Final Fantasy (universe)

Final Fantasy (universe)
Developer(s)	Square Enix (formerly Squaresoft)
Publisher(s)	Square Enix
Designer(s)	Hironobu Sakaguchi
Genre(s)	Role-playing
Console/platform of origin	Nintendo Entertainment System
First installment	Final Fantasy (1987)
Latest installment	Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers (2019)
Article on Wikipedia	Final Fantasy (universe)

The Final Fantasy universe (ファイナルファンタジー, Final Fantasy) refers to the Super Smash Bros. series' collection of properties from the long-running role-playing game (RPG) franchise created and owned by Square Enix (formerly Squaresoft). The single best-selling and most popular entry in the franchise is Final Fantasy VII, originally released in 1997. Likewise its protagonist, Cloud Strife, is the most recognizable main character in the mainline Final Fantasy series. This franchise, in addition to Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts, is considered to be a flagship franchise for the publisher and a pioneer of the RPG genre.

Franchise description

Logo of Final Fantasy VII.

Electrical engineering student Hironobu Sakaguchi became a part-time employee at Square shortly after it was founded as a computer game-centric division of a power line construction company named Den-Yu-Sha. He became a full-time employee as the Director of Planning and Development when Square later separated from its parent company, and had intended to create a role-playing video game modeled after the foundations of then-separate company Enix's Dragon Quest. Thematically inspired by role-playing forerunners such as Ultima, Wizardry, and Dungeons & Dragons, the game was originally intended to be titled "Fighting Fantasy", but due to trademark issues, Sakaguchi had to change it. It later received the name "Final Fantasy" because it was anticipated by the company to be its final project under the threat of bankruptcy. The outcome of the release starkly contrasted with expectations, however, as the game's December 1987 release on Nintendo's Famicom sold more than half a million copies. When Dragon Quest later met success with its North American localization as Dragon Warrior, Nintendo of America released a similarly localized version of Final Fantasy in July 1990, to modest success.

Though Dragon Quest was among the first to effect a divergence of styles in the role-playing genre that resulted in the formation of what is commonly known as the Japanese role-playing genre, Final Fantasy played a critical role in granting it its initial surge of popularity. However, the Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) style would remain relatively obscure in the public spotlight throughout many years to come, even as many new JRPG properties were introduced both within Square's efforts and outside it. Final Fantasy, under producer Sakaguchi's watchful eye, began to release a continuous succession of numbered sequels - which, in stark contrast to most other video game series, were never traditional sequels or continuations and rarely carried over characters. Much like in Fire Emblem, each of the mainstream Final Fantasy games that were developed and released are self-contained works tied tangentially by shared thematic and design similarities, such as Final Fantasy II and III for the Famicom, and for a while, only some of the games received worldwide localization; Final Fantasy IV for the Super Famicom - which introduced the "Active Time Battle" concept to the series - was released worldwide in 1991 as "Final Fantasy II", and after Final Fantasy V remained a Japan-only Super Famicom release, Final Fantasy VI was released worldwide for Super Nintendo in 1994 as "Final Fantasy III".

Besides the Final Fantasy series, Square developed and released a multitude of other RPGs for the Super NES that have cemented their success as a game developer, each with their own innovations to the genre. Three of the most prominent examples are Secret of Mana, which introduced an action-based battle system to the gameplay formula and local co-op for up to three players, Chrono Trigger which introduced time travel elements and new character designs courtesy of Akira Toriyama, and Super Mario RPG which introduced the titlular Nintendo mascot to the role-playing scene and streamlined many conventions of the genre for much greater accessibility while also introducing "timed hits" for extra benefits. All of these titles and more cemented a partnership that demonstrated a commitment to quality games while being able to expand beyond the core formula that had been tried and true with Final Fantasy.

Though Final Fantasy VI would become critically regarded in its own right as one of the greatest and most landmark JRPGs ever developed, the JRPG genre remained relatively niche in Western markets. As polygonal graphics began to take root in the industry's landscape with the release of systems like the Sony PlayStation, Sakaguchi felt that the franchise might be left behind if it did not catch up to the 3D graphics employed by their contemporaries. To test this, a 3D SGI demo using characters from Final Fantasy VI only cemented their beliefs on moving the franchise forward. But because Nintendo's then-upcoming 3D-based console, the Nintendo 64, was based on cartridges and therefore lacked the memory storage needed for the project's scope, Square felt they had no choice but to end its long-running relationship with Nintendo and develop Final Fantasy VII exclusively for the PlayStation. What resulted was the most expensive video game production of its time, with a development budget of around $45 million - equivalent to $67 million in 2015. The game's international release - which was consistently titled Final Fantasy VII despite prior installments not having been released outside Japan at the time - was preceded by a heavy marketing campaign by Sony themselves.

