Airship
From Final Fantasy Wiki
- "Recent technological advances have produced the airship. Should these technical arts proliferate, they could one day drive magic from the world."
- —Bookshelf at Mysidia, Final Fantasy II
An Airship (飛空艇, Hikūtei, lit. "Flying boat") is a recurring feature throughout the Final Fantasy series, having made an appearance in almost every game. As the name suggests, airships are a form of aerial transport, although their appearance has differed widely between games.
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[edit] Nature
The airship is generally received towards the middle or end of the game, opening up the entire world to exploration by the player. This allows the player to both advance in the game's plot, and revisit places they've already been. Receiving free access to an airship is often a major event in the plot and often opens up many new sidequests to the player.
Depending on the game, airships may be in common usage over the world, or the player's may be the only one. Some games in which they are more common provide the player with ferry services using some type of airship, but this is much more restrictive compared to the player flying anywhere they wish. Airship fuel is often not mentioned, but when it is addressed the power sources are as varied as the crafts themselves - the Lunar Whale is powered by crystals, the Highwind is powered by Mako, and in Final Fantasy IX, most airships are powered by Mist, but a few are powered by steam engines.
In the first two titles, airships did not include any facilities, and were simply a way for the player to travel around more quickly. Beginning with Final Fantasy III, airships frequently featured shops, save points, and some sort of bed or healing service to restore lost HP and MP. The airships in Final Fantasy VI are shown to include gambling tables for roulette and craps, though they cannot be used by the player. In Final Fantasy VII, Chocobos can be transported in the airship, and the player can exit the Highwind in Final Fantasy VII riding a Chocobo.
Some airships can be used as a means of transit on and through multiple mediums. The airship from Final Fantasy V can not only fly, but can also be used on the surface of the water like a normal boat. She, along with the Nautilus, can even double as a submersible should it be required. The Ragnarok and the Lunar Whale are capable of being used for space travel. In some games, flying monsters can attack the airship and battles can occur on the main deck. The first instance of this was in Final Fantasy IV, where Cecil must fight some monsters that attack the Red Wings on the deck of an airship. Most games since then have featured some sort of fight or another taking place aboard the airship: in Final Fantasy VIII, Propagators are fought inside the airship and not on its main deck as in most other games, while in Final Fantasy XII and Revenant Wings, battles are fought inside and outside airships.
Another recurring feature is for the airship to be invented, or at least owned by a character called Cid (e.g., Cid Highwind and the Highwind in Final Fantasy VII and Cid Pollendina and the Enterprise in Final Fantasy IV). In Final Fantasy IX, Cid Fabool oversees the creation of the three Hilda Garde airships, although the first was stolen, and the second was presumably destroyed along with Alexandria.
[edit] Appearance
In the earlier games, airships appeared very much like carracks or galleons—wooden boats, but with propellers to give them lift, fashioned like helicopters. Generally propellers set vertically along the sides provide lift while the bow or stern rotors are used for maneuvering and propulsion. The craft may also possess wings on the sides to assist in lift. In essence, they were simply normal boats with wings and propellers, as the term "airship" would imply. Airships of this type feature prominently in earlier Final Fantasy games but do still appear in newer titles such as Final Fantasy XI.
Another type of airship seen in only a few of the series's installments actually resembles and occasionally behaves like real-lifedirigibles. The two airships of Final Fantasy VI, the Blackjack and the Falcon are such, along with the Highwind of Final Fantasy VII. The Falcon and the Blackjack are large zeppelins, with a balloon-like cavity filled with air and the actual airship hanging from below, propellers on both the balloon and the craft providing thrust. As with real airships, the Highwind utilizes moorings to "land", essentially remaining floating but tethered to the ground, and flies using propellers and engines powered by Mako.
In a few of the more recent games the airships have taken on more technologically advanced appearances, with elements of sci-fi, steampunk, and fantasy being reflected in the hull architecture (e.g., the Ragnarok from Final Fantasy VIII, the Fahrenheit from Final Fantasy X, and the Galbana from Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings).
[edit] Limitations
The airship provides a quicker, easier way to travel throughout the game world, enabling the bypass of large expanses without encountering any enemies. Some areas are altogether unreachable without the use of an airship, which may be needed to progress the game further. Most airships can also only land on certain terrain, restricting access to some areas - they can only land on grassland and cannot land in mountains, deserts or forests. Often when an airship cannot cross these areas, a Chocobo may be needed to so. In Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII, the player cannot fly their airship freely, so this restriction doesn't apply.
Depending on the game, other airships have other limitations. In Final Fantasy IV, at first the Falcon cannot fly over magma until it is remodeled, and the Lunar Whale cannot enter the Underground because it is too large to pass through the crater. In Final Fantasy IX, airships are common but all are powered by Mist, so they only function on the Mist Continent and cannot fly elsewhere. In Final Fantasy XII, airships are powered by skystones, which do not work when flying Jagd, and thus airships cannot travel over such places.
[edit] Tetra Master
The airship appears as a Tetra Master card in Final Fantasy IX. Its appearance is based on the unnamed airship in Final Fantasy V.
- Card 100
- Location: Memoria
