Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy began as Square’s 1987 role-playing game for the Family Computer in Japan, later reaching North America on Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990. Directed and conceived by Hironobu Sakaguchi, it was made by a Square team that included character and image designer Yoshitaka Amano, composer Nobuo Uematsu, game designer Akitoshi Kawazu, and programmer Nasir Gebelli. Its title became the name of Square’s defining series, but the original game itself is a self-contained fantasy adventure centered on an elaborate time loop. At the start, the player names four Warriors of Light and assigns each one a job: Fighter, Thief, Black Belt, Red Mage, White Mage, or Black Mage. Unlike later entries, the Famicom version does not give these heroes individual names or dialogue-driven personalities. They arrive at Cornelia carrying the four elemental crystals, whose light has faded. King of Cornelia asks them to rescue his daughter, Princess Sarah, from the knight Garland, who has taken her to the Chaos Shrine. After defeating Garland and restoring the bridge to the north, the party’s journey expands across a world navigated by ship, canoe, and eventually an airship. Their quest takes them to places including Pravoka, Elfland, Melmond, the Citadel of Trials, and the floating Sky Castle. At the Citadel of Trials, Bahamut recognizes their courage and promotes their jobs: for example, Fighter becomes Knight and White Mage becomes White Wizard. The central task is to rekindle the crystals by defeating the Four Fiends: Lich, Marilith, called Kary in the original English NES localization, Kraken, and Tiamat. Each occupies a dungeon connected to Earth, Fire, Water, or Wind. The game’s combat uses menus and turn-based rounds; the party’s actions are selected before the round resolves. Magic is organized into spell levels with limited charges rather than the later series-standard MP system. In the finale, the Warriors learn that the Fiends sent Garland two thousand years into the past, where he became Chaos. Chaos then sent the Fiends forward, creating a cycle that preserves him. The heroes use the restored crystals to enter the past Chaos Shrine, defeat Chaos, and break the paradox. Final Fantasy was remade or rereleased for platforms including WonderSwan Color, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Portable, mobile devices, and Pixel Remaster collections. Its NES localization used names such as Kary, WARMECH, and BANE; later versions restored or changed much of that terminology. It established Square’s most enduring series around the world.