Final Fantasy is undoubtedly one of the largest franchises in gaming history. Providing fans with an anthology of high fantasy adventures that contained convincing and fun party members, with emotionally deep stories and mesmerizing soundtracks, Final Fantasy has become a behemoth in the gaming industry and has popularized the JRPG genre along the way.
Despite the franchise’s massive popularity, there are a lot of interesting facts about the production of the games that seem to slip under the radar for most fans. These tidbits range from the peculiar to the absolutely absurd.
10 The Creator
It would be assumed that the man that created Final Fantasy would be nearly as famous as the series itself, yet this is not the case. While Hironobu Sakaguchi is far from a nobody, his name recognition pales in comparison to others with similar success, such as legendary Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima. Sakaguchi left the Square Enix in 2004 to begin his own gaming studio, Mistwalker.
9 Media Diversity
While most fans are aware that Final Fantasy dabbles in a wide range of genres, most fans are not aware of how truly diversified the franchise media portfolio is. Final Fantasy games can be found in virtually any genre, ranging from the bread and butter RPG, to racing, shooting, MMORPG and even rhythm and dance, there is a Final Fantasy game to fit the needs of virtually any demographic.
8 Major Profits
It comes as no surprise that Final Fantasy is a profitable series, after all, it wouldn’t still be having releases nearly thirty-five years later if they weren’t good for investor dividends. What is shocking however, is just exactly how profitable this franchise is. Final Fantasy is, according to Visual Capitalist, the ninth most commercially successful gaming properties of all time, making it dually a labor of love, and cash for Square Enix.
7 Settings Hit Close To Home
The respective worlds of each Final Fantasy are not just built randomly, they are meticulously planned out, and based on a wide variety of real world cultures and heritages. Everything from the architecture, weapons, outfits, languages, and even monsters take influence from the real world. A brief example would be the the region of Spira from Final Fantasy X which was heavily based on pacific Asian countries, and made this cultural influence very clear through it’s environments, characters, and different ethnic groups.
6 Influences
It’s no secret that the original Final Fantasy is a game that was inspired by the growing trend of Japanese RPGs. It’s primary influences include Dragon Quest, The Legend of Zelda, and the Ultima series. These influences can be heavily felt in the franchises earlier titles.
While Final Fantasy certainly was not the first title in the JRPG genre, it was the first one that managed to revolutionize it, and more importantly, successfully market outside of Japan.
5 A Last Ditch Effort
One of the most interesting, and inspiring facts regarding the development of the first Final Fantasy was that it was a last resort for it’s creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi had dropped out of college to work in the video game industry, which was at the time, still in it’s infancy. Before Final Fantasy Sakaguchi was not experiencing too much success, and was desperate for a breakthrough. He considered Final Fantasy his last attempt in the industry. Had it failed, he would have gone back to college; this is where the Final in the name Final Fantasy comes from.
4 Was Planned As A Standalone Title
The most prominent feature of the Final Fantasy series is its anthological nature; no two major titles in the series take place in the exact same time frame or universe. Try as fans might to create theories to interweave each title together, the only true commonality are the themes of friendship, personal growth, and overcoming a great evil.
This was not intentional; the reason the franchise chose to go in this direction was that Final Fantasy was planned as a standalone title. The team at Square was not expecting such a major success to come from the title and brushed it off. Ironically, Final Fantasy would become the publishers flagship .
3 Release Strategy
In recent years the wait period between Final Fantasy titles has only gotten shorter and shorter. The longest wait in the mainline series was between Final Fantasy XI and XII, which came out in 2002 and 2006 respectively. Square Enix however chose to change it’s business model in recent years in order to compete with other Western titles such as Assassins’ Creed which has major releases on an annual basis.
2 Design Philosophy
The Final Fantasy franchise has become infamous for its final releases being dramatically different then their initial concepts. To the point where even initial trailers and final products seem like two completely different games. The reason for this inconsistency is the design process, which has been followed in every single series title after the second release. The story is written first, then the game world, and mechanics are built around it.
1 Soundtrack
The soundtracks to Final Fantasy are ambient, inspiring, resonating, and immersive, in short, everything a video game sound track should be. The general model followed is an intro prologue song that builds the player up and prepares them for adventure, an exploration theme that encourages curiosity, and most importantly, a victory theme played after winning each encounter. While each subsequent title has had slight variations of this formula, the general gist has stayed the same. This model was created by legendary Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu. An integral piece in the very large puzzle that helped bring us the Final Fantasy franchise.
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