MogKnight
09-27-2004, 10:33 AM
Written by: MogKnight</center>
Hello! Welcome to the "Everything You Need To Know About Final Fantasy" thread. This thread will hopefully shed some light to new players and old players alike. However, this thread is not intended to tell you "EVERYTHING" about Final Fantasy. Instead, this will try to clear up any questions you may have about anything related to Final Fantasy, though not really any questions about an exact one.
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Why are there bunch of Final Fantasies? When is the "Final"?
As you may know, there's a whole messload of Final Fantasy games for many systems. The popularity of Final Fantasy reaches throughout the world. To answer that question of why there isn't exactly a "Final" Fantasy yet, we would have to look back at Squaresoft's history.
Back when the NES/Famicom (sometimes refered to as the Original Nintendo) came out, Squaresoft was a company that developed games for the system. Unfortunately, most of their games did not turn a lot of heads and they were quickly going out of business. So, they made Final Fantasy, as it was a fitting name for their situation. The game was going to be their final game, going against Enix's Dragon Quest series. Luckly for Squaresoft, Final Fantasy saved them from being wiped out. They continued making more Final Fantasy games and then some.
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What is a Job?
Almost every character in the series have a job or two associated with them. A Job is basically Final Fantasy's word for "Class". Jobs are what your character is and what he does to benefit your party. One can be a Warrior and dish out damage or a White Mage who heals everyone. Most Final Fantasies either follow the Jobs strictly or freely. Final Fantasy 7 has no strict job type for anyone, you're free to change how they are like. Final Fantasy 4 have characters that are associated to a job, not allowing you to change how they play beyond a certain extent.
So, how many jobs are there? Well... a lot. Some jobs even get renamed as a new Final Fantasy comes out. Final Fantasy Tactics named White Mage and Black Mage as Priest and Wizard, respectively. This makes it somewhat hard to pinpoint an exact number because some jobs are so similar yet can be completely different.
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Playing all of the Final Fantasies
Of course with time, a lot of games will end up becoming hard to find and most people will never end up playing them. To remedy this, Square-Enix have re-released certain games on the more current systems. However, this has caused a confusion for those who do not know Final Fantasy well enough. Message boards around the Final Fantasy community have often refered to the wrong game. This isn't because they're talking about the wrong game... just that there was another game with the same name.
What do I mean? Well, some Final Fantasy games originally did not make it over to the US. So, Square decided to renumber the games that actually came here. This only happened to games before Final Fantasy 7, all games 7 and up kept their number.
What Final Fantasy am I talking about?
With Square-Enix re-releasing games, some people confused them for totally different games. Here is a list of all the main Final Fantasy games and what system and country they were originally released on
Final Fantasy 1 - Nintendo - US/JP
Final Fantasy 2 - Nintendo - JP
Final Fantasy 3 - Nintendo - JP
Final Fantasy 4 - Super Nintendo - US/JP (Was named Final Fantasy 2)
Final Fantasy 5 - Super Nintendo - JP
Final Fantasy 6 - Super Nintendo - US/JP (Was named Final Fantasy 3)
Final Fantasy 7 - Playstation - Worldwide
Final Fantasy 8 - Playstation - Worldwide
Final Fantasy 9 - Playstation - Worldwide
Final Fantasy X - Playstation 2 - Worldwide
Final Fantasy X-2 - Playstation 2 - Worldwide
Final Fantasy XI - Playstation 2/PC - Worldwide
As you can see, Two Final Fantasy 2s and Two Final Fantasy 3s.
But I don't own an old Nintendo!
Well, saying this again, Square-Enix has made re-releases and European Ports of old Final Fantasy games. Of course, Square-Enix didn't think a lot of people would want to pay 40 dollars for just one game so they decided to pack the old games into a few sets. Here is where you can find those games.
Final Fantasy Anthology (PS) - Features Final Fantasy 5 and 6
Final Fantasy Chronicles (PS) - Features Final Fantasy 4 and Chrono Trigger (not apart of the FF series but a great game)
Final Fantasy Origins (PS) - Features Final Fantasy 1 and 2
Final Fantasy I&II Advance (GBA) - Dawn of Souls - Features Final Fantasy 1 and 2
There is one game that has not been re-released or even seen in the US yet: Final Fantasy 3. Square-Enix has said that they have been putting it off a lot because with new generation systems coming out, they haven't had time to work on Final Fantasy 3.
Note that for the sake of refering to these games, try to use the original numbering system (1-6) instead of the US numbers (1-3)
Where are these old gems?!
