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244-539: Each player uses a deck of 50 cards, with no more than 3 copies of the same card. Players play cards by spending Crystal Points, earned by "dulling" (turning from vertical to horizontal) Backup cards, or by discarding cards. The game features a wide range of Characters from games in the Final Fantasy series. The game has a global tournament circuit. There are 1898 unique cards in the Chapter series. As of Opus XI,

488-404: A 2D game for Nintendo 's Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super NES). After creating an early 2D prototype of it, the team postponed development to help finish Chrono Trigger . Once Chrono Trigger was completed, the team resumed discussions for Final Fantasy VII in 1995. The team discussed continuing the 2D strategy, which would have been the safe and immediate path just prior to

732-420: A fixed-width font and having to insert kanji through language input keys to add special characters (for example, vowels with diacritics ) to keep the code working. Consequently, the text was still read as Japanese by the word processor; the computer's spellcheck could not be used, and mistakes had to be caught manually. The code used obscure kanji to refer to main character's names, which made unintuitive for

976-400: A mobile spin-off in 2017. Other spin-offs have taken the form of subseries— Compilation of Final Fantasy VII , Ivalice Alliance , and Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy . In 2022, Square Enix released an action-role playing title Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin developed in collaboration with Team Ninja , which takes place in an alternate, reimagined reality based on

1220-532: A radio drama , and Final Fantasy: Unlimited has received a radio drama sequel. A trading card game named Final Fantasy Trading Card Game is produced by Square Enix and Hobby Japan , first released Japan in 2012 with an English version in 2016. The game has been compared to Magic: the Gathering , and a tournament circuit for the game also takes place. Although most Final Fantasy installments are independent, many gameplay elements recur throughout

1464-566: A "keyword". Keywords are usually Field Abilities although some describe other effects. The most common examples are: Only printed on Forwards and Monsters with an effect that allows them to be treated as a Forward, the power is indicated in the bottom right-hand corner of the card. The power of a card is separate from the damage it takes: a card takes damage when attacking, defending, or due to an effect; while its power can only be raised or lowered by an effect. The Chapter series started after Square Enix contacted Tarou Kageyama of Hobby Japan about

1708-433: A 2008 public poll held by The Game Group plc , Final Fantasy was voted the best game series, with five games appearing in their "Greatest Games of All Time" list. Many Final Fantasy games have been included in various lists of top games. Several games have been listed on multiple IGN "Top Games" lists. Twelve games were listed on Famitsu 's 2006 "Top 100 Favorite Games of All Time", four of which were in

1952-576: A 9.5 out of 10 and their "Game of the Month" award, lauding its rendered backgrounds, use of FMV, battles, and especially the story line, though they expressed disappointment that the ending didn't resolve all of the loose ends. They also considered the North American localization a dramatic improvement over the original Japanese version. GamePro gave it a perfect 5.0 out of 5 in all four categories (graphics, sound, control, and fun factor), calling

2196-663: A Backup card, which will provide one Crystal Point of its Element type, or by discarding a card from the player's hand, which will provide two Crystal Points of its Element type. To successfully play a card, the player must pay the CP cost with at least 1 CP belonging to its Element type. Example: A Fire card with a cost of 5 CP requires one Fire CP and four CP of any type. Light and Dark Element type cards do not have this restriction and any CP can be used to play these cards, but they cannot be discarded for CP. Cards in play can either be active (vertical) or dull (horizontal) and often switch between

2440-457: A Damage Zone has seven cards in it, that player loses the game. To play a card or ability, a player announces the card or ability and any targets it has and pays the CP cost. Either player can respond to an effect before it resolves using the "stack". If both players consecutively "pass priority" (choose not to add another effect to the stack), the top effect on the stack resolves (the most recent one added) then players may once again add effects to

2684-487: A Single Day" ( Final Fantasy X ). The 2009 edition listed two games from the series among the top 50 consoles games: Final Fantasy XII at number 8 and VII at number 20. In 2018, Final Fantasy VII was inducted as a member of the World Video Game Hall of Fame . However, the series has garnered some criticism. IGN has commented that the menu system used by the games is a major detractor for many and

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2928-506: A United States audience, and Final Fantasy Tactics is a tactical RPG that features many references and themes found in the series. The spin-off Chocobo series, Crystal Chronicles series, and Kingdom Hearts series also include multiple Final Fantasy elements. In 2003, the Final Fantasy series' first sub-sequel, Final Fantasy X-2 , was released. Final Fantasy XIII was originally intended to stand on its own, but

3172-594: A Western company to assist with releasing the PC version. Eidos Interactive , whose release of Tomb Raider had turned them into a publishing giant, agreed to market and publish the port. The port was announced in December 1997, along with Eidos' exclusivity deal for North America and Europe at the time, though the port was rumored to happen as early as December 1996, prior to the PlayStation version's release. To help

3416-682: A base for entire structures. The first five games were directed by Sakaguchi, who also provided the original concepts. He drew inspiration for game elements from anime films by Hayao Miyazaki ; series staples like the airships and chocobos are inspired by elements in Castle in the Sky and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind , respectively. Sakaguchi served as a producer for subsequent games until he left Square in 2001. Yoshinori Kitase took over directing

3660-531: A bit to get going, as in every entry in the series, moments of high melodrama are blended with scenes of sheer poetry and vision". Edge noted that Final Fantasy VII had come close to being an interactive movie in playable form, praising its combination of a complex story that went against Western graphic adventures trends and "excellently orchestrated chip music". RPGamer praised the game's soundtrack, both in variety and sheer volume, stating that "Uematsu has done his work exceptionally well" and saying that it

3904-435: A block with one of their own active Forwards. When Forwards battle, they deal damage to each other equal to their power value. A Forward with equal or more damage than its own power is broken and put into its owner's Break Zone. If an attacking Forward isn't blocked, it deals one damage to the defending player. When a player is dealt damage, they put 1 card per damage from the top of their deck face-up into their Damage Zone. When

4148-410: A deck from them. In Draft, players receive 5 Final Fantasy TCG booster packs. Each player then picks one card from their provided booster pack and then passes it to the player to their immediate left until no cards are left. Then, the next pack is opened and this pattern continues to the player on the immediate right. This happens until all packs are opened. Once this process ends, each player constructs

4392-598: A deck in accordance to the Limited rules. Title format limits deck construction to contain only one Final Fantasy archetype (for example only Final Fantasy 7 cards). The normal gameplay rules are changed, allowing players to play cards using Crystal Points of any color and even have different cards of the same name on the field at the same time. The All Stars Draft Cube is a pre-constructed collection of select Final Fantasy TCG cards. The exact card list changes over time. Gameplay follows "Limited Draft" rules. The card name

4636-623: A deliberate nod to the Shinra Company and that he envisioned the events of Final Fantasy X-2 as a prequel to those in VII . The advances in technology used to create the FMV sequences and computer graphics for Final Fantasy VII allowed Sakaguchi to begin production on the first Final Fantasy film, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within . The game introduced a particular aesthetic to the series—fantasy suffused with modern-to-advanced technology—which

4880-599: A false persona based around Zack's stories and his own fantasies. Cloud accepts his past and reunites with the party, who learn that Aerith's prayer to the Planet had been successful: the Planet had attempted to summon Holy to prevent Meteor's impact, but Sephiroth prevented it from having any effect. Shinra fails to destroy Meteor, but manages to defeat a Weapon and puncture the Northern Crater, seemingly killing Rufus and several other personnel. After killing Hojo, who

5124-514: A feature length direct-to-DVD CGI film, and Last Order: Final Fantasy VII , a non-canon OVA, were released as part of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII . Advent Children was animated by Visual Works, which helped the company create CG sequences for the games. The film, unlike The Spirits Within , became a commercial success. Last Order , on the other hand, was released in Japan in

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5368-600: A former Turk and victim of Shinra's experiments. The game's main antagonists are Rufus Shinra , the son of President Shinra and the later leader of the Shinra Corporation; Sephiroth , a former SOLDIER who reappears several years after being presumed dead; and Jenova, a hostile extraterrestrial life-form who the Cetra imprisoned 2,000 years ago and who Sephiroth was created from. A key character in Cloud's backstory

5612-640: A forward type if it is black and a backup type if it is white. It was first released Japan in 2011 and in English in October 2016. Final Fantasy TCG has been noted for its quick and streamlined gameplay, but the game has been criticized for having very small card text that is hard to read. The game has been compared to Magic: the Gathering . As of September 2016, the game has sold more than 3.5 million booster packs in Japan and 5.5 million packs worldwide as of July 2017. Final Fantasy Final Fantasy

5856-535: A fully active battle scenario, allowing for free range attacks and movement, giving a much more fluid feel of combat. This system also incorporates a "Tactical" Option during battle, which pauses active battle to allow use of items. Like most RPGs, the Final Fantasy installments use an experience level system for character advancement, in which experience points are accumulated by killing enemies. Character classes , specific jobs that enable unique abilities for characters, are another recurring theme. Introduced in

6100-416: 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 the rebellion. The heroes are often destined to defeat the evil, and occasionally gather as a direct result of the antagonist's malicious actions. Another staple of the series is the existence of two villains;

6344-507: A landmark title and one of the greatest and most influential video games ever made . The title won numerous Game of the Year awards and was acknowledged for boosting the sales of the PlayStation and popularizing Japanese role-playing games worldwide. Critics praised its graphics, gameplay, music, and story, although some criticism was directed towards the original English localization . Its success has led to enhanced ports on various platforms,

6588-695: A lower polygon count than field areas, which made creating distinctive features more difficult. The summon sequences benefited strongly from the switch to the cinematic style, as the team had struggled to portray their scale using 2D graphics. In his role as producer, Sakaguchi placed much of his effort into developing the battle system. He proposed the Materia system as a way to provide more character customization than previous Final Fantasy games: battles no longer revolved around characters with innate skills and roles in battle, as Materia could be reconfigured between battles. Artist Tetsuya Nomura also contributed to

6832-492: A manga, and Final Fantasy XI had a novel and manga set in its continuity. Seven novellas based on the Final Fantasy VII universe have also been released. The Final Fantasy: Unlimited story was partially continued in novels and a manga after the anime series ended. The Final Fantasy X and XIII series have also had novellas and audio dramas released. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has been adapted into

7076-675: A means of long-distance travel for characters. Moogles are white, stout creatures resembling teddy bears with wings and a single antenna. They serve different roles in games including mail delivery, weaponsmiths , party members, and saving the game . Cactuars are anthropomorphic cacti with haniwa -like faces presented in a running or dashing pose. They usually appear as recurring enemy units, and also as summoned allies or friendly non-player characters in certain titles. Chocobo and Moogle appearances are often accompanied by specific musical themes that have been arranged differently for separate games. In Final Fantasy games, players command

