Final Fantasy: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|"''I don't think I have what it takes to make a good action game. I think I'm better at telling a story.''"|'''Hironobu Sakaguchi''', before the creation of ''[[Final Fantasy I]]''}}

(For the first game in the series, see ''[[Final Fantasy I]]''.)

 

 

 

 

Tracking the early parts of the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series can be confusing, as only three of the first six games made it to North America, where the numbers were changed so that the US releases were consecutive numbers. ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' was released in America as ''Final Fantasy II'', while ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' was released as ''Final Fantasy III''. The confusion doesn't end there, as four games were [[Dolled-Up Installment|given the name "Final Fantasy" to increase sales]] in North America: the first three games of the ''[[Makai Toushi SaGa]]'' series (released as ''Final Fantasy Legend'' (1-3)) and the first installment in the ''[[Mana (series)|World of Mana]]'' series (released as ''Final Fantasy Adventure''). ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' broke this trend and was released as "VII" everywhere, and from that point on, every release would bear the original numbering.

 

While the series stuck firmly to a policy of one-game-per-number for a long time, in more recent times the franchise has opened up to the idea of sequels and compilations. ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' was the first to get a direct sequel, and ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' was the first to have a compilation of games set in the [[The Verse|same universe]], known as the [[Ivalice Alliance]].

 

== The ''Final Fantasy'' series consists of: ==

* ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]''

* ''[[Final Fantasy XIV]]''

 

=== Sequels & Spin-Offs ===

** ''[[Vagrant Story]]''

** ''[[Crystal Defenders]]''

* ''Compilation of [[Final Fantasy VII]]''

{{quote|A multimedia project comprised of a number of prequels and sequels to ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''.}}

* ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]''

** ''Dissidia 012 [duodecim]: Final Fantasy''

* ''[[Final Fantasy IV: The After Years]]''

* ''Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy''

{{quote|An [[Expanded Universe]] of games that share the lore of ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]''. (This collection includes ''XIII'' itself.) }}

** ''[[Final Fantasy Type-0]]''

** ''[[Final Fantasy Versus XIII]]''

** ''[[Final Fantasy XIII-2]]''

* ''Final Fantasy: All the Bravest''

 

=== Sub-Series ===

=== Chocobo Series ===

A series of [[Lighter and Softer]] spinoffs starring the series mascot Chocobo.

* ''Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales''

 

[[Chocobo's Dungeon|The Dungeon games]] are part of the franchise-spanning Mysterious Dungeon series, which are effectively simplified (well, depending on the installment) [[Roguelike|roguelikes]] with prettier graphics.

* ''Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals''

{{quote|A four episode OVA set 200 years after the events of ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'', starring the descendants of the heroes.}}

* ''[[Final Fantasy Unlimited]]''

 

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* [[Absurdly High Level Cap]]: A general rule-of-thumb is that every game can be completed at around the 50's to 70's while the cap is at 99. [[Bonus Boss]]es, on the other hand, require you to get to this cap. Exceptions to this are ''[[Final Fantasy II]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'', which don't use the traditional leveling system. ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'', despite not using a common leveling system, is a straight example since it has the Sphere Grid, which is [[Up to Eleven|ridiculously large]].

* [[An Adventurer Is You]]: A number of recurring "jobs" with [[Clothes Make the Legend|similar outfits, even in different settings]]

* [[Anyone Can Die]] (by [[Heroic Sacrifice]]): A dark [[Mythology Gag]]: earlier games had the [[Four Is Death|fourth character]] who joins the main cast as a Guest given a special slot, since [[Rule of Three|three is the maximum]] the party can handle in battle. Guests are normally removed by [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. Later games have been getting progressively darker, sometimes doing away with [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' are examples of dramatic usage of [[Anyone Can Die]]. ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''...you know where we're going with this, [[Late Arrival Spoiler|right]]?

* [[Artifact Title]]/[[Narm|Not-so-]][[Meaningful Name]]: ''[[Final Fantasy I]]'' was going to be series' creator Hironobu Sakaguchi's final game for Square if it didn't sell well, who proclaimed that his "final game" for Square would be a "fantasy RPG". The fact that it is now more than twenty years and forty-seven sequels/spin-offs later provides a slight hint as to whether or not the word "final" still, in fact, applies, although Sakaguchi is no longer involved in the series after ''[[Final Fantasy X]]''.

* [[Author Appeal|Artist Appeal]]:

** Yoshitaka Amano has a fondness for traditional Japanese watercolors. He also loves willowy males with frizzy white hair, pale skin (But that's a trend in Japanese art anyways), purple eyeliner, and blue-purple lipstick. He also loves to put spiked armour, catsuits, and capes whenever he can get away with it. His monsters also look like [[Eldritch Abominations]] that you would expect to see in art depicting the [[Fair Folk]].

