Which Final Fantasy games are Medieval inspired?

[HylianKnight]

Hi! I am new to Final Fantasy, ABSOLUTELY brand new. I want to get into the series and don't know where to start. I am a fan of the medieval inspired fantasy setting with video games such as the Elder Scrolls series and Zelda series. I know that Final Fantasy has some sci fi games as well as medieval fantasy games or a blend of the two. Which Final Fantasy games have a medievalish setting? both the 2d ones and 3d ones? I wanna start there.

 

[Sheechiibii]

Well I've only played VII upwards so I can't say about the older titles but IX has a medieval setting, X isn't exactly medieval but it's a world that lacks technology in almost every way. XII has a slightly medieval thing going on, kings and princesses and wars and it's all very natural, weapons and dungeons of stone etc instead of sci-fi technology.

 

[Shaissa]

I-V are all Mideval based, then IX and XII. Some might argue X, but I don't see that as one.

Then a bunch of the spinoffs, like Tactics, are

 

[Folmarv Tengille]

Most of the legacy installments are in particular I, II, III, IV. Then out of the new ones VII and up I would have to say IX is the only one on the top of the head I can think of outta the new ones.

 

[Savage Grace]

Every game before Final Fantasy VII, and then Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy IX. A few others are also medieval-inspired games.

 

[Battlecry]

Every game before Final Fantasy VII, and then Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy IX. A few others are also medieval-inspired games.

Except for VIl...Though i agreed with IV and V (i never player FF I and the original FF II & III) just set aside the airships.

 

[HylianKnight]

So I decided to start with FFIX and it was FANTASTIC. One of the best RPGs I ever played. Is it one of the better FF games? It's the only one I played so far, and I LOVED it!

 

[Razberry Knight]

Final Fantasy 1-5 (6...maybe?) and FF9 and FF12.

 

[The Witch]

1-5 definitely, bro. none of the others come anywhere close.

 

[FineOldFantaSea]

4 is very medievally and is a favourite in the series but man you should give 6 and then 7 a shot, theyre really not THAT sci fi ey, there are still swords, spears and dragons (if you look in the right places) both are generally thought of as two of the best games ever made.

 

[Dionysos]

Final Fantasy I up to V are set more or less in a strictly medieval fantasy setting. You’ll find castles, kings, dragons, knights, mages, etc. You’ll also find Germanic mythological elements such as elves and dwarves as races in some of them. Fantasy staples, essentially.

There are some instances where they branch out from fantasy-medieval, but only slightly. FFV has a pirate backstory which is more in keeping with the 17[SUP]th[/SUP]-18[SUP]th[/SUP] Century colonial period, or the Golden Age of Piracy. I’m not just saying that because they are pirates, but I’m basing it on the style of pirates, the Amano designs of Faris, and other things.

There are also science fiction elements in some of these earlier games. FFIV is the first FF (to my knowledge) to take the player into space (and only a handful have since), and it branches out from strict medieval fantasy as it explores these themes. That said, dreaming of going into space isn't strictly a modern thing. Even before people realised what space was there were stories about man traversing the cosmos. Possibly the earliest science-fiction story of this sort (by the satirist Lucian of Samosata, and including a story about a war between the people living on the Moon and the people living on the Sun) dates to the 2nd Century AD!

FFVI is where the series starts to experiment a bit more. It could still be argued that FFVI is a medieval fantasy setting, but I’d argue that it is more correctly a steampunk setting, but some medieval elements remain. Industrialisation, mining, and urbanisation are a part of the FFVI world. There are all sorts of crazy mechanical creations, such as the magitek armour (whose original Amano artwork designs were essentially steampunk chocobos!).

FFVII also branches out. Again, there are some medieval elements, but hardly any if you were to compare it with earlier FF games. FFVII takes place in a present-day or near-future based setting. It mixes popular science-fiction elements such as cosmic horrors, a powerful megacorporation, depleting resources and damaging the planet, and so on. There aren’t any kings or castles in the game to my knowledge. If they had existed once in the past, it seems to have been a while ago. I don’t think there are any ruined castles in the world (accessible / revealed to the player anyway…). There probably had been once, if we take the play seen in the Gold Saucer in FFVII as evidence of a romanticisation of the planet’s history of kings and castles and princesses, etc.

FFVIII is also very modern or near-future’ish. It is arguably even closer to our world than FFVII’s planet is. Towns and cities are as you could expect them to be today, generally speaking. Esthar is the exception, and that place is crazy and almost alien-like.

FFIX returns to a medieval-fantasy setting, on the whole. Parts of it are late-medieval or early modern or renaissance in style. Alexandria is filled with English Renaissance references (Lord Avon = William Shakespeare; Puck = either generally speaking a pooka spirit or particularly a reference to the popular character from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Queen Brahne = Queen Elizabeth I getting up on the wrong side of the bed, etc). Architecturally speaking Alexandria can be very renaissance themed too. The other towns vary in particular styles. Lindblum is very steampunkish, but it is also early modern, and at times it gives off 18[SUP]th[/SUP] Century vibes. Burmecia is very different in that it (and Cleyra) were towns built by a non-human species, and the architecture and sculptures are more alien to us, I guess.

FFX has a very Indian and Pacific feel to it. I can’t think of anything medieval about it at all.

The online games FFXI and FFXIV are more or less medieval. FFXI is slightly more medieval in overall style, and FFXIV steers into early modern territory at times, and beyond through industrialisation.

FFXII is steampunk early-modern, beyond, but also at other times very medieval.

FFXIII is very futuristic, but draws on themes from Norse mythology.

FFXV is supposed to be very modern and trendy, but by the time that it is released our descendants will probably be wearing square sunglasses, luminous ruffs, and glittering bauble-trousers, and so FFXV will appear as ancient history to them.

Incidentally, what we haven’t had yet is a decent attempt at theming a world on the ancient world. Ancient temples are used as dungeons, and they are ruins. Strictly so. We have not seen a game set in a world that resembles a breathing ancient Greece, Rome, or elsewhere. Antiquity is associated, even in fantasy, with ruins. Architecturally speaking, anyway. Thematically the ancient world is often merged with the medieval elements.