7320-406: A mix of live-action scenes and Final Fantasy XIV gameplay footage. As of June 2019, Sony Pictures Television is working on a live-action adaptation of the series with Hivemind and Square Enix. Jason F. Brown, Sean Daniel and Dinesh Shamdasani for Hivemind are the producers while Ben Lustig and Jake Thornton were attached as writers and executive producers for the series. Several video games in

7564-403: A more dynamic look; the game features full 3D environments, rather than having 3D character models move about pre-rendered backgrounds. It is also the first Final Fantasy game to feature voice acting , occurring throughout the majority of the game, even with many minor characters. This aspect added a whole new dimension of depth to the character's reactions, emotions, and development. Taking

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7808-408: A motion specialist for such animations, the designers taught themselves motion work, resulting in each character's movements differing depending on their creators—some designers liked exaggerated movements, while others went for subtlety. Much of the time was spent on each character's day-to-day, routine animations. Motion specialists were brought in for the game's battle animations. The first characters

8052-515: A multimedia subseries called the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII , and a high definition remake trilogy currently comprising Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020), and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2024). The gameplay of Final Fantasy VII is similar to earlier Final Fantasy titles and Japanese role-playing games . The game features three modes of play: the world map, the field, and the battle screen. At its grandest scale, players explore

8296-493: A new fantasy role-playing game for the cartridge-based NES, and drew inspiration from popular fantasy games: Enix 's Dragon Quest , Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda , and Origin Systems 's Ultima series . Though often attributed to the company allegedly facing bankruptcy, Sakaguchi explained that the game was his personal last-ditch effort in the game industry and that its title, Final Fantasy , stemmed from his feelings at

8540-578: A new setting, a new cast of characters, and an upgraded battle system. Video game writer John Harris attributed the concept of reworking the game system of each installment to Nihon Falcom 's Dragon Slayer series, with which Square was previously involved as a publisher. The company regularly released new games in the main series, but the time between the releases of XI (2002), XII (2006), and XIII (2009) were much longer than previous games. Following Final Fantasy XIV , Square Enix released Final Fantasy games either annually or biennially. This switch

8784-517: A paid-for trip to the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game World Championship. Players that have won Crystal Cup tournaments are invited to play in the world championship. Previous locations included Tokyo, London, and Los Angeles. The back surface of the cards have a treatment applied to give a luxury feel when held. The backs of the Chapter cards are based on white with black overlay. Opus cards kept

9028-470: A party of characters as they progress through the game's story by exploring the game world and defeating enemies. Enemies are typically encountered randomly through exploring, a trend which changed in Final Fantasy XI and XII . The player issues combat orders—like "Fight", "Magic", and "Item"—to individual characters via a menu-driven interface while engaging in battles. Throughout the series,

9272-503: A player's deck can contain a minimum of 40 cards and games can be won by dealing the opponent 6 points of damage. Players can also have more than 3 copies of the same card in their deck. However, all other Constructed rules apply. There are two variations of Limited play in Final Fantasy TCG: Sealed and Draft. This format sees competitive play. In Sealed, players receive 9 Final Fantasy TCG booster packs and construct

9516-505: A port. Having never released a title for PC, Square decided to treat the port as a sales experiment. The port was handled by a team of 15 to 20 people, mostly from Costa Mesa but with help from Tokyo. Square did not begin the port until the console version was finished. The team needed to rewrite an estimated 80% of the game's code, due to the need to unify what had been a custom build for a console written by multiple staff members. Consequently, programmers faced problems such as having to unify

9760-574: A rational and analytical manner. Square eventually used the New York setting in Parasite Eve (1998). While the planned concept was dropped, Final Fantasy VII still marked a drastic shift in setting from previous entries, dropping the Medieval fantasy elements in favor of a world that was "ambiguously futuristic". When Kitase was put in charge of Final Fantasy VII , he and Nomura reworked

10004-538: A scientist or engineer, and being tied in some way to an airship the party eventually acquires. Every Cid has at least one of these two traits. Biggs and Wedge , inspired by two Star Wars characters of the same name, appear in numerous games as minor characters, sometimes as comic relief. The later games in the series feature several males with effeminate characteristics. Recurring creatures include Chocobos , Moogles , and Cactuars . Chocobos are large, often flightless birds that appear in several installments as

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10248-429: A second installment. Because Sakaguchi assumed Final Fantasy would be a stand-alone game, its story was not designed to be expanded by a sequel. The developers instead chose to carry over only thematic similarities from its predecessor, while some of the gameplay elements, such as the character advancement system, were overhauled. This approach has continued throughout the series; each major Final Fantasy game features

10492-567: A section of the final battle of the game. The track has been called Uematsu's "most recognizable contribution" to the music of the Final Fantasy series, which Uematsu agrees with. Inspired by The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky to make a more "classical" track, and by rock and roll music from the late 1960s and early 1970s to make an orchestral track with a "destructive impact", he spent two weeks composing short unconnected musical phrases, and then arranged them together into "One-Winged Angel", an approach he had never used before. Music from

10736-429: A separate sheet of paper". Something that could not be carried over from earlier titles was the chibi sprite art, as that would not fit with the new graphical direction. Naora, in his role as an assistant character designer and art director, helped adjust each character's appearance so the actions they performed were believable. When designing Cloud and Sephiroth, Nomura was influenced by his view of their rivalry mirroring

10980-400: A shock of spiky, bright blond hair. Vincent's occupation changed from researcher to detective to chemist, and finally to a former Turk with a tragic past. Sakaguchi was responsible for writing the initial plot, which was quite different from the final version. In this draft for the planned SNES version, the game's setting was envisioned as New York City in 1999. Similar to the final story,

11224-422: A significant weakness in the game, and IGN regarded the ability to use only three characters at a time as "the game's only shortcoming". Reviewers gave similar praise to the PC version but criticized its various technical faults. Computer Games Magazine said that no other recent game had the same "tendency to fail to work in any capacity on multiple [computers]". Computer Gaming World complained that

11468-408: A small group managed to seal away Jenova in a tomb, which Shinra later unearthed. At Nibelheim, Jenova's cells were used in experiments which led to the creation of Sephiroth. Five years before the game's events, Sephiroth and Cloud visited Nibelheim, where Sephiroth learned of his origins and was driven insane as a result. He murdered the townspeople, and then vanished after Cloud confronted him. At

11712-545: A special DVD bundle package with Advent Children . Last Order sold out quickly and was positively received by Western critics, though fan reaction was mixed over changes to established story scenes. Two animated tie-ins for Final Fantasy XV were released as part of a larger multimedia project dubbed the Final Fantasy XV Universe. Brotherhood is a series of five 10-to-20-minute-long episodes developed by A-1 Pictures and Square Enix detailing

11956-551: A story unrelated to previous games, so the numbers refer to volumes rather than to sequels. Many Final Fantasy games have been localized for markets in North America, Europe, and Australia on numerous video game consoles , personal computers (PC), and mobile phones . As of June 2023, the series includes the main installments from Final Fantasy to Final Fantasy XVI , as well as direct sequels and spin-offs , both released and confirmed as being in development. Most of

12200-494: A strong connection to the Planet and the Lifestream. The main protagonist is Cloud Strife , an aloof mercenary who claims to be a former 1st Class SOLDIER. Early on, he works with two members of AVALANCHE: Barret Wallace , its brazen but fatherly leader; and Tifa Lockhart , a shy yet nurturing martial artist and his childhood friend. During their journey, they meet Aerith Gainsborough , a carefree flower merchant and one of

12444-594: A temporary divergence, Final Fantasy XI used the PlayStation 2's online capabilities as an MMORPG. Initially released for the PlayStation 2 with a PC port arriving six months later, XI was also released on the Xbox 360 nearly four years after its original release in Japan. This was the first Final Fantasy game to use a free rotating camera. Final Fantasy XII was released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2 and uses only half as many polygons as Final Fantasy X , in exchange for more advanced textures and lighting. It also retains

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12688-647: A then-new subsidiary of Square that specialized in computer graphics and FMVs creation. Visual Works had created the initial movie concept for a 3D game project. The FMVs were created by an international team, covering both Japan and North America and involving talent from the gaming and film industry; Western contributors included artists and staff who had worked on the Star Wars film series, Jurassic Park , Terminator 2: Judgment Day , and True Lies . The team tried to create additional optional CGI content which would bring optional characters Vincent and Yuffie into

12932-471: A victory fanfare , a theme that has become one of the most recognized pieces of music in the series. The basic theme that accompanies Chocobo appearances has been rearranged in a different musical style for most installments. Recurring secret bosses such as Gilgamesh are also used as opportunities to revive their musical themes. A theme known as the "Final Fantasy Main Theme" or " March ", originally featured in

13176-451: A world-controlling megacorporation from using the planet's life essence as an energy source. Ensuing events send Cloud and his allies in pursuit of Sephiroth , a superhuman who seeks to wound the planet and harness its healing power in order to be reborn as a god. Throughout their journey, Cloud bonds with his party members, including Aerith Gainsborough , who holds the secret to saving their world. Development began in 1994, originally for

13420-609: Is Zack Fair , a member of SOLDIER and Aerith's first love. AVALANCHE destroys a Shinra Mako reactor in Midgar, but an attack on another reactor goes wrong and Cloud falls into the city's slums. There, he meets Aerith and protects her from Shinra. Meanwhile, Shinra finds AVALANCHE's base of operations and intentionally collapses part of the upper city level in retaliation for the Mako reactor being destroyed, killing many AVALANCHE members and innocent bystanders as collateral damage . Aerith

13664-673: Is a fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi which is owned, developed, and published by Square Enix (formerly Square ). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy role-playing video games . The first game in the series was released in 1987, with 16 numbered main entries having been released to date. The franchise has since branched into other video game genres such as tactical role-playing , action role-playing , massively multiplayer online role-playing , racing , third-person shooter , fighting , and rhythm , as well as branching into other media, including films, anime , manga , and novels . Final Fantasy

13908-432: Is a "significant reason why they haven't touched the series". The site has also heavily criticized the use of random encounters in the series' battle systems. IGN further stated that the various attempts to bring the series into film and animation have either been unsuccessful, unremarkable, or did not live up to the standards of the games. In 2007, Edge criticized the series for a number of related games that include

14152-461: Is a 1997 role-playing video game developed by Square for the PlayStation . The seventh main installment in the Final Fantasy series, it was released in Japan by Square and internationally by Sony Computer Entertainment , becoming the first game in the main series to have a PAL release. The game's story follows Cloud Strife , a mercenary who joins an eco-terrorist organization to stop

14396-509: Is a failed clone of Sephiroth. Sephiroth summons Meteor and seals the Crater as Cloud falls into the Lifestream and Rufus captures the party. After escaping Shinra, the party discovers Cloud at an island hospital in a catatonic state from Mako poisoning, and Tifa decides to stay as his caretaker. When a planetary defense force called Weapon attacks the island, the two fall into the Lifestream, where Tifa helps Cloud reconstruct his memories. Cloud

