Square-Enix/Nintendo
This week marks the release of, well, not too much, so I thought instead I’d jump ahead and take inspiration from next week’s PS4 release of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and take a look at the original Final Fantasy.
Created as a last ditch effort by a company at the end of their financial rope, Final Fantasy ended up being a hugely influential smash-hit that went onto spawn the most sprawling, decadent gaming franchise ever. Here’s a few interesting facts about one of the most important JRPGs of all time…
1) The creator of Final Fantasy also popularized the Japanese dating sim. While not particularly well known on this side of the Pacific, dating sims in which the player attempts to romance various virtual ladies are a staple in Japan. These games are, at best, kind of sad and at worst just outright porn, so it may come as some surprise that the whole misbegotten genre was more-or-less spawned by Final Fantasy mastermind Hironobu Sakaguchi.
Before he made Final Fantasy Sakaguchi created all kinds of different games for Square, including Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School, a game in which you, as a high school kid, try to woo popular-at-the-time Japanese idol Miho Nakayama. The game wasn’t the first Japanese dating sim, but it was the first to feature a real-life celebrity and the first to be a mainstream hit.
Also interestingly, the game was co-produced with Nintendo itself, with Metroid co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto working on the game.
Square-Enix/Nintendo
“Push A” indeed.
2) Final Fantasy is also linked to the creation of first-person shooters. The lead programmer of Final Fantasy was Nasir Gebelli, an Iranian-American whiz programmer who created groundbreaking first-person shooters such as Horizon V and Zenith for the Apple II in the early 80s. John Romero, designer of Wolfenstein 3D and Doom has cited Gebelli as a major inspiration and influence.
3) The game originally had a more badass name. Originally Final Fantasy was going to be called Fighting Fantasy. Frankly I’m kind of shocked Square-Enix has never done a Final Fantasy fighter called Fighting Fantasy.
4) Final Fantasy really could have been the final game in the series. We’ve all seen the snarky comments — hell, we might have made a few of them ourselves.
“Final Fantasy? Lol! There’s been, like, 50 of them! When’s the ‘final’ part happening?”
Well, Final Fantasy’s name could have been much more literal. Back in 1987 Square was coming off a series of flops and was on its last legs financially. After Dragon Quest hit big in Japan in 1986, Sakaguchi convinced his bosses to let him make an RPG, but few in the company had high hopes that the game would be a success. Most assumed Final Fantasy would be Square’s final glorious gasp before going out of business. Sakaguchi also assumed it would be his final shot at being a video game writer and designer and that he’d be forced to drag his ass back to university. It was this air of finality and gloom that led Fighting Fantasy to be renamed Final Fantasy. Thankfully the original release of Final Fantasy would sell over 400,000 copies in Japan, save Square and give birth to a very ironically named series.
“Go back to college? F–k that.”
5) Final Fantasy was made with a team of just 7 people. By comparison, a decade later 120 people were needed to make Final Fantasy VII. Around a decade after that, nearly 300 people worked on Final Fantasy XII.
6) The Final Fantasy series’ most iconic melody was written in five minutes. Every version of Final Fantasy has featured some take on the song “Prelude”, a beautiful little melody that inspires instant nostalgia in anyone who’s ever touched a Final Fantasy game. Well, turns out the song was just farted out in five minutes by Final Fantasy composer Nobou Uematsu when Sakaguchi barged into the studio one day demanding one more song. Given the results, maybe Sakaguchi should have been totally unreasonable more often.
7) Cid is not in the game. As all Final Fantasy fans know, every game in the series has featured an appearance by a gruff, airship owning character named Cid. Obviously this includes the original Final Fantasy, right? Nope! The original NES version of Final Fantasy is completely Cid-less, although later versions of the game for the Playstation and GBA retconned Cid into the game’s world.
Oh, and there’s no Chocobos in the game either.
Square-Enix/Yoshitaka Amano
Never mention the fact that Cid wasn’t in the original game in front of him.
8) The game’s battle system was inspired by American football. Hiroyuki Ito, the designer of Final Fantasy’s battle system, had never played a tabletop or video game RPG in his life before working on Final Fantasy. Instead his inspiration was American football, with it’s back and forth action, two teams taking turns on offense and heavy emphasis on pre-planning. You can definitely see the football influence in Final Fantasy’s iconic side-view battles (up until Final Fantasy, most RPGs used a first-person or over-the-shoulder view for battle).
Who’s ready for a some foooootball?
9) A large portion of the game’s spells are completely useless. When you were playing through Final Fantasy as a kid, did you ever get the sense that the game didn’t quite work like it was supposed to? Well, you were exactly right! Final Fantasy may have been a groundbreaking title, but it was also a completely busted shmozz of a game. For instance, a large portion of the game’s seplls either do nothing, or worse, may do the complete opposite of what they’re supposed to do. Tmbr and Sabr are supposed to buff your party, but actually do absolutely nothing. Lock misses 100% of the time. Lok2 is supposed to decrease your enemy’s ability to evade, but it actually increases it. And these examples are just the tip of the iceberg.
10) The Intelligence stat is completely meaningless. In Final Fantasy games the “Intelligence” stat is supposed to indicate the strength of your magic power. In the original Final Fantasy it has no effect on anything. In other words, despite what the game tells you, the White, Red and Black Mages all have the exact same magical ability. A Red Mage can cure just as well as a White Mage, but don’t tell Red or White mage fans that.
11) The game contains an accidental grinding paradise. Named the Peninsula of Power by fans, this small, unremarkable chunk of land located northeast of the town of Pravoka, is accessible by ship. Due to a programming error, enemies you should only encounter once you get the airship can be fought here, allowing you to artificially pump up your party’s levels early in the game. Nearly every classic 2D Final Fantasy game had it’s own example of a Peninsula of Power.
Square-Enix
It may not look like much, but this chunk of land is your ticket to badassdom.
12) The game contains a secret puzzle game. Once you’ve got your hands on the ship, press the A and B buttons together a whopping 55 times, and you’ll unlock a little slide puzzle. You can solve the minigame as many times as you want, with 100 gil being your prize for each completion of the puzzle.
13) The game contains morbid Legend of Zelda and Dragon Quest references. Just outside the city of Elfland, you’ll find three tombstones — read the leftmost one. In most versions of the game, it reads “Here Lies Link”. Apparently Nintendo of America was initially a little touchy about Link croaking, because the original English version changed the Zelda reference to “Here Lies Erdrick” (Erdrick is a major character in the Dragon Quest series).
14) The game contains a creepy invisible woman. In the original NES version of Final Fantasy there’s a strange invisible NPC in Cornelia that you can talk to, but can’t see. For years gamers assumed that the ghost NPC was a man, until somebody figured out how to make the glitched out character reappear using a Game Genie and discovered the ghostly voice actually belonged to a woman.
15) Europe didn’t get their hands on Final Fantasy until 2003. Unbelievably Europe didn’t get to play the game that launched one of the biggest franchises of all time until the 2003 remake Final Fantasy Origins was released there. In fact, Europe didn’t get a true Final Fantasy game until Final Fantasy VII in 1997.
None of this for you Europe…
What about you folks? What are some of your favorite Final Fantasy memories and moments? Hit the comments and let me know Light Warriors.
Thanks as always to Joel Stice for lending me the Fascinating Facts format.
via 1Up here & here, Original Gamer, Nintendo Frontier, Final Fantasy Wiki & GameTrailers