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00:06Welcome to MojoPlays and who gives a damn about relevant topics in games? I'm talking about the
00:112D Final Fantasy games even if this video gets 200 views. These are 25 things you didn't know
00:17about Final Fantasy 1 through 6. Let's go. Before we continue, we publish content all week long,
00:23so be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to get notified of our latest videos. Here lies Link
00:30Final Fantasy. The original Final Fantasy included a surprisingly catty little easter egg aimed at
00:39some of gaming's biggest fantasy franchises. In the town of Elfheim, players can find a gravestone
00:45near one of the houses that changes depending on which version of the game they're playing.
00:48Some releases read Here Lies Link, referencing The Legend of Zelda, while others instead say
00:53Here Lies Erdrich, the legendary hero from Dragon Quest. The Japanese versions mostly kept the
00:59Link joke, while the original NES English release swapped in Erdrich instead. It's especially funny
01:03because Final Fantasy itself was still trying to establish its identity at the time, yet Square
01:08was already casually teasing other RPG giants with a fake gravestone joke, a real David and Goliath.
01:16Swan Song Final Fantasy
01:22It's hard to imagine now, but back in the 1980s, Squaresoft was dangerously close to collapse
01:27before the release of the original Final Fantasy. Long before becoming the RPG powerhouse known now
01:32as Square Enix, the company was struggling financially and desperately needed a hit to survive.
01:37Just like me. Please like this video. According to gaming legend, creator Hironobu Sakaguchi
01:43even viewed the project as a final attempt at success before potentially leaving the industry
01:48altogether, which is where the series supposedly got its name. Thankfully, Final Fantasy became a
01:53massive success and completely changed the company's future overnight. Instead of shutting down,
01:57Square suddenly found itself at the greatest JRPG series of all time.
02:06King Size Final Fantasy 4
02:15One of the coolest tiny secrets in Final Fantasy 4 happens at Fable Castle, right before the Red Wings
02:20attack. Normally, players would head to the inn and pay to rest like civilized RPG citizens,
02:25but there's actually a free option hidden away if you explore a little. By climbing to the top of the
02:29castle tower, Cecil and the party can straight up sleep in the king's bed instead, fully restoring the
02:34group without spending any guilt. It's such a small detail, but discovering it naturally feels
02:38weirdly rewarding, especially back in the day when secrets like this spread through playground
02:43rumors instead of YouTube guides. So if you're a fan of this game and didn't know this, you're welcome.
02:4835 years later.
02:52Kissy Time Final Fantasy 4
02:57One of the funniest little censorship moments in older RPG history comes from the American release of
03:02Final Fantasy 4. In the original Japanese version, when Cecil finally rescues Rosa in the Tower of
03:07Zot, the two share a quick kiss after being reunited. Pretty standard romantic payoff stuff.
03:12But in the US, those frames were actually removed, so the scene awkwardly became more of a dramatic
03:17hug instead. Apparently two pixelated adults in a committed relationship briefly showing affection
03:22was considered dangerously spicy material for American audiences at the time. Cowards.
03:32PS2 version Final Fantasy 3
03:40During development of the 3D remake of Final Fantasy 3, the team actually considered releasing
03:45the game on the PlayStation 2, before eventually shifting development over to the Nintendo DS
03:49after Nintendo approached Square Enix about supporting the handheld. Honestly, it's hard to imagine the
03:54remake anywhere else now since the DS version became so iconic in its own weirdly chunky little
03:59way. Even stranger, the developers also experimented with the idea of including a versus mode where
04:04Luneth and the rest of the party could battle each other. The idea never made it far because the team
04:09reportedly felt uncomfortable turning the main cast against one another, which is honestly kind of
04:14wholesome. Interestingly, leftover text from unused battle commands still exists in the game files.
04:28One of the biggest traditions in Final Fantasy is the constant reappearance of certain characters and
04:34creatures across almost every game. The most famous example is probably Sid, who appears in every
04:39mainline entry. Almost. Did you know the original Final Fantasy is the only mainline game that Sid doesn't
04:47appear in? Sometimes he's a genius engineer, sometimes he's an airship pilot, sometimes just an exhausted
04:51old man trying to keep the plot from falling apart. In Final Fantasy, he's nothing.
05:01Informing the Future, Final Fantasy 3
05:03Final Fantasy 3 ended up being a surprisingly important turning point for Square developers Kochi Ishii
05:12and Hiramichi Tanaka. After working on the game, neither would properly return to the mainline
05:16Final Fantasy series until Final Fantasy 11, many, many, many years later. In between, both became
05:23heavily tied to the Secret of Mana series, which explains why there are some fascinating creative
05:27connections between the franchises. In fact, the real-time combat system that eventually defined
05:31Secret of Mana was originally pitched for Final Fantasy 4. Tanaka actually worked on early versions of the
05:37project before the combat ideas were rejected, though he still retained a credit on the final game.