14640-467: Is also captured since Shinra believes that as a Cetra, she can potentially reveal the "Promised Land", which they believe is overflowing with Lifestream energy they can exploit. Cloud, Barret, and Tifa rescue Aerith, and during their escape from Midgar, discover that Sephiroth murdered President Shinra despite being presumed dead five years earlier. The party pursues Sephiroth across the Planet, with now-President Rufus on their trail; they are soon joined by

14884-596: Is also the first in the main series to utilize a world used in a previous game, namely the land of Ivalice , which was previously featured in Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story . In 2009, Final Fantasy XIII was released in Japan, and in North America and Europe the following year, for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is the flagship installment of the Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy series and became

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15128-554: Is another common RPG element in the series. The method by which characters gain magic varies between installments, but 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. Other types of magic frequently appear such as "Time magic", focusing on

15372-571: Is credited as having the largest impact of the Final Fantasy series, and with allowing console role-playing games to gain mass-market appeal outside of Japan. Aerith's death in the game has often been referred to as one of the most significant moments from any video game. In addition, Final Fantasy VII is also noted for its use of the unreliable narrator literary concept, drawing comparisons to films such as Fight Club (1999), The Sixth Sense (1999), American Psycho (2000) and Memento (2000). Patrick Holleman and Jeremy Parish argue that

15616-464: Is mostly an anthology series with primary installments being stand-alone role-playing games, each with different settings, plots and main characters, but the franchise is linked by several recurring elements, including game mechanics and recurring character names. Each plot centers on a particular group of heroes who are battling a great evil, but also explores the characters' internal struggles and relationships. Character names are frequently derived from

15860-415: Is revealed to be Sephiroth's biological father, the party descends to the Planet's core through the opening in the Northern Crater and defeats both Jenova and Sephiroth. The party escapes and Holy is summoned once again, destroying Meteor with help from the Lifestream. Five hundred years later, Red XIII is seen with two cubs looking out over the ruins of Midgar, which are now covered in greenery, showing that

16104-415: Is well known for its innovation, visuals, such as the inclusion of full-motion videos and photorealistic character models, and music by Nobuo Uematsu . It has popularized many features now common in role-playing games, also popularizing the genre as a whole in markets outside Japan . The first installment of the series was released in Japan on December 18, 1987. Subsequent games are numbered and given

16348-519: Is written in a frame at the top of the card. A player may only have one Character with that name on their side of the field unless the Character has the multi-unit icon in the top right-hand corner. The top right-hand corner might also have an EX icon which means its first ability (for Characters) or the entire effect (for Summons) can trigger when the card is placed into the Damage Zone. The ID of

16592-609: The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences ' inaugural Interactive Achievement Awards , Final Fantasy VII won in the categories of " Console Adventure Game of the Year " and " Console Role-Playing Game of the Year "; it also received nominations for " Interactive Title of the Year ", "Console Game of the Year", " Outstanding Achievement in Art/Graphics ", and " Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Design ". In

16836-520: The Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimate Box Japanese package on December 18, 2012. While its success in Japan had been taken for granted by Square executives, North America and Europe were another matter, as up to that time the Japanese role-playing genre was still a niche market in Western territories. Sony, due to the PlayStation's struggles against Nintendo and Sega's home consoles, lobbied for

17080-511: The Final Fantasy VII game scaled back to 2D, with some of the side quests removed. The game's popularity and open-ended nature also led director Kitase and scenario writer Nojima to establish a plot-related connection between Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X-2 . The character Shinra from X-2 proposes the concept of extracting the life energy from within the planet Spira . Nojima has stated that Shinra and his proposal are

17324-553: The Gaia hypothesis , an apocalypse, and conflicts between advanced technology and nature . The series features a number of recurring character archetypes. Most famously, every game since Final Fantasy II , including subsequent remakes of the original Final Fantasy , features a character named Cid . Cid's appearance, personality, goals, and role in the game (non-playable ally, party member, villain) vary dramatically, but two characteristics many versions of Cid have in common are being

17568-549: The Origins Awards , it won in the category "Best Roleplaying Computer Game of 1997". Final Fantasy VII was awarded Game of the Year by magazines including Game Informer , GamePro , and Hyper . It was also awarded the "Readers' Choice All Systems Game of the Year", "Readers' Choice PlayStation Game of the Year" and "Readers' Choice Role-Playing Game of the Year" by Electronic Gaming Monthly ( EGM ), which gave it Editors' Choice Awards for "Role-Playing Game of

17812-655: The PlayStation 2 . Final Fantasy X (2001) introduced full 3D areas and voice acting to the series, and was the first to spawn a sub-sequel ( Final Fantasy X-2 , published in 2003). The first massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) in the series, Final Fantasy XI , was released on the PS2 and PC in 2002, and later on the Xbox 360 . It introduced real-time battles instead of random encounters . Final Fantasy XII , published in 2006, also includes real-time battles in large, interconnected playfields. The game

18056-513: The PlayStation 3 as well, in 2013. Final Fantasy XV is an action role-playing game that was released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2016. Originally a XIII spin-off titled Versus XIII , XV uses the mythos of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series, although in many other respects the game stands on its own and has since been distanced from the series by its developers. The sixteenth mainline entry, Final Fantasy XVI ,

18300-623: The Super Nintendo Entertainment System . After delays and technical difficulties from experimenting with several platforms, most notably the Nintendo 64 , Square moved production to the PlayStation, largely due to the advantages of the CD-ROM format. Veteran Final Fantasy staff returned, including series creator and producer Hironobu Sakaguchi , director Yoshinori Kitase , and composer Nobuo Uematsu . The title

18544-485: The console's audio capabilities but found that it resulted in the game having much longer loading times for each area. Uematsu then decided that the higher-quality audio was not worth the trade-off with performance, and opted instead to use MIDI -like sounds produced by the console's internal sound sequencer , similar to how his soundtracks for the previous games in the series on the Super NES were implemented. While

18788-418: The roleplaying gamebook series of the same name , they needed to settle for something else. As the English word "Final" was well known in Japan, Sakaguchi settled on that. According to Sakaguchi, any title that created the " FF " abbreviation would have done. The game indeed reversed Square's lagging fortunes, and it became the company's flagship franchise. Following the success, Square immediately developed

19032-463: The two-dimensional (2D) graphics used in the first six games to three-dimensional (3D) computer graphics ; the game features polygonal characters on pre-rendered backgrounds. It also introduced a more modern setting, a style that was carried over to the next game. It was also the second in the series to be released in Europe, with the first being Final Fantasy Mystic Quest . Final Fantasy VIII

19276-483: The " Active Time Battle " system. Final Fantasy V , released in 1992 in Japan, was the first game in the series to spawn a sequel: a short anime series, Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals . Final Fantasy VI was released in Japan in 1994, titled Final Fantasy III in North America. The PlayStation console saw the release of three main Final Fantasy games. Final Fantasy VII (1997) moved away from

19520-497: The "Active Dimension Battle" system. Final Fantasy XIII ' s combat system, designed by the same man who worked on X , was meant to have an action-oriented feel, emulating the cinematic battles in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children . Final Fantasy XV introduces a new "Open Combat" system. Unlike previous battle systems in the franchise, the "Open Combat" system (OCS) allows players to take on

19764-412: The 1996 Tokyo Game Show , dubbed Square's Preview Extra: Final Fantasy VII & Siggraph '95 Works . The disc also included the early test footage Square created using characters from Final Fantasy VI . The initial release date was at some point in 1996, but to properly realize their vision, Square postponed the release date almost a full year. Final Fantasy VII was released on January 31, 1997. It

20008-405: The 5 original cards on the bottom of their deck in any order then drawing 5 new cards. A random method is used to determine who chooses the starting player. The player who goes first draws one card on the first turn, but every turn after that first turn, each player draws 2 cards. Players play other cards by spending Crystal Points (CP). Crystal Points are gained by Dulling (turning a card sideways)

20252-498: The CD-ROM had a slower access speed, delaying some actions during the game, so the team needed to overcome this issue. Certain tricks were used to conceal load times, such as offering animations to keep players from getting bored. When it was decided to use 3D graphics, there was a discussion among the staff whether to use sprite-based characters on 3D backgrounds or fully rendered polygonal models. While sprites proved more popular with

20496-504: The Crystals , a sequel to Final Fantasy V . The story was set in the same world as the game, although 200 years in the future. It was released as four 30-minute episodes, first in Japan in 1994 and later in the United States by Urban Vision in 1998. In 2001, Square Pictures released its first feature film, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within . The film is set on a future Earth invaded by alien life forms. The Spirits Within

20740-560: The European National event. For the North American player base, Regionals are called Local Qualifiers (LQ) where winners are guaranteed an invitation to the North American National Tournament. These events are themed around Final Fantasy elements such as Lightning, Fire and Water. Players that place the highest by the end of the event are given prizes and awards. Winners of these events get

20984-471: The Japanese language is very different from English", making it difficult for the translation to read like native English without distorting the meaning. Michael Basket was the sole translator for the project, though he received the help of native Japanese speakers from the Tokyo office. The localization was taxing for the team due to their inexperience, lack of professional editors, and poor communication between

21228-467: The Japanese release of Dirge of Cerberus from Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu hinted at a controversy between the magazine and Square Enix. Though Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was praised for its visuals, the plot was criticized and the film was considered a box office bomb. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for the GameCube received overall positive review scores, but reviews stated that

21472-494: The Lifestream, is a flow of spiritual energy that gives life to everything on the Planet; its processed form is known as "Mako". On a societal and technological level, the game has been defined as an industrial or post-industrial science fiction setting. During Final Fantasy VII , the Shinra Electric Power Company, a world-dominating megacorporation headquartered in the city of Midgar, is draining

21716-483: The NES installments, Final Fantasy III , was released in Japan in 1990, but was not released elsewhere until a Nintendo DS remake came out in 2006. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) also featured three installments of the main series, all of which have been re-released on several platforms. Final Fantasy IV was released in 1991; in North America, it was released as Final Fantasy II . It introduced

21960-541: The Nintendo 64, for seven years. Critics attribute the switch of strong third-party games like the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games to Sony's PlayStation, and away from the Nintendo 64, as one of the reasons behind PlayStation being the more successful of the two consoles. The release of the Nintendo GameCube, which used optical disc media, in 2001 caught the attention of Square. To produce games for

22204-458: The North American and Japanese offices. A result of this disconnect was the original localization of Aerith's name—which was intended as a conflation of "air" and "earth"—as "Aeris" due to a lack of communication between localization staff and the QA team. The team also faced several technical issues due to programming practices which took little account of subsequent localization, such as dealing with

22448-480: The Northern Crater, the party learns that the "Sephiroths" they have encountered are Jenova clones who the insane Shinra scientist Hojo created. Cloud confronts the real Sephiroth as he is killing his clones to reunite Jenova's cells, but is again manipulated into giving him the Black Materia. Sephiroth then taunts Cloud by showing another SOLDIER in his place in his memories of Nibelheim, suggesting that Cloud

