Final Fantasy: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Final Fantasy began in 1987 as Hironobu Sakaguchi's gamble at a struggling Square, built on the skeleton of American computer RPGs and the Famicom success of Dragon Quest. Its identity came from collision: Wizardry's dungeon math, Yoshitaka Amano's watercolor fantasy, Nobuo Uematsu's progressive-rock-and-classical scores, and cinema's sweep. This mix traces what fed it and what it fed.

The Kynda mix for Final Fantasy

• Key Influence · Dragon Quest by Chunsoft (1986). Yuji Horii and Koichi Nakamura's Famicom hit proved a console RPG could sell in Japan, and Square's response the following year was explicitly shaped by it: menu-driven turn-based combat, overworld exploration, a saved quest structure. Final Fantasy differentiated itself with a party of four, a class system and side-view battles, but the commercial template and audience Dragon Quest created is the precondition for the whole series existing.}
• Influencia Obscura · The Black Onyx by Bullet-Proof Software (1984). Henk Rogers' PC-88 dungeon crawler was the first RPG to find a real audience in Japan, essentially teaching the market the vocabulary of character creation, party formation and grinding before Dragon Quest arrived. Its magazine-driven popularity established that Japanese players would accept Wizardry-style systems at all, making it the quiet substrate under the console RPG boom Square joined in 1987.
• Local Roots · The Portopia Serial Murder Case by Chunsoft (1983). Yuji Horii's adventure game came out of the same small Tokyo software world Square operated in, and its command-menu interface is the ancestor of the menu logic Japanese RPGs, including Final Fantasy, adopted wholesale. Enix and Square's rivalry defined Japanese RPGs for two decades until the companies merged in 2003, making Horii's early work the local bedrock of the form Final Fantasy perfected.
• Beyond the Medium · Star Wars by George Lucas (1977). Final Fantasy's science-fantasy core, technology decaying inside a magical world, airships, crystals, an orphaned hero against an empire, descends from the Lucas template that saturated Japanese pop culture. The series' widely noted appetite for cinematic storytelling, cutscene spectacle and operatic scoring, culminating in a feature film in 2001, treats blockbuster cinema rather than tabletop fantasy as its aspirational model.
• Peer · Phantasy Star by Sega (1987). Yuji Naka and Rieko Kodama's Master System RPG launched within months of the first Final Fantasy and pursued the same science-fantasy fusion of spaceships and sorcery, with a female lead and animated first-person dungeons. Through the 8-bit and 16-bit eras Sega's series was Final Fantasy's closest structural rival, competing on cinematic ambition and scale rather than on Dragon Quest's deliberate minimalism.
• Key Collaborator · The Black Mages (2003). Uematsu composed for nearly every Final Fantasy from 1987 onward and is as responsible for the series' identity as any designer. This band project, formed with Square colleagues Kenichiro Fukui and Tsuyoshi Sekito, rearranges his battle themes as hard rock and instrumental prog, laying bare the influences behind the chiptune and orchestral versions and documenting what the compositions sounded like in his head.
• Legacy · Sea of Stars by Sabotage Studio (2023). The Quebec studio built its turn-based RPG as an open homage to the Super Famicom era Square defined, with timed combat inputs, hand-painted pixel vistas and a Yasunori Mitsuda guest contribution linking it directly to that lineage. Its reception confirmed a commercial audience for the genre grammar Final Fantasy established, decades after the series itself moved to action combat and photorealism.