05:41By the time Final Fantasy 11 entered development, Ishii and Tanaka essentially used it to pursue the
05:47version of Final Fantasy that always envisioned, finally supported by technology advanced enough
05:51to properly realise those ideas.
05:57Not very Ultima, Final Fantasy 2
06:05One of the funniest stories in Final Fantasy history involves the Ultima spell in Final Fantasy 2.
06:10Originally, Ultima was meant to be an incredibly difficult spell to obtain and one of the strongest
06:15attacks in the game. Unfortunately, a bug caused it to be hilariously weak instead, meaning players would
06:20go through an absurd amount of effort only to unlock what was basically magical disappointment.
06:25According to series creator, when the issue was discovered during testing, the programmer responsible
06:30refused to fix it. His explanation was somehow even funnier than the bug itself. He argued that an ancient,
06:36legendary spell from a forgotten age realistically wouldn't compare to modern magic techniques,
06:41and that struggling to obtain something only for it to be useless was just kinda like real life.
06:46Sakaguchi was reportedly so annoyed, he tried fixing the bug himself, only to discover the
06:51programmer had encrypted the source code, so Ultima stayed terrible. Honestly, that level of stubbornness
06:56almost deserves respect.
07:10A lot of people point to Final Fantasy as proof that personal experiences can heavily shape
07:15storytelling, especially when it comes to series creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi. It's widely known that
07:20the death of Sakaguchi's mother deeply affected him and influenced the emotional themes found throughout
07:24the franchise. Fans have also noticed a recurring pattern beginning around Final Fantasy 4, where
07:29many entries feature burning villages, destroyed homes, or dramatic fire-related scenes tied to the
07:34loss of a parent, especially mothers. While not every example is directly identical, the imagery appears
07:39often enough that players have connected it back to Sakaguchi's own experiences and the grief that
07:44informed many of the series' emotional moments.
07:47Mother, you can't die!
07:53Releasing when? Final Fantasy.
08:00Nowadays, huge games usually launch worldwide at the same time, but back in the 1980s, things moved
08:05painfully slower. The original Final Fantasy first released in Japan in December 1987, and only after
08:11becoming a major success there, did Nintendo of America decide to localize it for Western audiences.
08:16American players finally got the game in 1990, three years later, meaning they had to wait a long
08:21time while Japanese fans were already playing Final Fantasy 3. As rough as that sounds, European players
08:27had it even worse. PAL Regions didn't receive an official release of the original game until 2003,
08:33through Final Fantasy Origins on the PlayStation, a collection containing the first two entries.
08:37By the way, I'm PAL. Goddammit.
08:52Music has always been one of the biggest reasons the Final Fantasy series feels connected, despite
08:57every game taking place in a different world with different characters. Even when the settings, combat
09:02systems and stories completely change, certain melodies instantly remind players they're still
09:07inside the same franchise. A huge reason for that is composer Nabua Uematsu, whose work became
09:13inseparable from Final Fantasy itself. Starting with the original game, Uematsu created themes that would
09:18later evolve into iconic recurring musical motifs across the series. One of the most famous examples
09:24is the opening theme from the first Final Fantasy, which wasn't even intended to become the franchise's main
09:29musical identity at the time. Over the years, it naturally evolved into the series' signature theme.
09:34The signature theme you'll probably remember most from Final Fantasy VII.
09:42Secret Minigame Final Fantasy
09:47The original Final Fantasy secretly contains a hidden sliding puzzle minigame, which is one of those bizarre
09:52little discoveries that made old RPGs feel magical. While sailing around the world map on the ship,
09:57players can unlock it by holding A and repeatedly tapping B until the puzzle suddenly appears.
10:02The minigame itself is simple, arranged numbered tiles from lowest to highest like a classic sliding
10:06block puzzle. Completing it rewards the player with a small amount of guilt, though honestly the real
10:11reward is just the satisfaction of uncovering something the game never tells you exists. Even cooler,
10:15programmer Nasir Jebele secretly snuck it into the game himself. Without permission. What a rebel.
10:32One of the strange little quirks in Final Fantasy VI involves a pair of invisible treasure chests hidden
10:37inside one of the later Phantom train cars. The weird part is that while both hidden chests technically
10:41exist in the SNES and PlayStation versions, only one of them can actually be opened properly. Players can
10:47collect the tent without much issue, but the second invisible chest contains a fairy ring and is
10:52basically impossible to access because the game never lets the player character properly face it.
