198-759: Dissidia Final Fantasy is a fighting game with action role-playing elements developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation Portable as part of the campaign for the Final Fantasy series' 20th anniversary. It was released in Japan on December 18, 2008, in North America on August 25, 2009, and in Australia and Europe in September. It was then re-released in Japan, based on
396-483: A 3rd Strike semi-final match held at Evolution Championship Series 2004 (Evo 2004) between Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong . During this match, Umehara made an unexpected comeback by parrying 15 consecutive hits of Wong's "Super Art" move using Chun-Li while Umehara had only one pixel on his health bar. Umehara subsequently won the match. "Evo Moment #37" is frequently described as the most iconic and memorable moment in
594-417: A first-person perspective . The class changing systems and multiple types of magic available were also influential on the genre, as were the use of a variety of vehicles. By contrast, IGN has commented that the menu system used by the games is a major detractor for many and is a "significant reason why they haven't touched the series". Destructoid ' s Chris Hovermale cited the battle systems of
792-699: A koala with a bat . Other recurring races include common monsters such as the cactus-like Cactuar , the Tonberry, the Malboro, the Behemoth, and the Iron Giant. A human character that has frequently appeared is Cid ( シド , Shido ) . Making his debut in Final Fantasy II , he has appeared in multiple forms as everything from a player character to an antagonist. His most frequent occupation
990-571: A best-of-three matches format like later fighting games, and has training bonus stages . The Player vs Player edition of Karate Champ , released later that year, is also the first fighting game to allow two-player duel. It influenced Konami 's Yie Ar Kung Fu , released in October 1984. The game drew heavily from Bruce Lee films, with the main player character Oolong modelled after Lee (like in Bruceploitation films). In contrast to
1188-475: A boxing game featuring a behind-the-character perspective, maneuvers such as blocking and dodging, and stamina meters that are depleted or replenished by blows. Karate Champ was developed by Technōs Japan and released by Data East in May 1984, and is credited with establishing and popularizing the one-on-one fighting game genre. A variety of moves can be performed using the dual-joystick controls. It uses
1386-519: A brutal and gruesome finishing move onto the defeated opponent. Prompted by the announcer saying "Finish Him!", players have a short time window to execute a Fatality by entering a specific button and joystick combination while positioned at a specific distance from the opponent. The Fatality and its derivations are arguably the most notable features of the Mortal Kombat series with cultural impact and controversies . Fighting games often include
1584-523: A cast of Disney characters while the Square Enix staff were developing Kingdom Hearts II . Nomura later felt uncomfortable with the Disney characters fighting each other and instead opted to use Final Fantasy characters, although the original idea eventually gave rise to the development of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days , with the game's multiplayer mode inspired by Dissidia ' s gameplay. The game
1782-417: A central role in several games, though later games such as Final Fantasy XV focus on simple narratives and understandable knowledge for its lore. The central conflict in many Final Fantasy games focuses on a group of characters battling an evil, and sometimes ancient, antagonist that dominates the game's world. Stories frequently involve a sovereign state in rebellion, with the protagonists taking part in
1980-411: A character's health, and the round continues until a fighter's health reaches zero. Hence, the main goal is to completely deplete the health bar of one's opponent, thus achieving a " knockout ". Games such as Virtua Fighter also allow a character to be defeated by forcing them outside of the arena, awarding a "ring-out" to the victor. The Super Smash Bros. series allows players to send fighters off
2178-643: A chosen games' core narrative. The concept of crystals was introduced into the original game by game designer Koichi Ishii . Based on positive fan feedback, Terada suggested carrying them into future entries. Since then, crystals have taken prominent roles in Final Fantasy III , IV , V , VI , VII , and IX . They took minimal roles in II , VIII , X , and XII . Crystals also took a central role in Final Fantasy XIII and XV , which both used
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#17327830567532376-506: A common mythos surrounding crystals and their associated deities. Fabula Nova Crystallis was originally planned as a platform for the development of multiple games planned out in advance, compared to Final Fantasy producer Shinji Hashimoto to the Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings film franchises. Eventually mixed reactions to the subseries prompted Square Enix to move away from
2574-675: A copy of Dissidia Final Fantasy , a 2GB memory stick, and a copy of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was also released on August 25 the same year. Studio BentStuff published the Dissidia Final Fantasy Ultimania α as the initial reference guide for the game. Released on December 4, 2008, this book became part of the Ultimania series, which includes the Kingdom Hearts Ultimania α . Suntory Ltd. also collaborated with Square Enix to create
2772-444: A darker theme. Nojima also created the original scenario of Final Fantasy XV (2016), then called Final Fantasy Versus XIII . His original scenario was reworked for XV by Saori Itamuro. Another recurring writer is Daisuke Watanabe . His first job on the series was with Final Fantasy X . He worked on Final Fantasy XII (2005) as a scenario writer after original writer Yasumi Matsuno left due to illness. The initial script
2970-470: A fixed-size arena along a two-dimensional plane , where characters navigate the plane horizontally by walking or dashing, and vertically by jumping. Some games allow limited movement in 3D space, such as Tekken , while some are set in fully three-dimensional environments without restricting characters' movement, such as Power Stone and Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm ; these are sometimes referred to as "3D arena" fighting games. The fighting game genre
3168-511: A game that featured unprecedentedly detailed pre-rendered 3D graphics and vastly improved on the core concept of combos, presenting a way faster gameplay than most other games of that era, specific combo-breaker maneuvers, and the "Ultra", a series of combined finishing moves surpassing the number of 20 hits. Many of the games of that period were low budget clones of the more popular games, and in some cases this led to controversy; in 1994, Capcom USA took unsuccessful legal action against Data East over
3366-417: A greater number of animations, but otherwise play like those rendered in two dimensions. Games that are fully three-dimensional without a 2D plane are sometimes referred to as "3D arena" fighting games. Aside from restricting movement space, fighting games confine the player's actions to offensive and defensive maneuvers. Players must learn each game's effective combinations of attacks and defenses. Blocking
3564-469: A heroine representing Final Fantasy XI , and a villain representing Final Fantasy XII . Initially, only the ten main heroes are playable in all gameplay modes; the ten main villains are playable in Arcade mode, but must still be unlocked for access in all other gameplay modes. The gods Cosmos and Chaos have been locked in eternal conflict with "World B", a mirror dimension to the realm of "World A" where
3762-482: A hit when countering zoning. The opposite of turtling , rushdown refers to a number of specific aggressive strategies, philosophies, and play styles across all fighting games. The general goal of a rushdown play style is to overwhelm the opponent and force costly mistakes, either by using fast, confusing setups or by taking advantage of an impatient opponent as they are forced to play defense for prolonged periods of time. Rushdown players often favor attacking opponents in
3960-495: A main artist for the Crystal Chronicles spin-off series, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII , and the mobile game Mobius Final Fantasy . A key designer for much of the series' life was Kazuko Shibuya, who did sprite designs from Final Fantasy to VI . She also did work on Final Fantasy Dimensions . A notable outside collaborator was Hiromu Takahara, lead designer for Japanese fashion house Roen, who created
4158-479: A more action-based, single-character version that incorporated design elements cut from XIII . Final Fantasy XV used an action-based system that was described as a "realistic" version of those used in the Kingdom Hearts series and spin-off game Final Fantasy Type-0 . Unlike mainline Final Fantasy games up to this point, the players could only control one character out of the four-strong party. While
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#17327830567534356-589: A new title, Dissidia Final Fantasy NT , was released for arcades in Japan, and later for PlayStation 4 and Windows . Unlike the previous Dissidia titles, this game features 3v3 combat, as well as adding new playable characters such as Y'shtola and Ramza Beoulve . A freemium mobile spin-off titled Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia was released in February 2017 for Japan, and January 2018 for international territories respectively. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin , an alternate universe prequel to
4554-606: A number of games that sparked another surge in fighting game popularity. Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released in early March 2008 to universal acclaim and went on to set a new record in sales, at one point selling at 120 units per minute. Another game was Street Fighter IV , the series' first mainline title since Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike in 1999, which was released in early 2009 also to critical acclaim, having garnered praise since its debut at Japanese arcades in July 2008. The console versions of Street Fighter IV , as well as
4752-546: A party of characters, commanding anywhere between three and eight during battles. Players must face a variety of enemies who continually try to damage the player; in battle, the characters can select a variety of commands from a menu, such as "Fight", "Magic", "Item", as well as other special skills such as "Steal", "Throw", or "Summon". The battle is won when all enemies are defeated. Up until Final Fantasy XI , battles were triggered through random encounters: starting with XI and continuing in following games, enemies were visible in
4950-485: A piece of full artwork rather than a simple logo. Since Final Fantasy IV , the current font style was adopted, along with a specially-designed logo by Amano. The emblem relates to a game's respective plot and typically portrays a character or object in the story. Subsequent remakes of the first three games have replaced the previous logos with ones similar to the rest of the series. His work on Final Fantasy brought him international fame. From Final Fantasy VII onward,
