For years, it was being said that the Final Fantasy series was named so as it was Squaresoft’s last attempt at turning the company’s situation around, as it was going bankrupt, but it seems like this wasn’t the case at all.
In a new interview shared on YouTube as part of the celebrations for the series’ 35th anniversary, series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi revealed that the name came from the team’s desire to have an abbreviation with the Latin alphabet in the vein of Dragon Quest, which was starting to be known as DQ following the second entry in the series. The team came up with FF first, which was originally the abbreviation for Fighting Fantasy, but that name turned difficult to use due to trademarks so they reluctantly went with Final Fantasy as a last resort.
The rest of the interview has some very interesting tidbits about the Final Fantasy series as a whole and the people that made it, so make sure to check it out if you are a fan and want to know more about one of the most popular Japanese role-playing game franchises ever.
Since the first game’s launch in 1987, the Final Fantasy series went on to become a worldwide phenomenon, spawning a total of sixteen main entries and numerous spin-offs, which all attempted to bring something new to the table. Final Fantasy XVI, in this regard, is the game that changed the franchise the most, with an action-focused experience that is well worth any fans’ time, as highlighted by Kai in his review.
