Alright everyone here is the deal people lately in FFXII have been saying it is not a Final Fantasy but haven't been saying what they think is a Final Fantasy.
Here is where you people come in
*Post a List of what you think makes a FF
*No Hyping a Certain game we are looking for the average Idea
*Go ahead and Discuss Merits for and aganist a particular list or item but try not to flame each other too bad.

Here is the List so far.
Some extreme Danger usually to the world
Techonlogy that doesn't fit right either too advanced or too low tech
Magic is real and everyday
Swordsmanship is normal
A varied cast of indivduals for the play party
Well done Music
Norse and other Mythologies props to Knegative for this one
A cid in some form in each game Props to Knegative
Biggs and wedge in some form in each game
Mythical creatures are an everyday norm
Monster attacks are like the rising of the sun it happens deal with it
Birds bigger then Humans are the standared for transport
Airships =)
Sexy females in no matter how impractical for battle revealing clothes

The name

Hironobu Sakaguchi, Nobuo Uematsu, and Yoshitaka Amano.

...but mostly Sakaguchi. :P

(Yes, I'm being sarcastic).

Swords, magic and bahamut.

A good story; memorable characters; great music and such.

To me, Final Fantasy are Moogles & Chocobos.

Spells that basically have simple names and a few letters are changed every level the spell increases.

Monster attacks are like the rising of the sun it happens deal with it.

I never understood why the monsters just leave the towns alone.


Sexy females in no matter how impractical for battle revealing clothes

Hehe, true.

Probably the knights or Guards keep them away though in FFXII they talk about charms to keep the monsters away in the Village in Giza dry.

Spells that basically have simple names and a few letters are changed every level the spell increases.

This is true, but it is honestly better than the old system of Cure1, Cure2, Cure3, Cure4. Cure, Cura, Curaga, Curaja as far as I am aware started with VIII, and has been retroactively applied in the ports/remakes ever since.

Is it based in Latin, Reva?

High production values is the only thing i can think of, But really that has only been since ff6.

I don't know my Latin is spotty in grammer like that. I don't think so though it doesn't have the same liting tone to it most other Latin words have but I can't be sure sorry.

cura in latin means "care, concern" but I don't think curaga or curaja exist.

List:
The Prelude Theme
The Prologue Theme
Summoners
Omega Weapons

I didn't mean the iterations of Cure, in specific. I meant the Spell, -a, -ga, -ja progression

The Final Fanatsay prefix as FF is and ordinary Rpg, magic, items, weapon, summons and such.

I didn't mean the iterations of Cure, in specific. I meant the Spell, -a, -ga, -ja progression
I'm pretty sure the JAPANESE versions of those words are just made to sound nice, because though the suffixes change in the Japanese versions, there are no such things as suffixes in the language. At least I'm pretty sure there aren't....

In japanese, I've seen the progression of cure spells as being ケアル (ke-a-ru), ケアルア (ke-a-ru-a), ケアルダ (sometimes does not appear in the game, ke-a-ru-da), and ケアルガ (ke-a-ru-ga). The words have to be four characters or less, as some rule I guess they set up in the first FF, when they didn't have much space, or something along those lines, maybe. I haven't seen anything that would translate to -ja, as that's two characters in a direct Japanese translation, so it wouldn't fit. I'll keep an eye out, though!

what makes a final fantasy a final fantasy?

square-enix.

what makes a final fantasy a final fantasy?

square-enix.

Dang, I guess the vast majority of games labeled Final Fantasy aren't Final Fantasies.

I'm pretty sure the JAPANESE versions of those words are just made to sound nice, because though the suffixes change in the Japanese versions, there are no such things as suffixes in the language. At least I'm pretty sure there aren't....

In japanese, I've seen the progression of cure spells as being ケアル (ke-a-ru), ケアルア (ke-a-ru-a), ケアルダ (sometimes does not appear in the game, ke-a-ru-da), and ケアルガ (ke-a-ru-ga). The words have to be four characters or less, as some rule I guess they set up in the first FF, when they didn't have much space, or something along those lines, maybe. I haven't seen anything that would translate to -ja, as that's two characters in a direct Japanese translation, so it wouldn't fit. I'll keep an eye out, though!Yeah, all of the spells are at most 4 kana.

