TheFinal Fantasyseries may have gone on to inspire countless RPGs from indie to triple-A, but it, too, was inspired by something. Of course, there are the obvious inspirations, such asDragon Quest, without which we likely would never have gottenFinal Fantasy, let alone most RPGs. However, fans believe that even smaller details, individual characters, designs, and more, were taken from specific sources, whether it is anime, games, or films.
Naturally, being inspired by other media and sources doesn’t detract from theFinal Fantasygames being some of thebest RPGs ever made. However, it is interesting to investigate just where certain facets ofFinal Fantasy’sdesign come from, and whether fans are right in believing that the series ripped off elements from some of the most popular movies of all time. Specifically,many fans believeFinal Fantasyborrowed heavily from a classic Hayao Miyazaki movie, and there may be some truth to that.
Final Fantasy Has A Lot In Common With Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind
Many Believe The Chocobo Design Is Inspired By It
Fans have often debated whether elements ofFinal Fantasy’slore and world design, especially those shared across all entries, were inspired by the works of Hayao Miyazaki, both before and after the creation of Studio Ghibli.Many strongly believe that the iconic yellow-feathered, fluffy, and always jovial Chocobo design more or less rips off that of the Horseclawfrom the iconic Miyazaki movie,Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
AGameFAQsthread discussing how a lot of the imagery from aNausicaäposter appears inFinal Fantasy. One user, called penaferus, claims that “everything in the image has been stolen by Square,” while another user, named VERY_GOOD_BOI, called Square Enix “damn thieves.” It is easy to believe them, especially after seeing the two designs side by side. It also wouldn’t be that surprising, nor controversial, especially asFinal Fantasyisn’t exactly the firstvideo game inspired by anime.
A now archived 2006 article byEdgewould also have you believe that these claims are correct. The article states that the creator ofFinal Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi, “freely admitted that” he stole the design for Chocobos fromNausicaä. However, that article doesn’t cite where he said that, and it seems it is untrue anyway.
According to the original creator of the Chocobo, Koichi Ishii, in an interview from the first volume of the Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary Ultimania series, archived byKanabits,the design “was originally modeled after a chick [he] got at a festival when [he] was in elementary school.”
Ishii also states that he “first presented the idea to Sakaguchi […] but he didn’t seem to care for it and left it unused.” It wasn’t until the second game that Sakaguchi included Chocobos as a traversal mechanic. Sakaguchi didn’t design the Chocobos, so it seems unlikely that he admitted to stealing the idea for them fromNausicaä.
The Chocobo name comes from the Japanese candy, ChocoBalls, which were invented in 1963. Ishii would often hear the commercial for them, in which the candy’s mascot, a bird-like character called Kyorochan, would make a “kweh” sound, just like the Chocobos inFinal Fantasy. At no point in that interview does Ishii mentionNausicaäor Ghibli, so there’s little chance he was mainly inspired by either. Of course,Final Fantasycould absolutely still fall into the category ofgames inspired by Studio Ghibli, as there is plenty of other imagery akin to Ghibli’s films.
Miyazaki Could’ve Easily Influenced Final Fantasy
Studio Ghibli Films Are Incredibly Popular
Miyazaki definitely influenced at least a little ofFinal Fantasy, if not quite a lot of its general visual design and worldbuilding. While the Chocobos may not have been inspired byNausicaä,some of the airship designs, especially those seen inFinal Fantasy 7, seem heavily inspired by those found across many Ghibli films, includingLaputa: Castle in the Sky. Indeed, an entire sequence inFF7heavily resembles a Ghibli filmto a startling degree.
However, more than the visuals,the themes of Miyazaki’s films appear to have had a bigger impact on theFinal Fantasygames than their visuals. Miyazaki often focuses on humanity’s impact on the environment, especially its destruction of it, as well as pacifism and the nuances of good and evil. ManyFinal Fantasygames, if not all of them, tackle one or more of these ideas. While certainly not unique to Miyazaki’s films, the prevalence of these ideas in both his movies andFFis likely no coincidence.
After all, Sakaguchi did tellForbesin 2017 thatNausicaäandThe Castle of Cagliostro, both of which were directed by Miyazaki, are some of his favorite anime movies. I’m sure that were we to get aFinal Fantasyanime, it too would cover much of the ground Ghibli does, while also borrowing some of its visual motifs. Of course,Final Fantasyalso draws inspiration from several other sources, including some similarly massively influential films.
It’s No Secret FF Gets Inspiration From Other Mediums
From Dragon Quest To Star Wars
Most famously,Final Fantasyis directly inspired byDragon Quest, the legendary JRPG that came before it. Sakaguchi explained in that Forbes interview that he had a huge amount of respect forDragon Questand felt that he wantedFinal Fantasyto “at least get somewhere close” to it in terms of quality and design.Dragon Questwas a truly ground-breaking RPG for the time, so it is no surprise that Sakaguchi was so enamored by it. He told Forbes:
“When it comes toDragon QuestI had a massive amount of respect for the game. I was personally a huge Akira Toriyama fan, and I read the Weekly Jump Magazines every week. A game designed by such a dream-team felt way out of my reach, which is why when I started theFinal Fantasyproject, I hoped to at least get somewhere close toDragon Quest[…]The team and I used to joke around, telling ourselves ‘We’ll never beatDragon Quest, so let’s at least try to release the games faster. That way, we’ll have a higher number in our series than they will!'”
Notably,Final Fantasyis also heavily inspired byStar Wars. There are so manyStar Warsreferences inFF, from entire lines being lifted from the films, such as inFinal Fantasy 9, or through recurring characters like Biggs and Wedge - who are based on the X-Wing pilots, Biggs Darklighter and Wedge Antilles.Final Fantasyhas plenty of original bones in its body, but it has definitely taken plenty of inspiration fromDragon Quest,Star Wars, Miyazaki movies, and undoubtedly so much more.
