55 Fun Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Final Fantasy

There's a Final Fantasy III remake for the Nintendo DS, but that was not its first remake. Square originally planned to include a 2D remake of Final Fantasy III for the Japan-only Wonderswan handheld, but the version was never released because Bandai cancelled the Wonderswan platform and Square's shift of allegiance to Nintendo.

Kawazu, who was responsible for developing the battle system in the first Final Fantasy game, was inspired by the popular tabletop game, Dungeons & Dragons. The magic spells and class systems of D&D were implemented in Final Fantasy. They even ripped off some monster designs from the game like "The Sorcerer" is just like D&D's Ilithid (aka Mind Flayer).

The designers of Final Fantasy IX loaded the game with a lot of references from the older games, but the problem was that most Western players did not get the references because of the inconsistent localization.

When Aeris uses the White Materia to stop Meteor from destroying the planet to death, she's casting the standard spell Holy. Holy had been a mainstay in previous games, but Final Fantasy VII is unique in the series for not allowing you cast Holy magic in battle. But that reference was lost in translation. Nintendo of America used to be scared of religious references, so Holy ended up being renamed to Fade, Pearl, and White in the previous games, but at least they got it right in Final Fantasy VII.

If you've played Final Fantasy X and saw the ending, you'd remember that Yuna told Tidus that she loves him, but in the Japanese version, she simply just thanks him. Aw! Why Yuna?!

The first Final Fantasy was a mess, with a lot of things that didn't work. These glitches include the "Peninsula of Power" (where inappropriately powerful enemies appear on a few  tiles) to more critical problems. Some battle stats are not even applied to battle calculations, for instance.

Summoning was introduced in Final Fantasy III, and they've established the same basic summons since then (Shiva, Ifrit, Bahamut, etc.), except Final Fantasy XII, which had Zodiac beasts, creatures that were first introduced in Final Fantasy Tactics. But the airships in FFXII were named after the old summons.

The original Famicom version of Final Fantasy V was never released in North America because people thought that the game was not accessible enough for the American audience. In 1995, there were plans of releasing it as Final Fantasy Extreme for the sophisticated gamers, but it never happened. In 1997, there was another attempt to release the game for PC users, but nothing happened again. The English version wasn't released until 1999.

Final Fantasy VI fans know that the main character of the game is Terra Branford, a beautiful half-esper girl, but according to developers, they intended to make a male main character in his early 20's.

There are two recurring names in the Final Fantasy series: Wedge and Biggs. These names came from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (Wedge Antilles and Biggs Darklighter). Many believed that these names were chosen because Yoshinori Kitase, the director of several Final Fantasy games, originally wanted to become a film director. Wedge and Biggs also appear in Chrono Trigger and Kingdom Hearts II.

In 1987, Final Fantasy Creator Hironobu Sakaguchi designed a dating sim game for the Family Computer Disk System called Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School. Nobuo Uematsu also composted the music of this game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8JDvyIL90c

"The Prelude" or "Crystal Theme" is a recurring music in the Final Fantasy series. Nobuo Uematsu composed the music as a last minute piece for the original Final Fantasy, and it only took him 10 minutes to complete.

Only one character shows up as himself across multiple core numbered Final Fantasy games: Gilgamesh. Originally Exdeath's lieutenant in Final Fantasy V, Gilgamesh was sent into the extra-dimensional Void; this gave him permission to cross qFinal Fantasy worlds, where his search for a set of legendary weapons could continue. Final Fantasy VIII featured his first cameo, where he could be summoned. Since then, he appeared in a lot of Final Fantasy games, even remakes. Dissidia confirms that there's only one Gilgamesh that show up in different worlds.

Sephiroth may be the most popular villain in the whole Final Fantasy series, but among Japanese gamers, Final Fantasy II's Emperor Mateus is a close runner-up. He's a villain so ambitious he ruled Hell (and later Heaven) in order to  get revenge on the heroes.

Up until Final Fantasy VII, most FF games were mostly made for Nintendo consoles, so fans assumed the 7th core title to be released for the Nintendo 64. There was even aFinal Fantasy VI 3-D trailer that was released, and many assumed that this was  a demo for Final Fantasy VII, but it was never meant for that. Watch it here:

The Final Fantasy fighting game, Dissidia, was meant to be a spin-off of Kingdom Hearts, but Disney didn't approve of their characters fighting one another.

In the parade scene of Final Fantasy VIII, you'd see a group of dancers dancing in the style of Michael Jackson's Thriller.Watch it here:

There's also a bonus scene in Final Fantasy Spirits Within DVD showing characters dancing to the popular dance music.

