Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi has addressed the urban myth around the origin of the series' name.
It's been long thought that Final Fantasy was called that as it was going to be Sakaguchi's last game before he called it quits in game development, and that it was going to be Square's last game as it faced bankruptcy.
In a new interview to celebrate the series' 35th anniversary and the release of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series on PS4 and Switch, Sakaguchi reveals that this myth is indeed not true, and that he may have had some part in perpetuating it.
When asked about how the name Final Fantasy came about, Sakaguchi shares it was partly inspired by RPG gamebook series Fighting Fantasy and eventual Square Enix franchise Dragon Quest. "At the time, Dragon Quest had started to establish itself and was shortened to 'Drakue'," Sakaguchi says, explaining that the team wanted their game to have a similar shortened title. But, they wanted it to use the Roman alphabet and came up with FF. "FF was first and then there was Fighting Fantasy," he continues, "but it was tricky to use that because of trademarks and the like." The team "reluctantly" went with Final Fantasy in what Sakaguchi described as a "last resort".
The grand meaning behind Final Fantasy is all thanks to one primary school English teacher, according to Sakaguchi. He recalls receiving a postcard from a class, who said their teacher had explained that 'final fantasy' (in English) means 'the ultimate illusion' (in Japanese) and they wanted to know if it was true. "The second it arrived, I said we're using this!" he says. "I told everyone present that's what Final Fantasy really means now."
And that's how we ended up here. Were it not for Fighting Fantasy and one primary school teacher and their class, we wouldn't have one of the most iconic series titles of all time. The bit about it saving Square from bankruptcy, though? Maybe that was Sakaguchi's ultimate illusion all along.
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