Final Fantasy VII received widespread critical acclaim that was nonetheless eclipsed by the game’s commercial success and impact on the games industry. Famously referred to by one publication as "quite possibly the greatest game ever made", the game - spread out across three PlayStation discs packaged together - was seen for its time as an unprecedented blend of gameplay, interactive movie elements, and character-driven narrative, the last of which included what was argued to be one of the most infamous character deaths in the medium. On the back of character designer Tetsuya Nomura's now-iconic cast, the game is viewed to have single-handedly vastly expanded the conventional global audience for the JRPG genre, and Final Fantasy itself became one of the most popular video game franchises. The extent to which the game had become a killer app for the PlayStation led the game's protagonist to become an unofficial mascot for both his series and the console as a whole. Every main-numbered Final Fantasy to follow would receive enormous amounts of attention and sales success as a direct outcome of Final Fantasy VII's own.

In terms of the scenario of the game itself, Final Fantasy VII initially focuses on the efforts of an underground group named AVALANCHE - among whom Cloud Strife is a member - as they struggle to destroy power plants operated by an electric-power mega-corporation that has become much of the planet's de facto government, Shinra, headquartered at the industrialized metropolis of Midgar. With the company having since shifted its focus to a spiritual substance called Mako so as to harvest said substance as modern society's primary source of power and fuel, Cloud and his allies operate under the belief that Shinra is siphoning the life force of the planet itself. But between his encounters with the mysterious flower girl Aerith Gainsborough and the re-emergence of an incredibly dangerous and disturbed figure from Cloud's past - the former elite soldier Sephiroth - Cloud and his allies gradually find themselves taking on a more direct and urgent role as protectors of the planet than they could have anticipated, though he must also surmount formidable psychological obstacles ingrained within his own memories.

Final Fantasy VII's setting introduced a post-industrial science-fiction element to the formerly medieval fantasy-grounded intellectual property, and the involvement of science fiction in a Final Fantasy mythos was expanded with 1999's Final Fantasy VIII. After 2000's Final Fantasy IX deliberately returned to the more traditional fantasy trappings employed in the oldest games, the series' first main-numbered appearance on the PlayStation 2 as Final Fantasy X aesthetically entrenched the series in a distinctive blend of fantasy and technology. The series had also begun to deviate from its turn-based and Active Time Battle-based roots and gradually adapt action-RPG elements in games such as 2006's Final Fantasy XII, 2010's Final Fantasy XIII, and 2016's Final Fantasy XV, as well as release two of its main-numbered games - 2002's Final Fantasy XI and another title released in 2010, Final Fantasy XIV - as MMORPGs. But while every numbered game remains a separate story and setting from the rest, several of them receive their own sequels, spin-offs, and sub-series that utilize their respective settings and casts, namely XIII, XII, X, IV, and most prominently VII. None of this is to mention a veritable deluge of remakes, reissues, offshoots, spiritually-related works, and involvement in crossovers that began after the turn of the millennium, as if spurred in response to the 2003 merger of Square and Enix into a single entity named Square Enix (which Sakaguchi had resigned from shortly prior).

Several games appeared as third-party works on Nintendo hardware as a result of renewed relations between the two publishers, such as the action-RPG The World Ends With You - which introduced an unorthodox touch-screen control system and a sense of style not previously noted in any other Square Enix release, the Bravely Default series for the Nintendo 3DS - which constitute a modernized execution of the original turn-based battle system of the earliest Final Fantasy titles, and Octopath Traveler - a Nintendo Switch game which continued the traditional turn-based combat and job system of the Bravely Default games and introduced a diorama-like “HD-2D” aesthetic. However, while these titles preserved the spirit of the Final Fantasy franchise, no new mainline entry was featured on a Nintendo system for over 20 years after Final Fantasy VI (not counting ports and remakes). This all changed in late 2018 and early 2019 when Square Enix and Nintendo announced that several core entries were being released for the Nintendo Switch, being Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX, X/X-2 HD Remaster, and XII: The Zodiac Age.

