100 Fun Facts About Final Fantasy

The first Final Fantasy debuted in 1987 on which console?

The Famicom (NES) original took until 1990 to reach North America, by which time Japan was already playing its second sequel.

Which mercenary with an oversized Buster Sword is the hero of Final Fantasy VII?

Cloud Strife inherited the Buster Sword from his dying friend Zack, who told him he would be his living legacy.

What was the first Final Fantasy's working title before trademark worries forced a change?

Fighting Fantasy was already the name of a gamebook series, so 'Final' was swapped in; the series' creator later said any title that shortened to FF would have done.

In the original Final Fantasy, the four heroes are known collectively as what?

The Warriors of Light arrive as blank slates: before the adventure starts, the player decides which four classes make up the party and is locked into that choice.

Which pink-haired former sergeant is the heroine of Final Fantasy XIII?

Lightning is a name she chose: born Claire Farron, the ex-sergeant sets out to save her sister Serah after the state declares the girl its enemy.

In which Final Fantasy game did chocobos first appear?

Final Fantasy II introduced the big yellow birds as a way to cross the map without random battles; they have turned up in nearly every game since and become the series mascot.

The Moogle's Japanese name, mōguri, is thought to blend the words for which two animals?

Bat and mole is the pairing their creator recalls: Moogles sport small bat-like wings, and the first ones, in the series' third game, were cave-dwellers guarding a wizard.

Which Final Fantasy game introduced the Active Time Battle system?

Final Fantasy IV brought it in after its designer watched a Formula One race, saw cars pass one another at different speeds and decided faster characters should get more turns.

Final Fantasy VI first reached North America in 1994 under which number?

III was the number on the box: several earlier games had never left Japan, so Square renumbered the ones it did release to hide the gaps.

Which numbered Final Fantasy has the main series' largest permanent playable cast, at fourteen?

Final Fantasy VI was written so that every character is the protagonist; after the world is ruined the cast is scattered, and the player chooses whom to gather again.

Which clown-faced villain of Final Fantasy VI starts out as the Emperor's court mage?

Kefka murders his own Emperor, seizes godlike power and actually wrecks the world, leaving the scattered heroes to regroup in its ruins.

Final Fantasy VII was originally in development for which console before Square switched to Sony?

Super Nintendo plans were shelved while the team helped finish Chrono Trigger; the game then outgrew cartridges, and Square moved it and every other project to the CD-based PlayStation.

In Final Fantasy VII, what is the processed form of the planet's Lifestream that Shinra exploits for energy called?

Mako is the planet's lifeblood in liquid form, sucked up by Shinra's reactors; left to harden, it becomes Materia, the orbs that grant magic.

Which item revives a knocked-out party member in most Final Fantasy games?

Phoenix Down is a tuft of the legendary bird's soft feathers; thrown at an undead enemy, the same reviving tuft can hurt it or kill it outright.

Sephiroth's enormous sword is named after which famous Japanese swordsmith?

Masamune, working around 1300, is widely called Japan's greatest swordsmith; old lore made Muramasa his pupil, but scholars dismiss it, since that smith's surviving blades are far too recent.

Sephiroth's powers come from being injected as a fetus with cells from which alien?

Jenova's cells made him superhuman; when Sephiroth learned how he had been created, he burned the town of Nibelheim to the ground.

In Final Fantasy VII, Aerith is revealed to be the last surviving member of which ancient race?

The Cetra could commune with the planet, and Shinra hunts Aerith in the belief that the last of them can lead it to a Promised Land brimming with energy.

Tetsuya Nomura, who once drew monsters for Final Fantasy V, went on to direct which 2005 Final Fantasy VII film?

Advent Children, a sequel to the game, was his first film as a director; he also redrew for the screen the heroes he had designed for the 1997 original.

What did Final Fantasy VIII do before any other game in the series?

To use realistic body proportions, VIII dropped the squat, big-headed figures of every earlier game; it also gave the series its first vocal theme song, Faye Wong's 'Eyes on Me'.

What is the collectible card minigame in Final Fantasy VIII called?

Triple Triad outlived its own game: it returned years later, cards and all, as an attraction of the Gold Saucer theme park in Final Fantasy XIV.

In Final Fantasy IX, the thief Zidane Tribal kidnaps which princess?

