"
I don't think I have what it takes to make an a good action game. I think I'm better at telling a story."
(For the first game in the series, see
Final Fantasy I.)
Absurdly popular
Role Playing Game series from Square Enix (formerly Squaresoft), currently on its
thirteenth fourteenth incarnation plus numerous side ("
gaiden") games.
Final Fantasy games are known for their lavish sound, music, and (recently) voice acting production values, well-thought-out plots, and deep
Back Story.
Until recently, no
Final Fantasy game was a true sequel - each was set in an entirely new world dreamt up on the spot by the producers and given life. Two recent releases,
Final Fantasy X-2 and
Final Fantasy XII, are set in worlds previously used by other
Final Fantasy games (
Final Fantasy X and
Final Fantasy Tactics, respectively), and further games set in the
Final Fantasy VII Verse are planned. The upcoming
Final Fantasy XIII is planned as a series of several games in a brand new setting, though how they are connected is not entirely clear. Recently,
Final Fantasy XIV was announced, and has been in development alongside FFXIII. Early on the games were very basic, but the series
grew the beard with
Final Fantasy IV, or
VI, or
VII;
fan opinions differ. At any rate, the games are now viewed as classics, with many games praised for their epic stories.
Some trademarks of the
Final Fantasy series include:
- Schizo Tech, frequently based on Lost Technology.
- Power Crystals that frequently represent the force of "light" or "life". They are sometimes sentient, but almost always have a heavy say in the plot.
- Powerful summonable creatures that a particular class of character can invoke, and which represent most of the combat power for that character.
- A Global Airship that becomes available at some point during the game.
- A character named "Cid", who's either a Gadgeteer Genius or the pilot of the airship. (Or both.)
- A ridiculously over-the-top boss named "Gilgamesh", who may or may not be the same person in every appearance.
- Swords that in real life would be very difficult if not impossible to wield "properly".
- Flightless ostrich-like birds known as "chocobos" used as mounts.
- An Aesop about peace, environmentalism, The Power Of Friendship, or all three at once.
- Those Two Guys:
Vicks Biggs and Wedge, who appear in various guises in almost all of the games from VI onward (and who were retconned into IV by The After Years), and die horribly about half the time.
- A quirky new experience and character advancement system in each game.
- A magic system with a common set of spell names across the series, with several frequently reused classes of spellcasters, and quirky variations for magic advancement and availability unique to each game.
- A specific set of findable healing "potions" (also available for purchase at conveniently located shops) that operate by being thrown at the character they're supposed to heal.
- Lots of side quests and minigames.
- A disturbingly effeminate main villain, usually bishonen, frequently a White Haired Pretty Boy, almost always a Nietzsche Wannabe, and prone to going into One Winged Angel mode with a Sculpted Physique for the final showdown.
- Hey! There have only been three in thirteen games.
- Freely name-able party members, resulting in Hello Insert Name Here in every game until it was dropped in the tenth.
- And then only because voice acting made it impossible.
- Though Tidus (otherwise known as "hey, you", "new guy", "kid" etc.) is the unfortunate exception.
- In FF 8, only Squall, Rinoa, and her dog were name-able. The rest came with their predetermined names, although you could modify them using a special (hard to obtain) item.
- An unusually high level of attention paid to the soundtrack; Nobuo Uematsu's scores are practically worshipped by many fans of the series, and have spawned tons of remix projects and orchestrations.
- Ridiculously Cute Critters called "moogles," who are fond of saying "kupo."
- Several recurring monsters, including the weak but difficult-to-hit Cactuars and the surprisingly strong two-foot-tall Tonberries.
- Ninja when there doesn't seem to be any reason for there to be.
- Several enemies that count as The Ogre and some that count as a Boss In Mook Clothing.
- Spells such as Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Flare, Holy, Ultima.
- Ragnarok Proofing - You can't swing a sword in Final Fantasy games without hitting a fully functional relic of a lost civilization.
- At least one character per game that nobody wants in their party, no matter how good they are.
- Stock Weapon Names, such as Excalibur, Masamune, and the series' own Ultima weapon.
- Theme Naming : A recent trend in Final Fantasy games is having the protagonists' names related to weather or the sky.
- Cloud Strife of Final Fantasy VII.
- Squall Leonhart of Final Fantasy VIII. His mother's name was Raine, while his father's name was Laguna.
- Tidus, of Final Fantasy X, is a romanization of "tidaa", which is Okinawan for "sun". Yuna, on the other hand, is Okinawan for "night".
