Even if you have played/watched the game, there is not much to recommend this set of OVAs, beyond adding to how much of the "Final Fantasy" series you have under your belt. If that is all you want to do, pick this up. It's pretty short and it's not hard to find. There are a couple flashbacks that might be showing anime versions of the FFV cast in heavy shadow and it does vaguely reference FFV as a legend from the past, but that's about it for connection to the game.
The story formula follows the average formula for the early FF games - crystals are being stolen and a band of disparate heroes comes together to deal with the problem. Someone absorbs a crystal and they all end up fighting the villain in a place full of evil. My main issue is that this story is even worse than most of the games in regards to sexism and objectification of women. For example, I suppose that in an attempt to be cute and have some of that usual 'aw shucks' FF humor, someone thought it would be a GREAT idea to have a plot point that involved the primary female protagonist's butt glowing, with an excuse for the primary male protagonist to stare at it whenever it did so. Hey, it's not perverted or fanservice if it's part of the plot, right? - probably something a crewmember said while writing this.
The characters are pathetic, at best. This story had the potential to be so cool and it just fails. There's an all-female pirate crew who seem to be pretty badass at first and don't fit your average female video game character model. Until you notice that they're all wearing stripper reject outfits, apparently have the intelligence of vegetables and are terrified of smiling smoke bombs. The primary protagonist in this story is also a woman (contrary to the advertising and other reviews), which is awesome, making her the first primary female protagonist in the FF world (other games focused on groups or a male protag - a solo woman didn't start the party builds until FFVI). She's also smart, creative, brave and strong. She's a great protagonist... until she gets damseled. Apparently three OVAs with a primary female protag was all the writers could take. Even then, we could have seen her attempting to break out of her prison. Nope. The story switches to the male protag, who is funny but also obnoxious, doesn't understand the word 'no' (consent, it's SO funny) and somewhat sexist, like most of the male characters in this story (I just love me some sexist remarks all over my anime mmhmm). For the overall cast make-up, it's interesting that in a world where pirates can be all female, a woman can rule a nation and women can carry on the teachings of mystics (like the female protag) but there are apparently no female soldiers or other officials.
Oddly enough, the only real saving grace this series had was in the dub. If you've watched the "Tenchi Muyo" dubs, you'll notice that a number of those voice actors show up here. I found that very amusing, especially since the characters they play are similar but also drastically different. So it's like the "Tenchi Muyo" cast is on drugs or something for this series.
This is 90s anime animation and it's nothing fantastic. The overall look reminds me a bit of "Dragon Ball Z". Even though the soundtracks from the games are beautiful, these OVAs had nothing remarkable.
I did not enjoy this and would not recommend it.
