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Fifty-five Fun Final Fantasy Facts
Final Fantasy has a long and storied history, and if you're on this site, then chances are you know a lot of this history already. But do you know everything? Here are a handful of lesser known facts from Square's perennially popular series:
1. Final Fantasy was ported to an old computer called MSX2 in 1989. This means that the first Final Fantasy was also the first one you could play on a computer.
2. The idea of both sides lining up on each side of the screen in battle was inspired by American football.
3. And also heavily inspired by Dungeons & Dragons. (Akitoshi Kawazu specifically wanted Final Fantasy to have a more western influence.)
4. The game was originally going to be called Fighting Fantasy.
5. Sakaguchi himself did the PR for Final Fantasy, taking ROMs of the game to magazine editors in person.
6. Three of the themes that Uematsu composed for Final Fantasy II were unused (one was later used in Final Fantasy IV).
7. Even though Final Fantasy II was not officially released in America until 2002, Squaresoft had it translated into English in 1991 as a prototype.
8. Final Fantasy II was the first Final Fantasy to include named protagonists, chocobos, and Cid. It also introduced the "back row" in battle.
9. Final Fantasy II was primarily designed by Akitoshi Kawazu, best known for the SaGa series of games.
10. The first remake of Final Fantasy II was on the ill-fated handheld WonderSwan Color.
11. Final Fantasy III was one of the largest games ever released for NES - the cartridge was completely full. This is also why it took so long to be remade as a port.
12. Final Fantasy III is the first game in the series to feature auto-targeting.
13. Square was considering remaking Final Fantasy III for PlayStation 2 before being asked by Nintendo to release it for Nintendo DS instead.
14. In the Famicom release of Final Fantasy III, a little girl in Gysahl gives you Square's mailing address and encourages you to write.
15. Final Fantasy III inspired a manga that was released in 1991.
16. With Final Fantasy IV, Square wanted to create the "ultimate Final Fantasy game" which combined aspects of the three prior games.
17. Aside from being an enemy in FFIV: The After Years, Ichiro Tezuka is credited with the novelizations for the game. He was also the writer for the game Alundra.
18. The boss theme for Final Fantasy IV was remixed and used during the Culex battle in Super Mario RPG.
19. The airships Enterprise and Falcon in FFIV are homages to Star Trek's USS Enterprise and Star Wars's Millennium Falcon, respectively.
20. Final Fantasy V reworked the Active Time Battle system so for the first time in the series players could see whose turn was next.
21. In the original Japanese, Bartz's name is Butz.
22. In 1997 Square hired a company to port Final Fantasy V to Microsoft Windows, and although much of the game was eventually completed the plug was pulled on the project.
23. There are more females than males in the main cast of FFV.
24. Nobuo Uematsu recalls that during the launch party for Final Fantasy VI, Sakaguchi cried from happiness because they had made "the best game in the world".
25. The idea behind FFVI's story was that "every character is the protagonist".
26. The scene where Celes was being tortured by the Empire was removed in the GBA remake of FFVI. This was because the original game was created before the Japanese game rating board existed, but now that it did Square wanted the GBA remake to have an "A" rating.
27. Translator Ted Woolsey was given just thirty days to translate Final Fantasy VI.
28. According to the Final Fantasy VI Ultimania, Kefka was born on November 19th, is 5'4 tall, weighs 106 lb, and has the blood type AB.
29. Edea Kramer was originally designed for Final Fantasy VII.
30. Vincent and Yuffie were almost cut from FFVII due to lack of time, but were kept as secret characters.
31. In a Famitsu character popularity poll, six characters from Final Fantasy VII (Cloud, Tifa, Sephiroth, Aerith, Zack, and Yuffie) placed. That's more characters than any other one game listed.
32. Final Fantasy VII: Perfect Guide is a bonus disc exclusively bundled with Final Fantasy VII International, which was only released in Japan. It provides information, data, artwork, and alpha footage.
33. Sakaguchi's mother died during the development of Final Fantasy VII, and this is why themes of death and the idea of the Lifestream were woven into the story.
34. In FFVIII, during Ultimecia's parade in Deling City, the masked dancers are performing the dance moves from Michael Jackson's "Thriller".
35. FFVIII also has the highest number of Star Wars inspired names in any Final Fantasy so far.
36. "Liberi Fatali" was played during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens during the women's synchronized swimming event.
37. Squall was inspired by River Phoenix.
38. Final Fantasy IX is the last Final Fantasy game with music composed exclusively by Nobuo Uematsu. He says that this game was his favorite to work on.
39. Final Fantasy IX has the highest Metacritic score in the series.
40. Zidane's birthday is September, the ninth month of the year - appropriate since he is the protagonist in the ninth game in the series!
41. Tidus originally had black hair, as seen in an early beta video.
42. The development staff on FFX spent a lot of time in southeast Asia, such as Bali and Thailand, in order to get inspiration for Spira.
43. Appropriate for the tenth game in the series, there are multiple allusions to the number ten in FFX.
44. FFX was not originally going to have a sequel, but fans loved a short cutscene sequel called Final Fantasy X: Eternal Calm so much that Square decided to go ahead and make a full-fledged sequel.
45. FFXI is the most profitable Final Fantasy game of all time.
46. FFXI also has the most extensive soundtrack in the entire series - it would take over eleven hours to listen to all of it!
47. FFXII was also originally going to be an online game.
48. Final Fantasy XII is the first game in the series to get a perfect score from Famitsu Weekly magazine.
49. Vaan's original name was Aqua.
50. There is an FFXII manga which includes more details and information on the characters than were seen in the game.
51. Final Fantasy XIII was originally planned as a Playstation 2 game.
52. Over 200 people worked on FFXIII - this lead to some development issues because the game was going in many different directions.
53. At Nautilus Park, a woman standing next to a chocobo says "Welcome to Nautilus, the city of dreams". This is a reference to the quote "Welcome to Cornelia, the dream city" from the original Final Fantasy.
54. At its peak, FFXIV had more players than FFXI ever had.
55. FINAL FANTASY IS GREAT. But you already know that.
