About

Final Fantasy (Japanese: ファイナルファンタジー) is a media franchise stemming from a series of fantasy role playing games (RPGs) created by game designer Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed by Square Enix. The video game series, which consists of sixteen direct sequel and spin-off titles, has also inspired numerous motion pictures, anime films and novels.

History

Movies and Animated Adaptations

Two movies were developed as spin-offs of the series. The first to be released was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, a full-CGI movie released in 2001. The movie was a critical success, praised for being far beyond other movies of the time in terms of visual effects, but the movie was a commercial bomb, only grossing 85 million in comparison to the 137 million dollar budget, and the movie was considered a failure despite the immense critical acclaim. Another movie, designed as a sequel to Final Fantasy VII, was released in 2005 named Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. The movie garnered mostly positive reviews, and the re-release, Advent Children Complete was met with more positive reception, and was praised for many improved effects and CGI. Two anime series named Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals and Final Fantasy Unlimited were also released in 1998 and 2001 respectively, with Legend of the Crystals being a sequel to Final Fantasy V and and Unlimited being a spin-off of the series. As of March 30th, an anime centered around Final Fantasy XV named Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV premiered as a free-to-watch web anime, serving as a prequel to the main game that ran for 5 episodes. A sixth episode to the series is to be included with the limited edition release of Final Fantasy XV. The game will also have a feature-length CG adaptation called Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, slated to tell a story congruent to the main game.

Online Presence

On April 4th, 2000, the single topic blog Final Fantasy Network^[11] was created, which featured news, reviews and media related to the Final Fantasy franchise. On March 13th, 2005, the Final Fantasy Wiki^[10] was launched, accumulating upwards of 14,170 articles in the first eight years. On March 10th, 2008, the /r/finalfantasy^[9] subreddit was created, which gained over 17,400 subscribers in the next five years. As of June 2013, a ,Facebook^[12] page titled "Final Fantasy" has garnered more than 357,000 likes.

Reception

The series has been commercially and critically successful as Square Enix's best selling video game franchise. As of 2013, the series has sold more than 100 million units worldwide and has received multiple awards, including seven Guinness World Records.^[13] The series is well known for its innovation, visuals and music, including cinematic cut scenes, photo-realistic character models and orchestrated scores by Nobuo Uematsu. It has introduced many features commonly found in console RPGs and has been credited with helping to popularize the genre in markets outside Japan.

Related Memes

You Spoony Bard

You Spoony Bard is an insult from Final Fantasy IV used by the companion Telah toward the character Edward. The phrase is often used online to mock the Bard classes in games for being weak and useless.

Cactuar

Cactuar is a monster from the franchise that has become the subject of a series of animations on the flash website Newgrounds and is often mocked for its resemblance to the swastika symbol on the Internet humor site SomethingAwful.

Sephiroth / One-Winged Angel

Sephiroth (セフィロス Sefirosu?) is the primary antagonist in Final Fantasy VII who is often considered one of the most memorable characters from the franchise. While his role in the story has been praised, many fans have criticized how difficult it is to defeat the enemy. Sephiroth's theme song "One-Winged Angel" has received much praise from the gaming community, having been remixed numerous times for different games in which the villain is featured.

Omega Kawaii Cloud Song

Omega Kawaii Cloud Song is a flash animation created by DeviantArt user SpookyDoom consisting of a caricature of Cloud from Final Fantasy 7 singing about potions giving him cavities and fighting cactuars.

J-E-N-O-V-A Remixes

J-E-N-O-V-A Remixes are various recreations of the song "J-E-N-O-V-A" from Final Fantasy VII popularized on the Japanese video sharing website Nico Nico Douga and YouTube.

Clash On The Big Bridge

Clash On The Big Bridge (also known as Battle With Gilgamesh) is a theme song from Final Fantasy V commonly used in instrumental remixes and MADs. The song is also known as the theme of Gilgamesh, a recurring villain in the series.

Tidus's Laugh / "Haw Haw Haw"

Final Fantasy X was the first game in the series to use voice acting, which had several quality and synchronization issues in the English release of the game. In one cut scene, the character Tidus laughs in an awkward fashion, which has since become an examples of bad American voice acting.

Garland Will Knock You All Down

Garland is the first boss the player encounters in Final Fantasy^[5] who is associated with the ironic phrase "I, Garland, will knock you all down!," which is used to mock the villain for being easy to defeat.

"I'm Captain Basch"

"I'm Captain Basch" is an expression stemming from a scene in Final Fantasy XII in which the party rescues the character Captain Basch from a dungeon. To spread the word that he is alive, the character Vaan suggests he runs around the city yelling "I'm Captain Basch!"

Aerith's Death / "Why Didn't They Just Use a Phoenix Down?"

Aerith (エアリス・ゲインズブール Earisu Geinzubūru), or Aeris in the English releases, is one of the main characters in Final Fantasy 7 who dies in a dramatic cut scene during the game. Online, the scene has frequently been used as a death spoiler reveal.

The phrase "Why didn't they just use a Phoenix Down?" is a joke associated with the character's death, pointing out that her companions could have revived her using the "Phoenix Down" in-game resurrection item.

Search Interest

External References