The Final Fantasy games are filled with (depending on your perspective) recurring characters and/or Mythology Gags. With the series steadily entering the XVIth title, and sprawling countless spinoffs, Final Fantasy will have a lot of Mythology Gags to count on.
- Final Fantasy II features a Dragoon, the first in the series, named Richard/Ricard Highwind; later, Final Fantasy IV would feature a Dragoon named Kain Highwind, and while the curmudgeonly airship mechanic Cid Highwind of Final Fantasy VII (himself being FFVII's incarnation of recurring character Cid) certainly doesn't resemble the traditional Final Fantasy Dragoon, his use of spears and the Jump ability in combat cement him as a Highwind in the mold of his immediate predecessor. Later translations of Final Fantasy II incorporate a new Mythology Gag in the form of Ricard's "adoptive" son being named Kain (even though the continuity of the games, or lack thereof, means he cannot possibly be Final Fantasy IV's Kain Highwind), and the most recent translation of Final Fantasy IV brings the reference full circle with a brand-new scene where Kain mentions that his father's name is Richard.
- The fan translation introduces a few. An escaping villain taunts the heroes with "You spoony... guys!", referencing an infamous Bowdlerization from FFIV. And a random townsman says a frequent line from the original Final Fantasy, "Warriors, bring light to the ORBS!" only for the heroes to respond "Shut up."
- Another example is the Job System in Final Fantasy III. You got jobs from each of the Crystals. The first Crystal bestowed the jobs of Fighter, Black Belt, Thief, Black Mage, White Mage, and Red Mage. The exact same jobs that were your choices in the original Final Fantasy. In addition, the final Crystal bestowed 4 of the six upgraded jobs from Final Fantasy, with the mages gaining snazzy new names: Ninja, Warlock, Devout, and Master (Knight was on the second Crystal, and Red Wizard was replaced by the one-man magical arsenal known as the Sage).
- Heck, this got a reference later, in Final Fantasy XI, of all games - the first six job classes available are Warrior, Monk, Thief, Black Mage, White Mage and Red Mage. All the others require having at least a certain level and doing a quest to unlock each one.
- The description for the song "Chocobo Chocobo" in the Final Fantasy IV DS Music Player says "They're probably all off playing in some mysterious dungeon now." A comparatively long-running spinoff series for Final Fantasy is Chocobo No Fushigi Dungeon — which translates as "Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon", although it's usually just called Chocobo's Dungeon in the US. The randomly-generated dungeons in the series are consistently called "mysterious dungeons" in either version.
- Final Fantasy X features a "Spoony bard" too, while the Warrior Monks are in Luca. A townsman will tell you that he asked one of them out, "but she called me a spoony bard! Can you believe it?"
- Character Job Classes (most noticeably Bartz as a Dragoon featuring a near-identical sprite to Kain from Final Fantasy IV) in Final Fantasy V often feature cues from Final Fantasy III in at least one design. Subsequently, Final Fantasy Tactics features a similar amount of nods, with several generic character sprites featuring identical design features... Most notably the male Monk and male Thief (Bartz) and the female Lancer and Ninja (Faris).
- The Optional Party Member Gogo in Final Fantasy VI is a direct nod to the boss of the same name who guarded the Mimic class crystal in Final Fantasy V. Even his battle menu is customizable in the same way as a Mimic in Final Fantasy V.
- The Advance Remake has Gilgamesh as an Esper. He is once again a sword-collector; he falls for Excalipoor again, and in battle, he uses the same trick he did in Final Fantasy V; namely casting Protect, Shell, Haste, and Jumping.
- And another new Esper is Diabolos. His specialty is, yet again, Gravity spells.
- This was arguably the entire point behind Final Fantasy IX.
- The play in the ending sequence of Final Fantasy IX includes the line "No cloud, no squall shall hinder us!" This is one of many such references to the game's predecessors.
- Getting the Ramuh Eidolin requires gathering parts of a story. Said story is about Josef's Heroic Sacrifice in Final Fantasy II.
