Me: finishes final fantasy
Square: releases final fantasy 2
Me: those bastards lied to me
The name is a bit silly but I love the story behind it.
For the uninformed: When Square was developing FF, the story goes that the company was facing bankruptcy and that this would be their last game. It ended up being a hit and the rest of history.
Supposedly and alternatively, it may have been so named as the designer's (Hironobu Sakaguchi) last shot in the game industry and he had resolved to stop if it didn't work.
Either way, I like it.
As interesting as it is, thats actually a common misconception. It wasn't due to facing bankruptcy and years later Sakaguchi gave a different account from his supposed last effort at making a game.
This Famitsu article details it as such because they hoped it would be abbreviated as FF because it sounded good in Japanese. Their initial name was Fighting Fantasy but that had potential trademark issues, so they settled on Final Fantasy. Apparently they also didn't care so much about what it was and any words that abbreviated to FF would work.
I like the more recent story as it gives some certainty to the series from the beginning, but I suspect it was a mixture of both Sakaguchis possible last hurrah and wanting a "cool" name.
I like to think there's a better alternate universe somewhere, in which Square made the correct decision, and named it "Final-er Fantasy".
Most EA sports games, like FIFA or whatever they call themselves.
Call of Duties
But are they really different games?
I have never played a FF game but atleast to me, an outsider, they all look different from each other, maybe I am wrong.
Final Fantasy is like Black Mirror, there are common themes, plot points, and names that persist throughout the series. However no two numbered titles share the same worldbuilding, lore, and characters.
It's like what happened with Quake I-IV but on steroids. Very different games held together by a promise of what emotions you'd expect.
Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare 2 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
(My favorite fact is that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is the 19th game in the series)
Story wise, all different with a certain set of tropes being ever present (crystal will be a nonsense word in your head by the end). Gameplay wise, they can be samey with significant variations on progression (8 being the most out there IMHO). After 13, it does start getting much more variable with the formula.
Madden football is up to about 40, now.
Ok but can you name 30 games that you've beaten all from separate series? Because I actually couldn't
- Pokemon Blue
- Final Fantasy 7
- Star Control 2 (UQM)
- Super Mario World
- Donkey Kong Country 2
- Kirby's Adventure
- The Legend of Zelda
- Earthbound
- Fire Emblem
- Rock Band
- Guitar Hero
- Katamari Damacy
- Trails in the Sky
- Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- Bug Fables
- Borderlands 2
- GTA3
- Illbleed
- Gex
- Return Fire
- StarCraft
- Streets of Rage 2
- Street Fighter 2
- Heavy Rain
- Beyond Two Souls
- Golden Sun
- Shining in the Darkness
- Chrono Trigger
- Persona 5
That was actually pretty tough! I tried to avoid "related" series too (like 2D vs. 3D Mario, Mario vs. Yoshi, etc.)
You smell 35 to 45 years old.
- Baldur's Gate 3
- Hades
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- Bioshock
- Hypnospace Outlaw
- Dead Rising
- Disco Elysium
- Prey
- Dishonored
- Borderlands
- Final Fantasy VIII
- Mass Effect
- Half-Life 2
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Red Faction
- Psychonauts
- Spelunky
- Primordia
- Strangeland
- Alan Wake
- Telltale's The Walking Dead
- F.E.A.R.
- Heavy Rain
- Dragon Age: Origins
- Jade Empire
- Fire Emblem: Awakening
- Life Is Strange
- The Longest Journey
- Metro 2033
- The Punisher
And I could keep going because I've spent far too much time playing video games
- Metal gear solid
- Dragon ball Z Budokai 3
- Disco elysium
- Far cry 3
- Assassin's creed 2
- Spider-Man
- Littlebigplanet
- Bioshock
- Dark souls
- Star Wars Jedi Academy
- Batman Arkham
- Call of Duty Black Ope
- Super Mario Bros 3
- Zelda BOTW
- Gears of war 2
- Uncharted 2
- The last of us
- Kameo
- Mega Man 2
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade
- Hotline Miami
- Gravity Rush
- Persona 4 golden
- Tomb Raider
- Crash Bandicoot 3: warped
- Spyro year of the dragon
- Pokémon red
- Zero Escape Virtue's Last Reward
- Fallout 3
- Devil may cry
- Lego ___
- Resident Evil
- Tell Tale's Walking dead
- Wolf among us
- Fable 2
- Tales from the Borderlands
- Mortal Kombat
- Injustice
- Infamous
- God of War (2018)
- Journey
- Dying light
- Dead island 2
- Hitman
- Saints Row 2
- Enter the matrix
- Superman returns
- Kingdom hearts
- Portal
- X-men Origins