* [[Attack Backfire]]: In ''[[Final Fantasy II]],'' attacking enemies with the wrong spell (eg Ice monsters with Ice magic, Undead with Drain and Osmose or [[Blob Monster]] with Poison) will actually heal the monster. In case of Drain or the Blood Swords results will be ugly.

** In fact, all ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games after the first one have a system of elemental absorb.

* [[Big Red Devil]]: The recurring summons Diabolos and Ifrit tend to be this.

* [[Bishounen]]: In the hero department, they've been present since [http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/File:Amano_Origins.jpg the first game]. As for villains, [http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/File:FF2_Emperor.jpg Emperor Mateus from the second game] paved the way for some of the most infamous and infamously beautiful villains of all time.

* [[Black Mage]]: [[Trope Namer]]

* [[Boss in Mook Clothing]]: Tonberries are the most universal to the series, although individual games have their own specific ones.

* [[Braggart Boss]]: A ridiculously over-the-top boss named "Gilgamesh", [[Epileptic Trees|who may or may not be]] [[Expy|the same person in every appearance.]]

* [[The Driver]]: Cid. Always.

* [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]]

* [[Face Heel Turn]]: A meta example with the Cids. For the first eleven games and the spin-offs that came out at the same time the Cids were aligned with your party, or at least weren't evil. Beginning with ''Final Fantasy XII'' and continued in ''XIII'' and ''Type-0'', the Cids have begun to act as antagonists, and the Cid of ''Type-0'' is actually the [[Big Bad]].

* [[Five-Man Band]]: The classes in ''I'' and ''III'', and the characters in ''IV'', ''V'', ''VI'', ''VII'', ''VIII'', ''IX'', ''X'', ''XII'', ''XIII'', ''Tactics'', ''Tactics Advance'', and ''Tactics A2''.

* [[Monster Modesty]]: The Seeq often wear just loincloths instead of pants and when they wear shirts they cover very little. Somewhat odd when compared to other races such as the Moogle, Bangaa, Garif, and Nu Mou who are fully or mostly clothed.

* [[Mythology Gag|Mythology Gags]]; roundabout references to previous games in the series, some being as subtle as special move names applied in different contexts, some as elaborate as characters being composites of those from other installments (such as [[Final Fantasy XIII|Snow]] being modeled off of [[Final Fantasy VIII|Seifer and Zell]].)

* [[Nice Hat]]: Mages have hats that correspond to their school of magic.

** Black Mages have conical straw hats resting upon their heads that covers their faces in shadows.

* [[Shock and Awe]]: Thunder, Thundara (not [[Thundercats|the planet]]), Thundaga, and a summon, usually Ramuh, but not always.

* [[Sidequest]]: Loads of them.

* [[Smash Mook]]: Particularly the Behemoths.

* [[Solemn Ending Theme]]

* [[Tech Points]]: Called "AP", and often relates to a quirky new experience and character advancement system in each game.

* [[Thematic Series]]: One of the most notable game examples. None of the numbered titles in the series are related to any of the others except by series-wide hallmarks, like the ATB battle system, Chocobos, and the names of spells. Only four of them have sequels taking place in the same continuity as the original game. There are occasionally hints that one world is related to another, like ''[[Final Fantasy X-2]]'' hinting that it's related to ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''.

* [[The Three Faces of Eve]]: All main series games since ''Final Fantasy IV'' have had exactly three female playable characters. With the exception of ''Final Fantasy XIII'' where ''two'' of the female characters fit into the second classification, each of the females in each game fits roughly into one of three categories:

** A [[Mysterious Waif]]/[[Rebellious Princess]]: Rosa, Lenna, Terra, Aerith, Rinoa, Garnet, Yuna, Ashe, Vanille

* [[Those Two Guys]]: [[Star Wars|Biggs and Wedge]], who appear in various guises in almost all of the games from ''VI'' onward (and who were retconned into ''IV'' by ''The After Years''), and die horribly about half the time.

* [[Vancian Magic]]: A magic system with a common set of spell names across the series, with several frequently reused classes of spell-casters, and quirky variations for magic advancement and availability unique to each game.

* [[The Verse]]: Each numbered sequel produces a new one (see [[Non-Linear Sequel]], above); the only established universe to get a large number of games set in it is Ivalice (FFXII and various Tactics games), and even then the links between various games is a little confusing.

** Games getting sequels has increased in recent years including Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.

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[[Category:Eastern RPG]]

[[Category:Fantasy Video Games]]

[[Category:Trope Overdosed]]

[[Category:index]]