Final Fantasy Timeline

[Justin 0]

On http://www.nuklearpower.com/, the site of the famed 8-Bit Theatre, you may or may not have seen the Twinkin Out column, devoted to all think geeky, including Final Fantasy. Well, a while back there was a discussion about 1. the origin of Gogo from FF6 and 2. the timeline of Final Fantasy. Even though the Final Fantasies SEEM to be unrelated, I sent a letter which details how the FFs could be related to each other. Here it is:

 

Now, Gogo is most definetely not Daryl. For reasons previously stated (Gogo's masculine. Daryl's not a mime. Daryl would have recognized Setzer or vice-versa) he couldn't be. However, what if he was Daryl's son? This would both explain not knowing Setzer and how Daryl's crash was involved. My theory is this: Daryl crashed on the island and survived, impregnated by Setzer from a week or so ago. She abandoned her ship and took refuge in a cave, which I'll explain later. When the wreck was found, everybody assumed her body was burned to ashes in the crash, so they just buried the ship and called it Daryl's tomb, called so because Setzer named it after her, but allowed other's to be buried there as well. There are other graves clearly seen in the tomb. Daryl managed to survive long enough to nurse her child until he was old enough to fend for himself. Then the apacolypse came and Daryl did not surive, but her son, Gogo, did. The cave, actually being the zone eater, awoke from hibernation, and started to move Then the 'whatevers' which try to knock you off the bridges in the video game, let's say they're goblins, also had a settlement within the cave prior to the apacolypse, thus explaining the switches, bridges, treasure, etc. inside the cave. Gogo had to learn to survive, the easiest way he found was mimicing the goblins and integrating with their society, and wearing the shawls to disguise his human form. Thus he mastered the art of mimicry and when the adventurers find him inside the deepest reaches of the cave, he withdraws his disguise, keeping his shawls since he's used to them and they're his only clothes. Gogo wouldn't know who Setzer really is, because he's never seen his father before. Now as for the other theories, his alternate self in our dimension could have been Adlai Stephenson. He couldn't be an esper because he was still standing at the end, although the espers didn't really die in my opinion. As for FF5, not all bosses are monsters. But at the same time, I don't think Gogo was the same one as the boss in FF5. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Gogo probably adopted the name from hearing about the boss in FF5, since the mimicry fit his fighting style. I don't think they could have been one in the same, because it contradicts my timeline.

 

Ok, now for the tough part. When researching the Final Fantasy Timeline, you have to keep in mind all the all the constants: The level of technology (particularly the airships), the summons, moogles, chocobos, magic systems, and most importantly the second moon, which I believe is behind almost all the evil forces in Final Fantasy. Now I believe the order goes like this: 9, 2, 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, X, X-2. I left out 3 becuase honestly, I've never played it. Final Fantasy 9 started first, as the beginning state of the world. All the kingdoms are at peace (until Kuja shows up at least). The mist is what produced all the monsters, which came from the Iifa tree, which originated from Terra, which is the second moon we see later. The mist also produced the first chocobo, which explains why there's only one in the game, and the only other ones are in dreams. Kuja and the mist are designed to weaken the races on Gaia, so that Garland can proceed with his plan which is *CENSORED SPOILER*, making Garland the first Lunar. The one crystal you see created the world, and made four elemental shrines to govern it's laws. When the shrines were opened to corruption, the elemental fiends were born. They were previously guardians of the crystals, but Kuja corrupted them to become evil. Now airships are common because of the mist, although steam power is in development. Eidolons, the summons, are actually divine beings who can be called forth like angels. However, only summoners, a specific race, can summon them, and they use the jewels for focus to bring forth a specific eidolon. This is why Eiko can use common items like the ribbon, and a phoenix pinion to summon eidolons. Moogles were common, and wise. Their purpose in life was to create save points to make traveling easier and safer, so until one was developed, they did all the saving themselves. When Kuja released Pandemonium, the moogles managed to get inside and loot the save points so they could study the technology. Also the black magi origins are revealed, who probably intermarried until black magi and humans were basically one and the same.

