Games with their own pages:
Other examples:
- Recurring:
- Biggs and Wedge: Biggs and Wedge are intentional shout outs to Star Wars, as they are Luke's wingmen in the first released movie. Their original appearance in North America had the names mistranslated as Vicks and Wedge in the SNES versions of Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, but was corrected in their remakes, as well as in other games where the characters appear, such as Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and X.
- A cross-series one is appears in the ability zeninage, which is frequently translated as Gil Toss or Spare Change, in which the player sacrifices some of their money to cause damage to a foe, depicted as the money being thrown at the target. The fact that several games give this to the samurai class is a reference to fictional samurai detective Zenigata Heiji, whose stories take place during the Edo period and whose signature attack was to incapacitate foes with thrown zeni coins (the smallest denomination at the time - think the shogunate equivalent of pennies). While Final Fantasy VI did not give the ability to Cyan, the Japanese name of the relic that gives the ability to Setzer is Heiji's Jitte, referencing Heiji's melee weapon and symbol of his authority.
- Final Fantasy:
- The NES original features a mermaid who grew legs and left to live on land. Her name? Daryl.
- The Dawn of Souls Updated Re-release feature several winking references to pop culture:
- An old man outside the Hellfire Chasm informs you that trespassers will be burninated.
- A fairy in Whisperwind Cove wants you to listen to her about a staircase she found. Take one guess as to how she gets your attention.
- There is a headstone in Elfheim dedicated to Link (In the NES version, it is "Here lies Erdrick").
- One level of the Whisperwind Cove has you speaking to the restless souls of monsters you've killed. One of them is a Gargoyle, who uses the same speech patterns given to Gargoyles in the Ultima series.
- Final Fantasy II: In the remakes, Cid's tiny airship is gobbled up by the Dreadnought in another homage to Square's favorite film, A New Hope.
- In Final Fantasy III, the ship you get from the Viking (later upgraded into an airship) is called the Enterprise. This name also appears in Final Fantasy IV as your airship from Cid. The next airship in Final Fantasy III, which doubles as a submarine, is called the Nautilus.
- Final Fantasy V:
- Bartz's mom is named Stella. So, when she collapses in his flashback, what does his father yell? That's right — "STELLLLLLLLA!!!"
- In the Advance version, one of the new jobs is Gladiator. The description of the Gladiator's !Finisher ability says:
"Powerful strike that whenever hits an enemy, attacks its weakpoint for massive damage."- The description for the Whip has a rather fitting one:
- Final Fantasy VI:
- One of Sabin's Blitzes is a Kamehame Hadouken. This would be unremarkable if it weren't for the fact that the button combination is down, down-forward, forward, A.
- His first Blitz, Pummel (Bakuretsuken), is Ryo Sakazaki's Zanretsuken, with the same controller motion.
- Sabin's final blitz, Bum Rush/Phantom Rush, is his strongest, and it's performed with a 360-degree circle (clockwise, starting with left), just like the strongest special move available to the base roster of Street Fighter II, Zangief's Spinning Piledriver.
- Final Fantasy VII: A boy in the slums pretends to be a train operator, obliviously not realizing that he's in Midgar, and it's not as clean as he'd hoped; this is an obscure reference to Akira Kurosawa's film Dodesukaden
. - Final Fantasy VII Remake: One of the nightclubs in Wall Market is called "Off-World".
- Final Fantasy X: Shelinda tells Tidus that Seymour is headed for Macalania Temple. When Tidus informs the others, he messes up the temple's name, resulting in this bizarre (and dated) conversation.Tidus: They say Seymour's headed for Macarena Temple.
Wakka: Macalania Temple.
Tidus: AYE!- Even more bizarre is the fact that that exchange happened in a game released in 2001, whereas the Macarena was popular in 1995 and 1996. That's right: the Shout Out was already dated the second it was made.
- Final Fantasy X-2:
- One boss is called King VERMIN!. His name is a jab at this over-the-top quip from Final Fantasy VII:
Barret: Y'all Shinra're the VERMIN, killing the planet! And that makes you King VERMIN! So shu'up, jackass!- Speaking of which, here's Rikku's reaction to one certain enemy.
- Final Fantasy XI: An update included a reference to Kyubey of all things, as the Tarutaru for the limit break quest to get past level 90 says "Are you ready to sign a Contractaru with me and become a magical g—er, a mightier, more majestic adventurer?" and after you finish the quest, you get the key item "soul gem".
- Final Fantasy XII:
- The most obvious ones come in the Gilgamesh fights. As you battle him, he pulls the swords of previous Final Fantasy characters out to attack you with, including the Buster Sword (which has the kanji for "Replica" spray-painted on its side), Brotherhood, and Odin's Zantetsuken. For a change of pace, he also breaks out Loto's Sword.
- Just in case it wasn't clear from the Buster Sword, every one of these swords is a fake and has a pretty obvious tell that gives it away. The Revolver has the wrong symbol and no trigger, The Orichalcum is too long, etc.
- Oh, and take note of both his fight music and that the first fight with him is a battle on a big bridge.
- The Firefly accessory drops EXP gain to 0, which gives you barely enough to scratch by with, just like its namesake.
- The most obvious ones come in the Gilgamesh fights. As you battle him, he pulls the swords of previous Final Fantasy characters out to attack you with, including the Buster Sword (which has the kanji for "Replica" spray-painted on its side), Brotherhood, and Odin's Zantetsuken. For a change of pace, he also breaks out Loto's Sword.
- Final Fantasy XIII: Near the beginning, if you poke around a bit when you get control of Hope you can listen to a refugee saying "I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me."
- Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII: One sidequest involves Lightning trying to save a failing restaurant with the assistance of famed chef Gordon Gourmet.
- Final Fantasy Tactics features two characters named Wiegraf (Wiglaf) and Beowulf, obvious references to the poem Beowulf. The two FF characters have no connection however, other than the fact that Beowulf (the FF character) is a Palette Swap of Wiegraf.
- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: The Redwings is the shout out for Final Fantasy IV's Red Wings. The Redwings' leader Grissom is a Dark Knight, but his sprite and attacks are based on a Paladin. This is a shout out to the Red Wings' leader Cecil Harvey.
- Final Fantasy Tactics A2:
- Many of the quest names are such (contrasting the first game's bland names) including "It's a Trap", "A Paw Full of Feathers", "It's a Secret to Everybody", and "Lands of Loar" (Lands of Lore).
- The "kings", five wizards with (horribly Anglicized) French names for the five colors of magic: Ruuj (red), Bliu (blue), Verre (green), Nware (black), and Blanch (white). While we're here, those are also the five colors in Magic: The Gathering, though they have different meanings there. (For starters, red magic in M:TG is what black magic is in Final Fantasy.)
- Mobius Final Fantasy is about a moody and hypercapable swordsman with a BFS who is guided by a small, mischievous fairy who banters with him, similar to Berserk.
- Final Fantasy XV: One of the rewards for completing "Episode Prompto" DLC, is Prompto's winter attire to "let the cold know it didn't bother you anyway".
