[Andrew Scaves]

Here's a documentary report I made on the series I am so deeply devoted to. I tried to get my information as factuaL as possible and I think everything's correct, correct me if I'm wrong. To further inform you I know my report on XII isn't that good since I've played it only one time and on the internet there isn't many articles that go into depth on the storyline, because it's still fresh. Anywho I hope you enjoy it. I made it especially for this site and me of course.

PS. Sorry I had to double post to fit this here

The Chronicle of a Crystal: A History on Final Fantasy

Introduction

Final Fantasy is known as the world’s longest running role playing game (RPG) series in all of video game history. It may also be known as the most popular and successful as well with a huge fan base and their most popular game Final Fantasy VII in the top 20 best selling games of all time. Created by a company called Square, Final Fantasy gains its fans through riveting tales, fun and intuitive game play, unique artistic visuals, influential music, and characters that that you can feel for and relate to. The series stands strong with twelve mainstream games and eighteen games in total.

Origin
To achieve what Final Fantasy has achieved, one must learn of how it came about. In Japan during the 1980’s, a small gaming company called Square Ltd. produced games for the Famicom Disk system also known as the Nintendo Entertainment System internationally. The company had a problem of producing well-selling games and they came upon the verge of bankruptcy.
In 1987 the man known as Hinorobu Sakaguchi started working on the company’s final game before they would retire. The game was a fantasy role playing game he named Final Fantasy inspired by an already successful RPG known as Dragon Quest. He named it Final Fantasy presumably it being his last work before he would retire. To his and the rest of the company’s amazement, the game became a huge success and the company remained open.

The Trademark Developers
Final Fantasy didn’t get to where it is today without its great developers. Hinorobu Sakaguchi is the man behind the masterpiece. As the original creator he was the man in charge of most of the development for the series. The only one he was not involved in was XII.

Nobuo Uematsu is the series’ main music composer. He has created music for the series ever since the first one. He won awards for his song Eyes on Me sung by Faye Wong which he wrote and produced and one of the awards was for Best Song of the year by the Japan Gold Disc Awards in 1999. He plays concerts around the globe and has The Final Fantasy game soundtracks.
In February of 2003 he created the Black Mages band; a rock band featuring battle music from the Final Fantasy games. Many fans await for his next concert in America.

Tetsuya Nomura and Yoshitaka Amano are the series two main graphic designers designers. Tetsuya was set into the fray when Square was developing Final fantasy IV and required him to work on battle graphics. He continued to work for them then on under the leads of Sakaguchi and Amano, but he didn’t gain recognition until Square gave him the job of being the character designer for Final Fantasy VII. His success lead him for character designer again for Final fantasy VIII and game director under Sakaguchi and Yoshinori Kitase. He continued with character design for Final Fantasy’s X and X-2. He also worked on final fantasy’s Disney spin off Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. He also worked on the film Final Fantasy VII Advent Children.

Yoshitaka Amano was born in Shizuoka, Japan during the year of 1952. In his young teen years he grew for a passion in drawing. His first job in art was in 1967 at a company called Tatsunoko Productions. Eventhough Yoshitaka Amano worked on many other projects, he was still the top character designer for the Final Fantasy series. He joined Square during 1987 to work on their upcoming game Final Fantasy. He produced astounding paintings of the characters giving feelings of tranquility and beauty. 1994 after Final Fantasy VI was finished, he remained the lead character designer no more, but continued to create the title logo designs.
He did design character illustrations for VII,VIII, IX, X, and X-2. He made cover art for the game Final fantasy XI and then went back into the shadows. 1up.com did an interview and documentary on him on their site which can be viewed here http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3152237

