Franchise: Final Fantasy

A character named Cid appears in almost every game in the Final Fantasy series.

There are two recurring names for characters; "Biggs" and "Wedge". These names come from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (Biggs Darklighter & Wedge Antilles). It's thought that the reason these character names are included is because the director of several Final Fantasy games, Yoshinori Kitase, originally wanted to become a film director after watching Star Wars. Biggs and Wedge also show up in Chrono Trigger and Kingdom Hearts II.

The recurring characters Gilgamesh and Enkidu are actually based off of the characters of the same name from The Epic of Gilgamesh, the world's oldest recorded literary work dating back to 2000 BC Sumeria. Gilgamesh himself was named after the title character and a great king of Uruk, a region in Sumeria, who reigned around 2650 BC. Final Fantasy's Gilgamesh's bombastic warrior personality is mentioned in The Epic of Gilgamesh as the other Gods hated his pompous god-like personality and his claims of being 2/3 God, 1/3 human. Gilgamesh's quest for Excalibur in Final Fantasy is similar to Gilgamesh's quest for immortality in Sumerian epic. Enkidu is also similar to his Sumerian counterpart. Enkidu's beast-like appearance in all of the Final Fantasy games he's in are reminiscent of his upbringing in The Epic of Gilgamesh. Enkidu was created as a wild beastman to match Gilgamesh's strength so he could kill him. The two became partners after the fight ended in a draw and they became best friends. This is similar to how their Final Fantasy counterparts are usually inseparable and are battle partners.

In America, the name Final Fantasy I is correct. When Final Fantasy II & III first came out, they were in fact FF IV & FF VI renamed II and III. For some strange reason they skipped FF II, FF III and FF V. It was only when FF VII came out that the series's naming was back in order.

The recurring summon, Shiva, is an inaccurate interpretation of the Hindu god of the same name. The summon is always shown to be a female ice monster, while the Hindu god is a male/androgynous god who is associated with fire.

Besides sharing a few visual similarities, the characters Axel (Kingdom Hearts) and Reno (Final Fantasy VII) share the same voice actor in multiple languages. Tetsuya Nomura did this intentionally to experiment with putting a familiar character in a new environment and role. He also stated in an interview that the two are "different people, but subconsciously alike".

Character and logo designer, Yoshitaka Amano, originally worked for the anime company Tatsunoko production, designing several of the well known and popular characters such as Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, Space Knight Tekkaman, and Neo Human Casshern.

The song "Prelude", which is in every Final Fantasy game in some form, was made in 5 minutes. Nobuo Uematsu was asked to make one more song at the last minute, and Uematsu threw something together. He's still very embarrassed by it because it still appears in the Final Fantasy games.

The recurring enemy Coeurl, the giant leopard-like creature with very long whiskers, is named after and based on a similar alien creature from the short story Black Destroyer written by A.E. Van Vogt in 1939.

According to an interview with Hiroyuki Ito, many aspects of turn based systems were inspired by professional sports; the design feature for characters to line up facing the opponent was inspired by formation setups from American football, and the ATB Gauge was inspired by Formula One Racing.

The Final Fantasy series is known for its many religious references such as churches and real-life religious symbols being in the games, as well as borrowing names of fictional/mythical creatures for enemies or summons. However, some games go much deeper, alluding to different schools of thought and/or the mysticism of various religions.
• Final Fantasy IV bases the conflict between Kain and Cecil off of the biblical story of Cain and Abel, and even alludes to it with an in-game item.
• Kefka is thought to represent the Antichrist or even Satan himself.
• Sephiroth is also thought to represent the Antichrist or Lucifer. His design is similar to a fallen angel's.
• Final Fantasy X is centered on the corruption of organized religion. It is also thought that Tidus is meant to represent Jesus.
• The concept of l'Cie is an allusion to religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism where the point of living is to reach to the afterlife, and if you don't succeed in your current life, you simply try again and again.

The Final Fantasy series' title was long rumored to stem from the idea that it would've been Square and series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi's final game if it didn't perform well. According to these claims, Square was in dire financial straits in 1987, with Sakaguchi planning to quit the gaming industry and return to university studies. These claims appeared to be further corroborated when series composer Nobuo Uematsu affirmed them in a 2009 interview with Wired, claiming that Square's financial position was the main inspiration for the Final Fantasy name.

However, Sakaguchi debunked the rumors in a 2015 keynote address. In reality, Square always intended to give the first game in the series a name whose initials were "FF," as the Japanese pronunciation, エフ・エフ ("efu efu"), was considered pleasing to the ears. The developers' initial pick was Fighting Fantasy; however, it turned out that this name was already taken by a tabletop RPG series. Consequently, the title was changed to Final Fantasy. According to Sakaguchi, while Square indeed had their "backs to the wall" during development, "anything that started with an F would have been fine for the title."

