Final Fantasy creator explains where the name came from

Have you ever wondered about the origin of the Final Fantasy name? The series’ original creator has now shared the backstory.

While there’s been plenty of fan speculation, Hironobu Sakaguchi has now confirmed what happened directly. He shared in an official interview from Square Enix that the inspiration came from Fighting Fantasy. However, that couldn’t be used “because of trademarks and the like.” Sakaguchi said Final Fantasy was “a last resort.”

Here’s the full story from Sakaguchi discussing the Final Fantasy name origin:

It’s not actually all that cool a story. It was inspired by Fighting Fantasy. But at the time, Dragon Quest had started to establish itself, and was shortened to “Drakue” from around their second game. For our game, we wanted it to be shortened to something using the Roman alphabet. So it came from “FF”. “FF” was first and then there was Fighting Fantasy. But it was tricky to use that because of trademarks and the like. So we reluctantly went with Final Fantasy as a last resort. We were like, “It’s got ‘Final’, yeah that will do!”

Ultimately the name was the right call in the end. The title and franchise in general are among the most well-known across gaming.

You can check out the full Final Fantasy interview with Sakaguchi, pixel artist Kazuko Shibuya, and brand manager Yoshinori Kitase below.

Final Fantasy 35th Anniversary Special Interview

Are you pleased that Square Enix ultimately ended up going with Final Fantasy? Let us know in the comments.