 

Now when FF2 comes around, which I'm only halfway through so bear with me here, a sorceress nearly levels the world with her power and armies, thus destroying the kingdoms and concealing most of the important places on Earth, the elemental shrines for example. There are still airships in use, but after the war, I'm guessing the rest were either destroyed or too damaged to use. There are no summoners in the course of events, although they might exist somewhere, so there are no summons. The moogles probably dug underground during this point to escape the war.

 

After FF2 comes FF1. Tiamatt and Kraken as stated in the game have destroyed most of the world, leaving only a handful of kingdoms left. Now as these events go by, the major geological formations change due to the forces at work, which explains the different world maps in each game, and the kingdoms' complex politics gets their names changed repeatedly. Now the one airship left is buried in the desert, which possibly crashed, but didn't get damaged that much. Then the elemental shrines are rediscovered because of Zidane's quest to find the mirrors to reach Terra, and the four fiends from FF9 attack the crystals becuase Kuja corrupted them and now instead of protecting the elements of the earth, are trying to destroy them. Garland the knight is not the same as the Garland from FF9, but is probably the reincarnation of him, and just gets happened to be named after the shiny stuff on the Christmas tree. The dwarves start building their homes deeper into the earth, lunar sages have come down to see what's going on and to measure up the strengths of the world, and the one village of people who only speak music are probably namingways from FF4.

 

When FF4, comes around, the kingdoms have situated themselves around the elemental shrines to protect the crystals. The underground dwarves probably found a lost moogle city. The moogles probably created the Bab-el Tower, Giant, 4 backup crystals in case the 4 from above were taken, and a way to their homeland of eidolons. Moogles are lesser eidolons, and they can sometimes be summoned in some FFs. The Summoners, now known as Callers, have been rediscovered, but are seen as a threat and are mostly wiped out. Golbez and Garland could be incarnations of each other, since they're both Lunars, as could KluYa and Kuja. Since the discovery of an airship in the last era, engineers have been competing to build the most and best airships. The Big Whale could be the remains of the Dreadnought from FF2. The Eidolons, through the gate which the moogles made, may now be made physically manifest on Earth, (the name changed from Gaia to Earth somewhere in there) as well as be summoned. Chocobos are now an entire species, which are easily domesticated. And the moogles have finished their savepoint prototypes. Although the second moon is supposedly expelled at the end, it will probably come back later.

In FF5, the world has gone soft, so Death comes down from the second moon and paves the way for his invasion by shattering the crystals. These shards are able to be used to give job classes, but later are discovered as the first magicite. The eidolons are still manifest. Since airships are useless due to certain elements being destroyed with the crystals, they're dismantled for better use.

 

FF6 has people exploiting magic for power, which revives the world, but also leads to the War of the Magi. The second moon falls to earth and becomes the eidolons, now called espers, home. The 3 gods which govern magic are Chaos (ff1) Ultimecia (ff8) and X-Death (ff5), Espers are hunted down and extracted of their power for the people, so all the other non-human races are hunted down. Elves and dwarves probably died out in some grudge war between the two. When Kefka tore apart the world, he released hordes of monsters which explains the stranger monsters in future FFs. The only two airships belong to Setzer and Daryl, whose ancestors, "took a chance" by keeping the airships. At the end, the magicite is destroyed, but not the espers. The espers are divine beings and can't be destroyed, but they can no longer manifest themselves physically or otherwise because there's no magic left. The first weapon is born by the apocalypse: Atma. The weapons are probably super-evolved espers who grew beyond human control. The save points by the moogles have reached a new perfection.

 

In FF7, there's no more magic to keep the world going, so the world is slowly dying. Desperate for power, mako energy is discovered by harvesting it directly from the earth's life-force. The Lifestream as it is called is from the one crystal mentioned at the end of FF9, in order to keep the world going. However, humans selfishly harvest as much of the force as they want. The industrial revolution started in FF6 reached great heights in FF7, with whole cities machines and weapons. With Mako energy, materia is manufactured, and at first equipped in guns. Howver, the guns only act as souped up paintball guns, explaining the low damage of guns, but the magical properties can still be lethal. Guns being an ineffective force, Shinra, the monopolozing family of Mako energy and therefore rulers of the world, fuses materia with weapons and armor greatly enhancing the powers of their weilders, and later fuses it directly with humans, creating such beings as Sephiroth. The second moon is probably Meteor. Jenova is an evil Lunar. The Ancients were good Lunars who lived on earth, but then were wiped out. Through the magical materia, the summons were once again able to enter the world. Sephiroth also releases the Weapons, all of them. Chocobos become extremely popular to raise, train, race, ride, etc.

