Guide Note

Final Fantasy is a series of video games and other media entertainment. Hailed as one of the best RPG series out there, Final Fantasy continues to make quality games. Created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, it is one of the most successful and popular video game franchise, spawning two full-length movies. The games are most noted for their amazing story lines, scores, and ground-breaking animations.

Fast Facts

1. Debuted: 1987
2. Manufacturer: Square Enix
3. Number 4 Best Selling Game
4. Approx. 28 Games
5. Five films & series
6. 2006: Final Fantasy on the Walk of Game

All the Final Fantasies follow different story lines, although many of the games occur in the similar locations such as Midgard and Ivalice. There are also some recurring character names, creatures (chocobos, moogles), airships, and character classes. Although the stories aren't directly linked, the share many similar attributes. There is the hero who has a mysterious past and must fight a powerful enemy who wants to destroy the world. In either case, the world is already in some kind of chaos, generally the game starts in the middle of a war/conflict, and escalates from there.

Most of the games follow the same prescribed RPG turn-based system. Some of the games stray from the traditional turn-based system. FF IV was the first game to introduce the Active Time Battle. Rather than taking turns, there is an ATB gauge which fills up. When it is completely full, your character can then perform an action. This system was also utilized in FF X and FF X-2. FF XI was the first MMORPG and and the first to employ real time battle rather than having random encounters. For the most part the games also employ the three screens which include: field screens, dungeon and map screens, and menu screens. Earlier games allowed you to have four to five characters in your party, however after FF VII, the number of party members has decreased to three.