Watch this Thriller video from Final Fantasy Spirits Within

Cait Sith is a recurring character in the Final Fantasy series, but the most popular one is the one from Final Fantasy VII. In Final Fantasy VI, there's an esper called Stray, and he resembles the feline from FFVII.

Edea's speech is significantly different in the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII. It's the biggest change in the script. Here's the translation from thelifestream.net:

Ultimecia:"......It reeks.Filthy fools.Since time immemorial, we witches have lived within illusion.The foolish fantasy you produced.Adorning their bodies in dreadful costumes, the witches who curse virtuous humans by means of cruel rituals.The terrible witch who burns your green fields and freezes your warm homes with ruthless magic.......Worthless.Now that the witch from the illusion is come to be seen as a friend of Galbadia, you sigh in relief?Who is dreaming fantasy after fantasy?"

President Deling:"E...Edea...Just what...?Ede......!"

::Ultimecia telekinetically lifts Deling into the air and begins killing him with her magic::

Ultimecia:"Reality is not at all gentle.That being the case, you fools!There is nothing for you but this!"

::Ultimecia telekinetically throws Deling's lifeless body::

Ultimecia:"Escape into your own fantasies!I shall continue to dance for your world of illusions!I shall dance for eternity as the witch who brings you dread!You and I.Together, we shall create the final fantasy.Within are life and death and sweet dreams.The witch travels toward the eternal illusion!The witch and Galbadia on to eternity!"]

“I have waited for this day to come. And also feared this day would come. Is today a joyous day? Or an odious day?” -Galbadia Garden: After the witch’s spell on her has been lifted

Nobuo Uematsu composed the unforgettable One Winged Angel for Final Fantasy VII, but did you know that the music was inspired by Jimi Hendrix's song Purple Haze? Here's the FFVII track performed by The Black Mages:

According to Final Fantasy VII designer Tetsuya Nomura, Cloud Strife was intiially designed to have slicked back black hair with no spikes. However, Nomura wanted Cloud to stand out more, so he altered Cloud's design to have blond and spiky hair.

In Final Fantasy VI, Sabin was  supposed to have facial hair, but it was removed from the final version. There were concept artworks showing the unshaven version of Sabin (like the one above).

In Rocket Town, there's a portrait of Final Fantasy's legendary creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. It appears on a wall in one of the houses if you know where to look!

The Tissues you win at the Gold Saucer may seem pointless, but they are actually a reference to Japanese culture where companies would give out tissues with all sorts of advertising on them.

In 1Up's interview with Final Fantasy IV's story director Takashi Tokita, he revealed where they took inspiration for the game's battle system:

"The planner [of Final Fantasy IV], Hiroyuki Itoh, who directed Final Fantasy XII, was watching a Formula One race, and he saw all the cars surpass each other. From this, we thought of an interesting idea where character speed would differ depending on the type of character it was. That's where the initial idea [for Active Time Battle] came from."

Everyone thinks of the first Final Fantasy as an NES game, despite all the ports and remakes we've seen over the years. And it was, originally. But like a lot of games of the era, it was quickly ported to the MSX/2 computer/console hybrid, where it enjoyed slightly improved music and different graphics.

Final Fantasy's most popular creature is the Chocobo. If you've seen Studio Ghibli's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, you probably felt a twinge of deja vu. The movie's Horseclaws resemble Final Fantasy's beloved birds. Chocobos first appeared in Final Fantasy II, and if you've played the game and watched the movie, you'd know that the evil Palamecian Empire sounds a little too much like Nausicaa's Torumekian Empire.

In the English NES version of the first Final Fantasy, you'd find the grave of Dragon Quest's hero, Eldrick. You can also find one in Zelda 2. That's probably becaues Nintendo America was the one who translated both Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games.

Tidus's laugh was produced with two soup cans and a piece of string. Watch that charming scene in Final Fantasy X here:

During a cutscene in Final Fantasy XIII-2, there's text hidden among some yellow lines. The text says, "Pray for Japan", which is probably a reference to the Japanese earthquake in 2011.

Art by norman-fabian-86.deviantart.com

Cloud, as in those fluffy white stuff in the sky; Celes, as in Celestial; Squall, as in a violent storm; Tidus, as in tide; Vaan, as in "vent", the French word for wind; Lightning, as in those flashes of electricity you see in the stormy sky. Do you see the trend here?

A lot of players hated the strategy guide for Final Fantasy IX. Since there was no way to connect a PlayStation game online, they made a strategy guide dependent on their new PlayOnline site. Anyone who bought a copy of the Final Fantasy IX guide was annoyed to know that the juiciest strategies and secrets weren't actually in the book; in their place was was a code that players could plug into PlayOnline in order to read the strategies on the Internet. 