5148-431: A player at any time. The game also introduced pressure-sensitive controls that determine the strength of an attack, though due to causing damaged arcade cabinets, Capcom replaced it soon after with a six-button control scheme offering light, medium, and hard punches and kicks, which became another staple of the genre. In 1988, Home Data released Reikai Dōshi: Chinese Exorcist , also known as Last Apostle Puppet Show ,
5346-563: A popular genre for amateur and doujin developers in Japan. The 2002 title Melty Blood was developed by then-amateur developer French Bread and achieved cult success on the PC . It became highly popular in arcades following its 2005 release, and a version was released for the PlayStation 2 the following year. The late 1990s and early 2000s saw the rise in online gaming . In 2004, Mortal Kombat: Deception , Dead or Alive Ultimate , and
5544-441: A realistic fighting engine that features three-dimensional environments while abandoning time limits and health bars in favor of an innovative Body Damage System, where a sword strike to a certain body part can amputate a limb or decapitate the head. Video game enthusiasts took an interest in fictional crossovers , which feature characters from multiple franchises in a particular game. An early example of this type of fighting game
5742-524: A response to hackers of the original Street Fighter II game to add new features. However, criticism of these updates grew as players demanded a true sequel. By 1995, the dominant franchises were the Mortal Kombat series in America and the Virtua Fighter series in Japan, with Street Fighter Alpha unable to match the popularity of Street Fighter II . Throughout this period, the fighting game
5940-613: A series of bosses , and Enter the Dragon (1973), about an international martial arts tournament. Other inspiration is Japanese martial arts works, including the manga and anime series Karate Master (1971–1977), and Sonny Chiba 's The Street Fighter (1974). Before martial arts games, the earliest video games with fist-fighting are boxing games , featuring battles between characters with fantastic abilities and complex special maneuvers. Sega 's black-and-white boxing game Heavyweight Champ , released for arcades in 1976,
6138-487: A set number of lives (called stocks) for each player (usually three), and if the score is tied between two or more fighters when time runs out, then a " sudden death " match will take place by delivering a single hit to an opponent with 300% damage. Fighting games widely feature health bars , introduced in Yie Ar Kung-Fu in 1984, which are depleted as characters sustain blows. Each successful attack will deplete
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6336-493: A set number of rounds (typically three ), beginning with the announcer's signal. If the score is tied after an even number of rounds (such as 1-1), then the winner is decided in the final round. Round decisions can also be determined by time over, which judge players based on remaining health to declare a winner. In the Super Smash Bros. series, the rules are different. Instead of rounds, the games usually give players
6534-418: A similar fashion to other contemporary MMORPGs. Final Fantasy XII used a similar real-time command-based system to XI : dubbed the "Active Dimension Battle" system, characters fought enemies in environments without random encounters, with players acting on commands set by the player. The battle system for Final Fantasy XIII was designed to retain the strategic elements of earlier games while emulating
6732-473: A single-player campaign or tournament, where the player must defeat a sequence of several computer-controlled opponents. Winning the tournament often reveals a special story-ending cutscene , and some games also grant access to hidden characters or special features upon victory. Tekken introduced the concept of story modes in 1994 with the first arcade full motion video cutscenes for each character's victory. In most fighting games, players may select from
6930-445: A standard for RPGs. The series also produced spin-off entries including SaGa and Mana , and in turn influenced later game developers and studios. The Final Fantasy media franchise began with the development of the titular first game in the series. It was developed at Square , later dubbed Square Enix after its 2003 merger with Enix . Final Fantasy was creator Hironobu Sakaguchi 's last-ditch attempt at success within
7128-531: A substantial input into the character stories. While Final Fantasy VII would become Nomura's favorite project, its graphical limitations meant that his art style was limited in turn. For Final Fantasy VIII , he worked with other artists to make the characters more realistic. Nomura returned for Final Fantasy X , designing the main cast and creating a setting influenced by the South Pacific , Thailand , and Japan . For Final Fantasy XV , Nomura created
7326-465: A type of action game where two (in one-on-one fighting games) or more (in platform fighters ) on-screen characters fight each other. These games typically feature special moves that are triggered using rapid sequences of carefully timed button presses and joystick movements. Games traditionally show fighters from a side view, even as the genre has progressed from two-dimensional (2D) to three-dimensional (3D) graphics. Street Fighter II , though not
7524-482: A variety of playable characters with unique fighting styles, special moves, and personalities. This became a strong convention for the genre with the release of Street Fighter II (1991), and these character choices have led to deeper game strategy and replay value. Custom character creation, or "create–a–fighter", is a feature of some fighting games that allows a player to customize the appearance and move set of their own character. Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium
7722-426: A variety of computer-controlled fighters, Street Fighter II allowed players to play against each other. The popularity of Street Fighter II surprised the gaming industry, as arcade owners bought more machines to keep up with demand. Street Fighter II was also responsible for popularizing the combo mechanic, which came about when skilled players learned that they could combine several attacks that left no time for
7920-594: Is "Summoning", a mechanic where characters can evoke summoned monsters (summoned beasts ( 召喚獣 , Shoukanjuu ) in Japanese) to aid the party through cinematic actions. The concept of summoning was proposed for the first Final Fantasy but was not implemented until Final Fantasy III . Summons can be either optional acquisitions or tied to story events and particular characters. The names of summons derive from multiple cultures, including Egyptian , Middle-Eastern, Asian, and Classical mythology. As groups within
8118-432: Is Banri Oda. The scenario of Final Fantasy XVI is written by Maehiro. The first game to receive a direct sequel was Final Fantasy X ; X-2 is set in the same fictional world of Spira while using a lighter tone than its predecessor. No sequel to Final Fantasy X was planned initially. Final Fantasy XIII was also intended to be a standalone game, and was later expanded into the series' first official trilogy with
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8316-497: Is Gilgamesh; first appearing in Final Fantasy V , he has made cameo appearances in multiple Final Fantasy games since then. Gilgamesh, named after the mythological figure , was created by Sakaguchi, and designed by Tetsuya Nomura and Yoshitaka Amano . Since the series' inception, gameplay in the majority of mainline Final Fantasy games has followed certain conventions of the role-playing genre. Players take control of
8514-523: Is a basic defense against basic attacks. Some games feature more advanced blocking techniques; for example, Capcom's Street Fighter III features a move termed " parrying ", which can be immediately followed by counter-attack, skipping the temporary stun a block would have put them in. A similar stun state is termed "just defended" in SNK 's Garou: Mark of the Wolves . An integral feature of fighting games
8712-451: Is a common element of gameplay . Fighting games emphasize the height of blows, ranging from low to jumping attacks. Thus, strategy requires predicting adversarial moves, similar to rock–paper–scissors . In addition to blows, players can utilize throwing or grappling to circumvent blocks. Most fighting games allow a grapple move by pressing two or more buttons together, or simply by pressing punch or kick while being directly adjacent to
8910-687: Is an engineer, and he is commonly associated with the party's airship. Cid was originally created as a character that would appear in multiple forms: his one common attribute was that he was an intelligent and wise figure "like Yoda from the Star Wars series". Two other recurring human characters are Biggs and Wedge, a duo named after characters from the Star Wars franchise who are often used for comic relief. Making their debut in Final Fantasy VI as footsoldiers, they have since appeared in multiple Final Fantasy games. A different character
9108-466: Is considered the first video game with fist fighting. Vectorbeam 's arcade video game Warrior (1979) is sometimes credited as one of the first fighting games; in contrast to Heavyweight Champ and most later games, Warrior is based on sword fighting duels and uses a bird's-eye view . Sega 's jidaigeki -themed arcade action game Samurai , released in March 1980, features a boss battle where
9306-502: Is considered to be the "Dark Age" of fighting games. The two most prolific developers of 2D fighting games, Capcom and SNK, combined intellectual property to produce SNK vs. Capcom games. SNK released the first game of this type, SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium , for its Neo Geo Pocket Color handheld at the end of 1999. GameSpot regarded the game as "perhaps the most highly anticipated fighter ever" and called it
9504-458: Is distinctly related to the beat 'em up genre, which pits many computer-controlled enemies against one or more player characters. The first video game to feature fist fighting is Heavyweight Champ (1976), but Karate Champ (1984) actually features the one-on-one fighting game genre instead of a sports game in arcades . Yie Ar Kung-Fu was released later that year with various fighting styles and introduced health meters , and The Way of
9702-435: Is for the player to reduce their opponent's HP to zero. A character's offensive (and, to a lesser extent, defensive) power is shown in numerical form called BRV or "Bravery Points". Both characters start out with a set amount of BRV, and each must reduce their health to 0 by attacking them with a HP attack. Players can steal BRV from their opponent by attacking them with the basic "BRV attack" to add it to their own total and gain
9900-419: Is generally divided into classes organized by color: "White magic", which focuses on spells that assist teammates; "Black magic", which focuses on harming enemies; "Red magic", which is a combination of white and black magic, "Blue magic", which mimics enemy attacks; and "Green magic" which focuses on applying status effects to either allies or enemies. Different means of transportation have appeared through
10098-525: Is killed by Chaos. The heroes begin to fade away but are saved by the power of the crystals, allowing them to use what time they have left to strike back against the villains and defeat Chaos. In the end, the other warriors leave World A for their respective worlds, the Warrior of Light embarks on another adventure, and Cosmos revives to reign over World B. The game features two other storylines with "Distant Glory", where Shanttoto and Gabranth are introduced to