- When the main character is in a weapon shop he sees a sword on the wall. He remarks that he remembers "a guy with spiky hair" who used a sword like that. The sword looks very similar to Cloud's Buster sword from Final Fantasy VII.
- Final Fantasy IX was generally filled with these, since it was basically a reference to the series as a whole, to wit: the return of the Battle Theme Music that had been last heard in Final Fantasy VI, a sidequest involving characters named Doga and Une, the in-game band's performance of the Rufus march from Final Fantasy VII, the appearances of black mages as faceless people with glowing eyes underneath wide-brimmed hats, which had been avoided (at least for player characters) after Final Fantasy V, and the general return to cartoonish proportions in the character design, which had been eschewed in Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII.
- One of the villains is named Garland and the four fiends are named after the ones from Final Fantasy.
- Kuja kidnaps a princess named Sarah (Garnet's real name) and a woman named Hilda like the original Garland and Emperor Mateus respectively. He also goes on a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum upon learning he is mortal like Xande and like Golbez he is the brother of the main protagonist. His character design bears resemblance to Sephiroth and his plan disrupts the natural cycle of life. He's a magic user who seeks immortality and wants to destroy the world as it is, similarly to Ultimecia. Finally, like Kefka he uses this game's summons to gain more power and usurp his boss with Garland's death mimicking that of Emperor Gestahl.
- And of course, the Trance powerup, which turns the characters into furred versions of themselves for an incredible power boost, is a reference to Final Fantasy VI's Terra. In particular, Zidane's hair glows pink, similar to Terra in her Esper form.
- The Terrans seeking out a new world while being watched over by one of their androids resembles the Lunarians from Final Fantasy IV. Garland choosing to fuse Terra's crystal with Gaia is similar to Zemus' attempts to take over the Blue Planet despite it being populated
- In Final Fantasy X, Lulu's weapons are dolls of characters from previous Final Fantasy games.
- Additionally, the Ronso tell Yuna that they'll build her a statue with big horn on her head. Yuna is a summoner. In previous games (III and V, as well as one of the summoners from IX— the other had hers cut off), the summoner class had horns.
- Final Fantasy X-2 contains several references to other games in the series, including, on Ultima Weapon's scan data, "Whatever you do, don't call it Atma."
- Also there's the enemy named "King VERMIN!", which is named after the insult Barrett used on Shinra.
- When Shinra tells them of the huge amount of energy from the Farplane and how, if used, would change a lot in their world, Yuna talks about a huge city that would never sleep...
- Which is also a Stealth Pun, since Shinra came up with the idea.
- When Yuna first acquires her Songstress sphere, she often says, "Hey! Eyes on me!" "Eyes on Me" was the main love theme from Final Fantasy VIII.
- Final Fantasy XI has a bit more elaborate nod to FFI with what are called Artifact Armor. Some of the classes in the game can gain special armor that makes them look like characters from the older games: Fighters got bulky red platemail, White Mages got red-trimmed white robes, Black Mages got the pointy hats, and Red Mages got the distinct red jerkin-cloak-armor and the pimp hat.
- On top of that, the 6 jobs new Final Fantasy XI characters initially have available are the same as the 6 possible party members in FFI: Warrior (Fighter), Monk (Black Belt), Thief, Red Mage, White Mage, and Black Mage.
- When Gilgamesh fights you in Final Fantasy XII, he breaks out a number of other Final Fantasy swords over the course of the battle. His version of the Buster Sword is marked "Replica" in kanji on its side, which makes a lot of sense for someone best known for wielding the "Excalipoor".
- A rare drop from fighting Behemoths in the Great Crystal is steak, a callback to X where one of Wakka's potential lines from encountering this beast is asking how many steaks the party can get out of them.
- Final Fantasy Tactics A2 has Hurdy, a Moogle bard. His starting abilities include hiding at low health. It would seem that his mentor was Spoony Bard Edward of Final Fantasy IV fame.