22692-489: The Opus series developed 1700 different cards. The game had sold more than 3.5 million booster packs in Japan (as of September 2016) and 5.5 million packs worldwide (as of July 2017). Players build a deck of exactly 50 cards with no more than 3 copies of the same card. At the start of the game, each player shuffles their deck and places it in their deck zone. Each player then draws 5 cards. A player may mulligan once by placing

22936-472: The PC port, Square attempted to fix translation and grammar mistakes for the North American and European versions but did not have the time and budget to retranslate all the text. According to Honeywood, the success of Final Fantasy VII in the West encouraged Square to focus more on localization quality; on future games, Square hired additional translators and editors, while also streamlining communication between

23180-886: The PC version and adjusted for mobile devices by D4 Enterprise , was released on August 19, 2015, with an auto-save feature. The PC version was released for PlayStation 4 on December 5, 2015. DotEmu developed the PS4 version. The game was also released for Android on July 7, 2016, for the PlayStation Classic on December 3, 2018, and for the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One worldwide on March 26, 2019. Within three days of its release in Japan, Final Fantasy VII sold over two million copies. This popularity inspired thousands of retailers in North America to break street dates in September to meet public demand for

23424-466: The Planet for help, Sephiroth attempts to force Cloud to kill her; after this fails, he kills her himself before fleeing, leaving the White Materia behind. The party then learns of Jenova, a hostile alien lifeform who landed on the Planet two thousand years prior to the game's events. Upon arrival on the Planet, Jenova began infecting the Cetra with a virus, and they were nearly wiped out. However,

23668-484: The Planet's Lifestream for energy, weakening the Planet and threatening its existence and all life. Significant factions within the game include AVALANCHE , an eco-terrorist group seeking Shinra's downfall so the Planet can recover; the Turks , a covert branch of Shinra's security forces; SOLDIER, an elite Shinra fighting force created by enhancing humans with Mako; and the Cetra, a near-extinct human tribe which maintains

23912-517: The PlayStation and PC versions had sold over 11 million units worldwide. Steam Spy estimated the game to have sold over 1.2 million downloads on Steam as of April 2018, with a later Steam leak estimating it had 1.14 million players on the platform as of July 2018. As of June 2020, the game has sold more than 13.3 million units worldwide. As of September 2023, the original version of the game has sold over 14.4 million units worldwide. The game received widespread acclaim from critics upon release. It

24156-514: The Super NES only had eight sound channels to work with, the PlayStation had twenty-four. Eight were reserved for sound effects, leaving sixteen available for the music. Uematsu's approach to composing the game's music was to treat it like a film soundtrack and compose music that reflected the mood of the scenes, rather than trying to make strong melodies to "define the game", as he felt that approach would come across too strong when placed alongside

24400-568: The Year" and "Best Graphics" (plus a runner-up slot for "Game of the Year"), and also gave it awards for "Hottest Video Game Babe" (for Tifa Lockhart), "Most Hype for a Game", "Best Ending", and "Best Print Ad". Since 1997, it has been selected by many game magazines as one of the top video games of all time, listed as 91st in EGM ' s 2001 "100 Best Games of All Time", and as fourth in Retro Gamer ' s "Top 100 Games" in 2004. In 2018, it

24644-534: The added difficulty of ensuring that the inferiority of the in-game graphics in comparison to the FMV sequences was not too obvious. Kitase has described the process of making the in-game environments as detailed as possible to be "a daunting task". The musical score of Final Fantasy VII was composed, arranged, and produced by Nobuo Uematsu , who had served as the sole composer for the six previous Final Fantasy games. Originally, Uematsu had planned to use CD quality music with vocal performances to take advantage of

24888-496: The album had sold nearly 150,000 copies by January 2010. A single-disc album of selected tracks from the original soundtrack, along with three arranged pieces, titled Final Fantasy VII Reunion Tracks , was also released by DigiCube in 1997, reaching #20 on the Japan Oricon charts. A third album, Piano Collections Final Fantasy VII , was released by DigiCube in 2003, and contains one disc of piano arrangements of tracks from

25132-517: The amount of data while preserving the desired effects. This was aided with reluctant help from Sony, who had hoped to keep Square's direct involvement limited to a standard API package, but they eventually relented and allowed the team direct access to the hardware specifications. Final Fantasy VII features two types of cutscenes: real-time cutscenes featuring polygon models on pre-rendered backgrounds, and FMV cutscenes. The game's computer-generated imagery (CGI) FMVs were produced by Visual Works ,

25376-517: The available resources. A different approach has been taken for subsequent games; the story is completed first and the game built around it. Designers have never been restricted by consistency, though most feel each game should have a minimum number of common elements. The development teams strive to create completely new worlds for each game, and avoid making new games too similar to previous ones. Game locations are conceptualized early in development and design details like building parts are fleshed out as

25620-455: The background, with the polygonal characters composited on top. Final Fantasy IX returned to the more stylized design of earlier games in the series, although it still maintained, and in many cases slightly upgraded, most of the graphical techniques used in the previous two games. Final Fantasy X was released on the PlayStation 2, and used the more powerful hardware to render graphics in real-time instead of using pre-rendered material to obtain

25864-629: The backstories of the main cast. Kingsglaive , a CGI film released prior to the game in Summer 2016, is set during the game's opening and follows new and secondary characters. In 2019, Square Enix released a short anime, produced by Satelight Inc , called Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ardyn – Prologue on their YouTube channel which acts as the background story for the final piece of DLC for Final Fantasy XV giving insight into Ardyn's past. Square Enix also released Final Fantasy XIV: Dad of Light in 2017, an 8-episode Japanese soap opera based, featuring

26108-451: The battle ends, and the player is rewarded with money, items, and experience points . If the player is defeated, it is game over and the game must be loaded from the last save point. When not in battle, the player can use the menu screen, where they can review each character's status and statistics, use items and abilities, change equipment, save the game when on the world map or at a save point, and manage orbs called Materia. Materia are

26352-540: The campaign included numerous articles in both gaming and general interest magazines, advertisements in comics from publishers such as DC Comics and Marvel Comics , a special collaboration with Pepsi , media events, sample discs, and merchandise. According to estimations by Takechi, the total worldwide marketing budget came to US$ 40 million; $ 10 million had been spent in Japan, $ 10 million in Europe, and $ 20 million in North America. Unlike its predecessors, Final Fantasy VII did not have its numeral adjusted to account for

26596-409: The card is written at the bottom of the card. A deck may contain at most 3 cards with the same ID. The cost of a card is indicated by the number in the top left-hand corner. It indicates how many CP are needed to play the card. The element of a card is given by the color of the crystal in the top left-hand corner, by the background color of the card text, and by the element symbol in the background of

26840-428: The characters, and the main plot often recedes into the background as the focus shifts to their personal lives. Games also explore relationships between characters, ranging 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. Magical orbs and crystals are recurring in-game items that are frequently connected to

27084-435: The creation of a trading card game. The timing was fortunate, according to Kageyama, because Hobby Japan was at that time looking to develop a totally new trading card game. The Chapter series was only released domestically, so the cards are all in Japanese. The initial series lasted from February 2011 until 2015 and released 15 sets in total with 1098 unique cards. After four years, the game was starting to hit limitations, and

27328-578: The deck is empty. This is the most common format in the Final Fantasy trading card game. In competitive play, this format also adheres to a ban list of certain cards, as well as card errata. Constructed also has a variant format. This is a variation of the Constructed format in Final Fantasy TCG. Created in 2020, this format limits deck construction to the last three released Final Fantasy TCG sets, or "opus". Unlike in Constructed play,

27572-491: The demo was of a new Final Fantasy game for the Nintendo 64 console. 1997 saw the release of Final Fantasy VII for the Sony PlayStation. The switch was due to a dispute with Nintendo over its use of faster but more expensive cartridges , as opposed to the slower and cheaper, but much higher capacity compact discs used on rival systems. VII introduced 3D graphics with fully pre-rendered backgrounds. It

27816-671: The desire to have more players in a game, and to have the series expand to North America and Europe, so the series was remade and relaunched globally as "Opus I". "Opus II" launched in October 2016 with a card set of 148 cards focused on Final Fantasy IV , VIII , XII , and XIV . June 2017 was to focus on Final Fantasy IX ; "Fire and Water", and Final Fantasy Type-0 : "Lightning and Wind" starter deck sets. "Opus XIV" and "XV" were released in August and November 2021, respectively. The Final Fantasy Trading Card Game has had competitive play, starting in 2017. Square Enix officially hosts

28060-468: The development and localization teams. Some months prior to the game's North American release, Sony publicly stated that it was considering cutting the scene at the Honey Bee Inn due to the salacious content, prompting numerous online petitions and letters of protest from RPG fans. Square subsequently stated that it would never allow Sony to localize the game in any way. In addition to translating

28304-456: The end of 2006, The Best , the bargain reissue of the game, had sold over 158,000 copies in Japan. By May 2010, it had sold over 10 million copies worldwide, making it the most popular title in the series in terms of units sold. The original PC version surpassed Eidos' expectations: while initially forecast to sell 100,000 units, it quickly exceeded sales of one million units, garnering royalties of over $ 2 million for Square. By August 2015,

28548-481: The ending. As this would have further increased the number of discs the game needed, the idea was discarded. Kazuyuki Ikumori, a future key figure at Visual Works, helped with the creation of the CGI cutscenes, in addition to general background design. The CGI FMV sequences total around 40 minutes of footage, something only possible with the PlayStation's extra memory space and graphical power. This innovation brought with it

28792-472: The enemy or aid the player characters. Final Fantasy VII also features powerful, character-specific commands called Limit Breaks, which can be used only after a special gauge is charged by taking enemy attacks. After being attacked, characters can be afflicted by one or more abnormal " statuses ", such as poison or paralysis. These statuses and their adverse effects can be removed by special items or abilities or by resting at an inn. Once all enemies are defeated,

29036-426: The entire initial plot. Scenario writer Kazushige Nojima joined the team after finishing work on Bahamut Lagoon . While Final Fantasy VI featured an ensemble cast of numerous playable characters that were equally important, the team soon decided to develop a central protagonist for FFVII . The pursuit of Sephiroth that formed most of the main narrative was suggested by Nomura, as nothing similar had been done in

29280-454: The environment and their distance from the camera, giving a sense of scale. The choice of this highly cinematic style of storytelling, contrasting directly with Square's previous games, was attributed to Kitase, who was a fan of films and had an interest in the parallels between film and video game narrative. Character movement during in-game events was done by the character designers in the planning group. While designers normally cooperate with

29524-475: The fastest-selling game in the franchise, and sold one million units on its first day of sale in Japan. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn , in comparison to its predecessor, was a runaway success, originally suffering from servers being overcrowded, and eventually gaining over one million unique subscribers within two months of its launch. The series has received critical acclaim for the quality of its visuals and soundtracks. In 1996, Next Generation ranked

