Yoshitaka Amano is a man who has a passion, and who follows and works on that passion constantly. This monolithic video game series was Hironobu Sakaguchi’s final fantasy, but it has helped consolidate Yoshitaka Amano’s lasting legacy. There is the iconic battle victory theme, the near-certain inclusion of an oversized sword, and of course, the art of Final Fantasy.

There are of course staple through-lines which run from game to game (here’s looking at you, Chocobos and Moogles).Īnd yet, it is not down solely to those adorable Chocobo birds and cuddly Moogles that we always know when we’re playing a Final Fantasy game, regardless of the often large stylistic and thematic differences between each instalment.

Whilst FFVII explores the suffering of the natural world, usually caused by humanity’s actions, FFIX makes us ponder questions of existence, sentience and free-will. FFX saw a more spiritual take on the franchise, and not only the stylistic genre, but also the themes and ideas explored in each instalment have become increasingly varied whilst still always feeling like a Final Fantasy game. FFVII’s place in gaming history has long been cemented, and the series continued with futurism and dystopia in the eighth instalment before harking back to the old high-fantasy days with FFIX.

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