Michael LumThe Final Fantasy that almost never was
It’s hard to find someone who hasn’t heard about Final Fantasy. And no wonder, given its reputation in the gaming industry, and more recently, the movie industry as well, with the introduction of movies like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Final Fantasy VII Advent Children.
Indeed, Square ENIX (formerly SQUARE) had turned the Final Fantasy brand into something of a household name, especially among youths. To date, the series has been critically acclaimed and praised internationally for its groundbreaking visuals and graphics, emotional musical score, engaging storyline and deep character development.
And that popularity is set to grow beyond games and movies. Even its music has found a warm welcome in the hands of professional musicians, with the Final Fantasy concert at the Esplanade Concert Hall on May 22 and 23, conducted by Grammy-winner Arnie Roth, bearing testament to that fact.
Just how much do you know about Final Fantasy and its history? UrbanWire takes a trip down memory lane to dig up the video game giant’s elusive past.
Humble Beginnings:
If you thought that SQUARE started out as a successful company, you couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, it didn’t even start out as a home console game developer. SQUARE’s efforts prior to joining the console gaming market were focussed on the PC when it was first formed, and it was only in 1985 that SQUARE entered the console market.
Most may not know it, but in 1987, SQUARE was already tethering on the brink of bankruptcy due to the lack of popularity of many of its games, many of which were written off by others as small-time titles. It needed a breakthrough, and quickly, but such things were extremely hard to envision, considering the limited user base the Famicom Disk consoles commanded then.
Faced with possible financial ruin, the developers were given the task to start work on a new game, with the company’s survival at stake: it would either succeed and reverse SQUARE’s ailing fortunes, or fail again and leave the home console gaming market permanently. Needless to say, all available resources were pooled into the development of this one game, and the name ‘Final Fantasy‘ was given to the project to reflect the title’s potential ‘swan-song’ status.
Only it succeeded, and beyond their dreams. Final Fantasy was a hit, with all 400,000 copies sold out, a remarkable feat considering the small user base of the Famicom Disk systems.
Final Fantasy I may look ugly today, but back in 1987, it was one of the best games one could get.
But it didn’t just stop there: sequels were made, with each subsequent release being more successful and well-received than its predecessors, a trait that has carried on even up till present times with Final Fantasy XII for the Playstation 2.
Diversifying the Final Fantasy brand
And the Final Fantasy franchise is not only limited to the games that have graced Nintendo’s early consoles and Sony’s Playstation.
In addition to just the mainstream Final Fantasy titles, SQUARE also published spin-off titles under the Final Fantasy umbrella. Examples include the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles series, which SQUARE started for Nintendo’s consoles in 2003, after the latter had softened its hostile stance on role-playing games, and Kingdom Hearts, a series developed in conjunction with Disney and spots characters from both the mainstream Final Fantasy and Disney camps.
Naturally, games aren’t all there is to Final Fantasy. SQUARE even had a motion pictures department SQUARE Pictures, which was responsible for pushing out the multi-million dollar failure of a movie known as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. While it was considered a flop in many aspects, it did set a whole new standard for animated movies, which was raised yet again with the release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, by which time SQUARE had already merged with ENIX to form Square-ENIX.
Cloud battling Sephiroth in FFVII: Advent Children. Amazing cgi-effects, breathtaking visuals…it doesn’t get any better than this.
The fantasy which never ends
So great is Final Fantasy’s influence that even non-gamers and musicians have jumped on the bandwagon: for the first time in Singapore, Distant Worlds, a concert featuring selected music pieces from the Final Fantasy series, will be playing at the Esplanade Concert Hall.
And if that’s not enough to get fans all worked up about securing last-minute tickets to hear their favourite game music in a live orchestra, the fact that renowned Final Fantasy music composer Nobuo Uematsu will be attending the concert should do the trick.
While we sit back and wonder how Square-ENIX will continue developing the franchise for its upcoming release on the consoles by Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, perhaps it’s worth pointing out that the Final Fantasy franchise celebrates its 22nd birthday this year, making it one of the longest lasting game franchises along with ENIX’s Dragon Quest series.
With that in mind, UrbanWire wishes Final Fantasy a wonderful 22nd anniversary with its own song: “To Zanarkand”.
Brief chronology of Final Fantasy’s history:
Nintendo era:
1987: Final Fantasy I
1988: Final Fantasy II
1990: Final Fantasy III
1991: Final Fantasy IV
1992: Final Fantasy V
1994: Final Fantasy VI
Playstation era:
1997: Final Fantasy VII
1999: Final Fantasy VIII
2000: Final Fantasy IX
Playstation 2 era:
2001: Final Fantasy X
2002: Final Fantasy XI (also released on Windows and Xbox)
2003: Final Fantasy X-2
2006: Final Fantasy XII
Spin-offs:
2002: Kingdom Hearts I
2003: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
2006: Kingdom Hearts II
2007: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates
2008: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
2009: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time