HISTORY OF FINAL FANTASY

 

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is where it all began. I’m going to talk you through all the Final Fantasy games, and the consoles they were released on, later in this article.

Square Enix, or Squaresoft as they were called back then, created the pioneer of the phenomenal Final Fantasy series back in 1987. The exact date, 18/12/1987, was an amazing day for Squaresoft, and for RPG fans, as they never knew that a whole series of about 13 brilliant, catchy, games was to follow. Even today, the two dimensional FF’s 1-6 still get played religiously, because…there just so good! The original first ever FF I release is virtually unplayable, but the re-releases enhance the origin of the series.

Just a year later, Square did the right thing in creating the second Final Fantasy game and cementing their name in the RPG world. Final Fantasy II was never released in its original version in America, but made it through remakes and compilations. It was released 364 days after FF I, on 17/12/1988. Final Fantasy II was also released on the Wander Swan Colour (WSC) in 2001. Also, FF I and FF II were released as a duo on 14/03/2003, called, Final Fantasy Origins, this was released on the Play Station 1 console. Plus, on the Game Boy Adv, Final Fantasy 1 & 2 – Dawn Of Souls, was released on 03/12/2004.

There isn’t much to say about the third game in the series apart from the fact that is was on the NES, It was released on 27/04/1990. There was never any re-makes for the Play Station.

Final Fantasy IV was a very good instalment to the FF series, and was a dawn for a new console for Square, as they started making their games to the Super Nintendo fashion, and left the NES behind. The SNES began to take over the FF series, Up until Final Fantasy VII, where Square left Nintendo for a while. FF4 has a dynamic and convoluted release history. The first release in Japan was called Final Fantasy IV (today, we often call it FF4 Hard Type). When Square was considering importing it to America, it was deemed too difficult for the younger audience, so they made an easier version. This was called Final Fantasy IV Easy Type in Japan and Final Fantasy II in North America (since FF2 and FF3 were not released in NA, this kept consistency in the American line of games). Not only were there a myriad of differences between Hard Type and Easy Type, there were differences between FF4 Easy Type and FF2 (NA). These differences were not removed completely from the code though, and could be "unlocked" during play using Game Genie codes. Later, FF4 was included in various compilation discs. FF Collection included FF4, FF5, and FF6. It was included in the European release of FF Anthology (FF4 and FF5), but not the American release (FF5 and FF6). FF4 was later included in FF Chronicles (FF4 and Chrono Trigger), only released in America. Much, much later, a Gameboy Advance. FF IV was released on, 19/07/1991

A game that I consider to be the best two-dimensional Final Fantasy was a classic addition to the Final Fantasy reputation. FF V was first released of the SNES on 12/06/1992. FF V was also apart of FF Collection, which was released on PlayStation on 11/03/1999, FF Collection included, FF IV, FF V, FF VI.

 

 

In 1993, a game apart from the series was made, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. This is the only FF without a turn based battle system. This game was released on the 10/09/1993, it was considered a kiddies FF game.

 

The last of the SNES series, Final Fantasy VI ended it with a bang. FF VI, aka FF III in North America, was released on the SNES on 02/10/1994. And hit the RPG world like a lighting bolt. There are minor differences between the Japanese and American releases. The Japanese release was a bit more difficult, had two extra screens (to rename Cyan's sword skills, and to re-assign keys); the main menu listed character classes; and two of the summons involving humanoid females, as well as a few bosses like Chadarnook and the Goddess, were covered up a bit less :P.

The SNES era of Final Fantasy came to a close, and Final Fantasy VII open up a whole new, three-dimensional world for the rpgers to discover! No Final Fantasy game left a mark like FF VII; some call it the King of Final Fantasies. It had a cool main character, frustrated and confused mercenary, and a super cool, over liked, super villain type guy called Sephiroth. FF VII was released 31/1/1997. The American version had two extra bosses - the Emerald and Ruby Weapons, an extra scene involving Cloud and Zack, plus an extra option of pressing Select to pop up icons to help with navigation. After the North American release, the game was re-released in Japan as FF7 International, with the extra stuff intact, plus an extra fourth CD with info and interviews, etc. This legendary Final Fantasy game will live on in every RPGers hearts *Takes hat off*.