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#173278305675310296-476: Is mitigated by technology such as GGPO , which synchronizes players by quickly rolling back to the most recent accurate game state, correcting errors, and then jumping back to the current frame. Such games include Skullgirls and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition . The first fighting games were fundamentally inspired by martial arts films , especially Bruce Lee 's Hong Kong action cinema . Films include Game of Death (1972), where Lee fights
10494-606: Is not a port , but a separately produced game based on the same premise. Capcom released Street Fighter III in 1997 which features improved 2D visuals, but is also unable to match the impact of earlier games. Excitement stirred in Japan over Virtua Fighter 3 in arcades, and Sega eventually ported the game to its Dreamcast console. Meanwhile, SNK released several fighting games on its Neo Geo platform, including Samurai Shodown II in 1994, Real Bout Fatal Fury in 1995, The Last Blade in 1997, and annual updates to its The King of Fighters franchise. Garou: Mark of
10692-706: Is the Chocobo , a galliform bird that regularly acts as a means of transport for characters. The Chocobo was created by Ishii for Final Fantasy II , and have appeared in every mainline Final Fantasy game since then. A second recurring race are the Moogles , whose Japanese name is Mōguri , a portmanteau of the words mogura (mole) and kōmori (bat); while frequently seen running shops or assuming some other background role, they have also appeared as party allies or playable characters. The Moogles were also created by Ishii, originally designed in his school days by combining
10890-439: Is the " Active Time Battle " (ATB) system: while utilizing a turn-based combat system, action meters are assigned to all characters that empty when they act in battle. Each player character being issued a command when their action meter is filled: enemies could attack at any time despite player actions being in progress, adding an element of urgency to battles. The ATB system was designed by Hiroyuki Ito . According to Kawazu, Ito
11088-729: Is the 1996 arcade release X-Men vs. Street Fighter (which later became the Marvel vs. Capcom series), featuring comic book superheroes and characters from other Capcom games. In 1999, Nintendo released the first game in the Super Smash Bros. series, which allowed match-ups from various franchises, such as Pikachu vs. Mario . In the early 2000s, the fighting genre boom turned to bust. In retrospect, multiple developers attribute its decline to its increasing complexity and specialization, and to other factors such as over-saturation . This complexity shut out casual players, and
11286-519: Is the final boss in the arcade mode. The mist steps also allow combos to be performed as a manner of "crouch dashing," or when the Mishima player could run to the opponent while crouching since regular running prevented executing easy combos. Polygonal fighters became trendy and many developers started to make them. Further all-new titles were released in 1995: Zero Divide on the PlayStation,
11484-466: Is the main theme song of the game, with lyrics from both "Cosmos" and "Chaos - Last Battle 1". "Cosmos" features female vocals, while "Chaos" is dominated by male vocals. In YFE's documentary on the conception of the songs for Dissidia , lyricist-vocalist Alex Foster admitted that the lyrics have no direct connection to themes of the game; rather, he left it up to the listeners to interpret the lyrics based on their thoughts and ideas. Track list For
11682-511: Is the use of "special attacks", also called "secret moves", that employ combinations of directional inputs and button presses to perform a particular move beyond basic punching and kicking. Some special moves, which play an animation portraying an aspect of the character's personality, are referred to as taunts . Originated by Japanese company SNK in Art of Fighting (1992), these add humor, and they effect gameplay in certain games, such as improving
11880-430: Is to force an opponent to take significant risks to approach the zoning player's character, or to stall out the in-game timer, which causes the player with more health (typically the one doing the zoning) to win. The effectiveness of the latter strategy varies from game to game, based on the effectiveness of zoning tools as well as the length of the in-game timer and the rewards characters can receive for successfully landing
12078-499: The Gundam: Battle Assault series. This genre is distinctly related to beat 'em ups, another action genre involving combat, where the player character must fight many enemies at the same time. Beat 'em ups, like traditional fighting games, display player and enemy health in a bar, generally located at the top of the screen. However, beat 'em ups generally do not feature combat divided into separate "rounds". During
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#173278305675312276-515: The Chocobo and Moogle which have appeared in multiple roles. Numerous writers have worked on the series, including Sakaguchi himself, early writer Kenji Terada , Kazushige Nojima , and Yasumi Matsuno . Some settings and specific themes have been used in multiple installments and subseries, including the fictional world of Ivalice , Compilation of Final Fantasy VII , and the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythos. The art design for
12474-420: The Final Fantasy series as an example of video games have evolved their combat systems over time. Edge cited the visuals of the series as a reason for its long-standing critical praise. In 1996, Next Generation included the series on a ranking of the best games and series of all time, with one of its points of praise being the narratives. That magazine later cited the "melodramatic storylines" used in
12672-422: The Final Fantasy series over its existence, the most prominent having worked on the mainline games. The first Final Fantasy writer was Kenji Terada , who was asked on board the project by staff who were fans of his work in anime. He was asked to create a scenario that would make players cry. Terada would provide the scenarios for Final Fantasy II (1988) and III (1990). He later had mixed feelings about
12870-628: The Final Fantasy XIII games: he had a major role in the design of Lightning's new appearance in XIII-2 . He was also involved in the world design of Final Fantasy XV . Naora had a presence within the series since Final Fantasy VII , for which he designed the kanji logo for the antagonistic Shinra Corporation. His involvement in the series has primarily been as an art director for games such as Final Fantasy X and XV , in addition to creating character designs for Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Final Fantasy Type-0 . Other artists have also contributed to
13068-470: The Japan Game Awards 2008. In 2010, the game was included as one of the titles in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die . Following the game's positive reception by gamers in Japan that surpassed Nomura's expectations, he already had in mind several new ideas for a sequel and wished to feature Kain in it. Yoshinori Kitase stated that the fight between Cloud and Sephiroth from
13266-455: The Tekken , Soul and Dead or Alive franchises continued to release installments. Classic Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat games were re-released on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade , allowing internet play, and in some cases, HD graphics. The early part of the decade had seen the rise of competitive video gaming, referred to by the term Esports . The rise in esports saw
13464-656: The Xbox version of Street Fighter Anniversary Collection became the first fighting games to offer online multiplayer and have received positive reception from critics. While the genre became generally far less popular than it once was, arcades and their attendant fighting games remained reasonably popular in Japan during this time period, and remain so even today. Virtua Fighter 5 lacked an online mode, but still achieved success both on home consoles and in arcades; players practiced at home and went to arcades to compete face-to-face with opponents. In addition to Virtua Fighter ,
13662-406: The samurai player character confronts a boss samurai in one-on-one sword-fighting combat. One-on-one boxing games appeared on consoles with Activision 's Atari VCS game Boxing , released in July 1980, and Sega's SG-1000 game Champion Boxing (1983), which is Yu Suzuki 's debut at Sega. Nintendo 's arcade game Punch-Out was developed in 1983 and released in February 1984, as
13860-549: The "Dissidia Final Fantasy Potion" drinks which were released on December 9 in Japan to promote the game's release. Square Enix released a line of Trading Arts figures in early 2009 with Series 1 containing Cloud Strife, Squall Leonhart, Zidane Tribal, Tidus, and the Warrior of Light. A second series was later released featuring Sephiroth, Terra, Bartz, Firion, and Cecil. Dissidia sold well according to Takeshi Arakawa, despite concerns about piracy. As of August 2009, Dissidia Final Fantasy has sold 910,000 copies in Japan, making it
14058-470: The 1980s to 1990s, publications used the terms "fighting game" and "beat 'em up" interchangeably, along with other terms such as " martial arts simulation" (or more specific terms such as " judo simulator") and "punch-kick" games. Fighting games were still being called "beat 'em up" games in video game magazines up until the end of the 1990s. With hindsight, critics have argued that the two types of game gradually became dichotomous as they evolved, though
14256-466: The 1993 arcade game Fighter's History , which supposedly plagiarized Street Fighter 2 . Data East's largest objection in court was that their 1984 arcade game Karate Champ was the true originator of the competitive fighting game genre, which predated the original Street Fighter by three years, but the reason the case was decided against Capcom was that the copied elements were scènes à faire and thus excluded from copyright. Sega AM2 debuted in
14454-492: The Arcade mode will reward the player with PP (player points) and special items that can be used in story mode. All characters, including villains, are playable in Arcade mode; for example, Golbez, Sephiroth, Kuja, and Jecht are available for use in this mode from the start, but they still need to be bought via the PP Catalog for use in other modes. The story revolves around two gods: Cosmos, the goddess of harmony, and Chaos,
14652-767: The Bangaa race that would later appear in Final Fantasy XII . For XII , he designed the main characters. As inspiration for their physical appearances, Yoshida used a variety of influences from multiple cultures. He returned to work on Final Fantasy XIV , where he needed to adjust from working on a static project to designing for the more fluid environment of an MMORPG. He would also contribute designs to A Realm Reborn , and its first expansion Heavensward . Kamikokuryo first did work on Final Fantasy VIII and X , then became art director for XII . He would return to this role for Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings , and