Garnet Til Alexandros XVII was no unwilling captive: she was already planning to flee the castle when Zidane's troupe of thieves turned up to snatch her.

Final Fantasy X was the first game in the series to feature what?

Voice acting changed the writing itself: with actors carrying the emotion, the scenario writer kept the plot simpler, and faces were animated to lip-sync with the speech.

In Final Fantasy X, Tidus is a star player of which fictional sport?

Blitzball is played underwater inside a huge floating sphere; Tidus is swept out of a championship match, and out of his own world, when a monster attacks the stadium.

Which numbered Final Fantasy was the first to get a direct sequel, in 2003?

X was followed by X-2, the series' first direct sequel, in which its summoner heroine returns as a sphere hunter leading an all-female cast.

Final Fantasy XI (2002) was the first MMORPG shared between Windows PCs and which console?

PlayStation 2 was where it launched: the series' creator had pushed Square to make an online game after being impressed by the western hit EverQuest.

Which subtitle did the 2013 release of Final Fantasy XIV carry?

A Realm Reborn replaced a failed 2010 original and wrote that failure into the plot: the old game ended with a caged dragon god bursting from a falling moon and laying waste to the world, which the new game then rebuilt.

In which fictional region is Final Fantasy XIV set?

Eorzea is where every player begins, in one of its rival city-states, decided by their starting class: forest Gridania, desert Ul'dah or seafaring Limsa Lominsa.

Final Fantasy XV began life in 2006 as a PlayStation 3 spin-off under what title?

Versus XIII sat in development for six years before it was promoted to a numbered game, handed to a new director and rebuilt for newer consoles.

Who are Noctis's travelling companions in Final Fantasy XV?

Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto ride with him on a road trip in the royal car, the Regalia, pitching camp at night, where Ignis cooks meals that strengthen the party.

In Final Fantasy XVI, what are the summoned monsters called that humans known as Dominants can host?

Eikons are fought as well as hosted: the hero battles each giant in turn and, once its Dominant is beaten, adds that monster's powers to his own.

Final Fantasy Tactics (1997) was the first game set in which world, later revisited in Final Fantasy XII?

Yasumi Matsuno, creator of Ogre Battle, led it; hero Ramza Beoulve is caught up in the Lion War.

Kingdom Hearts crosses Final Fantasy characters with the properties of which company?

Disney's Donald Duck and Goofy travel at the hero's side through worlds drawn from its films, while Final Fantasy characters drop in as allies and rivals.

Which creator of the Final Fantasy games directed the 2001 film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within?

Hironobu Sakaguchi's film cost $137 million and took in $85 million; the loss closed Square's film studio, and within two years he had left the company he helped build.

Who voices the heroine Aki Ross in the film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within?

Ming-Na Wen voiced a heroine built to outlast the film: Square meant Aki Ross to be a digital actress it could cast in other movies, a plan that died with the box-office loss.

Enix, which merged with Square in 2003, published which role-playing series?

Dragon Quest's publisher was, on paper, the survivor of the merger: Enix legally absorbed Square, even though Square's name comes first on the door.

Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu played keyboards in which hard rock band that reworked his game music?

The Black Mages were Square composers who recast his battle themes as hard rock; they made three albums before he wound the band up in 2010 and started a successor.

Which Uematsu piece from Final Fantasy VII reached No. 16 in Classic FM's 2012 Hall of Fame?

'Aerith's Theme' plays as its heroine is killed, yet its composer says he never had her death in mind: he wrote a sad but beautiful tune, not one designed to make players cry.

Final Fantasy artist Yoshitaka Amano also illustrated which series of vampire novels?

Vampire Hunter D's covers made his name once he went freelance, after fifteen years at the Tatsunoko studio designing characters for anime such as Gatchaman.

In Dissidia Final Fantasy, heroes from across the series are summoned to fight the armies of which god?

Chaos, the last boss of the very first game, commands the villains: the crossover brawler marked the series' twentieth anniversary by uniting the heroes of its first ten entries.

What is the subtitle of the 2024 second part of the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy?

Rebirth is the middle of three full-sized games: the makers chose a trilogy because one release would have meant cutting parts of the 1997 story.

Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020) covers only the part of the original story set in which city?

Midgar was only the opening stretch of the 1997 game; the remake grows it into a full-length adventure and opens up a city that was mostly off-limits in the original.