 

FF8 reaches the pinnacle of technology, but at the same time begins an evironmental movement inspired by the Lifestream Crisis in FF7. Instead of manufacturing materia, magic is allowed to flow freely through the planet and one's body, getting rid of a lot of the harmful side-effects in FF7's materia. The lifestream flows are cultivated into draw points and Espers, now known as Guardian Forces, are able to manifest themselves anywhere. Airships aren't really used because of the environmental damage they cause. The one city able to make airships that are safe, Esthar, closes itself off from the rest of the world that takes place from another war earlier. Lunatic Pandora is a chunk of the moon, and the second moon produces the Lunar Cry as a means of invasion. Chocobos are nearly extinct and exist in only a few forests. Moogles have evolved to Shuumi, who evolve into Moombas. Everything would be hunky-dory if not for Ultimecia a sorceress from the future, who was driven insane by the loss of her love. She controls sorceresses in the present, has lots of GFs by her side, and wishes to destroy all of time. SeeD is created in order to battle her, and after it wins, SeeD disbands.

 

Finally FFX. The story is pretty well-explained, and basically the technological worls was destroyed by Sin. Yu Yevon, tha last Lunar, managed to succeed in taking over the world and became the center of his own religion. Magic is still ingrained in some humans so Black Mages like Lulu exist, and other times it naturally solidifies to create spheres, which are similar to materia but not as deadly. The Moombas evolve into Ronsos. The second moon is the Farplane, and Yu Yevon creates a ritual that turns humans into the only possible channels for Espers, now called Aeons, to manifest, thus making the Aeons his slaves until Yuna comes along.

 

I could stop there but why should I? FFTactics would fit in just between FF5 and FF6, right before the Industrial Revolution, and the shards of the crystals would be used in the artificial summoner horns so that they could be used. The Zodiac Demons are actually the Weapons, which explains why not all the demons are defeated. FFTacticsAdvance would be just before FFX, since the world is fairly technologically modern until the book changes it. And for the record, the reason Red Mages use the color red is not because it's a combination of Black and White magic. It's because the Red Mages are versatile in every magic and skill, so they express their individuality as being Red Mages. which really doesn't explain Blue Mages though....Anyone got an explanation for those? Discuss.

 

Because I know someone is going to accuse me of ripping this from another site or something, I'd like to make it very clear that this is all written by me, word for word and the only place is should be posted is on http://www.nuklearpower.com/ in the original letter that I sent in under the username DiscipleofAuron and my own personal web-page. If there is still debate on if I did not write this, disable the credits I gain from it, since I never posted it for that reason, only the discussion.

Edited April 21, 2012 by moderator (see edit history)

[FLaKes 0]

Well what about the movie? Where does it fit in? Did it really deserve to be called Final Fantasy? Dont get me wrong here, I do love the Final Fantasy Rpg game series, well I have only played 7 (which has been my favorite one), and a little bit of 6 and 8. Maybe I did not understand the movie at all, but to me it seemed like it had nothing to do with final fantasy. I would have loved a movie with magic and cool summon animations, but instead they tried to make something human like, I think they should have gotten real humans if they wanted to do that instead. It seemed like all they wanted to do was to show off their graphic capabilities.

[Justin 0]

Well what about the movie? Where does it fit in? Did it really deserve to be called Final Fantasy? Dont get me wrong here, I do love the Final Fantasy Rpg game series, well I have only played 7 (which has been my favorite one), and a little bit of 6 and 8. Maybe I did not understand the movie at all, but to me it seemed like it had nothing to do with final fantasy. I would have loved a movie with magic and cool summon animations, but instead they tried to make something human like, I think they should have gotten real humans if they wanted to do that instead. It seemed like all they wanted to do was to show off their graphic capabilities.