14850-649: The Exploding Fist (1985) further popularized the genre on home systems. In 1987, Capcom 's Street Fighter introduced special attacks , and in 1991, its highly successful sequel Street Fighter II refined and popularized many genre conventions, including combos. Fighting games subsequently became the preeminent genre for video gaming in the early to mid-1990s, particularly in arcades. This period spawned dozens of other popular fighting games, including franchises like Street Fighter , Mortal Kombat , Super Smash Bros. , and Tekken . Fighting games are
15048-928: The Exploding Fist borrowed heavily from Karate Champ , but nevertheless achieved critical success and afforded the burgeoning genre further popularity on home computers in PAL regions, becoming the UK's best-selling computer game of 1985 . In North America, Data East ported Karate Champ to home computers in October 1985, becoming one of the best-selling computer games of the late 1980s. Other game developers also imitated Karate Champ , notably System 3 's computer game International Karate , released in Europe in November 1985; after Epyx released it in North America in April 1986, Data East took unsuccessful legal action against Epyx over
15246-615: The Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu with individual scores of 9/9/10/8, earning the game a place in its "Best Picks of This Week" feature as well as its "Platinum Hall of Fame". The game's battle system was described as fast-paced and exhilarating, with simple controls capable of producing battles like those found in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children , though it was noted that the action can become difficult to follow when things got hectic and that some of
15444-586: The Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu that Tidus was designed to look younger than he was in Final Fantasy X to "match the design touch of the rest of the Dissidia " cast. Square Enix filed for United States trademark registration of "Dissidia" in April 2007; the mark's relation to Final Fantasy was omitted. The title was connected with Final Fantasy when Square Enix introduced Dissidia Final Fantasy on May 8 with an official Japanese website. The Dissidia Final Fantasy Original Soundtrack by Takeharu Ishimoto
15642-748: The Job System in favour of a character class-driven system where equipment determined skills and growth. For the later stages of XIV and later A Realm Reborn , the Job System was reintroduced as a second level to the class system. Many Jobs, such as the Dragoon, the Summoner, the White Mage, the Black Mage, and the Red Mage have become closely identified with the series. A different system
15840-488: The North American version, as Dissidia Final Fantasy: Universal Tuning , on November 1, 2009. The game features characters from different Final Fantasy games and centers on a great conflict between Cosmos, the goddess of harmony, and Chaos, the god of discord. The two summon multiple warriors to fight for their sides in their thirteenth war. During the story, the player controls the ten warriors chosen by Cosmos,
16038-495: The Thief, and variations on magical classes such as White and Black Mages. More original classes have appeared throughout the series, such as Bards, Scholars, and Summoners. Due to the series' popularity, they have become staples of RPGs since their debut. The complexity and scope of the job system, as well as whether or not characters are capable of changing jobs, varies from game to game. The original Final Fantasy XIV did away with
16236-566: The Western-developed FX Fighter on PC and Criticom on console, and Sega's arcade Fighting Vipers - on top of Tekken 2 , an updated Battle Arena Toshinden 2 , and console ports of Tekken and Virtua Fighter 2 . A multitude of new polygonal releases arrived in 1996 from both prime and smaller developers, major games being Virtua Fighter 3 , Soul Edge , Dead or Alive , Last Bronx (in Japan), and
16434-531: The Wolves from 1999 (part of the Fatal Fury series) was considered one of SNK's last great games; the company announced that it would close its doors in late 2001. Electronic Gaming Monthly reported that in 1996, U.S. gamers spent nearly $ 150 million on current generation fighting games, and in Japan, fighting games accounted for over 80% of video game sales. The fighting game genre continued to evolve, with several strong 3D fighting games emerging in
16632-437: The arcades in 1996, porting it for the PlayStation in 1998. It spawned a long-running franchise , known for its fast-paced control system, innovative counterattacks , and environmental hazards . The series again included games important to the success of their respective consoles, such as Dead or Alive 3 for the Xbox and Dead or Alive 4 for the Xbox 360 . In 1998, Bushido Blade , published by Square , introduced
16830-498: The basis for his fighting game Street Fighter . Nintendo's boxing sequel Super Punch-Out was released for arcades in late 1984 and ported by Elite to home computers as Frank Bruno's Boxing in 1985, features martial arts elements, high and low guarding, ducking, lateral dodging, and a KO meter. This meter is built up with successful attacks and, when full, enables a special, more powerful punch to be thrown. Broderbund 's Karateka , designed by Jordan Mechner and released at
17028-439: The battle system was a traditional turn-based system with characters appearing on the left-hand side of the screen, a feature later adopted by multiple other role-playing games (RPGs). For Final Fantasy II , Kawazu designed the battle system based around a more focused approach to story, along with accommodating for character classes being locked to specific characters. In Final Fantasy II , character abilities improved based on
17226-583: The best fighting game ever to be released for a handheld console. Capcom released Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 for arcades and the Dreamcast in 2000, followed by sequels in subsequent years. Though none matched the critical success of the handheld version, Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO was noted as the first game of the genre to successfully utilize internet competition. Other crossovers from 2008 included Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe . The most successful crossover, however,
17424-403: The best-selling fighting arcade video game franchises that have sold at least 10,000 arcade units . The prices of fighting game arcade units ranged from $ 1,300 (equivalent to $ 2,800 in 2023) for Street Fighter II Dash ( Champion Edition ) in 1992, up to $ 21,000 (equivalent to $ 44,000 in 2023) for Virtua Fighter (1993). In addition to unit sales, arcade games typically earned
17622-401: The character artwork for the mobile games Final Fantasy IV: The After Years and Final Fantasy Dimensions . Toshitaka Matsuda's first major work was on Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings , and he would later serve as a costume and character designer for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII . Toshiyuki Itahana first worked on character designs for Final Fantasy IX , then later served as
17820-491: The character can enter their "EX Mode", significantly increasing their power and enabling new attacks, including the "EX Burst", an unavoidable and very damaging special attack similar to the Limit Break mechanic seen in many games in the series. The player on the offense charges up the attack by following the on-screen instructions, while the player on the defense can reduce the amount of damage taken by continuously pressing
18018-408: The character each player is currently using. As a result of this, a concept called "footsies" has emerged, frequently defined as players jockeying for position and using low-commitment moves at distances where neither character has a particular advantage. Depending on the game, character, and move used, a player may be rewarded for a decisive blow with a strong positional advantage, strong enough that
18216-605: The cinematic action of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children . While retaining the ATB system, elements such as magic points were removed, and a strategic role-change system dubbed the Paradigm System was implemented, with the roles being based on Final Fantasy jobs. Final Fantasy XIII-2 continued using the Paradigm system with added gameplay functions based on criticism of the first game, while Lightning Returns changed to
18414-524: The circle button. Once the EX Burst is executed, EX Mode ends. In a gameplay mode exclusive to Western releases, the Arcade mode converts the game in a traditional fighting game, with all role-playing elements removed and characters' abilities being stripped down to the basics to balance the playing field. Within the Arcade Mode, there are three tiers: Normal, Hard, and Time Attack; beating any tier of
18612-460: The clothing for the main cast of Final Fantasy XV . The Final Fantasy series and several specific games within it have been credited for introducing and popularizing many concepts that are today widely used in console RPGs. The side view perspective with groups of monsters against a group of characters used by the early Final Fantasy games has been frequently imitated, supplanting the prior RPG standard of one-on-one battles against monsters from
18810-478: The corner of a stage or as they get up from a knockdown; both situations severely limit the options of the opponent and often allow the attacking player to force high-risk guessing scenarios. Spacing is the act of positioning a character at a range where their attacks and movement tools carry the lowest risk and the highest reward. The concept is somewhat akin to that of footwork in martial arts. The desired position for play varies based on what tools are available to
19008-440: The critically acclaimed Virtua Fighter 5 was released to very little acclaim in 2007, its update Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown received much more attention due to renewed interest in the genre. Numerous indie fighting games have also been crowdfunded on websites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo , the most notable success being the tag team fighting game Skullgirls in 2012. Later, in 2019, Ubisoft reported that
19206-402: The crystal-based Fabula Nova Crystallis lore. In contrast, overt references such as terminology and branding were removed from XV to help with marketing. Crystals were included in A Realm Reborn as a central plot due to being given "short shrift in recent games". For Final Fantasy XVI , crystals were included as the equivalent to limited fuel sources, with their fading power triggering
19404-480: The designs he recalled was for the summon Bahamut: while the original Bahamut was an aquatic monster, he did not know this at the time, so he designed Bahamut as a "mecha dragon". As of Final Fantasy XV , Amano's artwork has been created fairly early in a game's development based on the basic themes. Amano's most enduring contribution to the series is his logo designs: receiving design documents as primarily text-based requests and descriptions, he treats each logo as
19602-488: The desire to make it appealing to Western players. Dissidia was well-received commercially and critically, with positive reviews and sales of over 1.8 million. A follow-up titled Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy was released in March 2011 and features several new characters and gameplay features. Dissidia Final Fantasy ' s genre has been described as "dramatic progressive action" and its graphics are in 3D . It has wireless one-on-one multiplayer and fights revolving around
