Final Fantasy Lore

By Nick Maker

I’m going to be talking about the Final Fantasy Franchise and not the actual game itself. I’m also going to be talking about the history behind Final Fantasy and how I got into the franchise.

History:

In 1986, Waseda graduate Masashi Miyamoto founded Square as a software division of his dad’s electric power company, but didn’t commit many resources to actually making games until a part-time employee named Hironobu Sakaguchi created The Death Trap and The Death Trap 2 for Zilog Z80-based home computers. Their success forced Square away from electric power and into the console games market, where they began porting and developing a series of highly unsuccessful games that threatened to make the company go out of business forever!

Sakaguchi, now a full time employee after Square became independent, took three other employees with him and decided to create a game based on the success of Enix’s Dragon Quest, but if the team failed he would have to give up on game development forever! (Boy, imagine him in that state of stress!) He named the title literally “Final Fantasy.” The game sold over 400,000 copies and he managed to realize his full potential! Hot on the heels of the team’s success, the company established Final Fantasy as their main franchise and went on to a series of highly successful releases including; Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, and Secret of Mana.

That is, up until 1997 when he decided to make a movie out of the series. It cost over 4 million dollars and when Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within was released at the end of 2001 it was a massive failure! So much so that the company’s film division went bankrupt and it threatened to tear apart a pending merger with former inspiration and current competitor Enix (is just not his day). Enix only agreed to the deal after Sony stepped in to purchase a portion of Square, making it financially stable long enough for Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts to make back all the money lost on Spirits, and in 2003 Square-Enix was officially formed.

Experience:

At first I wasn’t really into the franchise because I kept getting confused of what’s the story all about. Later on I found out that each of the Final Fantasy games have a different story that either takes in medieval times, present or future times. At that point I was still not interested in the franchise for reasons unknown (really, I just couldn’t find any interesting reasons to play it). Not until 2012 when I finally decided to give the series a try and what reason did I change my mind?

It’s not sixth that got me interested and it’s not even seventh; it’s the music! Theatrhythm Final Fantasy to be specific, and it’s one of my first 3ds game ever to purchase! (Shocking I know.) Since I’m a music person and do play the piano the songs they have interest me and made me decide to play the first and second game of Final Fantasy. The first was actually good and the second was great and now I’m in the third, kinda boring and hopefully I get to the fourth one. I like to play the series in order; that’s just the kind of person I am. Sixth and seventh, I heard, are really good; tenth is good and that’s all I really know until fifteen comes which I can’t wait for! The same on Theatrhythm Curtain Calls coming soon!

Hope you all enjoy a little gaming history and hope you’ll watch e3 coming at June 10th!

Final Fantasy source:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7JTznhKVEI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHi0jYe0jgI

Trailer for Theatrythm Curtain Calls:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bShpIuGh5lI

About Nick…
“I am a studious person who loves reading and loves researching about virtually anything! I play the piano and every year I have to give a performance in a church. I love video games – especially when it’s a puzzle and action game. I would like to become a programmer one day in the field of computer science. I love my family so much, even if we drive each other crazy sometimes, we’re still one big happy family.”