Which movie? The Spirits Within or Advent Children? AC obviously comes directly after FF7, and Spirits Within fits in a little after 8, when technology was at it's peak. And yeah, Spirits Within was a pretty crappy movie.
Edited April 21, 2012 by moderator (see edit history)

[Kioku 0]

No. Here's the time-line.(1) Japanese guy makes a video game -> (2) People buy it -> (3) Japanese guy makes sequels -> (4) Repeat 2 and 3 -> (5) Lather, rinse, repeat.It might just be me, but I thought that 7 was seriously over-rated and doesn't live up to the hype people put out for it. I know I've mortally offended saying that, but somebody had to say it and I happen to have enough testicular fortitude to.X and X-2 especially just had the girl factor for people buying into it. Those were seriously bad. 8's system itself was god-awful with the drawing and all. The game was too easy. Squal was a wuss. Losing combination.

Edited August 10, 2006 by Kioku (see edit history)

[iGuest 3]

My (old) interpretation

Final Fantasy Timeline

 

I actually wrote my own timeline eight years ago. Each game is separated by thousands of years, and the events happen in game release order.

 

Backstory of FFIV occurs first. Many millions of years ago, the planet between Mars and Jupiter (we'll call it Lunaria) is at war with another planet. The war gets so bad that a doomsday device is used destroying both planets. Survivors of Lunaria come to Earth (which they call Terra) to colonize but notice that humans already occupy it. They are at too primitive a stage of evolution to comingle with humans, so rather than interrupt the natural evolutionary process they choose to go into a long sleep on their asteroid (a fragment of their former planet). This is the second moon.

 

Zemis, however, wakes up too early, and rather than go back to sleep like a good Lunarian, he decides to establish himself as ruler of Terra before the other Lunarians wake up. He comes down to Terra, bringing magic and mystical monsters with him. He also brings three orbs of light, dark, and time. Using the Terra's lifestream, he powers up his orbs. He constructs the tower of Babil and powers it with the magic orbs. He gets humans to join in his efforts. Many of these humans learn magic as well, and the power is passed on for generations. Zemis summons dragons and other monsters to establish his power and build an army.

 

However, Zemis underestimates humans power over magic and summoning. The tower of Babil is breached and his orbs of light and dark are shattered into four pieces each (representing fire, ice, water and earth). The dark crystals wind up scattered underground while the four light crystals are scattered above ground. He flees back to the second moon with the Orb of time and gazes through it to plan his next move.

 

He learns that he will eventually defeated by five powerful adventurers, one if which is an even more powerful summoner than Zemis himself. After learning of this fate he attempts to stop it at the source, by using the orb of time go back and capture the first summoner, Princess Sara, and try to steal her powers.

 

He sends his conscious back in time through the orb and mind controls Garland, the princess's faithful bodyguard, and has him capture Princess Sara and bring her to the Orb of time so that Zemis could extract the power from her. This begins the events of Final Fantasy I. In the end, Garland is defeated, the queen rescued and Zemis's hold on Garland is lost. Garland remains trapped within the orb of time. Zemis retreats to the second moon and isn't defeated until the end of Final Fantasy IV thousands of years later. The events of Final Fantasy II and III occur somewhere between I and IV.

 

At the end of FFIV, Zemis is indeed defeated as the prophecy had predicted, and the Lunarians, realizing they have caused more harm then good, decide to leave Terra forever and find a new planet to colonize, called Gaia. The orb of time, however, is left behind and forgotten. Meanwhile on Terra, magic begins to fade, and monsters and dragons begin to disappear. Final Fantasy V happens during this time period as does the anime film (shortly afterwards).

 

Thousands of years pass and we arrive at present day. There is no magic or monsters, the word is at is today. But the ghosts of the alien planet so long ago destroyed return to haunt our world. The events of the movie (Spirits Within) occur here. Suddenly magic is brought to our world in a post-apocalyptic future. People learn how to summon Espers and use magic by tapping into the planet's lifestream directly. The war of the Magi begins. The Espers are forbidden from being summoned and are stored in magicite. The events of FFVI occur here, and the world is almost completely destroyed in another war.