29768-502: The first game, character classes have been used differently in each game. Some restrict a character to a single job to integrate it into the story, while other games feature dynamic job systems that allow the player to choose from multiple classes and switch throughout the game. Though used heavily in many games, such systems have become less prevalent in favor of characters that are more versatile; characters still match an archetype, but are able to learn skills outside their class. Magic

30012-460: The first game, often accompanies the ending credits. Although leitmotifs are common in the more character-driven installments, theme music is typically reserved for main characters and recurring plot elements. Nobuo Uematsu was the primary composer of the Final Fantasy series until his resignation from Square Enix in November 2004. Other notable composers who have worked on main entries in

30256-976: The first games on the NES feature small sprite representations of the leading party members on the main world screen. Battle screens use more detailed, full versions of characters in a side-view perspective. This practice was used until Final Fantasy VI , which uses detailed versions for both screens. The NES sprites are 26  pixels high and use a color palette of 4 colors. 6  frames of animation are used to depict different character statuses like "healthy" and "fatigued". The SNES installments use updated graphics and effects, as well as higher quality audio than in previous games, but are otherwise similar to their predecessors in basic design. The SNES sprites are 2 pixels shorter, but have larger palettes and feature more animation frames: 11 colors and 40 frames respectively. The upgrade allowed designers to have characters be more detailed in appearance and express more emotions. The first game includes non-player characters (NPCs)

30500-505: The first mainline game to spawn two sub-sequels ( XIII-2 and Lightning Returns ). It was also the first game released in Chinese and high definition along with being released on two consoles at once. Final Fantasy XIV , a MMORPG, was released worldwide on Microsoft Windows in 2010, but it received heavy criticism when it was launched, prompting Square Enix to rerelease the game as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn , this time to

30744-402: The following competitive events: Run by local game shops, pre-releases are competitive events where players can construct decks using soon-to-be released cards from the next Opus set. Each pre-release kit has historically contained 2 exclusive items. Pre-releases tournaments are played using the "Limited Sealed" format. Hosted by local game shops, Regional events gives winners a free win during

30988-464: The freely rotating camera from XI . Final Fantasy XIII and XIV both make use of Crystal Tools , a middleware engine developed by Square Enix. Final Fantasy games feature a variety of music, and frequently reuse themes. Most of the games open with a piece called "Prelude", which has evolved from a simple, 2-voice arpeggio in the early games to a complex, melodic arrangement in recent installments. Victories in combat are often accompanied by

31232-485: The game "a subversion that deconstructs and comments meaningfully on how we think about heroism, masculinity and identity in videogame storytelling". Ric Manning of The Courier-Journal noted elements of psychoanalysis in the game. The game is also noted for its cyberpunk themes; GamesRadar+ called it one of the best games of the genre, and Paste Magazine compared its cyberpunk city of Midgar to Akira and Blade Runner . According to Comic Book Resources ,

31476-459: The game despite its technical flaws, and PC Gamer summarized that, while "Square apparently did only what was required to get its PlayStation game running under Windows", Final Fantasy VII is "still a winner on the PC". Final Fantasy VII was given numerous Game of the Year awards in 1997. At the second CESA Awards , it won the Grand Prize, Scenario Award and Sound Award. During

31720-466: The game has been released in several albums. Square released the main soundtrack album, Final Fantasy VII Original Soundtrack , on four Compact Discs through its DigiCube subsidiary in 1997. A limited edition release was also produced, containing illustrated liner notes. The regular edition of the album reached third on the Japan Oricon charts, while the limited edition reached #19. Overall,

31964-405: The game takes the unreliable narrator concept a step further, with its interactivity establishing a connection between the player and the protagonist Cloud, setting Final Fantasy VII apart from films as well as other video games. According to Holleman, "no RPG has ever deliberately betrayed the connection between protagonist and player like FFVII does". Harry Mackin writing for Paste called

32208-405: The game was the opening theme; game director Yoshinori Kitase showed him the opening cinematic and asked him to begin the project there. The track was well received in the company, which gave Uematsu "a sense that it was going to be a really good project". Final Fantasy VII was the first game in the series to include a track with high-quality digitized vocals, "One-Winged Angel", which accompanies

32452-399: The game's graphics were "light years beyond anything ever seen on the PlayStation", and regarded its battle system as its strongest point. Computer and Video Games ' s Alex C praised the dramatic story and well-developed characters. In addition to calling the graphics "bar none the best the PlayStation has ever seen", Next Generation said of the story that "while FFVII may take

32696-433: The game's new 3D visuals. As an example, he composed the track intended for the scene in the game where Aerith Gainsborough is killed to be "sad but beautiful", rather than more overtly emotional, creating what he felt was a more understated feeling. Uematsu additionally said that the soundtrack had a feel of "realism", which also prevented him from using "exorbitant, crazy music". The first piece that Uematsu composed for

32940-513: The game. It was arranged by Shirō Hamaguchi and performed by Seiji Honda, and reached #228 on the Oricon charts. Final Fantasy VII was announced in February 1996. Square president and chief executive officer Tomoyuki Takechi were fairly confident about Japanese players making the game a commercial success despite it being on a new platform. A playable demo was included on a disc giveaway at

33184-800: The gameplay; he designed the Limit Break system as an evolution of the Desperation Attacks used in Final Fantasy VI . The Limit Breaks served a purpose in gameplay while also evoking each character's personality in battle. Square retained the passion-based game development approach from their earlier projects, but now had the resources and ambition to create the game they wanted. This was because they had extensive capital from their earlier commercial successes, which meant they could focus on quality and scale rather than obsessing over and working around their budget. Final Fantasy VII

33428-406: The games have used different battle systems. Prior to Final Fantasy XI , battles were turn-based with the protagonists and antagonists on different sides of the battlefield. Final Fantasy IV introduced the "Active Time Battle" (ATB) system that augmented the turn-based nature with a perpetual time-keeping system. Designed by Hiroyuki Ito , it injected urgency and excitement into combat by requiring

33672-687: The games until Final Fantasy VIII , and has been followed by a new director for each new game. Hiroyuki Ito designed several gameplay systems, including Final Fantasy V ' s " Job System ", Final Fantasy VIII ' s " Junction System " and the Active Time Battle concept, which was used from Final Fantasy IV until IX . In designing the Active Time Battle system, Ito drew inspiration from Formula One racing; he thought it would be interesting if character types had different speeds after watching race cars pass each other. Ito also co-directed Final Fantasy VI with Kitase. Kenji Terada

33916-435: The history, languages, pop culture , and mythologies of cultures worldwide. The mechanics of each game involve similar battle systems and maps. Final Fantasy has been both critically and commercially successful. Several entries are regarded as some of the greatest video games , with the series selling more than 185 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time. The series

34160-498: The image illustrations from Final Fantasy VII onward. Tetsuya Nomura was chosen to replace Amano because Nomura's designs were more adaptable to 3D graphics. He worked with the series from Final Fantasy VII through X , then came back for XIII , and for the basic design of XV . For Final Fantasy IX character designs were handled by Shukō Murase , Toshiyuki Itahana, and Shin Nagasawa. For Final Fantasy XV , Roberto Ferrari

34404-540: The imminent industry shift toward 3D gaming ; such a change would require radical new development models. The team decided to take the riskier option and make a 3D game on new generation hardware but had yet to choose between the cartridge -based Nintendo 64 or the CD-ROM -based PlayStation from Sony Computer Entertainment . The team also considered the Sega Saturn console and Microsoft Windows . Their decision

34648-482: The impact of Aerith's death. Several character relations and statuses underwent changes during development. Aerith was to be Sephiroth's sister, which influenced the design of her hair. The team then made Sephiroth a previous love interest of hers to deepen her backstory, but later swapped him with Zack. Vincent and Yuffie were to be part of the main narrative, but due to time constraints, they were nearly cut and eventually relegated to being optional characters. Nojima

34892-451: The increased storage capacity of CD-ROM when compared to the Nintendo 64 cartridge, Square shifted development of Final Fantasy VII , and all other planned projects, onto the PlayStation. In contrast to the visuals and audio, the overall gameplay system remained mostly unchanged from Final Fantasy V and VI , but with an emphasis on player control. The initial decision was for battles to feature shifting camera angles. Battle arenas had

35136-432: The lack of a Western release for Final Fantasy II , III , and V — while only the fourth Final Fantasy released outside Japan, its Japanese title was retained. It was released in North America on September 7, 1997. The game was released in Europe on November 17, becoming the first Final Fantasy game to be released in Europe. The Western version included additional elements and alterations, such as streamlining of

35380-410: The last surviving Cetra; Red XIII , an intelligent feline from a tribe that protects the planet; Cait Sith , a fortune-telling robotic cat controlled by repentant Shinra staff member Reeve ; and Cid Highwind , a pilot whose dream of being the first human in outer space was unrealized. The group can also recruit Yuffie Kisaragi , a young ninja and skilled Materia thief; and Vincent Valentine ,

35624-568: The legendary animosity between Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojirō , with Cloud and Sephiroth being Musashi and Kojirō respectively. Sephiroth's look was defined as " kakkoii ", a Japanese term combining good looks with coolness. Several of Nomura's designs evolved substantially during development. Cloud's original design of slicked-back black hair with no spikes was intended to save polygons and contrast with Sephiroth's long, flowing silver hair. However, Nomura feared that such masculinity could prove unpopular with fans, so he redesigned Cloud to feature

35868-427: The main characters were part of an organization trying to destroy Mako reactors, but they were pursued by a hot-blooded detective named Joe. The main characters would eventually blow up the city. An early version of the Lifestream concept was present at this stage. According to Sakaguchi, his mother had died while Final Fantasy III was being developed, and choosing life as a theme helped him cope with her passing in

36112-469: The main method of customizing characters in Final Fantasy VII , and can be added to equipment to provide characters with new magic spells, monsters to summon, commands, statistical upgrades, and other benefits. Materia level up through their own experience point system and can be combined to create different effects. Final Fantasy VII takes place on a world referred to in-game as the "Planet" and retroactively named "Gaia". The planet's lifeforce, called

36356-423: The main series adopted its current logo style that features the same typeface and an emblem designed by Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano . The emblem relates to a game's 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. The central conflict in many Final Fantasy games focuses on

36600-415: The main villain is not always who it appears to be, as the primary antagonist may actually be subservient to another character or entity. The main antagonist introduced at the beginning of the game is not always the final enemy, and the characters must continue their quest beyond what appears to be the final fight. Stories in the series frequently emphasize the internal struggles, passions, and tragedies of

36844-410: The major events in development was when the real-time graphics were synchronized to computer-generated full motion video (FMV) cutscenes for some story sequences, notably an early sequence where a real-time model of Cloud jumps onto an FMV-rendered moving train. The backgrounds were created by overlaying two 2D graphic layers and changing the motion speed of each to simulate depth perception. While this

37088-502: The map and, if caught, can be ridden to areas inaccessible on foot or by vehicle. In field mode, the player navigates fully scaled versions of the areas represented on the world map. VII marks the first time in the series that the mode is represented in a three-dimensional space . In this mode, the player can explore the environment, talk with characters, advance the story, and initiate event games. Event games are short minigames that use special control functions and are often tied to