- And Hurdy has a twin sister named Gurdy, harkening back to Hurdy and Gurdy from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (even though there is the implication that Hurdy and Gurdy are actually the same person)...
- Chocobo's Dungeon has a dungeon filled with Cactuars and Iron Giants. The song playing in the background is a remix of the song playing in the Thunder Plains from Final Fantasy X, an area filled with said monsters.
- The number of these gags in Dissidia Final Fantasy can only be described as "staggering".
- Some character intros will have clear references to events in the other games: for example, both Cecil and Golbez will make reference to the fact that Gabranth is going through the same pain they have. On the lighter side of things, Kefka will tell Tidus to "go back to the beach already..."
- Summons will reference appearances in multiple games if they have different forms by using different artwork for each one.
- The Elemental Fiends have pretty much the same effects as the Elemental Archfiends
- Characters are constantly taking iconic poses.
- The Mognet Moogles complain about the Chocobo staring in a series of spin-off games (which have a Moogle as an antagonist) and declare "I know it won't be long 'til we star in our own game, kupo! And not just a racing game or mysterious dungeon spinoff, either, kupo!"
- And many, many more.
- In Final Fantasy VII, take a good look at Jenova's headplate
◊. "MADE IN HONG KONG. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 1996. SQUER COMPANY LIMITED." Later games and The Movie changed the plate to be much less of a Stealth Pun and to make sense in-universe. - The kitchen knife being the ultimate weapon. It made its debut in Final Fantasy IV, where Edge could throw it for massive damage. From the next installment onwards, the Tonberries would use these to maim your party with a gentle poke. The gag was lost since the translation of IV turned it into a Spoon for no good reason.
- The A Realm Reborn release of Final Fantasy XIV has a number of these to rival Final Fantasy IX and Dissidia Final Fantasy, up to and including porting entire dungeons from earlier games, with new, setting-appropriate backstories attached.
- XIV has its own page on this too.
- In Dirge of Cerberus, the Deepground logo is the same as the SOLDIER logo as it appeared in the original Final Fantasy VII. The logo had been redesigned for the Compilation titles.
- Mobius Final Fantasy is either full of this or straight-up Canon Welding.
- Princess Sara, Garland and Chaos are from the original Final Fantasy, and Wol is the Fan Nickname for "Warrior of Light".
- Palamecia, the world's name, is the name of The Empire in II.
- A Blank fighting Chaos says he is from Eblan, a city in IV. It is stated that a lot of the Blanks were brought from other FF settings; Cloud (from VII) is explicit about this, and implicitly Wol was too (as he remembers Chocobos and knows Gilgamesh).
- The SOLDIER 1st Class Legend Job uses animations based on Cloud's from the PSX version of VII (amusing, as the VII storyline is based on VII Remake). This looks comical in practice, since Wol's more realistic in appearance.
- The VII crossover events have a running gag about Echo's crush on Cloud, which is derived from his Chick Magnet status in the original. In "Fatal Calling", she wants Wol to make Cloud his bodyguard, which is treated by the characters as sexually suggestive - in the original, Cloud agrees to become Aerith's bodyguard, who offers to pay by letting Cloud date her.
- Final Fantasy Dimensions is virtually built on this. From the story to the characters to dialogue. There's far too many references to the rest of the series to even try to list them.
- In Final Fantasy VII Remake, many of the little details in the character designs are taken from the original artworks, even when they were gone from later designs. For instance, Cloud's original 1997 design gives him visible eyebags, which can also be seen on his menu portrait; the weirdly low placement of his earring is its placement on the original FMV model.
- Tifa's default dress for the Don Corneo infiltration is a reimagined version of the one she wore in the original game, with a v-neck instead of the original's high-neck, and the matching high heels now possess ankle-straps. Aerith likewise has a reimagined version of her dress from the original, but it is now the option that takes the longest to achieve in-game and the red pumps she wore with it in the original have been swapped for some white sandals.
