Monty Oum’s Dead Fantasy: A Final Fantasy and Dead Or Alive Crossover

Epic acrobatic battles, magic, adrenaline, mystery… many of you may still remember the incredible Dead Fantasy series, CG product created from scratch by the talented artist Monty Oum and certainly one of the best fanmade animations of all times. His Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts and Dead or Alive crossover still remains in our memories, while Monty sadly is no longer among us due to a physical complication which took him away from this world at a very young age.

Monty (Monyreak) Oum was an American (with Cambodian, Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese roots) animator and writer, hired by Rooster Teeth (internet production company), creator of Red vs. Blue‘s custom animations and RWBY.

The majority of gamers like myself discovered him through the non-profit series Dead Fantasy, featuring the main characters from Final Fantasy VII (Tifa, Cloud, Vincent), VIII (Rinoa), X-2 (Yuna, Rikku) and Kingdom Hearts (Kairi, Naminé), vs the girls and boys from Dead Or Alive (Hitomi, Ayane, kasumi, Hayate, Ryu Hayabusa). These battle videos were fully animated in 3D with entirely custom models created by Monty himself.

Although there didn’t seem to be a real plot behind these action-based animations in the beginning, it was clear that the two teams were in a deep conflict and had to rely on their skills, powers and surroundings to fight against each other.

The second part was a direct continuation of the first fight, where Tifa made her entrance to assist Yuna and Rikku against Hitomi, Ayane and Kasumi. The overall teamwork between the girls and the breathtaking sequences were what made Dead Fantasy a quality product, despite the older graphics and engine you can tell how much dedication and love was behind these videos.

The third part definitely had a Devil May Cry vibe, opening with Tifa fighting on her own against Hitomi and struggling despite the Materia usage.

The fourth video of the series had a lot of fans incredibly excited for its goodies, starting with a Kingdom Hearts-like scene showing Kairi on a lonely beach and continuing with Yuna’s summoning technique from FFX. The battle against Kasumi and her many clones, however, reached a turning point when Cloud Strife jumped off his Fenrir motorcycle and striked with the iconic Buster sword.

With DFV we started to get some more plot related stuff as well, displaying a badass Tifa fighting with all her might until she couldn’t take it anymore and Hayate strangely willing to take care of her despite being on Hitomi’s side.

This last DF video was actually a preview for the 8th chapter. DFVI was supposed to be focused on a one-on-one battle between Rikku and Ayane, while DFVII was intended for Rinoa and Rachel from Dynasty Warriors. Sadly this gem turned out to be a forced conclusion of the series, having Kairi shifting into Naminé with a pair of cyber wings and a beautiful white dress, the Keyblade in her hand as deadly as a sharp sword and Vincent Valentine forming from his red cape resembling a pool of blood.

Dead Fantasy was already fully planned out with a total of 9 episodes, but unfortunately Monty had an allergic reaction during a medical procedure in 2015, falling into a coma and passing away a few days later a the age of 33.

Monty also created two dancing videos with all these DF female characters; one with the DOA girls based on Mariah Carey’s Obessed song and another with the whole FF + DOA group dancing over Girls Generations’ Gee.