37332-416: The menu and Materia system, reducing the health of enemies, new visual cues to help with navigation across the world map, and additional cutscenes relating to Cloud's past. A version for PC was developed by Square's Costa Mesa offices. Square invested in a PC version to reach as wide a player base as possible; many Western consumers did not own a PlayStation, and Square's deal with Sony did not prohibit such

37576-404: The most devastating and consequential. Kitase wanted to depict it as very sudden and unexpected, leaving "not a dramatic feeling but great emptiness", "feelings of reality and not Hollywood ". The script for the scene was written by Nojima. Kitase and Nojima then planned that most of the main cast would die shortly before the final battle; Nomura vetoed the idea because he felt it would undermine

37820-417: The music quality suffered on PC sound cards , and Next Generation found the game's pre-rendered backgrounds significantly less impressive than those of the PlayStation version. However, the latter magazine found the higher-resolution battle visuals "absolutely stunning", and Computer Games Magazine said that they showed off the potential graphical power of PCs. All three magazines concluded by praising

38064-560: The older games have been remade or re-released on multiple platforms. Three Final Fantasy installments were released on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Final Fantasy was released in Japan in 1987 and in North America in 1990. It introduced many concepts to the console RPG genre, and has since been remade on several platforms. Final Fantasy II , released in 1988 in Japan, has been bundled with Final Fantasy in several re-releases. The last of

38308-443: The original PlayStation version's five different game engines, leading to delays. The PC version came with a license for Yamaha Corporation 's software synthesizer S-YXG70, allowing high-quality sequenced music despite varying sound hardware setups on different user computers. The conversion of the nearly 100 original musical pieces to XG format files was done by Yamaha. To maximize their chances of success, Square searched for

38552-423: The overall theme of the game, Sakaguchi said it was "not enough to make 'life' the theme, you need to depict living and dying. In any event, you need to portray death". Consequently, Nomura proposed killing off the heroine. Aerith had been the only heroine, but the death of a female protagonist would necessitate a second; this led to the creation of Tifa. The developers decided to kill Aerith, as her death would be

38796-444: The pace of the story, it added depth to the characters. The graphical improvements allowed even relatively bland lines of dialogue to be enhanced with reactions and poses from the 3D character models. Voice acting would have led to significant load times, so it was omitted. Masato Kato wrote several late-game scenes, including the Lifestream sequence and Cloud and Tifa's conversation before the final battle. Initially unaffiliated with

39040-514: The phrase " Final Fantasy " in their titles, which are considered inferior to previous games. It also commented that with the departure of Hironobu Sakaguchi , the series might be in danger of growing stale. Several individual Final Fantasy games have garnered extra attention; some for their positive reception and others for their negative reception. Final Fantasy VII topped GamePro 's "26 Best RPGs of All Time" list, as well as GameFAQs "Best Game Ever" audience polls in 2004 and 2005. Despite

39284-410: The planet has healed. Initial concept talks for Final Fantasy VII began in 1994 at Square studio, following the completion of Final Fantasy VI . As with the previous installment, series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi reduced his role to producer and granted others a more active role in development: these included Yoshinori Kitase , one of the directors of FFVI . The next installment was planned as

39528-469: The player could interact with, but they are mostly static in-game objects. Beginning with the second game, Square used predetermined pathways for NPCs to create more dynamic scenes that include comedy and drama. In 1995, Square showed an interactive SGI technical demonstration of Final Fantasy VI for the then next generation of consoles . The demonstration used Silicon Graphics 's prototype Nintendo 64 workstations to create 3D graphics. Fans believed

39772-429: The player to act before an enemy attacks, and was used until Final Fantasy X , which implemented the "Conditional Turn-Based" (CTB) system. This new system returned to the previous turn-based system, but added nuances to offer players more challenge. Final Fantasy XI adopted a real-time battle system where characters continuously act depending on the issued command. Final Fantasy XII continued this gameplay with

40016-461: The predominant lighting in Midgar and the color of the Lifestream, while the blue reflected the ecological themes present in the story. Its coloring directly influenced the general coloring of the game's environments. Another prominent artist was Nomura. Having impressed Sakaguchi with his proposed ideas, which were handwritten and illustrated rather than simply typed on a PC, Nomura was brought on as main character designer. Nomura stated that when he

40260-425: The product stand out in stores, Eidos chose a trapezoidal shape for the cover and box. They agreed on a contract price of $ 1.8 million, making initial sales forecasts of 100,000 units based on that outlay. The PC version was released in North America and Europe on June 25, 1998; the port was not released in Japan. Within one month, sales of the port exceeded the initial forecasts. The PC version would end up providing

40504-518: The project, Kato was called on to help flesh out less important story scenes. He wrote his scenes to his own tastes without outside consultation, something he later regretted. With the shift from the SNES to the next generation consoles, Final Fantasy VII became the first project in the series to use 3D computer graphics . Aside from the story, Final Fantasy VI had many details undecided when development began; most design elements were hashed out along

40748-435: The project, Naora was granted a team devoted entirely to the game's visual design. The department's duties included illustration, modeling of 3D characters, texturing, the creation of environments, visual effects, and animation. The Shinra logo, which incorporated a kanji symbol, was drawn by Naora personally. Promotional artwork, in addition to the logo artwork, was created by Yoshitaka Amano , an artist whose association with

40992-502: The publishing rights in North America and Europe following Final Fantasy VII ' s transfer to PlayStation—to further persuade Square, Sony offered a lucrative royalties deal with profits potentially equaling those Square would get by self-publishing the game. Square accepted Sony's offer as Square itself lacked Western publishing experience. Square was uncertain about the game's success, as other JRPGs including Final Fantasy VI had met with poor sales outside Japan. To help with promoting

41236-412: The remake trilogy, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth , was released on the PlayStation 5 in 2024. Square Enix has expanded the Final Fantasy series into various media. Multiple anime and computer-generated imagery (CGI) films have been produced that are based either on individual Final Fantasy games or on the series as a whole. The first was an original video animation (OVA), Final Fantasy: Legend of

41480-568: The rest of the playable characters. At a Cetra temple, Sephiroth reveals he intends to use a powerful magical artifact known as "Black Materia" to cast the spell "Meteor", which would have a devastating impact on the Planet. Sephiroth claims he will absorb the Lifestream as it attempts to heal the wound caused by Meteor, and become a god-like being in the process. The party retrieves the Black Materia, but Sephiroth manipulates Cloud into surrendering it. Aerith departs alone to stop Sephiroth and follows him to an abandoned Cetra city. While Aerith prays to

41724-401: The role-playing game (RPG) category and expanded the conventional audience with the launch of Final Fantasy VII ". According to Weekly Famitsu , Final Fantasy VII sold 3.27 million units in Japan by the end of 1997. By the end of 2005, the PlayStation version had sold 9.8 million copies including 4 million sales in Japan, making it the highest-selling game in the Final Fantasy series. By

41968-399: The same surface on the backs, but are based on black with white overlay. "In the Chapter series, the shape of the textbox frames was the same for all cards, making it difficult to distinguish card types", explains Kageyama. The frame in the Opus series is changed for each card type to make telling them apart easy. The background color in the frame has also been changed, so that it can be seen as

42212-464: The scenario writer for the spin-off series, Kingdom Hearts . Daisuke Watanabe co-wrote the scenarios for Final Fantasy X and XII , and was the main writer for the XIII games. Artistic design, including character and monster creations, was handled by Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano from Final Fantasy through Final Fantasy VI . Amano also handled title logo designs for all of the main series and

42456-420: The screen has a time gauge; when a character's gauge is full, the player can input a command for them to perform. The commands change as the game progresses, and are dependent on the characters in the player's party and on the abilities, spells, etc., the player has added to their equipment. Commands include attacking with a weapon, casting magic, using items, summoning monsters, and other actions that either damage

42700-462: The screen. Swear words were used frequently in the localization to help convey the original Japanese meaning, though most profanities were censored in a manner described by Square employee Richard Honeywood as the "old comic book '@#$ %!'-type replacement ". The European release was described as being in a worse condition, as the translations into multiple European languages were outsourced by Sony to another company, further hindering communication. For

42944-530: The second most influential game ever made in 2002; in 2007, GamePro ranked it 14th on the list of the most important games of all time, and in 2009 it finished in the same place on their list of the most innovative games of all time. In 2012, Time named it one of their "All-Time 100 Video Games". In March 2018, Game Informer ' s "Readers Choice Top 300 Games of All Time", Final Fantasy VII ranked in seventh place. In March 2018, GamesRadar+ rated "The 25 best PS1 games of all time", Final Fantasy VII

43188-448: The series before. Kitase and Nojima conceived AVALANCHE and Shinra as opposing organizations and created Cloud's backstory as well as his relationship to Sephiroth. Among Nojima's biggest contributions to the plot were Cloud's memories and split personality; this included the eventual conclusion involving his newly created character of Zack. The crew helped Kitase adjust the specifics of Sakaguchi's original Lifestream concept. Regarding

43432-454: The series collectively as the 17th best game of all time, speaking very highly of its graphics, music and stories. In 1999, Next Generation listed the Final Fantasy series as number 16 on their "Top 50 Games of All Time", commenting that "by pairing state-of-the-art technology with memorable, sometimes shamelessly melodramatic storylines, the series has successfully outlasted its competitors [...] and improved with each new installation". It

43676-471: The series have either been adapted into or have had spin-offs in the form of manga and novels. The first was the novelization of Final Fantasy II in 1989, which was followed by a manga adaptation of Final Fantasy III in 1992. Later years have seen an increase in the number of non-video game adaptations and spin-offs. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within has been adapted into a novel, the spin-off game Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles has been adapted into

43920-408: The series include Masashi Hamauzu , Hitoshi Sakimoto , and Yoko Shimomura . Uematsu was allowed to create much of the music with little direction from the production staff. Sakaguchi, however, would request pieces to fit specific game scenes including battles and exploring different areas of the game world. Once a game's major scenarios were completed, Uematsu would begin writing the music based on

44164-528: The series reached cumulative global physical and digital sales of 185 million units. Several games within the series have become best-selling games. At the end of 2007, the seventh, eighth, and ninth best-selling RPGs were Final Fantasy VII , VIII , and X respectively. The original Final Fantasy VII has sold over 14.4 million copies worldwide, earning it the position of the best-selling Final Fantasy game. Within two days of Final Fantasy VIII ' s North American release on September 9, 1999, it became

44408-449: The series went back to its inception. While he had taken a prominent role in earlier entries, Amano was unable to do so for Final Fantasy VII , due to commitments at overseas exhibitions. His logo artwork was based on Meteor: when he saw images of Meteor, he was not sure how to turn it into suitable artwork. In the end, he created multiple variations of the image and asked staff to choose which they preferred. The green coloring represents