 

The Espers are freed from magicite and live peacefully on the moon, but soon people learn to store magical powers from the lifestream into materia which is used to power the advanced technology. Because materia is similar to magicite, people begin to use it to use magic and summon the powerful beings now living on the moon to Terra. FFVII occurs here. Once again the world is nearly destroyed, this time by a giant meteor, but Aeris manages to cast the final summoning from beyond the grave, stops the meteor, and all materia is shattered and returned to the lifestream. Life is renewed. The events of Advent Children happen here.

 

Thousands of years later, people, forgetting their past mistakes, learn to harness the power of the life stream to summon the powers of Guardian Forces. The events of FF8 occur here. Queen Ultimecia finds the orb of time and attempts to harness its powers. She is defeated and the orb of time is shattered poisoning the lifestream. For the next milenia Terra slowly decays everyone dies, and life leaves the planet. The only surivor? Garland, who had been trapped for so long in the orb of time he is nearly immortal.

 

Garland, hoping to reinvigorate his dying planet learns of Gaia, a young thriving planet that had been colonized by the Lunarians many thousands of years earlier. His attempt to steal the planet's life stream fails, however as the events of FF9 describe. He is killed and Terra (Earth) is destroyed. The remaining games take place on Gaia in the order they were released.

 

Keep in mind, this theory had first taken form in my had sometime back in 1996 (after playing through FFVI for the SNES). Keep in mind, back then I had no idea there was an FFII and an FFIII, but I had played the three released here in the US and tried to put the stories together. As more games and movies came out, I added to my theory using the stories of the other games, but it wasn't until after FF9 came out in 2000 that I finally had a solid storyline. By that time I had to account for FF2,3 and 5 even though I had never played them. But I had some knowledge of their stories. Sorry for not going into too much detail on the post FF9 games. Of them I only finished FFX and felt it could safely come thousands of years after the events of FF9 on Gaia. I have since lost interest in timeline projects such as this so it is unlikely I will attempt to update it with the new games. Feel free to add to it.

 

James M.

 

 

-reply by James M.

[iGuest 3]

Could you tell us your theories on Cid? how he is in every game.. Is he immortal? or is he garland in disguise? or what?-reply by Cillo

[iGuest 3]

what about cid?

Final Fantasy Timeline

 

Replying to Justin

Could you tell us your theories on Cid? how he is in every game.. Is he immortal? or is he garland in disguise? or what?

 

-reply by cillo

[iGuest 3]

Very impressive compilation of all the final fantasy games' histories. It helped me understand how the final fantasy worlds flow into each other. I just thought each game had its separate worlds, but this connection between the worlds is much more preferable. I hope you expand it into something like a wiki database or something along those lines. Good work. 

-reply by Author Name - e.G. John, Mike

 

[iGuest 3]

Very good work you have done here. It made me understand the connections between the final fantasy worlds better. I thought each game had its own different timeline and world. I'm glad you took the time to write this and share it with us. I hope you expand this into a wiki database or something along those line. Good work.

-reply by Mitchell

 

[iGuest 3]

This is very well done. Well researched and I applaud you for it, however it is incorrect.

I'm guessing no one will agree with me and some of you might think I'm some crazy person but I honestly do not care.

Think as the final fantasy games not as a time-line but different worlds. Each game is on a different planet, each planet is in parallel universe.

 I think there is 23 worlds in all.

Because of how the worlds are placed it is physically impossible for someone from one world to go to another. There are no exceptions however, there some points that must be discussed.

The Summons.

All the summons are sepperate  beings in different worlds. They are connected on some level, sharing a bond simmalar to the bond shared between twins. It is my belief that they are the ones who first created the worlds however this cannot be proven. They will forever share the same name and they are immortal, (to a certain extent), and any physical differents they have to each other are either due to some sort of mutation or an artists error.

Cid.

