Final Fantasy
Tokyo, Japan
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Final Fantasy launched in 1987, created by Hironobu Sakaguchi for developer Square, reportedly named partly because the game was intended as the company's last-ditch project before an anticipated bankruptcy, a fate the game's surprise commercial success ultimately helped the company avoid entirely. The franchise became known for its anthology structure, with each mainline numbered entry typically featuring an entirely new self-contained story, world, and cast of characters rather than direct narrative continuity, letting Square (later Square Enix) continuously reinvent the series' setting and mechanics with each new installment. Final Fantasy VII, released in 1997, is widely credited as one of the most influential and commercially significant role-playing games ever made, helping establish Japanese role-playing games as a major commercial genre for Western audiences during the PlayStation era. Final Fantasy's combination of its unusual anthology structure reinventing itself with each entry and Final Fantasy VII's historically significant role popularizing Japanese RPGs in the West has made it one of the most influential video game franchises in the industry's history.
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- Top 6 Video Game Franchises of All Time
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