Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy is a series of Japanese-made role-playing games created for a variety of consoles.

Just The Facts

  1. As of 2009, twelve games in the "main" series have been released on a variety of consoles, with several more currently in development.
  2. Approximately one metric fuckton of spinoff and sequel games have also been released.
  3. They made a game where Final Fantasy characters join forces with Mickey Mouse and characters from Tron, and it did really well. That is how insanely popular this franchise is.

Overview

Way back in 1987, a little company called Square was on the verge of bankruptcy. Their last hurrah was to be the aptly named Final Fantasy, a cute little role playing game about cute little warriors and wizards fighting cute little skeletons and stuff.

That game ended up being one of the most highly influential RPGs in history, and ended up sparking a franchise that has spawned a million billion games, a few poor-to-decent movies, and an entire community of people whose number one pastime is arguing over which male Final Fantasy 8 characters are most likely to bone each other.

Common Elements

The Story

Games in the Final Fantasy series are somewhat diverse, but tend to be about a band of adventurers led by an effeminate male who seek to overthrow a corrupt overlord, only to discover that the real problem is an insane time-traveling sorceress, or that the planet is leaking life energy, or something similarly left field. Then everyone goes off and fights a big epic battle in space. It's always in space.

"Roger, Houston. We should probably fly around and level first before we take on the last guy."

Cid

Pretty much every Final Fantasy game has a character named Cid. It's like a thing, okay?

Sometimes it's a playable member of your party. Usually it's the guy who gives you your airship. Once in a while it's a weird guy in a raincoat.

You should probably not go home with this man.

Modes of Transportation

A mode of conveyance is a great way to travel the overworld map in style. The end-all-be-all is typically an airship, because when you live in a steampunk fantasy universe, there's pretty much nothing more badass than rocking a zeppelin. Even if the zeppelin looks like this:

The tassels are for speed.

Up until that point, though, you're pretty much walking. And when you aren't walking...you're riding a big weird bird.

You should probably not go home with these people either.

Depending on which game you're playing, Chocobos can serve a variety of different purposes. These range from "necessary for reaching certain areas on the world map" to "integral to an annoying breeding sidequest that goddammit you are going to freaking finish if it takes all month" to "yeah they're in this game too."

Random Encounters

Traversing the world of a Final Fantasy game isn't simply a matter of walking from point A to point B. It's a matter of fending off all of the hostile rats, slimes, and anthropomorphic fireballs that hang out in small groups and have nothing better to do than ruin your day. There are quite literally an infinite number of these guys hanging out in every inch of the planet that isn't a town, just waiting to jump your shit whenever you are so bold as to take a few steps. It can get tedious at times, but it might go faster if you didn't insist on doing a victory pose every time you kill something.

Turn-Based Fighting

Slow your role, son. I don't care if that annoying weakness-shifting boss just became weak against being yelled at, you are going to wait until your active time battle meter fills up just like everyone else!

The world of Final Fantasy is evocative of the honor and chivalry of the Revolutionary War, before people realized that marching in single file and playing loud music was perhaps not the best battle strategy. On the other hand, perhaps a world where a vicious flesh-eating skeletal dragon follows up a exhalation of necrotic vapors with "okay, your turn" is just plain more civilized than we can ever aspire to.