Cid is special. Each Cid in each world is a different person, he is not an immortal (although it is an intelligent theory), and does not share a bond with his counterparts like the summons do. Cid is an creation of destiny. The Cid's do not know about this and may never be told. Cid is born for the soul purpose to help the hero (or heroene) to complete their goals. Even if he is not shown within a particular title he does do something, at some point, to aid the hero (or heroene) in reaching their destination. Without a Cid, the story can never be completed.

II.

In my opinion, Final fantasy II does indeed share the same world as one other title (XII). However I can not be sure.

Note. This may also be true with the movie, Final Fantasy spirits within, however I do not know what world this could be.

XI.

I have no knowledge whatsover of Final Fantasy XI. It may have its own world, it may share a world or it may not be canon (relavent to the series).

Easter eggs.

Anything else that is the same between different worlds (such as clouds materia blade being in Final Fantasy XII) is simply an easter egg placed within the game by the programmers for the fun of it and is not canon. 

 

I will check back from time to time and would like to see any comments you have. I will reply to any comments made.

-reply by Shadow

 

[iGuest 3]

I noticed a slight errorFinal Fantasy Timeline

 While I am not capable of commenting on most of your history, I have a very limited knowledge of Finaly Fantasy myself, I would like to point out that X-2 is a prequel to VII.  The ending where Shinra suggests getting magic out of the planet coincides with what has happened by FF7.  In fact, it was meant to be a prequel.  With this in mind, one would have to abandon the model of constantly progressing technology (never true) and adopt one of technological advancement in flux (very true).  In this case, clues as to when the stories are related would be in the background, some vague mention, or level similarity.  For evidence that technological advancement is in flux, and can go down at any time, I would like to point out that the Roman Empire was more advanced technologically than the rest of Western Europe from the middle ages through to the 1800s in some technologies.  In FF9, I remember there being a city which has ruined train tunnels.  In fact, the city as a whole is in a state of heavy disrepair.  I postulate that that city may be the city Midgar thousands of years after FF7.

[iGuest 3]

Square has already confirmed that Final Fantasy X and X-2 follow into Final Fantasy VII. It is widely believed that Final Fantasy XII is related if not a part of the first Final Fantasy.

With X and X-2 until X-2 you can't see any connection between the two. Afterword it starts to unfoil in a way. Such as every the fact that Ultima WEAPON being in X and other various traits. The basic tell for it is Yu Yevon is the same as Jenova

[iGuest 3]

Had to correct some people.Final Fantasy Timeline

Okay, I had to post here because the misinformation on this site was actually making me angry. There is no Final Fantasy timeline. We're talking about individual games with individual worlds. There are only a few examples to this. FF X-2 is a direct sequel to FFX. FFXII Revenant Wings is a direct sequel to FF12. FF Crisis Core is a prequel to FF7. The only other tie is that Final Fantasy Tactics, 12, and Revenant Wings are all set in Ivalice, even though no city names are similar, so it barely matters. 

I appreciate the gentleman's fandom, but it is flawed just in concept. We're talking about unrelated worlds. Each Final Fantasy game, with the exception of those listed above, is its own unrelated world with unique features, characters, magic system, and cities. If you enjoyed FFX, I would recommend to you FFVI. The graphics may be a little dated, but the game is a masterpiece. If you have a PS3 and some patience, pick up FF13 too. 

-reply by Kevin

[iGuest 3]

My (old) interpretation

Final Fantasy Timeline

 

I actually wrote my own timeline eight years ago.

 

(...)

 

James M.

 

 

Hi, I used your very cool timeline and expanded it, so if anyone is interested here it is:

 

http://www.gamespot.com/profile/ermhm/blog/

 

BTW to the uptight comment about nonexistence of any kind of timeline... so what if there probably isn't any real connection? Imagination is more powerful than knowledge my friend

[Ermhm 0]

James M., thank you for some great ideas. I used your very cool timeline and expanded it (it now includes all games from the FF universe and more), so if anyone is interested here it is:

 

 

http://www.gamespot.com/profile/ermhm/blog/

 

 

P.S. @ the uptight comment about nonexistence of any kind of timeline... so what if there probably isn't any real connection? Imagination is more powerful than knowledge my friend