There is always ebay but I doubt you want to spend a lot of money on the games. There is a cheaper alternative! However, I cannot be responsible for anything that happens to you if you use this method.
That being said, you can use emulators to imitate your favorite videogame system and download ROMs to play the games. This only pertains to Final Fantasy 6 and back, being in cart format and all. You will be able to play the original Final Fantasy games from your computer and not spend a dime, you don't even need that great of a computer or even a controller.
The best place to check for emulation is at www.zophar.net. However, I cannot help you how to set one up (because it's a hassle for me and explaining it again and again isn't fun for me). ROMs cannot be aquired on that site. ROMs can be hard to find because they're copyrighted material (oops, I said a scary word). I do not know of any place right now where you can download the Final Fantasy ROMs except for www.eyesonff.com.
To sum up how to play old FF games on your computer...
Get Emulator
Get Rom
Load Rom in Emulator
Play
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Hey! This Final Fantasy doesn't have a number!
Various Final Fantasy games have been released without a number. We do not include these into the main series and are thus Spinoffs of the Final Fantasy series. But, there were some games that aren't Final Fantasy games but have the name Final Fantasy on them... confused?
The games in question are the Final Fantasy Legends series and Final Fantasy Adventure.
Final Fantasy Legends
Final Fantasy Legends were released on the Gameboy. Originally in Japan however, these games were from the SaGa series. The SaGa series is fairly big in Japan and not that much of a hit in the US. This renaming was done to fish out more cash by using the Final Fantasy name. The games were originally published by Sunsoft but Square developed the game.
Final Fantasy Adventure
This game was originally Seiken Densetsu for the Gameboy. Seiken Densetsu is known as the Mana Series here. The first in the series was Final Fantasy Adventure, which was re-released on the GBA as Sword of Mana. Secret of Mana was Seiken Densetsu 2 and Seiken Densetsu 3 followed without a US release. You can pick up an unofficial English translated ROM for Seiken Densetsu 3 aroud the net. Note that it is not officially Secret of Mana 2... but people call it that anyways.
Now that we got the renamed games out of the way, time to talk about the official Final Fantasy spinoffs.
Final Fantasy Tactics Series
This is a tactical strat take on Final Fantasy. The series is strongly based on building units and jobs. Battles take place in a turn based fashion on a chestboard like stage. There are two games in this series: Final Fantasy Tactics for the Playstation and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for the Gameboy Advance.
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest
The "USA" Final Fantasy game. This was made by Square USA as an introductory RPG. This game is fairly easy and simple, many do not consider this as a "real" Final Fantasy game for these reasons. The Newbie Final Fantasy if you will. Originally released on the Super Nintendo.
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
Money seem to scare people away and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles take a lot to setup. This is a multiplayer Final Fantasy game that requires the use of Gameboy Advances to play with more than one person. The game is all about building up a character and playing with others. Recommended if you have a Gamecube with 4 friends with GBAs.
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A Movie!
Originally there was a movie company named Square Pictures. Their only movie was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and a lot of people were not pleased by it. Dispite the high costs and special effect costs of having the movie fully CGed, they could not repay the costs of actually making the film. Several big named actors voiced the characters in this film. The company ended and has put Squaresoft in the red for awhile.
And two animes!
There were two animes released based on the Final Fantasy series. One was a short 4 episode series while another was planned to be a continuing TV series but was canceled after the first season.
Final Fantasy: The Legend of the Crystals
Based 100 years after Final Fantasy 5, some kid and some girl find some crystal and the crystal gets contained in the girl's butt and then they save the world for 4 episodes.
... What, you think I'm making it up?
Final Fantasy Unlimited
I have not seen all of Final Fantasy Unlimited but I heard fans were disappointed by this series. Can't say much without watching it
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Alternate Reality, Alternate Fantasy
Because of the fan base of Final Fantasy, Square have decided to add various Final Fantasy characters in other games and even TV Ads in Japan.
A few notable games with Final Fantasy characters...
Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring
Ehrgeiz is a fighting game that combined both the work of Square and Namco. This was released in the arcade and featured 2 bonus characters: Cloud and Tifa. However, the popularity of the game was close to none, you can rarely find this game at a local arcade.
However, there was a Playstation release which included an RPG dungeon crawler. Square decided to add a few new things to this release like FMV endings and new characters. Among the new characters, Sephiroth, Yuffie, Vincent, and Zack were added. What was also great was that Vincent could be selected with his Turks suit! However, because most of the fans of Final Fantasy aren't fighting game fans themselves, Ehrgeiz didn't go that far. It is a rare find and a great thing to add in your Final Fantasy collection.
