This Fantasy Ain’t So Final, Is It?
Today I was introduced to Final Fantasy. Okay, I wasn’t introduced to it; I was aware of its existence. But I had never played any of the games or involved myself in its related media. Nor was I aware really of its storyline or general concept, other than the fact that it is a fantasy (duh) and there is fighting involved. But today I had my first exposure to it, watching Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, a CGI film based on one of the games… the seventh one I presume. Surprisingly I quote enjoyed it, despite not understanding much of the background story (and the fact that most non-Pixar and non-Dreamwork
s CGI films–to put it simply–suck).
And then I discovered there are currently 14 different Final Fantasies. That’s quite a lot, even though it’s fifty less than Mario 64 (somewhere out there, a nerd is crying at my ignorance). This made me wonder why the franchise is called Final Fantasy. The trustworthy encyclopedia says the original game was being made when the developer Square went bankrupt. Therefore the director said he wanted his “final” game to be a “fantasy”. And thus the title was born. Not very creative, if you ask me. Nonetheless, it’s an understandable reason.
However, Final Fantasy proved to not be his last game. They came out with Final Fantasy 2, Final Fantasy 3, Final Fantasy Pi, Final Fantasy 4, and so on… I don’t understand why they kept calling them Final Fantasy if each game was clearly not the final one. I suppose they could get away with it at the beginning, perhaps thinking that the sequel they were currently developing was in fact the final game they would make. But at this point in time it’s a huge franchise, and they must realize they’ll keep making new games. Thus they are completely aware it is not the final fantasy.
More appropriate names would have been something like…
Final Fantasy II: Electric Boogaloo
Final Fantasy III: This Time We Mean It
Final Fantasy IV: Fourth Time’s the Charm
Final Fantasy V: Now We’re Done
Fantasy VI: Never Mind, It’s Not Final
Fantasy VII: Return of the Jedi
Fantasy VIII: It Never Ends
etc….