- Lightning and Snow Villiers of Final Fantasy XIII.
- Noctis Lucis Caelum of Final Fantasy Versus XIII is a Latin phrase that means "sky of the night light". The "stella nox" part of Stella Nox Fleuret's name is latin for "night star".
The
Final Fantasy series is the
ur-Trope Maker for
Role Playing Game Video Game Tropes. Many of the conventions of Japanese-style console
roleplaying games that didn't originate in the
Dragon Quest line originated with the
Final Fantasy series, which in turn were influenced by
Ultima and other Western computer
role playing games, which the genre has now almost entirely replaced in the console world.
Tracking the early parts of the
Final Fantasy series can be confusing, as only three of the first six games made it to North America, where the numbers were changed so that the US releases were consecutive numbers. Therefore,
Final Fantasy IV was released in America as Final Fantasy II, while
Final Fantasy VI was released as Final Fantasy III.
Final Fantasy VII broke the trend and was released as VII everywhere, and from then on every mainline FF would get a North American release. But that's not the end of the confusion, as the various remakes for the Playstation, GBA and DS have used the Japanese numbering system for the original games, resulting in the strange situation where in the US,
Final Fantasy VI Advance is a remake of a game previously called
Final Fantasy III. Finally, four "gaiden" games were given the name Final Fantasy to increase sales in North America: Final Fantasy Legend I-III and Final Fantasy Adventure. The first three are from the
SaGa series and the fourth is the first installment in the
Mana Series.
The
Kingdom Hearts series is a
Massive Multiplayer Crossover between Final Fantasy and the
Disney Animated Canon.
The
Final Fantasy series consists of:
Main Series
Spin-offs, Prequels and Sequels
- Final Fantasy Tactics (Combines Turn Based Strategy with a Role Playing Game.)
- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (Ditto, but on a handheld.)
- Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (on the DS, so "Advance" got shortened to "A")
- Final Fantasy X-2, a direct sequel to Final Fantasy X
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
- Final Fantasy VII: Dirge Of Cerberus
- Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
- There is also Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, although the Final Fantasy fan community has attempted for years to deny its existence; the movement has reversed in recent years, though, as fans come to accept its merits.
- Dissidia: Final Fantasy, a Massive Multi Player Crossover of the first 12 games where the god Chaos (from the first game) has summoned villains from all of the games and the goddess Cosmos (a new mention) has summoned heroes to counter them.
- Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, a sequel to Final Fantasy IV for mobile phones and Wii Ware done in the style of the 16-bit SNES Final Fantasy Games.
- Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, a spin off/sequel to XII.
- Final Fantasy Gaiden: Four Warriors of Light, A Gaiden Game featuring 4 Warriors of Light. Completely unrelated to Final Fantasy Gaiden: Seiken Densetsu, but also on a handheld.
- Final Fantasy Versus XIII, due to be released sometime after XIII. Despite the name, it is neither a sequel nor prequel to Final Fantasy XIII, and is an Action RPG and Playstation 3 exclusive.
- Final Fantasy Agito XIII, another Gaiden Game like Versus XIII, release date to be announced. Like Versus XIII, it is not directly related to Final Fantasy XIII. It will be a Playstation Portable game.
Dolled Up Installments
Released in North America as
Final Fantasy games, there were four more on the Nintendo Game Boy.
- Final Fantasy Legend 1, 2 and 3, which were retitled releases of SaGa 1, 2, and 3
- Final Fantasy Adventure, originally titled Final Fantasy Gaiden: Seiken Densetsu, was the first title in that series as well.
Chocobo Series
There are also a set of unconnected
Lighter And Softer spinoffs starring the series mascot Chocobo.
- Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon (1997, PlayStation; Japan only)
- Chocobo Racing (1999, PlayStation)
- Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon 2 (2000, PlayStation; the U.S. version drops the "Mysterious" part from the title, but not the "2")
- Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales (2006, Nintendo DS)
- Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon (2008, Nintendo Wii)
The Dungeon games are part of the franchise-spanning Mysterious Dungeon series, which are effectively simplified (well, depending on the installment)
roguelikes with prettier graphics.
There is also an
anime movie sequel
OVA for
Final Fantasy VII, titled
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
Also not to be forgotten (though many wish they could), is the movie
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. As well as this, two other
Final Fantasy-based anime have been produced:
Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals, a four-part
OVA that continued in
The Verse of
Final Fantasy V, and
Final Fantasy Unlimited, a somewhat surreal TV series with plenty of
Conspicuous CG.
