Lots of people like to poke fun atFinal Fantasy’sname, thinking they’re super clever by pointing out there’s hundreds of games in the series with the word “Final” in the title. To be fair, it’s a rather odd name for the first game in a series, and one that’s been subject to an awful lot of rumors over the years as to how Square actually came up with it all those years ago.For the longest time, many had assumed that the name “Final Fantasy” came from the rumors that the first game in the series was Square’s last attempt to create a big hit before succumbing to financial trouble. It’s a lovely idea, but one that is a little more dramatic than the actual reason, which Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi recently explained during a special interview celebrating the previous 35 years of the series.Related:Final Fantasy 16 Was Always Going To Struggle In JapanAccording to Sakaguchi, the name “Final Fantasy” came from Square’s desire to have a game that could be easily abbreviated, similar to the Dragon Quest series that was being shortened to DQ. Those coming up with a title wanted it to abbreviate to “FF”, with the original name that the team was going to go with being “Fighting Fantasy”. Unfortunately for Square, there was already a tabletop game called Fighting Fantasy that had trademarked the title, forcing it to go with the much less desirable “Final Fantasy” instead. The rest is history.
It’s a pretty good job that “Fighting Fantasy” was trademarked too, as I’m sure I can speak for most Final Fantasy fans when I say the name we have now is much more fitting for a long standing JRPG series. Of course, that could just be down to how long the series has been making such an impact in the games industry, that imagining it called anything else is near to blasphemey. In any case, it’s an interesting story and one that finally debunks all of the rumors about Square potentially being ruined by financial problems.
For Final Fantasy past to Final Fantasy future now, as in related news it was confirmed by Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida that the gamemay be getting some DLC after all, as the team is currently “thinking about” whether to give players another experience in the realm of Valisthea.