44652-595: The series. The series affected Square's business on several levels. The commercial failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within resulted in hesitation and delays from Enix during merger discussions with Square. Square's decision to produce games exclusively for the Sony PlayStation—a move followed by Enix's decision with the Dragon Quest series—severed their relationship with Nintendo. Final Fantasy games were absent from Nintendo consoles, specifically

44896-459: The series. Most games contain elements of fantasy and science fiction and feature recycled names often inspired from various cultures' history, languages and mythology, including Asian , European , and Middle-Eastern . Examples include weapon names like Excalibur and Masamune—derived from Arthurian legend and the Japanese swordsmith Masamune respectively—as well as the spell names Holy, Meteor, and Ultima. Beginning with Final Fantasy IV ,

45140-481: The series. The most common is the airship for long range travel, accompanied by chocobos for travelling short distances, but others include sea and land vessels. Following Final Fantasy VII , more modern and futuristic vehicle designs have been included. In the mid-1980s, Square entered the Japanese video game industry with simple RPGs, racing games , and platformers for Nintendo 's Famicom Disk System . In 1987, Square designer Hironobu Sakaguchi chose to create

45384-507: The setting of the original Final Fantasy game, depicting a prequel story that explores the origins of the antagonist Chaos and the emergence of the four Warriors of Light . Enhanced 3D remakes of Final Fantasy III and IV were released in 2006 and 2007 respectively. The first installment of the Final Fantasy VII Remake project was released on the PlayStation 4 in 2020. The second and latest installment of

45628-474: The sixth saddest game ever. On the other hand, GameSpy ranked it seventh on their 2003 list of the most overrated games. Final Fantasy VII has often placed at or near the top of many reader polls of all-time best games. It was voted the "Reader's Choice Game of the Century" in an IGN poll in 2000, and placed second in the "Top 100 Favorite Games of All Time" by Japanese magazine Famitsu in 2006 (it

45872-405: The source code for subsequent ports. Localization of Final Fantasy VII was handled internally by Square. The English localization, led by Seth Luisi, was completed by a team of about fifty people and faced a variety of problems. According to Luisi, the biggest hurdle was making "the direct Japanese-to-English text translation read correctly in English. The sentence structure and grammar rules for

46116-483: The stack is empty. Summons and Action/Special Abilities of Characters can be added to the stack any time the owner has priority. During the End Phase, if the turn player has more than 5 cards in their hand, they must discard cards until they have 5. The game ends when a player fulfills a losing condition. Three conditions exist: Have 7 cards in the Damage Zone, attempt to draw from an empty deck, or receive damage while

46360-520: The stack. The process continues until both players consecutively pass while the stack is empty, in which case the next phase of the turn begins. Every turn moves through 6 phases sequentially; the Active Phase, Draw Phase, Main Phase 1, Attack Phase, Main Phase 2 and End Phase. Character cards (Forwards, Backups and Monsters) can only be played by the turn player during their own Main Phase 1 or 2 while

46604-718: The staff, the polygon models were chosen as they could better express emotion. This decision was influenced by the team's exposure to the 3D character models used in Alone in the Dark . Sakaguchi decided to use deformed models for field navigation and real-time event scenes, for better expression of emotion, while realistically proportioned models would be used in battles. The team purchased Silicon Graphics Onyx supercomputers and related workstations, and accompanying software including Softimage 3D, PowerAnimator , and N-World for an estimated total of $ 21 million. Many team members had never seen

46848-454: The story, characters, and accompanying artwork. He started with a game's main theme, and developed other pieces to match its style. In creating character themes, Uematsu read the game's scenario to determine the characters' personality. He would also ask the scenario writer for more details to scenes he was unsure about. Technical limitations were prevalent in earlier games; Sakaguchi would sometimes instruct Uematsu to only use specific notes. It

47092-543: The story, the game will enter the battle screen, which places the player characters on one side and the enemies on the other. It employs an "Active Time Battle" (ATB) system, in which the characters exchange moves until one side is defeated. The damage or healing dealt by either side is quantified on screen. Characters have several statistics that determine their effectiveness in battle; for example, hit points determine how much damage they can take, and magic determines how much damage they can inflict with spells. Each character on

47336-417: The story. While in field mode, the player can also make use of shops and inns. Shops allow the player to buy and sell items that can aid Cloud and his party, such as weapons, armor, and accessories. Inns restore the hit points and mana points of characters who rest at them and cure abnormalities contracted during battles. At random intervals on the world map and in field mode, and at specific moments in

47580-507: The storytelling "dramatic, sentimental, and touching in a way that draws you into the characters", who "come alive thanks to sweetly subtle body movements". Both GamePro and Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine ( OPM ) said the ATB system gives battles a tension and urgency not usually seen in RPGs, and OPM called the summon animations "absolutely awe-inspiring". IGN ' s Jay Boor insisted

47824-409: The success of VII , it is sometimes criticized as being overrated. In 2003, GameSpy listed it as the seventh most overrated game of all time, while IGN presented views from both sides. Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII shipped 392,000 units in its first week of release, but received review scores that were much lower than that of other Final Fantasy games. A delayed, negative review after

48068-519: The system, Square created the shell company The Game Designers Studio and released Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles , which spawned its own metaseries within the main franchise. Final Fantasy XI ' s lack of an online method of subscription cancellation prompted the creation of legislation in Illinois that requires internet gaming services to provide such a method to the state's residents. Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy VII

48312-509: The table below, the lower the number given, the better the game is in the view of the respective publication. By way of comparison, the ratings provided by Famitsu magazine and the review aggregator Metacritic are also given; in these rows, higher numbers indicate better reviews. Note that Metacritic ratings up until Final Fantasy VII largely represent retrospective reviews from online websites years after their initial release, rather than contemporary reviews from video game magazines at

48556-414: The team wanted to explore the world, characters and mythos more, resulting in the development and release of two sequels in 2011 and 2013 respectively, creating the series' first official trilogy. Dissidia Final Fantasy was released in 2009, a fighting game that features heroes and villains from the first ten games of the main series. It was followed by a prequel in 2011, a sequel in 2015 and

48800-450: The team worked with were Cloud and Barret. Some of the real-time effects, such as an explosion near the opening, were hand-drawn rather than computer-animated. The main creative force behind the overall 3D presentation was Kazuyuki Hashimoto, the general supervisor for these sequences. Being experienced in the new technology the team had brought on board, he accepted the post at Square as the team aligned with his own creative spirit. One of

49044-453: The technology before. The transition from 2D graphics to 3D environments overlaid on pre-rendered backgrounds was accompanied by a focus on a more realistic presentation. In previous entries, the sizes for characters and environments were fixed, and the player saw things from a scrolling perspective. This changed with Final Fantasy VII ; environments shifted with camera angles, and character model sizes shifted depending on both their place in

49288-495: The text, the North American localization team made tweaks to the gameplay, including reducing the enemy encounter rate, simplifying the Materia menu, and adding new boss fights. The International version of Final Fantasy VII was released on PlayStation Network (PSN) as a PSOne Classic in Japan on April 10, 2009. This version was compatible with both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable with support for PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV coming later. Final Fantasy VII

49532-414: The text. The eight elements are: fire, ice, wind, earth, lightning, water, light, and dark. The type of a card is given by a text on the left, as well as the shape of the top and left frames of the card; there are four types of card: The card text describes different abilities a Character has, or a Summon's effects. There are four types of abilities for Characters: Some effects have a special term called

49776-415: The themes of the games' plots. Crystals often play a central role in the creation of the world, and a majority of the Final Fantasy games link crystals and orbs to the planet's life force . As such, control over these crystals drives the main conflict. The classical elements are also a recurring theme in the series related to the heroes, villains, and items. Other common plot and setting themes include

50020-408: The themes of time, space, and gravity; and "Summoning magic", which evokes legendary creatures to aid in battle and is a feature that has persisted since Final Fantasy III . Summoned creatures are often referred to by names like "Espers" or "Eidolons" and have been inspired by mythologies from Arabic , Hindu , Norse , and Greek cultures. Different means of transportation have appeared through

50264-517: The time of their initial release. Final Fantasy has been influential in the history of video games and game mechanics. Final Fantasy IV is considered a milestone for the genre, introducing a dramatic storyline with a strong emphasis on character development and personal relationships. In 1992, Nintendo 's Shigeru Miyamoto noted the impact of Final Fantasy on Japanese role-playing games , stating Final Fantasy ' s "interactive cinematic approach" with an emphasis on "presentation and graphics"

50508-491: The time; had the game not sold well, he would have quit the business and gone back to college. Despite his explanation, publications have also attributed the name to the company's hopes that the project would solve its financial troubles. In 2015, Sakaguchi explained the name's origin: the team wanted a title that would abbreviate to " FF ", which would sound good in Japanese. The name was originally going to be Fighting Fantasy , but due to concerns over trademark conflicts with

50752-540: The title overseas, Square dissolved their original Washington offices and hired new staff for fresh offices in Costa Mesa. It was first exhibited to the Western public at Electronic Entertainment Expo 1996 (E3). To promote the game overseas, Square and Sony launched a widespread three-month advertising campaign in August 1997. Beginning with a television commercial that ran alongside popular shows such as Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons by TBWA\Chiat\Day ,

50996-434: The title. In the game's debut weekend in North America, it sold 330,000 copies, and had reached sales of 500,000 copies in less than three weeks. The momentum established in the game's opening weeks continued for several months; Sony announced the game had sold one million copies in North America by early December, prompting business analyst Edward Williams from Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co. to comment that "Sony redefined

51240-510: The top ten, with Final Fantasy X and VII coming first and second, respectively. The series holds seven Guinness World Records in the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2008 , which include the "Most Games in an RPG Series" (13 main games, seven enhanced games, and 32 spin-off games), the "Longest Development Period" (the production of Final Fantasy XII took five years), and the "Fastest-Selling Console RPG in

51484-661: The top-selling video game in the United States, a position it held for more than three weeks. Final Fantasy X sold over 1.4 million Japanese units in pre-orders alone, which set a record for the fastest-selling console RPG. The MMORPG, Final Fantasy XI , reached over 200,000 active daily players in March 2006 and had reached over half a million subscribers by July 2007. Final Fantasy XII sold more than 1.7 million copies in its first week in Japan. By November 6, 2006—one week after its release— XII had shipped approximately 1.5 million copies in North America. Final Fantasy XIII became

51728-428: The translators to identify characters. Translated text usually takes up more space than the Japanese text, though still had to fit to the screen appropriately without overusing page breaks (for example, item names, which are written in kanji in Japanese language, could overflow message windows in translated text); to mitigate this problem, a proportional typeface was implemented into the source code to fit more text into

51972-412: The two, including at the start of each turn when all of the turn player's cards become active. The primary goal of the game is to deal 7 damage to the opposing player. Players play Characters including Forwards which can attack the opponent during the owner's Attack Phase as long as they're active and have been in play since the beginning of the turn. When a Forward attacks, the non-turn player may declare