What influenced Final Fantasy

• The Legend of Zelda. The original game drew inspiration from The Legend of Zelda. “GameSpot featured The Legend of Zelda as one of the 15 most influential games of all time, for being an early example of open world , nonlinear gameplay , and for its introduction of battery backup saving , laying the foundations for lat…” (Wikipedia)
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki) — culture for Final Fantasy “He drew inspiration for game elements from anime films by Hayao Miyazaki ; series staples like the airships and chocobos are inspired by elements in Castle in the Sky and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind , respectively.” (Wikipedia)
• Star Wars by George Lucas (1977). Star Wars (George Lucas) — culture for Final Fantasy “Biggs and Wedge , inspired by two Star Wars characters, appear in numerous games as minor characters, sometimes as comic relief.” (Wikipedia)
• Dragon Slayer by Nihon Falcom (1984). Dragon Slayer (Nihon Falcom) — ghost for Final Fantasy “Video game writer John Harris attributed the concept of reworking the game system of each installment to Nihon Falcom 's Dragon Slayer series,” (Wikipedia)
• Tarkus by Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1971). Tarkus (Emerson, Lake & Palmer) — culture for Final Fantasy “Nobuo Uematsu, best known for scoring the majority of titles in the Final Fantasy series, cites ELP as one of his influences.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Assassin's Creed. The series’ planned release cadence was modeled in part on Assassin’s Creed. “This switch was to mimic the development cycles of Western games in the Call of Duty , Assassin's Creed and Battlefield series, as well as maintain fan-interest.” (Wikipedia)
• Dragon Quest by Yuji Horii (1986). The original game drew inspiration from Dragon Quest. “Square designer Hironobu Sakaguchi chose to create a new fantasy role-playing game for the cartridge-based NES, and drew inspiration from popular fantasy games: Enix 's Dragon Quest , Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda , and Origin Systems '…” (Wikipedia)
• Call of Duty. The series’ planned release cadence was modeled in part on Call of Duty. “This switch was to mimic the development cycles of Western games in the Call of Duty , Assassin's Creed and Battlefield series, as well as maintain fan-interest.” (Wikipedia)
• Ultima. The original game drew inspiration from the Ultima series. “Square designer Hironobu Sakaguchi chose to create a new fantasy role-playing game for the cartridge-based NES, and drew inspiration from popular fantasy games: Enix 's Dragon Quest , Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda , and Origin Systems '…” (Wikipedia)
• Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki (1986). The series’ airships were inspired by Castle in the Sky. “He drew inspiration for game elements from anime films by Hayao Miyazaki ; series staples like the airships and chocobos are inspired by elements in Castle in the Sky and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind , respectively.” (Wikipedia)
• Ultima III: Exodus by Origin Systems (1983). Ultima III: Exodus (Origin Systems) — titan for Final Fantasy “In 1987, Square designer Hironobu Sakaguchi chose to create a new fantasy role-playing game for the cartridge-based NES, and drew inspiration from popular fantasy games: Enix's Dragon Quest, Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda, and Origin Sys…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Battlefield. The series’ planned release cadence was modeled in part on Battlefield.
• The Black Onyx by Bullet-Proof Software (1984). The Black Onyx (Bullet-Proof Software) — ghost for Final Fantasy
• Dragon Quest by Chunsoft (1986). Dragon Quest (Chunsoft) — titan for Final Fantasy
• Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord by Sir-Tech (1981). Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (Sir-Tech) — titan for Final Fantasy

