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Final Fantasy: Difference between revisions
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While the series was fairly obscure on Western shores for a long time, its popularity exploded with the release of ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', which exposed most people to the [[Eastern RPG]] genre for the first time and is widely regarded as one of the best [[Role Playing Game|Role Playing Games]] of all time. Since then, ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' has been ''the'' premier [[Eastern RPG]] franchise in the west, held to such a regard that the English localizations are now developed concurrently with the original production.
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]].
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Games that are directly connected to the Main Series, either as sequels or [[Spin-Off|Spin Offs]].
* ''[[
* ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' Expansions and Add-Ons
{{quote|The [[Mission Pack Sequel|Mission Pack Sequels]] to ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]''.}}
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** ''[[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles My Life As a Dark Lord]]''
** ''[[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers|Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Crystal Bearers]]''
* ''[[Final Fantasy Adventure]]''
{{quote|Would later go on to become the first installment in its own series, the ''[[Mana (series)|World of Mana]]''.}}
* ''[[Final Fantasy Mystic Quest]]''
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* ''Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon''
* ''Chocobo Racing''
* ''Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon 2''
* ''Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales''
* ''Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon''
* ''Chocobo Racing 3D''
[[
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* [[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]].
** Tetsuya Nomura draws most of his characters more 'traditionally' male, but most likely they'll all be teenagers or young adults. Unless he intentionally makes them look middle-age; like Sazh, Cid Highwind, and Barret. Nomura also has a thing for zippers, belts, and ''highly'' detailed clothing to fit the more "[[Urban Fantasy]]" setting of the post-VII games. His monsters also look like [[Eldritch Abominations]], but not the kind detailed in old fae-inspired art, like a blend of organic and synthetic features, coming off as [[Ugly Cute]]. Oh yeah, he also loves black coats with hoods - the longer the coat the better.
** Akihiko Yoshida has a thing for bondage gear, tight pants on men (the tighter the better), caucasian males to fit the more European feel of the games he works on (Specifically, Ivalice Alliance), tight pants on men, and more brown-blonde hair on humans. Oh yeah, [[Rule of Three|and tight pants]].
** All of them have a thing for feathers, too.
* [[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.
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* [[Metal Slime]]: Cactaurs
* [[Mind Screw]]: Initially limited by technology, but most games ([[Final Fantasy I|FF1 included]]) had it in some capacity.
* [[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]].)
** Nevermind the [[BFS|giant swords]] and [[Last-Disc Magic|magical holocausts]], it's the [[Infinity+1 Sword|kitchen knives]] you should be [[The Dreaded|afraid of]]. You get to wield their devastating might once [[Too Awesome to Use|and only once]] in the [[Final Fantasy IV|fourth installment]]. Otherwise, avoid so much as being [[Finger-Poke of Doom|poked]] by [[Boss in Mook Clothing|one]]. This gag was mostly lost thanks to the weapon being [[Blind Idiot Translation|translated as a spoon]].
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* [[Our Dragons Are Different]]: Plenty of dragons, including Bahamut as a summon monster, usually the most powerful or second-most powerful summon of the game, especially since he deals non-elemental damage.
* [[Outside Context Villain]]: The Cloud of Darkness (III), the Lunarians (IV), Exdeath (V), Jenova (VII) and the Terrans (IX).
* [[Path of Greatest Resistance]]: If you get stuck, pick a direction and if the enemies are challenging again, you're going in the right direction again.
** Averted horribly II: in most other Final Fantasies, the sequence in which you visit towns is mainly enforced by geographical features the player cannot overcome until the right transportation is found. In II, you know you strayed from the sequence because the next random encounter killed your party in seconds.
* [[Pause Abuse]]: Many games with the "Active Time Battle" system (4 thru 9, and X-2) have an option to pause the ATB clock when a player accesses an in-battle submenu (magic, items, etc.), but any in-progress attack animations will continue to execute. As a result, the player can gain a slight speed advantage by opening the menu whenever a party member executes an action, to prevent enemy turns from coming up while the attack animation takes place.
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* [[Power Crystal]]: frequently represent the force of "light" or "life". They are sometimes sentient, but almost always [[McGuffin|drive the plot]].
* [[Ragnarok Proofing]]; You can't swing a sword in Final Fantasy games without hitting a fully functional relic of a lost civilization.
* [[Random Effect Spell]]: Numerous throughout the series.
* [[Recurring Element]]: Cid, people named Highwind, moogles, chocobos, summons such as Ifrit and Bahamut, monsters such as Bomb and Cactuar, Ultima and Omega Weapons, Gilgamesh, and crystals.
* [[The Red Mage]]: [[Trope Namer]]
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* [[Solemn Ending Theme]]
* [[Sphere of Destruction]]: The trademark design of the Ultima spell.
* [[Spinning Out of Here]]: Several of the earlier games show teleportation this way.
* [[Stock Weapon Names]], such as Excalibur, Masamune, and the series' own Ultima weapon.
* [[Summon Magic]]: Creatures that a particular class of character can invoke, and which represent most of the combat power for that character.
* [[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
* [[Theme Naming]]: A recent trend in ''Final Fantasy'' games, mainly ones <s> [[Mis Blamed|with characters designed by Nomura]]</s> written by Nojima, is having the protagonists' names related to weather or the sky.
* [[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:
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