Final Fantasy is a media franchise owned by Square Enix that includes video games, motion pictures and other merchandise. It began in 1987 as an eponymous console role-playing game developed by Square, spawning a video game series that became the franchise's central focus.The video game franchise of Final Fantasy is the fourth-best selling as of January 2007, having sold over 70 million units worldwide, trailing Mario, Pokémon, and The Sims. The franchise later branched out into other genres and platforms, such as tactical RPGs, portable games, MMORPGs and games for mobile phones. The series also spurred the release of three animated productions and two full length CGI films.
The first installment of the series premiered in Japan on December 18, 1987, and Final Fantasy games have later been localized for markets in North America, Europe and Australia on numerous video game consoles, IBM PC compatible computers, and several different models of mobile phones. Future installments have been announced to appear on seventh generation video game consoles. Two upcoming titles for the PS3 include Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII.
As of March 2007, there are about 28 games in the franchise. This number includes installments from Final Fantasy to Final Fantasy XII, along with a few direct sequels (Final Fantasy X-2 and Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII) and numerous spin-offs
Overview
Square first entered the Japanese video game industry in the mid 1980s, developing a variety of simple RPGs, racing games, and platformers for Nintendo's Famicom Disk System (FDS), a disk-based peripheral for the Family Computer. By 1987, declining interest in the FDS had placed Square on the verge of bankruptcy. At approximately the same time, Square designer Hironobu Sakaguchi began work on an ambitious new fantasy role playing game for the cartridge-based Famicom, inspired in part by Enix's popular Dragon Quest (known as Dragon Warrior in the United States until 2005). According to unconfirmed sources, Sakaguchi had plans to retire after the completion of the project, so it was named Final Fantasy.[citation needed] Andrew Vestal, who used to run the UnOfficial SquareSoft HomePage (UOSSHP), also attributed the name to the company's hopes that the project would help with their financial woes. Final Fantasy reversed Square's lagging fortunes, and became their flagship franchise.
Following the success of the first game, Square quickly began work on a second installment. Unlike a typical sequel, Final Fantasy II featured entirely different characters, with a setting and story bearing only some thematic similarities to its predecessor. Some of the gameplay elements, such as the character advancement system, were also completely changed. This approach to future installments has continued throughout the series, with each major Final Fantasy game introducing a new world, a new cast of characters, and a new system of gameplay.
Due to the (as of 2007) 20 year time span of the game series, the games, especially older versions, are often sold at great value and maintaining a full working collection of the titles is often difficult given the wide breadth of systems. The Nintendo DS provides the means with Game Boy Advance backwards compatibility to play all six of the original 2D games (Dawn of Souls, the remakes of IV, V and VI and the DS 3D remake of III, not including spin-offs), and the PlayStation 3 offers the opportunity to play the PSone remakes of Origins (I and II), Chronicles (IV and Chrono Trigger), Anthology (V and VI), the original PSone titles (VII, VIII and IX), the PlayStation 2 titles (X, X-2, XI, XII) and the PlayStation 3 version of Final Fantasy XIII, which is currently in development. Final Fantasy III is as yet unavailable for the PlayStation series of consoles.
Common elements
Though each Final Fantasy story is independent, many themes and elements of gameplay recur throughout the series. The concept of summoning legendary creatures to aid in battle has persisted since Final Fantasy III, with Shiva, Ifrit, and Bahamut being among the common pantheon of beasts.
Some spin-off titles have cameo appearances of characters from preceding stories, but in most cases merely the names are reused, so that each game has its own unique collection of characters in totally unrelated worlds. There has been a character, either playable or background, named Cid in each game since Final Fantasy II. However, the name is the only common thread, as the actual appearance and personalities differ.
Design
Artistic design, including character and monster design work, was handled by Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano from Final Fantasy through Final Fantasy VI, as well as title logo designs for all of the main series and all of the image illustrations from Final Fantasy VII onward. Following Amano's departure, he was replaced by Tetsuya Nomura, who continued to work with the series through Final Fantasy X, with the exception of Final Fantasy IX, in which character designs was handled by Shukou Murase for the main characters and Toshiyuki Itahana and Shin Nagasawa for the sub characters. Nomura is also the character designer of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, and all three installments of the upcoming Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy XIII. In Final Fantasy XI, the characters were designed by Nobuyoshi Mihara.