52216-422: The use of Game Boy Advances as controllers was a big detractor. The predominantly negative reception of the original version of Final Fantasy XIV caused then-president Yoichi Wada to issue an official apology during a Tokyo press conference, stating that the brand had been "greatly damaged" by the game's reception. Various video game publications have created rankings of the mainline Final Fantasy games. In

52460-478: The version available on Square Enix's North American and European online stores. The PC version would be released in Japan for the first time on May 16, 2013, exclusively via Square Enix's Japanese online store with the International version title. It has features unavailable in the western version including high-speed mode, no random encounters mode, and a max stats command. A release for iOS , based on

52704-479: The way. In contrast, with Final Fantasy VII , the developers knew from the outset it was going to be "a real 3D game", so from the earliest planning stage, detailed designs were in existence. The script was also finalized, and the image for the graphics had been fleshed out. This meant that when actual development work began, storyboards for the game were already in place. The shift from cartridge ROM to CD-ROM posed some problems: according to lead programmer Ken Narita,

52948-458: The world of Final Fantasy VII on a 3D world map. The world map contains representations of areas for the player to enter, including towns, environments, and ruins. Natural barriers—such as mountains, deserts, and bodies of water—block access by foot to some areas; as the story progresses, the player receives vehicles that help traverse these obstacles, thus opening more of the game world for exploration. Chocobos can be found in certain spots on

53192-452: Was at the time one of the most expensive video game projects ever , costing an estimated US$ 40 million, which adjusted for inflation came to $ 61 million in 2017. Development of the final version took a staff of between 100 and 150 people just over a year to complete. As video game development teams were usually only 20 people, the game had what was described as the largest development team of any game up to that point. The development team

53436-532: Was a mere infantryman who was never accepted into SOLDIER; the SOLDIER in his memories was his friend Zack. At Nibelheim, Cloud ambushed and wounded Sephiroth after the latter's mental breakdown, but Jenova preserved Sephiroth's life. Hojo experimented on Cloud and Zack for four years, injecting them with Jenova's cells and Mako. They managed to escape, but Zack was killed in the process. The trauma of these events triggered an identity crisis in Cloud, and he constructed

53680-514: Was also voted as ninth in Famitsu ' s 2011 poll of most tear-inducing games of all time). Users of GameFAQs voted it the "Best Game Ever" in 2004 and in 2005, and placed it second in 2009. In 2008, readers of Dengeki magazine voted it the best game ever made, as well as the ninth most tear-inducing game of all time. The game inspired an unofficial version for the NES by Chinese company Shenzhen Nanjing Technology. This port features

53924-478: Was awarded a star on the Walk of Game in 2006, making it the first franchise to win a star on the event (other winners were individual games, not franchises). WalkOfGame.com commented that the series has sought perfection as well as having been a risk taker in innovation. In 2006, GameFAQs held a contest for the best video game series ever, with Final Fantasy finishing as the runner-up to The Legend of Zelda . In

54168-405: Was because of this switch to 3D that a CD-ROM format was chosen over a cartridge format. The switch also led to increased production costs and a greater subdivision of the creative staff for VII and subsequent 3D games in the series. Starting with Final Fantasy VIII , the series adopted a more photo-realistic look. Like VII , full motion video (FMV) sequences would have video playing in

54412-459: Was brought on, the main scenario had not been completed, but he "went along like, 'I guess first off you need a hero and a heroine', and from there drew the designs while thinking up details about the characters. After [he'd] done the hero and heroine, [he] carried on drawing by thinking what kind of characters would be interesting to have. When [he] handed over the designs [he'd] tell people the character details [he'd] thought up, or write them down on

54656-459: Was charged with writing the scenario and unifying the team's ideas into a cohesive narrative, as Kitase was impressed with his earlier work on the mystery-like Heracles no Eikō III: Kamigami no Chinmoku , an entry in the Glory of Heracles series. To make the characters more realistic, Nojima wrote scenes in which they would occasionally argue and raise objections: while this inevitably slowed down

54900-464: Was discarded during early testing, as the 2000 polygons needed to render the Behemoth monster placed excessive strain on the Nintendo 64 hardware, causing a low frame rate . It would have required an estimated thirty 64DD discs to run Final Fantasy VII properly with the data compression methods of the day. Faced with both technical and economic issues on Nintendo's current hardware, and impressed by

55144-547: Was explored further in Final Fantasy VIII , The Spirits Within , and XV . Re-releases of Square games in Japan with bonus features would occur frequently after the release of Final Fantasy VII International . Later titles that would be re-released as international versions include Final Fantasy X and other follow-ups from the franchise, as well as the Kingdom Hearts series. Final Fantasy VII

55388-490: Was gradually becoming "the most common style" of Japanese RPG at the time. Final Fantasy VII , having been the first title of the series to be officially released in the PAL territories of Europe and Oceania, is credited as having the largest industry impact of the series, and with allowing console role-playing games to gain global mass-market appeal. VII is considered to be one of the most important and influential video games in

55632-424: Was influenced by two factors: a highly successful tech demo based on Final Fantasy VI using the new Softimage 3D software, and the escalating price of cartridge-based games, which was limiting Square's audience. Tests were made for a Nintendo 64 version, which would use the planned 64DD peripheral despite the lack of 64DD development kits and the prototype device's changing hardware specifications. This version

55876-415: Was later released as a PSOne Classic in North America, Europe, and Australia on June 2. The PC version was updated by DotEmu for use on modern operating systems and released via Square Enix's North American and European online stores on August 14, 2012. It included high-resolution support, cloud saves, achievements and a character booster. It would later be released via Steam on July 4, 2013, replacing

56120-475: Was not a new technique, the increased power of the PlayStation enabled a more elaborate version of this effect. The biggest issue with the 3D graphics was the large memory storage gap between the development hardware and the console: while the early 3D tech demo had been developed on a machine with over 400 megabytes of total memory, the PlayStation only had two megabytes of system memory and 500 kilobytes for texture memory. The team needed to figure out how to shrink

56364-408: Was not until Final Fantasy IV on the SNES that Uematsu was able to add more subtlety to the music. Overall, the Final Fantasy series has been critically acclaimed and commercially successful, though each installment has seen different levels of success. The series has seen a steady increase in total sales; it sold 25 million units by 1999, and reached 100 million units in 2011. By June 2023,

56608-492: Was potentially his best work. Final Fantasy VII has received some negative criticism. OPM and GameSpot questioned the game's linear progression. OPM considered the game's translation "a bit muddy". Similarly, RPGamer cited its translation as "packed with typos and other errors which further obscure what is already a very confusing plot". GamePro also considered the Japanese-to-English translation

56852-407: Was published in 1999, and was the first to consistently use realistically proportioned characters and feature a vocal piece as its theme music. Final Fantasy IX , released in 2000, returned to the series' roots, by revisiting a more traditional Final Fantasy setting, rather than the more modern worlds of VII and VIII . Three main installments, as well as one online game, were published for

57096-418: Was published in Japan by Square. A re-release of the game based on its Western version, titled Final Fantasy VII International , was released on October 2 the same year. This improved International version would kickstart the trend for Square to create an updated version for the Japanese release, based on the enhanced Western versions. The International version was re-released as a physical disc as part of

57340-784: Was ranked 99th in IGN ' s "Top 100 Games of All Time" and as third in PALGN's "The Greatest 100 Games Ever". Final Fantasy VII was included in "The Greatest Games of All Time" list by GameSpot in 2006, and ranked as second in Empire ' s 2006 "100 Greatest Games of All Time", as third in Stuff ' s "100 Greatest Games" in 2008 and as 15th in Game Informer ' s 2009 "Top 200 Games of All Time" (down five places from its previous best games of all-time list ). GameSpot placed it as

57584-405: Was ranked in 12th place. It has also appeared in numerous other greatest game lists. In 2007, Dengeki PlayStation gave it the "Best Story", "Best RPG" and "Best Overall Game" retrospective awards for games on the original PlayStation. GamePro named it the best RPG title of all time in 2008, and featured it in their 2010 article "The 30 Best PSN Games". In 2012, GamesRadar also ranked it as

57828-422: Was referred to by GameFan as "quite possibly the greatest game ever made", a quote selected for the back cover of the game's jewel case . GameSpot commented that "never before have technology, playability, and narrative combined as well as in Final Fantasy VII ", expressing particular favor toward the game's graphics, audio, and story. The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly unanimously gave it

58072-459: Was released in 2023 for PlayStation 5 . Final Fantasy has spawned numerous spin-offs and metaseries . Several are, in fact, not Final Fantasy games, but were rebranded for North American release. Examples include the SaGa series , rebranded The Final Fantasy Legend , and its two sequels, Final Fantasy Legend II and III . Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was specifically developed for

58316-571: Was responsible for the character design. Nomura is also the character designer of the Kingdom Hearts series, Compilation of Final Fantasy VII , and Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy . Other designers include Nobuyoshi Mihara and Akihiko Yoshida . Mihara was the character designer for Final Fantasy XI , and Yoshida served as character designer for Final Fantasy Tactics , the Square-produced Vagrant Story , and Final Fantasy XII . Because of graphical limitations,

58560-543: Was split between both Square's Japanese offices and its new American office in Los Angeles; the American team worked primarily on city backgrounds. The game's art director was Yusuke Naora , who had previously worked as a designer for Final Fantasy VI . With the switch into 3D, Naora realized that he needed to relearn drawing, as 3D visuals require a very different approach than 2D. With the massive scale and scope of

58804-447: Was the first animated feature to seriously attempt to portray photorealistic CGI humans, but was considered a box office bomb and garnered mixed reviews. A 25-episode anime television series, Final Fantasy: Unlimited , was released in 2001 based on the common elements of the Final Fantasy series. It was broadcast in Japan by TV Tokyo and released in North America by ADV Films . In 2005, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children ,

59048-535: Was the first in the series to use full motion video and 3D computer graphics , featuring 3D character models superimposed over 2D pre-rendered backgrounds. Although the gameplay remained mostly unchanged from previous entries, Final Fantasy VII introduced more widespread science fiction elements and a more realistic presentation. The combined development and marketing budget amounted to approximately US$ 80 million. Final Fantasy VII received widespread commercial and critical success. It remains widely regarded as

59292-426: Was the scenario writer for the first three games; Kitase took over as scenario writer for Final Fantasy V through VII . Kazushige Nojima became the series' primary scenario writer from Final Fantasy VII until his resignation in October 2003; he has since formed his own company, Stellavista. Nojima partially or completely wrote the stories for Final Fantasy VII , VIII , X , and its sequel X-2 . He also worked as

59536-501: Was to mimic the development cycles of Western games in the Call of Duty , Assassin's Creed and Battlefield series, as well as maintain fan-interest. For the original Final Fantasy , Sakaguchi required a larger production team than Square's previous games. He began crafting the game's story while experimenting with gameplay ideas. Once the gameplay system and game world size were established, Sakaguchi integrated his story ideas into

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