For years, no, decades, a legend has sprung up around the title Final Fantasy. It says that Square, which was in dire straits, thought this was going to be its last gameâhence, Final Fantasy. The gameâs creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi, says that myth is wrong.
As reported by Famitsu (via Game Kana), Sakaguchi recently gave a talk about the history of JRPGs. According to Sakaguchi, the original idea was to give the game a title that could be abbreviated to âFFâ in English (in Japanese, that is pronounced as âefu efuâ). Itâs a nice sounding abbreviation to Japanese ears.
The word âfantasyâ in Final Fantasy has always made sense. These games are fantasy. But the word âfinalâ has always been a sticking point for some players. The legend surrounding the gameâs name, however, explains why âfinalâ is used.
However, the original title was going to be Fighting Fantasy. At that same time, there was board game by the same name. (Here, Iâm assuming Famitsu is referring to the single-player Fighting Fantasy roleplaying books, which spawned board games.) Because of this, the title was changed to Final Fantasy
âFinalâ (ăăĄă€ăă« or âfainaruâ) is a famous word in Japan, so for the gameâs creators, it was probably a logical âFâ word to pick.
So what does Sakaguchi say to the notion that this was conceived as the companyâs final project? âThose days definitely seemed like end times, but honestly, any word that started with âFâ wouldâve been fine.â
https://kotaku.com/what-final-fantasy-is-according-to-its-creator-1672622214
So… Fabulous Fantasy? Fearless Fantasy? Fluffy Fantasy? Nah, glad they went with âfinal,â even if Square Enix keeps pumping them out.
Actually, wait. Is it too late to change the name to Forever Fantasy?
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