The A-Z Of Final Fantasy: Everything You Need To Know
To celebrate the Final Fantasy franchise's 25th anniversary we have taken a look back at the series that brought the JRPG to the shores of the west.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Final Fantasy franchise. One of the most successful Japanese gaming franchises, both locally and internationally, the Final Fantasy games are among the best loved games of any genre around the world. The Final Fantasy series helped create the genre we now refer to as the Japanese Role Playing Game, a statistic based strategy formula that involves dungeon crawling and micro-management. Over the years various titles have increased the popularity of the franchise exponentially. Final Fantasy 7 for example was the first title that was an international mega hit, blowing away early Playstation gamers with its unique and compelling story and (at the time) ground braking graphics. The series has had a strong and fruitful relationship with Sony's Playstation consoles ever since, releasing the moody Final Fantasy 8 and the cartoony Final Fantasy 9 on the platform before making the move to the Playstation 2 with Final Fantasy 10. With Final Fantasy 10 the series to a huge leap in production value, introducing a voice cast and playing out most of the games dialogue with voice work rather than text. Of course this also lead to introducing bad voice work to the series. You win some you lose some. Now the franchise is multi-platform, with instalments and spin-offs on every major console. The franchise is also cross-media, with movies, animations, comics and a huge plethora of merchandise. Not to mention an extremely healthy cosplay community. To celebrate the 25th anniversary we have taken a look at the franchise as a whole and compiled an A - Z guide that will either be a trip down memory lane or a fantastic introduction to one of gamings most prestigious franchises.