According to Yoshinori Kitase, when the series switched from 2D pixel graphics on Nintendo's platforms to 3D on the PlayStation, the developers made an intentional change in tone from medieval themes to a more modern, cyber punk-ish style to emphasize the new technology.

In the 1990's, Disney was planning on doing a four issue comic based off of the Final Fantasy series. Most of the cover work was done by Mike Mignola (creator of the Hellboy comics). Only two covers for the proposed comic were drawn. Kurt Busiek, who wrote the comic, explained a bit about working on the comic:


The comic was quietly cancelled in 1993 when Disney's Hollywood Comic studio closed its doors.

In the climax of Kingdom Hearts III, Spoiler:Donald Duck uses Zettaflare, a previously unseen spell within either Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy, powerful enough to destroy a solar system. This made Spoiler:the irritable cartoon waterfowl the most powerful mage in the Final Fantasy franchise at the time, to the humor and ire of various players.

In Final Fantasy XVI, Spoiler:Bahamut, who after Spoiler:Donald's use of Zettaflare became the former most powerful mage in the Final Fantasy series, would use Zettaflare during its battle in the game, regaining its former title.

The arcade game Dino Pop, manufactured by the South African company Amusement Warehouse, features an unlicensed rendition of the recurring Chocobo theme from the Final Fantasy series. Based on a demonstration video uploaded by the manufacturer, it's also believed that other renditions of the game use an unlicensed version of the Gold Saucer theme from Final Fantasy VII.

In 2013, Square Enix published a novella titled "Final Fantasy X-2.5 ~Eien no Daishō~" ("Price of Eternity"), to commemorate the release of the Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD remasters that year. It was written by both games' scenario writer Kazushige Nojima and never received an official English release. The only existing fan translation as of 2024 was translated from Japanese to French to English. The book was heavily criticized worldwide for its vague writing style, introducing violent and sexual elements uncommon to the Final Fantasy series, and weakening the impact of both games' endings. For context, X's plot builds up to Spoiler:a negative ending where Tidus dies and Yuna has to accept his death and move on, while X-2 turns it back around to Spoiler:a positive ending where Tidus is brought back to life. What X-2.5 does to weaken this is Spoiler:immediately kill Tidus and just as quickly resurrect him for the express purpose of setting up future stories, removing the emotional weight and finality from him being truly dead or alive.

X-2.5's plot takes place between the first ending of X-2 and its secret ending. It has two sections written from Tidus and Yuna's own perspectives and a third section with both perspectives. After reuniting, Yuna briefly leaves to address recent developments on Besaid Island. Tidus later goes sailing to look for her, falls asleep, and wakes up finding her in the boat. On their way back to Besaid, Spoiler:they get lost in a storm and are marooned on an island resembling Besaid, having transported 1000 years back in time. While there, Tidus inexplicably gets hit in the head with an object resembling a Blitzball that is actually a bomb. When he goes to pick it up, it explodes, decapitating Tidus and sending his head flying near Yuna with a surprised expression on his face. She faints and sees a vision of a god-like figure who helps her resurrect a ghostly version of Tidus through Beckoning, where someone thinks of a person they knew who died, summoning an illusion of them from the Farplane made of Pyreflies, but if the illusion learns they are not actually alive, they will fade away.

The rest of the story involves Yuna Spoiler:going back and forth from the past to present trying to keep Tidus' spirit from vanishing by interacting with new characters. These include Briar and Kush, who also turn out to be Beckoned spirits from the past and vanish at the end of the book, and Ifarnal, a summoner who tells Yuna that Tidus must kill Kush if they want to return to the present together and later gets killed by another bomb. Through the subplot with the new characters, it's established that one way to create "cores" used to summon Aeons (these Aeon Cores are said to be very similar to Faytes but have differences) is implied to be through consensual sex in two scenes. One where Yuna is transferred the knowledge on how to create them and blushes in embarrassment, and one where Briar discovers Ifarnal and a half-naked Kush in bed together. The end of the book has a small time-skip to the secret ending of X-2 and ends on a "To Be Continued" cliffhanger.

Final Fantasy X-2: Last Mission takes place after X-2.5 and was released years before, so it does not acknowledge it, but the X/X-2 HD remasters include a 30-minute audio drama continuation to both written by Nojima that was dubbed internationally and called "Final Fantasy X -Will-". The story follows summoners Chuami and Kurgum, who gradually meet the games' cast, while Yuna discovers Spoiler:that Sin is among a horde of souls being Beckoned back from the Farplane. In what seems to be an effort to prevent the still undead Tidus from sacrificing himself to kill Sin again, she breaks up with him by lying about being in love with another man, and the summoners go to fight Sin, appearing to set up the plot for a potential Final Fantasy X-III.