Despite the many turns that the Final Fantasy franchise has taken and the many platforms the franchise has appeared on, Final Fantasy VII stands as the franchise's most well-known and popular extension. Years after its introduction, it became the subject of a metaseries of prequels, non-traditional sequels, and other various media collectively titled the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, including a computer-graphic (CG) film titled Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. While there has yet to be a proper sequel for this particular continuity, a modernized high-definition remake of the original game was announced during Sony's E3 2015 press conference to be in development by popular demand. It is currently planned as a PlayStation 4 exclusive with multiple Blu-Ray discs worth of story content, as was similarly the case with the original PlayStation version. A real-time action combat system was implemented in lieu of the original’s turn-based system (as that was the direction where the developers believed RPGs were heading) but with the addition of a command list for additional strategy and tactics. These commands are governed by how much ATB charge that party members have, similar to how Arts are governed in the Xenoblade Chronicles games. The finalized worldwide release date for Part 1 was confirmed to be March 3rd, 2020 with planning for Part 2 currently underway. In the meantime, enhanced ports of the original version have been released on all current major platforms, including the Nintendo Switch in 2019 for the first time on a Nintendo system.

Several Final Fantasy spin-offs have appeared on Nintendo hardware as a result of these renewed relations such as the 3DS action-RPG spinoff title Final Fantasy Explorers and the ATB spinoff World of Final Fantasy, both of which feature various main-numbered Final Fantasy heroes as playable characters. Meanwhile, each of the formerly-Japan-exclusive main-numbered titles have been released to the rest of the world in some enhanced form or another. Among the more noteworthy Final Fantasy derivatives:

• Final Fantasy Tactics, released in 1998 for the PlayStation, was Square's first foray into the strategy-RPG genre and is regarded as a cult classic; it saw an enhanced re-release for the PlayStation Portable with the subtitle The War of the Lions. Separately, a duo of more colorful, unconnected titles - Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift - were released for the Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS.

• Final Fantasy Type-0 is an action-RPG that was released only in Japan for the PlayStation Portable in 2011, with an HD remaster later released worldwide early 2015 for both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles is an action-RPG that was released exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube with an emphasis on local cooperative play, and has since spawned its own metaseries with the Crystal Chronicles name, all of which have been exclusive to Nintendo hardware. An HD remaster of the first game with online multiplayer will be released in 2019.

• Dissidia Final Fantasy and its sequels, Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy and an arcade game sharing the same name as the former. The first two are PlayStation Portable titles designed around a combat system resembling a hybridized blend of the three-dimensional fighting and action-RPG genres, while the third game is oriented more to the fighting aspects rather than the RPG aspects. These games are crossovers of the various disparate continuities of the franchise, and make at least one hero and one villain from each of the main-numbered Final Fantasy continuities playable characters.

• Theatrhythm Final Fantasy and its update, Curtain Call, are Nintendo 3DS rhythm titles that similarly cross over the many universes of Final Fantasy, compiling music - both faithfully preserved and remixed - from almost every Final Fantasy title and spinoff.

• Among the many recurrent monster designs trademarked to the series is the Chocobo, a large, ratite-like bird that is often used as a mount in various Final Fantasy continuities. Square Enix uses it as a mascot for Final Fantasy as a whole, and has released a variety of more child-oriented Chocobo media based on it. There have been Chocobo-themed entries of Chunsoft's Mystery Dungeon series of rogue-like games, and similar games were later made for Pokémon.

• Kingdom Hearts is an action RPG series that was conceived as an unorthodox crossover between the general mechanics of Final Fantasy and the many universes of Disney animated films, with several Final Fantasy characters appearing as guests and cameos. The crossover was originally pitched when producer Shinji Hashimoto found himself in a chance meeting with a Disney executive in an elevator, as the two companies operated in the same building in Japan at the time. Under the direction of Tetsuya Nomura, the ongoing series has become one of the most storied and complex video game intellectual properties in its own right, featuring various Disney universes including, but not limited to, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Big Hero 6. The latest game in the franchise, Kingdom Hearts III, concludes what has been referred to as the Xehanort saga which has been building up since the first game in 2002.

In addition to his recurrent appearances in all of these works, Cloud Strife has made guest appearances in titles outside of Final Fantasy, including a PlayStation arena fighter titled Ehrgeiz: God Bless The Ring, Final Fantasy Tactics, the Kingdom Hearts series, and a small sub-series of digital board games titled Itadaki Street. To the surprise of many, Cloud was announced as a post-launch downloadable content fighter for the Nintendo crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. 4 (despite his minimal presence on Nintendo hardware up until that point), becoming a mainstay in the series ever since.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is mentioned among the titles listed in the Chronicle in Western versions of Brawl. However, no other content from the series is seen anywhere else in the game.

