The Final Fantasy Retrospective
3,576Final Fantasy has been a titan in the realm of video games for nearly 35 years, even since the release of Hironobu Sakaguchi's original Famicom game in 1987. But what were the circumstances of Final Fantasy's creation? What was the cultural context in which Final Fantasy was created and birthed into? How did works and creatives like Star Wars, Dragon Quest, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli, and 17th century Irish satirist Jonathan Swift influence Sakaguchi's work?
Today, we are going to examine the original 8-bit classic in glorious detail, explore the early years of Square (now Square-Enix), and attempt to properly contextualize it all within its time and place in video game history. This is the beginning of The Final Fantasy Retrospective, just in time for the release of Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, and as a celebration of 35 years of Final Fantasy!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LordDrubie
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AndrewBluett
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
2:57 - Part I - Sakaguchi
8:32 - Part II - Square & The Evolving Market
18:47 - Part III - Developing the Fantasy
27:10 - Part IV - Final Fantasy
31:37 - Structure Analysis
36:35 - Combat & Difficulty
50:54 - Design & Aesthetics
1:09:23 - Climax
1:19:08 - Personal Thoughts
1:22:21 - Part V - Remaking the Fantasy
1:33:10 - Part VI - Reception & Legacy
1:39:01 - Epilogue & To Be Continued...
Sources:
1. https://web.archive.org/web/20210331040803/https://tokyo.whatsin.jp/80821
2. Parkin, Simon. The Never-ending Story. January 2018, Edge Magazine.
3. Kohler, Chris. Final Fantasy V. Boss Fight Books.
4. https://games.app-liv.jp/archives/185653
5. https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2017/06/29/hironobu-sakaguchi-talks-about-his-admiration-for-dragon-quest-and-upcoming-projects/?sh=6fe15ad515b5
6. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-27-hironobu-sakaguchi-fantasy-man
7. https://web.archive.org/web/20210331041407/https://tokyo.whatsin.jp/80823
8. https://web.archive.org/web/20061008024010/http://www.e.okayama-u.ac.jp/~dfujii/Option.pdf
9. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19860407&id=apAyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MegDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2107,4408710
10. Famitsu 12 Dec 1986
11. https://www.oricon.co.jp/news/71808/full/
12. Famitsu 6 Feb 1987
13. https://kotaku.com/debunking-the-final-fantasy-naming-myth-1707389344
14. FF Ultimania Archive volume 1, page 34
15. https://web.archive.org/web/20130922005246/http://www.develop-online.net/news/28960/Sakaguchi-discusses-the-development-of-Final-Fantasy
16. https://na.finalfantasy.com/topics/176
17. https://n a.finalfantasy.com/topics/171
18. https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2017/12/14/akitoshi-kawazu-on-his-journey-from-the-final-fantasy-games-to-the-saga-series/?sh=2fd9076f51c6
19. https://playstationjapan.tripod.com/Sakaguchi.html
20. Final Fantasy credits
21. Amano Illustrated Biography
22. http://www.gamespite.net/toastywiki/index.php/Games/LaputaEffect
23. Little Girl Who Conquered Time, 1983
24. http://www.eiren.org/toukei/1983.html
25. https://www.mcvuk.com/development-news/sakaguchi-discusses-the-development-of-final-fantasy/
26. https://ch.nicovideo.jp/indies-game/blomaga/ar772866
27. https://sites.google.com/site/gamedatalibrary/games-by-year/1987-weekly?authuser=0
28. https://sites.google.com/site/gamedatalibrary/games-by-year/1988-weekly?authuser=0
29. https://nlab.itmedia.co.jp/games/articles/0912/17/news104.html
30. Famitsu No 39, 25 Dec 1987 https://archive.org/details/bi-weekly-famitsu-no.-39-december-25th-1987-600DPI/Bi-Weekly%20Famitsu%20-%20No.%2039%20December%2025th%201987%20%28Compressed%29/page/n17/mode/2up
31. https://ousar.lib.okayama-u.ac.jp/files/public/4/40488/20160528032115939560/oer_037_1_063_088.pdf
32. EGM 63, pg 172 https://archive.org/details/Electronic_Gaming_Monthly_63/page/n177/mode/1up
Other Videos By Andrew Bluett
| 2024-01-18 | The Chrono Trigger Retrospective |
| 2023-11-21 | The Final Fantasy VI Retrospective |
| 2023-10-25 | Death, Change, & "The End of Time" | A Doctor Who Video Essay |
| 2023-08-26 | The Original Broly Was Good, Actually |
| 2023-06-18 | The Final Fantasy V Retrospective |
| 2023-04-11 | The Final Fantasy IV Retrospective |
| 2023-01-27 | Tony Hawk's Underground is Special |
| 2022-10-19 | The Final Fantasy III Retrospective |
| 2022-09-02 | Halo Infinite Kept the Promise | A Story Retrospective |
| 2022-07-20 | The Final Fantasy II Retrospective |
| 2022-03-13 | The Final Fantasy Retrospective |
| 2022-01-22 | The Holistic Brilliance of "Last Exit to Springfield" |
| 2021-12-06 | Learning to Love Halo 4 - A Retrospective |
Other Statistics
Final Fantasy Statistics For Andrew Bluett
There are 128,248 views in 1 video for Final Fantasy. About an hours worth of Final Fantasy videos were uploaded to his channel, roughly 7.46% of the content that Andrew Bluett has uploaded to YouTube.