The Modeling and texturing in Final Fantasy is exquisite. Maya may have been used to do this but you don't need a renderfarm to make these models and render them as stills. Lower end graphics apps can do just as well. Even poor old Poser4 can come pretty close. The main difference is in the eyes and in animation the hair. The hair here is most probably not a model but a partical system. Shag hair on 3ds Max as example. The image here is of kane by Syyd Raven. A great texture on the Michael model with great morphs can work wonders. Good lighting helps too.