Introduction | The Past | The Present | The Future

Flashback: the year is 1987. A small Japan-based developer known as Square, a now world-renown word to gamers worldwide, is on the brink of financial devastation. The company had previously earned its mainstay by developing and publishing games for the Famicom Disk system, a small Nintendo console that had not yet gained full popularity. The titles sold well for their user base, but the base was so miniscule that large sales and true moneymakers were an elusive goal to achieve. At the time, Enix, another Japanese developer, had perhaps the most popular RPG of all time on the Japanese market: Dragon Quest. Hironobu Sakaguchi, the then-current president of Square, had a million-dollar idea: why not model a game around the popular series? Square figured they would be able to improve on Enix's ideas, and they would do so by creating the largest cartridge role-playing game that would change the face of the genre forever. Soon, Square's entire dream of survival, their aura of hope, their glimmer of life was all placed on the one title. If the game failed, simply, Square as a company would fail. The assignment, being Square's last hope, was entitled "Final Fantasy".

Obviously, the games did not fail. Even by today's standards, the first Final Fantasy games were wildly successful. Final Fantasy VII, the first Final Fantasy on a 32-bit console has sold nearly six million copies, and is still selling, to this day, with almost half of those coming within two days of the game's initial release The Final Fantasy series, starting off as a tiny flicker of optimism, has become one of the most popular series of games ever to be released. The 10 currently released games span across 4 consoles, and together have sold an enumerable amount. It goes without saying that Square's "Final" fantasy was not truly its Swan Song after all. Accompany GamingWorldX as we trace the history of the acclaimed series throughout its glorified and controversial history, starting with the massive game Square had set out to accomplish, all the way up to the latest installment on Sony's newest console. Now, as I quote Cloud from Final Fantasy VII, "Let's mosey!"

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Feature by Kevin Ciok