History DevelopersForesight / FinalFantasy

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI''
** Although you have to defeat Lich first, the rest of the Four Fiends can be tackled in any order. The game expects you to then defeat Marilith second, followed by Kraken and then Tiamat. If you choose to go after them out of order however, upon meeting them, the Fiend you're about to challenge will have altered dialogue to reflect the order you decided to fight them. Note that this only applies to the remakes.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII''
** Early in the game, you're sent to the Snow Cavern to find the [[{{Macguffin}} Goddess Bell]] to open the door to Kashuan Keep. During Hilda's briefing, she notes that the voice of a Kashuan noble can open the door, but they can't use Gordon because he's gone missing. Later in the Keep, the party encounters Gordon, who joins. While most players will more than likely just carry on into the Keep, if you decide to trek ''all the way back'' to Altair (a lengthy trek even with a Chocobo) with Gordon in the party and talk to Hilda, you'll get a unique scene in which Hilda [[WhatTheHellHero laments the fact]] that Gordon's absence meant that [[spoiler: Josef died]]. Gordon tries to explain himself, but Hilda angrily refuses to listen.

** ''A Realm Reborn'' and onwards is coded in such a way that you must equip a weapon, as that determines your Class and/or Job. In the extremely unlikely scenario where you played the 1.x version of the game, unequipped your Main Hand weapon, went offline during that version, made the transition to the current version of the game, and somehow ''also'' managed to bypass multiple in-game checks that force a player to equip a weapon, the game will have a "fail state" class for such an eventuality called Adventurer (ADV). Being a fail state, the class can't equip anything, can't hand in any quests, and can't progress beyond the starter city, necessitating a GM intervention to put something on their main hand. But the fact that the development team thought of needing such a class is impressive.

** Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and onwards is coded in such a way that you absolutely ''must'' equip a Main Hand weapon that determines your Class (and Job, if also equipping a Job Stone). In the one-in-a-literal-hundreds-of-thousands-odd chance that you have somehow played the 1.x version of the game, unequipped your Main Hand, and managed to go offline during that version, made the transition to the current version of the game, and somehow ''also'' managed to bypass multiple in-game checks that would force the player to equip a Main Hand in the transition since, and the game will have a "fail state" class for just such an eventuality: Adventurer (ADV). Of course, being a fail state, the "Class" if you can call it that, is [[UnintentionallyUnwinnable barely able to do or equip anything, hand in any quests, and thus progress beyond the starter city]], necessitating a GM intervention, but the thought of putting a default Class as a backup is very much in-line with the Developer's track record in this regard.

** Normally, party members who aren't in the active party loiter around the airship deck, whether it be the Blackjack or the Falcon. If you somehow hack Umaro or Gogo into your party in the World of Balance (which is normally impossible), they still have places assigned to them in the Blackjack for them to appear when they're not in the party. The same goes for Shadow, who normally isn't ever seen on the airship in the World of Balance.

** The "Friendly Enemy" side quest is supposed to [[spoiler:not only allow Ozma to be hit by physical attacks, but also make it weak to Shadow instead of being healed by it. Beating Ozma before completing this side quest will cause the last "Friendly Enemy" to comment about it.]]

** Ifrit's boss fight has a surprising amount of dialogue - there is dialogue if you hit him with Fire (which he, naturally, absorbs), which also differs depending on whether it was Squall or Quistis who hit him, Ifrit expresses surprise if he is hit by [[KillItWithIce Shiva's]] summoning, and his defeat quote also changes depending if he is defeated by Shiva specifically.

** If all protagonists are together in Balamb Garden, the ones not in the party will be found wandering around.

** During the "chasing Princess Garnet" segment in Alexandria, Garnet will run down a set of stairs while Ruby is complaining to Zidane. If the player had Zidane block the stairs while talking to Ruby, Zidane will jump out of Garnet's way as she runs down the stairs.

** Every playable character has the same range of movement and expression sprites — laughing, raising their arms, getting hurt, etc. The foresight comes from the fact that even {{Guest Star Party Member}}s like General Leo, Bannon, the Phantom Train ghosts, and Locke's merchant disguise have these animations as well, even though they wouldn't be seen in a normal playthrough. So if you hack or glitch them into the party, you'll still see their animations play. Even Esper Terra and the Imp (which are normally impossible to have as party leaders) have a full range of animations for this purpose, just in case.