In Final Fantasy XII, the resistance princess Ashelia and would-be sky pirate Vaan fight which empire?

Archadia has annexed her kingdom of Dalmasca, and Ashelia leads the resistance in secret: the world has been told that the princess took her own life.

Which 2022 Final Fantasy spin-off did Square Enix make with Team Ninja?

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, a 35th-anniversary project, drops its hero Jack into the world of the 1987 original with one obsession: to kill the evil plaguing it.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was made at a studio Square built in which US state?

Hawaii housed the purpose-built studio and its render farm; Final Fantasy IX was developed in the islands as well, as a compromise for staff living in the United States.

Which recurring character name has appeared in every Final Fantasy game since the second?

Cid is a different man in every game, usually an engineer with an airship, yet he has also been a party member and even the villain.

Final Fantasy's recurring minor characters Biggs and Wedge are named after figures from which franchise?

Star Wars lent the pair their names: Biggs Darklighter and Wedge Antilles are Luke Skywalker's wingmen in the first film, and the joke has run through the series ever since.

Which recurring Final Fantasy summon is known as the King of Dragons?

Bahamut is, in most tellings of the Arabian myth, a vast sea creature that holds up the world; it was the game Dungeons & Dragons that recast the name as a king of dragons, the form the series adopted.

Which piece from Final Fantasy IV was integrated into the curriculum of Japanese schoolchildren?

Theme of Love was given a sung version for the game's 2007 remake: Square Enix held a casting call and chose the singer from about 800 applicants.

Which Final Fantasy television anime of 2001 was cut short at 25 episodes?

Final Fantasy: Unlimited was planned as 52 episodes; it was halved after the box-office failure of The Spirits Within, leaving its story unfinished.

Which designer created Final Fantasy V's Job System and VIII's Junction System?

Hiroyuki Ito also created the Active Time Battle system and went on to direct the sixth, ninth and twelfth games, having started out as a debugger on the series' earliest entries.

Which card game created by mathematician Richard Garfield got a full Final Fantasy set in 2025?

Magic: The Gathering put Final Fantasy in its Universes Beyond line, the crossover range that had already adapted The Lord of the Rings and Warhammer 40,000.

Which English indie rock band recorded a cover of Stand by Me for the soundtrack of Final Fantasy XV?

Florence and the Machine recorded the Ben E. King classic for the game and added two original songs inspired by its world, Too Much Is Never Enough and I Will Be.

Which Final Fantasy VII track, sung in Latin to words from Carmina Burana, plays in the final battle?

One-Winged Angel was the first track in the series with recorded vocals, and Nobuo Uematsu built it by stitching together short phrases he had written separately over two weeks.

Which Final Fantasy monster in a sprinting pose began as a doodle in Tetsuya Nomura's school notebook?

Cactuar has been frozen mid-dash since Final Fantasy VI, and its 1000 Needles attack usually deals exactly 1,000 points of damage however strong the target's defences are.

Which nonsense word have the Moogles of Final Fantasy added to their speech since Final Fantasy V?

Kupo gave the Moogles a sound of their own; in their earliest appearances they had been marked out by a cat-like cry instead.

Which Final Fantasy currency did Final Fantasy XII's monsters stop dropping, leaving loot to sell instead?

Gil pays for items, equipment and nights at the inn throughout the series, which is why a game that made players sell monster parts to earn it stood out.

Which name did Final Fantasy VII give the special attacks unleashed once a gauge fills from enemy hits?

Limit Break was Tetsuya Nomura's reworking of an idea from Final Fantasy VI, and he gave each hero moves that showed off their personality in battle.

In Final Fantasy XV, which car carries Prince Noctis and his friends across the kingdom of Lucis?

Regalia has to be refuelled at petrol stations along the road, and the player can either take the wheel or let the car be driven automatically.

In Final Fantasy X, which long-missing father of Tidus turns out to have become the monster Sin?

Jecht set out ten years earlier as a guardian on a summoner's pilgrimage, alongside the swordsman Auron, and became the new Sin when it was over.

American athletes won bronze at the 2004 Olympics performing to Final Fantasy VIII music in which sport?

Synchronized swimming duo Alison Bartosik and Anna Kozlova took the medal with a routine set to Liberi Fatali, the choral piece that opens the game.

In Final Fantasy VII, which eco-terrorist group led by Barret Wallace fights to topple Shinra?