19800-485: The development of XIII-2 (2011) and Lightning Returns (2013). Final Fantasy XV was expanded into a multimedia series to avoid creating a video game series; named the Final Fantasy XV Universe, it is split between pre-release media including a feature film and original net animation , and post-release content including other spin-off games and downloadable content . Final Fantasy VII
19998-556: The end of 1984, is a one-on-one fighting game for home computers that successfully added plot to its fighting action, like the beat 'em up Kung-Fu Master . By early 1985, martial arts games had become popular in arcades. On home computers, the Japanese MSX version of Yie Ar Kung-Fu was released in January 1985, and Beam Software 's The Way of the Exploding Fist was released for PAL regions in May 1985; The Way of
20196-589: The esoteric and complex storylines it incorporated. A world later incorporated into the Final Fantasy series is Ivalice , the setting for games within the game collection known as the Ivalice Alliance . Taking place within a single world across a large time period, Ivalice is the setting for Final Fantasy Tactics (1997), Final Fantasy XII , and Vagrant Story (2000). Vagrant Story did not originally take place in Ivalice, being incorporated into
20394-610: The fast motions of a joystick, and so players had difficulty executing special moves with any accuracy. The release of Street Fighter II in 1991 is considered a revolutionary moment in the fighting game genre. Yoshiki Okamoto 's team developed the most accurate joystick and button scanning routine in the genre thus far. This allowed players to reliably execute multi-button special moves, which had previously required an element of luck. The graphics took advantage of Capcom's CPS arcade chipset , with highly detailed characters and stages . Whereas previous games allowed players to combat
20592-399: The field and could be avoided. Like other role-playing games, Final Fantasy most commonly uses an experience point-based leveling system, where each battle awards experience points and gaining levels increases character statistics such as health and magic. Magic is another common role-playing element in the series. The method by which characters gain magic varies between installments, but
20790-559: The film Advent Children was popular enough to make Japanese gamers do a remake of it for the crossover Dissidia Final Fantasy and expected Western fans to also emulate it. A follow up to Dissidia titled Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy was released in March 2011 for the PlayStation Portable. Since Dissidia had a concrete ending, the team decided to make the story as a prequel. Tetsuya Nomura said that there would be no more Dissidia games following Dissidia 012 although
20988-777: The first Final Fantasy , makes several allusions to the Dissidia franchise especially during its final DLC episode Different Future . For instance, manikins, the common enemies featured in Dissidia ' s story mode, are featured as a game and plot element in the DLC episode. Fighting game The fighting game genre of video games involves combat between multiple characters, often (but not limited to) one-on-one battles. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as blocking , grappling , counter-attacking, and chaining attacks together into " combos ". Characters generally engage hand-to-hand combat , often with martial arts , but some may include weaponry. Battles are usually set in
21186-542: The first Final Fantasy takes place, summoning several warriors from other worlds from the main series to battle in a never-ending cycle of death and rebirth until the balance is tipped in favor of Chaos. As the war seems to be nearing its end, the ten warriors of Cosmos band together to strike back at Chaos's minions and restore balance. Having lost much of her power in the previous cycle, Cosmos gives her ten warriors—Warrior of Light, Firion, Onion Knight, Cecil, Bartz, Terra, Cloud, Squall, Zidane, and Tidus—the task of retrieving
21384-408: The first Final Fantasy to IV , Amano created his artwork based on specific descriptions from game staff, while for Final Fantasy V and VI it was the game staff that took and adjusted his artwork to suit the games. He returned as a character designer for Final Fantasy IX , working from specifications provided by the game's staff. For Final Fantasy XI , Amano created the game's world map. One of
21582-472: The first fighting game to use digitized sprites and motion capture animation. Meanwhile, home game consoles largely ignored the genre. Budokan: The Martial Spirit was one of the few releases for the Sega Genesis , but was not as popular as games in other genres. Technical challenges limited the popularity of early fighting games. Programmers had difficulty producing a game that could recognize
21780-451: The first fighting game, is considered to have standardized the genre, and similar games released prior to Street Fighter II have since been more explicitly classified as fighting games. Fighting games typically involve hand-to-hand combat, though many games also feature characters with melee weapons. Fighting characters are usually based on humans, but there are also games that are entirely based around mecha robot characters, for example
21978-638: The fourth best-selling game for the PSP in Japan. It was the 12th best-selling game in Japan in 2008, selling 660,262 copies. In the United States, Dissidia debuted as the 7th top-selling software of the August 2009 charts with 130,000 copies, despite only four days of availability. Figures from the NPD Group list Dissidia Final Fantasy as the best-selling PSP game of 2009. Dissidia was well received by
22176-476: The franchise, while 1UP.com enjoyed its references to previous games. RandomNPC called the game "one of the few must-have games for the PSP". Game Informer was critical, claiming that the story and gameplay were too similar to past Final Fantasy titles and would turn off new players. In the Best of E3 2009, Dissidia was awarded "Best Fighting Game" by IGN. Dissidia also received awards from Famitsu and in
22374-548: The free-to-play platform fighting game Brawlhalla reached 20 million players, with it climbing to 80 million by 2022. In 2018, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch was released. It became the best-selling fighting game of all time, topping its Wii predecessor Super Smash Bros. Brawl and introduced nearly 90 characters through its default mode and through downloadable content or DLC, having sold 34.22 million copies worldwide. Later in
22572-410: The game controls, which created a sense of mystique and invited players to practice the game. Following Street Fighter's lead, the use of command-based hidden moves began to pervade other games in the rising fighting game genre. Street Fighter also introduced other staples of the genre, including the blocking technique, as well as the ability for a challenger to jump in and initiate a match against
22770-424: The game outside Japan because it felt that "unrestrained" 3D fighting games were unenjoyable. Sega also attempted to introduce holographic 3D technology to the genre with Holosseum in 1992, though it was unsuccessful. Several fighting games achieved commercial success, including SNK's Art of Fighting and Samurai Shodown as well as Sega's Eternal Champions . Nevertheless, Street Fighter II remained
22968-497: The game's designer. For Final Fantasy V (1992), the scenario was a collaboration between Sakaguchi and Yoshinori Kitase . Final Fantasy VI (1994) was worked on by a group of four or five different writers, including Kitase. Sakaguchi was responsible for providing the basic story from the original game until Final Fantasy VI . Sakaguchi would also write the scenario draft for Final Fantasy IX (2000), with further contributions Kazuhiko Aoki and Nobuaki Komoto. One of
23166-422: The game, named Dissidia Final Fantasy: Universal Tuning , is a direct port of the North American version of the game, retaining all the extra features added, and was released in Japan on November 1, 2009. Both English and Japanese voices are available in battle, with the player deciding which language the characters will speak. Dissidia Final Fantasy -themed PSP bundle, which included a "Mystic Silver" PSP system,
23364-584: The game. The battle system of the original Final Fantasy was designed by Akitoshi Kawazu . When creating it, he closely followed the mechanics created in the Western tabletop game Dungeons & Dragons , particularly the incorporation of enemy-specific weaknesses that were otherwise missing from Japanese games at the time. He also added elements such as weapon and item abilities based on their successful implementation in Wizardry . This first version of
23562-528: The game. Yie Ar Kung-Fu went on to become the UK's best-selling computer game of 1986 , the second year in a row for fighting games. The same year, Martech 's Uchi Mata for home computers featured novel controller motions for grappling maneuvers, but they were deemed too difficult. In the late 1980s, side-scrolling beat 'em ups became considerably more popular than one-on-one fighting games, with many arcade game developers focused more on producing beat 'em ups and shoot 'em ups. Takashi Nishiyama used
23760-518: The games, they have been referred to by several names (Espers, Guardian Forces, Aeons, Eidolons, Astrals, Primals, Eikons), and have taken either core roles in the story or less prominent roles as tools for the player characters. The artwork and character designs of the first Final Fantasy were created by Yoshitaka Amano, a noted artist who had worked with Tatsunoko Production on multiple anime series including Science Ninja Team Gatchaman , and also did illustrations for Vampire Hunter D . Amano
23958-573: The genre into "true 3D" due to its introduction of the sidestep maneuver, which IGN described as "one little move" that "changed the fighter forever". The "sidestep" in the game, however, consisted of shoulder rolls instead of actual sidesteps. That year, Namco released Tekken 2 , which introduced actual sidestepping or "mist steps" as first released in arcade games and in the international fighting game community. These moves are only exclusive to its two protagonists, Heihachi Mishima and his son, Kazuya Mishima , and his counterpart transformation which
24156-400: The genre with the 1993 arcade game Burning Rival , but they gained renown with the release of Virtua Fighter for the same platform the same year. It is the first fighting game with 3D polygon graphics and a viewpoint that zoomed and rotated with the action. Despite the graphics, players were confined to back and forth motion as seen in other fighting games. With only three buttons, it
24354-653: The god of discord. The game unites both protagonists and antagonists from installments of the main Final Fantasy series, their stories narrated by the first Final Fantasy game's Cid of the Lufaine . Other than the gods and their champions, the player deals with crystal-like doppelgangers called Manikins. The game has an overarching storyline that requires playing through all of the characters to complete. The game contains twenty-two total playable characters: ten heroes and ten villains, one of each representing Final Fantasy through Final Fantasy X , and two secret characters:
24552-467: The grounded realism of Karate Champ , Yie Ar Kung-Fu moved the genre towards more fantastical, fast-paced action with a variety of special moves and high jumps, establishing the template for subsequent fighting games. It expanded on Karate Champ by pitting the player against a variety of opponents, each with a unique appearance and fighting style. The player could also perform up to sixteen different moves, including projectile attacks, and it replaced