In Super Smash Bros. 4

The Final Fantasy franchise makes its proper debut in the Super Smash Bros. series as a DLC franchise, marking the first time a third-party company was introduced to the series via DLC. The franchise is primarily represented with Final Fantasy VII with one fighter, a stage, two music tracks, the fighter's trophies, and a Mii Fighter hat. Geno from Super Mario RPG was also simultaneously released as a Mii Fighter costume to further commemorate Nintendo's relationship with Square Enix.

Character

• 
  Cloud: Cloud Strife, the main protagonist of Final Fantasy VII, makes his debut in the Super Smash Bros. series as a downloadable newcomer in Super Smash Bros. 4. His default designs are taken from the lore of Final Fantasy VII and his attacks generate unique sound effects inspired from the original game. His attacks primarily revolve around his iconic weapon, the Buster Sword, and references to most of the Limit Breaks he acquired in his debut title. Cloud currently ranks 2nd on the Super Smash Bros. 4 tier list, owing to his high mobility, great range, moderately fast frame data, and Limit mechanic making him one of the most popular characters to have as a pocket choice. He is voiced in Japanese in all regions despite having an existing English voice actor.

Stage

• 
  Midgar: The iconic cyberpunk conurbation on the planet Gaia, of which is depicted in Super Smash Bros. 4 at the beginning of Final Fantasy VII, just after the completion of AVALANCHE's first bombing operation. One of the several Mako Reactors and the main Shinra Electric Power Company structure can be seen in the background. The layout of this stage is identical to those of Battlefield and Dream Land 64, however, there are the omnipresent Summons from the Final Fantasy series that appear as stage hazards, each with their own abilities which directly impact the stage and, likewise in the Final Fantasy series, can only be called upon by Summon Materia.

Music

• Let the Battles Begin!: The normal battle theme from Final Fantasy VII.
• Fight On!: The standard boss battle theme from Final Fantasy VII.
• Victory! Cloud: Cloud's victory theme, a remix of the battle victory theme from Final Fantasy VII. Unlike other victory themes, this theme continues to play over the match results. This is the only remixed song from this universe.

Trophies

• Cloud
• Cloud (Alt.)
• Omnislash

Mii Costume

• Chocobo Hat (DLC)

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

After being DLC in the previous installment, Final Fantasy returns as part of the base game. Unlike most returning franchises, its representation was largely unchanged during the transition with one fighter, one stage, and two music tracks. No additional music tracks or Spirits were implemented, and the Chocobo Mii Fighter hat has also been omitted.

Character

• 61.
  
  Cloud: The rebel turned hero, along with his default and Advent Children designs, returns as an unlockable fighter after being DLC in Smash 4. One notable change is that his Limit mechanic has been nerfed; he can only hold on to his maxed-out Limit Gauge for 15 seconds without using it, and whenever he is attacked while manually charging it he will lose a little bit. Apart from this and some range nerfs, he performs similarly to how he did in Smash 4. The Limit Gauge is also persistently displayed above his character portrait at all times, and he once again remains voiced in Japanese in all regions.

Stage

• 
  Midgar: the main city of Final Fantasy VII returns as a retro stage, functionally unchanged from Smash 4.

Music

There are no new arrangements or remixes from Final Fantasy.

Source Tracks

Tracks sourced directly from Final Fantasy VII.

• "Let the Battles Begin!": The normal battle theme.
• "Fight On!": The standard boss battle theme.

Victory Fanfare

• "Victory! Cloud": A remix of the victory theme from Final Fantasy VII, continues to loop, replacing the standard results screen theme. Remains unchanged from Smash 4.

Spirits

1,004. Cloud Strife 1,005. Cloud Strife (Advent Children)

Media with elements from or in the Super Smash Bros. series

Final Fantasy II

Chocobos appear as downloadable content headgear. The summon Leviathan appears on the Midgar stage.

Final Fantasy III

Odin, Ramuh, and Ifrit appear on the Midgar stage.

