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This Final Fantasy trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers all sixteen numbered games plus the spin-offs, remakes, film and crossovers. It opens with the origin story - the 1987 Famicom game that was supposed to be Square's last, why it is called Final Fantasy at all, and the artist who invented chocobos and moogles - then works through the classics: Kefka and the opera in VI, Cloud, Sephiroth, Aerith and Materia in VII, Squall's Junction system, Zidane's medieval Gaia, Tidus and blitzball, the failed launch and triumphant rebirth of XIV, Noctis's road trip and Clive's Eikons. You will also meet the people behind the games - Hironobu Sakaguchi, Nobuo Uematsu, Yoshitaka Amano, Tetsuya Nomura, Naoki Yoshida - and the wider universe: Tactics and Ivalice, Dissidia, Kingdom Hearts, The Spirits Within and the VII Remake trilogy. About a third of the questions are easy warm-ups for anyone who has summoned Bahamut; the rest are for people who know what 'Kupo' means. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and the primary sources it cites, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was the first Final Fantasy released in Japan?
1987
It came out on December 18 for the Famicom and did not reach North America until 1990.
Q 02Who created the Final Fantasy series?
Hironobu Sakaguchi
He left Square in 2003 after the failure of The Spirits Within and founded Mistwalker, now based partly in Hawaii.
Q 03What was the original working title of the first game before trademark problems forced a change?
Fighting Fantasy
Square's dire finances - and Sakaguchi's own plans to quit the industry - are the usual explanation for the word 'Final'.
Q 04In the original Final Fantasy, the four heroes are known collectively as what?
The Warriors of Light
Each carries one of four darkened elemental crystals; the 2022 game Stranger of Paradise retells their origin.
Q 05How many numbered mainline Final Fantasy games have been released?
16
The series has sold more than 200 million copies, and the numbered games are largely standalone stories.
Q 06In which game did chocobos first appear?
Final Fantasy II
Designer Koichi Ishii, inspired by raising a chick as a child, was annoyed that Sakaguchi cut them down to temporary mounts.
Q 07The name 'Moogle' is a compound of the Japanese words for which two animals?
Bat and mole
Koichi Ishii based the white-furred, pom-pom-antennaed creatures on an all-white koala; they debuted in Final Fantasy III.
Q 08Which game introduced the Active Time Battle (ATB) system?
Final Fantasy IV
It added a constantly ticking timer to turn-based combat and stayed until Final Fantasy X swapped it for the Conditional Turn-Based system.
Q 09Under what number was FFVI first released in North America, since II, III and V had never come out there?
Part III
The real II, III and V had never come out in the West, so IV became 'II' and VI became 'III'.
Q 10How many permanent playable characters does Final Fantasy VI have?
Fourteen
Its summons are called Espers, and their remains - magicite - teach magic to almost the whole cast.
Q 11Kefka Palazzo, the villain of Final Fantasy VI, is introduced in what role?
Court mage to the Emperor
Amano drew his clownish look with total creative freedom; he is one of the few series villains who actually succeeds in wrecking the world.
Q 12Final Fantasy VII was originally in development for which console before Square switched to Sony?
Super Nintendo
Development began in 1994; the Nintendo 64 was also tried before the CD-ROM's capacity won out.
Q 13In Final Fantasy VII, what is the processed form of the planet's Lifestream that Shinra exploits for energy called?
Mako
Q 21In Final Fantasy IX, the thief Zidane Tribal kidnaps which princess?
Garnet Til Alexandros XVII
The game deliberately returned to a medieval fantasy world after the sci-fi tone of VI, VII and VIII.
Q 22Final Fantasy X was the first game in the series to feature what?
Voice acting
It also brought fully 3D areas and replaced ATB with the Conditional Turn-Based system and the Sphere Grid.
Q 23In Final Fantasy X, Tidus is a star player of which fictional sport?
Blitzball
The monster Sin turns out to be his missing father Jecht; the world of Spira draws on the South Pacific, Thailand and Japan.
Cloud joins the eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE to stop the reactors; the orbs slotted into weapons are a different thing entirely.
Q 14How many copies did Final Fantasy VII sell in Japan within three days of release?
Over two million
Its combined development and marketing budget was about $80 million, enormous for 1997.
Q 15Sephiroth's enormous sword is named after which famous Japanese swordsmith?
Masamune
The elongated nodachi has appeared in numerous Final Fantasy titles; his single black wing references his theme 'One-Winged Angel'.
Q 16Sephiroth's powers come from being injected as a fetus with cells from which alien?
Jenova
He was a former Shinra SOLDIER, coworker of Zack Fair and Cloud's superior.
Q 17Aerith is revealed to be the last surviving member of which ancient race?
The Cetra
Her name was transliterated 'Aeris' in the original English release; Nomura said her sudden death was meant to feel realistic, not dramatic.
Q 18Tetsuya Nomura was originally hired by Square in what role, on Final Fantasy V?
Monster designer
VII was his debut as lead character designer, and he later created and directed the Kingdom Hearts series.
Q 19Final Fantasy VIII was the first in the series to do which of these?
Use realistic body proportions
It also dropped magic points in favour of the Junction system and had a vocal theme, Faye Wong's 'Eyes on Me'.
Q 20What is the collectible card minigame in Final Fantasy VIII called?
Triple Triad
Its successor in Final Fantasy IX is Tetra Master, and Triple Triad was later revived inside Final Fantasy XIV.
Q 24Which numbered entry was the first to get a direct sequel, in 2003?
X
Final Fantasy X-2 followed; XIII eventually got two sequels of its own.
Q 25Final Fantasy XI (2002) was the first MMORPG playable across Windows and which console?
PlayStation 2
It is set in Vana'diel and later reached the Xbox 360 in 2006; it was the first main entry Uematsu did not score entirely himself.
Q 26After its disastrous 2010 launch, Final Fantasy XIV was relaunched in 2013 under what subtitle?
A Realm Reborn
Naoki Yoshida directed the rescue; in-story, the elder primal Bahamut escaped a space station called Dalamud and ended the old world.
Q 27In which fictional region is Final Fantasy XIV set?
Eorzea
Its player-run guilds are called Free Companies, and it has now received six expansions from Heavensward to Evercold.
Q 28FFXV began development in 2006 as a spin-off for Sony's third console under what title?
Versus XIII
It spent six years as a PS3 spin-off before Hajime Tabata replaced Nomura as director and it became the fifteenth mainline game.
Q 29Who are Noctis's three travelling companions in Final Fantasy XV?
Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto
Noctis is the only character the player directly controls; the anime Brotherhood told the four friends' backstories.
Q 30In Final Fantasy XVI, what are the summoned monsters called that humans known as Dominants can host?
Eikons
Protagonist Clive Rosfield fights across the twin continents of Valisthea; Capcom veteran Ryota Suzuki designed the action combat.