There's ライブラ (Scan) and アスピル　(Osmose).

Alright everyone here is the deal people lately in FFXII have been saying it is not a Final Fantasy but haven't been saying what they think is a Final Fantasy.
Here is where you people come in
*Post a List of what you think makes a FF
*No Hyping a Certain game we are looking for the average Idea
*Go ahead and Discuss Merits for and aganist a particular list or item but try not to flame each other too bad.

Here is the List so far.
Some extreme Danger usually to the world
Techonlogy that doesn't fit right either too advanced or too low tech
Magic is real and everyday
Swordsmanship is normal
A varied cast of indivduals for the play party
Well done Music
Norse and other Mythologies props to Knegative for this one
A cid in some form in each game Props to Knegative
Biggs and wedge in some form in each game
Mythical creatures are an everyday norm
Monster attacks are like the rising of the sun it happens deal with it
Birds bigger then Humans are the standared for transport
Airships =)
Sexy females in no matter how impractical for battle revealing clothes

You forgot:
1.Guys that you can't tell if your a girl or not
2.Mystical Areas to explore( either in the sky or under the sea)
3.Many races(always including moogles and humans

Every game has a different logo

It's so sad that Chocobos didn't show up in FF1...they're ALMOST a defining feature. :(

Chocobos are a defining feature. Cid wasn't in the original either. In fact, chocobos are the only thing the retrospective from the Collector's Edition of XII felt worth to mention about every.single.game.

Don't get me started on that retrospective. It's a personal vendetta :-P

Cid wasn't in the original either.
No, but he was mentioned. One of the people in Lefein mention him as the creator of your airship. So in a way, he DID appear in the original.

As well as that same Cid shows up in FFII.

Dang, I guess the vast majority of games labeled Final Fantasy aren't Final Fantasies.
yes that's right.

No, but he was mentioned. One of the people in Lefein mention him as the creator of your airship. So in a way, he DID appear in the original.

Really? I mean, I'll pull out the NES cart if I have to. I believe you, but for some reason that sounds like a retroactive "fix" made to one of the ports.

I hate Wiki, just like you Reva and I hate using it to back up one of my assertions, but here it is anyway:

'''Cid''' is not mentioned in the original North American software localization of the game as released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. He is mentioned, however, in the subsequent re-releases on the PlayStation (''Final Fantasy Origins'') and the Game Boy Advance (''Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls''). In those games, Cid does not actually appear, but is mentioned in the village of Lufenia as being the ancient Lufenian responsible for the construction of the airship discovered during the course of the game."

Here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cid_(Final_Fantasy)) is the link. I know it's exactly what I said, but I didn't write any part of the wiki entry.

Oh well, I was playing one of the remakes. I guess that's why.

But at least they didn't have a chocobo, even in the remake, while they DID have Cid!

I still argue that having chocobos as a defining characteristic is perfectly acceptable, Xeta. They're in subsequent iterations, even if they aren't in the original.

Wolverine is not an original member of the X-Men, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't consider him a defining member of the team. Yeah, I went there.

Okay, okay, fine! But I still say Cid is a more defining characteristic of FFs...I wonder if they named him after a real person. :P

It would be cool as Hell if they did. Hi so you are the famous Cid or Cido FF's Cid was made from let me shake your hand.=)

Well, if Nintendo is crazy enough to name a MAIN character, one spread worldwide and starring in many games, after a PLUMBER, then I think it's perfectly possible some random person named Cid was chosen to be some sort of tradition in FFs. ;)

But I still say Cid is a more defining characteristic of FFs

No fight here. I already said the retrospective's focus on Chocobos drove me up the wall. I just didn't want you being down on yourself because they aren't in the original. You suggested chocobos, and you were right to do so.

Oh, and btw, though it's not in all games, Square does seem to have an addiction with the concept of Crystals. I don't know WHY they are so insistent on having crystals in their games....

What about moogles? They appear in several games, including 6,9 and 12. There are also references to Moogles in X/X-2. n X Lulu's weapons are moogles, and in X-2 Yuna dresses up as a moogle before the concert

music, magic, different races maybe, BATTLE SYSTEM, ABILITY SYSTEM, great character development, deep story, chocobos, maybe moogles, and of course CID.