10:56In other words, the item is sitting there forever, completely unobtainable thanks to awkward positioning.
11:01Thanks a lot train. Thanks a lot Rachel.
11:08Formula 1 Final Fantasy IV
11:10One of the most important mechanics in Final Fantasy history, the active time battle system was inspired
11:23by something surprisingly mundane. Formula 1 racing. I probably shouldn't describe it as mundane.
11:29According to Final Fantasy IV designer Takashi Tokita, the battle designer came up with the idea
11:33after watching faster cars repeatedly lap slower ones during a race. They realized that the same
11:39concept could work in an RPG by allowing quicker characters to act more often during combat instead
11:44of waiting for strict turn orders. That idea became the legendary ATB system introduced in Final Fantasy IV.
12:03Final Fantasy is often treated as the definitive Japanese RPG franchise, which is funny considering
12:08it borrowed heavily from Western RPGs in the first place. While many people associate the series with
12:13inventing JRPG conventions, games like Dragon Quest actually came first in Japan. On top of that,
12:18Final Fantasy itself drew major inspiration from Western tabletop and computer RPGs. Elemental weaknesses,
12:24for example, were far less common in Japanese RPGs at the time. The series also adopted the idea of
12:29letting players freely choose party classes at the start, giving the game a level of customization heavily
12:34inspired by Western RPG design. You're welcome Japan. Thanks for everything else gaming related though.
12:42Bugs Final Fantasy
12:47As beloved as the original Final Fantasy is today, the NES version was absolutely overflowing with bugs and
12:53broken mechanics. Several spells straight up did not function properly, meaning players could spend
12:58valuable gill on magic that literally accomplished nothing. One particularly funny example is a spell
13:03designed to lower enemy evasion that accidentally increases it instead, basically buffing the monster
13:09you were trying to weaken. Things got even messier with weapons because many elemental effects and status
13:13inflicting properties simply failed to work as intended. In other words, players spent years unknowingly
13:18carrying around gear that looked cool, but secretly did almost nothing special.
13:28Cut Character Final Fantasy 6
13:34Final Fantasy 6 already had one of the biggest and most memorable casts in the entire franchise,
13:39with several characters being completely missable if players didn't carefully explore the world.
13:43Despite the huge roster, the developers still managed to give almost everyone unique combat abilities
13:47and personalities, which honestly feels like wizardry considering how many party members the game
13:52contains. Surprisingly though, the cast was almost one bigger. According to translated development
13:57interviews, Square originally planned a character named Angela during production. She reportedly fought using
14:02a whip and had a playful personality, even jokingly flirting with Cyan through the story. It's never been fully
14:08explained why Angela was removed before release, but I like to imagine they were saving whips for Quistus.
14:17Final Fantasy Dive Final Fantasy 5
14:19Final Fantasy 5 is famous for its massive job system, giving players tons of different classes
14:30to experiment with and mix together. Even with the huge variety already included, the developers apparently
14:34had even more ideas planned during development. One of the strangest unused concepts was a diver job.
14:40The class would be specialising in underwater combat, using harpoons as weapons and gaining
14:44stat boosts while fighting in water environments. Honestly, it sounds kinda cool, especially since
14:49environmental bonuses were not a common mechanic for the series at the time. Despite that,
14:53the job was cut fairly early in development. The team seemingly wasn't too attached to it either,
14:58since the diver never returned in later versions like Final Fantasy 5 Advanced, which added several entirely new jobs.
15:15The original Final Fantasy borrowed heavily from tabletop RPGs, especially Dungeons and Dragons.
15:20You can see it everywhere in the game's design, from the four-person party structure to classic
15:25character classes that closely resemble D&D archetypes, like fighters, thieves, clerics and mages. Even creatures
15:30were pulled directly from fantasy concepts popularised through tabletop gaming. One monster,
15:35however, ended up being a little too close to official D&D material. The Evil Eye enemy originally
15:40resembled the Beholder, one of Dungeons and Dragons few copyrighted monsters. Because of that, the design
15:46had to be altered for the American release to avoid legal trouble.
15:58Manga Fantasy Final Fantasy 3
16:05A lot of newer fans forget just how confusing the numbering for Final Fantasy used to be outside Japan.
16:11Because several games skipped western releases entirely, North America ended up getting Final
16:15Final Fantasy 4 as Final Fantasy 2 and Final Fantasy 6 as Final Fantasy 3. Square finally
16:20abandoned the mess once Final Fantasy 7 launched in 1997. Ironically, the real Final Fantasy 3 remained
16:26Japan-exclusive for years until its Nintendo DS remake finally released internationally in 2006.
