Final Fantasy (electronic game)
Final Fantasy is a renowned series of role-playing video games that originated in Japan in 1987. The franchise began with a game titled "Final Fantasy," which quickly gained popularity and was released in the United States in 1990. Over the years, it has become the best-selling role-playing game series globally, with sales surpassing 144 million copies by 2018. The games are celebrated for their innovative graphics, cinematic soundtracks, and emotionally rich narratives, featuring common fantasy elements such as heroic quests and magical characters. Each main installment serves as a standalone adventure, showcasing unique characters, plots, and gameplay mechanics, although certain recurring elements like character names and spells can be found throughout the series. The franchise has expanded to include fifteen main games and various spin-offs and has embraced technological advancements to enhance player experiences, such as 3D graphics and voice acting. Noteworthy titles include Final Fantasy VII, which played a significant role in popularizing the series outside Japan, and the multiplayer online games Final Fantasy XI and XIV. As of 2019, the latest installment, Final Fantasy XV, continued to build on the franchise's legacy by selling over 8 million copies.
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Final Fantasy (electronic game)
Final Fantasy is a highly influential series of role-playing video games that debuted in Japan in 1987. The first game, named Final Fantasy, was extremely popular upon its release and was brought over to the United States in 1990. The series would eventually grow to become the best-selling role-playing video game franchise in history, with worldwide sales of more than 144 million as of 2018. The Final Fantasy series has earned public and critical praise for its groundbreaking visuals, cinematic music, and emotional and complex story lines. The series includes fifteen main games and several spin-offs, all of which incorporate common fantasy themes such as a heroic quest, sword-wielding warriors, and magic users. However, each of the main games is also a standalone adventure, with its own characters, plot, gameplay, and settings. These elements typically do not carry over between games, though the series does incorporate some recurring features including common names of weapons, spells, monsters, and some characters.
Background
In 1986, the Japanese software company Square was formed to develop games for Nintendo’s popular Family Computer system, or Famicom. The system had been released in the United States in 1985 as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Working for Square was college dropout Hironobu Sakaguchi who helped develop games such as 3D WorldRunner and Rad Racer. Neither title sold particularly well, and the company itself was struggling to turn a profit. Sakaguchi was also questioning his career at Square and contemplating going back to college.
Before making a decision, Sakaguchi pitched the idea of creating a role-playing game, a story-driven title inspired by the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy game series, but his bosses were reluctant. They later changed their minds after a competitor released the highly successful Dragon Quest game in 1986. Sakaguchi wanted to give his game a catchy name and chose a letter combination that could be abbreviated as “FF.” In Japanese, those letters are pronounced efu efu, which is considered a pleasing sound. Sakaguchi originally chose the title Fighting Fantasy, but soon discovered that name had already been taken by a series of adventure books. Keeping with the alliterative theme, he changed the title to Final Fantasy.
Overview
Final Fantasy embraced the typical fantasy motifs common in most role-playing games. Its plot featured a group of four heroes known as the Light Warriors who embark on a quest to defeat four elemental monsters before battling an ultimate evil enemy seeking to destroy the world. However, Sakaguchi’s effort differed in that its story was far deeper than most role-playing games, including elements of time travel and a temporal paradox. The game’s music was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, a self-taught musician who gave the basic tones produced by the software of the time a more orchestral feel. Final Fantasy was released in December 1987 and was a huge hit in Japan, selling more than six hundred thousand copies, enough to pull Square from the edge of bankruptcy. After translating the game into English and adjusting it for play on the NES, Square released Final Fantasy in the United States in 1990. It went on to sell about seven hundred thousand copies and introduced American audiences to the Japanese role-playing series.
Final Fantasy introduced many of the standard elements that would continue on throughout the series, albeit with some variations. The game featured an overworld map of grasslands, forests, mountains, and oceans that a player could traverse and explore. The overworld was dotted with towns, caves, castles, and dungeons that a player could enter. Towns were a place to rest and recover, talk to residents to uncover gameplay clues, and buy weapons, magic, and other items. On the overworld map and in the castles and dungeons, players encountered random battles in which the screen shifted into a battle mode. Here, the four Light Warriors faced off against enemies, with each character given one turn to attack followed by a turn for each enemy. When all enemies were defeated, the screen shifted back into the exploration mode; if the four characters were defeated, the game was over. However, players could save their progress in towns or on the overworld map. Final Fantasy also introduced the series’ signature theme music and travel across the overworld by airship.
Later titles in the series expanded the number of characters beyond four, allowing the player to customize his or her on-screen party. Some Final Fantasy games featured a job system, where each character could switch between roles, such as warrior, mage, thief, or monk. Each role had its own abilities and statistics. For example, a warrior could equip swords and had a higher strength attribute; a thief could steal items from enemies and evade attacks; a black mage could cast offensive magic such as fire or lightning; while a white mage could cast healing magic. In other games in the series, each character was capable of wielding any weapon and learning any magic spell.
After the success of Final Fantasy, Square released Final Fantasy II (1988) and Final Fantasy III (1990) in Japan, where both were enormously successful. FF II is notable for introducing the Chocobo, a large, yellow ostrich-like bird that can be ridden like a horse. The game also featured a character named Cid, whose name was attached to a character in every subsequent game in the series. Many of the early games were not originally released in the United States, with only Final Fantasy IV (1991) and Final Fantasy VI (1994) making the trip overseas. By the 2010s, all the early series games would be released in the United States on various platforms.
In 1997, the series moved from the early Nintendo consoles to the PlayStation and used that system’s increased capabilities to create 3D characters, higher quality music and graphics, and full-motion video. Final Fantasy VII was a groundbreaking game in both Japan and the United States, becoming the series’ bestselling title. As of 2018, FF VII had sold more than 13 million copies worldwide and spawned a spin-off title and an anticipated remake due out in 2020. Buoyed by the success of FF VII, the series grew more popular and continued to use advances in technology to create higher quality graphics and music. Final Fantasy X (2001) was the first title to incorporate voice acting and feature a direct sequel with many of the same characters; while Final Fantasy XI (2002) and Final Fantasy XIV (2010) were the first multiplayer online games. As of 2019, the last main game in the series, Final Fantasy XV, was released in 2016 and sold more than 8 million copies.
Bibliography
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Palola, Taneli. “History of Final Fantasy: The Birth of a Franchise (Final Fantasy I).” VGChartz, 4 Sept. 2016, www.vgchartz.com/article/265705/history-of-final-fantasy-the-birth-of-a-franchise-final-fantasy-i/. Accessed 12 Aug. 2019.
Parish, Jeremy. “Ranking the Numbered Final Fantasy Games.” Polygon, 19 Dec. 2017, www.polygon.com/features/2017/12/19/16793294/ranking-the-numbered-final-fantasy-games. Accessed 12 Aug. 2019.
Schreier, Jason. “What In The World Is Final Fantasy? A Beginner’s Guide to the Biggest RPG Series on the Planet.” Kotaku, 7 Aug. 2012, kotaku.com/what-in-the-world-is-final-fantasy-a-beginners-guide-t-5931304. Accessed 12 Aug. 2019.