The Cultural Impact of The Final Fantasy Gaming Series

If you’ve ever picked up a controller and wandered through Final Fantasy’s dreamlike, fantastical worlds, you already know this: It is much more than a game and more like a cultural cornerstone.

Since its humble inception in 1987, Final Fantasy has existed for more than mere entertainment. It has spawned entire generations of fans, inspired a catalogue of artists, and helped influence the way games could (and should) look and feel in the eyes of the public. And surprisingly so, since the game itself was a last-ditch effort by Square (now Square Enix) to create a game. However, this effort turned out to be their only success.

A Storytelling Revolution in Gaming

Before Final Fantasy, many video games followed one pattern: save the woman, stop the bad guy, and the game was over. Final Fantasy really changed the landscape of video game narrative, giving us something bigger — something grand, beautiful, and fully realised.

Final Fantasy VI deals with war, revolution, and loss. Final Fantasy VII was a cautionary tale of tragedy and environmentalism. It was deep and poignant: no longer were we simply button-mashers. We were storytellers, too.

Redefining Visual Style and Music

Each iteration pushed the boundaries of what a video game could be, visually, evolving from simple pixel art to complex cinematic cut scenes.

And then there’s the music.

Mostly put together by longtime composer Nobuo Uematsu, the Final Fantasy score is one of legend: “To Zanarkand,” and “Prelude”; these songs stand head and shoulders among the greatest film scores of the last 30 years. They’re performed at concert halls across the globe. Fans remix them in creative ways. And music students study them as they would Beethoven or Mozart.

The visuals, coupled with music, helped attain the series its own cultural resonance.

Inspiring a Global Fandom

With each addition and each release, the Final Fantasy family grew. Today, this once-humble franchise has fans in all corners of the globe. Enthusiasts spend hours building costumes. Creative types upload fan art by the thousands, easily. And message boards explode with debates, controversies, and nostalgia, of course.

The Final Fantasy series — for all of its idiosyncrasies — has ultimately created its own language for fans and players: the minute someone says they tried at least a hundred times to kill Ultros, everyone in the room simply nods.

It’s more than just a game, it’s a rite of passage.

Beyond the Console: Final Fantasy in Other Media

The series has expanded far beyond its gaming roots. There’s the American release of Final Fantasy, The Spirits Within and Advent Children, the manga comics, the fictional novels, and even concerts featuring the best pieces from the series, Distant Worlds. Each successful entry has introduced a still-growing audience to the Final Fantasy family. And helped keep it relevant even to those who may want to play a game.

Even more recently, video game ports or remakes of classic hits such as Final Fantasy VII have maintained that same appeal on various platforms and to multiple demographics. The 2020 remake wasn’t just a pretty-face redesign either, it was a complete overhaul of a world through contemporary storytelling and design. It was new and nostalgic at the same time.

Ports and remakes aren’t just about accessibility; they’re about honouring a legacy.

Shaping Modern RPGs (and Gamers)

The Final Fantasy series is well known for its turn-based combat, strategic summoning, skill trees, and storylines that always stick to the landing. It’s been the standard for RPGS as games such as Persona, Dragon Quest, and Tales of Arise pay their respects to the original title. Even for other non-RPG games, Final Fantasy has impacted how developers look at world-building, pacing, and emotive stories.

It made being a “gamer” much more than sitting in your basement playing on whatever console you could get on your 6th birthday, as Final Fantasy attracted audiences who had never even laid a finger on a video game controller and showed people that it could be art.

A Legacy That Keeps Evolving

From its start until now, Final Fantasy has been able to pull something out of its hat with every game, whether it be a new world, a different combat system, or a unique message.

The series has also been able to wither gracefully with its audience, as each game becomes more “mature” as they evolve, but Final Fantasy never lost its charm and magic. As long as it continues to evolve, it will continue to tone its note on our page of history.

The most recent edition of the series, from the developers of Final Fantasy XVI, goes all in on the grim and darker motif with incredible graphics and exciting gameplay. It truly pushes the series to its limitations.

Why It Still Matters

In today’s world, filled with Fortnite and second-currency add-ons in Phone games that capitalise on the youth, a series like Final Fantasy serves as a reminder that videogames are art. They can tell a story that can last a lifetime.

They have included worlds you’d never want to leave. They have emotionally pushed your heart the same as your thumbs.

Whether you are using video game ports to relive memories or getting into the series for the first time, Final Fantasy has been able to evolve while always finding its roots.