16:32One of the strangest things tied to the game, though, is its manga adaptation. Since it wasn't
16:36restricted by Nintendo's censorship standards, the manga became dramatically darker and more adult-oriented,
16:41featuring graphic violence, body horror, and surprisingly heavy, mature content, compared to the
16:47relatively light-hearted NES game.
16:55Centaur Final Fantasy 5
17:00Most fantasy games go with fairly predictable final villains like dragons, demons, or evil sorcerers.
17:06Final Fantasy 5, meanwhile, decided players should save reality from a giant evil tree floating through space.
17:11X-Death's backstory is honestly one of the weirdest in the franchise.
17:15After the dark warlock Inu was defeated, his soul and the souls of countless evil monsters
17:19were sealed inside a massive tree. Over time, all those spirits fused together and eventually
17:24created X-Death, who broke free and decided the logical next step was destroying existence itself.
17:29Even funnier, concept art reveals X-Death was originally planned to look more like a centaur monster
17:34before the developers shifted to the iconic tree design instead. The exact reason was never confirmed,
17:39though technical limitations on the SNES hardware may have played a role in the change.
17:51The name Final Fantasy
18:00Despite what I said about Final Fantasy's name coming from Square being on the verge of bankruptcy and
18:05it being their final attempt at making a successful game, turns out that's one of the biggest myths
18:10surrounding the series. It's a great story, that's why I used it, but according to series creator
18:15Hironobu Sakaguchi, it's not actually true. Speaking on the official Final Fantasy YouTube channel,
18:20Sakaguchi explained that the team originally wanted to call the game Fighting Fantasy. The problem was
18:25that the name was already trademarked by the British Fighting Fantasy, choose your own adventure books
18:30created by the founders of Games Workshop. That's right, the company behind Warhammer. Since they
18:35still wanted something abbreviated as FF, the team landed on Final Fantasy instead. Ironically,
18:40the fake origin story became almost as legendary as the franchise itself.
18:52Japanese exclusive boss Final Fantasy 4
19:01When Final Fantasy 4 released in North America as Final Fantasy 2, it arrived with reduced difficulty,
19:06removed content and censorship changes to fit Nintendo's guidelines at the time. Japan later
19:11received an even easier version called Final Fantasy 4 Easy Type, which adjusted the game further to
19:16make it less brutal for players. One of the strangest differences involved Zerimus, the game's final boss.
19:22In Easy Type, Zerimus had a completely different design compared to the standard release. Instead of the
19:27familiar monstrous form, the boss resembles a skeletal centaur fused with a mysterious woman attached to its body,
19:33making the whole thing look incredibly bizarre, even by Final Fantasy standards.
19:44Potential Dark Endings Final Fantasy Series
19:47Final Fantasy 4 remains incredibly popular in Japan, second only to Final Fantasy 7 in many fan polls,
19:58which explains why Square Enix has released it so many times, and even gave it a direct sequel with
20:03Final Fantasy 4 The After Years. That sequel goes surprisingly cosmic with its main villain,
20:08the creator, a god-like being who travels through space using a moon-sized spaceship. The creator reveals
20:13that his ancient race seeded planets with magical crystals to accelerate the evolution of intelligent life.
20:19If a civilization proved disappointing, they would reclaim the crystals and wipe the planet out
20:23entirely. Essentially, he's a fantasy RPG version of a cosmic science experiment supervisor who became
20:29extremely judgemental. The creepiest detail comes when players explore his moon and discover crystals
20:34from worlds guarded by bosses from Final Fantasy 1 through 6, heavily implying those game's worlds
20:40were also destroyed by his species. It sucks to think that the Final Fantasy 6 gang survived Kefka's
20:46world-ending antics, only to be world-ended anyway.
20:55Lost English Version Final Fantasy 2
21:03When the original Final Fantasy finally released in America in 1990, it became successful enough that
21:08Square and Nintendo actually began working on an English localization of Final Fantasy 2 for the NES.
21:13The game was far enough along that it even appeared in magazines like Nintendo Power under the
21:17subtitle Dark Shadow Over Palakia. The problem was timing. By that point, the Super Nintendo was
21:22about to launch and Nintendo wanted a clean break into the new console generation instead of continuing
21:26to localize older NES RPGs. As a result, the English version of Final Fantasy 2 was cancelled entirely.
21:33Years later though, a prototype of the localization leaked online, revealing a nearly complete
21:38translation. Unfortunately, the script was extremely rough, with dialogue so awkwardly translated it
21:43often drifted into near-English territory, a term I'm quoting. I promise, I'm not racist.
21:53Did you enjoy this video? Check out these other clips from MojoPlays and be sure to subscribe
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