The Real Reason Behind “Final” in Final Fantasy

KWEH!

Final Fantasy is a great series that spawned many memorable and great games, music, characters, and stories.

Many have been lead to believe that the word Final in Final Fantasy came from the notion that Square (now Square-Enix) was facing bankruptcy and that the fantasy-themed Role-Playing Game they were developing would be their last (therefore final) game. However, Final Fantasy became a success that it saved Square from its predicament.

However, a recent interview recorded by RocketNews24 revealed that one of the head honchos of Final Fantasy‘s development team and an all-time JRPG legend, Hironobu Sakaguchi, did not name the series that way. Kyoto’s Ritsumeikan University held a conference on the globalization of Japanese games and Sakaguchi was the keynote speaker. In that keynote, Sakaguchi said that they wanted a game that can be abbreviated into an acronym pronounceable in four-syllable Japanese. FF (pronounced as efu-efu in Japanese) fit that requirement.

As it was going to be a fantasy series, the word fantasy would have to be there. All they needed to do was to think of the other word to fit into the names. Sakaguchi’s initial idea was to name the game Fighting Fantasy as it would involve lots of fighting. Unfortunately, that name had been taken as the name of a British series of single-player role-playing gamebooks created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. Thus they fell back on their second choice of word, Final, and Final Fantasy was born!

Granted, the story may not have been as heroic and mythical as what was stuck with us for years, but it remains a fact that Final Fantasy is still a strong and influential series. With any luck, we will not see its conclusive creation in years to come. I am sure you want to see my different appearances in the game franchise, right?

Source: RocketNews24