History WhatCouldHaveBeen / FinalFantasy

** Penelo was also supposed to have a bigger role or at least a more fleshed out backstory. When the idea was presented, the rest of the writers didn't agree with it, so Penelo was reduced to a TagalongKid that made sure Vaan stayed out of trouble.

*** Sephiroth was also envisioned to be Aeris' brother and then her lover before the writers decided to change the characters to how they are currently.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'': Edea was originally conceived as a ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' character; most likely a humanoid version of Jenova given her personality in the final game.

*** And the Honey Bee Inn scene was going to be [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_236547 MUCH]] more explicit.

* In the originally planned ending of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', Terra would have been a male character in his twenties and died with the other Espers. In the ending of the final version, she receives instructions on how to specifically avoid this fate and does. Recently, lost official preproduction art from TetsuyaNomura himself has shown up on the internet, and this mystery character shows up in one of the pieces. [http://i.imgur.com/SNLCNiz.jpg He heavily resembles] [[FinalFantasyVIII Squall.]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'': Edea was originally conceived as a ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' character; most likely a humanoid version of Jenova given her personality in the final game.

* In the originally planned ending of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', Terra would have been a male character in his twenties and died with the other Espers. In the ending of the final version, she receives instructions on how to specifically avoid this fate and does. Recently, lost official preproduction art from TetsuyaNomura himself has shown up on the internet, and this mystery character shows up in one of the pieces. He heavily resembles [[FinalFantasyVIII Squall.]]

** According to supplementary material, ''X'' as we know it was originally not going to be a part of the ''Final Fantasy'' series at all, but was planned as a separate game called ''Eighteen''. Its plot would have centered around a mysterious disease that kills people on their 18th birthday, and would have had Yuna cast as a doctor/nurse who traveled around the world administering a cure to those who were found to be infected. It would later be revealed that this alleged "cure" was actually the ''cause'' of the disease, with the medical organization Yuna worked for using the "disease" as a means of controlling the world by alleging that they were the only ones capable of providing the cure while simultaneously perpetuating the disease's existence. When the game was later redesigned to be the next ''Final Fantasy'' installment, several of these plot points were retooled to fit the new game's story.

* In the originally planned ending of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', Terra would have been a male character in his twenties and died with the other Espers. In the ending of the final version, she receives instructions on how to specifically avoid this fate and does.

* Having seen the 2012 version of ''Film/{{Les Miserables|2012}}'', Tetsuya Nomura was hell bent on turning the highly anticipated {{Final Fantasy XV}} (formerly Final Fantasy Versus XIII) into a musical! That's right! A musical! Thankfully, Square-Enix managed to talk him out of it...

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII''[='s=] NES version would have had an English release, but in the end it was canceled as the 16-bit era drew nearer, ''IV'' was brought over instead, and ''II'' wouldn't see the light of day in the western hemisphere until ''[[CompilationRerelease Final Fantasy Origins]]''. A prototype of the ROM exists, although with a hilariously awful translation.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' had a ton of these. In the supplementary material books, you can read up on about a dozen different drafts for almost every plot point and character in the game; naturally, all of these books are [[NoExportForYou Japan only]] and have no official translation. Here's just some of the plot points that weren't used: Sephiroth was originally going to be Aeris' brother, her lover, [[BrotherSisterIncest or both.]] Midgar was going to be the [[FinalFantasyXV real-world]] [[Anime/FinalFantasyTheSpiritsWithin New York City]], or maybe a [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII giant floating misshapen world in the sky]]. [[VideoGame/ParasiteEve Vincent Valentine was going to be a traveling Mulder-like detective researching bogus supernatural cases,]] Yuffie was going to be a bounty hunter, and there would have been Job Classes.

* Having seen the 2012 version of {{LesMiserables}}, Tetsuya Nomura was hell bent on turning the highly anticipated {{Final Fantasy XV}} (formerly Final Fantasy Versus XIII) into a musical! That's right! A musical! Thankfully, Square-Enix managed to talk him out of it...

** Jenova is a ''massive'' change from it's original concept, as explained in "Another Hypothesis". Initially, Jenova was supposed to be a [[IncrediblyLamePun gene]] that was a part of every person, and that Aeris could use this power naturally because she's a Cetra. Shinra's methods for creating SOLDIER are the same as the final product, but they, along with Sephiroth, were [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic "awakened" beings]] with the gene. The Turks would be the people who were able to ''sense'' the usage of Jenova, and they would bring the subjects back to Shinra for experimentation.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' was supposed to originally have Basch as the main character, as well as a more familiar relationship between Vaan and Ashe (like siblings) which would have given him more of a reason for joining TheParty. Penelo's brothers were supposed to be in the resistance, and there would be interactive airship battles ala Franchise/StarWars. When all of these ideas were turned down, several developers left SquareEnix in the middle of development in protest.

** According to the Final Fantasy XIII Ultimania Omega, the development team at one point considered making Vanille the official main character of the game, but dismissed the idea as they had already released a trailer and art featuring Lightning in that role.

* The Ivalice-related spin-off ''VagrantStory'' had a sequel planned for the GameCube sometime before 2003, but it was scrapped.

* VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII: Edea was originally conceived as a ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' character; most likely a humanoid version of Jenova given her personality in the final game.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' had a ton of these. In the supplementary material books, you can read up on about a dozen different drafts for almost every plot point and character in the game; naturally, all of these books are [[NoExportForYou Japan only]] and have no official translation. Here's just some of the plot points that weren't used: Sephiroth was originally going to be Aeris' brother, her lover, [[BrotherSisterIncest or both.]] Midgar was going to be the [[Anime/FinalFantasyTheSpiritsWithin real-world New York City]], or maybe a [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII giant floating misshapen world in the sky]]. [[VideoGame/ParasiteEve Vincent Valentine was going to be a traveling Mulder-like detective researching bogus supernatural cases,]] Yuffie was going to be a bounty hunter, and there would have been Job Classes.

* [[http://www.lostlevels.org/200311/200311-square.shtml There was originally going to be]] a game for the [[NintendoEntertainmentSystem Famicom]] called ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV''. Other than the fact that it existed at some point, not much is known about it except that it was canceled and the [[SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super Famicom/SNES]] game starring a Dark Knight named Cecil Harvey that was planned to be ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' was renamed ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' (or ''[[MarketBasedTitle Final Fantasy II]]'', in the case of the first English-language version and its [[{{Wii}} Virtual Console]] release) due to the cancellation of the 8-bit game that was going to have that title. Its cancellation also resulted in every future game having a number lower than it would have had; had the game with Cecil and Kain that ended up as ''IV'' stayed as ''V'', we would have ended up with ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' being called ''VI'' and so on, which would have resulted in people arguing over whether, for example, ''IV'', ''VI'', or ''VII'' is the best arguing over ''V'', ''VII'', and ''VIII''
** The game that ended up being called ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' had some portions of its script tossed out before it was finished, not unlike fellow Squaresoft game ''SecretOfMana''. Fortunately, restoring at least part of it was one of the goals of the NintendoDS [[VideoGameRemake remake]].

** Also, Thorn and Zorn were originally going to be just one character, and old man who was the court wizard.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' was supposed to originally have Basch as the main character, as well as a more familiar relationship between Vaan and Ashe (ie like siblings) which would have given him more of a reason for joining TheParty. Penelo's brothers were supposed to be in the resistance, and there would be interactive airship battles ala Franchise/StarWars. When all of these ideas were turned down, several developers left SquareEnix in the middle of development in protest.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' was planned for the PlayStation2, the battle system would have been more dynamic and action-based, battles would've taken place on the field map, Lightning would have a much less serious personality and gravity-based powers that influenced gameplay, Serah would have been the seventh party member, and Oerba Yun Fang was going to be a male character (explains the [[HoYay Les Yay]] she and Vanille have, doesn't it?). The entire hoo-hah around XIII and its sequels and spinoffs being categorized into their own subseries stems from the fact that the ''Fabula Nova Crystallis'' series was supposed to be a set of ActionRPGs, akin to titles that had recently become popular in western markets such as ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series and ''DemonsSouls''. ''Lightning Returns'' supposedly is a resurrection of this original concept.

** Nomura stated that he first planned for Dissidia to be a ''KingdomHearts'' game... [[ExecutiveMeddling but Disney didn't like the idea of Disney characters fighting each other]]. (It was discovered that this was actually a cover story for their true intentions of making a ''SmashBros'' type fighting game that revolved the villain characters of their animated movies. Disney had also intended to make action-oriented Mickey Mouse games, in which he was a secret agent and utilized gadgets such as jet packs and cloaking devices, but when Disney's gaming studios all underperformed in the early 2010s, all of these plans were scuttled.)
* The Ivalice-related spin-off ''VagrantStory'' had a sequel planned for the Gamecube sometime before 2003.

** Nomura stated that he first planned for Dissidia to be a ''KingdomHearts'' game... [[ExecutiveMeddling but Disney didn't like the idea of Disney characters fighting each other]].

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' was planned for the PlayStation2, the battle system would have been more dynamic and action-based, battles would've taken place on the field map, Lightning would have a much less serious personality and gravity-based powers that influenced gameplay, Serah would have been the seventh party member, and Oerba Yun Fang was going to be a male character (explains the [[HoYay Les Yay]] she and Vanille have, doesn't it?). The entire hoo-hah around XIII and its sequels and spinoffs being categorized into their own subseries stems from the fact that the ''Fabula Nova Crystallis'' series was supposed to be a set of ActionRPGs, akin to titles that had recently become popular in western markets such as ''TheElderScrolls'' series and ''DemonsSouls''. ''Lightning Returns'' supposedly is a resurrection of this original concept.

** The entire game was originally planned as the first in a spinoff series [[GeorgeLucasThrowback made to appeal to old school fans.]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' was planned for the PlayStation2, the battle system would have been more dynamic and action-based, battles would've taken place on the field map, Lightning would have a much less serious personality and gravity-based powers that influenced gameplay, Serah would have been the seventh party member, and Oerba Yun Fang was going to be a male character (explains the [[HoYay Les Yay]] she and Vanille have, doesn't it?).

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' was planned for the PlayStation2, the battle system would have been more dynamic and action-based, battles would've taken place on the field map, Lightning would have gravity-based powers that influenced gameplay, Serah would have been the seventh party member, and Oerba Yun Fang was going to be a male character (explains the [[HoYay Les Yay]] she and Vanille have, doesn't it?).