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A DIIFERENT KIND OF FAIRY TALE

December 18, 1987:

Struggling game company,

Square unveiled its final
game.

Or so they thought. For

who could ever fathom that
a failing company would be
able to create one of the
greatest, if not the greatest,
RPG franchises in gaming
history: FINAL FANTASY.

With FINAL

FANTASY XV in the
works, this would seem
like the perfect time to ask,
What is Final Fantasy?
Its a video game sure, but
what is it really? What

makes it so special? I dont

know how I could even
attempt to summarize the
impact of this one game on
the industry in a few short
pages, but if I were to make
any attempt, Id have to
take you back to the very
beginning

EVERY NEW INSTALLMENT

BECAME ITS OWN EPIC
ADVENTURE, ITS OWN
ENCHANTING STORY.... ITS OWN
LEGACY

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

Back in 1983, 21 year old

university drop-out HIRONOBU
SAKAGUCHI had just entered
the video game industry
working for the Japanese
game company, Square
(this was long before their
merger with Enix in 2003,
becoming the Square-Enix
we know of today).

He

had helped develop

some interesting games,
but none of them were able
to sell very well. At the
time Square was sinking
ship and it was clear that

the company was going

under. There was no doubt
in his mind that this next
game would be his last. So
with desperation burned in
the corner of his mind,
Sakaguchi set out to create
his final masterpiece.

He called this fantasy epic,

FINAL FANTASY. An aptly title,
not only for Square itself,
but the name well was
suited for Sakaguchi on a
more personal level. In an
interview for Famitsu (a
widely-read Japanese video
game magazine) Sakaguchi
told us, The name Final
Fantasy was a display of
my feeling that if this didnt
sell, I was going to quit the

games industry and go back

to university --it was really
a final situation.

Yet,

surprising doubting
critics and pessimists, FINAL
FANTASY sold all 400,000
units. Actually, it did
extremely well. The game
did so well that Square
found its financial state
reversed. It seemed like the
rescue ship had finally
arrived.

SETTING THE TREND

Square

commissioned a
second game immediately.
However, FINAL FANTASY was
always intended to be
Sakaguchis final game. A

sequel was never even

considered. So what could
they do? Could they have
somehow find a way to
stretch out a sequel from a
finished tale? No.

Instead, Square opted to do

something that had never
been done in the industry
before. They decided to
completely abandon the
characters and world that
had changed their fortunes.
Instead, they chose to
create a completely new
world, a brand new epic.

And

so, for almost every

game after would follow,
Square did just that. Every
new installment became its

THE WORLD OF
FINAL FANTASY
While each game may be
different, they all carry
similar elements from
previous games.
For example, the story
tends to focus on a group
of unlikely heroes who
are destined (or tasked)
to defeat a great evil
threatening their world,
all while dealing with
personal issues

Game elements like the use of a variety of vehicles to travel on a

world map, random battle encounters and beautifully designed
fantasy/sci-fi like settings (as seen from above) tend to be
relatively common. At the same time, in-world elements like the
names of items and spells, like the live giving Phoenix Down or
the offensive magic spell Fire, also carry over cross-game.

But probably the most

iconic elements of all of
Final Fantasy would be
the ever-reliable bird
like Chocobo (shown
below), the cuddly
Moogles (shown on the
left) and the famous
recurring character Cid,
whose appearance and
role varies ally and
enemy depending on the
game.

own epic adventure, its own

enchanting story its own
legacy. Each title would
come to feature a new
world for players to
traverse, a diverse cast of
characters, a revamped
battle system, and of
course, the series ever
increasing lifelike graphics.
Sometimes all the changes
were so extreme it was hard
to believe that all these
games stemmed from the
same series.

After all, the only binding

thread between the titles
were the characterizing
elements of the franchise. It
was a master move really.
By transporting distinct,
characterizing elements of
the original into a whole
new dimension, Square
gave its developers the
freedom to create brilliant
games, all while
staying true to
the
identity
that is FINAL
FANTASY.

THE LEGACY
Prior

to the
release of Final
Fantasy,
the
Role-Playing
Game genre was

virtually unknown, a ghost

people knew lingered about
but
didnt
care
to
understand. And not only
did
the
game
help
popularize RPGs to the
world, Final Fantasy was a
spearhead in the innovation
of the genre.

Things

that most gamers

take for granted, like a jobclass system or the ActiveTime Battle system (ATB
for short) all began with
FINAL FANTASY. Up until the
series, never before had the
game industry seen such a
dramatic storyline. The
series tackled on themes
like technology vs. nature,
religion, war, duty vs.

morality, self-sacrifice, and

more.

But

that all changed with

this one game. No game has
ever done more to improve
the RPG genre than FINAL
FANTASY, and in my own
personal opinion, it will
continue to do so for years
and games to come.
_____________________

could spend a lifetime

trying to sum up the
uniqueness of each games
story, or trying to name all
the spin-offs and parodies
the series spawned over the
years. But unless you play
FINAL FANTASY for yourself, I
dont think I could ever
convince you how amazing
this series really is.

As luck would have it, FINAL

FANTASY XV is set for release in
early 2015. If youre
anywhere near as
excited as I am to
see Prince Noctis
Lucis Caelum
and his loyal
crew take back
his lost kingdom,
I would definitly
consider picking up
this game when it
finally makes its
debut.

References
Fahs, Travis and Sliva Marty. IGN Present the History of Final Fantasy. 18 June 2013. 13 September 2014.
PS4News. Sakaguchi discusses the development of Final Fantasy. N/A. Website. 13 September 2014.
<http://www.ps3news.com/console-news/sakaguchi-discusses-the-development-of-final-fantasy/>.
Schreier, Jason. What In The World Is Final Fantasy? A Beginner's Guide To The Biggest RPG Series On The
Planet. 7 August 2012. Website. 13 September 2014. <http://kotaku.com/5931304/what-in-theworld-is-final-fantasy-a-beginners-guide-to-the-biggest-rpg-series-on-the-planet>.
TheHonestGamer. "A History of: Final Fantasy." 24 Feb 2012. Youtube Web Series.
Wikipedia. Final Fantasy. 2 September 2014. 13 September 2014.