Akihiko Yoshida, who served as character designer for the spinoff title Final Fantasy Tactics, as well as the Square-produced Vagrant Story, recently became more involved with the series as the character designer of Final Fantasy XII and the Final Fantasy III remake.
In October 2003, Kazushige Nojima, the series' primary scenario writer since Final Fantasy VII, resigned from Square Enix to form his own company, Stellavista. He partially or completely wrote the stories for Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy X, and Final Fantasy X-2. Square Enix continues to contract story and scenario work to Nojima and Stellavista.
Music
Final Fantasy is the first Japanese-origin video game franchise to mass market its soundtracks in the United States. The international popularity of video game music began to surge with the success of the Final Fantasy series, particularly Final Fantasy VI and later games in the series. Nobuo Uematsu was the chief music composer of the Final Fantasy series until his resignation from Square Enix in November 2004. His music has played a large part in the popularity of the Final Fantasy franchise abroad. In the 2004 Summer Olympics, the American synchronized swimming duo consisting of Alison Bartosik and Anna Kozlova were awarded the bronze medal for their performance to the song 'Liberi Fatali' from Final Fantasy VIII. Uematsu is also involved with the rock group The Black Mages, which has released two albums of arranged Final Fantasy tunes. Other composers who have contributed to the series include Masashi Hamauzu, Junya Nakano and Hitoshi Sakimoto. Hitoshi Sakimoto, Hayao Matsuo, Yuji Toriyama, and Nobuo Uematsu have composed the soundtrack of Final Fantasy XII.
There have already been two successful runs of Final Fantasy concerts in Japan as of 2004. Final Fantasy soundtracks and sheet music are also increasingly popular amongst non-Japanese Final Fantasy fans and have even been performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. On November 17, 2003, Square Enix U.S.A. launched an AOL Radio station dedicated to music from the Final Fantasy series, initially carrying complete tracks from Final Fantasy XI in addition to samplings from Final Fantasy VII through Final Fantasy X. Many video game and MIDI world wide web sites offer renditions of Final Fantasy musical pieces, and many remixes can be found.
The Dear Friends: Music From Final Fantasy concert tour was established, starting February 2005, due to the success of the first Final Fantasy concert performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall on May 10, 2004. Music from Final Fantasy was first performed outside of Japan as a part of the Symphonic Game Music Concert series in Germany. The Final Fantasy soundtracks have also joined the catalogue of the iTunes Music Store.
While the music in the games offers wide variety, there are some frequently reused themes. The games often open with a piece called Prelude, which is a simple arpeggio theme in the early games, with further melodies added in later games. The battle sequences that end in victory for the player in the first ten installments of the series would be accompanied by a victory fanfare that used the same nine-note sequence to begin the fanfare, and it has become one of the most recognized pieces of music relating to the Final Fantasy series. The fanfare was also used in the movie Final Fantasy VII Advent Children as Loz's ringtone, heard while he was in Aerith's Church fighting Tifa. Other memorable tunes include the Chocobo's theme, the Moogle's theme, and a piece originally called "Ahead On Our Way" in Final Fantasy I, which was in fact the opening theme and which is now usually played during the ending credits of the game and called "Prologue" (in many cases, this theme is also known simply as "Final Fantasy").
Notably in the character-driven Final Fantasy incarnations, a significant element in each game's musical score is the use of leitmotifs. A leitmotif, popularized by Romantic Era composer Richard Wagner, can be described as a 'theme melody' for a specific character, situation, or other entity. In nearly all Final Fantasy games, the most important characters and plot elements have their own theme music. For example, in Final Fantasy VII, the song "Anxious Heart" is generally played whenever the main character's troubled past is brought up in the storyline.