Avalanche wants the company gone so that the Planet can recover, and the story opens with one of its raids on a reactor.

Which Final Fantasy VII heroine owns the 7th Heaven bar and fights hand to hand as a martial artist?

Tifa Lockhart was drawn by Tetsuya Nomura, who had trouble deciding whether she should wear a miniskirt or long trousers.

Which hero of Final Fantasy VIII got his facial scar sparring with his rival Seifer outside Balamb Garden?

Squall was given the scar by designer Tetsuya Nomura simply to make the lead stand out, and the writer Kazushige Nojima was left to explain how he came by it.

Which summoner of Final Fantasy X sets out to defeat Sin, as her late father Braska did ten years earlier?

Yuna has been watched over since childhood by Kimahri, a member of the Ronso tribe, who joins the journey as one of her guardians.

In Final Fantasy X, which high-tech home city of Tidus proves to have been destroyed a thousand years earlier?

Zanarkand survives only as a dream: late in the journey Tidus learns that he and the city he grew up in are summoned copies of the originals.

Which slow-walking Final Fantasy creature in a robe carries a lantern and a knife that is often fatal?

Tonberry was called Pug when Final Fantasy VI first reached English-speaking players on the Super Nintendo; the name players now know arrived in English with Final Fantasy VII.

Which shy young spellcaster of Final Fantasy IX learns he is a prototype built to outlast others of his kind?

Vivi Ornitier finds a hidden village of beings made like him, where he is told that most of them stop functioning after about a year.

Which heroine of Final Fantasy VI is the daughter of a human mother and a father from the magical Esper race?

Terra Branford was first imagined as a young man in his early twenties, before the half-Esper lead became an 18-year-old woman.

In Final Fantasy VII, which orbs are fitted to weapons and armour to give characters spells and summons?

Materia is the main way to customise a character in the game, and the orbs can also grant new battle commands and boosts to statistics.

In Final Fantasy VI, the ex-general Celes Chere performs in which kind of show to lure an airship's owner?

An opera was more than the console's sound chip could sing, so the aria's vocal line is a wordless synthesised tone that follows the melody.

In Final Fantasy XII, which system lets players program each ally to act in battle when set conditions are met?

Gambits were inspired by set plays in American football, where every member of the team has a specific job that depends on the situation.

Which levelling system of Final Fantasy X replaced experience points with a board of linked nodes?

Sphere Grid lets players pull characters out of their intended roles, so the party's healer can become a heavy hitter and a swordsman can become a healer.

In Final Fantasy VIII, what side effect do Guardian Forces have on the heroes raised at Edea's orphanage?

Memory loss is why the party has forgotten growing up together; only Irvine, who never used the summoned creatures, remembers it all.

In Final Fantasy XIII, which artificial world ruled by the Sanctum floats above the feared land of Pulse?

Cocoon is kept aloft by a sleeping being called Orphan, and its citizens have lived in dread of invasion from below ever since a war tore a hole in its shell.

Which hero of Final Fantasy XVI starts out as sworn guardian to his younger brother Joshua?

Clive Rosfield is the firstborn son of Rosaria's ruling family, yet he is passed over as heir in favour of the younger brother he protects.

Which director took over Final Fantasy XIV after its failed 2010 launch and later produced Final Fantasy XVI?

Naoki Yoshida, known to players as Yoshi-P, was handed both the director's and the producer's chair in December 2010; he had never been a producer before.

The Game Boy's Final Fantasy Adventure was really the first entry in which other Square series?

Mana began on the Game Boy in 1991 under the Japanese title Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden, and the same game was later sold overseas under a third name.

Which cheerful young member of SOLDIER is the hero of the prequel Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII?

Zack Fair was chosen to lead the prequel partly because players already knew how his story had to end.

Which world, said to be a playground made for the gods, is the setting of Final Fantasy XI?

Vana'diel's lore says the goddess Altana wept five tears in her grief, and that those tears gave life to its five enlightened races.

Which Chinese pop singer sang Eyes on Me, the Final Fantasy VIII ballad that won a Japan Gold Disc Award?

Faye Wong sold more than 500,000 copies of the single in Japan, and it became the first video game song ever honoured at those awards.

Which CGI film tied to Final Fantasy XV has Aaron Paul, Lena Headey and Sean Bean in its English cast?