Final Fantasy II did a lot of things differently. Its magic system is probably the most evident. Where other games properly use a tiered suffix system (for example, Cure/Cura/Curaga/Curaja), Final Fantasy II simply gave you spells and let you power them up through 16 tiers. There's no Curaga, merely Cure level 1.

The name "Sephiroth" is a reference to the concept of the Tree of Life, which in turn was probably inspired by the constant religious references in the Neon Genesis Evangelionanime. Eva was a huge influence on Final Fantasy VII, and the development team even paid tribute to it in the gamegame. Asuka Langley's D-Type Eva armor shows up as a background detail in the Gold Saucer amusement park.

According to Final Fantasy XIII Ultimania Omega, at one point, Vanille was considered to be the main protagonist of Final Fantasy XIII, but the idea was scrapped because the development team had already released a trailer featuring Lightning as the main heroine.

The Samurai class that debuted in Final Fantasy V has a unique skill called Coin Toss, also known as "Zeninage". This is a reference to a popular Japanese novels from the 1930s about a police in medieval Japan named Zenigata Heiji, who caught criminals by throwing money at them.

Final Fantasy teaches you a lot about classic literature. For instance, Golbez's Four Fiends in Final Fantasy IV, are based on demons called Malebranche from Dante's Inferno. You'll also see familiar names of ancient gods in Final Fantasy games like Shiva.

Cloud's Buster Sword was originally coded into Final Fantasy X, but was taken out before the game released. But you can get the Buster Sword with a hack as shown in the video here:

In Final Fantasy VI's original strategy guide, Strago and Relm are said to fight with stuffed toys. This might be another idea that was tossed around during development, but in the end was never used. The idea wasn't used until Final Fantasy X where Lulu uses stuffed toys as weapons. The idea wasn't used until Final Fantasy X, where Lulu uses stuffed toys as weapons.

In the French version of Final Fantasy IX, Zidane was renamed Djidane because of the name’s similarity to the country's famous soccer player, Zinedine Zidane.

According to Nomura, Final Fantasy XIII's Fang was initially designed as a man. Lightning was meant to be a flirtatious character with sex appeal, but her traits were transferred to Fang to give her a more serious appeal.

Final Fantasy VII's original story was set in New York City in the year 1999, and had a "detective story" with a character named "Hot-blooded Detective Joe". The early script had him chasing the characters, who would then blow up the city of Midgar.

The SNES version of Final Fantasy IV had a weird glitch called "The 64 Door Hierarchy Glitch". This is how it works: You walk up and down the stairs in the underground castle 64 times in a specific way, and it sends you to a glitch map from which you can go virtually anywhere in the game you want - even straight to the final boss. Watch deruberowner's video of the glitch here:

In Final Fantasy I, when you visit Elfheim, press A on the left most tombstone behind the inn. It will say "Here lies Link."

Xenogears started out as an early concept for Final Fantasy VII, but the concept of Xenogears was deemed 'too dark and complicated for a fantasy' so it was developed as a separate game.

Final Fantasy IV has a bunch of characters named "Edward". If you played the game, you probably know Prince Edward of Damycan, but his name in Japan was actually "Gilbert". The problem was there's already Edward Gerald of Elban.

In the middle of Final Fantasy IX, the Black Mage villagers adopt a chocobo and name him "Bobby Corwin". There was speculation that the chocobo was named for a lucky fan, but the truth is more self-referential: the first syllables of his name, Bobby Corwin, spell out "Boco". Boco was the hero's stud of a chocobo steed in Final Fantasy V. And if you had a Pocketstation device, you could play Final Fantasy VIII minigames with a chocobo named Boko. You'll also see a potential ally named Boco in Final Fantasy Tactics. Read his unique menu dialogue and Boco muses that you seem familiar. That's not a reference to the other games! Attentive players would have noticed that Boco appeared earlier in the game as an enemy at the Windmill Hut battle in Chapter One, where he was the steed of Ramza's rival Wiegraf.

"You Spoony Bard!" is one of Final Fantasy's most memorable quotes, and it appeared many times throughout the series. It originated from Final Fantasy IV, when Tellah insults Edward Chris von Muir. Since then, the line was used in other Final Fantasy games, and in popular culture.

The Final Fantasy VI scene where Celes is being tortured by the Empire was removed for the Game Boy Advance release because the original Final Fantasy VI was created before the Japanese ratings board, CERO, was created Violence is rated strictly in Japan, and Square wanted a CERO A rating for this handheld, which would have been impossible if a game depicts violence against a restrained human.

If you've played Final Fantasy VIII, you already know about Zell's obsession with hotdogs, but in the Japanese version, he loves some other food: flavored bread.

Image by zell-dincht-fans.deviantart.com