Final Fantasy VII

Cloud Strife appears as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate alongside Midgar, a location from Final Fantasy VII. Bahamut ZERO, which appears on the aforementioned stage, also originates from this game, along with the designs used for Odin, Leviathan, and Ramuh. Additionally, the songs Let the Battles Begin!, Fight On!, Opening - Bombing Mission and the game's version of the franchise's victory theme are used in Cloud's reveal trailer with Electric de Chocobo used in the December 2015 Super Smash Bros. Nintendo Direct.

Final Fantasy VIII

Ifrit's design used in Super Smash Bros. 4 comes from its appearance here.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance can be seen in the Nintendo Chronicle in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Cloud's outfit and Fusion Swords from this CGI movie appear as an alternate costume. A few variations of this outfit remove the large sleeve revealing his Geostigma-infected arm.

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales

The Chocobo Mii Fighter hat's design comes from this game.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy

Cloud's default costume from the original game takes cues from the design used for his default costume from this game, including the more realistic proportions, polished accessories, and loosely fastened boots.

Trivia

• Masahiro Sakurai stated that he could have included Final Fantasy characters such as Onion Knight from Final Fantasy III, Bartz Klauser from Final Fantasy V or Terra Branford from Final Fantasy VI in Super Smash Bros., but it was difficult to think of a Final Fantasy character to include in the game that was not Cloud.
• Final Fantasy, EarthBound, Persona, and Dragon Quest are the only universes without playable characters from the first installment in their series in Super Smash Bros.
• Several Final Fantasy characters representing generic classes and creatures had previously crossed over with the Mario universe in Mario Hoops 3-on-3 and Mario Sports Mix, both of which were developed by Square Enix. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars was also developed by Square Enix and references the Final Fantasy series, including an optional boss designed as an allusion to the Final Fantasy series.
• Nobuo Uematsu, who composed most of the music in the mainline Final Fantasy series also composed the main theme for Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
• Interestingly, Final Fantasy was first mentioned in Smash in the international versions of Brawl through the Chronicle, with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, before Cloud was included in Smash 4.
• Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi directed The Last Story, whose main characters Zael and Calista appear as trophies in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and as spirits in Ultimate.
• Final Fantasy is the first playable third-party universe with a game published by Nintendo worldwide, as Nintendo published Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for the Nintendo GameCube; the other two are Bayonetta and Banjo-Kazooie.
• Final Fantasy, Mega Man, Castlevania, Dragon Quest, and Banjo-Kazooie are the only third-party universes that debuted on a Nintendo system; the first four debuted on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and the last debuted on the Nintendo 64.
• Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, Dragon Quest and Banjo-Kazooie are the only third-party universes to neither be owned by Sega, nor have an installment released on a Sega console.
• Xenogears from the Xeno series began as an early concept for Square's Final Fantasy VII. The company deemed it to be "too dark and complicated for a fantasy", but its creator, Tetsuya Takahashi, was allowed to develop it as a separate project.
• Kazushige Nojima, scenario writer for many titles in the Final Fantasy series, was hired by Sakurai to help in writing the story for The Subspace Emissary.
• Final Fantasy is the only universe to introduce a new company after the initial release of Super Smash Bros. 4.
• With a record-low of three trophies, Final Fantasy has the fewest amount of trophies of all the third-party franchises in the entire series, excluding franchises exclusive to Ultimate as that game did not contain trophies.
  • It is also the only third-party series not to have a trophy of another character besides the playable representative. That said, Zack Fair and Sephiroth are mentioned across the Super Smash Bros. 4 trophies' descriptions.
    • This is also the case through spirits, as Cloud is the only representation from Final Fantasy in Ultimate.
      • Furthermore, it is also the only franchise with a representative to not use any of the home series' original artwork, instead using Cloud's own renders in Ultimate.
  • Despite most stage prop characters or objects getting trophies and the Midgar stage playing host to several Final Fantasy summons, the summons do not get trophies or spirits themselves.
  • As such, Final Fantasy has by far the lowest amount of representation of any major third-party franchise represented in the Super Smash Bros. series, for reasons never officially stated.
• Final Fantasy and Castlevania are the only universes to have M-rated games, but not to have all of their playable characters in Smash appear in one.
• The Final Fantasy universe is the only third-party and major DLC universe to not have any Assist Trophy representation in Ultimate. Additionally, only two songs appear in Ultimate, making it the 3rd-party universe with the least amount of music representation as well.

External links

• Sakurai X Nomura Interview (1/2): First Meeting and Cloud's Inclusion
• Sakurai X Nomura Interview (2/2): Cloud's "New Challenger" Artwork and Fighting Style
• Overview of Cloud and Midgar