Fantasy Star I: A Brief History

Fantasy Star is a 12-part analysis of the similarities between Final Fantasy XII and the Star Wars trilogies.

I bought Final Fantasy XII a couple months ago. I enjoyed the new developments it had from other games in the series with regards to gameplay and graphics. As for the story, there was something about it that kept me from fully enjoying the experience. It felt very familiar. I thought I was just being paranoid but the more I played, the more I realized that Final Fantasy XII is actually Square Enix’s take on Star Wars. I looked online and found that I wasn’t the only person to notice the similarities. However, these people usually only have a brief list of the parallels from the game and the two Star Wars trilogies. Since I didn’t find any in-depth articles about the subject matter, I decided to write one on my own.

Before jumping into Final Fantasy XII, it’s best to look at prior games in the series because finding Star Wars references in Final Fantasy certainly isn’t anything new. A comprehensive list of them, along with others unrelated to Star Wars, can be found at Final Fantasy Compendium. I’ll just point out several of the more notable examples from various games in the series.

In Final Fantasy VI, Locke rescues Celes and their resulting exchange echoes that scene of Luke rescuing Leia in A New Hope.
Celes: You’re awfully short for a soldier.
Leia: Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?

In Final Fantasy IX, Necron says to the main characters, "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." That quote was part of Yoda’s dialogue in The Phantom Menace.

Out of all the Star Wars references found in the Final Fantasy games, the inclusion of two characters named Wedge and Biggs has become as integral to the series as those of chocobos and Cids. The pair can be found in Final Fantasy VI, VII, VIII, X, X-2 and, of course, XII.

What separates Final Fantasy XII from past games and their simple references is its incorporation of themes from the Star Wars movies. These range from characters, to plot elements, to music, to art direction. As you’ll see in the following installments, Final Fantasy XII takes things to another level.