24750-424: The highest-selling Final Fantasy game to date. Final Fantasy has become one of Square Enix's major gaming franchises; as of 2016, the series has sold 110 million copies worldwide across 48 video game releases. Final Fantasy series consists of multiple games that, while generally having separate settings and narratives, share common themes and motifs in their worlds and plots. Multiple writers have worked on
24948-488: The history of competitive video gaming, compared to sports moments such as Babe Ruth's called shot and the Ice Hockey Miracle on Ice . It inspired many to start playing 3rd Strike, which brought new life into the fighting game community (FGC) during a time when the community was in a state of stagnation. Dead or Alive 4 became the first fighting game to have a televised competitive esport scene as it
25146-435: The home port of Tekken 2 , cementing 3D as the future of the genre. In 1994, SNK released The King of Fighters '94 in arcades, where players choose from teams of three characters to eliminate each other one by one. Eventually, Capcom released further updates to Street Fighter II , including Super Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II Turbo . These games feature more characters and new moves, some of which are
25344-443: The impact of Final Fantasy on his career, as many only knew him from his video game writing. When Final Fantasy IV (1991) was pushed forward onto the next generation of game hardware, Terada's planned scenario was scrapped by the management and he parted with Square on poor terms. After Terada's departure, scenario work was delegated to Takashi Tokita . Tokita wrote the scenario for Final Fantasy IV (1991), along with being
25542-450: The internal struggles, passions, and tragedies of the characters, and the main plot often recedes into the background as the focus shifts to their personal lives. Other aspects explored are the relationships between characters, which range from love to rivalry. Other recurring situations that drive the plot include amnesia , a hero corrupted by an evil force, mistaken identity, and self-sacrifice. Esoteric and mystical elements also take
25740-417: The late 1990s, traditional 2D fighting games began to decline in popularity, with specific franchises falling into difficulty due to 3D fighters. Although the release of Street Fighter EX introduced 3D graphics to the series, both it and Street Fighter: The Movie flopped in arcades. A home video game also titled Street Fighter: The Movie was released for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn , but it
25938-469: The late 1990s. Namco 's Tekken (released in arcades in 1994 and on the PlayStation in 1995) proved critical to the PlayStation's early success, with its sequels also becoming some of the console's most important games. The Soul series of weapon-based fighting games also achieved considerable critical success, beginning with 1995's Soul Edge (known as Soul Blade outside Japan) to Soulcalibur VI in 2018. Tecmo released Dead or Alive in
26136-425: The latest game Tekken 8 , which was released in January 2024 sold over 2 million copies in its first month alone. Thus, the 2020s have had a marked resurgence in fighting games that has been deemed a new golden age in fighting games. The following are the highest-grossing fighting game franchises, in terms of total gross revenue generated by arcade games , console games , and computer games . The following are
26334-522: The look and style of Yoshitaka Amano 's illustrations. Working in the Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy IX designs brought no difficulties since in for the former game, Nomura based his designs on Amano's illustrations while he had already been involved in handling his illustrations in the latter. On the other hand, Nomura had difficulties making Onion Knight as it ended being too cartoony and requested advice from Amano. Nomura's own original illustrations were also redesigned for Dissidia ; Nomura commented to
26532-434: The main character designer for the series was Tetsuya Nomura, whose first major contribution had been character and monster designs for Final Fantasy VI . He was chosen by Sakaguchi as the character designer for VII after being amused by his storyboards for VI . His greater involvement was also due to scheduling conflicts with Amano's overseas trips to open exhibitions in Europe and North America. Nomura would end up having
26730-779: The main characters alongside being one of the main creative forces behind its development. A trend with Nomura's characters is their names being related to the weather or the sky ( Cloud , Squall , Tidus , Lightning ). He wanted to break this tradition when designing Noctis Lucis Caelum , but after Final Fantasy XIII ' s Lightning was given a weather-based name, Nomura gave Noctis his current name: Noctis' name translates from Latin to "Night of Light Sky". Other notable artists include Akihiko Yoshida , Isamu Kamikokuryo , and Yusuke Naora . Yoshida's first major games were Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story , which he worked on together with Hiroshi Minagawa . He also did design work for Final Fantasy Tactics Advance , creating
26928-479: The main characters' original games that do not appear in the Japanese version. Director Takeshi Arakawa referred to the Western version as a more action-based game than the original Japanese version which was more RPG-based. For the Dissidia Final Fantasy US release, Gamestop released the game with two additional covers for anyone who reserved it before it came out. An international version of
27126-399: The majority of their gross revenue from coin drop earnings. Cid (Final Fantasy) Final Fantasy is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi , and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square ). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science fantasy role-playing video games (RPGs). The eponymous first game in the series , published in 1987,
27324-419: The market for fighting games became smaller and more specialized. Even as far back as 1997, many in the industry said that the fighting game market's growing inaccessibility to newcomers was bringing an end to the genre's dominance. Furthermore, arcades gradually became less profitable throughout the late 1990s to early 2000s due to the increased technical power and popularity of home consoles. The early 2000s
27522-434: The mid-2020s, the genre achieved another renaissance with the arrival of Street Fighter 6 and its immediate success, together with Mortal Kombat 1 and Tekken 8 . Street Fighter 6 sold over 1 million copies within five days after its launch, and sold over 3 million copies by January 2024. Mortal Kombat 1 sold over 2 million copies in its first two months, and garnered over 3 million copies by January 2024, while
27720-462: The more technical aspects of the game can be hard to grasp. The game was also praised for its story and cutscenes, with one reviewer noting that the history was "exacting". The game also enjoyed positive reviews by American critics. 1UP.com and GameSpot praised the fighting system and visuals, with the latter commenting on the mix of RPG and action gameplay. The story received mixed reactions, as GameSpot said that it would only interest fans of
27918-400: The most popular, spawning a Champion Edition that improved game balance and allowed players to use boss characters that were unselectable in the previous version. Chicago's Midway Games achieved unprecedented notoriety when they released Mortal Kombat in 1992. The game featured digital characters drawn from real actors, numerous secrets, and " Fatality " finishing maneuvers in which
28116-474: The notable recurring writers is Kazushige Nojima : he first joined the development team for Final Fantasy VII , and would later write the scenario for Final Fantasy VIII (1999). He was also a major contributor to Final Fantasy X (2001) alongside other writers. He returned to write the scenario for Final Fantasy X-2 (2003), despite initial reluctance due to its upbeat feel when compared to its predecessor. His later supplementary material would return to
28314-470: The number of times they were used and the number of hit points accumulated during battles: if a character used magic, they would become strong in magic while other attributes would suffer. For Final Fantasy III , the system changed back to a traditional class-based model: Kawazu said that the reason for this was because no-one could fully understand the system he had created for Final Fantasy II . The battle system most closely associated with Final Fantasy
28512-434: The one-on-one boss battles of his earlier beat 'em up Kung-Fu Master as the template for Capcom 's fighting game Street Fighter , combined with elements of Karate Champ and Yie Ar Kung Fu . Street Fighter found its own niche in the gaming world, which was dominated by beat 'em ups and shoot 'em ups at the time. Part of the game's appeal was the use of special moves that could only be discovered by experimenting with
28710-512: The opponent gets all of the BRV in the "Bravery Pool" (a number that can be seen at the bottom of the screen), massively boosting their BRV amount. One main feature of the combat system is the "EX Gauge", which can be filled in a variety of ways, such as inflicting damage on opponents, taking damage from opponents, and obtaining EX cores scattered around the field of play. Once the EX Gauge is filled,
28908-439: The opponent to recover if they timed them correctly. Its success led to fighting games becoming the dominant genre in the arcade game industry of the early 1990s, which led to a resurgence of the arcade game industry. The popularity of Street Fighter II led it to be released for home game consoles and becoming the defining template for fighting games. SNK released Fatal Fury shortly after Street Fighter II in 1991. It
29106-553: The opponent. Other fighting games, like Dead or Alive , have a unique button for throws and takedowns. Projectiles are primarily in 2D fighting games, like the Hadouken in Street Fighter . Projectiles can simply inflict damage, or can maneuver opponents into disadvantageous positions. Especially in 2D, zoning is defensive play that focuses on using relatively risk-free attacks to keep the opposing player away. The object
29304-399: The player in two different areas where they are trapped and have to find a way out. The other story mode, "Inward Chaos", serves as an alternate scenario in which Chaos has never been defeated and the player is guided by an entity known as Shinryu to defeat Chaos. Dissidia Final Fantasy was originally envisioned by creative producer Tetsuya Nomura as a Kingdom Hearts spin-off featuring
29502-760: The player's character kills their opponent. The game earned a reputation for its gratuitous violence, and was adapted for home game consoles. The home version of Mortal Kombat was released on September 13, 1993, a day promoted as "Mortal Monday". The advertising resulted in line-ups to purchase the game and a subsequent backlash from politicians concerned about the game's violence. The Mortal Kombat franchise would achieve iconic status similar to that of Street Fighter with several sequels as well as movies, television series, and extensive merchandising. Numerous other game developers tried to imitate Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat 's financial success with similar games, including Rare Software with Killer Instinct ,
