There are plenty of fan works in the world, and video games are no exception. Everyday hundreds of thousands of people produce music, art, movies, and even games as tribute to the games that have gone before and those that they love. So much gets produced by so many, and yet what fraction of it do we see? How many emerge from the pack to take on a following that rivals the fan base of the games they sought to pay tribute to? There certainly aren’t a lot, but the Dead Fantasy series from Monty Oum is one of them.
Seen by millions of people all over the world by way of his Gametrailers and Youtube accounts, as well as the viewings and panels he regularly holds at anime conventions, Dead Fantasy is a phenomenon unto itself. The videos are no-holds-barred action chronicling the ongoing battle between characters from Final Fantasy and Dead or Alive. As Monty’s series goes on, more characters start showing up — some from related games — but always from the stables of Tecmo and Square Enix, and always with a focus on kicking ass first and never taking names. Even four years after the premiere of the first Dead Fantasy, I’m still hard pressed to think of any action videos (or games) that match the ‘Holy crap, did that just happen?’ factor of these extravaganzas.
These videos consistently take awesome characters from both series and make them even better, or take lesser known (or thought of) characters and make them just as bad ass. I’m also convinced that the team who worked on Dissidia Final Fantasy had these videos on a loop during the whole development process, because there’s definite influences there. And when you can get a company that makes the games that you love to emulate what you did with their characters, obviously you’ve done something special. We’ll definitely be featuring the rest of Monty’s series in the future, so keep an eye on MTB for more of his work. For now, here are the first two parts of Dead Fantasy:
There used to be an embeded media player here, but it doesn't work anymore. We blame the Tumbeasts.
Videos and images via Monty Oum.]