** There is a part of the game in which which Golbez and Fusoya fight [[spoiler:Zemus, and afterwards, Zeromus]]. In most versions of the game, this is simply an AI fight and Golbez cannot be used outside of it (as he lacks the proper animations, stats, and whatnot). However, hacking him into the party in the 3D remake shows that he is fully functional in that version. He even has stats, a job (Lunarian), specific sets of armor/weapons he can equip, the ability to use Black Magic, a victory animation, and a menu portrait. The only thing he ''is'' lacking is an overworld model, as the game uses his younger self (Theodor) instead.

** Because of the large amount of party members in the last chapter of ''The After Years'', there's potentially tons of different dialogue for each major boss encounter. While most is generic, it does take note of which potential party members could have encountered return bosses, and has the make a comment or otherwise recognize them. There's also a lot of thought that went into [[spoiler:The encounter with Dark Knight Cecil and Cecil recovering afterwards.]] The party members from the first game recognize him immediately just from silhouette, while the newer characters [[spoiler:who have only ever known him as "King Cecil"]] do not. However there's an interesting difference with Edge and Luca [[spoiler: who met Cecil in the first game but not until after he'd already become a Paladin. In this case they only recognize him after he turns around and shows his face, because different armor or not they do remember what Cecil looked like as a young man]] Likewise when Cecil returns he has a brief conversation with the remaining member of the party who meets him. Old friends from the first game he happily greets again, while Ursula, Luca, her dolls and Harley are people Cecil has met before but only briefly or have grown up significantly since then so it takes him a second to recognize him. Leonora and the Elban Four meanwhile, will introduce themselves to Cecil as they've never met him before.

*** In areas where you can talk to your party members, dialogue for [[KilledOffForReal Aerith,]] [[GuestStarPartyMember Kid Cloud, and Sephiroth]] is still added at those points, in case players hacked the game to add those characters to their party. This is incidentally what fueled the rumors that [[UrbanLegendOfZelda there was a way to revive Aerith]], as players noted that she had new dialogue if she was hacked back into the party after her death.

** At one point in the story Cid leaves the party to modify the Enterprise to be able to fly over the underworld's lava but before the party can make use of it outside of a cutscene you are forced back to the surface and when you return to the underground the Enterprise is left on the surface, instead replaced by the Falcon a different airship that cannot fly over lava until Cid gives it a similar modification. With the Falcon, and later the Lunar Whale as the party's new transports there's no reason to ever touch the Enterprise again, but you never actually lose access to it and in the endgame while there's no reason to do this, the player can retrieve the Enterprise and fly it underground where it can indeed fly over the lava and ferry the party around. You can even use it to bring the hovercraft down to the underworld which again, serves no actual purpose as far as getting anywhere, but you can do it if you so choose.
** Because of the large amount of party members in the last chapter of the After Years there's potentially tons of different dialogue for each major boss encounter many of whom are either returning bosses from IV or guest bosses form other games. While most is generic, it does take note of which potential party members could have encountered return bosses and has the make a comment or otherwise recognize them. There's also a lot of thought that went into [[spoiler:The encounter with Dark Knight Cecil and Cecil recovering afterwards.]] The party members from the first game recognize him immediately just from silhouette, while the newer characters [[spoiler:who have only ever known him as "King Cecil"]] do not. However there's an interesting difference with Edge and Luca [[spoiler: who met Cecil in the first game but not until after he'd already become a Paladin. In this case they only recognize him after he turns around and shows his face, because different armor or not they do remember what Cecil looked like as a young man]] Likewise when Cecil returns he has a brief conversation with the remaining member of the party who meets him. Old friends from the first game he happily greets again, while Ursula, Luca, her dolls and Harley are people Cecil has met before but only briefly or have grown up significantly since then so it takes him a second to recognize him. Leonora and the Elban Four meanwhile, will introduce themselves to Cecil as they've never met him before.

** The ending cutscene, where [[spoiler:in the afterlife, Noctis shows Luna a picture, chosen by the player beforehand. No matter what it is, Luna will smile before the two share a kiss, but if the picture's from the party's first visit to Altissa - including, particularly, a pic of Luna's wedding dress - Luna will also shed a tear]].

*** Another bit of Ifrit-related foresight appears in the 2013 Steam release - one trick to wait out the timer on Ifrit's naming screen in order to get maximum Judgment score on {=SeeD=} Exam. Trying it in 2013 Steam release instead causes the player to get a Judgment score of 0 if the timer actually expired. This was not retained for ''Remastered'' release.