FF Characters Featured:
Cloud
Tifa
Sephiroth
Yuffie
Vincent
Zack
Kingdom Hearts
A Squaresoft game with borrowed Disney Characters. Various Final Fantasy characters appear in this game as well. While they do not have much of a relationship to their Final Fantasy alter egos, they retain the same personality. With a sequel coming out soon, more Final Fantasy characters will be added to the fray. Certainly a game worth checking out if you perfer a more active RPG rather than a turn based affair.
FF Characters Featured:
Cloud
Aeris
Squall
Yuffie
Selphie
Wakka
Tidus
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I don't remember this!
With there being quite a bit of re-releases and unofficial translations of old Final Fantasy games, sometimes names and events get mixed out or jumbled up. Here are various things that may be confusing.
Final Fantasy 4: A Harder Quest
Believe it or not, the old SNES version of Final Fantasy 4 (using the originla numbering system) had 2 versions: Original (commonly known as Hard Type) and Easy Type.
Between the game games, a lot of stat tweeks were made to make the game easier. Players have deemed the original as one of the hardest FFs in the series. When the US version came out, it took all of the stat differences from the Easy Type version. Basically, the US SNES version was the easier version of the two and was also censored. Many things that were in the Japanese version (Crude Language, Programmers Room with the Porno Mag, Spell Names) were edited or completely thrown out the window. Because of this, we now have the famous phrase from Tellah, "You Spoony Bard!"
The Playstation re-release was the original version which was a more faithful translation... but the "You Spoony Bard!" bit was kept for memorial purposes.
Final Fantasy: The Enhanced Original
Because of where we are in terms of technology today, Square decided to give Final Fantasy I (and Final Fantasy II) a make over by giving the game a huge graphical overhaul. They also decided to change a few things on the system to make it more modern friendly. The original FF game was so slow that no one would really play it nowadays.
However, some original fans were disappointed on how easy the game was and how certain things were changed to keep things more modern and balanced. These are things that a casual Final Fantasy player would not find but even then it is still a great adventure.
There is a list of many things different from both the original and the Origins re-release... and there are a tons more with the Dawn of Souls release. I've found that Dawn of Souls was the easier version of Final Fantasy I. But as for Original vs Enhanced... well, I cannot live without the run button, something that they added in the Origins release.
Final Fantasy V: Butz or Bartz?
Long before Final Fantasy Anthology was announced, Final Fantasy V was spread around the internet like wildfire. A team called RPGe (which I believe is now disbanded) decided translate Final Fantasy V. After some odd amount of years, it was completely translated and released to the public. By this time, Squaresoft announced Final Fantasy Anthology which would included Final Fantasy V officially translated by themselves.
So the question is... which had the better translation? Many people would say RPGe's translation of Final Fantasy V. I believe they have said that the choice of wording is much better compared to Square's version. I would have to admit that the Square translation wasn't exactly great. Anyways, FAQs all over the net often refer the characters by the unofficial spelling rather than the original spelling.
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The Long Forgotten Stuff of Yesteryear! - Covered by Enkidoh!
and with the magic of copy and pasting....
However, to confuse people even more, you could also mention a few of the 'aborted' or 'lost' FF games - FF games which never were released or made it beyond the drawing board. For instance:
FFIV Famicom/NES version
This made it to the beta stage apparently, however when Nintendo announced the SuperFamicom/SNES Square abandoned the project. Today, all that remains is a single screenshot, showing graphics not too disimillar to the Famicom FFIII. Interesting for the use of airship dealerships from which various types of airships could be bought and hired.
FFV/FF Extreme (US SNES version)
This was a sticking point for many long time fans of the series as to why Square skipped FFV on the SNES in the USA. Many rumours and reasons have been put forward as to FFV's US SNES no-show, from the game being claimed as 'too hard' for US players, to the old excuse of 'cartridge sizes' being insufficent for the amount English text required for the translated release. Generally, the most logical reason however is that Square's Japanese development team were just unavailable to assist with the English translation. Not that Square USA didn't valiantly try to release FFV in the US anyway, under the somewhat ludicrous title of FF Extreme, only for the plan to fall apart at the eleventh hour, and FF Extreme disappeared from existence.