Video game music, in particular the popular tracks from the Final Fantasy series, has also found its niche in the Australian market. Hiroaki Yura founded Eminence Symphony Orchestra, which claims to be the first group outside of Japan to perform anime and video game music. Nobuo Uematsu attended one of their concerts in 2004. Similar endeavors have also been founded by the American-based organizations Play! and Video Games Live.
Graphics and technology
The cartridge generations
Final Fantasy debuted on the Nintendo Family Computer as Final Fantasy in 1987. On the main world screen, small sprite representations of the leading party members were displayed because of graphical limitations, while in battle screens, more detailed, full versions of all characters would appear in a side view perspective. In 1988 it's first sequel Final Fantasy II appeared on the Famicom in Japan only, though it was later re-released on the PlayStation and Game Boy Advance worldwide. It strayed from the traditional leveling system, instead improving abilities based on how they were used. Final Fantasy III, released in 1990 in Japan only and later remade on the Nintendo DS worldwide, would return to the classic experience system and would introduce jobs.
The same basic system was used in the next three games, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V, and Final Fantasy VI, for the Super Famicom. These games used updated graphics and effects, as well as higher quality music and sound than in previous games, but were otherwise similar to their predecessors in basic design.
The disc generations
Late in the 16-bit generation, Square showed an interactive SGI technical demonstration of Final Fantasy for the next generation. However, 1997 saw the release of Final Fantasy VII for the Sony PlayStation and not the Nintendo 64 as many had originally anticipated. This was due to a dispute with Nintendo over its use of faster and more expensive cartridges, as opposed to the slower and cheaper - though much higher capacity - compact discs used on rival systems.[citation needed] Final Fantasy VII would have required a very expensive large capacity cartridge to work on the Nintendo 64. A cartridge holding the game's three CD-ROM's worth of data and full-motion video would have been nearly impossible to market at a price that most people could afford. Instead, Final Fantasy VII was created for the PlayStation console. The characters and entire game world were now 3-dimensional, with fully pre-rendered backgrounds. However, Final Fantasy VII's FMVs often lacked consistency, with character models resembling their real-time counterparts in one scene, and then extremely detailed in the next. A version was later released for the PC.
The turn-based strategy title Final Fantasy Tactics, released shortly after Final Fantasy VII, once again used sprites for the characters. As the only real user-interaction outside of battle was menu-driven, the developers saw no need for fully 3D-rendered overhead graphics, although the battle area was in 3D. This title was also the first tactics based RPG in the series. The second was Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance.
Starting with Final Fantasy VIII, the series adopted a more photo-realistic look. Like Final Fantasy VII, some full motion video sequences would have video playing in the background, with the polygonal characters composited on top.
Final Fantasy IX returned briefly to the more stylized design of earlier games in the series. It still maintained, and in many cases slightly upgraded, most of the graphical techniques utilized in the previous two games in the series.
Final Fantasy X was released on the PlayStation 2, and made use of the much more powerful hardware to render many cutscenes in real-time, rather than in pre-rendered FMV sequences. Also, rather than having 3D models moving about in pre-rendered backgrounds, the game featured full 3D environments, giving it a much more dynamic look (though the camera was still fixed, rather than a 360 degree, freely rotating camera). It was also the first Final Fantasy game to introduce voice-acting throughout the majority of the game, even with many minor characters. This aspect added a whole new dimension of depth to the character's reactions, emotions, and development. Final Fantasy X-2 used the same game engine as Final Fantasy X, and was aesthetically very similar.
Taking a temporary divergence, Final Fantasy XI used the PlayStation 2's online capabilities as an MMORPG. Initially released for PlayStation 2 with a PC port arriving 6 months later, Final Fantasy XI was also released on the Xbox 360 nearly four years after its first release in Japan. This was the first Final Fantasy game to allow the use of a free rotating camera.
Final Fantasy XII was released between 2006 and 2007 for the PlayStation 2. The game utilizes only half as many polygons as Final Fantasy X in exchange for more advanced textures and lighting. It also retains the freely rotating camera from Final Fantasy XI.
Final Fantasy XIII was shown at E3 2006 and is slated to be the first game in the main series for PlayStation 3. A trailer was showcased at E3 2006 and showed brief moments of what ostensibly looked like real-time battles.