29700-471: The player. The Job Change system was initially proposed by Sakaguchi as he wanted to give players freedom to customize the party members. The Job System has continued to have a strong role in the series, being most prominent in Final Fantasy V with 22 available jobs. Jobs have recurring functions throughout the series. Some of the more traditional classes include the Warrior/Fighter, the Dragoon,
29898-535: The plot's events. In games with universes containing more advanced technology, it is often depicted as predominantly powered by magic. This is specifically called magitek in Final Fantasy VI , XIV , and XV , while other games have similar elements under a different name, such as mako technology in VII and magicite technology in XII . Such magical technology is often used as a metaphor for overreaching, evil ambition, breaking
30096-528: The point-scoring system of Karate Champ with a health meter system, becoming the standard for the genre. Irem 's Kung-Fu Master , designed by Takashi Nishiyama and released in November 1984, is a side-scrolling beat 'em up that, at the end of each level , featured one-on-one boss battles that resemble fighting games. It is based on Hong Kong martial arts films, specifically Jackie Chan 's Wheels on Meals (1984) and Bruce Lee's Game of Death . Nishiyama later used its one-on-one boss battles as
30294-471: The protagonists from the first ten Final Fantasy games, in their journey. The game's English and international versions give access to other features such an arcade mode. Dissidia originated from Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura 's desire to create a spin-off for the franchise but then changed to the Final Fantasy series. Besides designing the characters, Nomura worked with the Square staff with
30492-661: The rebellion. The heroes are often destined to defeat the evil, and occasionally gather as a direct result of the antagonist's malicious actions. Twin antagonists, with the second main antagonist being hidden for the majority of the game, is also a recurring element. Other common plot and setting themes include the Gaia hypothesis , an apocalypse, and conflicts between advanced technology and nature . Most games feature names inspired from various cultures' history, languages, and mythology, including Asian , European , and Middle-Eastern . In-game items such as weapons follow this tradition:
30690-411: The rewarded player can minimize the number of viable moves available to the other player. Doing so, and then taking advantage of the opponent's limited options, is called pressure. Common forms of pressure include making a player guess whether they should block high or low, or keeping the opposing player trapped in the corner and punishing any attempts to escape. Fighting game matches generally consist of
30888-411: The rise of major international fighting game tournaments such as Tougeki – Super Battle Opera and Evolution Championship Series , and famous players such as Daigo Umehara . An important fighting game at the time was Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike , originally released in 1999. The game gained significant attention with " Evo Moment 37 ", also known as the "Daigo Parry", which refers to a portion of
31086-575: The role of the main character, Terra was chosen in the end so that there would be a female fighter in Cosmos' side. For villains, they decided to include warriors who had a strong rivalry with the heroes rather than automatically choosing the games' final bosses. This resulted in the inclusion of non-final bosses such as Final Fantasy IV ' s Golbez, IX ' s Kuja and X ' s Jecht who were connected with their games' leads (Cecil Harvey, Zidane Tribal and Tidus, respectively). Shantotto from XI
31284-509: The rules of the world, and stealing its energy no matter the cost. Extremely powerful magitek armor is recurring in various games in the series, such as in VI , XIV , and XV in the form of mecha , and in XV as powered armor . Characters and monsters have made appearances in multiple Final Fantasy games, although they remain unconnected in a narrative sense. A recurring animal in Final Fantasy
31482-480: The series as a factor in its longevity. In a review of Final Fantasy VI from 2005, GameSpot cited that game as a genre-defining game with its storyline and emphasis on character development, while Final Fantasy VII has frequently been classed as a game that helped solidify the structure and style of RPGs for many years to follow. Digital Spy said in 2012 that Final Fantasy had "shaped and defined role-playing games across generations of consoles", though felt
31680-479: The series as the platform fighter subgenre due to its deviation from traditional fighting game rules and design. Several games such as Marvel vs. Capcom and Dead or Alive have featured teams where players form "tag teams" to fight duels, but a character may be swapped by a teammate. Some fighting games offer the endurance challenge of a series of opponents. Online games can suffer lag from slow data transmission , which can disrupt split-second timing. This
31878-457: The series had lost some of its appeal as its more recent installments differed too much from their predecessors, with some fans referring to Final Fantasy X as "the last traditional game in the series". Kawazu would develop the concepts he created for Final Fantasy II into its own series, titled SaGa , and other franchises including The Elder Scrolls would adopt its usage-based skill systems. Ishii's experience working on Final Fantasy
32076-452: The series has been associated with multiple artists, the three most prominent being Yoshitaka Amano , Tetsuya Nomura , and Akihiko Yoshida . Amano designed characters up to Final Fantasy VI and continues to design each game's logo, Nomura has designed characters for multiple games since Final Fantasy VII , and Yoshida has been involved in XII , XIV , and games associated with Ivalice. The original gameplay created by Akitoshi Kawazu
32274-528: The series may continue "in another form" since the team already believed they did enough with the fighting genre. The main story of Dissidia also served as a basis for the 2012 rhythm game Theatrhythm Final Fantasy for the Nintendo 3DS , which also uses multiple characters from the Final Fantasy series. In 2013, Ichiro Hazama said that he and much of the team intended to make a third Dissidia title, but did not mention possible platforms. Two years later,
32472-403: The series since the first game, where players chose each character's job from the outset. Kawazu created this system to give players freedom to customize the party. For Final Fantasy IV , jobs were attached to specific characters. Each job in a Final Fantasy game has unique abilities which develop as the player's level increases. In some games, the player can assign a character a specific job at
32670-519: The series. Hideo Minaba contributed character designs to Final Fantasy IX , worked as an art director for XII , and would later design characters for XIII-2 . Italian-born artist Roberto Ferrari worked as a secondary character designer for Final Fantasy Type-0 , Final Fantasy XV , and Final Fantasy VII Remake . Yusaku Nakaaki worked with Naora and Nomura to create characters for Final Fantasy Type-0 , and along with Ferrari created secondary characters for Final Fantasy XV . Akira Oguro created
32868-481: The series. The most common is the airship for long range travel, accompanied by chocobos for traveling short distances, but others include sea and land vessels. Following Final Fantasy VII , more modern and futuristic vehicle designs have been included. For Final Fantasy XV , a car dubbed "Regalia" was introduced as both a ground-based transport and later as a vehicle that could be converted to function as an airship. Airships are often unlocked for players fairly late in
33066-655: The sports game genre. Fighting games involve combat between pairs of fighters using highly exaggerated martial arts moves. They typically revolve primarily around brawling or combat sport , though some variations feature weaponry. Games usually display on-screen fighters from a side view, and even 3D fighting games play largely within a 2D plane of motion. Games usually confine characters to moving left and right and jumping, although some games such as Fatal Fury: King of Fighters allow players to move between parallel planes of movement. Recent games tend to be rendered in three dimensions, making it easier for developers to add
33264-467: The stage when a character reaches a high percentage of damage; however, the gameplay objective differs from that of traditional fighting games in that the aim is to increase damage counters and knock opponents off the stage instead of depleting life bars. Beginning with Midway's Mortal Kombat released in 1992, the Mortal Kombat series introduced "Fatalities", where the match victor inflicts
33462-491: The start of the game, while other games allow characters to combine and learn abilities from a number of jobs. In addition to other abilities, a character's job usually determines the types of weapons and armor that they can use. Final Fantasy III saw the introduction of the Job Change System: through special crystals, the four player characters were granted a variety of jobs that could be switched at any point by
33660-545: The strength of other attacks. Some characters have unusual taunts, like Dan Hibiki from Street Fighter Alpha . Combos that chain several attacks are fundamental to the genre since Street Fighter II (1991). Most fighting games display a "combo meter" of progress through a combo. The effectiveness of such moves often relates to the difficulty of execution and the degree of risk. These moves are often challenging, requiring excellent memory and timing. Predicting opponents' moves and counter-attacking, known as "countering",
33858-474: The subseries by Square Enix long after its release. The game's references to other Final Fantasy games were originally intended as fan service. Ivalice itself was the creation of Yasumi Matsuno, the main creative force behind Tactics and Vagrant Story . It first appeared in Tactics . Matsuno's work with Ivalice later inspired the scenarios for A Realm Reborn . Stories in the series frequently emphasize
34056-706: The system further as he felt the version in IV was incomplete. A mechanic introduced in Final Fantasy VII was Limit Breaks, special cinematic moves that have become a staple of the series. The ATB system was in use until Final Fantasy X , which switched to a system called the "Conditional Turn-based Battle" system: while reverting to a purely turn-based model, it included additional elements such as in-battle party member switching. Final Fantasy XI , XIV , and its sequel A Realm Reborn used real-time command-based combat systems and removed random encounters, playing in
34254-475: The team chose the PlayStation Portable console. There were plans for online play but the console's capacities made them unable to add such a feature. Developing the game took three years due with the battle system requiring two years and the RPG mode one. Deciding the Final Fantasy heroes was easy for the staff except for Terra Branford. While her game, Final Fantasy VI , features multiple characters that would fit