Peers and kindred spirits

• Yoshitaka Amano. Amano created art and designs for early games in the series. (also via Vampire Hunter D) “Yoshitaka Amano: Truthfully, I get very little information because when I sketch the logo, the game development is not complete. So even the details about the characters and how they connect to each other are scarce, and I have to work o…” (Screen Rant)
• The Black Mages by The Black Mages (2003). The Black Mages released arrangements of Final Fantasy music. “In 2003, Uematsu co-founded The Black Mages , an instrumental rock group independent of Square that has released albums of arranged Final Fantasy tunes.” (Wikipedia)
• Yoko Shimomura. Shimomura composed music for main-series games. “You’ll know her music from Street Fighter, Final Fantasy , Super Mario, Kingdom Hearts, Legend of Mana, Streets of Rage and more than 70 other games she has contributed original compositions or arrangements to.” (The Guardian)
• Hitoshi Sakimoto. Sakimoto composed music for main-series games. “The theme song for Final Fantasy XII that is used during the opening movie where Rasler dies in the war between Archadia and Dalmasca demonstrates these characteristics best.” (PlayStation.Blog)
• Masashi Hamauzu. Hamauzu composed music for main-series games. “Masashi Hamauzu: I met Kuroda-san while working on Piano Collections Final Fantasy X , where I arranged all the music for the album.” (Game Developer)
• Hironobu Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi created the Final Fantasy franchise. “A: The upcoming Final Fantasy IX . This title (currently under development) is based on a reflection of all the previous works in the series.” (IGN)
• Nobuo Uematsu. Uematsu was the series’ primary composer. “Uematsu: There were lots of requests from fans for an arrangement of the Final Fantasy battle songs. And since many of the original songs are unusual rock pieces, I'd always wanted to perform them as a band.” (shmuplations)
• Vampire Hunter D by Yoshitaka Amano (1983). Vampire Hunter D (Yoshitaka Amano) — collaborator for Final Fantasy “Beginning with Final Fantasy IV, the main series adopted its current logo style that features the same typeface and an emblem designed by Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Mina. In an interview about her Final Fantasy XIII vocals, Mina identifies a contribution to the game's music. “If you listen to the last part of “Battle Results,” which plays upon the completion of each battle, you can hear me counting numbers in the Ainu language.” (Game Developer)
• Tsuyoshi Sekito. Sekito describes arranging a Final Fantasy IX piece for a Black Mages album. “Sekito: For this CD, I arranged Vamo'alla flamenco from FF9. The introduction of the original song is an important part, so I kept the basics faithful.” (shmuplations)
• Aki Kuroda. Hamauzu identifies Kuroda as the featured pianist on a Final Fantasy X album. “Masashi Hamauzu: I met Kuroda-san while working on Piano Collections Final Fantasy X , where I arranged all the music for the album. From the start she had been selected as the featured pianist and I became very impressed with her perfor…” (Game Developer)
• Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished by Nihon Falcom (1987). Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished (Nihon Falcom) — geography for Final Fantasy “Video game writer John Harris attributed the concept of reworking the game system of each installment to Nihon Falcom's Dragon Slayer series, with which Square was previously involved as a publisher.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• EarthBound by Nintendo (1994). EarthBound (Nintendo) — peer for Final Fantasy “==== Main series ==== Three Final Fantasy installments were released on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Phantasy Star by Sega (1987). Phantasy Star (Sega) — peer for Final Fantasy “During the promotion of the Sega Genesis Mini, Sega executive manager Hiroyuki Miyazaki reflected on Sega's history, saying, "I feel like Sega has never been the champion, at the top of all the video game companies, but I feel like a lot…” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together by Quest (1995). Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (Quest) — collaborator for Final Fantasy “It was also the second in the series to be released in Europe, with the first being Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Nintendo. Final Fantasy (Square) — peer for Nintendo (also via EarthBound)
• Lunar: The Silver Star by Game Arts (1992). Lunar: The Silver Star (Game Arts) — peer for Final Fantasy
• The Portopia Serial Murder Case by Chunsoft (1983). The Portopia Serial Murder Case (Chunsoft) — geography for Final Fantasy
• Hydlide by T&E Soft (1984). Hydlide (T&E Soft) — geography for Final Fantasy

Who Final Fantasy influenced

• Jonas Mattsson. Mattsson cited Final Fantasy as a major influence. “The Witcher 3 senior environmental artist Jonas Mattsson cited Final Fantasy as "a huge influence" and said it was "the first RPG" he played through.” (Wikipedia)
• Dead Fantasy. Dead Fantasy features characters from Final Fantasy. “Monty Oum released a fan-made web series of CG action films called Dead Fantasy in 2007 that feature Final Fantasy and Dead or Alive characters fighting in battle royale-style brawls.” (Wikipedia)
• Universes Beyond. The article identifies a Universes Beyond set based on Final Fantasy. “In 2025, in addition to sets based on Final Fantasy and Spider-Man , all future Universes Beyond sets will be made legal to play in all formats.” (Wikipedia)
• Maxime Beland. Beland cited the original Final Fantasy as a major influence. “Ubisoft Toronto creative director Maxime Beland cited the original Final Fantasy as a major influence on him.” (Wikipedia)
• Bravely Default by Silicon Studio (2012). Bravely Default (Silicon Studio) — legacy for Final Fantasy “YEBIS 2 is also utilized by Square Enix's Luminous Studio engine, and the action role-playing game Final Fantasy XV which runs on the Luminous Studio engine.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Sea of Stars by Sabotage Studio (2023). Sea of Stars (Sabotage Studio) — legacy for Final Fantasy
• Chained Echoes by Matthias Linda (2022). Chained Echoes (Matthias Linda) — legacy for Final Fantasy