Dirge of Cerberus continues the storyline from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and is a Third Person Shooter released for the PlayStation 2 in 2006. Vincent is the only playable character in the game, aside from one minor level with Cait Sith. Due to the new genre of the game, the battle sequences from previous installments have been removed, and the opponents simply appear from around corners or out of doors at set points in the game.
GameplayGame screens
* Battle screens — Battles occur on a separate type of screen (or arena), usually with a change of scale and a backdrop "arena" that usually generically represents where the battle is occurring in the game. (For example, a random battle in a desert gets a desert backdrop.) Plot-relevant battles (as opposed to battling random monsters) may have a specially built battle screen/arena, however. In Final Fantasy VII and later, these screens are fully 3D, using higher resolution versions of the characters, but very restricted in size. Final Fantasy XI and XII do away with "scene-battles": battle sequences occur on the main field screen.
* Field screens — These are where the main interaction between the characters occurs, and most of the exploration of the world occurs on these screens. Dialog mostly occurs on these screens. Final Fantasy VII marked the point that Final Fantasy would have realistic computer graphics, while Dragon Warrior stayed with anime style cel-shaded graphics. Prior to Final Fantasy VII, they were pseudo-orthographic, using a simple 2D engine. Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, and Final Fantasy IX used pre-rendered and pre-painted backgrounds over which 3D models were overlaid. Final Fantasy X used a completely 3D field screen system, which allowed the camera angle to change as the characters moved about. The 3D field screen was kept for Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XII, but with a new camera system which can be adjusted by the player.
* World screen — A low-scale screen used to symbolize traveling great distances in times that would otherwise slow the game down unacceptably plot-wise. These are usually not scaled, as a character may appear the size of a small mountain. Relatively little plot occurs here, but there are exceptions. Final Fantasy X did away with this, and simply made the distances between areas smaller, often classed as areas in themselves.
* Cutscenes — These scenes are non-interactive playback that usually provide instructions for the player or advance the plot. They can either be pre-rendered video (FMV), or they can be executed in with the same engine (or a slightly modified engine to allow for more detailed expressions) as any of the three display modes above. Tutorials often manipulate the menu screen detailed below. In some cases, pre-rendered video is overlaid with real-time rendered field screen graphics (full motion video-3D).
* Menu Screen — This screen is used for navigating your party's status, equipment, magic, etc. This screen is usually a very simple blue-table layout, with a gloved hand to select one's options. In some games, the option to change the color or texture of the tables is given.
* Mini-games — The games often feature various minigames with their own graphical engines. Examples of these are the "Tetra Master" card game, featured in Final Fantasy IX, and then featured as a separate game shipped as part of the Final Fantasy XI PC game.
Battle system
The Final Fantasy series started with a simple menu-driven, turn-based battle system, but later included more real-time and semi-real-time elements as the series progressed. The series went into complete real-time in Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XII. Most games in the series utilize an experience level system for character advancement, and a point-based system for casting magical spells. Since Final Fantasy III, most games in the series feature a variety of "special commands," over and beyond the traditional "Attack," "Defend," "Cast Magic," "Item," and "Run" battle commands, such as the ability to steal items from enemies, or performing a leap attack. Often these special attacks are integrated into the "job system," which has appeared in several games in the series and spin-offs.
The first three games all featured a traditional, turn-based battle system. At the beginning of each combat round, the player chooses all of the battle commands. These commands would then be carried out, but in an order from the fastest to slowest characters. The turn-based battle systems were later replaced by the Active Time Battle starting with Final Fantasy IV, which was, in turn, replaced by the Conditional Turn-Based (CTB) system in Final Fantasy X, and then finally by Real Time Battle systems starting with Final Fantasy XI.
At E3 of 2006, Square Enix presented a short demo of Final Fantasy XIII, in which the battles had a battle menu for inputting commands at the bottom of the screen but was not well-noticed because the battles themselves appeared to be completely cinematic in nature. It also appeared that not all of the cutscenes were pre-rendered but were being real time rendered in full near-DVD quality.
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