Final Fantasy Tactics is a strategy RPG with many FF trademarks. Made by the people behind Ogre Battle, you control up to five characters nuking it out with a host of enemies as you traverse an extremely complicated storyline. Battle is in 4-D (3 dimensions plus time, since you can see when any action would take place in regard to everything else). 19 job classes and over 400 abilities make the game infinitely changing and challenging. Being able to have monsters on your side was a weird addition to this game. This was released just after FF VII on 20/06/1997, and carried on their 3D-ness.

As we all thought, FF VII started a 3D reaction, which caused Final Fantasy VIII to be created. It was a bit more complicated system than the last, but this wasn’t a bad game. It was released 11/02/1999, the year Manchester united won the treble, I might add ;). It had a classic storyline, a lone hero, a mysterious sorceress, a space shuttle, and a team of SeeD’s is what you meet in this Fantasy/space role-play game. The American version had two main differences, besides the changed default controller settings (a moot point): A new, very useful menu option called "Junction Exchange", and the ability to draw missed GFs from bosses in Ultimecia Castle. Several points of decision within conversations were also taken out from the American release, and the Fire Cavern time limit restrictions were changed. The PC version also came with a PocketStation emulator, to play the Chocobo World mini-game.

Final Fantasy IX!! The best final fantasy there is…ahem. This brilliant game was brought to the market on, 07/07/2000. What a glorious day that was xD. In this game Square went back the deformed character look, like FF VII, a lot of people believe they were doing odd game numbers, VII and IX, as deformed characters, and even numbers, VIII and X, as normal looking type people. We don’t know if that’s true, seems right though eh?

Final Fantasy X was the biggest step for Squaresoft there was, bigger than jumping to 3 dimensions when they made VII. You will remember that in I-IX you had to read everything they said, in X they were talking, omg, they actually talked, no more reading xD. Released 19/07/2001, this Final Fantasy game didn’t do as well as they expected in the UK, but still went platinum in time, cheep enough for me to buy it for £20 ^^.

Final Fantasy X-2 was the very first ever sequel they made to a previous FF game, and what a mistake it was. Released in 13/03/2003, it’s “Coming soon” signs were observed with great anticipation, I was let down, I don’t know how it treated you though…There was an international version of this game, which contained an extra boss, for some reason it was only released in Japan…not very “international” is it?

In another “First timer” for FF, Square made a completely online world to explore, Vana'Diel. Across our planet, people are trying to form allegiances against the evil forces engulfing the world. The games first release was in Japan on 16/5/2002, but wasn’t released in EU until 2004 :o.

This was basically the same as Tactics on PSX except it’s on the Game Boy adv. This game was released on, 14/02/2003. The American version had additional "Recommended Laws" feature not present in the Japanese version, which gave Judge Points to units that executed specific actions in battle.

Chances are that most people haven't heard of this four-part OAV (Original Animation Video) series, which made it to US shores in 1994. The story of the anime, called "Final Fantasy: Legend Of The Crystals", is based on that of FF5. However, the director of the anime is Rin Taro; the rest of the credits have nothing to do with the main FF series. My impression is that Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu had veto power for this production, but no active hand in it. Therefore, it's not technically a FF production. However, since the anime does follow the FF world fairly well, I've included it in this article. It was released in, 1994.

Squaresoft made a splash in Hollywood with its Columbia Pictures release of this completely computer-animated movie in 2001. Featuring human characters far more detailed than anything else ever done before, it takes place on Earth in the year 2065, in the aftermath of an alien invasion. The story has strong connections to FF7, but the characters and settings are all new. Release was on, 15/09/2001.

In late 2001, Squaresoft launched an anime based on the Final Fantasy world. Though without any actual ties to previous games, certain things most definitely pegged it as part of the FF world - Chocobo's, summons, music themes like Victory and Prelude, and a general feel that recalled Yoshitaka Amano, the FF illustrator, at his most mysterious. The story revolves around two children, Ai and Yu, in their travels in the hostile Inner World. There are two distinct "threads"; the early episodes follow them and their companion Lisa as they use the Inner World subway, Elizabeth, to travel from place to place looking for their parents. As the story unfolds, the later episodes feature them in the submarine, Jane, trapped in the Ocean Puzzle and completing task after task to escape. However, interspersed in the generic episodes are more story-driven ones, generally revolving around the evil Earl Tyrant, and the agendas of two mysterious and powerful enemies, Kaze and Shrio Kumo. FFU was taken off the air after only 25 episodes, leaving a lot of questions unanswered. There are no plans to make any more. The release was on the 02/10/2001.