We all love the Final Fantasy series and we all know how immensely popular it is. But do you know how it all began? The series has a confusing history given it’s awkward numbering system between the continents and the many, many remakes of several titles. Here is a detailed history and timeline of the entire series and each remake; our story begins in Japan in the year 1987.
After developing and releasing several simple RPG titles for the semi-popular Famicon Disk System (a Nintendo-like peripheral for the home computer in Japan at the time), Square-Enix suddenly found themselves on the brink of bankruptcy. Following the guidelines set by their only commercial success, Dragon Quest, director Hironobu Sakaguchi set to work on a game that he hoped would bring the company out of decline and allow him to retire with another successful title under his belt. The game beared great similarity to the original Dragon Quest and was titled Final Fantasy. Some surmised that the title referred to the game being the last that Sakaguchi would produce while others thought that, with Square inevitably going out of business, the title reflected Square’s grand exit.
On December 10th, 1987, Final Fantasy was released. The game was an instant hit and quickly became Square’s flagship series. Japanese gamers loved the game and, thanks in part to Nintendo’s advertising campaign, the game show moderate success in North America at it’s release in 1990 as well. The original Final Fantasy has since spawned no less then six remakes, but we’ll get to those later. Excellent graphics (for it’s time), an engrossing storyline, and many hours of gameplay set the tone for what was to come and Square immediately began work on a sequel.
On December 17th, 1988, almost exactly one year after the release of the original, Final Fantasy 2 was offered to Japanese gamers. The game met with the same great success of the first title and Square almost immediately went to work on the third. The decision was made at this time to keep the game from North America for fears that, without another agressive advertising campaign by Nintendo, the game would flop with the less devoted gamers on our continent. That did change later, but it was many years before North American gamers were able to play Final Fantasy II.
Steve