The Escapist Final Fantasy Timeline

[Anacortian]

Wow, you all are a bunch of babies. If you read the little paragraph right before the timeline it says "Our timeline reviews some of the major events in the Final Fantasy saga, but can only scratch the surface of this behemoth of a franchise."

Im sure the spinoffs and half sequals they made dont quite count as major events.

The space-to-time ratio appears a bit distorted in the very beginning. Also, if Square re-released Chrono Trigger under the name "Final Fantasy, why is it not included in the Canon?

What "canon" are you talking about? A game can only have canon if there is one storyline that links it all together. In FF you have the major games that have no connection to each other.

A canon is simply a list. There does not have to be an overarching story. For instance, the Canon of Saints and Canon Law (so far as I know the very original use of the word).

Chrono Trigger was ported to the Playstation as Final Fantasy Chronicles. It would appear the Square thus considers it a Final Fantasy game. This would make the franchise unique in that it is the only game to enter into and not originate under the Final Fantasy title.

 

[Latinidiot]

Nitpick time: Final Fantasy X-2 is not actually the first direct sequel to a Final Fantasy game. Legend of the Crystals is. It's a sequel to Final Fantasy V, somewhat disguised by the fact that things in it are not just lost in translation but actively strangled, shot, stamped on, and buried in an unmarked grave at midnight in translation.

So it's a sequel in the same way that an identity thief is a 'son'?

 

[GloatingSwine]

Chrono Trigger was ported to the Playstation as Final Fantasy Chronicles. It would appear the Square thus considers it a Final Fantasy game. This would make the franchise unique in that it is the only game to enter into and not originate under the Final Fantasy title.

Final Fantasy Chronicles was a compilation release. It did not retitle either of the games included in that compilation. To claim that it did is silly and wrong.

The only non-Final Fantasy games which have been released titled as Final Fantasy games are the first three SaGa games, released as Final Fantasy Legend 1-3 in the west, and Seiken Densetsu, released as Final Fantasy Adventure in the west.

Nitpick time: Final Fantasy X-2 is not actually the first direct sequel to a Final Fantasy game. Legend of the Crystals is. It's a sequel to Final Fantasy V, somewhat disguised by the fact that things in it are not just lost in translation but actively strangled, shot, stamped on, and buried in an unmarked grave at midnight in translation.

So it's a sequel in the same way that an identity thief is a 'son'?

It's rather stranger than that. It's a direct sequel to a product which was never released in the west, which was released in the west but with all the names translated even more horribly than usual. (And for Final Fantasy V that's saying something. No-one can quite agree what the name of the main bloody character is supposed to be, and as for the villain....)

 

[Latinidiot]

Chrono Trigger was ported to the Playstation as Final Fantasy Chronicles. It would appear the Square thus considers it a Final Fantasy game. This would make the franchise unique in that it is the only game to enter into and not originate under the Final Fantasy title.

Final Fantasy Chronicles was a compilation release. It did not retitle either of the games included in that compilation. To claim that it did is silly and wrong.

The only non-Final Fantasy games which have been released titled as Final Fantasy games are the first three SaGa games, released as Final Fantasy Legend 1-3 in the west, and Seiken Densetsu, released as Final Fantasy Adventure in the west.

Nitpick time: Final Fantasy X-2 is not actually the first direct sequel to a Final Fantasy game. Legend of the Crystals is. It's a sequel to Final Fantasy V, somewhat disguised by the fact that things in it are not just lost in translation but actively strangled, shot, stamped on, and buried in an unmarked grave at midnight in translation.

So it's a sequel in the same way that an identity thief is a 'son'?

It's rather stranger than that. It's a direct sequel to a product which was never released in the west, which was released in the west but with all the names translated even more horribly than usual. (And for Final Fantasy V that's saying something. No-one can quite agree what the name of the main bloody character is supposed to be, and as for the villain....)

why, that's just silly!

 

[Arkhangelsk]

Looking through all of this, it seems like such far off memories of my brother playing FFVII back in '97 when I was 3 years old.

 

[Anacortian]

Chrono Trigger was ported to the Playstation as Final Fantasy Chronicles. It would appear the Square thus considers it a Final Fantasy game. This would make the franchise unique in that it is the only game to enter into and not originate under the Final Fantasy title.

Final Fantasy Chronicles was a compilation release. It did not retitle either of the games included in that compilation. To claim that it did is silly and wrong.

To claim that I wrote "retitled" is silly and wrong. "Included" would be a more accurate word for the claim that Chrono Trigger "enter(ed) into... the Final Fantasy Title."

As to other games Chrono Trigger not being unique in this claim, I concede my ignorance.

 

[Enigmers]

It's worth noting that FFIX was released around the same time the Playstation 2 was, and thus was kind of ignored in lieu of the hype for the next generation Playstation.

 

[Brainst0rm]

That quip from an FFXI Guild who quit after 18 hours of a boss fight - it makes no sense, unless you already knew about the incident. Because you give it no context at all. Even being familiar with that event, I had to read it three times to figure out what it was referencing...

 

[mjc0961]

Anyone have a time machine or future vision or something so we can chart when this nasty boil on the ass of the otherwise wonderful JRPG genre dies?

 

[Aedes]

Well... people already said a lot is missing. <.<

It's lifetime is bigger than what I had though.
Still, I wonder... will there be a badge for watching this like WoW did?

 

[Nanaki316]

I'm a complete Final Fantasy freak, so much I could say about how much I love these games.

But even I can admit it needs to stop now, they're just killing it.

 

[Tanis]

I just think for something that's part of the front page, it's really poorly done.

Bad Q&A by The Escapist, which is a shame given the level of quality most of us expect from this site.

It's not even the 'OMG THIS IS MISSING', but as some have pointed to the 'shout out for FF7', incorrect information regarding FFX-2, messed up pictures, and even the 'um, so what?' bit about the boss fight (Hell, I didn't even know what it was referring to at first).

 

[standokan]

Sigh, IIVIIII will always be the best.

btw What is the blue wizard guy called again?

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Nothing on Dissidia for the PSP? That was a fun game.
What about Zack and his game for the PSP?

a bunch of FF material missing from the list!

They also missed the Crystal Chronicles which I thought started on the gamecube.

 

[firemark]

THANK YOU ESCAPIST!!! Because of this I just found out that I was born the same day that the very first FF was released.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

This is a very poorly done timeline...It's missing basically every spinoff title, including Tactics.

Yet, My Life As A King gets a mention.

 

[LogicNProportion]

...Who the fuck did this list?!

This is awful! So much missing, so much...bad.

Disappointed Escapist. First that new Movie Bob shite and now this...

 

[Dark assassin for hire]

There are a lot of comments saying what this time line missed, but i think that this is a good start. Seriously, if one is to make a full, detailed time line of "final fantasy"... it would take a veeeerrrrryyyy long time. You have to consider everything related to final fantasy. Think of all the fan fictions and cos players... actually dont... but think of all the landmarks, records, apperences, ect. this is a hard timeline to make.

 

[cj_iwakura]

Pretty weak timeline. Either stick to numeric entries or do EVERYTHING.


And no it wouldn't take long. I could compile a more thorough list in a few minutes.

 

[1337mokro]

What no FF: Tactics? So you chose to exclude an iconic game that pretty much popularized turn based grid games together with the Advanced Wars series?

I hope there will be an update soon or the God of Geek Gaming (ha alliteration) shall not be pleased.