you for the entire game who was fighting on your side for virtuous reasons and the defense of his home. The death of Galuf was far more shocking then Tellah.

The second being that you actually control Galuf during the fight with ExDeath, whereas Tellah, during his fight with Golbez, is entirely automated. Video games have a way of investing you more when you're the one in control of the action, giving a bit more weight to the Galuf fight.

The death of Galuf hits because of a mix of factors: The use of the game breaking its own mechanical rules in the combat, the likability of the character, the shock of his death, and the impact the death has on the actual plot.

It can be amazing how often a game is able to include the death of a character and still manage to leave so little of an impact. Either you can see it coming from a long ways away, the character wasn't given any real time to develop and feel like a real person you have come to know, or it just comes out of no where and seems to serve little to no purpose going forward. These all feel as though they should be obvious things to include, but to often a game or anime won't include basic elements to leave an impact. Final Fantasy V may not do anything really out there or exceptional in the terms of making the death of Galuf huge, but it takes the basic elements of what makes a death hit you and plays them perfectly. 

Header image used came from Deviant Art User Nowis-337.

https://nowis-337.deviantart.com/