Kingsglaive is named after the king's elite corps and runs parallel to the opening of the game, as the empire of Niflheim invades under cover of a treaty.

In Final Fantasy XV, each friend has a skill that improves with use; which one belongs to Prince Noctis?

Fishing gets better the more often the prince casts a line and the better the tackle he uses, while his friends look after the meals and the snapshots.

Which Final Fantasy re-release series rebuilt the first six games in 2D, with music overseen by Uematsu?

Pixel Remaster brought back Kazuko Shibuya, the artist behind the original sprites, to redraw them, and put the first two games on PC for the first time.

Which first expansion for Final Fantasy XIV takes players into Ishgard and its thousand-year Dragonsong War?

Heavensward has players seek asylum in the city after they are falsely accused of murder, which draws them into the effort to end the conflict.

Which recurring Final Fantasy swordsman from Final Fantasy V mistook the fake Excalipoor for Excalibur?

Gilgamesh is usually treated as the same wanderer from game to game, slipping between their worlds through the Rift in search of a rematch.

In Final Fantasy X, which distrusted people speak a language that is really a letter-substitution cipher?

Al Bhed are distrusted by the Yevon clergy because they use forbidden machina, and their speech simply swaps each letter of the script for another.

Which rabbit-like race of Final Fantasy XII counts the sky pirate's copilot Fran among its long-lived members?

Viera live so long that Fran is the oldest member of the party despite looking young, and she left her secluded forest village to see the outside world.

In Final Fantasy IX, which kingdom under the power-hungry Queen Brahne starts the war against its neighbours?

Alexandria fields an all-female army led by General Beatrix, and its queen is the adoptive mother of the princess at the heart of the story.

In Final Fantasy VII, in which mountain village does Sephiroth learn how he was created and lose his mind?

Nibelheim's destruction that night is retold in Last Order, a short animated film that was bundled with special editions of a later movie.

Which wanderer, who roams the world with his chocobo Boko, is the hero of Final Fantasy V?

Bartz is pulled into the story when he stops to investigate a fallen meteor, and later in the game he finds that his bird has acquired a mate.

Which designer of Ogre Battle directed Final Fantasy Tactics and was first put in charge of Final Fantasy XII?

Yasumi Matsuno moved to Square in 1995 and both wrote and directed the tactics game, following it with the dungeon adventure Vagrant Story.

Which translator of Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger had about thirty days to translate each script?

Ted Woolsey had to cut and reshape lines to fit cartridge space and strict content rules, and players came to call his changes Woolseyisms.

Which umbrella title ties Final Fantasy XIII to Type-0 through a shared myth of crystals and deities?

Fabula Nova Crystallis is Latin that Square Enix renders as The New Tale of the Crystal, and each game under the banner builds its own world on the common mythos.

Which Final Fantasy concert tour, created by Arnie Roth and Nobuo Uematsu, opened in Stockholm in 2007?

Distant Worlds became the longest-running concert series of the franchise's music, and an album recorded with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic was released on the day of its first show.

Which Apple II programmer coded the first three Final Fantasy games, finishing two of them from Sacramento?

Nasir Gebelli could not return to Japan once his work visa expired, so the rest of the development staff packed up their materials and equipment and followed him to California to finish the job.

Which Square designer created the chocobo and the moogle, then directed Final Fantasy Adventure?

Koichi Ishii also drew the job characters of Final Fantasy III, and he later came back to the series as the original director of the online Final Fantasy XI.

Which lead composer of Final Fantasy XIV and XVI did some of his work from hospital during cancer treatment?

Masayoshi Soken hid his chemotherapy from most of the team through 2020 and told players only at a fan festival in May 2021, once the illness was in remission.

Which highborn cadet of House Beoulve is the hero of Final Fantasy Tactics, set during the Lion War?

Ramza turns his back on the nobility together with a commoner friend after the two of them witness the murder of that friend's sister during an uprising.

Which developer directed Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII after studying filmmaking at university?

Yoshinori Kitase studied screenwriting and filmmaking at Nihon University, and the seventh game's cinematic way of telling its story is credited to his passion for film.

Which composer, known for Street Fighter II, spent a decade from 2006 writing the score of Final Fantasy XV?

Yoko Shimomura is better known for the Kingdom Hearts scores, and she wrote all but three pieces of the arcade fighter's soundtrack while working at Capcom.