The Main Final Fantasy's
The original Final Fantasy was a game for the Nintendo Entertainment system. The story revolves around the inhabitants of the world waiting for a prophecy to be fulfilled. They wait for the four Light Warriors to renew the world. You play as the four warriors in the prophecy. They are nameless in the game, but only known as by the class you give them; the Fighter, Black Belt, White Mage, Black Mage, and Thief. The story’s main plot is present when four mighty fiends incarnated from the four elements are decaying the planet known as Gaia. The fiends come from 2,000 years in the past. To rejuvenate or regain their strength, they send the evil knight Garland, 2,000 years in the past. In that time Garland fuses with the four fiends to become a great being of his own called Chaos. With the power of the four fiends inside him attempts to use time magic to bring back the four fiends into present day.
The four light warriors start on a quest to go into the past and stop Chaos before he succeeds with his plan. The game play in the original is pretty basic turned based combat with the additional around-the-world exploration. The game was originally released in 1987 in Japan only and didn’t arrive into the United States until Square was released Final Fantasy III in Japan in 1990. The game was remade twice with Final Fantasy Origins for the Playstation One and Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls for the Game Boy Advance.

Final Fantasy II was based around an evil empire known as Baramekia that killed the parents of four children. Years later the when the four children are adults, they join the resistance in the war for revenge and justice. The four youths are Frionel, Guy, Maria, and Lionheart. They gain comrades along the way and learn that the empire isn’t the one behind the evil that threatens the world, it is an entity called Dark Cloud.The battle system in this game is still turned based, but allows players to earn experience and level up their skills, based on how much you use the skill the more powerful the skill becomes. It is a start to Final Fantasy’s trend of dynamic game play. Final fantasy II was released in Japan during 1988; The United States didn’t see a ring of it until 2001.

The plot of Final Fantasy III was based around four youths from a village called Uru when they fall into a hole where the find the location of the wind crystal shrine The crystal informs them that they are the warriors of light whose destiny was to restore balance of light and darkness The party of four set out to pursue their source of evil that the Crystal has informed them of. They defeat a man called Zande which of whom they thought was the source, but later to find out that a being called the Dark Cloud is behind everything.
Final Fantasy III was released in Japan during 1990. It wasn’t released into the United States until last year of 2006 on the hand held console, the Nintendo DS as a complete remake restored in 3-D graphics.

Final Fantasy IV’s story takes place when a dark knight named Cecil returns from a village where he has just required a crystal taken by force from the people. He is stripped of his status as captain of an air troop called the Red Wings due to the king believing he is untrustworthy. The king gives Cecil a job to deliver a ring to a village with his long time friend Kain.
When Cecil and Kain arrive to their destination they learn that it was sabotage to burn down the village. Cecil feeling that his king has changed and betrayed his kingdom Cecil leaves the kingdom. He repents for sins by converting himself into a Paladin or holy knight. He later discovers that the king has been slayed and the man who he thought was his king is actually an imposter who is working for a man to retrieve the four elemental crystals so that the path to the moon will open. Cecil embarks on a quest to stop them.
Final Fantasy IV was released in Japan on the Super Nintendo console of 1991. It was also released in the US, but as Final Fantasy II. Being the first Final Fantasy for the Super Nintendo the graphics were still 2-D, but polished and given a smoother look. It was also re-released to the Playstation as Final Fantasy Chronicles which came with another Square game called Chrono Trigger in 2001.

The story of Final Fantasy V takes place when a shower of meteorites hits the planet. Meanwhile four citizens investigate the recent shattering of the four elemental crystals. In their studies they discover that the meteorites that recently hit the planet came from another dimension. They find their way into the dimension and discover that a man by the name of X-Death was behind the meteor attack. The party decides to leave the seen and come upon four warriors that have claimed that they had imprisoned X-Death thirty years ago by a spell sealing him into a tree, but he has somehow managed to break out. The four warriors influences the party to accompany them on assassinating X-Death and the party agrees.
Final Fantasy V was released in 1992 in Japan, but didn’t arrive into the United States until 1999 on the original Playstation as Final Fantasy Anthology which also came with Final Fantasy VI. All three of these games, II, IV, and V deal with a plot around the elemental crystals that hold nature’s power and spirit.