FFVI FMV N64 version (trade demo)
More a curio for press and industry 'tech-heads', this was little more than a real-time CG movie of texture-mapped models of Terra, Locke, Edgar, Cyan and Shadow fighting a dragon, albeit in full 3D running on N64 hardware. It was planned as a test-bed for Square's animators to familliarise themselves with the capabilites and limitations of the N64 hardware in preperation for the seventh installment on the system, however fate had other ideas. The 'movie' was never intended to be part of an actual N64 port of FFVI though.
FFVII N64 version
Never made it beyond the initial pre-development stage, as Square discovered the cartridge format of the N64 was unsuitable for the large amount of FMV cutscenes they were planning on incorporating into the game very early in the development, which resulted in Square famously jumping ship from Nintendo to Sony. Accordingly, the planned N64 version of the game was scrapped. And history was made.
FFV and VI PC version
When Edios was hired by Square to release PC versions for FFVII and VIII, they were also given the task of converting the last two SNES titles of the series, FFV and VI to PC. However, for some strange reason, Edios later pulled the plug on the conversion, for reasons which are still unknown, although pressure from Square (who were actually rereleasing them on the Playstation instead) may have had something to do with it.
FFIII Wonderswan version
When Square converted the first two games in the series for Bandai's Japan-only handheld Wonderswan console, they also intended to release the so-called 'missing link' in the series, FFIII as well. However, owing to various reasons (technical bugs and other problems) Square ended up aborting the project and concentrated on a lacklustre port of FFIV instead. Accordingly, FFIII remains the orphan amongst the early FF games rereleased by Square on the PSX and other consoles.
There may be others I've forgotten as well, but if I can recall them I'll post them here also.
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International? Square trying to be diverse?!
Several Final Fantasy games get re-released in Japan with improvements and addons. Most of these re-releases spawn because of an addition to the NA or EU version of a game that didn't make it to the original JPN version. Thus, they dubbed these re-releases as "International". However, the International versions also have their own additions and never make it to NA or EU.
As of right now, there are 3 Final Fantasy games that were given the International treatment:
Final Fantasy VII
The JPN version lacked several WEAPON bosses (namely Ruby and Emerald)and a few materia items were blanked out. These were present in the International version and was shipped with a bonus CD containing maps, movies, stats, info, etc about Final Fantasy 7. It lists everything you would want to know about Final Fantasy 7. However, aside from the production movie and the pre-production art, you can really just grab these from a Strat Guide.
Final Fantasy X
There were not a lot of things added in the NA version that made it different from the JP version, aside from a few bugs and glitches. The International version featured a lot of changes, the most notable one would be the Dark Aeons. NA players would never see the light of the Dark Aeons BUT the EU players lucked out and had the International Upgrades. The International version also allows you to change the text to either English or Japanese, the voices are all in English however.
Final Fantasy X-2
This pretty much takes the cake on upgrades, there is so much that you can just consider this as another Final Fantasy game. Along with 2 new Dresspheres, a monster arena, a monster raising deal, and new monsters and bosses to kill (Tidus/Auron/Seymour being a few that you can fight), there was a whole new game added to it. This new game, dubbed "Last Mission", plays very differently from Final Fantasy X-2. While I do not know the full details about it, it turns out to explain more story between the characters of the game. For importers like me, we do not get the luxury of English text like we did in FFX: International.
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The Master Final Fantasy List
This list will cover every Final Fantasy game created (including games that feature cameos but excluding games that were renamed as a Final Fantasy), sorted by Region and System.
North America
- NES
Final Fantasy
- SNES
Final Fantasy 4 (released as Final Fantasy 2)
Final Fantasy 6 (released as Final Fantasy 3)
Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest (also known as Final Fantasy USA)
- Playstation
Final Fantasy 7
Final Fantasy 8
Final Fantasy 9
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy Anthology (features 5 and 6 with bonus Soundtrack CD)
Final Fantasy Chronicles (features 4 with Chrono Trigger)
Final Fantasy Origins (features Final Fantasy (1) and 2)
Chocobo Dungeon
Chocobo Dungeon 2
Chocobo Racing
Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring
- Playstation 2
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X-2
Final Fantasy XI With HDD and Rise of the Zilart Expansion
Final Fantasy XI: Chains of Promathia
Kingdom Hearts
Final Fantasy 7: Dirge of Cerberus (coming soon)
- Game Boy Advance
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Final Fantasy I&II: Dawn of Souls
- Nintendo Gamecube
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
- Nintendo DS
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (planned, unknown US release)
Final Fantasy 3 (planned, unknown US release)
- Playstation Portable (PSP)
Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core (planned, unknown US release)
Europe and Japan will be covered later
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I love pie...