34452-562: The team experimented with multiple character control, it was decided that it presented too many development difficulties. The battle system of Final Fantasy XVI , designed by Capcom veteran Ryota Suzuki, again focused on action with a single protagonist with a focus on switching elemental abilities gained from the world's summons. Battles were also split between standard combat with smaller enemies, and large cinematic battles with their own mechanics. Character classes in Final Fantasy are often referred to as "jobs"; they have been present in
34650-470: The ten crystals that will help them defeat Chaos. They each set out on a journey called a "Destiny Odyssey", where their respective stories are told and interlink with one another. During their travels the heroes encounter their villains, defeating them through epiphanies about themselves that help them obtain their crystals. Following the "Destiny Odysseys" is the "Shade Impulse", where all ten warriors have their crystals but arrive too late to save Cosmos, who
34848-518: The two most notable are Excalibur and Masamune, derived respectively from the Arthurian sword and legendary Japanese swordsmith . A recurring concept within Final Fantasy settings is the use of important magical crystals; in early games, they represented the Japanese classical elements and were instrumental in keeping the world in balance. Due to this, control over the crystals forms part of
35046-604: The two terms may still be conflated. Sports-based combat games are games that feature boxing , mixed martial arts (MMA), or wrestling . Serious boxing games belong more to the sports game genre than the action game genre, as they aim for a more realistic model of boxing techniques, whereas moves in fighting games tend to be either highly exaggerated or outright fantastical models of Asian martial arts techniques. As such, boxing games, mixed martial arts games, and wrestling games are often described as distinct genres, without comparison to fighting games, and belong more in
35244-404: The updated Super Street Fighter IV , sold more than 6 million copies over the next few years. The success of these two games, among others, sparked a renaissance for the genre, introducing new players to the genre and with the increased audience allowing other fighting game franchises to achieve successful revivals of their own, as well as increasing tournament participation. Tekken 6
35442-587: The upper hand. Players can then use the "HP attack" to cause direct damage to their opponent; HP damage is equal to the player's current amount of Bravery. However, once an HP attack is used, the character's own BRV is reduced to 0 and then slowly recovers to its starting amount. A character whose BRV total has been depleted (past 0 BRV and into the negatives) is forced into "Break mode", where, aside from not being able to cause HP and BRV damage (but being able to gain BRV), all attacks made against them cause critical damage and
35640-504: The use of individual special skills of characters to do damage to opponents. Players can customize their characters with equipment. Character movement is fully functional within the three-dimensional field map. Characters are able to perform special maneuvers using the environment. Traps with a variety of ill effects can be found throughout the arena. Characters' equipment can be customized, and they can gain EXP and gil from battles. The aim
35838-406: The video game market; Sakaguchi had long wished to create a role-playing game, but the company had denied him the opportunity until then. The first Final Fantasy was released in 1987, and was a commercial and critical success that fueled the development of further games. The series garnered international popularity with the release of Final Fantasy VII (1997) for the PlayStation , which became
36036-636: The western localization , the Square Enix staff used analysis from their subsidiary companies in London and Los Angeles to readjust the game for Western audiences. The release date for the western world was revealed to be August 25, 2009 (starting in North America), in addition a number of small changes, including re-adjustments in gameplay, new gameplay events, an arcade gameplay mode, a shortened tutorial, new moves for playable characters, and extra cutscenes featuring cameos from several other characters from
36234-725: Was Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii . Featuring 40 characters from Nintendo and third-party franchises, the game was a runaway commercial success in addition to being lavished with critical praise. In the new millennium, fighting games became less popular and plentiful than in the mid-1990s, with multiplayer competition shifting towards other genres. However, SNK reappeared in 2003 as SNK Playmore and continued to release games. Arc System Works received critical acclaim for releasing Guilty Gear X in 2001, as well as its sequel Guilty Gear XX , as both were 2D fighting games featuring striking anime -inspired graphics. Fighting games became
36432-489: Was based around Dungeons & Dragons and Wizardry . Starting with Final Fantasy IV , the Hiroyuki Ito -designed ATB system took prevalence; variations of the ATB system have been used in multiple entries since then. These various elements have been positively received by critics over the series' lifetime, contributing to its overall worldwide success, with the gameplay and narratives frequently cited as setting
36630-425: Was brought on board the first Final Fantasy as general artwork designer, filling that role for II and III . For Final Fantasy IV , Amano was given more freedom to create elaborate character designs. Amano returned as character designer and general artwork for Final Fantasy V . Final Fantasy VI , in addition to featuring work by Amano, also had contributions from other designers including Kaori Tanaka . From
36828-419: Was building off the popularity of its previous iteration and was still positively received, selling more than 3 million copies worldwide by August 2010, one year after its release. Other successful games that followed include Mortal Kombat , Marvel vs. Capcom 3 , The King of Fighters XIII , Dead or Alive 5 , Tekken Tag Tournament 2 , Soulcalibur V , and Guilty Gear Xrd . Though
37026-433: Was conceived by Sakaguchi as his last-ditch effort in the game industry; the game was a success and spawned sequels. While most entries in the series are separate from each other, they have recurring elements carrying over between entries, including plot themes and motifs, gameplay mechanics, and visual elements. The Final Fantasy series features recurring thematic elements, including magical crystals and creatures such as
37224-474: Was designed by Takashi Nishiyama, the creator of the original Street Fighter , which it was envisioned as a spiritual successor to. Fatal Fury placed more emphasis on storytelling and the timing of special moves, and added a two-plane system where characters could step into the foreground or background. Meanwhile, Sega experimented with Dark Edge , an early attempt at a 3D fighting game where characters could move in all directions. However, Sega never released
37422-479: Was easier to learn than Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat , which has six and five buttons respectively. By the time the game was released for the Sega Saturn in Japan, the game and system were selling at almost a one-to-one ratio. In 1994, Namco released Tekken , the rival arcade game using cutting-edge 3D polygon technology. The 1995 PlayStation game Battle Arena Toshinden is credited for taking
37620-509: Was inspired while watching a Formula One race and seeing racers pass each other at different speeds. This gave him the idea of different speed values for the individual characters. Ito himself described the inspiration as his wish to balance pure turn-based mechanics with real-time battle mechanics, which played into a movement in Formula One where cars were shifting towards using semi-automatic gearboxes. For Final Fantasy V , Ito evolved
37818-509: Was later expanded into a multimedia series gamed Compilation of Final Fantasy VII , which included video games ( Before Crisis , Dirge of Cerberus , Crisis Core ) and film projects ( Advent Children , Last Order ). A different subseries linked by common elements, and indirectly inspired by the Compilation , is Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy ; while the subseries' games have unique settings and stories, they all share
38016-426: Was made in commemoration of the franchise's 20th anniversary and despite being handled by young employees, Nomura noticed there was no pressure, having assisted them in the designing various areas from the gameplay. The game was directed by Takeshi Arakawa whom Nomura noted that his experience in a previous Square Enix game, The World Ends With You , had a good effect in the game. To have their desired way of fighting,
38214-419: Was released on December 24, 2008, and is available in both regular and special editions, similar to the game itself. Most tracks are often remixes done by Ishimoto of past Final Fantasy music originally composed by Nobuo Uematsu . The main theme of the game is "The Messenger" by Your Favorite Enemies . The tracks "Cosmos" and "Chaos - Last Battle 1" are also performed by Your Favorite Enemies. "The Messenger"
38412-446: Was the dominant genre in competitive video gaming, with enthusiasts popularly attending arcades in order to find human opponents. The genre was also very popular on home consoles. At the beginning of 1996, GamePro (a magazine devoted chiefly to home console and handheld gaming) reported that for the last several years, their reader surveys had consistently yielded 4 out of 5 respondents name fighting games as their favorite genre. In
38610-425: Was the first game to include such a feature. Fighting games can support a two-player duel, sometimes by letting a second player challenge the first at any moment during a single-player match. Some games allow four-player simultaneous competition. Uniquely, the Super Smash Bros. series has allowed eight-player local and online multiplayer matches, beginning with Super Smash Bros. for Wii U , though many classify
38808-550: Was the only fighting game included in the esport league, the Championship Gaming Series (CGS), in 2007 and 2008. The league was operated and fully broadcast by DirecTV in association with British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) and STAR TV . Dead or Alive has been credited for launching the careers of pro-gamer turned Koei Tecmo employee, Emmanuel Rodriguez, and the highest-paid women pro-gamers, Kat Gunn and Vanessa Arteaga . The late 2000s featured
39006-681: Was used based on her popularity, while Gabranth was used to represent XII in Balthier 's place as the latter had already been featured in Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions and Square wanted his inclusion to surprise gamers. Other characters meant to have been featured were Final Fantasy IV ' s Kain Highwind and XIII ' s Lightning . Nomura was responsible for the character designs , which changed much of
39204-669: Was written by Miwa Shoda, whose work was fleshed out by Watanabe. Watanabe would later work on the scenarios of Final Fantasy XIII (2009) and its sequels, which would become one of his major projects. The scenario for Final Fantasy XI (2002) was created by Masato Kato , who returned for the expansion Rise of the Zilart . For Final Fantasy XIV (2010), the writer was Yaeko Sato, who also worked on XI and XII ; Sato stayed on as lead writer for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (2013), alongside new writer Kazutoyo Maehiro. The lead writer for expansions beginning with Heavensward
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