Final Fantasy (series)

The Final Fantasy series (Japanese: ファイナルファンタジー Fainaru Fantajī) is a series of role-playing games and the main part of the Final Fantasy franchise. The first game of the series is the Nintendo Entertainment System title, Final Fantasy, which was first released for the Famicom in 1987 before its North American release three years later, in 1990. There are currently fifteen games in the main Final Fantasy series, with a sixteenth set to be released on June 22, 2023. The series does not include direct follow-ups or spin-offs to these entries.

The eponymous first entry was named because it was thought to be Square's final game, with the company at risk of bankruptcy and director Hironobu Sakaguchi planning to leave the game industry and return to university if it had failed. Ironically, Final Fantasy became a long-running series, and Square became one of the most successful companies to develop and publish role-playing games. The Final Fantasy series is renowned for its high production value, involving stories, and music. Despite the sequels being numbered, there is no continuity and hardly any relation between the installments besides the role-playing genre. There are some recurring elements such as Chocobos, character classes, magic spells, certain music themes (like the Prelude), and characters named Cid, which appear in nearly every title.

Several main series installments have their own meta-series, such as Final Fantasy VII, which is part of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.